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@Marco just made a stream showing the car pack!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kozjnQGmwng

A great testing session with the "master" @Marco that kindly stream taking a first ride with them all. This is car pack is almost ready to become published, stay tuned

Zapper, your V6 driver (ADENG1T3.VCE) sounds like a V10 with a Formula 1 car. So let's call it a Formula 1 V10 driver, okay?

Hi GTAMan18, if it's suitable as a V10 let it be also known as for this type of racing engines

Hello,

Picking on a minor old topic, I was playing with bits of ENGIne chunk of AdLib's VCE file and was able to get a new F1 engine sound, more similar to V10, based on sound used in "Mario Andretti's Racing Challenge" Indy car.

For using the attached file just rename/replace the ADENG1.VCE file in game's folder.

Enjoy.

Hi,

A new minor update to CarEdit3 has being released.
Here are the version 3.4.3 changes:

- Gears screen improvements allows the "approximation ratios" can be adjusted for simulation purposes;
- GFX screen corrections on coordinate's hint text;
- General simplification (showing cursor symbols) and reordering of key actions in screen's bottom bar.
- Credits added on program exit.

Attachment below.

Hi,
More grip tests were carried out on the same tracks, but mirrored in order compare with previous results by considering an average lap times for each type of track surface.
With this approach its possible to negate any biased steering behavior bug interference, as far as I get.
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Here are all the lap times in "DRIFTM" and "DRIFT2M" tracks (ordered by asphalt path lap times on "DRIFTM"):
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As expected, on this mirrored tracks the lap times slightly decreases on ice surface path being mostly formed by left turning curves, and increases lap times by opposite cause in dirt surface.

PS: All cars were also tested with similar results between mirrored tracks on Mindscape 1990 game version.

One way to eliminate bias that could be more convenient than e.g. reversing the tracks is testing on the Mindscape 1990 game version -- with it, left turns aren't faster than right ones.

I'll try if these new cars are loaded correctly in that version, or alternately, use same path in diferent surface type on distinct tracks.

Hi,

Just to give some update, I begin grip tuning tests for all 11 original cars on 2 types of flat tracks, one high-speed with wider curves (named "DRIFT") and the other more shorter with twisty and tight corners (named "DRIFT2").

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As you can see from the screenshots taken with Bliss, for both track types there is a base asphalt path and two symmetrical paths on dirt and ice surfaces for better comparison although these can surely be biased by the game's steering bug.

For now I'm reaching the following grip values for all cars shown in the table below.
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These values are the result of "base grip" multiplied by their respective asphalt, dirt, ice and grass coeficients. Next to each car grip values are the respective lap times for track and type of surface path taken:
(The table is ordered by fastest DRIFT asphalt lap times.)

These adjustments take into account each car's engine layout (balancing), wheel traction, weight and stability control equipment (in the case of the NSX).

@KyLiE , I completely agree given that the physical model has its shortcomings, as we well know, it is still quite capable of simulating through these adjustments for each car and not as something "stuck" within the game's engine.

These adjustments were reminiscent of when, in a game just 4 years younger, "The Need For Speed" had the collaboration of "Road & Track" magazine to help calibrate the cars to make them more realistic. So much that in the same game, it was possible to do acceleration and braking tests on the "Rusty Springs" track (using the F8 key) in order to show that accuracy.

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Such a clever touch that does justice to the simulation game it also intended to be, and much to the delight of racing sim fans like myself.

Hi you all, this car pack is taking it's final tuning touches, and one of them is the brake parameter in order to adjust each car braking power in match (or approximately at best) to their real stopping distances.

The braking test method takes into account the distances taken from 60-0 mph and 100-0mph and it's measured using the information under "Dragstrip testing" section of Car testing page Stunts Wiki, i.e., "a tile amounts to 204.8 feet".
Here is an example image of how it's done  with the LM-002 on 60-0mph:

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After doing that to all cars here are the resulting "new brake values" and their real and in game comparisons table:
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As we can check some braking distances are pretty close and I was pleased to get the 60-0mph stopping distances under 1m and even an acceptable 2m error margin, but for the 100-0mph it was not possible to match namely for the LM-002 case with almost 20m shorter distance.
The 100-0mph stopping distances were the most difficult information to gather on the web, they were some times very disparate so I considered the 60-0mph stopping more relevant in this regard. In this respect some compromise adjustments were taken on GTO and ZR-1, getting a little less stopping distance on 60-0mph and minimize the 100-0mph excessive stopping distances.

I hope with this the car pack gets a better approximation to each car braking capacities judging by their braking technology, curb weight and balance.

Next will be the grip tuning

Congratulations, that was a mighty work! The 962 can finally open its "eyes"

This one got more research work than making the real hands on stuff 

Interesting that the new version has slightly worse values for both 0-60 acceleration and top speed, but the power curve seems to suggest that its performance at typical racing speeds has actually improved.

If you check the stunts wiki list of DSI's cars, both IMSA cars are actually slower at 0-60MPH than what is shown on their respective descriptions and wich is also true against these new tuned versions.

- Porsche 962 IMSA:

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Presenting last but not least, the Porsche 962 IMSA from the 1988 season.
Being one of the most successful race cars due to its decade-long career (since 1984) and its extensive use (+100 chassis) in both IMSA and Group C (962C in WSPC and JSPC), the research process to find the version to be portrayed in the game was naturally more challenging.
In this way the resulting 3D model is based on various aspects of the most successful chassis, the 962-121 in 1988, and others such as the 962-120, 962-122 that also competed in the IMSA championship in 1988 and 1987 respectively.
Three paint variants (main sponsors "Blaupunkt", "Havoline" and "Dyson/Royal Crown") were incorporated to portray different aerodynamic package options (rear diffuser and/or front side wing flares) used by the "Dyson Racing" and "Bayside Disposal Racing" teams. Unfortunately a low drag rear wing aerodynamic package associated with a longer body (used for example by 962C in Le Mans races) was not possible to replicate due to limitation of vertices and/or polygons available.

In IMSA specification the 962 in 1988 used a 3.0L air-cooled engine (Type 962/72) with single turbo, instead of the water-cooled twin turbo used in its equivalent 962C in Group C championships. The performance of the 962 IMSA is thus somewhat restricted which translates into 695HP which is more comparable to Jaguar XJR-9 IMSA in game competitor. If it were chosen to use a 962C engine with 720-740 HP performance, it would be more like an Indy's competitor.

As for the instrument panel, it was designed with the options that I considered most suitable for the game, having been composed of several aspects of the previously mentioned 962 chassis (and others such as 962-C04 or even 962C-102). In short, I had to consider that over the years the chassis were always adapted/developed and therefore there is no real correspondence with their specific time period based on the photographs found on the web. Similar to what happened with the Jaguar XJR-9 IMSA, being a two seater car the steering wheel is at an offset position and the right front wing is visible, 5 speed gear is "dog leg" patterned and lastly a speedometer was added where a digital compressor discharge temperature gauge resides, but this time a fake feature that was made on purpose.

NOTE: (*) - The yellow customized color needle appears only with Stunts 1.1 Mod 1.0

Thank you for all your words. They are all likely to get motivation and my best effort in making these improvements.

Jaguar XJR-9 IMSA is one of the vanilla cars that took the longest path to get right!

I expect that the remaing one, the Porsche 962, should be easier.

I think that you could use the Ferrari F40 (ZF40) since it has use of almost the limit of vertices/faces allowed by game's engine. I also suggest to check stability of this developments with a race with opponent using an high detailed car.

I congratulate you for your job on getting such improvements! Very nice 

- Jaguar XJR-9 IMSA:

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Presenting the Jaguar XJR-9 IMSA from 1988 season. This one was one of the DSI's original car with the least correspondence against the real model, starting with its specifications that were replicated from the "Porsche 962 3.5L flat-6 turbo", passing to its the 3D shape also very similar to 962 but with irregular/asymmetric gaps and ending with the dashboard that was somewhat themed by the colors of the "Silk Cut Jaguar" team's livery from Le Man's endurance WSPC cars (not IMSA's "Castrol Jaguar" team livery).

The car specification is now based on the Jaguar V12 in 6.0L iteration for IMSA 1988 cars and not the later 7L + engines revisions ('88 WSPC and IMSA following years) in order to stay under 700HP and maintain their top speed below 245MPH in game.

The 3D shape contains, like the previously posted Porsche March Indy, a normal and a speedway aerodynamic package being the later with lower rear wing. Using this aspect there is respectively a paint job for the Castrol Jaguar IMSA team and paint job for the livery of the "Silk Cut Jaguar" WSPC team.

The carbon fibre dashboard has now an offset steering wheel, visible front wings, a 5 speed "dog leg" gear pattern and a digital speedometer present in one of the lcd displays although on the real car it could not be dedicated for that.

- Porsche/March Indy 90P:

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Presenting the Porsche/March Indy 90P, named as such with "/" as DSI's uses in it's "shortname" (visible in highscore table) and completing with the specific racing model from the 1990 CART season. This was the final year of the March-Porsche indycars since 1987 that also matches the performance specifications of DSI's original car.

The 3D shape this time wasn't modeled from blueprints, instead only car photos were used as reference.
It includes two "Quaker State" livery paint schemes in which one of them reveals a "speedway" version of 3d model with specific aerodynamic package (smaller front wing and lower rear wing seen on last above image).

The dashboard was replicated using DSI's approach since it contains small parts of the real cockpit. The digital speedometer is now enabled on the "Bosch MSP DIS08" multi information LCD display, although I have no sure if that would be one of its possible readings.


NOTE: (*) - The yellow customized color needle appears only with Stunts 1.1 Mod 1.0

Thank you @Cas for pointing the swapped comparison images of Delta's dashboard. It's now in order

Now that all the road cars are almost ready, there are some aspects of braking and grip values that may need some tweaking before releasing the pack, but until then the race cars still need to be done.