Volume 88 -- Apr. 18, 2008

A Turn 10 Introduction...

By: Che Chou, Community Manager

Hey there, thanks for stumbling back to Turn 10's Weekly Pitpass Report, TGIF and all that. As usual, the week flies by so quickly I often have a hard time recalling how it all began. This week marked the start of another mini-milestone where we get together into groups and discuss the goals we're going to accomplish and deliver for review over the next few weeks. The beginning (and end) of these mini dev cycles are always some of my favorite meetings to attend, since we don't always get visibility into what other groups and individuals are working on and this is an excellent way to see the studio project from a macro level.

2004 Bentley Continental GT by: DScammell - Let's See Your Luxury!

Anyway, just a little glimpse into how life here at Turn 10 is structured week-to-week. We're also starting to see new faces in the hallway from folks we've been hiring, and one example is our car research team. Lead by Turn 10 test lead Joel Robinson, himself a hardcore gear head and motorist, our car research team and their bullpen conveniently situated just short of the men's restroom) is a neverending resource for car banter. This week, both Landin and myself have found ourselves pulled into car chats by way of their grease-monkey siren call. And the chatter, at least on my part, is always tinged with a little urgency, since, y'know, I was on my way to take care of the bizness.

Skyline VS. Evolution by: aLeS RS - Racing Picture Gallery

So in one of these little detours this week, everyone was talking about what sorts of mutant projects they were going to do to their daily drivers, so naturally I brought up my '92 Mazda MX-5 since it's been about a year since I've spent any sort of money improving the car. When I bought it last April, the car had a bad shimmy at medium to high speeds, the brakes were going out (no thanks to a leaky master cylinder), and the rear alignment was in a bad way since the previous owner tweaked one of the suspension arms. A good chunk of money and some preventative maintenance sessions later, the ol' Miata was handling like a champ. Still is, actually. But I'm also getting a little bored with its essentially restored-back-to-stock status quo. The Turn 10 car research team recommends I start with wheels. Grab a set of 15s, said new guy Aaron, as he was enthused about Rotas for their reasonable price and quality. Don't get the GReddy turbo kit. What do you think? I've opened a thread in the General Automotive forum for discussion. Let me know!

1961 Jaguar E-Type S1 by: SD Kami sama - FC Photomode Comp.

There's something else I want to share. A couple weeks ago, we compiled some very interesting numbers about our whole Forza 2 auction house ecosystem, just because, y'know, numbers are fun. Lots of data came spewing out and while most of it is confidential, and some of it irrelevant to players, I collected some data points you might find interesting about Forza 2's auction house -- so here goes. On the whole, car customization and the whole auction house concept has been wildly successful for Forza 2, and in particular, our community.

As of a couple weeks ago, the Forza 2 player base have exchanged over 3.4 trillion in-game credits by way of selling and bidding on cars. That's like, bigger than the GNPs of many countries in the real-world. Of course, we're talking about funny money here, but still, it gives you a pretty good idea just how much Forza 2 activity takes place over Xbox Live. Additionally, there has been nearly 14 million individual cars sold on the auction house. Cool stuff. Here's more data...

Auction House: Top 10 Most Popular Cars

(Based on total numbers sold)

1. Nissan Fairlady Z
2. MINI Cooper S
3. Ford GT40 MkII
4. Ferrari Enzo Ferrari
5. Dodge Charger R/T-SE
6. Saleen S7
7. Ferrari F430
8. Lamborghini Gallardo
9. Mercedes AMG Mercedes CLK GTR
10. Volkswagen Golf GTi 16v Mk2

Auction House: Top 10 Most Expensive Cars

(Based on average bid price)

1. Toyota MR-S
2. Saturn ION Red Line
3. Saab 9-3 Aero
4. Mazda Axela Sport 23S
5. Scion tC
6. TVR Sagaris
7. Mazda Mazdaspeed Familia
8. Honda Civic 1.5 VTi
9. Volkswagen Golf GTi 16v Mk2
10. Mercedes AMG Mercedes CLK GTR

So what do these numbers all mean? Well, for one, I was surprised that the Toyota MR-S turned out to be, on average, the most expensive car in the auction house since Forza 2's launch. At any rate, we've opened a discussion thread in the Auction House forum section for some community analysis, so be sure to jump in and comment.

Don't recognize this car? This week's Turn 10 Car of the Week fills you in on the deets.

Before I peace out for everyone's favorite community update from Landin, I just want to let everyone know that we're excited to have found the elusive third guy for the Turn 10 community team. That person is none other than Fred Howell, aka Redesign from the Forza car painting community. He seems pretty stoked (can't tell, really, since he's a quiet guy) to come work at Turn 10 and we can certainly use his help. If all goes well, Fred should be here onsite by the first week of May. In case you're wondering, no, Fred did not get his job because he painted a photographic image of my face on a car. But it's a pretty sweet G35 anyway! Congrats to Fred on landing the gig, and hope your relocation from D.C. goes well. See you guys next week.

Last weekend, a Turn 10 dev (who shall remain anonymous) had a "suboptimal dismount" coming out of turn 2 at Pacific Raceways here in the Northwest. Luckily, he's okay. His bike, however...

The Forza Motorsport 2 Community Update

By: Landin Williams, Community Moderator

There has been a bad case of car fever going around Turn 10 this week, as it seems many people have the itch to buy, upgrade and tinker with anything they can get their hands on. Our fearless leader, Che, has been dying to upgrade his Miata for quite a while now, and my recent purchase seems to have ignited his desire once again.  My trusty sidekick, Adam, has been throwing around the idea of picking up a Nissan 240SX (S14) and plopping in the mighty RB26 power plant, an engine that will give him more than enough power to drift on command (if he wants to of course). 

We have also seen the recent purchase of a brand new 40th Anniversary RX-8 and a classy 1995 E36 M3 Coupe, to add to the sweet line-up of cars already present at Turn 10. Even Dan Greenawalt seems to be itching for more upgrades to his mighty Audi S4 (which we'll cover in more detail in the Turn 10 blog, to be sure). All in all it has been an interesting month, and as we inch closer to summer I expect to see even more upgrading and automotive tinkering happening during the weekends.

1954 Mercedes 300SL by: Tiger night Drifter - The Good ol' Days

I know I’ve definitely been hit with a bad case of car fever, as my recently purchased 85 Corolla GT-S has taken up essentially all of my extra time -- and, sadly, funds. Just this morning I woke up extra early to head down to the Toyota dealership to pick up a new Throttle Position Sensor, a simple part that cost me an arm and a leg (as is expected when you order straight from the dealer). The good thing is that this sensor is vital to the air/fuel ratio of my ride, and without it the Hachi runs extremely rich; something that is not appreciated in these times of astronomical gas prices. I can honestly watch my fuel gauge drop when I’m driving on the highway, so hopefully a working sensor will save me some money (and  the environment) in the long run.

This weekend I plan on installing the sensor, as well as getting my emissions test done now that I have all the parts required to pass (hopefully). Also I will be trying my best to build a few things that should clean up the overall look of the interior, so keep your eyes peeled for a new blog entry sometime next week. For now check out the latest “Sunday Shakedown” entry and post up your suggestions for future upgrades.

2004 Audi #8 ABT TT-R by: Hehe. - Realistic Photo Thread

Car fever has even spread to the Forza community, as I recently found a thread from Redline Tuning, a group that say they have created an A-Class “Tsukuba Attack Evolution” that is capable of running a 52-second lap around Tsukuba. 52 seconds… in an Evo 8 MR?!? I had to check this out and see what all the hype was about. Well sure enough after reading through the thread I discovered that indeed this Evo 8 was capable of a 52 second lap…of course you have to be one of the best drivers in the world to do it. Regardless, this is still an amazing achievement, and the team of tuners over at Redline have really put together a solid car that is right up there with the Renault 5 Turbo’s and Elise 135R’s in A-Class. If you're interested in picking one of these Evos up for your garage, be sure to visit this link.

Ironically there was also a small battle going on between two of the fastest racers in the game--and it recently reached a stalemate. PotzyPLOP, running the Evo from Redline achieved the exact same time as R2P JED running the Evo MR from AG Tuning-- and yes their times just happened to be in the 52 second range! Don’t believe me? Then check out this custom scoreboard for proof! Also make sure to check out the full review of the Redline Evo on Forza Times, a website dedicated to reviewing some of the best tunes in the game. Congratulations to Redline Tuning and AG Tuning for putting together such a solid car, and if you send one over I’ll be sure to put it through its paces on Tsukuba :)

The 52 second Tsukuba Attack Evolution from Redline Tuning. 

Championship Gaming Series – Team Update

With the CGS UK qualifier on the horizon I figured now would be a great time to get caught up with Phantom from the Carolina Core, to get the inside scoop on how the players are preparing for the 2008 Season. Some of you may remember the feature article I put together about Joe “Phantom” Tackett, but if not check out Pitpass 78 for the full interview. After being drafted to the Carolina Core for a second season in a row, Phantom along with his new team mate General E Live have been training tirelessly to prepare for battle--and if you think playing Forza 2 for a living is easy then think again. According to Joe most players spend around 5 hours a day training…and I’m not talking about a few casual races with friends either.

Check out this increadibly detailed design by: fruitster - Asuka Lust

I’m talking about running laps upon laps to improve speed and consistency and running scrimmages against the other teams in the league. They devise team strategies that are kept extremely secretive; especially considering the outcome of a race can be decided at the first turn. Interestingly enough they also run 1 on 1 practice sessions dedicated to figuring out how to avoid collisions, how to recover after a wreck, and also how to dish it out when the going gets rough. So far it seems like all of the teams have been extremely busy preparing for the regular season that begins in June, so good luck to everyone involved! Special thanks to Joe, for taking some time to get us up to date with all the happenings in the league, and I wish you all the best in the 2008 season!

1998 TVR Cerbera Speed 12 by: SPhilli911 - FC Photomode Comp.

Official Hotlap Season 3 – Week 1 Recap

As mentioned last week we have officially launched the 3rd season of our Official Hotlap series, and already the competition is heating up. Each week we will be uploading a special tournament that rank’s the fastest drivers based on qualifying time. At the end of each week we will tally the scores until the overall team and individual winners are determined at the end of week 5. In order to get a full breakdown of this week’s competition I asked our veteran forum moderator TDR Hellbringer to give us a quick synopsis. Here is what he had to say:

“In the first round the newly-founded team V12 pulled no punches, as several members entered the top 20 right out of the gate; however within 2 days we saw a familiar face take the #1 spot, and it was none other than iPicaso. Since then the whole community has been watching in anticipation to see if anyone could beat Picaso's time of 1.12.068. Team V12, determined to reclaim the top spot, began bearing down on iPicaso, and each time I looked at the leaderboard I saw the V12 members slowly nudging towards that #1 spot. 

"It wasn’t until much later in the week when the series 1 champion V12 BackONE Abs finally took the #1 spot by 5 hundredths of a second, narrowly missing out on setting the only 1.11.xxx time. But wait, there’s more! Just after I finished this write-up I checked the scoreboards, and to my surprise Picaso had made one last surge, and snagged the top spot with a time dipping into the 1.11’s! Despite this amazing sneak attack from Picaso, Team V12 has still made its presence known in week 1, finishing with 6 of their 12 members in the top 10.”

2003 Honda S2000 by: LOWENUF - Drift Car Gallery

Hotlap Challenge Week 30 (Season Week 1) - Top 10
1  - iPicaso
2  - V12 BackONE AbS
3  - V12 Nikrox
4  - V12 seba grisea
5  - V12 gilba 22
6  - V12 Kronoturbo
7  - V12 Fullspe3D
8  - R2P ChemicaL
9  - R2P CoNCepT
10  - Howskii NASTY

Click here to see if you have been selected as one of the Random 30 from week 30!

Thanks Ryan for that recapt of week 1. Week 2 (XXXI) of the Hotlap Season has already been posted, so check the in-game tournament option to participate! Additionally changes to your team roster will no longer be accepted; however you can still register a new team at any time during the challenge. Visit the latest discussion thread here for more details!

2007 Jaguar XK Coupe by: BnZ - FC Photomode Comp.

That’s it for this week. Thanks for tuning in to another Community Update. I hope you enjoyed the article, and we will see you again next Friday. Have a great weekend!

Peace

Landin