Horizon 2 Finale Route Hot Laps

Matt2000

An Unfortunate Discovery
DONOR
Joined
Feb 17, 2006
Messages
18,135
Location
Four from the top and two from the third row, UK.
Car(s)
'12 MX-5 PRHT, '02 Freelander, '90 Disco 1 Bobtail
As I mentioned in the other Horizon 2 thread, I recently got to drive the finale race for the first time. Although at first the length was frustrating (due to my inability to handle the car I used for that length of time) I realised when I finished it that it was probably the best race I'd done on this or on any racing game.

I wanted to race it again, but of course the game doesn't just let you do that. I read about the glitch that allows you to get it again, but I'm not in the mood for championships now... so I replicated the finale route on paper. I also decided to add my own modifications to the route to improve it. The original route works out to be 53.2km, over twice the length of the Nordschleife. The modified route is even longer, at 81.5km it's around 4 times the length of the Nordschleife. The modifications are there to add a little more dirt driving to the mix and include roads from Montellino in the east, which for some reason aren't used at all in the original route.

Anyway, I think this is a good opportunity for a bit of FG competition. As we've done before with the time attacks on the 'proper' Forza games I'm opening this challenge up to everyone. The maps of the routes are available here:

Original
Modified

I should say that the route starts by heading west from the hub.

Rules are fairly simple:

  • You must start from the concrete pad in the Autoshow side of the Horizon central hub, using the edge of this pad as your start line. You must start your stopwatch (which of course all phones are these days) and complete the route. Stop the timer when you pass through the gantry between the two sides.
  • You can do this in any mode. I chose to do all my laps in a private online session because this gets rid of all the other pesky Drivatars that will pull dumb moves in front of you. I experienced occasional lag in this mode which could affect your time, usually it evens out though by flinging you along at double speed for a second or two.
  • Damage mode is best set to none or cosmetic. You can set it to simulation if you want but the chances of getting all the way around without major damage seems slim. You don't get any bonus for it either.
  • Cutting corners or crossing through roundabouts is allowed, but big excursions off road are not. Intentionally going more than about 2 car lengths off the road is considered cheating. I don't want people cutting right through the dirt S bends for example.
  • It doesn't matter when you do the lap, game time wise. If you want to start the lap at night to avoid the traffic then you can, although traffic simulation seems a little hit and miss. I did notice less traffic when driving at night in the Nissan lap mentioned below, which went from night to day and back to night again.

So far I've done 3 timed laps. For the original course I chose the new MX-5, it seemed like the appropriate car to use. That lap came in at 19:33.6. This was followed by a lap of the modified course in a standard Nissan 240Z, which came in at a whopping 35:57.0. Finally I did the same extended route in my Shothouse Racing S1 'Cuda, coming in at 27:03.3. The latter two laps are not comparable as there were an undisclosed number of fuck ups in both of them as I was still learning my own route.

I'd like to see what people can do in the MX-5 on both routes, post your times below and we'll see how things stack up. As with previous offline tournaments we've done this relies on you giving correct information. I don't expect anyone to mess with their time before posting or make it up, we're bigger than that and you don't get anything for winning anyway.

My lap times:

Original Route:

Ferrari 250 GTO - 18:46.6

Modified Route:

Volkswagen Desert Dingo Racing Stock Bug - 38:06.3
Audi RS 5 - 28:42.5
 
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This sounds like fun :)

I only have the 360 version which does not have the newer MX-5, but I did drive around the short route in the 1st gen one in around 23 minutes or so. It's not a valid time since I took a few wrong turns, though.

Are there any tricks for navigation? Other than to have the map you posted at hand and learning which turns to take in all the intersections and roundabouts? I really feel like I need a co-driver for this one :D
 
I thought about making a road book but it probably wouldn't be much use as there's no way to sync up the turns. It only took me a few laps to learn the turns for both routes, it's instinctive now.

Not worried about wrong turns, any complete lap is valid in my eyes as this is like a road race. :)
 
I think it might be useful if you could have it printed or perhaps on a tablet. That said, it would be only slightly better than having the map on the same device, so no real point in making one... I did the latter yesterday and just about made my way around, although scrolling and zooming the map around to find the way was a bit tricky while driving.

And because of the wrong turns I actually did a different route, hence the comment. Although I think mine was longer so it didn't matter... But anyway, I'll do a few runs tonight with something quick but affordable (I'm thinking RX-8 or an older M3) and post some times.
 
I think it might be useful if you could have it printed or perhaps on a tablet. That said, it would be only slightly better than having the map on the same device, so no real point in making one... I did the latter yesterday and just about made my way around, although scrolling and zooming the map around to find the way was a bit tricky while driving.

I learnt from a paper map, although that was the original that I had marked the route on with a pen as I watched a Youtube video of the finale being run. I don't know how clear those lines are when printed. I really don't think it will take long for it to become natural to you.
 
Yeah, having done a few more laps I'd say that it takes about three laps to remember which turns you need to take. I did two around the modified route to go with the one I did yesterday and on the last one I didn't really need to look at the map on the parts I did yesterday. It's way more daunting if you just look at the map and do one lap, but you pick the critical details up quite fast.

My faster time was 32:48.4 with a stock 240z. I lost at least half a minute after missing an intersection, but it was a pretty decent run aside from that.
 
I did a few more laps last week, just for fun.

Buick GNX - 31:42.6
McLaren 650S - 27:04.0
Bugatti Veyron SS - 24:44.0

All standard cars. I also tried the Ford RS200 but the understeer was so bad I got fed up with it and aborted.
 
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