Generic Highlands Track - Does it feel good?

You PC fellows, who are luckier than us console players for already having the apparently awesome Highlands track to enjoy, please share your thoughts on how good or or how bad (hopefully this isn't the case) this new addition is.

From what I've seen on YT, it looks gorgeous! Does it feel good to drive all over its extension? Better than Black Cat County, overall? I'd appreciate if you could satisfy my curiosity on that, hoping that curiosity won't kill the cat in this case: By all means, it ought to live longer than its usual nine lives!

 

The cobblestone part isn't as pronounced as I would expect it to be. (could be because I have the road enhancement effect set to 0%)
The short version is fun to drive, but there really isn't a passing zone anywhere so racing can be challenging.
Here's a couple vids of the short version:

 

For me it's better than Black Cat County, the road feels great but ˇˇ

totally agree with Michael

 

I like Long version. Just done 20 laps race with Porsche Cup against AI's and i'm surprised. The track is wide, but here is not so many places to overtake (if you set right AI level), but a lot where you can do mistakes.

 

Gnarly track .
Really gnarly .
"Scottish" gnarly .

 

Can someone take
The holly trinity and see who's the fastest on that long straight though! thnx in advance. Setups are stock of course


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is it based on a real world layout (not a race course, just roads off a map etc) ?

or is it complete fantasy ?

 

It's completely made up fantasy track Afaik. I like it much more than BCC both in term how it looks and how it drives. It's high speed road track, in the longer layouts. Feels much more like real place and real road, than BCC. Here is video from Inside Sim Racing, with full lap on all 4 layouts and new free bonus car:



That car isn't suitable for the long layouts (you will hit rev limiter on last gear, even with maxed ratios), quick street cars & vintage racing cars are IMO better for them

 

For a real world comparison Highlands Long has quite an Evo Triangle feel to it, yes I know that is in Wales but the road style and feedback in the road cars similar. http://www.evo.co.uk/track-and-travel/15514/evo-triangle-wales-ultimate-driving-destinations

The long straight on the back stretch reminds me of the 'Mountain Mile' on the Isle of Man, the only place I've ever driven flat out on a public (closed) road for that length of time.

Looks to me like the team had a lot of fun picking out their favourite sections of roads from all sorts of places and then stitching them together.

 

IMO, its a ton better than BCC for authenticity and immersion but its not perfect.

Short layout is great for close, often rough racing - and outside of the cobbled area has almost a short hillclimb feel to it where you can blast up the road being as close as possible to the walls. I don't mind the FFB for the cobbles (despite having no extra FFB settings), though some softer sprung cars do soak up the bump quite well. My issue with this layout it the fact that the cobbled area is present at all - by far the most immersion breaking area to me - I've never seen cobbled roads that are two-lane wide, flat (ie no crown or dips), or so damn shiny. But if you look past that then its a hoot to drive on.

Long and Medium Layouts are better still. Visually beautiful, especially on the long stretches where you get a good view ahead of you. Again there are a few of the sweeping bends that are reminiscent of BCC - in that they seem a bit 'gamey', and seem to be winding for no reason (ie IRL it'd more than likely be more or less a straight road). The last two thirds are great though, giving a good sense of actual roads, beautiful scenery and offer a great place to test street cars.

Overall, its a big step up from BCC, with room for improvement. That being said, I'm glad we have it, and will no doubt spend a lot of time there in future.

 

When is this track coming to console?

 

3-6 weeks after it is submitted to Sony and Microsoft for approval.

 

I'd say during the 2nd week of March if private lobbies are properly tested and completed next week.

 

If you treat it as a road rather than a track, it's great, somewhere to go for a drive a try cars out rather than racing them IMO

 

And that is the kind of track I've always wanted.

 

Well, you are only allowed to do 50 kph here, but it's a real thing. We have some nice cobbled streets here in Münster...

 

Yeah, it feels good!

Full lap around Long version: