Race Against Reality

In Forza , the weather is always perfect. Road Atlanta,
for example, is constantly 70 degrees and sunny. But this is a genuine December
morning, and it´s too cold to race. Jeannette doesn´t want anybody out there
until the surface temperature of the track reaches 55 degrees and the tires can
better grip the asphalt. â€It´s just not safe,†he says, and disappears into the
garage for a few more laps on the game. He returns around 11, after clocking a
1:12-tying his best time in real life-and declares the asphalt ready for
action.

Despite their difference in skill, he and DeVera had the same
hierarchy of times in Forza , recording their fastest lap in the Carrera GT and
their slowest in the Golf R32. The question is, how will this compare with their
times on the track?

The first anomaly soon emerges. â€That car is beat ,â€
Jeannette pronounces, hopping out of a yellow Corvette C6 and backing away from
it. He´s just clocked a 144.96 lap-inconsistent with his times in the virtual
C6. â€The brakes are toast, and the tires are in no shape for hard corners. It´s
not really a fair comparison to the game, where you´re driving a car in peak
condition.†Apparently, he´s the only driver in Braselton who hasn´t had a turn
in the ´Vette, which happens to be Road Atlanta´s official pace car.

The
drivers are taking turns with our fleet of six cars, their instructions being to
discern how much the real-life and simulated experiences differ. Right now,
DeVera is pulling onto the track in the Lotus Elise, the dog in which he scored
his second-slowest time yesterday. It whines like a go-kart as he comes past and
snaps the back end around turn two. He parks it and extracts himself from the
tight cockpit, nodding in approval. The low-end torque problems? â€None at all,â€
he says. â€It´s so light that the engine pulls it back up to speed in no
time.â€

Jeannette is similarly impressed with the Elise. â€Now that was fun,â€
he gushes after a few laps. â€That car is just glued to the road. Every time I
come out of a corner, I´m like, â€I could have come into that faster.´ And then
the next time, I do, and I come out thinking the same thing. I drove it the same
way here as I did yesterday, not braking so much as just tossing it into a
corner and letting the skid scrub off extra speed, but it definitely feels
faster on the track.â€

It´s beginning to look like Forza's physics modeling
wasn´t so hot after all. But no: Later we´ll figure out the actual source of the
discrepancy. The game uses the U.K. version of the Elise, which comes outfitted
with a 156hp engine; we used the 190hp U.S. version.

DeVera takes out the
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, which sounds like a jet when he flies by. When he
shoots out of sight, we hear his tires screeching but don´t think anything of
it. As it turns out, he´s nearly eaten concrete. DeVera got sideways after the
Esses but reined in the back end to keep it out of the wall. â€Just like in the
game, it´s really fast, and the solid feel of the all-wheel drive can make you a
little overconfident,†he says afterward. Then he chuckles. â€I should have paid
more attention yesterday.â€

Jeannette is already back out there, screaming
around the asphalt in the Carrera GT. We can hear the car more than see it. The
silver blur rockets past us once, twice, three times before he eases the pride
of Stuttgart off the track. â€That is one hell of an automobile!†he says. â€My
only complaint about it in the game is the sound of the exhaust. It sounds cool
for sure, but it doesn´t do the car justice. When you are pushing that thing
around the track, that beautiful engine roar consumes your senses, and you can
get so much information about what the car is doing from how it sounds. It is
much more of a guide in real life.â€

DeVera takes a single lap in the GT (it
was loaned from a private owner, Preston Henn, and we chose to let the pro do
most of the driving) and begins comparing his day´s times with his scores from
yesterday. In Forza , his fastest times for each car spanned a range of 16.1
seconds, reflecting the difference in theoretical power. Today, despite the same
range in real power, his times are all within just over a second of one
another-from the 240hp Golf R32 to the 605hp Carrera GT. The likely explanation:
â€In a game, there´s no â€Oh, s- -t´ factor. When I´m coming up on a real turn, on
a real track, in a real car going more than 100 actual miles per hour, my foot
will brake at a certain point whether or not my brain thinks I can squeeze out a
couple extra yards before I slow down. In the game, I´ll find my drop-dead brake
point with trial and error. And I´ll walk away from it every time.â€