After looking through the GT Pro race grids, I noticed that the cars were limited to Astons (lots of Astons)
The
DBR9 is one of the easiest to handle and it has the fame of being the fastest all-around. The car is no doubt fast, but it comes at a price, but that price it isn't revealed in sprint races, the ones most people do in public servers. On top of that there are available many fast sprint setups (1 to 3 laps at
Nord, more at others), so the people can mix around with them.
The
C6R has the right mix of hardness/easiest of driving, it’s one of fastest on the fast parts (long straights), but loses somewhat in the tight parts. This car is also the long distance runner
per excellence (tire, fuel, handling and so on), but again as people don't do much endurance, so many don't know that.
The
C5R is similar but feels more "pure", the main difference is that it has more torque, so it has a slighter brutal power delivery then his younger brother but has worst aerodynamics, so it suffers even more on the tight parts.
There are a few good (much less then
DBR9) on-line setups for them, since these are my favorites, I do have a few setups of mine on-line for them (
Nord --> 29 for
Q setup and 32 for
R setup) but most people don't like them since I setup the car somewhat lose (3 wing on the
Nord for instance).
These are also easier to drive, and have the fame of being the fastest on the tight parts of the track, but have equal fame of being the slowest on the fast parts.
This one (the L
Storm)is probably the quickest GTP car around, but it hasn't the fame of it.
To me with its right wheel drive it’s a no go for now since I would have to re-learn all the apexes from scratch. Also I think the car as a tighter margin of setup, well; at least it was like that in GTR2...
All that has been said about
DBR9 could in certain way also be said to this one (the
CCGT), although I've never observed its behavior in long distance races. Since it is less popular then
DBR9, it has less on-line setups.
The
S7-R is one of my favorites, it is fast but has a natural tendency to oversteer too much. From my experience, it is hard to achieve an even setup for a long race, since if setup to be fast (at least go with the others) it “
eats” the rear tire, and when these start to go off, it is hard to avoid the big tendency for the rear wheels to start to spin too much. Obviously this dynamics are related to the engine position on the car...
Apollo GT is... one of the slowest? And it doesn’t have the advantage of being fast on the tight parts like the
Audi. After I tried one for a few days at the
Nord, in the end I only could do a 38 with an R setup... but no doubt my respect for
Apollo drivers went up
...no Vipers... I know the Viper is a handful
The
Viper is fast, and theoretically it is also a long distance runner (like the
C's) and yes it has a fame of handling like a pig from root.
I've a few somewhat fast R setups for it (35's at the
Nord) but in my experience this car requires constant attention, wish is very tiring with long distance races. One distraction, the front bites and there we go against a wall.
That pretty much does it, notice the that this “easiest” "classification" (that I refer sometimes above) is closely related with engine size and torque, as bigger it his, blunter it can be the power deliver, so harder it can be to control at corner exit. On the same kind of logic, heavier the car, harder it can be to control under hard braking...
A good example of what I’m trying to say on the above paragraph is what happened to me the other day… as I don’t like fantasy cars/physics I had never driven the
extreme wtcc class before.
These cars are light (compared with a
C6R for instances), have lots of horse power (but smaller engines then most
GTPs) and have
fairytale aerodynamics.
Result, my first ever full lap on the
Nord given with a
BMW extreme, I did with a sprint R setup an 18!?!
Ok I know the fastest guys on this class go around there in the 10’s and 12’s, but 1st lap, 18? I’ve to really concentrate and drive like a
madman to go under 30 with the
C6R.
Conclusion, now back to the
GTP class only, most likely all cars are theoretically capable of doing the same lap times, but in truce,
with some it is easier than others
Just to finish, obviously the above isn’t the result of any
scientific study, it is based on my experience and opinion, no more, no less
