[HO] Project CARS

Hey guys,

I hope everyone is well,

So this posted is based on Build 608 to 612 and is about the Vintage tyre testing I did today looking at the Vintage R1, the Vintage Flexi A/B/C tyres as well as Doug’s new Default tyre.

Before I go into detail about the tyres I have been testing, I just want to say that this car is very fun to drive, it requires a lot of car control and discipline to become fast and consistent, which I think is great as this teaches you to drive smart, as well as teaching you all of skills needed to keep the car on the limit. The best way I found to drive this car was to drive way below the limit, but to get as close as possible to the limit at the same time. The car is very easy to overdrive, which is what will keep you disciplined, as it is not easy to drive.

Whilst I have been carrying out my testing programme, I have been watching THIS video of Alexander Rossi driving the same car in real life and from what I can see, I think we are not far away at all. With my tyre testing, I have been taking both the video and my personal feelings into account so that I could come up with the best analysis possible by working towards my aim of creating a tyre that is realistic, believable and consistent at all times, so with this in mind, all of my feedback will be focussed on the above aim.

Testing Circuit for all tyres: Belgian Forest

Vintage R1 Tyre

I am very impressed with this tyre, it is very predictable, controllable and feels really nice once you know how the tyre reacts. The general balance of the car I feel is very solid, the car moves a lot mid corner and on exit but is very forgiving at the same time where you can really hustle the car to where you want it to go. I feel that the balance makes you feel like you are floating through medium speed corners where you can power slide your way through, controlling the throttle and being precise with steering application at the same time.

Although, I feel that this tyre feels very good with the balance it has, I feel that in comparison to the video, the behaviour of the car with this tyre I think is a little unrealistic in some areas. This tyre seems to not have much traction both when the middle part of the tyre is being used and when the outside of the tyre is under load when on power. Mid corner I feel has too much grip from the front and not enough at the rear, the reason I say this is because as the balance is very controllable, it means you can turn the car in on the brakes to get the rear to step out and move, which minimises understeer and helps you to the apex. In this case, I feel that it is unrealistic, as the car in RL seems to have a lot of understeer where turning in on the brakes would not be the correct technique.

Overall I feel that this tyre is very solid and nice to drive, I would be looking for more understeer from the front but with more stability from the rear both mid corner and under power, as at the moment, the car breaks traction very easily both in a straight line and when a small amount of lock is applied, which does not seem to be as frequent in the video.

Before I go onto the next tyre, if you have a look in the video, throttle application is very progressive, but there is not too much of a delay to get on full throttle and once full throttle is applied, there does not seem to be any power oversteer at all. The understeer from the car in the video is to be expected, as well as the instability under braking and on entry to the corner. This is what I feel we need to develop into our car, which is progressive instability under braking and on initial turn in, where the car is still very controllable when sliding or when having moments. With our car at the moment, we have a lot of stability under braking and on entry, but a lot of instability on exit due to lack of lateral and basic traction, which I think is the opposite to what you can see in the video with instability under braking and sometimes on entry, with controllable moments ending with decent traction on exit and when under load through high speed.

Vintage Fexi A Tyre

This tyre I feel is a step closer to where I think the tyre needs to be, but still needs some work, which is too be expected with the stage AJ is at with all Vintage tyres. What I feel is a lot more realistic compared to the R1 Vintage tyre is the understeer that this tyre produces, which reduces corner speeds to a much more believable pace. (Look at the video where you will see that corner speed is very low compared to the present day and all speed is carried and gained on the straights). This tyre has the same stability under braking and on entry as the R1, but with a little more traction in a straight line, and with the same lack of traction when on power through the corner. What I have noticed with both tyres so far is that power oversteer is very easy to create but also very easy to control, which is both good and bad, meaning that you can use it to your advantage to get rid of the understeer, which compared to the video is unrealistic as you do not see Alexander power sliding the car through the corner and instead is very patient with the understeer before he gets on the power. This tyre for me is a step forward in realism compared to the R1 tyre as it is also very well balanced and gives more realistic cornering speeds and grip levels.

Look at THIS video and skip to 1:20 to understand what I mean about power sliding. (This video is using the C tyre, but A and B are also the same when on power through a corner.)

Vintage Flexi B & C

Ok so I am putting these two tyres in the same paragraph as I feel they are very similar, personally I do not have much to comment on both of them, as my general feeling of them is the same. In comparison to Flexi A, B has more front end grip where you do not have to wait as long or slow the car down as much to get to the apex. Fexi C has more initial front bite, which to me feels better as the grip level from the front tyre maintains throughout the corner, where Flexi B has less initial front bite and starts to push/understeer at the middle of the corner. Although B has less grip then C, B still has more entry bite than A, but is very similar in regards to mid corner grip. Both B and C have the same feeling of traction, which I feel is too low especially when applying lock on power, but if we were to increase the traction both in a straight line and through a corner, it would only be minor as you only want to reduce the power oversteer snap, but not take it away completely. Also, I think that 2nd gear traction is also too low compared to the video as there is a lot of wheel spin, but this is minor.

Default

This tyre is by far the fastest but the most unrealistic due to the way the rear behaves. The rear is very loose but controllable at the same time, this minimises understeer a great deal compared to the Flexi tyres, which increases overall corner speed but results in a more unrealistic feeling. Grip under braking is higher resulting in later braking as well as the ability to trail brake. The overall balance is great with a lot of front end grip and overall traction, which still has the tendency to break under load, which is nice, but I personally feel that this tyre is too good for a car as old and under developed as this one. I am not saying that the tyre is not good, as it is very interesting how, as development has progressed, progressive, controllable slides are now a lot more common on default setups compared to previous builds, but regardless of this, this tyre is not a realistic fit in my opinion.

Overall I feel that the Vintage Flexi C tyre is the best out of all in regards to more realistic behaviour and better all round feeling. I think that making the tyre more unstable under braking and on entry from time to time, together with increased traction and mid corner rear stability would be another step forward in the right direction. I think we are very close already, but maybe a few characteristics needs be swapped around in some areas and improved in others.

Great job yet again, hope my feedback helps.

Nic