Anyone did RL laptimes comparisons ? Obviously we must account now that track temps has significance, but still most of RL best laptimes should be in 20-30 degs of Celsius bracket. And tolerance of 0.5s for each 60seconds should be accepted, in my opinion. Judging by competition system laptimes I am within 1s of fastest guys, so I am eager to do some RL laptime comparisons. But even more interesting would be for RL owners to try match their paces. As one who liked previous one a lot I'm ok with changes since the paradigm and fundamentals of handling didn't change. I even hope in next round of CS this version will be used, maybe less people will be quitting after NOT BEATING ME just joking. Gonna have some business with that: https://cms.caterhamcars.com/wp-con...314.466541509.1660468768-295658888.1659647866
A combination of things has kept me away from trying this until now including rFactor crashing and me having to start with a new UserData folder to fix it so my set up is not tweaked and I only managed a few laps of practice before it got too hot but I don't have any shift lights, the module is there but there are no LEDs (or any other texture) The number plates are very... dim, the number is almost unreadable The car is porpoising a lot, as if the rear shocks aren't working. In VR it's pushing me towards motion sickness I was struggling to control the car, maybe I need more laps to get dialled into it. It's a long time since I've driven the 1.4 litre mod for comparison or the AMS2 Caterhams but I remember them feeling fairly natural (except maybe the 620). The real car is very flattering to the driver. My car is very different to an Academy car - nearly twice the power, different front suspension and much stickier tyres - so my IRL track experience doesn't map very well on to this car. More when I've been able to try it properly. Edit: number plates are not just me, this is the S397 video:
@Seven Smiles What porpoising ? I don't use VR but I had difficulty noticing any exagerated rocking. Besides when we hear about porpoising, especially due to recent F1 cars, we probably associate it to aerodynamics, there is nothing like that. And IDK how much easier they could make it to become flattering to drive. I think this statement of yours is very revealing about the skill you have. So... Just did some pace testing. All sessions was ~20degs celsius, lightly rubbered from 5 to 10 laps, all default setup except 5-7liters of fuel (not even lowest pressures). Also worth mentioning I would be about 0.5-1.5second slower than fastest guys as it is the case in simracing. I also didn't drive past my medium effort in any of these. Anglesey Int - My time under 1'48'0, RL record Lee Wiggins 2009 1'48'8. Worth mentioning hottest of the sessions wiht 29degrees, and a mod track, so perhaps not 100% accurate. Brands hatch Indy - 56'3, RL record Michael Gazda 2012 almost 56 seconds flat. Donnington GP - 1'53'5, RL Daniel Halstead 2017 1'53'8 Donnington Nat ~ 1'23'0, RL Duncan Mallett 2022 1'22'7 Conclusion, now the car definitely is faster than RL, before it may have been a bit more unstable than RL, but pace probably was more realistic. Please people don't push for even more nerfing of a challenge and experience, if they make it faster, stiffer, grippier and overall more like modern racecar - you will not become better driver anyway. But what value my opinions have, I heven't driven this car IRL, right ?
Some of you are propably anticipating this.. so i hold nothing back. The old car had nothing wrong with it. You had to do 2 things right for it to drive good. 1 correct braking. on right spot, and right amount, and the car turned in beautifully. 2 you had to be conscious of weight transfer to know when you can start to throttle up (when weight starts to move back to center). Now you can more or less butcher both of these essential skills of racecraft, and still survive the corner. It is supposed to be academy car. To teach you, and test your skills in these most important parts of racing skill. There is nothing academy about it anymore. Maybe academy for "special needs kids"... in short: 1.05 = mouth breather version of the car. And yeah, i hate you all who had part in this travesty.
im not talkin about ffb. and since that was brought up. increasing caster to improve ffb feel, is trading car handling setup option for ffb. caster in short, affects the cars handling characteristics in corner entry and exit. as a rule of thumb: if car is nervous on entry, and hard to aim into apex, decrease caster. if its very stable and easy to aim into apex, but nervous on exit, increase caster. Now i see most are willing to trade this essential setup option to tune the cars behavior for better ffb? i cant fathom this logic one bit.. i feel im surrounded by &(%¤&¤#S
I agree that the version 1.0 seemed more how I'd expect the Academy to handle; very responsive rotation with coasting / trail-braking / vs acceleration. The new version does seem to be tamer, with less character and challenge. I need more time with it on various tracks but, my sense is that the car is less engaging than the previous version.
@Kelju_K i use the clutch a lot with this car i have no problem with handling but i find it more solid now than the previous version before patch
When you were mentioning 'number plates' I thought you meant the car # shown on the side. For instance the blue car with #59 on the side. What you are referring to actually, we would in the States would call them License Plates. Are there different terms for that item in different parts of the world?
certainly those license plates are dark... The truth is that the improvements to the physical, fbb and deficiencies of the car must be repaired based on reality and official data, not what people who have never run in their lives or a simple rally section or closed circuit, apart from the simracing believes that it must be the behavior of the car....... The good thing about all this for me is that I get home today and I won't see the difference from 1.0 to 1.05 I trust that things will go well ps.- if someone finds it difficult to drive the vehicle, they should complain less and practice more
…’registration plates’ is another common alternative in the UK… Anyway, I’ve just had my first shot in 1.05 - only a few laps around Cadwell but they’re pretty promising. It might be a placebo effect, but I’m not unhappy with the general FFB - I need to test more widely with real Road levels etc. and maybe tweak the car multiplier - but with the same settings I was running on v1.00, I think I’m feeling more of what I expect(ed). Great to have the front wheels back! One of the defining experiences of driving a seven is watching the wheels bob around. Can’t say I’ve noticed an porpoising yet (I’m VR too) - but I think the car was pitching back and forth up the Mountain and into Hall Bends. I can see that this might be uncomfortable if it gets into some kind of resonance on certain circuit segments. Still a few things to work on - the shift lights, the relative lack (for me at least) of side-exit exhaust noise (I do appreciate that audio is even more of a minefield than FFB given the spin audio processing can layer on top of what the designer intended) - and changing the caster to max seems like a sticking plaster for a more fundamental issue… Good work though - definitely improvement and I think I will be spending a lot of time in this car (and the variants I hope will come along in the future….)
I've been driving the Ultimate Academy Car a lot lately. The Porsche Cup. I still want to learn a lot. This car is the best for that! In comparison, the FFB's Caterham is still far too weak. Caster to Max, FFB to 150%. the feedback is there, yes, but just too weak. It's fun to throw it in the corners in a controlled manner and hit the apex. But somehow I didn't warm up to the car.
…or look for the SR4L ‘just for fun’ server on the matchmaker (use SR4L as the search/filter) - the track will download from there.
Thank you very much mate,... leaving Cadiz, as it arrives in Seville we will give the Steering Wheel a while longer.....thank you once again
Ought to say that this track needs shaders updating or something - it’s another one that works fine offline but has the bleached out colours etc. online. We’d love to know why - but there’s an existing thread running elsewhere for that issue.
