How NOT to drive a 911
A series of spectacular, Hammond Style Binnings...
Now those of you who've been following my automotive exploits will be quite aware I've more or less decided I want a 911. It came about because of a spirited drive through the countryside a few weeks ago, where I really missed my old MX5. I missed having a convertible. I have two kids now, so a four seat convertible makes more sense. Of all the four seat convertibles on the market - the 911 is I think, the most exciting.
After asking a certain James May what his opinion was of getting a used 997 in good condition, the deal was pretty much done. Except I can't decide whether I want a Carrera 2, a Carrera 4, a manual or an auto and actually - a convertible or a coupe!
The other night I had a few minutes and without wanting to go out and test drive a bunch of Porsches for no reason - I thought, let's get one on Forza and see what it's like.
When I booted up Forza 5 I quickly came to the conclusion, that for some reason Porsche have NEVER licensed Forza to use their cars! I don't know if it's an exclusivity deal with Gran Turismo or something. Bottom line is, in Forza - you can't have a Porsche.
Or can you?
Scroll to the right of 'P' in the cars list and you'll find the little known manufacturer 'Ruf' who do a very Porsche-like, Ruf 911. Now most people might look at this think... What? Is it a Chinese rip-off? Is it a tuned Porsche? Well, it's actually neither. Ruf found it's way into producing sports cars basically by buying bare Porsche 911 chassis and building a car around that chassis using their own parts. As such, even though Ruf look like a Porsche they have a Ruf VIN number and are recognized as an independent manufacturer. Ruf are also FAST.
The Ruf CTR of 1987 set a top speed of 211 mph, earning it the title of 'Fastest production car in the world'. Even in 1995, only the mighty McLaren F1 could beat the Ruf CTR2 (213 mph top speed.) Of course the Ruf was only a fraction of the price of the McLaren. If you like performance cars, you need to know about Ruf. If you have a Ruf, you're making most Porsche drivers look a bit 'every man'.
Your next question is bound to be...
Can I have one?
The answer is, YES! If you have DEEP pockets. Ruf are NOT cheap. If you want a cheap car get a new Porsche 911 GT3. If you have £300,000 burning a hold in your pocket, then you could take a look at Ruf UK's Pre-owned page. They have a VERY nice 2013 RtR narrow body right now, with only 600 miles on the clock! This car features a 645 bhp engine and is a RWD manual. It's like new! You can check it out here:-
If you buy it, you really have to take me a for a spin in it. I'd love to do an article on a Ruf.
So you can drive a 911 in Forza motorsport 5, but it has to be a Ruf 911. Okay, I'm down with that - lets see how it goes!
This lap of 'The Ring' features more Hammond-style binnings than an entire season of 'Binned it Like Hammond'
This was a very nice looking lime green Ruf 911 before I proceeded to dent every panel and shatter every inch of glass in it.
Things didn't really bode well when I nearly Hammonded off at the first, easy corner. For the rest of the lap I was struggling to find the right braking distance and line and Hammonded off NUMEROUS times. On the long straight towards the end, I produced a truly spectacular Hammond, as I Hammonded straight into a barrier. If that had been in real life. I'd be dead.
So what went wrong?
Well first of all, I'm using a joypad. It's not a great control method for a car and it shows. There's a reason car manufacturers have stuck to steering wheels for the last 100 years!
Secondly, there were quite a few cars on the track. When I took on 'The Ring' in Satan's D-Type there were no cars on the track and that makes it a LOT easier to position yourself on the track and find a good line. You can check out Satan's D-Type here:-
Thirdly, the Ruf 911 has handle characteristics, which I am NOT used to. You can feel the weight of the car's rear end like a massive pendulum behind you. Occasionally, the more balanced nature of the car feels really 'right' and when you DO hit a good line through a corner it feels particularly satisfying. However, when you brake late and turn in too sharply, the results seem magnified to what you'd expect of a more traditional layout. The Ruf 911 feels stable at speed and handles well, but it's layout requires a certain driving style and it seems to be quite unforgiving when you don't stick to that style.
Of course all this is immaterial. It doesn't get me any further towards deciding what flavour of 911 I should get. The fact of the matter is, the chances of me driving around the Nurburgring in a Ruf 911 are roughly zero. Given the number of horrific Hammonds I had during my sim lap - that's probably a good thing!
Martyn Stanley
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Comments (28)
Don’t worry, that will buff out!
Haha! I think I’d need more than a tub of T-cut to get that sorted!
Thank goodness it's virtual.
Yes, I think my tears of laughter at watching this lap would be tears of anguish if it was real! :(
And tears of pain.
Cool stuff >>> www.facebook.com/dtrlounge/
Thanks Naomi!
Of course ;)
Still less crashes than Max Verstappen
Really? Who is Max Verstappen? Is he blind or something? Or got no arms? 🤔
Maybe he is blind....
Microsoft actually partnered up with Porsche in 2016/2017, where they added a whole bunch to Horizon 3, they were also part of DLC in Forza 6 and Forza Horizon 2 and were in Forza 3 with no payment at all, Porsche is in Forza 7 as well and it's the cover car, so I wouldn't say it's never been there, Porsche is actually probably the biggest part of Forza at the moment, Forza 5 just didn't have Porsche at the time as Need for Speed had the rights to use Porsche over any other game.... Just want to clear that up
Ahh, I had Forza 4 on the 360 and I thought I could trmember Porschesin it. It did seem odd that there were none in 7!