That Gremlin is quite nice car actually, I did manage to get it into single player mode with many trial and errors (my mod dev mode is not working), so I have had chance to drive around and do some tweaks to physics. First thing I noticed wast that this thing sounds like a Jeep. Now it is actually a good thing as Jeep had same AMC 258cid 6 cylinder motor, very nice sounds indeed Steering is again bit about choices, there is no wheel that would turn enough many turns what wheel in gremlin turns, also there is no wheel that would give same workout what you get when leaving garage with Gremlin, so one has to do what one can do. I did calculate steering ratio and it has now quite nice slowness in steering, however it is bit of tradeoff in turning circle as it is less than half of steering range that our 900 degree wheels are able to do, so 10.6 meter turning radius becomes closer to 30 meter. It is really not bothering when driving, but when leaving from pit garage it can be bit of trouble on some very tight pits, also if one spins out there is no hope to quickly turn 180, from grass to grass it is. Still need to figure out how to get heavy steering with poor steering feel... Driving this car is something that put question on my lips, why we really need 5 gears or more in our cars? This car has gear for all areas, one for city driving and near schools, one for highways, one for rural roads. Then i remember that there is tiny small difference between our typical cars and these older machines, they got torque, it is 256Nm at 2000rpm, no turbos or any other wizard tricks, just enough cubic inches, 4.2 litres and modest 110hp. Driving these cars is completely different from how one typically drives in rFactor, there simply is no point of constant shifting, 2000rpm is perfectly good for top gear when accelerating out of the corner, sure one can shift down, but it mostly changes the sound. I did read about one old Car Life magazine test, where they did acceleration test of some muscle car, can't remember exact details, but car had 4 speed, and they tested launching on 2nd and at 1st, but could not make any difference to acceleration + when starting at 2nd you need to shift one time less and wheelspin is less of an issue.
I have to laugh jtbo using muscle car and Gremlin in the same post Gremlin never was anything near a muscle car unless guys went nuts on modding it.
If you compare Gremlin to Fiat 125P, I would say it is sure is muscle car alright, especially nose heavy V8 version And of course we will go nuts on modding Gremlin too, 401 with blower might classify as muscle, just barely Really lot of those muscle cars were actually quite slow in terms of top speed, Gremlin with desert gear was not that much slower on top speed, even it took long time from it to reach that top speed. For Gremlin I would need steering axis inclination, trail and scrub, which I would need for pretty much every car, very difficult to come by. I could calculate those, but for it I would need ball joint locations in 3d space. Roll centers are another issue, to calculate those I would need a-arm pivot locations in 3d space. So have to estimate and guess until then.
I will have a look around, though not sure I can come up with anything useful there. I haven't seen a Gremlin on the road or track for nearly 30 years now. Just had a thought and I am pursuing it it right now. I have signed up at a Gremlin car club site and have asked for the information you require. We will see what sort of answers I get. If I am able to get some good data, I can see about signing up at several car club forums for different cars to try and get the information for you guys jtbo.
I'm really looking forward to this mod. Reminds me of American Grafitti, which was actually filmed in my town
Thanks, with your knowledge I'm think there is going to be some success I'm not sure how this story is going today, but there might be them on track still today, just bit different class? http://bangshift.com/forum/showthread.php/31749-AMC-Gremlin-vintage-road-racer Or is that road course that we drive in rFactor in US terms? Drag strip is called also track, I have great difficulty telling which is which, same with truck, pick-up or the big thing Anyway this might be one of the fastest Gremlins, there is videos too, to make you loose good hour in video hopping at yt instead of doing something useful http://www.yellowbullet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=174974 Like my Volvo, I really don't see them around, but I know there are quite few, just not used as much as once they were.
I have been playing with turbo code and have and idea how to maybe get something that is not hugely far apart from blower kind of thing. Sample is not so good so it loops quite horribly, also there are few quirks still to be sorted out, but I think it already gives correct impression? 400cid supercharged engine, slow steering, poor brakes and 2 tons of mass makes it bit different to drive than your average sim race car
Little kitten does one wheel burnout (1st to 2nd gear, automatic box shifting, well, automatically), planning to put suregrip on her though Sorry, forgot this page open again and can't be bother to do video recording all over again http://www.rockabilly-radio.net/
I'd like to ask if there is any capable track modder that would like to make any suitable open road track for this mod? I could do it as well but I am running out of time, as I'd like to concentrate to polish our vehicles at this point.