So this is my second blog for PROJECT CARS, I hope you all liked my first one and enjoyed reading what I had to say.
This post is generally going to be about build 351 and the changes that were made to the GT tires to reduce the issues we were all having which I highlighted in my first post.
Formula A
Firstly I want to mention that I have had a go with the Formula A car around Besos GP, and I found it very enjoyable, for me this car seems to have the best SETA developed tire at the moment with plenty of grip both on the front and the rear of the car and makes controlling the car very realistic.
As well as enjoying the car, I found a few things that I think could be improved. Firstly is the braking, mainly for medium and slow speed corners, when you apply the brakes the car stops heavily which is correct, but the game does not seem to be able to keep up with the deceleration of the car, by this I mean that when you brake and turn into a corner, the surroundings seem to ‘jump’ when the car is slowing down, this makes the braking phase very difficult and unrealistic, as you do not know how much the car is going stop. Maybe this is just my PC I am not sure, but it is hard to explain what I mean in writing, but hopefully you can understand what I am trying to say.
Secondly, the sound of the ‘Formula A’ car when in the cockpit and outside of the car is some way off from how an F1 car sounds in real life. I have done a comparison between Lewis’ onboard in real life, and the ‘F1 2012 Game’ produced by Codemasters and Lewis’ onboard lap in real life compared to the Project CARS ‘Formula A’ and it is quite clear that ‘F1 2012’ has more of an accurate engine sound. I am not trying to be negative; I am just trying to pick out the small detail. I am not sure if the sounds of the car can be changed, but I think this is something that should be as accurate as possible.
BMW Z4 GT3
I have been reading a lot of peoples comments about the changes to this car, and it seems that a lot of people are not happy about the understeer that it has now. When I first started driving the car, I used my own setup and instantly did not like it mainly due to the huge amount of understeer that you get on the entry to a corner, as well as the lack of traction on the exit. I then read the first post on the ‘Build 350 discussion’ thread that advised to use default setups only. (correct me if I am wrong). I then started using the default setup and the car felt very stable on the rear due to the huge amount of understeer it had, the tire produced more traction out of corners, but the understeer was so great that I had to do something about it. I decided to change the car, but not too much as it seemed that the more I changed the car, the worse it got e.g. lack of traction on exit of corners, the default setup was good enough but just needed tweaking.
I found a good balance with the car in the end, but I still felt that I needed a little more traction out of corners and could not get rid of the understeer without making the rear unstable. Through high speed corners, the front of the car worked well e.g. Eau Rouge turn one at Spa, but through medium and low speed corners, it seemed to struggle. With all this being said, I found a way to drive around the understeer but I realized that to compensate for the understeer, I was using an unrealistic amount of steering lock to get through the corner e.g. turning the wheel sharply to get the front of the car to turn in properly. If I had to do this in real life in the dry, then the car would instantly be wrong and I would make changes. I have done all of my testing at Spa and after a few laps I was able to do a 2:19.7. I believe that Casey Ringley said that the pole time this year in real life for a Z4 GT3 was a 2:19.5, so this puts us in the correct ball-park for a realistic lap time. All that is needed is more front-end grip e.g. less understeer, and maybe a little more traction on the exit of corners, but I was very impressed with how changing the ‘damping’ on the rear made the traction better.
Asano X4 Touring
I know that a lot of people have also been commenting on this car saying that it is ruined etc. I personally do think that this car has taken a step backwards from the last build, which was 347, but this is what development is all about. We make changes, we learn from them and then we improve. The easiest way I can explain how this car feels now is that, when you are on power the rear of the car feels like it is floating causing it to oversteer, but when you are off power, the rear is planted and does not move causing a huge amount of understeer by not letting the front turn.
Before, the car felt like it had good downforce and front-end grip, but no rear stability through high speed corners and a lack of traction on the exit of corners, whereas now, the car feels like it has no rear stability through high speed corners, lack of traction on the exit of corners, and no downforce on the front or rear of the car. I have tried to make some changes to the car setup, but this seems to make no difference, even if I make a ‘drastic’ change to make the front turn better, e.g. maximum front downforce and minimum rear downforce, it does not seem to change the general handling of the car.
Lastly, as I mentioned in my first post, the curbs on most tracks need to be changed in terms of grip level as at the moment they are very slippery even with the slightest of touches. They are the correct, height, shape, size and look realistic, but some of them are too slippery for the dry condition.
Onwards and upwards ☺
Nic
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