Favorite Cars: Class A
Project Gotham Racing® 3 has over seventy cars, and if you’re new to the game, you’ll probably spend quite a bit of time sorting out which ones you want to drive. They are all high-end performance cars based on their real-world counterparts—some found only in PGR 3—making sure to give you an exciting game experience you can’t get anywhere else. All the cars are capable designs, achieving a minimum of 170 mph.
Every car in the game has four main statistics, so it’s only natural that some gamers look for the cars with the highest stats when they’re starting out. This week, we’re going to take a closer look at three cars that have the highest available stats in A Class: the Ferrari F50 GT, the McLaren F1, and the Panoz GTR-1.
When you buy cars for your garage in Career mode, there are three ways you can sort the cars available: alphabetically, by price, or by performance. When you sort the most expensive A-class cars by performance, the three cars we just mentioned come out at the top of the list. That ranking might be a little misleading, however, since there’s more to a car than the four main stats that show up next to its profile. Each of these cars has strengths and weaknesses. If you’re going to race against them, you might as well know what they are.
Keep in mind that choosing the car that’s right for you is largely a matter of opinion, and the following descriptions include some opinions as well. Your mileage may vary.
Three Fan Favorites
The Ferrari F50 GT
The Ferrari F50 GT is a great car, but as its description points out, it’s designed for intermediary to expert drives. In other words, it has a lot of power, but controlling it through difficult maneuvers can be challenging. The highest statistic it has listed is Acceleration, which means it’s a natural for races where a higher top speed and greater acceleration is essential. The F50 GT also has slightly better braking than the other two cars.
When you’re gunning the straights on the Nüburgring Nordschliefe or crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, this car has a little more muscle than the McLaren F1 and significantly more than the Panoz GTR-1. Just be careful for when a F50 GT tries to draft you for a little extra speed. Gunning your engine in the straights is a brute force way to win races, but if you can’t maneuver this beast through tricky corners, that advantage won’t help you much.
The McClaren F1
The McClaren F1 isn’t at the top of the performance list, but it’s certainly comparable to the F50 GT. Okay, so maybe this orange supercar isn’t as flashy as a red Ferrari, but it’s designed to pull off some flashy moves. Its highest statistic is Drifting, which means it has a slight edge over the F50 GT on maneuvers like power slides, power overs, e-brake slides, and other varieties of drift technique. Like the F50 GT, it’s designed for expert drivers, so mastering it takes some skill.
The good news here is that trying to keep it under control when you take a corner at high speed can help you rack up Kudos a little faster, but that temperamental nature makes it a challenging car for online competition. You’ll need to learn to exit turns smoothly without having to countersteer for control, since wrestling with the steering wheel can cost you precious time. Few drivers will master this car, but if you love to drive, you should enjoy spending countless hours taking on that challenge.
The Panoz GTR-1
The Panoz GTR-1 ranks third on the A-class performance list, and it costs about 500,000 credits less than the McClaren. On some races, a skilled driver can use this car’s strengths to seize the upper hand in races against the McClaren and F50 GT. Its highest trait is Grip, which means it’s often easier to control in difficult situations than either of those two cars. The GTR-1 is a car for drivers who strive for textbook lines through corners. It isn’t listed as an “expert” car, but it has enough traction to be a serious contender.
The car has one big weakness, however: a lower top speed than the F1 or F50 GT. On a short track that requires agility and maneuverability, a skilled driver should have a fighting chance in the GTR-1, but when speed is a necessity, you must draft with it or die trying. The car also has the lowest Drift rating of the three, although again, it’s better suited to textbook racing than flashy maneuvers. When you first start learning the game, the car’s lower price makes it a strong choice for your second or third car in Class A.
Stay Tuned for Further Updates
No doubt you’ll be seeing a lot of the Ferrari F50 GT, the McLaren F1, and the Panoz GTR-1 on Gotham TV, at least in races designed around Class A. As you’d expect, the reputation of these cars will change over time. Some gamers choose cars base solely on the stats, but it takes a bit of time to figure out the nuances of cars that aren’t at the top of the performance list. Also keep in mind that some players are racing to unlock some of the concept cars available later in the game in Career mode. Each time you rank up in Kudos, you can earn the right to buy a concept car. Some drivers may find new ways to optimally drive these additional vehicles, which should shake up competition a bit online. These three cars have the highest stats in the game, but that doesn’t mean they’re designed to break it.
Many drivers bolt straight to the cars with the highest stats when they play a racing game, but realistically, few will become experts in driving them. In the weeks that follow, die-hard competitive gamers should keep an eye on the top of the Leaderboards and keep watching Gotham TV. We’ll be watching too, waiting to see which marques and models end up on top.