[HO] Project CARS

Project Cars Dec 18 2013

Well – we are making some serious progress!

This last batch of testing has been hugely rewarding and thank you Casey, AW and the team for punching Project Cars closer to the end game.

My test focused on the machines that have seen most of the development of late, including: Renault 98T, GT3 cars including Mclaren, BMW, Mercedes, Zonda R and a dabble in the McLaren MP4 road car plus the Lotus 78.

I’ll look at them individually and then open some broader suggestion on the steering wheel feedback, braking characteristics and some other dynamics!

98T

The old girl is back. X

The 98T has gone through some revolutions but I’m delighted to see that the old charm has returned along with some seriously cool upgrades.

Default Tyre

The Positive Notes

Turn in is pointy, sharp, and generally mega. It makes the car feel lively and you have the ability to put the car wherever you want – that sense of complete control is a winner.

On power – the transition from mid corner understeer to oversteer is progressive and you soon forget the challenge the dev team faced in creating this feature. You can really drive the car through a corner and gradually feel the rear breaking away – it’s superb.

The Negative Notes

When the car slides laterally it goes on for too long, especially if the car goes into a tank slapper and the weight switches across the rear axle, making it difficult to recover. In my view this still suggests that we need more grip when the car is sliding and more sense of the speed scrubbing off as a result of the slide – that reduction in speed from the scrub adds to the sense (and the reality) of recovering grip and I feel we are too light still.

On the default tyre I feel the 98T is too unstable still when you combine braking and steering, for example under high speed braking into the Tamburello Esses @ Imola (yep I still haven’t left my Imola testing base camp!)

The car feels too lazy and sloppy on the default tyre – almost like an overheated wet tyre rolling on the block, the car rolls around and doesn’t feel tight enough. The oversteer as a result feels too cumbersome – it should be shorter sharp shocks of controllable oversteer.

Steering – it feels a bit dead and I think this is a general theme that we should really pursue. Is it possible to have the wheel get heavier when the car is gripping and go light when it’s sliding?

80’s F1 Slick

An instant sense of improvement on the negatives I set out above.

Positives

The car feels tighter and the oversteer feels more aggressive, the car feels more responsive and there’s less sense of rolling around.

Transition from u/steer to o/steer is epic! More please, and if we could combine it with more steering feel it would be truly erotic.

Negatives

Oddly enough I missed some of the pointiness from the steering that I had felt in the default tyre. The turn in is superb with the 80’s slick but it did lose something in the aggression and predictability of the turn in by comparison to the default.. Could we have the best of both?

On cold tyres I noticed that this tyre wouldn’t let me combine braking and steering very well (it would spin) but this characteristic phased out as the tyres warmed up. QED – does that mean that low grip in the Sim causes the brake & steer spin problem? I thought that was interesting.

Once I got used to it – I felt the car should feel tighter, stiffer and more aggressive in terms of snappy slides. It’s much better than the default (less lazy) but I feel we should go a lot further with this.

Set up Conclusions

I ended up running zero brake mapping and with too much front brake for my inner preferences, but it was more predictable as a result. I would ideally crank in some more rear brake to bring back some liveliness to the rear axle but owing to something I discovered in the BMW GT3 I am avoiding too much rear brake for now.

I stiffened the springs and the car reacted very well to this, which was interesting. It followed its line through the corner better and was slightly more reactive to throttle. However, the spring changes did not improve the rolling sensation.

Grip Test Tyre

It felt like it had more rear grip at first.. I may have confused this though with the feel that front grip was actually reduced.

So the Grip Tyre had more u/steer everywhere and when the rear did break traction it wasn’t progressive.

The imbalance from reduced front grip proved too much for my meager skills and my avatar died horribly. There was less braking / stopping power and I saw more sand in the gravel traps than during a weekend in Blackpool.

In short I didn’t like it but it helps point the way forward!

• Final notes – no idea what button I pressed but all of a sudden I was required to use the clutch to leave the pit lane! Feels very realistic and the bite point etc is really well constructed.
• Not enough engine note change when a rear tyre is locked or rears spin up
• Need More tyre sound & feedback

Mclaren MP4

I jumped in this by mistake and from my first impression I would assume this car hasn’t been worked on yet. However I did want to say the engine note and the graphics are superb!

Zonda R

Initial impressions

1. positive because of the steering which felt more elastic and lifelike.
2. When the rear tankslaps it seemed to have a realistic change in speed / rate at which it twitched. Hard to explain but the rate of slide varied and I felt I had some control
3. There’s a good sense of understeer, it feels natural and for reason you can really gauge it but honestly I’m not sure why I felt that in the Zonda.
4. When the traction breaks the transition from u/steer is very good / controllable. This is especially good in slow corners.
5. Graphics are amazing

Negatives

1. didn’t feel that I could lock the tyres under heavy braking – not enough bite basically.
2. The power feels a tiny bit tame.? Maybe would benefit from some more grunt in the mid range to liven things up on corner exit

GT3 Range

I get the impression Casey has spent a lot of time here and there’s a major pay off.

McLaren GT3

Sounds amazing!

Positives

The transition from u/steer to o/steer is beautiful on the way out of slow corners.

The sense of reality is superb especially when braking into corners and you feel the car respond, though occasionally I felt the car was a bit too unstable doing this.

I noticed that when the car had some wheelspin in a medium speed corner that the o/steer died out of its own accord – this was very realistic and I didn’t lift off the power. It was as if the scrub naturally killed off the o/steer.

Negatives

Too much high speed understeer – especially entering Piratella and the high speed right towards Acque Minerali. The front end washes out immediately and the real car just wouldn’t do this, it has far more initial turn and a graduated progression into u/steer from a high level of grip.

I felt the car needed more braking bite and was unable to lock a tyre under braking.

Tyres

I tried the hard tyres and felt there was less grip and it was less satisfying to drive, although I was able to lock the tyres in this config. I moved to the soft tyre and with the McLaren felt that the balance was largely the same (which I contradict later) because the front end was still the limiting factor for me in the higher speed corners and I felt the braking potential was limited.

GT3 Rain / Greenflash Tyre

I know nothing about this tyre but am assuming that it’s what it says on the tin: a rain tyre!

Braking: heavily reduced braking grip.
Turn in: much reduced turn in grip

In theory the above statements should be correct for a rain tyre, but they felt a bit artificial without the addition of any straightline wheelspin.

Traction & steering weight are the two main barometers by which to measure the available track grip and in the wet they are essential, as well as all the sights and sounds from puddles, rain and spray to give you an insight to the standing water levels.

I suppose this is why I felt disconnected because the steering feedback is light all the time and the traction didn’t match the reduced grip under braking & turn in.

Laterally, the rear end was quite loose but also quite unpredictable and difficult to control. In reality there would probably be more initial understeer when you accelerate out of a corner and again the level of this would register in the driver a sense of available grip – if you keep pushing the throttle in spite of the fronts skidding on the wet tarmac then you will move towards a nasty rear skid.

We don’t currently have that initial u/steer, steering feel, or the reduced straightline traction – but we have a good start!

Would love to discuss this with you Casey because I realise its probably one of your toughest missions.

Mercedes SLS GT3

Default

Impressions: feels grounded and responsive like the MP4. Not enough steering feel and has a similar tendency for high speed u/steer and lack of turn / in power. Felt slightly weaker under braking

Traction: the steering from the rear sensation felt realistic as in the real thing you’re practically sitting over the rear wheels. Somehow this translates well into the Sim!

However, if you get into a tank slapper where the slide switches direction the Merc handles this quite badly and it spins. There’s just not enough grip in that scenario.

I really noticed that the Merc had the brake and steer instability issue. So it spun easily on a downchange into the hairpin and when braking into the esses (@ Imola!)

Soft tyre (brake mapping to zero)

This livened up the handling for the Merc quite a bit in general. The brake & steer issue persisted but the soft tyre generally suited the car well and balanced out the front end of the car, providing more control over where you placed it.

BMW Z4 GT3

This car is bloody fantastic in every department!
Default Tyre

Graphics – it feels like you could touch the interior it’s so detailed. It may be shallow saying this but it really sells you into the sense of actually being in that car. Then the handling backs it up!

I’ve focused a lot on the way PCARS machines handle in the most challenging situation, which is braking from high speed into a tightening corner and then making another hard turn, and over a sequence of bumps. This is noticeable at Imola in the fast right hander after Piratella.

The BMW absolutely nails it. The front end is predictable at high speed, so you can select a line and stick with it, then when you climb onto the brakes the creep to the outside of the curve is reasonable and predictable. Then you take the plunge into the second right-hander up the hill. In real life this corner is all hands on deck – it’s fast, bumpy and you’re asking everything of the tyres and suspension to cope with the bangs and bruises as you hammer kerbs whilst late braking and turning. I’m well impressed with what the BMW delivers here and it stands out on a higher level amongst not just the other GT3 cars, but as the best car in our range!

Power – fantastic. The power delivery and transition from u/s to o/steer is sublime. Brilliant control.

This is also greatly helped by the ENGINE NOTE – which goes silent when you lock the rears under braking and cries out when you get wheelspin. This is an essential ingredient, and the go kart desperately needs this 24 carat gold quality.

There is some understeer in the high speed corners but it’s predictable and more on this below re tyre choice.

When you make a car this good it makes people like me greedy because it’s getting close to perfection. So my additional notes for the BMW only apply to this machine because it’s on another level from the others currently.

1. On power – perhaps we need a hint more power, or a fraction less traction to liven up the corner exits at low speed and a bit more spice out of medium speed corner exits.
2. A little bit more turn-in power would be good. Don’t want to upset the balance, but some of the crazy turn-in of the 98T on default would be good because it feels very natural and free.
3. More aggressive response over bumps as you apply power, shorter sharp snaps of oversteer. If we can build some of that in then we have this nailed.
4. More feedback required in the steering wheel – heavier as it grips, lighter as it slips

This platform is fundamentally awesome – we are on the path to victory.

Negatives

1. Not against the car – but for some reason in its environment I noticed that the grass is like driving on ice.

Soft tyre (brake map to zero)

My favourite moment with the Z4 is the first lap on cold / soft tyres. The feedback is more alive and the car jumps around a fraction more, the way I want it to all the time.

I prefer the soft tyre on the Z4.

Braking: As I started to really push the Z4 I found it coming a little unstuck at the rear under braking into the Tamburello esses. I corrected this by moving the brake bias forward to 66% but then felt the car was less alive under braking elsewhere.

Fundamentally it seems that the sim is not currently differentiating between braking at high speed, and braking at low speed. We should be able to cope with more rear brake bias without losing stability under braking into fast corners, because when the downforce is high and really working it keeps the rear in check – but when the braking force is heavier and braking into a slower corner you would expect to get some instability at the rear.

Currently we are having to use quite a lot of front brake to alleviate the nature of the sim. Many builds ago I recall the 98T was really lively at the rear under braking down to low speed, but equally it was supported at higher speeds.

Summary

For me the big themes that will bring the Sim into reality are:

1. Steering sensation – heavy in grip, lightening in slip
2. Braking dynamics – more rear stability at high speed, and generally when braking and steering
3. Sound – the engine notes of the BMW should set the bar for all our cars. Silence when you lock the rears, screams when you wheelspin
4. Lateral grip vs straightline – more diferrentiation between the two when the car slides – this will improve our wet tyre. We still need more lateral grip in the slide, some models more than others.
5. Aggression in the slides. Need to feel more stiffness in the suspension, more movement, more signals that the car is on the limit before it breaks traction.
6. More turn in sharpness at times.
7. More braking bite – I feel we have gone softer on braking bite and would like to have the ability to lose tooth fillings when I hit the pedal too hard with the settings at 100% brake pressure and zero mapping, then to dial it back accordingly.
Like I said I’m a very greedy customer! So whilst I’m at it, please could everyone vote for the Macau Guia circuit to be added to the Sim, then we will have every top track in the world.

Have a great Christmas ya’ll – Casey I will be calling!