The Howston G4 and G6 are way under appreciated

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by buddhatree, May 5, 2015.

  1. buddhatree

    buddhatree Registered

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    The Howstons are awesome.

    I could never really drive these cars before I got my new wheel* and now I am really loving these cars! They are just fantastic. I've had some of the best races of my sim racing career! Whipping these bad boys around Birmingham (Barber) is fricking the best. Anyone else love these cars?



    *There were a few cars I just could not drive with a Logitech wheel.

    Seriously, anyone who is still using a Logitech wheel, do yourself a favor a get a belt-drive wheel. There's A LOT you're missing with a gear-drive wheel. There are subtle forces you just cannot feel with a gear-drive.

    No more massive rattles and jolts. Just smooth driving. Do it :)
     
  2. SRosswick

    SRosswick Registered

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    The reason I don't drive the Howstons as much as I'd like is I have a hard time (for some reason) keeping these beasts going straight... No issues really in the corners but this thing jumps around like crazy on high speed straights... wonder if that's my Logitech wheel at work.
     
  3. Eddy

    Eddy Registered

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    I love them since day 1. Truly under appreciated. Maybe they get some love and attention now because the Cobra handles sort of the same. And with some ISI love aka new contact patch. .......
     
  4. joker68

    joker68 Registered

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    I love old racing cars. My rFactor2 install is populated only with them, nothing modern. Lola, Howston, old F1/2/3, etc. I (try to) drive them with my G25 + TH8RS combo. They are hard to tame, and that's precisely why I love them. Sure they could receive some love from devs.
     
  5. hexagramme

    hexagramme Registered

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    I think the Howstons are beyond most people to drive.
    And I sort of understand why, after switching from the G27 (where I rarely drove them) to the T500 (now I can't stop racing them).

    The ffb of the T500 gives me all needed information about what the rear of the car is doing, which is essential for surviving imo.
    I had the same experience with the historic F1 cars. I came to adore them after I got my T500.
     
  6. buddhatree

    buddhatree Registered

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    Exactly.
     
  7. Emery

    Emery Registered

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    I don't think they're beyond most people's ability to drive, but it is beyond their patience. Different driving style from modern cars because you can't slam on the brakes and bang down the gears for compression braking... the poor tires just don't like that!

    [old school G-25 gear here... if I can drive them with that, surely others can, too?]
     
  8. Minibull

    Minibull Member

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    Of course, G25 here too and I can handle them fine. They just need a gentle touch and some quick reactions. Especially somewhere like Longford. You can feel the thing squirming under power, going over bumps and dips.
     
  9. deBorgo83

    deBorgo83 Registered

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    Me! They're totally insane, but wonderful!
    G25 here, btw.
     
  10. P.S.R.

    P.S.R. Registered

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    G27 here and I love the Howstons along with all high power, low grip cars with manual transmissions. Lemme see what is that list... Howstons, Cobra, T280, 60s open wheel, Celica... Am I missing any?
     
  11. Paul_Ceglia

    Paul_Ceglia Registered

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    They are my favorites!
     
  12. Spinelli

    Spinelli Banned

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    The Howstons are great fun, especially when you get used to them. However, until ISI fix the odd behavior of something in their physics engine going back way before rFactor 2 to at-least F1 2002, then the Howstons (or any car, but especially "wild" cars, eg. the Celica mod, the faster karts, high-powered open-wheelers, etc.) will never be as good as they could be. I believe RF2 has the best overall physics (vehicle behaviour) in simracing, ISI just need to investigate 1 or 2 long-standing vehicle behaviour issues that have been prevalent in any and all versions of their engine going back to at-least F1 2002. The Howstons, like the Celica, can really make this problem obvious. 1 of the problems being when you get the rear-end sliding; it's more as if you are just turning sharply left or right across the track. The car is therefore darting left and right across the track as if you are turning the car sharply with the steering wheel.

    I haven't tried the Cobra yet, it looks amazing to drive but I've sadly already seen this same behavior in multiple videos of it, and it's also happened in the new karts, therefore sadly the new contact patch still hasn't resolved this (not that I thought it would since the issue has been around for many years even though there have been tyre model changes introduced in ISI engines since F1 2002).

    I tried the Metalmoro in Game Stock Car, what a wonderful car to drive, but when you get to that point of wheelspin you get the same few issues since it's inherent to any version of the ISI engine, no amount of individual car-physics "massaging"/modding can remove it. It's even worse in the GSC 2014 F1 cars, pretty atrocious actually. Something in the "core" physics engine or tyre model program-coding needs to be investigated by ISI themselves. I don't believe modders/content-creators can fix it regardless of how "genius" their skills are (eg. Niels H. who is brilliant, the ISI guy/guys that do the stock RF2 car-content who are fabulous, the real amazing RF1 mods, etc.), it therefore needs to be fixed/improved by internal engine coding of some sort.


    P.S. All the sims do this to one point or another; they all have some issues in this area, but I just feel the issue stands out the most in the ISI engine, plus, I don't care as much to make my voice heard for those other sims because I'm most passionate about the ISI engine due to mainly - in my opinion - it's superior physics, and FFB as-well.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 6, 2015
  13. Nazirull Safry Paijo

    Nazirull Safry Paijo Registered

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    To me they drive exactly like the Cobra. U just need to update the contact patch then itll be great
     
  14. bwana

    bwana Registered

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    When the Howstons arrived on the scene many just didnt 'get' them and with many 'easier' cars to drive thats what most did. No doubt they will get a chassis flex and contact patch update that will see them back in favor .
     
  15. Justy

    Justy Registered

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    The Howstons are unappreciated.... Abso-freaking-lutely, they are still my all time favourite sim car, from any sim. The cobra is brilliant of course and is bordering on being my favourite now, but I can't help thinking that the updated tyres on these beasts will take my sim racing experience to a whole new level, in the same way that they did when first released (man, was that 2 years ago already?!). Never really had any issues with the cars behaviour, but maybe that is down to my own ignorance of such issues as described above.

    It is a crying shame they don't seem to be as popular, as I had hoped, but nice to see them making something of a resurgence now that the cobra has been released.

    Cannot wait to see these beauty's brought upto current rf2 standards.

    Cheers.

    Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk
     
  16. hexagramme

    hexagramme Registered

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    I meant no arrogance with my remarks about the Logitech wheels. :)

    Personally I had a problem driving the Howstons with that wheel though because the forces really didn't communicate much about what the rear of the car was doing. That was a general problem for me with the historic cars. Once I switched to the T500 that problem went away and now I mainly drive historics
     
  17. Woodee

    Woodee Registered

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  18. Denstjiro

    Denstjiro Registered

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    I think so too. I hardly gave them much effort after release until my league did a single event with it, one week in practise and a full race on sunday. On Le Mans.
    That week I forced myself to get along and after 3 or 4 days it suddenly clicked, I knew what to do, what to expect and I was sad to see sunday come and go.
    frigging awesome cars :)
     
  19. P.S.R.

    P.S.R. Registered

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    Since no doubt many people like me drive these frequently offline, there is no way to determine whether these, or any other vehicles, are under-appreciated other than by ISI of course although I can't remember whether chassis flex was original or these were updated with chassis flex.

    Regarding ignorance, it is indeed bliss and I avoid critical comments by physics winks and graphics wonks like a plague because I simply would rather not see what they see.
     
  20. David O'Reilly

    David O'Reilly Registered

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    They are great cars, very immersive and such flavour. You can smell the oil on the dipstick.
    I recommend real head motion plugin. It seems to help a lot with managing the chassis whereabouts and immediate intentions.
     

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