A thread to post what I'm up to with this return to sim racing. It's been good fun and thanks to everyone for all the help getting back to speed, or what passes for it

To kick it off right






That's the Lotus 49, or more accurately the Formula Vintage Gen 1 Model 1 at the Nordschleife in Automobilista Motorsport Simulator 2, or AMS2 from here on out. The track's the 2020 version so it's shorter by a bit than the track we ran in GPL. Not exactly sure yet how much shorter, but I managed to turn a 7:52 in my first timed lap. Of course it's the Ring and that first timed lap took a while to come as I crashed or ran afoul of the track limits. But many of us know the feeling of bottling a cracking lap at the Ring and having to drive all the way back around to start a new one. But at least in modern times we can just hit restart in time trial and kick it off rather more directly.

Over the past few weeks I've picked up several racing sims, bringing me in to this century. I do drive F1 2020/21 and bought Assetto Corsa about ten years ago, but I was mostly out of it, the current scene. We had some discussion in Community Hall about the old days and it started to build and now I've a racing rig and a good setup and all these new (to me) racing sims. All of them have strengths but my early impressions are that of the bunch, AMS2 is the one I like the most. Assetto Corsa Competizione is right in the mix, and I love playing championship and career modes in any sim or game, and ACC gets high marks for it's focus, giving us the entire series it simulates. That will always score points with me. The cars are cool, performance versions of road cars, GT stuff. I want offline and online racing and ACC is in a good place for me.

Though I've only had AMS2 a couple days, it's the one for me that feels the best to drive. I'm too new to know why that is, it could be something as simple as poor wheel settings in another sim, failing to bring out the best in it. And the other titles I'm talking about are great on their own. But AMS2 feels the best for me right now. It's good to have all of these choices and I'm ready for anything we might do around here.

Another appealing thing about AMS2 that took me by surprise was my ability to put a dent in the leaderboards. I had it a day before I was setting a track record, which is only of course because no one had driven that car and track combination before, and in time trial mode for that matter (and in a Formula Vee!). You expect this with a new sim, we gotta start somewhere right? So I looked at the store page and it says released in March of 2020. That's not exactly new in the sense I was thinking so it makes me think the sim hasn't quite found it's stride in the community? It should. Maybe it's a matter of building the content. There's a lot there, but there aren't that many cars yet really. Good track list so far.

The driving feel, the sounds, the force feedback. It's visceral in a way I haven't been able to replicate in the other sims. All of this is subjective and I wouldn't argue with someone who felt the same way about a different one. Maybe I just got lucky with the settings. One of the best parts about how AMS2 feels to drive is how much I think they have nailed the feeling of driving Grand Prix Legends. Yeah, I wish it said Lotus 49, and where's my Eagle? I don't get much kick out of the Gen 1 Model 1 thing you know? But that's superficial in the end, because once you strap in and give it the throttle that all dissipates. It IS GPL if you close your eyes. No don't do that. Haha, but yes, this feels right to me. There are a lot of choices for this class of vintage F1 cars between the sims and mods, and I've only tried a couple of them. But I really like what I found in this class with AMS2. And I've already run the Ring. What's better?

Online racing here hasn't quite taken off yet, but I expect things to start picking up. I'm open for any class or car, in any sim at any track. In the mean time I have to get my fix from the offline stuff, and that's been mostly in ACC, running a championship driving the Porsche 991. Here are a couple shots of the action.


The grid rolls off the Corkscrew to the start at Laguna Seca




Here I run second, approaching the wonderful first turn at Brand's Hatch.

Hopped on tonight and met up with Nimrud. We decided to give some racing a go in AMS2. With just two of us we added some AI and ran the Formula Vee's at Oulton park short course. Lots of fun, just pure driving bliss. This was my first race in this sim, and a standing start. I was ready for it, but still got smoked by the AI off the line to run fifth from second. Frank had set a stellar pace for pole and was in a class of his own here, but I was nicking the AI at 90 on my better laps. The race was just 15 minutes or about 15 laps and I fell in behind one of the AI. Well, all of the AI, who were running in whatever the Formula Vee version of a DRS train is. Really difficult to find an opening but I managed to get by one, then had a moment in Lodge Corner coming over the hill, got bent out of shape, lost my pace and was passed by most everyone, including a recovering Frank who I think had a moment earlier tangled with the AI in Druids.

Racing this class of cars is all about maintaining momentum. There just isn't anything to cover for mistakes. Fall off the pace and it takes a while to recover it. Managed to run fine to the flag, getting by a couple AI near the end to finish... err, what did I finish? Was I fourth or whatever. Frank won.

We then switched to Interlagos and I asked for whatever the next step in open wheel is and Frank picked the Formula Trainer i think it's called. Really nice handling, and lots of fun to throw it around such a great track. I actually sat on provisional pole for a lap or two before NimRud smoked it. Started second, got tangled up with AI in and around Senna S, some of it my fault, and spun out on the straight to watch the field sail off in to the sun. Got back on and eventually caught them, and just had a blast picking my way through the field to finish fourth I think. I should pay more attention to the results but it was just such a good time that who cares.

Good stuff and thanks for the racing Frank, great driving from you.

Here I trail Frank in to Bico de Pato (Duckbill?) on our qualifying outlap at Interlagos. I'll clean up that UI as I get accustomed to this sim.

Tonight I fired up rFactor2, to try a different car and racing in the dark. Chose the BMW M4 Class 1 2021. This is a mean BMW, and the fastest car I've taken around Lime Rock yet! The feel of the tarmac is really nice, and it does a great job of letting you feel the grip escaping. A nice seat of the pants feeling to rFactor 2. Taking some screens I noticed I don't have the graphics at a high level, and FSAA was off, since corrected. But this shot is before the change. Some fun spec racing at Lime Rock at twilight.






I love the vintage F1 stuff in AMS2. So I decided to create a championship for those cars. The track list in AMS2 is pretty good, but it's not that long yet. Is it 55? I wanted ten events so some license would have to be taken as there are not enough historic circuits from the late 60's/early 70s yet. You can choose any track and shuffle the order, and I'm not sure there's a limit. I chose standard points (top ten pay) Here's the schedule

Kyalami Historic 1976
Imola Historic 1972
Monza Historic 1971
Nordschleife 2020
Silverstone Historic 1975 (no chicane)
Brand's Hatch
Donington National
Interlagos GP
Spa 2020
Laguna Seca

What a mix! This will be fun. I read historic Spa is in the pipeline? I should see what's going on in the near term. I'm sure it's in Red's videos. Getting a full slate of historic courses would be awesome. Setting up the championship is a bit tedious, because each event has to be edited in turn if you want to change anything like practice or race length, weather or anything. There should be a 'set as schedule' and then you can still edit each event as needed. I chose 15 AI drivers to make it a field of 16. There are only two vintage Gen1 cars, the Mod 1 and Mod 2. Model 1 is like the Lotus and Model 2 is like a Honda? I only guess that because it's painted white. Whale.There are a number of skins, different colors so there's some variety in the field even if there are only two cars.






Here are some skin sets

Vintage Gen 1 Skins

I set up the championship and saved it as a template. But before giving that a go I need to get better at driving these awesome machines.


It takes time to get the feel, to learn setup. How closely does it match the same changes in GPL? My approach then was to find a good balance for my car in terms of springs, brakes and roll bars. So this hardly ever changed. I found the balance I wanted the car to have, and keeping it the same made it predictable across all tracks. But not fast necessarily and for that the differential was key. The differential lets you shape how the car corners, by determining the relationship between inside and outside drive wheels when going around a bend so it can handle slower or faster, longer or tighter turns, depending on whether you are standing on the throttle or off of it. Same balance, but the rate of rotation can be changed with the differential. Power, coast and clutches. And since cars like this are primarily driven with the feet, the differential has an outsized effect on how it drives. And AMS2 has it right, with all three settings, plus they add preload which I've left at default for now. But if I understand it, preload acts like both power and coast together in one number. A lower pre-load increases coast oversteer and power understeer. Higher does the opposite.

Since Kyalami was to be the opening race of my historic vintage Formula 1 championship -- where else, of course -- where better to get down to business? And it is awesome. I know I'm perhaps overly enthusiastic and seem to just like everything I come across, but I'm telling you this is freaking gorgeous. Here look for yourself!





There it is, the old Kyalami. But way better! OK enough fanboy. I fired up time trial. I can already see there's a vintage F1 community in AMS2 of about 12-20 players. Same names at most tracks. But rarely more than that. I wanted to see if I could crack the top ten before I hung it up for the night. That would be hard, with tenth spot coming in around 1:20.3. The benchmark in GPL was 1:20.8 and was the hardest one in the sim. So this would be a challenge. Started off with a couple laps to get the balance and see what the car needed. Way too tight, entry and exit understeer, and mid-corner it wanted to snap if I lifted at all. To keep it tame I had to keep some foot in the throttle, to stay on the power side of the diff. I want controllable lift oversteer, it's how it's done, but I can't have the car snapping out when I do. So back and forth to the pitbox as I dialed it in. To fix the entry understeer I softened the front spring a touch and dialed the front roll bar down a bunch, while increasing the rear. This gets the car to turn in better and more settled by mid-corner as it doesn't feel disconnected like it does with the big disparity in default bar settings front to rear.

Turned a few more and was dropping my lap times from around 1:23 to the mid 21s. I'm also learning the track again while dialing in the car, and the two things sort of both compete and complement one another. Once I was happy with the balance it was down to tweaking the differential to run the corners at the right speeds. I tried a bunch of combinations, from 85/30/4 like I used to use in the early GPL days, all the way down to 45/60/1 like I did when I wanted to think I was fast. As this got dialed in those last bits of lap time started coming off. Better entry, much better mid corner so you can get on the throttle nice and early. In the end I think I was running a 60/45/4? Not sure, so many changes. And there's more to come I'm sure.

It came together in a 1:20.2, top ten by a tenth haha. Now I'll run a practice race to determine the right AI strength for the championship. I adore these cars in this sim. What a treat.

You forgot the classic Österreichring (Spielberg), the predecessor of the modern Red Bull Ring to add to your schedule here. A great highspeed track but extremely difficult with those cars.

Think in GPL I settled ultimately on the 60/xx/x differential stuff back then. Anything less on the power side and I was quicky running out of talent.

BTW Pretty sure you remember Alison Hine from the old GPL days. Her setups were the ones basically everyone was using as a starting point once you got more comfortable with GPL.

Tons of good stuff regarding racing and flying on her old site. Together with her brother she developed VROC and helped that online racing in GPL got so big.

Met her many years later in iRacing where we had some races together in a small league. Absolute class act and one of the best online racers I ever had the privilege to share a track with!

Oh yes, that's a good suggestion. I might be able to edit the order since I haven't kicked it off yet. Yes, that should work. Or just make it eleven events which is what they ran in 1967 right? I want this racing to be mostly chicane-free!.

60 power side was my limit, and had to be couched with a tame coast side to save me when my right foot got too big for it's britches. That's a poor metaphor but you know what I mean I think.

Yes I remember Allison Hine and her site. Did you see the question I asked about Greger Huttu in the rFactor thread? I saw his name as one of the AI and wondered how, if at all, he is involved in development of that sim? Or is it just a (somewhat) recognizable name?

I don't use others' setups only because the chassis setup rabbit hole is one of my favorite parts of this sim racing hobby. I could probably go faster with a proper one, but I like running on my own come hell or high water! I really enjoy the process, from turning laps to get a feel, to making the rough cuts and testing some more, to dialing in the finer aspects and hopefully, finally, turning respectable laptimes. It's interesting, very fun and quite satisfying, or sometimes frustrating.

Have you driven these vintage F1 cars in AMS2 yet Frank?

Only for a quick look at classic Monza and the Nordschleife during timetrials.

I very much like the experience of driving those cars in AMS 2. It´ s so much different from modern cars. Much more finesse required with your footwork.

The vintage F1 cars make me want to upgrade to a better set of pedals than the stock Logitech ones I use though.

OK good I was worried you may have tried them and found them substandard. What did you turn at Monza and the Ring? I was 1:28.6 at '71 Monza and 7:52 at the Ring (2020 version), but that's the only valid lap I've done there so far. Running the Model 1.

I find them wonderful. The experience I had running at Kyalami last night was simply outstanding. Oh man, the feel as I went wide open around a bend like the Jukskel Sweep was intoxicating. Feels amazing. I was actually leaning in my seat!

Let's give these cars a run-out next time we get together. By the way, Kyalami's been closed until further notice

Kicked off this evening's driving with some hotlap challenge in the M6 at Spa. Took a while to get a feel for it, to dial out the naughty behavior. Really snappy and for me the fix took a more dissimilar balance than most cars, much stiffer in the front than the rear. I went from spinning it like a top on half the entries to feeling pretty planted. It's a fantastic looking car and quite fast down the straight bits.

2017 BMW M6 GT3 at Spa





Obligatory screenshot





I also got my Vintage Formula 1 championship started in AMS2. Thanks to Frank, I revisited the schedule. If I had seen Österreichring the first time I would have picked it. It fits the era and I love hills to race in. It's Spielberg in the menu as Frank said. That made me look deeper at track options and the revised schedule of 11 is now

Kyalami Historic 1976
Imola Historic 1972
Monza Historic 1971
Nordschleife 2020
Silverstone Historic 1975 (no chicane)
Spielberg Historic 1974
Interlagos Historic 1976
Watkins Glen Short
Donington National
Spa Historic 1993
Brand's Hatch

The only one that doesn't fit well is Spa, but the rest are authentic enough for the era. Nor sure about Watkins Glen. Probably a reasonable approximation of the '67 track but modernized with kerbs and barriers. Before getting started I needed to run a race against the AI to see what sort of pace they have in them to gauge where to set them for the championship. I set them to 90 and found it was just about perfect, in practice. The top eight were all within about a half second, the slowest of the 16 cars about a second and half off the pace. Would prefer a bit more spread, but then we've got no Cooper or BRMs now do we? I hope there's a full set of these cars coming, and I'd also like to figure a way to mod or edit driver names, so I can be racing Gurney, Clark, Brabham and Surtees. The skins I linked to earlier I passed on as they don't work with newer versions, or so it says, and those came out in 2020. So I didn't want them bad enough to risk fouling up my install in some way. AMS2 has been perfectly stable, as have all of the racing sims I've been playing for that matter.

Setting a new schedule made me try picking the first event, editing that one, and then adding each new track. This carries over the edits to each new event and fixes the tedium I talked about earlier. I set it to 55 minute practice, 25 minute qualifying and 30 minute race. Race 2 disabled. When practice was winding down I set the car up for racing, as I can see the brake temps are a big problem with tire pressure. The pressures in these cars skyrocket fast, so I wanted to open up the brake ducts to cool the brakes over a race distance which in turn would help keep the tires cooler. But I did this before qualifying and lost about a second of lap time. But it didn't matter because AI ran about 1.8 seconds slower than they had in practice. Something to keep an eye on. What's the reason? Is it rubber-banding with my slower time? I don't think so but it will take time to work out what's going on. It was a little later in the day with more cloud but that doesn't explain it.

So I grabbed pole by eight tenths. I won't mind a slight pace advantage as I have more mistakes in me than the AI does, and anyway it might not repeat in the race? The AI so far looks good, but I ran in to trouble with the cars pitting, as those on their cooldown laps really got in the way of cars on the pace. I also have to see if AI is consistent pace-wise from track to track as these sims often have some variance. Shut it down for the night with the race to come. I hope it saved the progress!

So yeah, this is great. It's a vintage F1 title chase on some amazing tracks in awesome cars. Having a great time with this.

I had a look and there are at least two more suitable tracks in the pipeline, Spa 1970 and Nurburgring 1971. Those will be awesome and looking forward to it. Spa is an insanely dangerous track that will be great to drive! Getting the 'right' length Nordschleife will be awesome too. From the April Update

https://forum.reizastudios.com/threads/automobilista-2-april-2022-development-update.24364/

But we're still along way from a historic schedule as that would require Mosport, Monaco and Mexico. Watkins Glen and either Rouen (GPL) or Circuit de la Sarthe (real 1967 season track)

I returned to Kyalami and hotlap mode just to see if I could make my car any better for the race coming up. Managed to find another half second, down to 19.7. One tenth better than my GPL PB! That slid me up to 8th on the leaderboard. World record is in the 1:16s which is rather ambitious, but I have no reason to suspect it isn't legit.

Interestingly, in the qualifying for the Kyalami race, all of the Model 2 AI cars outqualified the Model 1 cars. I should give that car a go, maybe it's faster!

Beautiful shots! I will say I wish some of the AC tracks looked as good. There are a good selection of period tracks to choose from, but some are ported over from older sims and just don't pop.

Yes, thanks. It does look great. Drives nice, feels amazing.

As good as it looks, the first shot of the BMW in ACC is fantastic and I made it my desktop. Looks real.

Hoping for new tracks and other than the two mentioned I'm in the dark about what is planned in AMS2. I think the schedule I put together is pretty good and will do the trick of setting up some representative era-racing.

I sat down to do the first race only to arrive and find it in a storm. I had been looking at weather options when setting up the schedule, though I intended no poor weather for this first season. But I must have clicked it and left it on? Back to start over. The weather looks well done in AMS2 (but no dynamic, or is there?) But I want to play the first championship in dry conditions. This is one area where we move beyond what GPL was capable of.

I've now re-done my schedule so many times I decided to swap over to hotlapping and I'll start a new season later. I want to establish lap times at a variety of tracks, get my name on the boards, and maybe it will lead to some online racing with like-minded folks down the line. The vintage F1 crowd is small in AMS2. Or judging by the submitted hotlaps it is.

I returned to Monza 1971. It's a beautiful rendition, period authentic with proper kerbing, signage and the rest. I talked earlier about ghosts, and it's actually three ghosts max displayed, but there are a number of choices to fill those slots as I mentioned in the AMS 1 & 2 thread. It's cool, because I saw Frank had been here and set a stellar lap, nearly a full second faster than I managed.

I also noticed he was in the Murasama. Honda. White Whale Model 2. Paying attention I see that this Mod 2 car is different spec. 10 more horsepower, and about 40kg heavier. I'll give it a go at some point to see if I can produce better results, but the differences make me think it's pretty even, maybe a bit of horses for courses.

So set my PB and Frank's PB as ghosts and went out to set a new one. A few stints, chassis tweaks, another stint. Mostly tweaking springs and differential to find the sweet spot around the old circuit. Frank either just gets a better exit to Parabolica or that extra ten HP kicks him down the straight better. Biggest challenge for me here is the entry to Ascari. Hard to be consistent with few good markers to use.

The ghosts can help here, if you're trailing them. But the idea is to not be behind haha. But yeah it was really fun, the ghosts giving the impression I was in a race against both Frank and myself. Relative position to your targets is a great motivator mid-lap. In the end I just nicked it, but only just with a 1:27.7. Quite happy with that.

Then I went to check out Watkins Glen Short. And yes, it's a reasonable version of the old '67 layout, though the esses section just after the start line is gone. Quick lap, and I didn't quite get it, but put up a lap time anyway. I'll return for some chassis work here and see if I can improve. But it's suitable for these cars and fun to drive.

Then off to Imola Historic. I've driven Imola a lot recently in others sims, and the version here felt really different. Took a while to re-learn it but it's great fun, very high speed, no chicanes. And finally I went to the Nordschleife. With just one timed lap here so far I thought I could improve. Crashed and burned for a while as I sought a good setup. Each lap I would get a little farther down the road before fouling it up, coming back in and making a change, then heading back out. Thank goodness for hotlap mode!

NimRud had cranked out a super lap here. Like a ninja, cranking out top laps with nary a sound. The chassis work really paid off and I found a great balance, where I could drive the car around the track rather than hold on to it. When I finally ran a valid one it was a 7:37 and I was quite pleased with this. What a great sim experience this is. Kept going and was well ahead of that lap when I fouled it up once again. Drat! But there's a better lap in me, I can feel it. Still well short of Frank

If anyone here is in to this stuff hit me up so I can add you as a friend and get your ghost out there. Changed the title of the thread as the other one was pretentious.

Finally managed to get the Vintage Formula 1 championship started. I had to re-do the schedule one more time, and now it's ten events with Spa removed and Laguna Seca replacing Donington National.

My main concern through all the practice, testing and qualifying was how to keep the tires in a reasonable window during a race. In GPL I never thought about tires. You set them for balance and grip, no concern about durability and rising pressures. But in AMS2 it's a problem, and in these cars they build heat at a fantastic rate. Pressures feel best between 1.40 and 1.55 bars. As they go beyond that traction starts to suffer. This is coupled in this sim with brake temp, which bleeds in to the carcass and makes it very challenging to strike the right balance. For three or four laps it's good, but beyond that it's very easy to find the car increasingly difficult to control as the grip falls away.

So to counter it I opened the brake ducts up to 70%, lowered brake pressure to 85% and dropped starting tire pressures way down to 1.3 bars. The race is 30 minutes, or about 23 laps. I was concerned about tire temps, pressures, engine temp and engine life! It is the Lotus after all, and this would be the longest run I've done yet without resetting. The Cosworth DFV is quite a sensitive beast, and I'd have to be careful with my shifting. It's so easy to impatiently upshift and eventually blow the motor as I found out later in a hotlap session.

Qualified on pole by four tenths and bottled the standing start. This will take practice, that's a lot of horsepower to unleash from a revving clutch-held Cosworth. I got far too much wheelspin and came out of the first turn in about 8th. The AI is pretty good. I'd read a lot about it, and the general sense was AI in AMS2 is not great. But here a very crowded mass of cars navigated the first turn with me in the middle and it looked good to me. AMS2 has the same thing ACC does, a very obvious attempt by the AI cars to give the player room when he is close. You can often see them swerve away from you to prevent a crash. Same in AMS2. I don't need amazing AI to race, although that would be great. I just want them to lap at a good pace, not be suicidal and have some mistakes in them to simulate the human, chaotic and unpredictable nature of motorsport. This race at Kyalami showed it's there or thereabouts. This is not guaranteed to repeat at other tracks, so we'll see how it goes as the season progresses.

After getting smoked by half the field off the line I picked my way through the field. The AI ran well enough that I could find spots and execute overtakes without much fear of a crash. There's often one turn at a track where the AI seems to go slower than you do, and I could pick off a car every couple of laps in those spots. Eventually I caught the leader, A 'Ferrari' and the two of us surged ahead, running nose to tail and opening about a 10-second gap to third place. I could have attempted to overtake, but I decided it might be prudent to let him set the pace. I still didn't know about tire and engine life, how the pressures would go over the longer stint. But if I just hung to his tail I could limit overdriving and be positioned for a late pass. And that's what we did, until with two laps to go he seemed to get a little off-balance in the entry turn 2 (Barbeque Bend). I had to lift to check up and avoid running in to him but that unbalanced me and the rear came around and I slid to a stop. Dammit!

Got passed by third and quickly closed him down and got by to finish second by nine seconds.Good result, but more than that it was a good test for AI racing, I learned a lot about managing the car in race trim, and managed to finish the race without blowing up my car!


Here the grid screams off the line. I started on pole and you can sense how I'm being swallowed up by the field after my terrible start (car # 6).





Several laps later and things have settled in. Here I make my way forward through the field while rocketing down the pitstraight.





The screenshot mode is like a photo mode and has this focus thing and that's why my shots look the way they do. Not entirely happy with the images I'm able to capture in AMS2. The replay system is limited too, especially compared to Assetto Corsa where it's downright Papy-like.


One of my favorite things about getting back in to sim racing has been the Nordschleife. It's just such an amazing track to drive, steeped in history. Everyone knows about the Ring. I love the challenge, and the version in AMS2 is simply fantastic. I've been spending quite a bit of time taking all sorts of cars around. Yesterday I drove the Lotus 49 (Gen 1 Mod 1), 911 GT4 Clubsport and 911/991 GT3 R, shown here

My 12 year old son, Ben, had a great old time bashing cars around yesterday. Ben loves cars, especially for his age, and it's a joy to share it with him. It's great to have things like this to do together

His first question when we sat down was which car has the most power dad? Hmm, good question. We settled it without looking at every one by deciding it is the Formula Ultimate Gen 2, which is the 2022 F1 car. A tick under 1000 horsepowers. We drove it around and had a blast. He swapped to a number of cars, had a great time and did pretty darn well. He'll be overtaking me in no time at all.

We drove Indy cars at the Brickyard in rFactor 2.

Then he just took over, fired up AC and spent time drifting an old 'Ruf' 911. It's great to see him having so much fun with this, does a dad good.

I also found time to win the Imola Grand Prix. Got a better start, made a bold move in Tamburello and came out in the lead, which I didn't relinquish to win by two seconds. Fun track and very high speed. Back before people thought about installing chicanes you know?

I had also wondered about Monaco, which isn't in the track list. But I found it as 'Azure' and turned my first laps there in a 60's open wheel car in many years!

Looks like someone's having fun, enjoy

Thanks, yeah it is fun. I picked up several sims in a short time and it's cool to have all of these options. Cars, tracks, modes. Tonight I ran the hotlap challenge in the Porsche, then round five of my ACC championship, which was at Oulton Park. This is a tricky track and I made a few mistakes but still finished in the top ten. My lead's down to two points haha.

Then I ran round three of the Vintage F1 championship in AMS2, at Monza Historic 1971. And it was a new experience for me in this sim racing stuff. I had driven the track a bit in time trial, and it's a beautiful, lush summertime Monza, as you expect. The summer's when the race cars run. But as I pulled out of the pits at the start of practice I thought I must have made a mistake when setting up the schedule as the trees were bare and there was snow on the mountains in the distance. I kept going around and ramping up my laps to bring the tires up, but they stayed 'blue', under temp. How cold is it? Checked to find it was 7 degrees celsius, with a track temp of 4. That's pretty cold for auto racing at Monza. That's a track temp of about 39 degrees fahrenheit. Even with the very high speed nature of the circuit and with bumping pressures, I never was able to really get my tires in the right window, and the right front wouldn't get heat in it no matter what I did.

I probably missed the setting, or date when creating the championship. But does AMS2 feature multiple season versions of the tracks? I think I did the Imola race in the same conditions now that I think about it!

I qualified on pole again, but it's because the AI inexplicably run about a second slower than they do in practice. The race pace is slightly slower, but the fuel loads are heavier. I had no chance off the line with a track so cold and got all sorts of out of shape at the start. Came out of the first turn in eighth again. With the cold track the grip was reduced so I never really felt like I could attack. Managed to move up to sixth, then got passed and crossed the line seventh. I'll take it. The AI runs well here and in the cold it's points on the board, although I surrender the lead to the fake Brazilian Ferrari driver Giancarlo Rampanelli. That is a great name for a 1960s Ferrari driver isn't it? He won Kyalami too.

That's another race with the AI and I've found it good enough in AMS2 and ACC. Both sims' AI is good racing the player. The issues I am seeing are more off-the-ball. Like in ACC the AI can't seem to pass each other, no matter what aggression I set. It's a big problem in qualifying, as the order is largely determined by which fast cars get stuck behind slow cars. The AI cars in ACC also don't pit in qualifying. So there's no chance for the order to shuffle and cars to get out in clean air. Cars do occasionally get by, but a car that can lap two and half seconds faster should be able to pass more easily than they do in ACC. In AMS2, in limited time the only real issue I have is the cooldown laps in practice and qualifying. It really fouls up the ability of the AI to do clean flying laps.

What I like about the AMS2 AI is the more human-like behavior. Cars wiggle, they get out of shape on the kerbs, battle closely and touch. It doesn't matter if it's intentional or just malfunctioning AI haha, because it feels more real when that car you're chasing dances back and forth a bit as he stomps on the throttle to keep ahead of you. In F1 2020/21 and to an extent in ACC my biggest complaint is how AI-like the AI is. I want retirements, mistakes, chaos, crashes and cars running wide. Just a touch of all that, it makes for a more believable racing sim.

Winter Monza, with the entry to Lesmos 1 ahead. It took me a bit to adjust to this. Monza back then was little more than a country road, and look at those trees on the left. This sh!t's dangerous!




Tires have already gone back to blue (too cold).

Next up on the schedule in the Vintage Formula 1 World Championship was Nordschleife 2020. With no historic version of this track yet available in AMS2 it is the next best thing. It's a fantastic version of the track and an absolute pleasure to drive. It is however shorter than the track layout run in the 1960s. This version removes the Sudkerhe and Nordkerhe section, which was two long straights connected by a hairpin, and where the grid was for the race.

It's a little shorter yes, but other than modern touches like tarmac artwork, kerbing and safety barriers in some spots, it's still the same track.

As my first race here in AMS2 I needed to gauge how fast the AI would lap, so started a single race and let the AI clock some lap times. Of course they have to go all the way around to reach the timing line. And at the AI strength I've used so far the AI was just too fast around the Ring, running at about a 7:10 clip. I can't do that, so I bumped them down for this event. Now they were lapping around 7:25, which is strong, but I could hang with this at my best. Race was to be 30 minutes, which would mean four laps most likely.

In qualifying the AI found some pace and I qualified dead last. Ran a good lap, 7:28, but that was ten seconds adrift and I would start at the back of the grid.. Not ideal at such a circuit against consistent AI. I'm far less consistent and any mistakes would be punished.

When the flag dropped I just took it easy through to Flugplatz and let the AI sort themselves out and get in single file. They were not matching the pace set in the previous sessions and I could stay with them fairly easily. Heavy fuel load or something else? Now the AI was lapping around 7:30, and at that pace I could hang and attack. I started picking off the cars ahead, and could get a better exit on to the long straight near the end where I could take one or two cars at a time.

By lap 4 I was second and right on the leader's exhaust. I stuck to him waiting for an opportunity, which came in to Hohe Acht and now I was in the lead. At the Ring! Very near the end, with victory in my grasp I lifted a little too much on an entry. Changing how you take a corner is not really a good idea, but I was in the lead, and wanted to go easy and see it across the line. But the back end came around with too much lift oversteer and I slid to a stop against the armco facing back up the track. Dammit!

Two cars passed me and I was able to overtake one on the long straight, but crossed the line second. All my fault and lesson learned. The title chase is now tighter as the leader, Giancarlo Rampanelli, finished fifth I think. Six to go.

Here I take it easy in the early stages, following the field through the opening sector.




Next up, Österreichring, Spielberg Historic 1974. I tested there after the Ring race. It is a wonderful circuit, very high speed, and feels like it must have been state of the art in the early 70s. It felt very similar to the Historic Imola version I had just run, and after a few installation laps it seemed obvious that the good setup I had made for Imola would probably fit perfectly here too. So I loaded that setup and sure enough it was very well suited to this circuit.

Switched things up and had a look in the rFactor 2 Steam workshop. My install if still pretty basic, with no DLC and a couple of the dev's collection packs which you can get for free in the workshop. Grabbed three great tracks in Mid-Ohio, Oulton Park and Road America. Noticed an Endurance series mod and the screenshots looked great. Multiple classes.

Endurance Series rF2 build 4.10

I like the feel of this sim, but didn't feel much of a connection to most of the cars I have. This mod though has my favorite car of all, the Ferrari 458. Well I like virtually all of the mid-engine V8 Ferraris, but the 458 is the last naturally aspirated V8 Ferrari and an amazing automobile. I took it out at Mid-Ohio, which is a fantastic track. The mod has three classes of cars, the 458 is in the lowest class, GTE, which isn't great as you get overtaken far more than you overtake. The racing in-class looks good with several standard GT endurance cars like Aston Martin Vantage, Corvette, BMW M3 and two Porsches. The other cars are LMP2 and LMP3 cars. This looks to be a good option for some endurance racing, or at least mini versions of it

Giving the 458 a run out at Mid-Ohio





I've talked about how I want some mistakes and chaos in my sim racing, and this LMP2 car delivered. Like a boss.

Using Derek´s ghost of his best lap in the official AMS 2 Nordschleife timetrials, I was suprised to see that it allowed me also to load the setup he used for his lap. Didn´ t notice that option before.

Without any additional tweaks I was able to run much more comfortably on the limit with the Lotus 49 and even lower my PB by a few seconds. Mission accomplished, thank you Derek!

Hey I didn't know about that either. Nice find and glad it worked out well for you.

I forget exactly what I did to it. But starting with the safe setup I probably softened the suspension, ran the bias back and tweaked the differential and pressures at least.

7:15 is a remarkable lap 'round the Ring. Superb effort, and done with my own setup! That's like subterfuge

Installed Race Room this evening, making six the number of racing sims I now have in the rotation. It's both pretty awesome and way too much haha. I want to give everything a go but there's only so much time!

But this one's got a free trial at the mo, or it's always free more accurately, but temporarily you can play everything that isn't included for free at no cost.

I drove the 458 at Mid-Ohio in rFactor yesterday, and now the 488 at Mid-Ohio in Race Room. Early impressions with just a few laps under my belt is that Race Room feels great. Honestly I like them all, I enjoy driving each of these sims. I'm just a month in to this and I now have so much sim racing content, in top-shelf racing sims, and there's just so much to choose from. And a friend is nudging me toward iRacing which I have to admit I'm keen to try. But I'm a sucker for this sort of stuff, and I'm avoiding it like you avoid cocaine. You know it's great, but you don't want to get sucked in never to return. The potential monetary investment in iRacing is big. When I have so much quality content -- and only some of the DLC and mods for the sims I have at that -- then it's easier to keep iRacing at arms length. But it's where the best online racing is happening, and as a Papy disciple I'm sure I'd love the simulation. But it feels like I should burn through what I've already got for a while first. Do they ever run trials?

Turns out the next race in the Vintage Formula 1 World Championship is not Spielberg after all. Derp. It's Silverstone 1975 (no chicane). So instead of running the race at Spielberg, I had to test at Silverstone and put together a setup and learn the track. I guess it's mostly like the 1967 version, but there must be a couple of changes. Still way too flat, and a few corners are hard to hit as they're hard to spot. Like a couple slower speed Ascaris. Gotta sort of one-mississippi your turn in. Managed to put together a decent setup using the Monza setup as a base, and I'll get the race run soon.

Ferrari 488 at Mid-Ohio in Race Room. Nifty looking Alpha-Tauri livery too.

Hooked up with NimRud this afternoon for some racing action. We used AMS2 since we can put AI in the races. First event was the Formula Trainer at Virginia International Raceway full course. It's a pretty difficult track I think. These cars have just 113 horsepowers, but are still challenging to drive. I did some testing last night to learn the track and work out a reasonable setup. But it's full of oversteer in all phases, and the modest power makes it manageable. No wings or fancy bits on these cars.

AMS2 is also pretty easy to set up for multiplayer and joining is quick and smooth. I saw some odd AI behavior, like a synching issue in the second race. Frank set up a race in GT cars at the Daytona Road Course. He also set it up so we'd have a full 24 hour day-night cycle over the 20 minute race, which I thought was really cool. The whole experience was great, with the AI racing in two classes, the headlights and tailights zipping this way and that in the distance, and of course much of the track is out on the banked oval. I didn't have any prep for this, so was pretty bad. Qualified next to last, but by half way through the race I'd turned enough laps to know my markers and ended up passing a number of AI to finish 22nd, with the top nine being the DPi cars (Daytona Prototype international) which ran about 7 seconds faster than the GT cars.

Great fun, and such a cool mix of things to race in all of these sims.

Running the Formula Trainers at VIR








My C8 at Daytona. No ABS in these and I was locking up a lot. I gotta see if I can take screenshot here with no UI and none of this focus nonsense.

After we were done online I fired up rFactor to have another go in the 458. Got the setup dialed in pretty good and set up a race at Mid-Ohio full course with three car classes, of which mine, GTE, was the slowest. I said I want chaos, and man did this deliver! The AI is both pretty great and a total mess. Maybe it's just here at Mid-Ohio, but even just the rolling start was a fiasco. In the 18-lap race we had three full-course yellows, and the way the AI cars drove around under caution was frightening lol. A number of cars just drove right off the road, cars were re-entering the track in a decidedly unsafe manner and as bad as it was it was just as awesome. Somehow I managed to avoid all the carnage and chaos to win my class.

Hopefully it was just an issue here at this track and they are better behaved elsewhere.

When I fired up Steam yesterday evening I saw there's a racing sale. Lots of good deals.

I picked up all of the DLC for Assetto Corsa. Just a ten spot for everything, which is a good deal as I only had the Dream Pack 1. That's a six year gap between buying DLC for this sim. I haven't been driving it much, but the boy enjoys it, especially the drifting. I have zero interest in drifting, but he informed me some DLC was needed for him to have the proper stuff to drift. The sale is 80% off.

With all of this new content I gave it a go. Really liked the Porsche 911 R. It's not a racing car, just a stock version, but good fun to drive. Took it around the Nordshleife, of course, and had a great time.

Not every lap comes off





Then I decided to go achievement hunting. Assetto Corsa has 709 achievements! That's nuts, but I managed to get a few. One of them is the one I talked about chasing in the AC/ACC thread, Old GPL'ers Know Why This is Important. Break 1:30 at Monza '66 in the Lotus 49. Worked on the setup, with exits the main challenge. The exit to Parabolica and to Lesmos are both so important to lap time. Getting the power down early is key for speed on the straight. In order to make it work I had to go 80/30 on the diff, making it just stable enough on exit to power down the straights and I turned a 1:29.8! That was really satisfying after so many attempts. If I'm honest I prefer these cars in AMS2 but the ones in AC are fine in their own right.

Then I went to Imola to try and get the achievement for beating 1:57.5 in the McLaren 570S. Managed to do it after many attempts. This is another stock showroom car, with little in the way of chassis set up options. But good fun to drive and a very challenging target.

I hadn't paid attention to the Special Events that are in AC before. But checking them out, there are a lot of really good car and track combinations with difficult target times to hit. I tried a bunch of them. I failed in half of them like a Lambo at Laguna Seca and the 911 R at the Ring. But a few I hit too. It's fun to chase these targets with a wide variety of whips on a number of great tracks.

That ten bucks was well spent and included a lot of really cool cars, and especially if you like Porsche. I do

GT3 R at Catalunya






Ford GT 40 at Monza '66

I've gone crazy doing these events. I finish one and then I'm like, yeah that one looks good too. A few shots of some of the cars

Assetto Corsa


McLaren MP4-12C at Monza. Really nice to drive, and kicks out over 600 horsepower




Ferrari 599XX Evo at Monza. What a sick car. Has an automatic DRS/active wing. Fast car.





Lotus 3 Eleven at Brand's Hatch Indy





Lotus 25 also at Brand's Indy. The car Jim Clark drove to the 1963 world title.

Really nice shots!

I need to really get back at practicing and dialing in my FFB settings on my new wheel.

Yeah you do.

These AC special events are fun. I must have gotten 20 achievements yesterday running them. Few do, as most are done by 0.8% of the player base.

I like having a car, a track and a target time. Now it's up to me to make it happen. Learn the track, setup the car and see if I can beat it. I failed with plenty of them, but ended up hitting more than I missed.

There are also drag racing events against an AI car and I can't work out how to get a good start. Lost every one I ran.

Getting the DLC for Assetto Corsa was a good move as that's all I've run since doing so. Lots of new content (to me). Last night I focused on the special event races. Lotus 25 at Brand's Indy, Huracan at Monza, Ferrari 458 (yeah baby) at Silverstone and several more. There are four levels you can choose, easy, medium, fast and alien!. This sets the AI strength. At easy they are at 80%, 90 % at medium and I didn't go any higher.

Easy is too easy, medium is very challenging at my level. I'm really impressed with the AI I was racing. Very convincing behavior out of the other cars on the track.

DBond, did you manage to get the GPL 67 mod for AC? That to me feels and has the track atmosphere very much like the original GPL.

I tried some AMS2 last night for the first time, the graphics are fantastic. But I'll be honest, I need to adjust some realism maybe as Lotus styled car felt too on rails.

No not yet, but I should.

Yeah, there might be more grip in the Gen 1 cars than GPL (that's what you mean by Lotus styled car yeah?)

But where it feels nailed on for me is car handling and balance. Cornering feels spot on if GPL is the benchmark. I wasn't looking for 'realism' but for matching the feel of GPL, and AMS2 has it, for me.

I've spent a lot of time over the past few days running 1960's F1 cars in Assetto Corsa (Lotus 25 and 49, Ferrari 312) and I like them a lot, but the feel is very different. That isn't to say wrong, or un-realistic, just different.

I should try the GPL mod as you suggest. Maybe when I've finished my AMS2 Vintage Formula 1 championship I'll give the mod a go to compare.

Ran a race in the Lotus 25 at Brand's Indy in AC. I praised the AI, and they do drive convincingly, but lack the avoidance measures like in AMS2 or ACC. In open wheel this is a problem. They drive as if you are not there.

I wanted to run a race at the Nordschleife and started in the McLaren P1. But the amount of bouncing I was doing was unreal so I switched to the Nissan GT-R GT3 and that was much better. The AI on easy was lapping in the high 7:20s/low 30s and I turned 7:20 on the second lap. Easy win and I'll give it a go on medium (AI 90%)

Argon, about the AC GPL '67 mod... I see it has the cars, and are the driver's names real ones? Which tracks are included or are any included at all? Does it have a championship mirroring the real 1967 season?

Yeah I've set the aggressiveness in AC all the way down for the GPL cars and tracks. They seems to do a good job at avoiding me now.

I first downloaded the GPL67 car set mod. Then I signed up for an account and got the season mod from here: https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/gpl-1967-career-mode-for-the-gpl-1967-mod.34896/

In the readme, it told me to download:

Kyalami:
http://www.mediafire.com/folder/daxiolzouermu/Kyalami_Grand_Prix_1967_Reboot_Version_1.0

Le Grand Circuit:
https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/le-grand-circuit-1967.17288/

Mexico:
https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/mexico-gran-premio-1967.31101/

Monaco:
http://www.mediafire.com/folder/pduttiyd42eee/Monaco_1966_Reboot_Version_1.2

Nurburgring:
https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/nurburgring-1967.28207/

Spa:
http://www.mediafire.com/folder/t9992zu766bfx/Spa_Francorchamps_1966_Reboot_Version_1.1

Watkins Glen:
https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/watkins-glen-1967.166338/

Sandvoerde (payware, $5):
https://sellfy.com/f3classictracks/p/ylih/

If any of the above track links stop working for whatever reason, go to https://tarnhoerner.de/tracks/ and look for those tracks there.

Thanks. I wonder if there are more 1967 season tracks available? Like Mosport? I think we have Silverstone already, and Monza. Mexico?

What's Le Grand circuit?I guess that fills in for Rouen which fills in for Bugatti?

Maserati 250f 12 cylinder. Moss' and Fangio's car, although he drove the 2.5 liter straight-six, with maybe a year in the 12-banger after his return to the team? Quite a unique ride. The motor seems normal through 2/3 of the power band. But in the top registers the thing explodes in to fury. What a beast!

Back to ACC and running out different cars at Zandy for the hotlap challenge.

Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo




Nissan GT-R GT3 (borrowed this one since I had yet to drive it. I'll add a custom one to the stable)

Back to Assetto Corsa. Well, actually I gave Forza Horizon 5 a go, first time I really tried to get the wheel to feel right in this one since I bought it. Not happy with it. Too twitchy, and will take some work to put right (if it's possible)

I mentioned how after playing WRC 10 my FFB was all messed up. Like it was barely on. I could feel something, but it was so faint that I thought my wheel was broken. Finally I looked in the control panel and saw that FFB strength was set to 20%. I didn't do that myself. How did it happen? ANyway, putting it back to 80% made a huge difference of course and it's back in business.

OK, Assetto Corsa... I can't get enough of the events. Time attack, hotlaps, quick races. Lots of fun with a neat mix of cars and tracks, and challenging targets to hit.

One of my favorite cars in this sim has turned out to be the McLaren MP4-12C. Beautifully balanced, smooth power delivery, nice view, proper grip. Really like it. AC has 709 Steam achievements. In the first six years of owning it, I had gotten three. Of course I rarely played it. But since getting back in to it I've nicked 50+. Each one of these special events has achievements attached and it's fun to chase them. With all of the DLC there are so many great cars in AC.

McLaren MP4-12C @ Catalunya

458 Italia @ Imola. It's a showroom car and as such there is little in the way of chassis setup options. Sounds amazing and fun to drive. I just wish I could make it go faster round the track. Not sure what I'm doing with my hand there.

Ran the next race in my ACC championship, this one at Suzuka. Car felt really hooked up, good setup. An Audi got me at the start and I crossed second. The AI racing in ACC is pretty good. But I wish there was a bit more variability in the AI order. The Audis and Lambos dominate the AI. There are few or no retirements and I never notice any crashes. It could use more chaos. AMS2, RaceRoom, Assetto Corsa and rFactor all have AI that appears more human when you're chasing them, but ACC has the best championship mode I think. This is why I keep jumping to a different sim every day. Or some days, more than one!

I also fired up AMS2 and ran some vintage F1 and GT3 cars. I had been meaning to try the other Gen1 car, the model 2, which is heavier but has a little more power. Picked a blue one and it makes for a passable Eagle Weslake T1G. Now that's a proper car for historic Monza.

See that car right there? The Eagle-ish one? Fast car.

I had mentioned before that when I was racing NimRud's ghost at Monza historic that he either got a better exit to Parabolica or that additional horespowers blasted him down the pitstraight better.

So I decided to give it a go and see what it was like. It is a little heavier, and only has like 10 more horsepower, so I thought perhaps it would be a wash.

When I opened the time trial mode I saw Frank was faster, not by much, but I had a target. I saw you also clipped my Kyalami time, and this will not do. I had been dropped off the first page at both tracks. But back to Monza....

So I loaded it up, and had a look at the setup. As a new car to me it's kind of impossible to know what it needs for set up. You gotta turn laps, feel it out, and then come back in to start dialing it in. But I've turned enough laps here to have some intuition and made a few minor tweaks to the suspension that I though would suit me. The Eagle was my ride in Grand Prix Legends, and although this isn't one, it can be if I close my eyes. Which is dumb, so I don't do that. But at least it doesn't look like an evil Lotus.

I set my PB and Frank's PB as ghosts to race. I really like this multiple ghost capability, makes hotlapping more fun and interesting, and feels like I'm racing both myself and Frank. The first time around I sort of bottled it on cold shoes, and both ghosts beat me to the line.

But as the tires came up the gap closed. Second time around I trailed out of Parabolica, but down the straight this additional power started to tell and I rapidly closed down the gap before the line.

The third time around I had done a better lap, and hadn't fallen behind the ghost riders. Level coming out of Parabolica and down the pitstraight I pulled away to set a new PB. Went around several more times, each lap faster than the last until a 26.5, over a second faster than my 'Lotus' time and fourth on the leaderboards!

But there was still the matter of Kyalami. I actually went here before Monza, so drove the Mod 1 (lotus). Managed a 19.396, nicking NimRud by four one-thousandths. Haha, that was hard! But I'm back in the top ten at both tracks and we'll see how long that lasts.

Ran three offline races yesterday. In the Vintage Formula 1 championship in AMS2 I ran the SIlverstone and Spielberg races. So much fun, I really enjoy this racing. The AI tries to give you room, and they lap well, making for good racing. In ACC I ran the penultimate race of the season, at Spa. Finally the Lambos found a track they weren't the fastest car on, but the Audis had no such concern. Only Kyalami left to go. With the Lambos off the pace I opened a gap at the top of the table and a good result in South Africa should see me across the line.


I've complained of screenshots in Automobilista, but what are ya gonna do? Here I brake for the entry to Druids in the middle of the race.



Next up, Interlagos historic

Finished the AC Competizione championship. Had some good finishes down the stretch to pull away a bit, but it was closer than the final results suggest. The season was ten events, run against AI @ 90, 1-hour practice, 20-minute qualifying and 30-minute race driving the Porsche 991. I kept mixing up the weather to keep it interesting, but never chose wet. Just various cloud and temp conditions. It was a good variety of tracks too, and posting the final standings to show the AI car hierarchy. The Audis and Lambos clearly the class of the division. The Ferrari for example could only manage five points I talked before about how the AI gets hung up behind slower AI cars ahead in qualifying. The Audis and Lambos are fast enough to get by and are always at the top of the qualifying screens, but the rest depend on who they come out behind.

That was a good season, some great racing against the AI, at least as viewed from my cockpit. If I consider the way things go away from that bubble then there are flaws. Not enough variability in the AI order or results, too little chaos, crashes, offs or retirements. Matter of fact I don't think there was a single yellow flag all season. But ACC does race well in tight on the track. The AI is perhaps a bit too deferential, but in the balance that is preferable.

The British GT pack introduced multi-class racing, but I see it is limited the British GT schedule in championship mode, five or six British tracks including Snetterton lol. I might give it a go for a quick season and see how the AI handles having both classes on the track. Based on the season just completed I suspect the slower cars could cause some issues, but maybe the gap is enough that the GT3 cars can sail on by.

I want start another ACC championship but I can't decide on which car to drive. By the way, there's new DLC coming the end of this month I think, with more US tracks -- CotA, Watkins Glen and Indy, road course I guess.

I'm thinking of starting a GT4 season, but maybe I'll wait for the DLC. I did start one in the McLaren, but the other two AI McLarens were slow as sh!t. It's fun to root for the AI driving the same car model through the season, so I gotta pick one that is fast enough to score points in the AI's hands.

So back to the Vintage Formula 1 season. Round 7, Interlagos Historic. This is a far different layout to the current one. Nearly five miles in length.

Here I run fourth in the early going. With the tires yet to come up and heavy fuel I run a little wide here.

Spinning the sim racing wheel of fortune and landed on RaceRoom today. This one is free to play, with most of the content paid, but there's enough here free to wet the whistle. Sales are run often it seems. Last sale I grabbed it all, but I see there's already newer content, such as Interlagos which has just been released. It's probably several different configurations of the track, based on the tracks already in the sim. Five bucks for the new track, but I think I'll wait until there's more and another sale. With just an hour or two in this one so far I have plenty of content to keep me busy.

RaceRoom feels great to drive, it has the same visceral overload that I like about AMS2, and which is tempered a bit in the Assetto Corsas. I like them all, each is charming in it's own way. Not enough Ferraris in RR though.

I fired it up and straight to the Ring. Started off in the Pagani Zonda. Didn't fare well with car control, exit oversteer I failed to handle. And the Nordschleife is so long that any mistake that fouls your lap is a killer. I need more seat time in this one, and time in the garage, to learn how to set the cars up properly. It's all the same in the essential ways from sim to sim, but the physics are different, the tire models have their own interpretations and it takes time to feel the nuance.

I put the Zonda away and took the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo out. This seems to be the only Fez in the sim, which is criminal, but maybe there are more in the pipeline. I've mentioned my love for Ferraris, and in particular mid-engined V-8 Ferraris, so the 488 is a worthy representative if I can have only one.

Then I swapped to the McLaren F1 GTR, which is an all-timer hypercar, and to run the Ring in this thing is exhilarating. Needs some setup, but the default with a slightly softer rear was good enough to blitz my fastest ever lap at the track. Any time I take out a car I haven't driven I instinctively do this to the setup first.

-- Shift brake bias to the rear
-- Lower brake pressure to 90%
-- Soften rear roll bar a click or two
-- Soften rear spring a click or two

And then after some laps I can start to dial it in. The McLaren F1 is so fast that even with those basic changes I turned a 6:41. Sub-sevens at the Nordschleife are blistering experiences! But that wasn't fast enough, so I went back to car selection to look over faster cars. Had a look at the prototype style cars and took out the Chevy Daytona, but ran off the track three times before Flugplatz and parked it.

Swapped to the Formula RaceRoom US car. If there are descriptions and specifications in the sim for the cars I have yet to see them. Where is this info? Anyway, it looks to me to be a Dallara Indy car from five years ago or so. I usually avoid cars like this. They are in a sense too fast, each corner coming in a blink compared to say GT cars or even vintage F1. But they do offfset that with insane downforce and light weight. So what the hell, let's give it a go.

Amazing. I've never attempted laps here in a car this fast, and the sheer pace forced some mistakes, but even so this car clipped a full thirty seconds off my all time Ring record, set just a few minutes before in the McLaren haha. 6:11 around the Ring. Checked the leaderboard to see that lap put me 21st in the world! Scrolled down to see all the drivers I was faster than only to find that 21st is the slowest lap submitted so far. Doh! Haha, that's just motivation isn't it? The gearing was poorly suited to the track, winding out 6th gear way too early. So I'm sure I can find some more time if I run it again. And I will because I won't mind being second slowest, but prefer not to pull up the rear.

Formula RaceRoom US at the Nordschleife (2016 IndyCar?)

Here's the track select screen from RaceRoom, which I'm posting to show which tracks it has (note how many have multiple configurations) and how neat and clean it is. It's a good UI in RaceRoom, from the track select, to the leaderboards to the chassis set up.

RaceRoom seems to fly under the radar a bit compared to the competition, but it's a good sim.

Had such a grand time running a V-6 Indy Car from 2016 around the Ring, I decided to up the ante and took out the X-17, a 2017 F1 car. V-10 and probably 300 more horsepower. Just insane to guide such a rocket around the Ring. Exhilarating, and then some. So much downforce that the limit is beyond what I think is possible so I'm left far from it. This car wrecked my fastest Nordschleife lap and it wasn't all that clean. But the fact that the top lap on the board is over thirty seconds faster shows there is plenty more in it.

Formula X-17 in RaceRoom @ Der? Nordschleife

I should probably point out that F1 cars in 2017 were V-6 turbo hybrids. So not sure what car this is? The store says it's a V-10.

Thirty days now without a comment. Let's keep it going and see if we can hit two months with no interest!

I write for the unregistered lol.

I took some more screens but forgot to grab 'em this morning, and I'll put them up later.

With the hotlap challenge inert, I transitioned to running the Green Hell in any car. Mostly the open wheel stuff shown in the screens above. But I've mixed in a lot of Porsches, GT cars, prototypes and more.

I was also interested in starting another championship of some sort. In the end I did so in RaceRoom. Oddly I ended up choosing GT3, mostly because there are so many cars in this class and the field would be interesting, and because RR has the McLaren MP4-12C, so I am running that car. I set a cool schedule of ten events, starting in the US, then moving to England, then European mainland, before reaching the season finale in Dubai. First race is Mid-Ohio.

Before choosing GT3 I started a championship in DTM, because I wanted to drive my beloved Ferrari. But it was horrible, I couldn't drive a lap without spinning three times. I said fook that and switched. Not sure what was going on there, because I've driven the 488 successfully at other tracks, but here it was a nightmare. The McLaren was much better, so good in fact that I drove it in leaderboard and set the chassis lap record by some margin.

I really like RaceRoom, the driving's great and now I can get a feel for the AI. I ran that first race and the AI did fine, but will take more time to see how they are over the course of the season.

I am now using the Crew Chief app which I have to say is awesome and it has improved the experience quite a bit. Recommended

https://thecrewchief.org/

The RR championship is ten events. I posted the track select screen earlier and the mix is pretty good. Some glaring holes, but also some boutique stuff you don't see anywhere else. A few fictional tracks too which are pretty good.

Here's the schedule for my championship.





GT3 Class in RaceRoom. Quite a nice variety of GT3 cars, twenty in all, though some are variants. But there are several cars here that are not in ACC, like the Ford GT and Mustang, Chevy Camaro and Corvette, to name just a few. I set the season up for 31 cars including mine, so I didn't get all these cars in the field. You can individually select cars to be opponents, but it's a tedious process so I just went with whatever the game selected. A good mix, and the Mercedes were the fastest AI cars at Mid-Ohio






My weapon. This livery, am I right?






Practice or qualifying for the season opener at Mid-Ohio

Indy cars at the Brickyard in RaceRoom

These are great shots sir!!

Thanks. What are you driving these days?

I'm mostly just lapping the Nordschleife in bunch of cars. But I also have a couple championships going in different sims.

The laps around the brickyard were fun, but I liked doing the same in rFactor a little better. Feels like more authentic oval action in some way.

I haven't been driving or flying anything sadly. In the midst of packing up our duplex and preparing to move into our first house.

My interests have always been more on the vintage side of things - I love the classic cars. The modern cars and tracks just don't hold my interest much... Feels like I'm driving on rails.

It's been a month since I posted here, so time to catch up. I picked up F1 22, Codemaster's latest entry in the F1 sim game, Electronic Arts has gotten their grubby mitts on it, and it shows, but they've not done anything to ruin it, yet. One obvious change off the bat is the naming convention, calling it F1 22 instead of F1 2022. They've added a number of ways to blow your dough, microtransactions, and Podium Pass returns. Thankfully this can be ignored entirely and you don't miss a thing. Not pay to win. All cosmetic, and then there's the F1 Life side of things that is pretty uninteresting.

Hell, if it makes them money and doesn't cost me anything that's fine with me. There are good bones in this series and as long as EA don't foul it up it will be fine.

For the sim racing side I reckon they've done the job. Mechanically there's little new over last year's edition. What's new are the cars, a couple tracks and the introduction of the sprint race format. Of course 2022 saw the delayed implementation of new regulations intended to foster closer racing by reducing dirty air and generating down force through increased ground effect, theoretically allowing the cars to run closer than they could before. While I can sense the shift to high high-speed grip and low low-speed grip due to the new car designs, I don't feel the effects of less dirty air. Maybe it's there, but this is not something I've ever felt was a thing in this series. Unlike real F1 racing, I never felt I struggled to run on the exhaust of the car in front, down force stolen off my front wing. Matter of fact, if you watch any e-sports using this sim you can see that the effects of dirty air are either so small as to be meaningless or just absent altogether as the cars run nose to tail.

Gone too is the narrative mode they trotted out for F1 2021, called Braking Point. That was mildly interesting, but superficial and I won't miss it.

The cars however are fabulous, beautiful, sleek rocketsleds. I'm in love with this year's F1 cars. They look and sound amazing and drive exquisitely. Of course this series is not regarded as the pinnacle of physics fidelity, but I couldn't care less. It feels great to me lapping at pace. However I don't think the FFB is very good. I say that because unlike other sims, I don't feel the onset of traction loss through the wheel. There are no cues to tell me the tires are over the edge. Maybe it's my settings (I doubt it), but this sort of tactile feedback is critical to racing sims.

A couple new tracks to mirror the 2022 schedule. The high speed Saudi Arabian track Jeddah and the new street course in Miami. Two tracks saw significant alteration for 2022, Abu Dhabi (actually done last year but not reflected in the sim) and Australia's Albert Park which saw some chicanes removed. It's funny but I expected to not like both of the new tracks. Jeddah, in my view, is simply too blind for how fast it is. I think it's a disaster waiting to happen, a stopped car around an unsighted bend is incredibly dangerous at these speeds. Plus there's the whole 'well it's Saudi Arabia' thing too. No missile attacks are simulated in the sim. But man is it great to drive! 27 turns, but it doesn't feel like it. Just a full-on blast for miles through the desert.

Miami too I thought I wouldn't care for. On television, the race track didn't look great, but having run a number of races on it now I gotta say I quite like it. A nice blend of turn types, high speed and low speed sections, and a high risk of rain to keep it interesting.

But as I've talked about over and over in the F1 2020 thread, the career mode is the thing. It's the best of it's kind, and even then there are several options to choose from. Standard driver career puts the player in a seat in either F2 or F1. The player drives the car and controls technical engineering development, but has no other responsibilities. My Team returns, which is like the standard career, but adds the corporate responsibilities such as choosing sponsors, liveries, engine supplier, hiring drivers and upgrading the factory and facilities. It's the sort of thing I always wanted in a racing sim and first appeared in F1 2020. It's been refined a bit, but essentially the same as previous seasons.

As good as My Team is, it's awkwardly balanced so that a good player will progress very quickly to the top of the table. See the F1 2020 thread for more of my thoughts on how and why this is, and ideas to mitigate the effect. For long term saves a standard career is probably the better choice since there are fewer ways to get ahead.and leave the AI behind.

New too are sprint races where the weekend format changes. One free practice is removed and replaced with a sprint race which doubles as qualifying for the grand prix. Imola, Red Bull Ring and Interlagos are the designated sprint tracks, and this cannot be changed . I hope they tweak this to allow the player to set any track as sprint or not. A minor point, but something I'd like to see in the future.

I've already run through a My Team career, choosing the new midfield starting point. By the middle of season three I'd had enough, our car far and away the class of the division by that point and I don't want to be so far in front. Now I'm in a standard career, having started in F2, getting promoted to a seat in F1 at Alpha Tauri, and then switching to McLaren for season 2.


A few screen shots of the action

My old car, Alpha Tauri AT03, battling my new car, McLaren MCL-36 through Ascari




DRS train at Bahrain




My Alpha Tauri runs with the leaders down to Lesmos 1 at Monza in the early stages of the race

Here's a surprise for you;

I'm dipping my toes back into rF2 after a long hiatus. It started with the old PC refusing to start, and after knocking on it, opening it to see if there were any obvious faults (none that I could discern), I decided to bin it since it was from october ´09 when Win 7 came out and it was never going to run anything newer than 10.

So, I found What I thought was a good deal on a pre-built off the shelf Lenovo with a gen 12 i-5, lots of RAM and an RTX 3090. Quiet as heck and a small footprint on the desk.

I am deliberately going only for content that is "Goodwood Revival" material, anything with LCD on the steering wheel and more than buttons for headlights and windscreen wipers I forego.

Just a few screenies, as I crash in every mod. If the content isn't immediately identifiable, it's the endurance 1967 at Le Mans 67, Endurance 1954 at Hockenheim, Eve and Spark at Rouen and lastly Lola T70s at Targa Florio.

Nice screens and an excellent choice of cars, tracks and time period for your virtual racing, Jens!

That RTX 3090 is a monster and should serve you well in the years/sims to come.

I knew you'd be back

A man of refined taste. Quite so.

After taking a break from sim racing for a few months I fired a few of them up over the past few days. Confirmed Jens' request. Honestly I don't think I knew you had RaceRoom. Saw that you had run one of the competitions, the Crosslé 90F at Charade and thought that looks like a proper combination. Never knew of this car before RR. But open wheel, no wings, vintage. And around a delightful track too it must be said. A two litre fourbanger that weighs nothing at all. Wonderful drive. Had a bash about in a race event to run the track with some AI out there and learn the lines. Then entered the competition and turned a few. Thanks for the inspiration.

Over the past few days I snapped up several things from RaceRoom. Got the 488 GT3 Evo, as mid-engined V8 Ferraris are my thing. Picked up Interlagos. And the Driver's pack, which included the car and track for the Charade competition, plus the Crosslé 9S, Mazda MX-5 and the Praga R1. Maybe a few other things I'm forgetting already. Usually wait for sales, but I've got some time off and there ya go.

I've also been turning laps in AMS2. But I was disappointed to see the leaderboards had been wiped. I spent a lot of time climbing those ladders, especially in the Formula Vintage Gen 1. Must have been some physics changes that warrant it? I don't know why it is done. I hope at some point it sticks for good.

To borrow a phrase we used in the Battle of Britain forum; Here´s What Happend:

I don’t own any content in RaceRoom and only downloaded the 53 GB of it because of your posts about it, Derek, and the December release of the Crosslé Formula car and the Charade circuit. Furthermore, I had some time to spare, felt the itch, partly because I can’t get GPL to run on my Win11 rig, and the price of electricity over Christmas was down from the one Dollar+ Per KWh, that has become an almost daily occurence here,

I slowly figured that there was a time limited competition and how to enter it.

I spent some time in that Crosslé/Charade combo because I felt it massively addictive with great FFB and sound and nice graphics, and I wanted to see how quick I could go. Now, RR have done a very fine job, after a while though, I felt frustration set in with the way the rear-end of the car loses grip. To me it seems like I cannot really trail-brake or drift that car at all because the rear-wheel slip angle does not feel progressive to me but rather like a table look-up, so if I exceed a certain point which is on a knife’s edge, the rear tires let go. And they don’t regain grip again until I’m almost stationary, heading in the wrong direction. Maybe its just me, or my old G25, we’re both a bit long in the tooth.

I briefly tried the sportscar version but ultimately didn’t take that one further. I also did a couple of races with the AI in the free TCR content which felt pretty good although I didn’t look into the various gizmos of launch control etc. The Formula 1 1990’s inspired car was fun and finally I did a bit of crashing the old Kurt Thiim MB 190 DTM Touring Car. That thing is a handful.

I’ll look out for future sales and might get me some content as my current thinking is that I think I want to focus on sims that offer official content over mods to a) keep the number of content manageble and keep it simple b) that content hopefully is of consistent and high quality. Some of the mods for rFactor 2 while very nice do imo vary a bit in the resolution of the simulation.

It is a bit of a downer, when you have spent the time and effort on posting laptimes to leaderboards or just gotten familiar with certain cars and maybe like the way they drive, and then they go and change the physics or some other thing, wiping existing times. In iRacing, this potentially happens every time they release new builds and tire models. Some cars just stayed undriveable for me for a long time, like the Lotus 49 so I spent less and less time with iRacing until I just stopped resubbing.

By the way, I think that GPL is about to recieve a 1970 mod and scratch made new versions of the old Papy tracks that have not already been updated by the community. Anyone going back to Rank?

I agree precisely with how you described the 'canned spin' behavior. I feel it too. Once it goes, no amount of countersteer has any effect on the rotation. You're coming around and that's that, whilst you hold the wheel in frustration and full opposite lock as you come to a halt looking at the armco. When I picked up the 488 Evo I took it out at the Red Bull Ring I was really struggling with this, especially turn three, but also in turn one. So I had a go at figuring it out. It's there, and can I mitigate or eliminate it?

The cause of my spins is mostly some degree of lift entry oversteer, or feels that way. It's not the rears breaking loose under power, but rotation that starts with the power-off phase. This isn't uncommon or even wrong. But in other sims, you just counter it. Drift. Lay it down and off you go down the straight. Maybe down a tenth or two which you dropped as you gathered it back up. But in RaceRoom, it must complete that spin, penance, I guess haha.

So I guess the behavior can't be changed, so how to avoid that spin in the first place? I was able to more or less tame that 488 with stiffer roll bars. Increased pre-load on the diff and fooling around with the engine brake setting. None of this is going to help with the Crosslé, which is a rather uncomplicated machine and doesn't have these adjustments. But it does have engine braking. It works sort of like a poor man's diff as far as cornering behavior doesn't it?

I didn't have trouble with spins with the Crosslé however. My issues were mostly locking the fronts and entry understeer on those off camber, downhill first gear corners. Fooled around with springs and went back to default and just raised the rear a little to get more weight on the fronts. I slid the brake bias back to like 52/48 and that both helped with the locking and helps a lot with the trail braking you mentioned. What were you running you bias at? I see you've been in RR since 2013, or SimBin anyway right? Maybe you did this challenge a long time ago. Since it's current I reckoned it is recent, but maybe they recycle this stuff and keep all the times. No, the car's new right? Gotta be recent.

After trying that 488 in RR and spinning a lot I fired up AMS2 and it was so clearly better in how the car handles when the edge of traction is exceeded. How you counter it and it goes like you expect. A better seat of the pants thing, and more importantly it behaves as you expect when countersteering.

AMS2 is probably my favorite feeling sim out of the bunch, but the content is coming slowly. I did pick up the 2022 F1 car.

Yeah, the Crosslé is brand new content and the reason I’ve been in RaceRoom since 2013 is that back then I was still contributing reviews and content to SimHQ and RR let me have a reviewer’s (time-limited) Work-In-Progress full copy. I was demoted by RR to being ordinary Joe a long time ago. Back then it was very different to what it is today. On rare occasions I’ve been starting RR up but it was the Crosslé/Charade release that piqued my interest.

I also thought a bit about setup being a possible explanation for the spin behaviour of the Crosslé but seeing that the rear anti Roll-bar was disconnected and the fixed setup not allowing it to be connected, I lost focus, - because I can just about manage to fiddle with anti-roll-bars and brake bias in the setups, but anything more advanced leave me scratching my head. Maybe disconnecting the front arb??

I briefly tried moving the brake bias further to the rear, but since that didn’t help I reverted to stock, default setup. I did spend some time experimenting with the steering lock, ending up with some 550 degrees on the wheel and 17 in-sim I think, making the wheel on the screen and my G25 fairly scynchronous.

Did you also find that you wanted to turn the wheel beyond the in-sim limitation? I kept turning my wheel beyond the steering lock, when regaining the track after my offs.

I’m just amazed at how different our approaches to driving styles are: I never locked the front wheels, in fact I wanted the brakes to be more effective, I thought they were abysmal. So I went for the smooth approach trying to manage the momentum and brake less. And I’m, afraid I’m dependent on the lift-off oversteer to be manageble, to be able to go really fast. I love to balance a drift. It gives me the buzz.

Which is probably good since I wouldn't recommend doing it like me

But yeah, I wonder how much of that is just down to our controls and their settings, ya know? Like for example steering wheel rotation. 900 degrees? Some love it and I couldn't make it around a corner by Friday. I don't know really, but how much of our 'styles' are a product of our controls, or the other way around. If we were actually hot swapping a real race car I imagine we'd all be much more aligned. But with PCs, and sim gear and software settings the soup is deep.




Isn't there a graphics setting to synch this? Maybe not in RR, I'll have to look. I think the issue arises because the car model uses it's factory rotation, but the player can exceed it, causing a mismatch. Could be wrong. Hell, I've been running with 360. Not long ago it was 720. It's a shadowy target.

Reading your quote again I don't think this is what you were asking?

Which in turn did mine. And it's a cool combo. Cars like this are fun, great vintage open wheel vibe but with a motor that's reasonable haha.



As such a simple race car, the Crosslé doesn't have as many options to address car handling and balance as most in this sim, that's for sure. My approach is to turn laps with more or less the default setup and see what it needs in the three cornering phases, and then fool around with various things that correct it. You're a veteran sim racer as I can attest so I'm sure you've got your own methods. When I do it I think about balance, and tweak to find it. Your comment about different approaches is interesting in this context, because the driver is a big wildcard in finding balance, since that term means different things from driver to driver. But still, entry oversteer is entry oversteer, regardless of how we got there. And there are surefire mechanical ways to either increase or decrease this behavior. The challenge with this car is those options are so few. Makes it fun, simple cars like this. Frank and I were running some trainer stuff in AMS2 and it's the same deal. Basically, springs and tire pressure haha.

But yeah, find the fault and fix it. It's funny, but last night I was lapping the Red Bull Ring in a 911 Clubsport for the leaderboard ladder and I was thinking about exactly this, and how important it is that a driver understands the difference between his own poor driving and a car that is ill-tuned. It's key to fix the faults, because if you're just braking too late and the car's pushing through the turn you try to dial that out but it really just goes too far the other way and now you're losing the rears when the answer is just to pick a proper braking point. I dunno, but that's what was going through my head .

And yeah, your challenge lap is a tidy one. Nicely done.

I just tried a softer anti roll bar at the front and while it possibly made the car slightly easier to handle, it also made it slower, and the kind of driver I am, I think I'm compesating by pushing harder thus becoming even slower. It is just like if I move the brake bias forward I'll want to brake harder and deeper into corners which just makes me outbrake myself. I think you are spot on in observing that if the driver contines to carry any bad habits into the situation, no setup will really ever solve for that.

About the steering wheel rotation I realize that initially my first step to getting a handle on the car was adjusting the wheel settings to take advantage of every extra degree of rotation I could get and I overdid it to the point that my wheel had greater rotation than the steering rack for the car. I've adjusted it back somewhat now.

Is ther any chance of downloading you lap from the sim so I can have a look at your lines?

Not sure if there's a way to watch others' replays. I'll have a look and see if I can find one and post it if you want to see. I have no storage though and SimHQ has a low size limit. I turned a 2:06.5 for the competition and a 2:06.2 in time trial, even if I felt I never put one together entirely.

ARBs are important adjustments for me in finding balance, but this car just doesn't have the range of options. Softer front ARB should help turn in, but yeah, it's already pretty soft at default, and personally I like it stiffer front and back. More responsive right, responds better to input and not sluggish the stiffer you go. As general comments and not advice for you since I reckon you require none, the balance I go on about is trying to find that setup where the fronts and rears are ready to let go at the same time. Or more accurately, the rears just a touch sooner to get some desired oversteer, but just a little. Controlled oversteer is fast. You mentioned lift oversteer being desirable and I agree. The 'steer with your feet' thing we talk about often. But not too much and that's the art, finding that proper balance each driver seeks. If spinning on corner entry when losing grip at the rear, a softer front ARB would exacerbate this by making the front stick even more and offsetting the balance with the rears, making those rears break lose more easily.

If the rears are breaking loose and causing a spin, the fronts have too much grip or the rears too little. Two sides of the same coin. With limited roll bar tuning on this car maybe springs would be the answer, stiffer front/softer rear to keep so much weight from going forward under braking. The engine braking setting works sort of like diff adjustments and increasing this could help too. Tire pressures also work in the same way as springs, but more finely.

My experience with ACC sort of opened my eyes too in using rake to tune handling. I had always viewed ride height as a simple thing to ensure I had the car as low as it would go without bottoming or to ride the worst kerbs. I didn't think of using it in terms of balance. But it's vital in those ACC cars and I got with it. Raising the front and/or lower the rear would both serve to get weight off the front on to the rear to help with oversteer. My issues with the Crosslé seem to have been rather the opposite of yours and I raised the rear a few notches to help balance the cornering behavior to suit me. Perhaps you might do the reverse and see if it has any effect?

It's all a bit of a black art anyway. But it's one of the things I like most about this sim racing thing, setting up my cars to both suit me and go fast, or that's the goal anyway. I've never felt much satisfaction with using other drivers' setups. But I enjoy the chase of finding mine.It seems to me that many if not most sim drivers pay little attention to this side. But I think it's important even when using downloaded setups. Gotta suit yourself.

I really appreciate your input and suggestions Derek, both have inspired me to experiment a bit with the setup. Softening the rear springs made the car more docile, again at the cost of precision and speed and I felt that this solution led to me running out of track, since the car didn’t respond as quickly on steering input.

I am now back with the default setup, but with a new appreciation for its virtues.

And I imagine a very vocal French driving instructor berating me: “M’sieur, you are certainly not to trail-brake or drift the car ici! Vouz must learn to be smooth; slow in-fast out. Comprend?”

No worries, it's nice to have some discussion around here.

In light of that I hopped back in to RR and spent more time fooling with chassis setup and see if I could go any faster. Some stuff worked, some stuff didn't, and then I have to consider all of my own mistakes as we said. I managed to find a little time, dropping the laptime to 2:05.3 in the leaderboard challenge. The replay archive in RR is a bit of a mess, but I think I found the right one. However it isn't stamped with any laptime nor is that displayed in the replay. All it says is 'all time best'. I watched the replay and I locked up three times haha, but I guess it was a good one. Good enough for 23rd on the boards, but the car's new so give it time.

Unfortunately I can only attach image files or pdf's here.

In general terms I altered the default setup with a slightly softer front spring to help bite on turn in, which I was struggling with --entry understeer, especially in those slow corners. I am also running the engine braking at 2, which is several clicks south of default. Again to help rotate the car when throttle off. I fooled around quite a bit with ride height at both ends, and am running a forward rake, raised slightly at both ends. 5.4 and 6.2 I believe. This should set a touch more weight on the ass end than default, but is higher overall. I have the brake bias at 51/49 haha and still not sure that's enough. Any farther and it might swap ends when I touch the pedal! Still locking them up but it's just me being bad at it.

The Crosslé 90F at Circuit de Charade (might be a puff of brake lock in there somewhere ) Is this the same track as Clermont Ferrand that we used to run in GPL?

Well done Derek! Your times are impressive.

I've managed a slight improvement but my consistency is neither here nor there.

Circuit de Charade is a shortened version of the classic Clermont Ferrand we know from GPL. I think there might also be a version of Charade in GPL but can't remember. Wiki page

Thanks. yes it is the site of that track, but not that track. A new track. Well, it's a good one, especially for this class of car.

Maybe Frank will catch wind of this and give this combo a go. He isn't a big fan of RR, but this is the sort of stuff that would be straight up his alley.

My theoreticals are in the 2:04s but I can't put one together. Overdriving.

I wish RR had a better replay system so we could easily identify and share individual laps. One big replay file with no lap time information is not a lot of fun.

You mention a theoretical lap time, is there a tool or how do you calculate that? A Replay Analyzer would be cool, if such a thing existed for RR.

I use Crew Chief to help me indentify the track limits. Very cool piece of software.

I use the default gearing and only use first for the hairpin but am in doubt if I would benefit from using first gear in other parts of the lap.

Overdriving is my biggest problem. I try to tell myself that I must prioritize and maximize exit speed but then I start breaking later and harder into corners and my exit speeds drop and my laptimes suffer.

When you do leaderboard challenge mode you can see this. Turn a few laps then come in. Click the little circle next to your laptimes and it shows the theoretical along with sector times, but only from that batch of laps I think.

Yeah, RR is long in the tooth and it shows compared to some of the other recent titles. I like it because the leaderboards are permanent and there's good content with all the cars and tracks.

AMS2 has a number of the modern touches that RR could benefit from. One of those that I really like is you can select up to four ghosts for hotlapping. Like your PB, vehicle record, class record and fastest friend. Four ghosts is cool.

Crew Chief is good, yes agreed. Don't always remember to start it though....

Got it. My current theoretical lap time is a 2.06.15. My best so far is a 2.06.4. That turn one is killing me!

Nice lap!

Yeah, turn one is a tweener. Still not sure if it's faster to take in second or third gear, though so far my fastest laps were third gear.

You talked about gearing before and you can't actually change this on this car right? I'm dropping to first gear on all the slowest corners, maybe three of them? I'd have to run another lap to be conscious of it I guess. Manson, Champeaux and Marlboro for sure (I looked at a track map to see corner names.) This car could sure use fifth gear haha, but that's one of the quirks that makes it fun.

Last night I went retro. Not quite Jens' Goodwood Festival of Speed retro as it has a LCD display and some buttons on the wheel. But I spent a couple hours in the McLaren MP4/6, Senna's title-winning ride from 1991 in Automobilista. What a fookin' screamer. I took it out to Spa 1993 with the old Bus Stop, and I was back in Grand Prix 2 or something haha. What a delight. It's a Honda V-12 and this thing is wailing banshees. Oh man, the cars sounded so good then. Also did some laps at Interlagos and Portugal's Cascais for a leaderboard event. Absolutely love driving this car. As a Brazilian developer, Reiza obviously likes to pay homage to Senna and the cars he drove, and there are a number of McLaren F1 cars in the sim.

But the MP4/6 is pure bliss.It is the last car to win a Formula 1 title with a manual gearbox.

The photo mode in AMS2 is funky.

Wiki says the MP4/6 was the only car to win the F1 Championship with a 12 cylinder engine in Vee configuration. Those 12 legged monsters sounded great. The MP4/? In RR felt pretty ok too I thought, from my brief outing.

Did you catch the videos on its grandfather, the MP4/4? There are several hours of excellent entertainment on the JayEmm YouTube channel.

On Charade, as mentioned, I only use first gear in Marlboro, all other corners I take in second, so I’m amazed that you can get the speed to get to third. Wow! Maybe that is why I was confused by a video I saw of a 2.02 lap on YouTube; I couldn’t figure the gears.

The left-hand kink to Manson had me fooled for a long time before I figured that the tighter line was faster, even with a big lift. This car track combo really is technical!

Lovely screenshots Derek.

I don’t think you can change the gears in the Challenge but must confess to not even having tried to do so.

Thanks. Sometimes you try on a car for size and it just feels like it fits like a glove.

Now that I think about it, a glove is just as likely to not fit as any other article of clothing, no? What an odd idiom or whatever it is.

But yeah, I like this car so much I think I'll run a championship if I can put together a reasonable schedule. There are a number of similar F1 cars, McLarens, like the MP4/5B and down the line so maybe I should give each of them a run out.

No, I hadn't seen the video Jens, but thanks for the heads up.

About Charade... yeah, it's the sort of track you can find your own groove. It's old school, the tarmac feels old, when they laid it down on the ground as it was, rather than camber in the turns. I doubt I'm running an ideal line, and anyway in any given six laps I've probably run five lines ya know? It's a difficult track to be very consistent. The section after Manson, I think called le Golf, is one of my weak spots, but it's so important for lap time to come out of here at top speed. You want to get on the throttle as early as possible before the long straights, but it's so easy to get it a little wrong and lose those critical tenths all the way down the straight. This track and car combo has really got that vintage mojo.

Found a nice spot of time in the Crosslé by experimenting with softer springs. Dropped both front and rear by two or three notches. I can't be more precise, because after running a new PB by some distance I went to save my setup and hit load instead of save! Derp. Tried to remember any changes I had made since last saving and not sure I got it right, as I then went and hit the competition again but was four tenths slower. Turned a 2:04.4 in time trial.

And yeah, I paid more attention and I am dropping to first gear at least five or six times through the lap. My gearing is default because I can't alter it. If I could I'd make the gaps closer instead of having first and second so tall and then third and fourth so close I reckon. But yeah, I drop to first for turn two, the righthander, and then again climbing the hill to the left, and then again in the chicane before the straight, and then in the hairpin at the bottom of the straight, then the hairpin after the next downhill straight, then the one to the right and the final turn too. That's six I think. Yeah, a shared replay would be good in place of that description lol.

The Crosslé/Charade combo looks really nice and I´ m sure I would like it a lot.

Haven´ t installed RaceRoom right now and didn´ t touch my PC for any racing action during the last months. Pretty much gave up on it after Derek´s and my attempts with Automobilista 2´ s online features.

Recently caught the rally bug again and gave WRC Generations a try. Good game but noth that much of a difference to the predecessor WRC 10 apart from the new hybrid cars.

Ended up buying the latest World of Outlaws - Dirt Racing game just before christmas and enjoying it tremendously on my PS5 to my surprise.

Didn´ t know much about dirt racing except doing a few practise laps back in iRacing years ago. But the excellent career mode and the intense on track action got me hooked.

Playing with my old G29 wheel without any assists really feels like a workout sometimes.

Here is a short video of my last race of the season with the 360 Sprint cars to give you an impression how it looks and drives:

That does look fun.

Too bad we can't tempt you back to the tarmac, as I would have been interested to see what you could do with the Crosslé.

I slung it around the Nordschliefe and ran a 8:45. Not exactly a screamer this car, but fun to drive. Like driving a Cooper

The MP4/6 is now the second-fastest car I've taken round the Ring. 5:39 in AMS2. But I'm still nearly 20 seconds behind the top time. Having an issue with terminal velocity. There are four places on this track where you really open it out, but I'm maxing top speed well before the end of each section, and I suspect this is where I'm losing time. Making fifth and sixth gear taller isn't netting higher top speed. So how to find that extra top end? Skinnier wings would help, but you can only lose so much downforce and still turn a fast time. A bit of a puzzle, this.

I was reading some dev updates and one of the things Reiza have planned is a big focus on improving the career/season/championship modes in 2023. They didn't got in to much detail about what that might mean, but I hope they succeed. Over the past year I've bought a bunch of racing sims. But only two of them really have a satisfying career or championship mode. F1 22 is far and away the best, and ACC is good too. The rest it feels like an afterthought, like the devs knew they had to have something and did the minimum. rFactor, AMS2, RaceRoom and even AC have barebones championship modes. I bought two rally games but never gave them much of a look. Maybe I should. I've read that at least one of them has a great career mode (WRC10 or Dirt 2.0?)

Frank, what makes the World of Outlaws career fun? What do you think is good about it?

Derek, you start your career basically as a nobody with just enough money to either buy a Street Stock or a 305 Sprint car.
Then you try to earn money during your first local season to upgrade your car to get more competitive. With better results you get more sponsorship opportunities to get even more money.

At the start of the season you´re a one man team but you get the chance to hire more personel to get better sponsor deals and lower the repair costs or purchase new parts with a discount. More and better personel will be available throughout your career.
As your car gets better you probably get better results which then will probably allow you to switch from a local championship to a regional championship. Either in the same car or in a new car which you need to buy then. And the competition gets more fierce the higher you go in the season.

While you can be competitive in a local season with a half upgraded car, the regional or national seasons require much better/expensive upgrades. The difficulty settings play a big part too of course.

The constant need to reinvest in your team to stay competitive, while learning new more difficult cars on different tracks with better opponnents is the main attraction for me in the World of Outlaws career. Plus the driving experience is just intense!
It feels just great to be constantly on the car/track limits. Maybe belonging to iRacing now helped them in the physics/AI development?

The homepage of the game gives a much better and more detailed description of the career features: WoO Career

BTW WRC10 has a much better career option than Dirt 2.0 imo. It´ s really fun if you can enjoy the game´s driving physics.

Thanks Frank, sounds like the progression is compelling and that's good. Climbing the ranks through rewards to your own performance is always a good way to go.

Is it only on consoles? I had a look during the Steam sale but they don't have it I guess.

Yes, console only unfortunately.

Time to "borrow" that playstation from your son...

He has joined the dark side. I bought him his first PC for Christmas. Faster than dad's!

First thing he did was drift in Assetto Corsa haha

So yeah, I guess the consoles are free game now.

Agree with what? The career/championship thing? Or that the MP4/6 is my second fastest Ring ride?

Welcome to SimHQ.

My last post makes it look like I've lost it. But there had been a post from some new guy who then deleted it.

Not much activity around here, but I'm still racing. I've been spending time in both AMS2 and F1 22.

In AMS2 I'm mostly driving the classic McLaren F1 cars like Senna's MP4s, the /4, /5B and /6. The MP4/6 is a hell of a rocket sled, with a big V12, and incidentally is the last F1 car to win a title with a manual transmission. I probably already said this in this thread. I'm mainly doing leaderboards hotlapping. I've nicked a few records too. Spielberg Short Course is mine

In F1 22 I just started the fifth season of my current My Team career with Exocet F1. My teammate is Theo Pourchaire. It's been a steady climb from the bottom, and we now have the best car on the grid by some margin. Last night I drove races 2 and 3 of the fifth season, winning Australia and coming home third in Miami, which Oscar Piastri won to claim his first win in Formula 1. I've talked extensively in this and the F1 thread about how dynamic My Team is, as teams rise and fall down the years. In the current season, which would be 2026 Merc are the fifth fastest team after Exocet, Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari. Aston Martin have been the slowest car on the grid, but recent development upgrades have seen them vault over Haas for the moment.

AMS2 keeps improving. The latest update added Historic Nordschliefe 1971. It's a fantastic rendition too. This is the version that contains the north and south loops that we raced in GPL. I fired it up and took out a Brabham BT26A. GPL with wings basically.

Honestly I crashed out or timed out by running wide on the first fifteen attempts, but then I put one together just because I was tired of starting over, and with the rubber now up I turned a better second lap. Turned these laps in time trial, because why not right? 40 seconds off the best I think, so plenty to improve. Took the default setup, raised ride height a little, added wing, shifted the brakes back, stiffened both ARBs and reversed the differential, 50/45 instead of 45/50. There's work to do as it steps out too easily under a heavy boot, and I lock up too easily. Need more finess in my feet.

It is a fantastic motoring experience

It certainly looks the part.

Yes, and it sounds the part too. Just glorious. Lots of fun running this routing of the Nordschliefe. Really takes you back.

And they also added the Gesamtstrecke, the full course, 28 kilometers long.

The amount of tantrums I’ve thrown because of The Green Hell biting me is atronomical.

I can dig that. I've fouled up a thousand times, literally, at the Ring down the years. But I never lose my cool. It's the challenge of mastering such a track that makes me determined to get right back on the horse. Back in the day we only had this track in GPL. But now I've got it in AC, RR, AMS2 and rFactor. And having so many versions is wonderful. Full course, historic, GP, 24-hour and so on.

Since getting back in to the racing thing a year or two ago I've probably dropped 1/2 of my time at the Ring, and its various iterations. Half at the Ring, and half everywhere else. It just holds a mystique and is so much fun to drive. Last year I did that thread where I took out a few dozen cars in RaceRoom to see how fast I could lap the track. That was a lot of fun. And a hell of a lot of laps!

In GPL if you fouled up you had to start over by coming all the way around. In these modern sims it's just a couple clicks and you're back at the start of the lap. Much easier to hotlap now.

Hit the Ring again last night. Took the Brabby back out and shaved 5 seconds, 8:06, Still plenty of time to find, but getting there. 30 seconds off the best lap in class. Not going to find that, but I can make a dent.

Then I swapped to the car that seems to have become my main ride in AMS2, the McLaren MP4/6. What a car. Clocked a 6:26 to make the top ten, but that's only because not many have driven this car/track combination.

It's just so much freakin' fun to rip around the Ring. I was having such a good time it made me wish we had been able to generate some interest in racing here at SimHQ. What fun this would be with a crew of like minded people. Hotlapping is great, and racing against the AI is good too. But it doesn't have the enduring appeal that online racing does. So after a few weeks I'm on to something else. League racing would change that. But I don't care to do public much, so there I am.

Anyway, Automobilista is a great automobile simulator.

Didn´ t touch my wheel for quite awhile after last year´s spike of interest here with ACC, F22 and AMS2. But the historic version of the Nordschleife sure looks tempting.

Public online racing, even when it´s perfectly regulated for different skill levels like iRacing for example simply doesn´t do it for me either. It´s convenient and competitive but at the end of a race you just leave and that´s it till the start of the next race.
Sure you get some nice statistics to show off and a seasonal ranking. Maybe I would have cared when I was younger, but no more at my age.

There are long time members here at SimHQ like McGonigle (Jens) and semmern, who I used to race with in GPL in the early 2000´s with my first ever small online racing community, the ADC (Average Drivers Club).
Was getting up early after only some hours of sleep doing nightshifts at sunday morning to get into some friendly racing competition with guys from all over the world.
Where the fast guys would always pick the slower cars to level the playing field and winning was never the main concern, but close and fair racing.

Got the same feeling later racing together with Derek, Mark, Jussi and other members from Frugalsworld in GPL and GTR2.
And in small league racing in iRacing shortly after it was launched in 2010.
After those times the genre probably got more popular, the grids bigger but I lost interest.

Don't forget Crash Test Dummies, unless of course you were not part of that. Jussi and Brooks' site.

Yeah, I'd be all over a racing league here at SimHQ... <redacted as it serves no point nor profit>....

So that leaves hotlapping

Motorin' through the countryside. Lotus 49, or thereabouts, at Nordschliefe 1971 in AMS2. Actually called Formula Vintage Gen 1 Model 1 in the sim. But you slap these colors on it and good enough. Had more difficulty getting to grips with this car/track and setup than the Brabham with wings. After some trial and error, mostly error, I got it settled down with some soft springs and a GPL-like differential. 70/35/4 I think at the moment. Got one timed lap at a decent clip.



It does indeed, doesn't it?

Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spell

How an image like this does not elicit an avalanche of oohs and ahhs I cannot understand

On August 18th, 2006 I turned my fastest ever lap at der Nurburgring in Grand Prix Legends, at 8:04.966. It was the culmination of countless hours of practice and racing. So that personal class record has stood for nearly 17 years. But last night it fell, and I knocked off a second haha.

A few years ago we had a thread in Community Hall about GPL, and several of us posted our GPL Rank page, showing our chassis/track PBs, so I have the record of my best laps, in each car. Of course AMS2 is not GPL, and who knows how much different the physics are, the grip levels, the aero, the car and all the rest. But who cares, it feels great to drive, and having this particular version of the Nordschliefe is wonderful. When I am coming around the second loop after the start finish, I'm taken back to those days. Standing on the throttle with the back end on the edge of adhesion just starting to step out, winding out a few too many RPM in a desperate attempt to say ahead, I can almost see Frank and the boys screaming alongside. I wish I could experience that time again.

Grand Prix Legends : Were You Fast?

Hit the track again yesterday, this time back in the '68 car with the wingwitchcraftery. Managed to break 8 minutes at 7:53. Still some time out there, but that's a decent lap. I'm down by 15 mph top end compared to the '67 car and if I could narrow that gap I could put in a cracking lap I think. Need to keep working on the setup. I had the wings at 2/9 but maybe that's what is slowing me down on the fast bits. But man I love ripping round the Ring. Too bad more here don't do this stuff as I'd like to have friends lists and ghosts to chase.

Beautiful shot sir!

I know, right? Only those of us of a certain vintage can appreciate such beauty I reckon, and anyway it's like GPL if GPL were made in the 2020's, and there's even fewer of us that can appreciate that.

It's so wonderful -- the sights, the sounds, the feel of driving 60s-era motor racing rocketsled -- that I find myself depressed this has no fans around here. I want to see other people's posts about this stuff.

But I do appreciate the comment. In the past six months we've had maybe two new threads in the sim racing forum. It's so unbelievably dead that any replies are appreciated. I try to keep it going with this thread, but there isn't much interest in what I am up to. Fair enough, but these sims are exceptional, and not just AMS2. It's mind boggling that SimHQ has no discussion about sim racing during one of the best eras in our hobby's history.
.

The '67 mod for Assetto Corsa and the modded Grand Prix Legends are still my go-to when I get my race-simming on. The new setup I got the other year is doing great. I'm still trying to get adequate at shifting using the Thrustmaster TH8A shifter, and I'm not doing any online racing. All off-line stuff. Ive not even drilled down to adjusting the car, simply just trying to drive it! Hah.

The house purchase and move, along with getting settled in have sucked up most of my PC playing time..

Most of my time I have managed to scratch out lately on the PC has been with MSFS 2020, DCS and the IL-2 BoS series. I'm not any good at those either! Sadly, I was playing some IL-2 BoS yesterday and a X-axis spring busted. Need to repair that this eve...

It's vintage

My son turned 13 in march and I got him the same setup I have. Same seat and same wheel and pedals. But I also got him that same shifter you have, and he loves it. He drives Assetto Corsa, likes to drift. He's also in to BeamNG, which is a pretty cool game. Very detailed physics, even considering how detailed these sims already are. Not only physics, but each moving part is simulated, I think.

The seat came with a shifter pedestal and it's all a pretty nifty setup the boy has. I set a fine example

Finding online players around here isn't likely, and so I think the time trial or leaderboard modes in most of these sims are a good middle ground. Gives you laptimes to hunt, ghosts to race, common ground to discuss haha. Chassis setup! I can dream....

But you don't need to coordinate, or commit to any particular time. Matter of fact this sort of arrangement is working well for a golf game we are playing around here. Competitive, but entirely solo. We tried something similar here with hotlapping in ACC and that went reasonably well too.

But all of this requires a number of drivers playing the same sims and doing so on a fairly regular basis. So many car and track combinations in these games.

Continuing with the vintage vibe I took one out at Spielberg historic. This is the 1974 version. It's a wonderful circuit, fast and flowing. It's very similar to the old Imola. No chicanes. A few guardrails and wasn't this the first track to have modern kerbs?

I said above that the Brabham BT26A was a '68 car, but it's '69 isn't it? That was the year they switched from Repco to Cosworth DFV and started winning races. I'd guess this is the car in AMS2. I noticed though that the fastest laps on the leaderboard were set with the generic Gen 2 model, which is heavier by 100 pounds, but also has about 10 more horsepower. This is a high speed circuit and that extra pop is telling, just like it is at the old Monza with these cars. Managed some good laps, top twenty anyway on the boards. Too much entry understeer in to the two or three slow corners and it's costing me time, but I'm dialing it out. You need to get back on the throttle as early as possible ahead of these long straights so I hope I can find that balance.

Formula Vintage Gen 2 @ Spielberg 1974 (Österreichring) in AMS2 Zoom zoom.

Continuing on the vintage world tour, last night's action took us to South Africa and the wonderful old Kyalami. I had spent a lot of time here before, but time trial had been wiped, and evidently my setup too? So I had to start over, but ended up with a cracking lap in the low 18s, which is faster than I was before. Probably due to physics changes or more likely, rejigging the tire values. Whatever the reason I was able drop the PB even though I seem to have no idea how to take the final turn properly. Such a simple looking corner gives me fits. This version of Kyalami is such a good track. The modern day version is too, but this old routing is top notch.

On to Italy, and historic Imola. I've always liked this track, with my first exposure being Grand Prix 2 thirty years ago. I don't like the chicanes. Like, at all. But the track is iconic and of that vintage where it flows naturally, according to the lay of the land. The chicanes disrupt that flow, as intended of course. But this is the 1972 version, before chicanes were a thing. It is fast and flowing, I compared it above to Österreichring, and they do indeed share the same sort of mojo. And these vintage F1 cars are perfectly suited to such a track. I've been favoring the 1969 cars with their rudimentary wings and downforce witchcraftery.

As usual, I hit it up in time trial mode. Time trials had all been wiped at some point, so once again times I had set previously were gone. And so are my setups? where did these go? But that's not a big roadblock, I can whip up a decent setup in a few laps. Using the Österreichring setup is a good base, although I found it much more oversteering, probably something to do with different grip levels between these two tracks. Imola is lower grip for sure. So to correct this I softened the springs and rear roll bar. stiffened the front ARB a touch and tweaked the rake to transfer weight faster to the rears under acceleration. These changes worked great, and after a handful of laps to reacquire my braking points and turn ins I was clipping along at a fair rate. I managed a 1:31, good for about 13th on the leaderboards. Driving the Formula Vintage Gen 2 Model 2.

Flush with my success I hit up historic Monza. I was in Italy after all, so why not stop over for a spin round the circuit? This is the 1971 version, and again, before chicanes. That makes it another very fast and flowing circuit ideally suited to this class of cars. After some installation laps to reacquaint, I smashed my old PB, turning a 1:26-flat! I think that's a second and a half off my old PB here. I haven't gone back through the patch notes, but clearly something has changed with these Formula Vintage cars. I'm dropping my lap times at every circuit I am visiting. That lap was good for 9th on the leaderboards. Very happy with that, and what a thrill to drive these cars around these classic tracks.

Did some more hotlapping last night. I decided to hang around Monza for a bit. I suspected I might be able to improve my time with a few setup tweaks. This historic version of the track is said to have seven turns, but that's being rather generous in what is considered a turn. Five turns is closer to reality. The curvas della Roggia (between Grande and Lesmo) and della Seraglia (between Lesmo and Ascari) are merely kinks. So all this means there are not many corners to be considered in the setup.

And of course setup is only one part of the equation. But it's a vital one, to have a car that responds in a proper manner when attempting to negotiate the squiggly bits. But you also need to drive well. Proper braking points, gear changes, exit speeds. Placing the car just so to optimize an entry or exit. I often say how important it is to objectively identify if the troubles you are having are due to improper setup or just poor driving. Because if you attribute the latter to the former, you'll be on a wild goose chase in terms of dialing in the car.

In my previous session at Monza I turned a 26-flat, good for about 13th on the leaderboards. I wasn't happy with corner entry balance, which bled in to mid corner. A touch too much understeer, preventing me from picking the throttle back up early while I wait for the car to rotate through the corner. This revealed in both Lesmo corners and it to Parabolica. Parabolica (or whatever it is called in modern times. I'll always call it Parabolica) is the most important turn on the track for lap time of course, and you've got to get it right. To correct this I softened the front ARB a smidge and messed around with the differential. The differential is one of the most important, ignored and misunderstood components on a sim racing car. Matter of fact, in these vintage racing machines, my suspension setup from track to track is virtually identical. When I find a good balance I stick with it and carry it from circuit to circuit. In order to account for the characteristics of each track, the differential is used. This allows fine correction of corner entry and exit behavior. I can control how much rotation I get both throttle on and throttle off. Springs and roll bars are the rough cuts, differential is the fine tune.

With these minor alterations done I hit the track with my personal best and the class record as ghosts. The changes made helped to settle the car under braking and in to the slower corners, getting the car rotated earlier and allowing me to pick the throttle back up. Racing the class record shows I just don't take enough speed in to Curva Grande, but I can pick it back up quick and not lose too much time here. But that's enough to keep me at arm's length through the rest of the lap. Need to be braver and hit the turn in better. But it's hard to pick out at these speeds!

In the end I cut a full second off the PB, turning a 25-flat, good for fifth on the boards.

After that I hit up Monaco (called Azure in the game) and was mostly a mess. How to get my car around the hotel hairpin? Did manage to turn a few clean laps, but not all that fast. 1:42 for top twenty on the boards. This is a really nice historic version of Monaco by the way.

I hit the track again last night, this time taking out the 1967 version of the Formula Vintage cars at Monza historic in AMS2. After a number of installation laps, coming back in to tweak the setup and heading back out to do it again I managed to sneak in to the top ten on the boards. Parabolica is giving me fits and costing me time. Is it a second gear corner or third gear? Which depends on the gearing anyway doesn't it? But getting the car slowed and turned in is tricky. It's like the turn is off camber, or low grip, or my setup is poor. The car wants to slide out, and I'm locking up too often here. Struggling to nail the setup. My Gen 2 setup is really nice, but I can't seem to duplicate that level in the Gen 1 car. Maybe I need to go softer...

I've been doing more hotlapping in time trial in AMS2 driving the vintage stuff. Mostly the Gen 2 cars (1969 F1). Managed some good laps at Watkins Glen short, which is a fair approximation of the GPL version. I also hit Brand's Hatch. Really struggled to get a top lap, but I stuck with it. Drive a few laps, note the ways in which the setup is substandard, come back in for a tweak, then head back out to test the changes. Dialing it in. Didn't really get it nailed, especially on entry to the the three right handers after Surtees -- Hawthorne, Westfield and Dingle Dell. Gotta get these turns down and I can improve my lap time. But still, I managed to finally turn a 27.5, good for the top ten on the leaderboards. that's my mission at the mo, to stick it in the top ten at every 'vintage' track in the game. Having a great time with this, so much fun to drive these cars at these old school circuits. Too bad there is no one around who is in to this stuff.

Still hitting the vintage tracks in vintage cars. Drove Silverstone historic last night and missed out on the top ten by four one hundredths. I'll return there, because I'm sure I can find some time with a better setup.

I also participated in one of the official time trial events, this one at Monaco in honor of this week's grand prix. Car class was Formula Classic, which are some 'representative' F1 cars from the late 80s, and the class includes the McLaren MP4/4. I'm way off the top times here. It's such a difficult track to go fast, and the hotel or Lowe's hairpin is quite hard to get around, quickly. Managed a 1:25, nearly 8 seconds off the top times in the event. Here I give it some go between Tabac and the Swimming Pool.

There are a number of good sims out and about these days, and I rather like them all. RaceRoom, Assetto Corsa and AC Competizione, rFactor, F122 are all really good racing sims, each with it's strengths. AMS2 is the one I keep driving though. I think it has the best open wheel driving among that gaggle. It has historic cars and tracks that are amazing to drive. And it's the late 60s winged F1 cars that I've been in to recently. Brabham BT26, Lotus 49C and a couple of representative models. I hit Brand's Hatch, Donington and three versions of Oulton Park. Managed to stick it in the top ten at each in time trial mode. There are only so many who have posted a time since the last reset, but at most tracks there's a good sized field.

Today I took the Gen 2 car out at 1970 Spa. What a phenomenal version of the track. Respect for the people who made it for AMS2. It's a blast to rocket around this place. There's a really big field in time trial too, it's popular. My first lap here in probably 16 years was tentative, but I kept it on the black stuff and came across the line with a 4:02 It's such a high speed circuit you need to be committed in to each turn, and it takes a while to learn where you can keep your foot in it and where you need to back off. There are several sections where you're wide open for a long time and if you hesitate to get on the throttle at the start of that section it will cost you all the way to the end.

I kept coming back in to make small setup changes, going softer than the Ring setup I brought. Tweaks to gearing and wings, brake bias forward a touch since there are only a few braking zones and they are heavy. Not a trail braking course, this. It's about mashing the go pedal and keeping it mashed. Added a couple ghosts, my PB and the world record. Managed to drop in to the 3:40s, more tweaks, and then down to 3:35, which is in the 40s on the boards. WR is 3:21 and I'm a long way from that.

A superb sim racing combination, the Formula Vintage Gen 2 and Spa before they made it safe

What a delightful track, the old Spa. Yeah, sure, it is insanely dangerous, but I've a million quarters and if I wrap it around the armco I can just start again. But thankfully that sort of shunt is rare. But drift a little wide at 200 miles per hour....

200! Yeah, I was hitting those speeds in this old sled at Spa. Absolutely loving it. I returned late last night. This challenge had gotten in me head. So I had to get back in the saddle and give it another go. Managed to drop it under 3:33 for mid-20s on the boards. I feel like I might be able to find another 3 seconds or so with better lines and a better setup. I'm experimenting with 5th gear ratios, to see which is actually fastest. So much of this circuit is flat-out that these minor differences can translate to significant lap time.

Any vintage sim racer -- where both the car and the racer are vintage haha -- owes it to himself to pick up AMS2 and have a bash at this track. If you're a GPL vet and fondly recall those days, this is where it is.

Derek, at one point in your sim racing career you really owe it to yourself to experience driving one of those vintage open wheel cars around one of the classic circuits like Spa in VR.
It' s an incredible experience especially with other cars close during a race.

Lovely screenshot Derek.

I've been mucking about with some newer, free content for rF2. Quite good actually and in complete contrast to my usual persuasions and predelictions for vintage stuff, I was impressed by the Alpine A110 mod. But then again, the original A110 was always one of my all time favourite classic cars

I have a VR set, given to me by a generous forum member, but I've not used it for racing. It's funny, but I keep thinking I should try Track IR with my racing sims, but I never think to do it when I sit down to turn laps. Sooner or later I'll follow your advice



I'm happy to see someone else here driving. And not only that, but sharing it and even some screenshots! The Indy Car stuff in rFactor is pretty good. I've done a lot of laps round the Brickyard in that sim. My son and I had a shootout one afternoon, hotseating to set fast lap. Good stuff Jens.

I've returned to Spa a couple times with the goal of lowering my PB, but this track is kicking my ass. I'm overdriving I think in an effort to go better. Eau Rouge and Radillon especially, but also that slow chicane about half-way through.

So I hit a couple other tracks in the Gen 2 vintage F1 cars. I managed 4th on the boards at Laguna Seca, really happy with the laps I was turning there. Great track too. Also turned some good ones at Brands Indy circuit.

Hey Frank, where were you driving? Are you running time trial? Which cars?

Tested my new Quest 2 for the first time hooked up to my PC via link cable. And what better title than AMS2 to give it a run.

Did a few laps at the historic Nürburgring Gesamtstrecke (Nord- + Südschleife) with the new vintage Formula Junior car. Not on time trial though. Slower car but still a wonderful driving experience especially in VR.

The Südschleife is a section which is completely new for me. Never drove it in any other sim before. But what a great addition it is to AMS2!

How did you like the driving with the Quest?

Yeah, those new (old) versions of the Ring are amazing, although I have yet to turn the full course you drove. If you keep at it, consider time trial for your hotlapping so I can have your ghost to race. If you do and don't mind, tell me which car/track combo you've posted. I'd enjoy that. If you shift to the Gen 2 cars I have ghosts posted at most old timey circuits.

Having a great time again with the driving, after a bit of a lay off. Last night I fired up AMS2 again and this time went back to the Formula Vintage Gen 1 cars. The '67 sleds. Hit Spa 1970. Of course I did. I don't know what it was, but I found it easier than the winged '69 cars. Maybe it was down to a much better setup? I can understand if the Gen 1 '67 cars are faster around here, no wings to drag them back, and it's so high speed around this circuit. But I also felt much more planted in the turns. You'd think it has to be setup, but I wonder if it is something with the physics. Or tire modeling, or something like that. It will take more seat time to work it out.

I was expecting to struggle even more in the Gen 1 cars, but I hit the track flying. Only a few restarts haha. Eau Rogue/Radillon is hard to get right in these cars, but so important for lap time. The straights are so long and there are are a bunch of corners you have to get a great exit. In the end my best lap was slower in the Gen 1 car by about 2 seconds. That downforce makes a difference in the turns to give the Gen 2 cars the edge I think. But I slotted in to the top five on the boards. And I think there's more time to be found. Then I hit up Silverstone International, a shortened version of the track. Good fun in these cars. Then I thought, why not a race? I still have a Gen 1 championship going, and the next race was at Watkins Glen Short.

It's a nice approximation of the track we drove in GPL.The start finish line is moved to before what used to be the final turn. The AI in this game is pretty good. They race each other, but aren't aware enough of the player, so you have to be careful. But as long as you can keep from making contact, the racing around you is pretty good.

Running third in the Lotus. The #7 Ferrari in the lead is my nemesis Giancarlo Rampanelli. Five points separate us in the table.

Hit the track again, in the Gen 1 cars. Posted a time at historic Speilberg. I like this circuit a lot. Fifth on the boards. And while sticking it in the top ten at all of these tracks is my goal, it must be said that some have few times posted by others. As few as 15 or so, but most are 40 or more. The leaderboard wipes keep us from really populating the list. Some have more than 100, depends on the car/track combination. The vintage formula classes aren't the most popular in the sim of course, but that's because people cannot appreciate the finest things in life

I think I need to hit the Nordschliefe again.

Newest AMS2 dev update shows dirt track is being added. Just one more thing to set it apart from the crowd. Also in this announcement is Le Mans, and they will have the modern version and two historic versions. Excellent!

https://forum.reizastudios.com/threads/automobilista-2-june-2023-development-update-pt1.31082/

I think I might have found a new obsession. I mighr become a virtual car and tracks collector. Sofar I've only found a couple of 1923 GP cars and a couple of tracks. The one in the shots is Battenbergring.

Good stuff jens! That first pic freaks me out a little bit and not sure why.

Yes, I think there is a certain spooky quality to the first screenshot. Dunno if it is because we're not used to see so much of the driver exposed or if it is the slightly unreal wax puppet like quality of ther driver model.

Anyway. I've been amusing myself with some quality stuff from Racesimstudio . They have some excellent free F3, F2 and Formula Hybrid mods/cars. Not this year's models but from 2017/2018 which is fine imho. Usually modern is not my cup of tea but when it is free I'm not the one to complain!

Now, I could not stop myself from actually also purchasing the 1970 "March 701". That thing is the bees knees with credible handling, great sound and a very fine cockpit. Also it is very close to my era. It really goes well with some of the classic tracks like St- Jovite, Brands Hatch, The Glen etc.

I'm so far barely capable of keeping any of these cars on the track for the duiration of a couple of slow laps but oh my have we come a long way from GPL, F1 Challenge and GP4.

I find myself way more of a fan of the vintage racers in these sims.

That makes three of us!

I was going to show my expertise and say the first shot is Brand's Hatch, but I see you've said so. Great track. I've been driving it a lot. It's one of those vintage tracks that is still the same. Good screenshots. Thanks for sharing.

A few more. Monza in the 67 F1 cars, Monaco and the Oesterreichring in the March 701.