[FM2] Supercars Racing Series (Previously S-Class Thunder!)

[Hoplee]

very interesting! That's a decent amount of PI to play with... muahahahaha (evil genius laughter)

[bimmerlovere39]

I'm planning to mandate something to get some parity.  Quite possibly racing slicks.  Maybe weight reduction.

[Hoplee]

I was thinking the same thing about a tire restriction. If you mandate racing slicks, I'm pretty sure that throws the Saleen out of S-Class. Two-birds, one stone. Might do the same thing to the CLK-GTR. You might be able to get slicks on a Pagani in S though... With sport tires it's under 910 IIRC

I haven't made up my mind about a drivtrain restriction, but am leaning towards RWD only. It makes for better racing IMO if everyone is trying to drive a similar line.

[bimmerlovere39]

Well we sure as hell know that there will be no FWD.

[bimmerlovere39]

I've managed to get the Z06, Ford GT, 997 GT3, and the Esperante built out.  They all look like they are moving on.

I've already decided one that will not make it: the new GT500.  It has to have like 800+ hp even with slicks and race weight.  No, thank you.

[Drift2XL]

That's what I thought about the GT500. Going to write up the class for the new school T/A (name subject to change...definate change). Should fit better with some more evil handling muscles.

[Hoplee]

Bimmer and I ran a bunch of these against each other on Sebring Short last night with promising results. The majority of cars were running within half a second of each other. Some cars showed definite room for improvement with tuning, others felt like they were close to where they needed to be handling-wise. The slowest car I tested was the Pagani with a time of 70.4xx, just behind the M3 GTR. Most of the cars were hovering around 69.7xx. The last two cars we ran easily knocked a second off those average times. They were a Panoz that bimmer had built and an AWD 911 GT2.

We'll need to run another testing session on a twistier track to get a better idea of where we stand.

Cars I ran last night:
Carrera GT
911 GT2 (AWD swap)
Corvette Z06
Ferrari F40
Jaguar XJ220
Diablo GTR
Pagani Zonda C12

I'll let bimmer post the list of cars he ran last night. I'm still not sure we should run the AWDs with the rest of the crowd. If we do, every start will be a comedy of errors as the field tries to sort itself out before and during turn one. On Sebring Short, my 911 had a 200m lead before the first turn even though we ran lap times within a tenth of each other. That's a lot of ground to make up! The whole issue could have been avoided if the FM2 devs had allowed rolling starts in multiplayer races, but for some reason, they didn't. We've tried to organize rolling starts for the Speedway cars and it's really difficult to pull off, even with a designated pace car. The way I see it, if we allow AWD then we have two options:

1) Run a ton of laps so that the RWD guys have a chance to get through traffic and catch the AWD that will inevitably be in 1st.

2) Try to organize rolling starts for every race with mixed drive-types.

I'm not hating on AWDs here, I'm just interested in good competition. I've said it before and I'll say it again, a rear-engined AWD car is a thing of beauty. Those AWD 911s will really swing around the corners and are great fun. If you haven't tried one, DO IT!

[Hoplee]

Bimmer, have you built an MC12 or Enzo yet>?

[bimmerlovere39]

We talked about the Enzo yesterday, remember?  Lol.  I ended up being really uncomfortable with the mods required to keep it in the class.  So it looks like a no-go for the Enzo.  I haven't messed with the MC12 yet.

What other Ferrari would we choose - F430?

[bimmerlovere39]

Have you thought about the Cobra or Series 1?

[Hoplee]

I had thought that as an older example of American Iron, the Cobra might be included in the ALS/500. For some reason DD doesn't like it too much. It might not be good for competition with its light weight and ungodly torque, so he may have a darned good reason. For our project I think one of the major complications is keeping the field of cars to a manageable size. That's why I haven't suggested any older cars. I love the Cobra, but I think it we lose focus by broadening the car selection to include the older stuff.

The Series One might not be a bad choice at all. I haven't picked one up yet because I don't play the single player game and they go for big $$$ on the AHouse.

I still don't see what the big deal is about big-wheelin on the Enzo. Did you have to use the lowest brand of race tire and skip all the platform mods to pull off a 998 or what? If we choose any other Ferrari, it should be one of their flagship cars, such as the F40 or F50. The F430 is fast, but it's just not a 'flagship' car. That's the same reason I prefer the Carrera GT over the 911 or Cayman. Both the 911 and Cayman are faster than the Carrera GT in game, but they aren't what you'd point to as Porsche's 'flagship'. Same thing with the Mustang vs the Ford GT. They're both fast, but only one is truly 'super'.

My current 'short list'
->no more than 1 car per manufacturer

Ferrari F50 (alternate F40 or Enzo on dubs! g)
Lamborghini Diablo GTR (alternate Gallardo?)
Maserati MC12 (untested)

Porsche Carrera GT
Mercedes SLR
BMW M3 GTR

Ford GT
Corvette Z06
Viper Competition Coupe

Honda NSXR-GT
Toyota Supra RZ
Nissan R390 (untested)

Aston Martin Vanquish
Jaguar XJ220
TVR Sagaris

Notable exceptions include:
McLaren F1 (untested)
Saleen S7 (can't stay in S on race rubber)
Mercedes CLK-GTR (untested)
Pagani Zonda (may be too fast, so far it's got the most grip)
Koenigsegg CCS (untested)
Shelby Series One (untested)

Other exceptions include manufacturers without a RWD flagship model such as Subaru, Mitsubishi, Saab, Volvo, Hyundai etc.

[Moosejaw]

These seems interesting.

Are there any build restrictions or do the cars just have to stay in S class?

I already have the following built to S998 of which the MC12 is my favourite:

Ferrari Enzo
Maserati MC12
Koenigsegg CC8S
Ferrari F50
Pagani Zonda C12
Porsche Carrera GT
Ferrari F40

[Hoplee]

Restrictions are ultimately up to bimmer. That being said, we've been testing only cars with racing tires equipped. This keeps it from becoming "Spec Saleen".

[Hoplee]

I was just thinking, if you could run the ones you have racing tires on for just a couple of laps each on Sebring Short and post your results, it would be useful for comparison. We've been running the cars with totally default tuning to get our baselines. If you have to, tweak the FD, but we want to avoid adding tuning as a variable at this point.

thoughts bimmer?

[DirtDriver]

When I was working out the ALS test I had the same concern, Hop. I thought the best approach might be to save the current set up and reset to default. That does mask some of the potential in the cars but it does give a benchmark.

DD