Was bored today, so I went surfing.....found something interesting, at least to me anyways.





The front wheels don't seem to touch the ground in some spots....was running on the GPC79 Silverstone track. I had an error when loading the mod the first time, too....something about a BMW brake caliper I think, but I haven't seen it again when I've re-started after that first time in selecting it.

I didn't see what all cars it's got, looks like the entire 1977 field, but I was excited enough to see the P34, I had to try it out. The .exe I got was labeled a LE, so it might be a same physics version possibily. The site I found it on...Virtual Classics I think it was...is in Spanish, so I'm having to translate to figure things out. It looks like it's a legitimate mod, meaning the makers haven't used anything without permission, but with everything in Spanish I might be missing something in the translations.

Cool. Link?

Tire wear show as 4 or 6 tires?

Couple shots of the Lotus 78...





It's a bit rough overall...the brake rotors, for example, aren't centered in the wheel axis, so they wobble a bit at slow speeds and it's got a couple of other graphical glitches I've found, but the models are done nicely overall. Not sure about the tire size in relation to the car body...gonna have to compare it to some pics...and the engines currently all seem to be the same, performance wise....so I'm guess it's an early LE version.

It being one of my favorite years, I might have to tinker with this one a bit....:D

Here's a link to the mod itself.... F1 1977 LE ....and one to the forum I found it on.... Virtual Classics Forum . I did some AIW work on the CREW 1975 F1C mod that I think they're using parts of it. I hope they've got permission for everything they might be using, as I'd probably run this thing for a while.

Edit - not sure on the tire wear, haven't really looked much at the setup screen yet. I'm thinking it's only showing one front wheel, given rF's limitations on the setup screen, but I'll check.

Doesn't show anything more than the normal tire wear on the setup UI, but they are using a different tire.tbc for the P34's...so at least it's got different wear characteristics compared to the 4-wheelers.

Did some digging into the sound files. Looks like they might have some of them wrong...the Ferrari's using Matra's sounds, for example and a couple others. I might spend some time straightening those out later on or maybe even using the GP79 sounds (which I've always thought were awesome), since it's for my own use and I'm not posting it anywhere for mass download.

Overall, it's got promise I think...yeah, it's got some glitches, but I love that era and just about every mod's got some minor problems anyway. Hell, I might even try my hand at at making them historical....

NICE!!! thanks for sharing... When you've figured out how to fix the glitches I'd really like for you to share how you fixed them, because this looks to have a lot of potential...

I think it does have potential, for sure...but it's still pretty raw right now in some areas.

Pumbaa, I'm using the GP79 sounds for it right now....which I've always thought were great sounds, especially for that era. It's got 4 of the 5 engines used in 1977...Cosworth, Ferrari, Alfa and Renault. I used the Alfa as a base for the Matra engine in the Ligier, just gave it a little deeper tone was all. I know it's not historically correct, but it sounds good...

There's a problem with the mirrors in Cockpit View....something to do with the texture used, I think, according to the VC forums and I don't think they can fix it, at least so far. There's some clipping inside some of he cockpits, as well, if you move the seat back too far. There seems to be a problem with the setup capability, too....I had limited adjustment of the springs in it when I started tinkering...going to look more into that today probably.

It's got some good points, though.....maybe some of the best tires/wheels, shape wise, I've seen in a historical mod. The high-speed widewalls could use a bit more work, but they do look damn good. Car modeling's pretty good overall, as well....although there's not lower LOD's, so if you're not running Full details, you can have some problems. There's also another 1977 mod in the works, evidently by one guy over a 2 year period that I found Youtube videos on and it's looking good as well...but I've never found any information on it, except for his Youtube comments.

1977 was an interesting year, for sure....it was when Lauda walked away from Ferrari and Enzo handed the ride to a diminutive Canadian that had impressed him in a McLaren at Silverstone...Gilles Villeneuve. Jody Scheckter also impressed in the "lone" Wolf, winning 3 races, which lead to a Ferrari ride and his Championship 2 years later. There were 6 former and future WDC's in the field, to include Emerson Fittipaldi...who may have given up a couple more titles with McLaren to drive a horrible beast of a car for his brother....and Mario Andretti, how took the revolutionary Lotus 79 to the WDC the following year.

There are 73,74,75 and 76 mods also. Are the perfect? Hell no. Are they AWESOME because they actually simulate an era I care about? Hell yes!!!

I think the VC guys are converting all the old CREW F1C work...which I ran until my old PC couldn't take it anymore...into rF. They've also got some models from the guy that did the 1976 F2 addon, as well...I seen his presence in their forum and discussion about his models. They've also got permission from someone else that's made some models from that era as well to use in the '77 mod, so we might see some new things down the road. I really hope they, or someone, does a Historical version of it.

Not sure if they're going to put a McLaren M26 in or not....wish they would, as it was a key player late in the season. Regardless, I've had fun with it outside of my problems with the Setup menu.

They've already publicly or privately released all the seasons I mentioned. Most of it is CREW material. Mostly league editions (LE) but some have a historical edition (HE), too.

I'm hoping they release a Historical version of the 1977 mod.....was actually a pretty good year for racing.

Oh, here's a link for anyone that might be interested in rFactor mods.... rFactor Mod Links ....now, I'm not sure how many of the links still work or even how many of them are "illegal" mods, you can check/decide that for yourself. It's helped me a few times when I've been looking for something in particular, like a patch for a mod or something. It's got links to all the 73-75 CREW work that Dave mentioned, among others.

Most of them are up to date versions. Enjoy them. I know I have...

I ran the entire CREW set in F1C for quite a while...really enjoyed it. The Tyrell P34 was always a car of interest for me, so I'm looking forwards to any improvements in the 1977 mod.

I'm running the 1985 mod right now...and having a lot of fun with it during my testing/familiarization sessions. From what I've read, they're still working on it and there's a V 1.3 somewhere out there for Beta testing.

Really takes some right foot control to keep those beasts going around a circuit, but a good setup helps them a lot, too I've found. Really wish the sounds were better in it, though....have thought about playing with them/making my own, as I think it's probably what I'm going to run for a while for my historical offline F1 fix...doesn't seem to be a lot of folks running them online....unless the 1977 mod improves quite a bit.

There was a V1.3k beta available some time ago, but lsut years version from March was the real thing concerning 1985 so far.

Btw, I also found 1976LE. Same developer.

I think that's what I'm running, purolator...1985, patched to v1.02 with reflection addons and some graphical fixes on cars added by someone else. FISR has permission to edit the skins and sounds for 1985...hope they get around to it, but they've got a lot of their proverbial plate it seems, few more mods in the works according to their forums. I was going to lighten/brighten the Ferrari red up a bit, but the .dds's are different than what I'm used to working with for some reason and couldn't get it to work.....might try again later on after a bit of research.

VC (conversion of the CREW things) has a TON of things going on at one time.....they seem to have a tendency to jump from one mod to the other, to get the bases at least out for general consumption....dunno how they keep up with all the different ones. I hope they continue to refine all those conversions, especially 1977.