Have Your Say: What is the Worst Sim Car You Have Ever Driven?

Ghoults · Mar 25, 2017

I think a lot of the early rf1 mods fit into this category for me. Set to understeer with tires losing all grip when you go past 10 degrees of slip angle = the car spins so easily that one would think it was a canned effect. Back in the day I think many actually did! I think this is somewhat forgivable as people simply did what they thought was right. And those cars were not utterly horrible.

I tried one of the codies f1 games on ps3 at one point. It was like a lesson how to make a car drive horribly and unrealistically combined with maxing out how many ways you can make it horrible. Speed sensitive steering at 200kph, fov that is from frog simulator and utterly horrible tire... let's say tire code because calling it physics would be an insult to every middle schooler and above. It was just trash. It was a demo but totally ****. Almost unforgivable considering they had clean sheet to do anything they wanted and they did that...

What takes the cake is one of the older games this was in the psx era. Gran turismo had just came out and there was this other new rally game coming out. I read some console magazines at the time and they were claiming it to be kinda realistic. You know console magazines. They'd call mario kart realistic if the dev/publisher claimed it was... anyways. The game was called v-rally. It was utter trash. I think lots of people liked it but I absolutely hated it. It was plain disgusting to drive. The cars would not even turn in a way like a car would. Instead the car kinda kinda yanked itself into the corners. I get it is an arcade game but it wasn't even fun.

edit: did not notice the "sim" in the title. Obviously 2 out 3 games I mentioned are not sims...

TzZyO · Mar 25, 2017

Daniel Trapp said:
The Supertrucks in AMS, the only good thing about them is the sounds, everything else is just horrible.

Only if you expect F1 kind of handling from them. SST are a great fun and might come very handy for those wanting to learn more about car dynamics and weight distribution.

Stephen O'Sullivan · Mar 25, 2017

iRacing's Mazda MX-5. I just couldn't get on with the damn thing despite numerous efforts to tame it. It was like driving a psychotic ice cube.

Joseph Wright · Mar 25, 2017

Formula Dirt on Automobilista. Absolute rubbish to drive. Cant turn, cant put the power down, downright shouldn't exist. I love AMS, but this is one car I love to hate.

TheReaper GT · Mar 25, 2017

The ugly ass Bentley GT3 mod for assetto corsa, what waste of bits

leseb64 · Mar 25, 2017

all road car Iracing 2008-2014 tire model hilarious @iceracing

Flipdo3 · Mar 25, 2017

the "LX6" on live for speed. so slidy i used it as a drift car instead of the drift car in the game >_>

RufGTI · Mar 25, 2017

Any street car in Project CARS or the Assetto Corsa McLaren F1 GTR

Icarus2007 · Mar 25, 2017

PCARS Megane Trophy, the rfactor 2 version is so amazing, but I think by the time SMS released this piece of crap they'd long since given up on the sim and it showed.

bencelaszlo · Mar 25, 2017

The "MotoGP mod" for rFactor... if you can't imagine that, there is a video:

Juliusz Baczynski · Mar 25, 2017

BMW Z4 GT3 in iRacing, and litterally all GT3 cars in AC

hoh I almost forgot, and this is the most sad one I have, because it´s my favourite supercar... The Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 in Gran Turismo 5-6 (insane rear weight bias when braking in a turn)

Benutzername · Mar 25, 2017

bencelaszlo said:
The "MotoGP mod" for rFactor... if you can't imagine that, there is a video:

Do these have F1 car physics? o.O

MustartMatters · Mar 25, 2017

Am I allowed to say the Classic cars from f1 Championship edition?

Pywackett-Barchetta · Mar 25, 2017

I was quite excited about the Historic Formula One cars included in Project CARS, all from Lotus, but my actual attempts to drive them were, uh... to say the least, impossible. They spin out at the slightest provocation, even nowhere near race speeds. Cautious test laps still led to flying sideways. Tiny drops of rain led to complete lack of all traction instantly, to the point where it seemed more like a NASCAR practice session during a thunderstorm. And the AI were completely blissfully unaware that they were not in tanks, and actively smashed up and spun each other like it was a demolition derby.

It was the point where I gave up on PCARS because... well, I don't know if the Formula Lotus cars are the worst experience I've had mechanically, but with how beautiful they are and how steep a difficulty curve I was expecting, it was certainly the biggest disappointment.

k_badam · Mar 25, 2017

Flipdo3 said:
the "LX6" on live for speed. so slidy i used it as a drift car instead of the drift car in the game >_>

You have to feather the throttle :x

DaVeX↯ · Mar 25, 2017

All' AC Cars...After the release I can't feel them as the beginning, even the last v10 tires didn't gave me back the old good feelings I had in early stages of the sim...

mclarenf1papa · Mar 25, 2017

Enduracers RF2 LMP2s....disastrously inaccurate. (I'll note that there have obviously been worse mods, but in terms of disappointment due to the quality you were expecting, Enduracers take the cake)

TylerDurden4321 · Mar 25, 2017

I'll not include mods here.

Gran Turismo 6: basically all cars pre-1990 with a rear-heavy weight balance (RUF BTR or Lotus Europa and the Alpines come to mind). The yaw inertia is very overdone, especially compared to the rest of the cars in that game that all have super forgiving physics.
Forza Motorsport 6: With that FFB... every car is stressful to drive(forces come to late, understeer effect overdone, no natural feel to countersteer), especially in hairpins, off-camber and downhill corners.

Project CARS: Whenever I think "hey, this car is half as bad, drives kinda nice" some minutes later the car shows some unnatural behavior, be it under braking, when driving over a curb, too harsh snap-back from the tires after countersteering... really, most production cars feel "off" immediately, but even the mostly praised GT cars have some terrible flaws and the original setups are horrible as well. I wouldn't know what car to nominate here, they're all somewhat bad. Same if it were "best car".

Assetto Corsa: Outside of the mods, none of the cars are bad in the current build, in my opinion. If had call out a car, I'd say the Ferrari F40's turbo seems a bit too unforgiving (could be just throttle linearity, idk), you'd think that car would be fun, not easy-fun, but fun, for me the power delivery is too hard to control and predict to be fun. I also don't like AC's FFB in the older F1 cars, it's too soft and makes the swimmy'ness much harder to handle than in rF2 or Automobilista for example - still think these cars are well done in Assetto Corsa, just the typical AC FFB, that is fantastic for production cars, is not a good fit for those older F1 cars.
RaceRoom Racing Experience: Very clearly the Formula Junior for me. The clutch on that thing is WAY overpowered, you'd think you maybe even could drive a car like this without clutching somewhat well, but no, needs perfect heel and toe'ing or it's instant death. I don't think it's only my (admittedly not great) skill level, since I love the Formula Trainer in Automobilista and the USF2000 in rFactor 2.
rFactor 2: The ISI Intercepter.period! I don't think I need to say any more. That thing would be a joke if it were a first-time modder attempt, hard to believe it's official content. (Maybe some game update broke that thing? Didn't drive at first release...).
Automobilista: They're all very believable in my opinion, I mean I don't think that the diff and the brakes on the Formula Dirt (that more stabilize the car instead of help you rotate that thing around a corner) are a good idea or "fun", but it's believable. Worst car is probably the Ultima 720. The low-rev torque and power delivery seems unrealistically harsh, if it really drives like that and I were Ultima ...I wouldn't sell a car like that to not professional race drivers, it's like asking to get sued by relatives of now deceased owners ;D
iRacing: The prices of the content is too high for my wallet, sorry. I'd probably be ok with the subscription fee if I had the time to keep the schedule and practice in between, but even R3E content prices are hard to justify for me as a student (which I currently am again).

Austin Ogonoski · Mar 25, 2017

Very good topic, Paul! I assume the pitchforks will come out but that's to be expected.

First I'll start by mentioning the EnduRacers cars, as MclarenF1Papa also mentioned. Beautiful models, liveries, and sounds, but you most certainly do not drive a Porsche Carrera Cup car or GT2 entry sideways off the corner for 40 minutes straight. I think a while back someone cracked open the rF2 Enduracers tires and the heating/grip charts were borderline nonsensical.

Second, I will mention the very obscure Sim-Monsters trucks for Rigs of Rods. Currently, they are the only realistic monster trucks made for any simulator in the history of time, and there is a very passionate community surrounding that scene, but the trucks handle like RC cars with moon gravity enabled. They feel much too light for 10,000 pound vehicles and do VERY odd things at the drop of a hat. Some of the community has branched off to BeamNG (the sequel to Rigs of Rods), but they are still nowhere close.

iRacing as a whole is very upsetting. I had the pleasure of making test laps with a variety of cars at my crew chief's house, and you would hurt yourself if you used that simulator as a training tool for your real life endeavors. The one car I did enjoy was the Porsche Cup at Sebring, BUT it felt like that's where iRacing should have been in 2009 or 2010, not 2017. Their oval cars are highly questionable, you can go from plowing to wrecking loose in two laps. A lot of people don't know this but I was given the option of returning to iRacing, and my crew chief advised against it because it would undo everything I've learned in superior sims that have actually helped me in real life.

The Ruf RGT-8 in the original Project CARS did some very bizarre things on cold tires. The kart, however, was something to avoid at all costs. This may not be a pCars issue specifically, as the rental kart in Automobilista has largely the same issues when you start attacking the track, but I think Niels did a very good job to dial out the sudden weight transfer and inability to ride on the sidewalls.

Slalom823 · Mar 25, 2017

The AMS super trucks may be a good model of the actual trucks, I don't know, but they are not one of my favorites to drive. Also, I am not picky at all when it comes to force feedback settings, but the dw12 indy car in rf2 is one of the few cars I have found the feedback to be lacking. (with a g25) I wouldn't say either is the worst I have experienced, but just the most recent ones that I have used that surprised me based on my expectations. Perhaps my settings in rf2 could be much better. Any advice is quite welcome!