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