Lotus 49 Available for download

[Jay Adgie]

Just had a few runs out in the 49, she's a bit of a handful . There is a new build out with a new track as well.

The Season 3 Build boasts new tracks, enhancements to existing tracks, the long-awaited Lotus 49 and a host of new and improved features for league administrators and teams.

The new tracks include Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, home of the Canadian Grand Prix, and Long Beach, home of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Circuit Gilles Villeneuve joins Spa-Francorchamps, Interlagos, Silverstone and Suzuka on the list of iRacing’s current F1 tracks, while Long Beach is the first in a line of technical tracks that are driveable but not scheduled for official races. Enhancements to existing tracks include night racing at South Boston and Lanier National Speedway and . . . drum roll . . . iRacing’s first true Figure 8 configuration at Irwindale.

The Lotus 49 is also included in the build and forms the nucleus of the new Grand Prix Legends series.

New and enhanced features include the ability for league administrators to pre-configure race grids (independent of qualifying) and control certain weather parameters (but not rain) in hosted sessions and off-line testing. Also included in the build is a new chief mechanic function enabling a designated teammate to assist with car setup in the garage, as well as a cool feature enabling you to race against your own lap replays (often referred to as ghost racing) in time trial or testing mode.

 

[muscimol]

[Wear and degradation are one and the same thing]

I'm sorry but you are clueless and you invalidate reliability of your opinions.

 

[Jake Cooper]

I'm sorry but you are clueless and you invalidate reliability of your opinions.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/degrade

It even says in the definition of degrade and it's exactly the same definition as wear, which I happened to post earlier on.

I'm just gonna assume you're trolling.

 

[William Levesque]

Do people who think the L49 is hard to drive, also think that the rf2 60F2 is hard to drive....?

I can't speak for rF2 60's F2 since when I tried it it was ages ago on my old PC doing barely 30FPS, but I don't find iRacing's L49 that hard to drive... You just have to avoid over-driving it, which is mind you very easy to do.

Heck, I find it easier to keep on the track than the Lotus 79, but then I have a habit of failing at downforce cars ! (When I go very quickly mind you)

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

Do people who think the L49 is hard to drive, also think that the rf2 60F2 is hard to drive....?

Actually, no. The 60F2 is pretty solid. It drives like you'd expect a 60's F1 car to drive. Acceleration like a rocket and incredibly unstable if you don't hit your marks. But you are never wildly swaying back and forth and holding your breath for half the lap like you do with iR's Lotus 49.

 

[William Levesque]

By the way guys, 60's F2 =/ 60's F1, why would you think both are the same ? lol....

One has 200-ish HP, the other 400hp !

 

[David Ignjatovic]

Either way to suggest x sim does historic f1 better than y sim is quite silly, as there's almost no anecdotal, or factual information to support it either way but what I will say, is that at least rF2 has a tyre model that feels like your touching the asphalt with rubber, rather than plastic.

I always found that as long as I made an effort, I could always control a sim car{with a handful of exceptions in rf2 and i/iceracing}, so my concern isn't necessarily outright speed, but moreso whether there's always a bunch of WTF moments, for example, the slippery Skip Barber in rf2 gave me many WTF moments on the first few laps, but after that i found that good driving form allowed me to drive the car to my limit.

 

[Jake Cooper]

Well David, it's like watching a kung-fu movie. You see those guys bascially levitating in the sky whilst doing a backward flip, and even though you've never even attempted a backward flip in your life, or seen someone do it for real, you just know it ain't right.

To me, that is iRacing, but in regards to driving a car, we all have experience of that, even if it is just rusty old road beaters, it's still a part of the puzzle.

 

[Bakkster]

Marbles off-line and rubber on track is a biproduct of tyres losing some of their physical mass.

A track can't just accumulate layers of rubber from people running the track on foot, the reason marbles and rubber get laid on track is BECAUSE of physical mass of the tyre being transfered to the asphalt.

My point is that such changes happen to the track, and affect everyone's tires whether they're at 100% tread depth or not. That's not really a request for tire wear but for dynamic track surface.

Then you will lose physical mass and therefore performance. [Wear and degradation are one and the same thing] What you are talking about is thermal degradation which affects the performance of the tyre surface without really affecting the physical mass.

Like I said before, losing tread mass doesn't necessarily cause degradation in performance. It can make it better, otherwise why would drivers be shaving their tires, intentionally reducing its mass?

Thermal degradation (overheated, hardening due to additional curing from too many heat cycles, graining/blistering) are the primary reasons why tires lose grip. Tread depth sometimes hurts tires, sometimes improves them.

Even Pirelli F1 tyres have a few laps of life before they die

Just be careful using Pirelli F1 tires as an example for anything. They're completely different from any other tire used for racing. They have two types of rubber in the tread (harder inside) to provide a sudden falloff in grip after a fixed tread depth.

in iRacing the colder the tyres are the better they perform. Which is backwards. Absolutely backwards, and nobody can defend it in this way that it is currently. iRacing will never get proper tyre physics because the game-engine is a massive limiting factor in what they can achieve.

Agreed, why do you think anyone's defending it? It's a known issue.

Either way to suggest x sim does historic f1 better than y sim is quite silly, as there's almost no anecdotal, or factual information to support it either way

I'd agree there, it's not like they were running telemetry back then. All we can look at is whether the responses are reasonable. Does the telemetry look believable?

 

[Jake Cooper]

My point is that such changes happen to the track, and affect everyone's tires whether they're at 100% tread depth or not. That's not really a request for tire wear but for dynamic track surface.

Like I said before, losing tread mass doesn't necessarily cause degradation in performance. It can make it better, otherwise why would drivers be shaving their tires, intentionally reducing its mass?

Thermal degradation (overheated, hardening due to additional curing from too many heat cycles, graining/blistering) are the primary reasons why tires lose grip. Tread depth sometimes hurts tires, sometimes improves them.

Just be careful using Pirelli F1 tires as an example for anything. They're completely different from any other tire used for racing. They have two types of rubber in the tread (harder inside) to provide a sudden falloff in grip after a fixed tread depth.

Agreed, why do you think anyone's defending it? It's a known issue.

I'd agree there, it's not like they were running telemetry back then. All we can look at is whether the responses are reasonable. Does the telemetry look believable?

Actually, having read this, I believe we're actually on the same side of the fence.

 

[Bakkster]

Also, with some cars it sounds like the fastest laps are coming on the second or third laps. Maybe not quite where it needs to be (I've heard GTE cars tend to make fast lap around the 5th-7th lap most places), but better. I've been having some troubles with the Kia and thinking that might be part of it, I'm pushing too soon and not getting the tires up to temp. Definitely going to keep an eye on it this season. We might be past that bug finally...

 

[Kevin McDonald]

Also, with some cars it sounds like the fastest laps are coming on the second or third laps. Maybe not quite where it needs to be (I've heard GTE cars tend to make fast lap around the 5th-7th lap most places), but better. I've been having some troubles with the Kia and thinking that might be part of it, I'm pushing too soon and not getting the tires up to temp. Definitely going to keep an eye on it this season. We might be past that bug finally...

That used to be a major problem with the Skip Barber - most, if not all, fastest laps were set on lap 2 or 3 but the NTMV5 has been released (only for Skip, L49 and the Street Stock) and some of the more experienced Skip drivers are reporting that they are able to be setting fastest laps towards the end of the race if the don't overdrive their tyres. Things are finally looking up

 

[William Levesque]

The Vette is still quickest on the first lap, but the slow outlap is not as important it seems.

 

[Jake Cooper]

Drove the MX5 last night... wow that thing actually handles like a car should!!

 

[Oscar Hardwick]

I think we should all not worry and drive the Gen6 on road courses. Then everyone will be happy bunnies.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/degrade

It even says in the definition of degrade and it's exactly the same definition as wear, which I happened to post earlier on.

I'm just gonna assume you're trolling.

In terms of tires, wear and degradation is not the same thing.

wear being actual rubber leaving the compound. degradation can be thermal where the tire overheats and will basically only come back if you slow down and cool them of for a while.

iRacing´s current tire model is a great example of the difference between wear and thermal deg.

 

[Antonio Crinò]

Drove the MX5 last night... wow that thing actually handles like a car should!!

Don't know if you're joking or not, but I drove it practicing for the figure 8 at irwindale. Can't do 1 lap without spinning in the left turn. Onestly it was horrible. Then I drove the Solstice and it was way better, it was really fun!

IMO the mx-5 is one of the worst car atm.

btw I'm really enjoying the 3 cars with the NTMv5, also the 49 is a lot of fun! Yesterday I did a qualify session at Zolder without any sort of practice in that track. Driving like in real life (starting slow then pushing harder and harder), I managed 12 laps with only 1 off track, and a best time of 1:29.6xx, it was very rewarding!

 

[Jake Cooper]

D

In terms of tires, wear and degradation is not the same thing.

wear being actual rubber leaving the compound. degradation can be thermal where the tire overheats and will basically only come back if you slow down and cool them of for a while.

iRacing´s current tire model is a great example of the difference between wear and thermal deg.

Degradation and wear are identical definitions.

When you use degradation on it's own is just a synonym for wear. If you specify thermal degradation then that's what it is, but wear and degradation are the same thing.

See 4,5 and 6.

de•grade (dɪˈgreɪd or, for 3, di-)
 
v. -grad•ed, -grad•ing. v.t.
1. to lower in dignity or estimation; bring into contempt.
2. to lower in character or quality; debase.
3. to reduce (someone) to a lower rank, etc., esp. as a punishment.
4. to reduce in amount, strength, intensity, etc.
5. to wear down by erosion, as hills. Compare aggrade.
6. to break down (an organic compound).

See 6, 7 and 8.

wear  (wâr)
v. wore (wôr, wr), worn (wôrn, wrn), wear·ing, wears
v.tr.
1. To carry or have on the person as covering, adornment, or protection: wearing a jacket; must wear a seat belt.
2. To carry or have habitually on the person, especially as an aid: wears glasses.
3. To display in one's appearance: always wears a smile.
4. To bear, carry, or maintain in a particular manner: wears her hair long.
5. To fly or display (colors). Used of a ship, jockey, or knight.
6. To damage, diminish, erode, or consume by long or hard use, attrition, or exposure. Often used with away, down, or off: rocks worn away by the sea; shoes worn down at the heels.
7. To produce by constant use, attrition, or exposure: eventually wore hollows in the stone steps.
8. To bring to a specified condition by long use or attrition: wore the clothes to rags; pebbles worn smooth.
9. To fatigue, weary, or exhaust: Your incessant criticism has worn my patience.
10. Nautical To make (a sailing ship) come about with the wind aft.

As I said, degrade on it's own doesn't mean thermal degradation, you have to add that bit on.



Antonio Crinò The MX5 just feels completely controlable and doesn't do anything randomly. The only issue with it is the braking power is too strong, you can stop the car so quickly from top speed.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

In terms of tires it´s not.
Wear and Degradation are two completely different things when you discuss tires.

Doesn´t matter if you add thermal or not. Two completely different effects on the tire.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

For example,

"When out on track, the car sends telemetry data relating to tyre pressures, temperatures, wear and degradation – which is all recorded on the tablets of the Pirelli engineers.
This data is correlated with the car set-up and other telemetry recorded by the teams and
sent to the central server. The accumulated data is always available for Pirelli’s engineers to
consult in real time from the track."

http://www.pirelli.com/mediaObject/...m/original/Sheet2-PirelliRacingTyreSystem.pdf

The Mercedes F1 team since 2010 has had problems not with wear but degradation.
In Hungary they had virtually no degradation at all, just wear.

Edit: Some more,

Wear - Akin to, as my friend explained it to me, when you're using an eraser to rub off some pencil marks on paper. Friction causes some rubber to go off the tyre; so it's literally the tyre "running out" of rubber; For example if the tyre had a 1cm layer of rubber on it, it would wear down to, for example, 7mm. The physical amount of rubber

Degradation - It's when the rubber "degrades" chemically for lack of a better word, due to so many stresses and heat cycles being put through it.

 

[Stefan Mizzi]

btw I'm really enjoying the 3 cars with the NTMv5

Which are the 3 cars using the NTMv5? Haven't touched iRacing for a while but I am always hopeful so I should try these 3 I guess