Z1 on the Top Gear Test Track?

Well, kinda…read on.

If you’re reading this, chances are you own or have owned several modded cars over the years. I’ll go out on a limb and guess that most of us enjoy our cars in daily driving and rarely (if ever) see a race track.

Thankfully, Forza 4 for the xbox 360 is packed with a large variety of detailed cars, mods and a lifelike physics engine so you can enjoy some of your present/past machines on the worlds most famous tracks.

I was able to build our old, sadly missed FC RX-7 and it’s accurate down to the rare Mazdaspeed front spoiler. With identical mods, the total power and power-curve are shockingly accurate.

Even more impressive, the game even realizes that one cannot perform traditional “headwork” on a Mazda Rotary engine.  Rather, the game allows you to select various levels of intake/exhaust “porting” options just like a real Rotary engine builder would perform.  Our setup was simple; street intake and exhaust mods, a street port, an upgraded fuel pump and ECU, and a large front mount intercooler for the stock turbo. The results are around 300 horsepower and 275 lb feet of torque; plenty to push around a relatively feathery 2600 pound car.  I even added an adjustable final drive set to 4.30 to simulate the coveted 1989 RX-7 GTUs unit in our old car.

Finally, I did some research and found the actual spring rates from our coilovers and the anti-roll bar sizes, rim diameter and tire sizes to match the game setup to that of our real-life car.

With our virtual car completed, it’s truly a blast to take a spin around the famed Top Gear test track, or try to tackle the corkscrew at Laguna Seca.

Share your FM4 builds with us!

http://s58.photobucket.com/albums/g268/jrotaryb/?action=view&current=Z1FC1.mp4