I know this car was butchered by the critic because it was to easy to drive, and not able to reproduce the subtleties of oval racing, plus the added bug of not being able to run on road tracks against AI. But in my opinion, it is a very fun car to drive, with many superb skins (thanks boxer), and it makes a very good entry single seater, easier to master than FISI or Marussia. On a flowing track like Suzuka it is a pleasure to drive. If ISI makes a new improved version I may keep this one just for the fun. Cheers. P.S. Work on a setup where both axles have same tire temp and wear, and suddenly the car is no longer so easy to drive...
It is criminally underrated for sure. It is a complete pleasure to drive on the limit. When right on the limit it isn't easy to drive at all, and with the right setup it can be quite a handful. Had a blast of an online race a few weeks ago, at one of the short Mills layouts. It occured to me that a lot of people aren't actually racing this car to the limit, hence the notion that it's too easy. I had at least two seconds a lap on every other driver on the server, so I think a lot of people simply underdrive the car. Not the first time I've seen others being strangely slow in the car. The levels of downforce are enormous, and makes it a joy to race. But you have to trust the downforce in order to be fast.
It is well known the current version isn't fully correct in many ways, especially ovals. But except for seeming to not have as much front turn in bite and a bit of a wandering front suspension, the road course version is very fun. Sure it's easy to drive but to really push that thing to what it can achieve - just like any other car - takes a bit more. It perhaps may be underrated, not sure. This and the F-Renault 2014 are certainly underused.
In the case of the F-Renault 2014 it is may be well deserved, due to the fact that the car doesn't even report ride eights (it detracts from using Motec, for an modern high downforce OW), in my case I did a few laps to look at the nice cockpit and I was done with it until a new version is available (9 months later still waiting). See bug report from Coanda 112 days ago, http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/19918-2014-Renault-F3-5?p=308370&viewfull=1#post308370 Cheers.
I wouldn’t dream of waiting to use either of those cars, even if they aren’t fully finished. I want to enjoy what has been given to us, not sit around waiting months or even years for something to be 100 percent finished. If I did, I wouldn’t be able to use any of the current racing sims at all, now would I? That wouldn’t be too much fun. Everything is evolving and being developed all the time, that’s just become the nature of the genre these days. Even in their current state I find them some of the most enjoyable modern sim cars I’ve ever driven, especially the Formula Renault 2014. In the medium downforce configuration it is magnificent and such a challenge. Hugely satisfying for me. The DW12 makes for some awesome racing too in its road configuration and with a bit of setup work. By default it is a very tame car, but it is able to show its teeth too with a bit of work and when driven hard. It is a work in progress, and the amount of hate it got on release is completely disproportional imho.
I don't use MOTEC. Yes it is important for things to log but it doesn't detract from the actual driving. Here's the DW12 (ignore the last corner missed apex, it wasn't grippy):
I think it is probably under rated. Its easy to drive, fast and fun. Also importantly you dont have to be an awesome driver to complete a race in it. We ran a 90 minute Suzuka race and had nice race long battles. The car compressed the field a bit so even after 90 minutes no one had been lapped. In several Open wheelers we would have seen more lapping and less finishers. It reminded me (in a good way) of doing a race in Codies F1. Everyone gets to race, have fun and finish. (unless they push brake cooling too far). So IMO an ideal fun open wheeler category for newer drivers to RF2.
It is not underrated, it was under-delivered. The fuel tank isn't even the right size PLUS a barrel-full of other problems and inaccuracies. I googled the fuel tank size and found it in 5 mins but ISI can't use Google? This is the sort of thing that is inexcusable and shows the sloppy work that went into this car. This car should have a 22 gal fuel tank but it is only 14.3 gals. They used bad data which is an issue squarely laid at the feet of ISI even if they blame the bad data they got from the Indycar team. They should have made fixing this car priority #1. The power delivery is wrong, you can't even buzz the rear tires out of a hairpin and the front tires take a beating at every track even though in the real cars, it's the rear tires that go first. Ask Montoya if you don't believe me or watch last year's St. Petersburg GP. There's no excuse for 1) releasing this car in this state when ISI has a license for the product and a responsibility to the series to accurately represent it 2) leaving it in this state for so long. Many fans and apologists for rF2 will defend ISI and make excuses for this car, but the fact is, it is not very popular because when you drive it, something just is not right. You can't adjust most of the important settings that really effect the handling of the car and there are important engine settings missing too. The AI thing is an annoyance too. I drove this car a lot when it first came out but I stopped pretty soon after I delved more into the car and saw all the problems it has. So have most other people and so they have moved on leaving this in the "underrated" category when it should be in the "mistake" bin.
I feel massive potential and can even have an amazing time driving the current RF2 Indycar, however there are two issues. The first issue is just mod/car-specific, but the 2nd issue is an issues with most sims but worst of all with ISI's. Issue 1: As everyone knows, either too much overall rear grip, or just a wrong power curve, or a little of both, who knows, but the rear is just way too planted, you really need to mess with badly to get it out, then sometimes it just has that un-natural snap to it. Issue 2 - I have included the original message, of which I replied to, regarding this issue: My reply:
For me it's just too ugly Seriously, I'd love to get into US-style open wheelers, but the UFO look of this thing is a huge distraction. That and having to repackage every track for AI with a config edit to have them run full wings.
For the look I can't say anything, first I disliked them, and they grew on me as time passed, and boxer liveries were available. I have seen various races on Youtube (one in Alabama with mixed weather) and I was seriously impressed with the skills of the drivers, and the race was every bit as exciting to follow as an good F1 race. You don't have to repackage every track any longer, you have an option to force AI setup for a given track in the UI in the race options (if my memory doesn't fail). Cheers.
I think Lgel was talking about the real series, I watched the race (Alabama) too and others (RC races) more interesting than F1, at least to see on TV.
