Targa Forza Range Rover

[Spiny Anteater]

OK, so I'm going to hold off on the description until tomorrow, but the basics are mentioned in the Targa Forza thread. But, to kick things off, this is what I've done build and tune wise - I think it ticks a few too many of the "weight" boxes though

Build:
Power:
Sport Air Filter, Displacement
Race Pistons, Twin Screw Supercharger, Flywheel

Platform:
All Race

Drivetrain:
All Race

Tyres:
Race Compound
Front & Rear:285/35R22
Rims: Mickey Thompson ET Drag

Aero:
Forza Spoilers
Sarona Rear Bumper
Wald Side Skirts

Tune:
Tyres- F:31.5, R:33.0
Gears - FD: 3.56, 1-6: 3.13, 1.99, 1.51, 1.20, 1.03, 0.90
Camber- F:-1.2, R: -0.9
Toe- F:0, R:0
Caster - 5.0
ARBs - F: 27.00, R: 26.50
Springs - F: 1145.5, R: 1101.0
Ride Height - F&R: 6.7
Rebound - F:8.0, R: 7.5
Bump - F: 3.7, R: 3.8
Aero - F:100, R:200 (I think this was a mistake and the car may well be better with minimal downforce)
Brakes: 47% Front, 100% Pressure
Front Diff - Acc: 20%, Dec: 0%
Rear Diff - Acc: 70%, Dec: 0%
Centre - 62% Rear

And that gives stats of:
Power: 470bhp
Torque: 494 lb-ft
Weight: 4515lbs

I'm pleased to see that this is turning not to be totally uncompetitive. That weight will always hold it back, but it doesn't feel as heavy as that makes it sound. Just don't go piling into corners too fast or you will suffer understeer.

Also, you can see that I tried out the tyre pressures from the DOT thread. Actually, the pressures were set for a long run so don't reach the aimed for pressures on these shorter stints. It's difficult to tell with this car what is going on due to it's point and shoot nature, but I'm not noticing any major issues as the tyres warm up and the pressures rise, even on longer runs than this.

[Spiny Anteater]

Now, as promised, a quick run through what this thing is like to drive.

First thing that springs to notice is the acceleration. Since this build evolved from a drag tune it's not surprising that it's good, but even considering it's a 4WD it hooks up well. Doesn't bog down like most 4WDs either, unless you forget to give it revs off the start line. Grip isn't bad either for such a high, heavy car, although I suspect some of the other cars here can run rings around it.

In the Targa post, I noticed Feuerdog mentioned a number of characteristics for the ideal Targa Forza car. This car meets none of those requirements. However, the power to weight ratio is only slightly over FD's ideal, and although the tyres are wider I suppose it could be argued that this isn't a bad thing considering the extra weight.

And now the cons:
The Range Rover is obviously very high which means it rolls easily, especially if you catch a kerb wrong.
Initially I tried softening the suspension, but the car suffered from body roll which felt like it impacted on handling. It did make the car ride kerbs much better though. Giving that up as a bad job, I moved onto the damping. Reducing the bump setting made it ride kerbs better than the original setting. The downside was that the car was bouncier over crests, although this only really became a problem if the car took off (as at Pflanzgarten). I figured that as this only happened at rare occurrences, it was something that could be driven around as the alternatives were less appealing.
Understeer on corner entry
Reducing the rear rebound setting improved turn in provided that entry speed wasn't too high. The car doesn't particularly under- or oversteer in steady state cornering so I didn't mess too much with the ARBs or suspension. Coming out of the corner, applying a bootful of power gives mild oversteer and an excellent launch onto the next straight.
Straightline speed is lacking
This is one of those cars which accelerates very quickly, but not very far. On the main straight at the 'Ring I didn't reach 150mph. Part of that is down to the brick-like aerodynamics, but drag from the maximum-downforce settings was also an issue. I'm not sure that the aero helped much around the other tracks either so this may have been a bad move on my part.