Best Weather Conditions for Hotlapping

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Ermz, Aug 26, 2020.

  1. Ermz

    Ermz Registered

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    Just wondering what the best conditions are in rF2 for the quickest hotlaps? More of an academic curiosity than anything. My guess was always the the default 29 degrees with clear weather and a few hours of real-road rubber, but I'm unsure whether the game models thermal effects on engines and slows them down with heat etc.
     
  2. Rui Santos

    Rui Santos Registered

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    Good question...
     
  3. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    I don't think engines are affected until they are overheating and smoking.
     
  4. redapg

    redapg Registered

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    @Ermz I think that the bigger Problem, if nothing has changed since rF1, is the Setting of the Engine itself.
    There, for Example, is a Value that causes a Variance of the Engines "Health", when it gets loaded on Track.
    So it can happen that you start with 100% Health, but it also can be 60 % only, depending on the Engine Settings.
    Everybody will prefer 100 %, i guess and not only for Hotlapping. :)
    And there are the other Lifetime Values in the Engine File, that have an Influence on the Engines State.
    Is there a rF2 Plugin, that shows the Engine Health (like the XD Plugin in rF1)?
    That would be useful to check the Engines starting Condition and it's Progress while driving.
    In the DevMode you can Display the Engines Health.
     
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  5. Dave^

    Dave^ Registered

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    Never heard of this, thanks.

    I wonder if SimHub can read this?
     
  6. mantasisg

    mantasisg Registered

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    It would be useful, but spoiling racing greatly. Racing, not hotlapping, especially endurance racing. The lottery side of this system is great. In case you knew that you start with engine that will certainly survive abuse, or in opposite scenario an engine that would have to be nursed, it would just spoil it so much, the feature would become useless.
     
  7. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    Engine life variance tends to be a quite small percentage of the overall life, and again the "health" has zero impact on performance. It's possible with engine modes you could gain something over a lap by exhausting a more robust engine but many mods won't kill it that fast anyway (or the behavior that kills the engine isn't giving more performance).

    For that or longer runs, being able to see the life isn't going to enhance the experience for anyone. Everyone should be on the safe side a little; it's like at the moment we have no wind in rF2, so with a fully rubbered track the optimum speed into a corner is fixed to within 0.1kph. If we had variable wind everyone would need to leave a little room for changes in the "right now" optimum, which would be more realistic. Or you could take the chance and maybe be rewarded (but probably run wide). Having a display indicating the level of downforce or grip for the next corner with the current conditions would be less sim.
     
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  8. Bill Worrel

    Bill Worrel Registered

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    Carstat indicates an engine oil temperature for optimal performance. Is that not correct?
     
  9. mantasisg

    mantasisg Registered

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    There is optimal oil temperature parameter in physics. I am not sure how much of effect it has, but I think it has little bit of impact on power, I am not sure though. But the health of engine surely dioesn't see mto have any impact, engine either goes, or it breaks. I think most rF2 cars are veeeeery on the safe side though, I doubt many rF2 users has ever broken any engine when not doing anything obviously bad for it.

    However this thread seems to have gone a lot off topic, there doesn't seem to be anything related to conditions in rF2 to have an impact apart how wet or how saturated by rubber the realroad is. I wish there were wind effects too, as well as ambient and surface temps not being static.

    P.S. I wonder what is the best temperature for top speeds of natural aspirated engine cars, the lower the temp the more dense the air the better for engine, but aerodynamic drag increase if the air is more dense.
     
  10. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    It's correctly reporting the parameter that determines what's called the optimum oil temperature. It also correctly doesn't indicate what sort of performance drop off there is away from that temperature, because there isn't one [defined]. The optimum temperature does affect the thermostat operation and working oil temperature.

    I think instead of making assumptions you should simply test. Check the engine torque of one of your cars at full throttle in a particular gear and RPM (so speed and ram effects are consistent), then double the optimum oil temp and see if it's any different.

    This would obviously depend on the balance between aero and engine power, so would be vehicle specific as well as track specific. There's no single answer there.

    *sorry, didn't read top speed properly, so forget the track
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2020
  11. Rui Santos

    Rui Santos Registered

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    Those are just SOME of the questions we all would love to have answers. Unfortunately this is just a guess game, where you might think something is working when it's not and vice-versa...
     
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  12. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    Well, make a list for this context, and let's see what we can answer. No point just throwing our hands in the air and saying "gee, I don't know."
     
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  13. Ermz

    Ermz Registered

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    So, no direct answer to the original question?
     
  14. mantasisg

    mantasisg Registered

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    I think instead of making assumptions we should simply test it < thats what Lazza said :D

    The prediction would be: surface temps having no effect, ambient temps having no effect, wind having no impact, humidity having no effect.
     
  15. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    Lower temps would be better, as they influence engine and brake temperature at least and would allow running less cooling where available. If air temp influences tyre temp at all that would also help, assuming hotlapping tends to make them overheat.

    Other than that, dry track (!), fully rubbered in.
     

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