SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Preview: Champ Car Challenge

More recently there was a bit of a stir in the simracer's pond when someone calling themselves SE Games were rumored to be working on a Champ Car sim. So far, there's been very little new information to support or sustain those rumors.

With the advent of EA's Formula 1 series; first F1 2001, then F1 2002, and finally F1 Challenge, the fate of CART, or Champ Cars on our PC's has been in the hands of capable modders. To Champ Car fans it seems as if the real life hardship that plagued the series spilled over to the PC versions.

A fine Champ Car mod was made for F1 2001, but for a long time after the release of F1 2002 it was as if mods featuring Champ Cars were jinxed. The planned, new mod for F1 2002 never lived, and a conversion of the existing mod for F1 2001 was finally released. It was skillfully done and a very good mod, but nevertheless it was basically a conversion.

Formula 1 Challenge is hardly new anymore, in fact it is becoming increasingly hard to find copies of that title these days, Ebay might be your best chance to obtain a copy. The other option is to secure a copy of rFactor when that comes out; I'm pretty convinced that many of the mods that are currently available for F1 C will find their way to the rFactor platform.

Countless attempts at reviving a Champ Car mod for the F1 C platform seemed to be doomed by bad luck, difficulty in getting the right people together at the right time, as well as technical difficulties.

A ray of hope fell on Champ Car fans when Torn8oAlley released their open wheel mod for NASCAR Racing 2003 Season. And it was as if the fortunes had finally changed for the better, when Prairie released his Champ Car 2003 Mod late in 2004. Here at SimHQ we mentioned the mod in a recent feature dealing with some of the mods for F1 Challenge. We also learned that the iDT team was working on a huge Champ Car mod spanning all the seasons from the year 2000 to 2005. Finally great news for fans of Champ Car racing!

By good luck, I found myself being invited to a private spring-test of some of the prominent Champ Cars that have run in races in this, the 21st century. iDT asked me to test some of the cars, amongst them the 2001 Penske's of Gil de Ferran and Helio Castro-Neves, the 2002 Team Green cars driven by Paul Tracey and Dario Franchitti, and the 2003 Newman-Haas race cars of Bruno Junquera and Sebastian Bourdais.

Naturally I jumped at the opportunity.

First, I checked out the cars, some of them had not been raced for 5 years, and I wanted to make absolutely certain that nothing could go wrong. I made sure all driving aids were switched to off, and then I booked track-time at some of the famous and great North-American racetracks.

As the preview-version I had for testing came with some new tracks and the guys at iDT are constantly developing and refining these tracks, I decided to supplement my testing with some of the tracks I knew pretty well from the 2003 mod. This would also help me comparing lap times and physics.

After a very light breakfast I put on the fireproof underwear, the Nomex fireproof suit, and lowered myself into Oriol Servia's PPI Motorsports drive for the 2000 Season. The cars are wider, and as a consequence look lower and longer than they did in the 2003 Champ Car mod. Perhaps you remember that one of the minor concerns raised about the 2003 mod was that the car width did not quite match that of a real Champ Car. Rest assured that this issue has been addressed.

For a car as big as a Champ Car, the space in the cockpit was surprisingly narrow. Probably I should loose a few pounds before the start of the season, that should go down well with team-owners, show them I'm motivated!

As the engine fired up and I revved the turbocharged machine, I was in no doubt that this car, although it was almost 5 years old was a real race-car. No time for second thoughts though, and I released the clutch and took her out of the pits at Mid-Ohio Sportscar Course.

I would like to tell you that I took it easy the first few laps, but that would be telling you a lie!

I wanted to hear the engine scream, work the wheel through the twists, turns and elevations of the Sportscar Course so I threw all caution to the wind, and of course the car and track bit back at me for not showing them the proper amount of respect. Portland is slippery and in places it is very slippery, and especially so in turn 11, a left-hander sitting on the top of a crest. At the exit the road falls away from you and that's where you need all the grip you can possibly get from the car. The weight of the chassis was partly off the wheels as I jumped sideways over the crest here, and I promptly spun out.

Once bitten, twice shy as they say, and after I had been towed back to the pit area, yes I had even managed to stall the car after my unnecessary and embarrassing 360 degree spin, I took the car out once again and made a clear promise to myself that I would not make the same error twice.

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