I admit, I got pretty sucked into chasing Blooze and missed the hotlap challenge - at least the Boss Mustang crept into this chase, although I broke the Trans Am rules by using the race gearbox...
Still, here's (most of) the story so far.
Vauxhall Corsa (Drag): Not the best start, FWD for the drag races and not much width available in the tyres didn't promise a lot. And the car never made it into the top 10%, but surprised me a bit by setting my fastest drag times on 5 out of the 6 strips. I know it's specially done for drag, but I didn't expect that.
VW Golf Mk5 (Ovals): This didn't look much better on paper - a hot hatch again so more attempting to get lots of power down, this time through stock tyres. But the Golf performed extremely well under the circumstances putting down well over 400bhp through the front wheels in a surprisingly mild way and going on to just fall short of 200mph (199mph) at top whack. It just lost out to the mad old Aveo at Benchmark Oval, but came out top everywhere else. It also proved very adept at Le Mans (probably not surprising).
Saturn Sky (Amalfi): I was expecting this to be a lightweight car like the VX200, so was somewhat disappointed to see the stock weight of almost 3000lbs
But, once up and running with some weight reduction and good tyres, it felt light an nimble as I expected. A bit of a wild ride, but the times were good and it's a lot of fun to drive.
VW Corrado (Benchmark): It's only taken me about 5 classes, but I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of the Benchmark tracks. The times aren't fantastic, but are an improvement position-wise on most of the lower classes here. Trouble is, how much of the improvement is car and how much is driver?
Mazda MX-5 (1994) (Camino
and Nuerburgring): Fender's favourite makes a return, and set some really good times on the short and medium tracks. Despite losing some grip and adding some power, I couldn't quite replicate that on the full and extreme variants, but still a very good performance from this car.
The performance was less impressive around the 'Ring though, where the car seemed too floaty over the bumps and did not feel planted at all. In hindsight, I maybe should have softened the springs a bit more than I did. Also, despite my taking some of the grip off the car, it still wasn't particularly fast on the straights only hitting 156mph.Shelby Cobra (Catalunya): I knew this wouldn't be fast here (and it wasn't), but it wasn't disgraced either coming agonisingly close to being my best car around the full circuit. We all know what you get with this car - lots of power, not too much grip and big smile on your face. At B500 PI, it's almost stock, but still terrific fun. I won't make my money back with this car, but I really don't care.
It came up again for Sebring, and the Cobra was much more at home here being the fastest on all but the short track, surprisingly losing out to the Lotus Exige. But it was still the same story as before really - great acceleration, not a lot of grip, oodles of fun and a brilliant sound track 
Toyota TOMS MR-S (Iberian): This car is very popular in 4WD format, but I stuck with RWD. Very glad I did too - it's a cracker of a car. Around the full and short circuit, it seems to be one of the best RWD's around. But it's on the mini track where it really came alive. A very grippy, light build with big fat slicks meant that it set times I'm really pleased with, and also beat all the other TOMS MR-S's on my friends list - nice to see RWD leading AWD for once in a while.
Nissan Silvia S13 (Fujimi Kaido): While the positions aren't as good as I got in the lower classes around here, I'm still pleased with the car. The oldest Silvia in game starts quite low down, and doesn't take particularly wide tyres, so there's a limit to how much grip it has. But it has amazing turn-in, good acceleration due to the light weight and is a predictable drive so once you're used to it can drive it with a lot of confidence. At this stage, I'm about even with Blooze overall (I think) and the car has at least stopped him pulling out a gap on me here, which has a lot of time available.
The car wasn't so good around Suzuka though where the lack of power (even with a more power oriented build) was telling. I'd also downgraded the tyres substantially to get more power into it preferring to rely more on aerodynamic grip. Unfortunately, apart from on the East track, the long straights meant it still couldn't set brilliant times (although all times were well inside the top 5% overall).Mitsubishi Evo 9 MR (Ladera): This was a big disappointment in C Class. Happily, in B Class I could take a lot of the excess weight off it and it felt much better. Not only that, it was also much quicker being in the top 1% at 5 out of the 6 variants. I set it up to reduce the usual 4WD understeer and reaped the rewards as the car pulled strongly out of bends even if the back stepped out.
Mercedes 300SL (Laguna Seca): One of the old school cars, and badly hindered here by the lack of aero. However, even though it wasn't the fastest car I have around here, it was still within half a second of my Exige, so the car is anything but a dead loss.
Acura RSX (Le Mans): I thought this was going to be another match made in hell - a hot hatch around Le Mans didn't bode well. But, having missiled the thing up (why don't I feel as bad missiling cars in FM3 as I did in FM2
) it set really good times at the long tracks, even topping 200mph down the Old Mulsanne Straight
Unfortunately, I didn't have as much luck with a normal build around Bugatti, but overall a very good car. It was at this stage that I felt I might have a chance of chasing Blooze down in B Class, but still need a bit of luck to go my way.
Mazda 3 2009 (Maple Valley): Don't know why, but for some reason Turn 10 have decreed that you can't add rear aero to this car, which isn't good when aero helps a lot at this track. It showed on the full track where it couldn't even match the times of the Shelby GT500 (2007 version), but on the short version where mechanical grip comes more into play it did much better setting top 1% times both ways around.
Ford Mustang Boss (Motegi): The poor performance of the muscle cars in FM3 continued with this car. Although the grip wasn't too bad, the power of the car was counteracted by the weight. Although this didn't quite meet the Trans Am spec with its race gearbox, it met the spec in all the other requirements. However, the overall results were disappointing with it only coming close to setting a respectable time at the short West variant.
Lexus IS350 (Mugello): This car did at least do better in B Class than the frankly disappointing C Class tune, but it still trails the AWD variants of the same car with noticeably less acceleration in RWD format. At least it did ok at the Club track beating the Exige and gaining a top 1% time, but the performance at the Full track was less encouraging where it couldn't keep up with the 370Z (my candidate for BCG remember
)
Nissan Versa (Neurburgring GP): While the percentages suggest this wasn't a particularly good car, I felt it did alright for a FWD car in B Class. Although power is a must around here, it did feel as though it needed more grip to help with traction out of the corners. Ultimately, I think this is less a case of the car being a bad car, and more a case of it being promoted too far from it's starting PI. However, if I'd been willing to contemplate a drivetrain swap, I think this could have been a pretty good car.
Maserati Gran Turismo 2008 (New York): With limited PI room, this car demands decisions to be made as to what parts are fitted. However, in both variants of the track I was able to lose a small amount of weight, the main difference in build being the Forza aero which was present for the new track and absent for the old. Overall, it put in a very creditable performance, particularly on the new track where the good levels of grip in the stock car helped out a lot in the chicances. Times weren't bad for the old track, but ultimately it was a bit heavy (and grippy!) to trouble the best cars.
BMW X5 (Positano): When this came up I was convinced that I'd lost hope of gaining the blue Blooze-catching text. But, losing all the car's weight and adding full fat slicks and aero produced a surprisingly good short track car - decent amounts of grip, good brakes and incredible acceleration out of corners produced probably the most surprising car I've come across in this game. Certainly, I didn't expect to come out of this with the X5 as my fastest car at all Positano variants, and a worst P2P position of 376th (and a best of 206th). The full track times I have on the leaderboards don't do this car justice - I had a lap 2 seconds faster going forwards and 3 seconds quicker on the reverse track, but just clipped an inside wall on both runs
Saab 99 (Road America): Another lowly FWD built up with lots of power? Well, it's certainly pushing the limits of what the car can take without a drivetrain swap, but it did at least cope better accelerating out of the corners than the Versa. However, I can't be sure whether that's down to the car, or the lack of slow corners at Road America.
Chevrolet Camaro 2002 (Road Atlanta): As with almost all the Camaros I've played with (except the 2010 version), this car has a surprising amount of grip given the right parts. The performance around the Club track was a particular surprise as it was up against a Lotus Exige well suited to the track, yet the Camaro won out. A more power oriented build for the full track meant less grip, but the car still put up a decent performance.
Porsche Cayenne (Sedona): As in C Class, it's a heavy car which isn't too keen on corners, although it is less scared of them here where you can lose some weight and/or upgrade the tyres. Around the Club track it lost out to more nimble cars in my garage, but on the Full circuit that mass of horsepower meant it gained more on the oval than it lost on the road sections.
Infiniti G35 (Sidewinder): A big, heavy RWD is not my idea of a good car for this track. So I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the times this car set were good, if not spectacular. It's too lazy in acceleration and not grippy enough to challenge the top 4WDs, but against all but the lightest RWDs I think it has the potential to cause a surprise or two.
Mercedes C63 AMG (Silverstone): Not a lot you can do with this in B Class. I was able to squeeze in a tyre upgrade by sticking with the stock (7 speed!) gearbox, but the stock gearing is so long that you don't even test the rev limiter in 5th around here. Even with the tyre upgrade, it felt heavy and overpowered for the track and, as with the C Class Dodge Ram, it didn't have enough straightline speed to overcome the limited fast-corner grip.
Toyota MR-S (Sunset): Can't help thinking I'd have done better if this and the Merc were on each other's tracks. But, for a small lightweight car it did amazingly well, particularly on the Short track. The car grips well even on stock tyres so I was able to get a good power to weight ratio and while it doesn't have the best top end speed, it makes up for it with good cornering and good acceleration out of corners.
Porsche 911 RS (1973) (Tsukuba): This car can be made to handle really well in B Class, particularly when you consider that there's no rear aero. It couldn't quite match the Tom's MR-S (see Iberian) around the full track, but was within a tenth. However, it was the best car for the Short track. Acceleration is particularly good due to the low weight, and the only thing holding it back is the relative lack of grip compared to the real grip monsters.
