Episode 1: One Car, One Lap in 4K Ultra HD

[Bram Hengeveld]

We have sent our resident alien racer Dragos Haba to the Nürburgring Nordschleife this week to test the legendary Lotus 98T on the mother of all racing tracks.

The car of choice in this first episode of the One Car, One Lap in 4K series dates from 1985 and is best known for it's driver in Formula 1: three time world champion Ayrton Senna da Silva who drove a similar JPS styled Lotus-Renault in which he scored his two first victories in the pinnacle of motorsports.

As a tribute to the Brazilian inspiring master, Dragos would not settle before he posted a new world record lap with the classic open wheeler that puts out roughly 1,300 bhp. A blistering 05:25:017 lap was the result, beating the previous world record time by no less than seven seconds.

Now the benchmark is set it's your turn to show your pace and see if you can match or outpace the new lap record! Feel free to leave us a video response on our YouTube channel with your attempt!

The first season of the One Lap, One Car video-series will contain 10 videos in total published on YouTube twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday. If you would like to stay up-to-date and receive notifications of new stunning videos, make sure to subscribe to our channel.

 

[gamer19]

I'll let you know .....if I'm getting into your 107% time.

 

[Stereo]

Also one thing that makes it hard to do comparisons and is skewing the results hard is the current aerodynamic model of AC which, especially on bumpy Nords, make the car glued to the ground too much.

Is that why people can enter Schwedenkreuze so fast, the bump at the start's not affecting downforce enough? It seemed like the sort of place you'd lift more just cause you're going over a crest at 200+km/h with like, 5m of runoff until you hit a wall.

 

[Pawel Ziolkowski]

Is that why people can enter Schwedenkreuze so fast, the bump at the start's not affecting downforce enough? It seemed like the sort of place you'd lift more just cause you're going over a crest at 200+km/h with like, 5m of runoff until you hit a wall.

AC simulates loss of diffuser downforce with height above ground, which is correct but non single seater cars in AC have only rear diffuser so car will never lift its nose up due to diffuser stall, and consequently critical loose of downforce will never occur. What's more, while AC has pitch affecting downforce, it does not simulate possible pressure buildup under the car when front lifts itself up that contributes to some of the famous "take off's".

Also Schwedenkreuze jump has this double peak which is visible in AC too, i suspect it creates this pretty unusual pressure configuration under the car cutting front downforce and making springs throw the car up, Its kind of possible to get that in LaFerrari in AC as that car has front diffusers and less downforce in general.

 

[ApexVGear]

I would like to see a comparison between those using H-Pattern versus sequential. I think it's been asked a couple of times in this thread, but no one has answered. Therefore, I would assume these laps are being set while using sequential shifting.

I guess I'm a "purist" but I WILL NOT drive the 98T or any other pre-sequential era or real manual shifting car with a sequential shifter. A few weeks ago, I ran about 10 laps in the 98T (Thrustmaster TX, TH8A H-Pattern, T500 pedals) with the default suspension and aero (only adjusted gear ratios). With "limited effort," quite a few driving line errors, and one mis-shift, I set a lap at 6:18.

I definitely need to reduce the low-speed (less downforce) oversteer if possible. I think I incorrectly stated "understeer" in the video below.

One thing I've noticed in other videos is that the Karussell is being used. To be totally "purist" for realism, there's a very high risk of causing serious damage to a car like the 98t. It's even possible to damage part of the front wing and the undercarriage. ...but this is a sim.

If I have some time, maybe I'll tweak the suspension and aero and sit down for an hour or two--make a "serious" commitment to see what I can get. Maybe I missed it, but can anyone share their setup for the 98t for the Nordshcleife?

Here's the "WIP" lap--essentially a quick test of the new laser-scanned track...

 

[paracletus]

in the op video, gears are skipped on the downshifts; you wouldn't do that with sequential transmission (ref. post #14).

 

[Pawel Ziolkowski]

I would like to see a comparison between those using H-Pattern versus sequential. I think it's been asked a couple of times in this thread, but no one has answered. Therefore, I would assume these laps are being set while using sequential shifting.

I used G27 stock crappy shifter in that 5:25 on page2, lost the gear leaver at one point and breezed though several corners at too high gear. Definitely stick shift is the way to go properly in these cars, although 98T has pretty robust and fast gearbox with clutch less shifts possible, Ferrari 312T is where it gets really hard
Also turbo control on keyboard is kind of distracting with the lack of proper straights haha.

 

[Cristian Haba]

The hate on virtualr is hilarious, people miss the entire point of the video. It's laughable how sim racers are the most cynical and detrimental fans of our own niche genre, sad.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

The hate on virtualr is hilarious, people miss the entire point of the video. It's laughable how sim racers are the most cynical and detrimental fans of our own niche genre, sad.

Speaking of people completely missing the point. Just wow, so this video is now posted to hate on Project Cars, that's just hi-la-ri-ous.

To the haters out there, we would love to do a full series of 10 videos for project cars as well (and we will don't worry) but currently the videos would look like this one below.

The game is not even released, so how would you like us to play it, let alone record it

 

[paracletus]

some youtube commenters don't seem to realise just how much downforce the 98T car actually had; far more than f1 cars today, probably more than any since.
So, although it never raced on the nords, I don't believe that the cornering speeds shown here are unrealistic.

 

[Chris James]

The hate on virtualr is hilarious, people miss the entire point of the video. It's laughable how sim racers are the most cynical and detrimental fans of our own niche genre, sad.

If we weren't so discerning, this website would be called "MarioCart Department." Face it, to variable extents, we all want the realism.

 

[Chris James]

Any of you amazing aliens want to share your setup? I'd love to try this, but I'm one of those lesser mortals who doesn't know a roll bar from a roll cage.

Would my 30cm wheel or my 27cm wheel be closer to what's in the real car?

 

[Dragos Haba]

Any of you amazing aliens want to share your setup? I'd love to try this, but I'm one of those lesser mortals who doesn't know a roll bar from a roll cage.

Would my 30cm wheel or my 27cm wheel be closer to what's in the real car?

Hey chris, I'll post my setup later. I don't think its the best though because its lacking in the grip department. I also use much less downforce than the other guys and it makes the car want to break loose more. I wouldn't really recommend my setup for that reason. Use something that is stable and drive the track for 20 full laps. You will learn a lot and will be able to lower your time for sure.

 

[Pawel Ziolkowski]

Any of you amazing aliens want to share your setup? I'd love to try this, but I'm one of those lesser mortals who doesn't know a roll bar from a roll cage.

Not an alien, but coincidently the setup was named "amazing" (since i was very pleased with results) haha (used this setup for the 5:25 lap)
A couple warnings thou 1) It's not "finished" there are lot of tweaks still to do, so for anybody wanting to learn it would be better to ask rather than just copy values to other tracks.
2) It's pretty tight, changing one thing will probably make a avalanche of new issues. (for example adding fuel to last more than a lap and/or increasing rear downforce will cause ride height problems and curing that needs changes to most other variables)
3) When running without damage and at 100% boost, rear tyres might overheat completely and cause sudden death so it would be best to rise rear pressure a bit for such run, also instead of elongating gears , it would be better to increase engine limiter.

Also

One thing I've noticed in other videos is that the Karussell is being used. To be totally "purist" for realism, there's a very high risk of causing serious damage to a car like the 98t. It's even possible to damage part of the front wing and the undercarriage. ...but this is a sim.

I was thinking about this and i believe it's actually not a problem here haha. Carousel is a ~100km/h corner, at that speed the suspension is lifted by several centimeters up due to lack of downforce, so both rear and front are running well above ground (even checked that in replay). It will cause some bottoming out but nothing more drastic than what the car was designed to endure when scrapping at 300km/h and almost 2000kg of downforce.

The fun thing about carousel is that it's "bumpy" not by "bulges" but by "pits" so as long as the car has stiff enough suspension and is not much longer than its wheelbase it's not a problem really (except for driver comfort maybe).

 

[Chris James]

Thanks guys. I loaded up the 98T and did about one lap at Nordshleife and my wheel died in a puff of smoke. Here we go again.

 

[Kevin Pheiffer]

Any tips to improve my 8:41 maybe?

 

[Dave Stephenson]

in the op video, gears are skipped on the downshifts; you wouldn't do that with sequential transmission (ref. post #14).

The 98T had a proper manual box not a sequential system.

 

[Radu Oros]

Don't even have to skip gears, you can just move from 5th to 4th to 3rd to 2nd really fast without waiting times. Because the braking is that fast. But also be spot on with the clutch and possible heel and toe technique.

 

[paracletus]

The 98T had a proper manual box not a sequential system.

of course it does - i'm completely aware of that.
my post was in response to the poster before me who was querying whether "dragos" was using a sequential gearshift in the OP video; you can clearly see that he didn't.

 

[Dave Stephenson]

of course it does - i'm completely aware of that.
my post was in response to the poster before me who was querying whether "dragos" was using a sequential gearshift in the OP video; you can clearly see that he didn't.

Sorry, read it from the wrong stance without the quote in there

 

[Paero]

It's recorded in 60fps But youtube doesn't want to play it with 60fps

Ahh that explains it... thanks!