S2000 Car Choice

[Craig Masters]

Hey guys,

Looking for a little advice here. Being fairly new still to RBR, was wondering if maybe some people could offer some insight into what cars are decent for this class. To save me a handfull of hours testing them all, before I choose my car for the rest of the season. I guess the first thing I should ask, is does it even really matter which cars we choose from the ones allowed, or are they not noticably different with the exception of looks/sound?

Main reason I ask is, I look at the people from Production class that entered the last rally. There were a whopping 6 people in the Peugeot 207, I think 2 in the Punto/Fiesta and a couple cars that nobody even uses. Personally I'm kinda leaning towards the VW Polo, just cause no one else uses it. And well I'm a fan of the brand, and maybe I can raise a little awareness they're coming back into the WRC very soon.

Thanks in advance. Personal opinions are welcome too.
Cheers.

 

[Senad Subasic]

Personal opinion: I don't like S2000 cars

From my limited experience, they are different, handling-wise if nothing else. When I tried some of them, some didn't really like bumps, some others were quite twitchy and unpredictable, some were a bit slower, and so on. That's all on default setups though.

VW Polo and Proton Satria are my favourites.

All those 207s are from the same team, and they have to drive the same car, so that might explain why there's so many of them.

 

[Pete Mull]

Perhaps have a look at the cars used on the last two Championship Rounds and see which ones are up the top of the class - they wont necessarily be best suited to your driving style but you can always play around with the setups to get them handling better for you.

Good luck

 

[Warren Dawes]

I drive the Peugeot 207, and Senad is right, the reason so many of us drive this car is because we are all members of the Terror Australis Team. We decided to all use the same car so that we could share info on setups etc. Under the rules, we also had to drive the same car.
I did do some testing before we chose the Peugeot, and I thought all the cars were very similar in performance, I can get similar times in all of them. They do have differences in gearing though, the Peugeot seems to have very close gearing between 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th, compared to the others which have more even spacing. This can help on some stages, but be a disadvantage on others. The Peugeot has very stable handling in default setup, but I found all of the S2000 cars to be quite stable.

I'd suggest you have a test run in the Lada, I know it looks ugly, but I have found it to be quite fast and easy to drive. I also like the VW, it was my 2nd choice.

Personally, I love the S2000 cars and have really enjoyed driving it this season.

 

[Manuel De Samaniego]

Personal oppinion : RSRBR is done by french people and 207 is a french car wich has won many events in RSRBR official championships against every other S2000 out there, i completely recommend the 207 s2000, i have driven it more than 10,000 km and i can tell you that it is the fastest, most versatile S2000 out there IMHO, Polo, big no no that car is just there to fill a space, just like the proton, don't worry about raising awareness of VW in Rallying, they'll enter WRC in 2013, still a long way to go.

Another good choices are IMO : Fiesta and Fabia Evo 1.

Good luck

 

[Ondrej Kapal]

I really cant drive nothing but Škoda Fabia, more EVO 1 than 2...

 

[Senad Subasic]

IMHO, Polo, big no no that car is just there to fill a space, just like the proton

There you go: everything I would choose, just do the opposite

What's wrong with them? Sounded nice, seemed nice to drive, and bump friendly without tinkering. Slow? Are they slow? They must be slow, that would explain so much :eek:

Luckily, I don't like those cars, so will probably continue to toodle along in my N11 next RDRC season anyway :love:

 

[Roy Magnes]

I went for the Skoda Evo2 as I have adored the looks of that car since I first saw it. The 207 is nice to drive also, but there are so many of them already :tongue: A varied field is always looking nice on a video-summary also

 

[Craig Masters]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I have a much better idea now. But as someone who will be using default setups, is there any car which is better off on default settings? I know Manuel said the 207. I just have no idea yet how to even start setting up these cars for different conditions/terrain. But I guess it will come with time, or if I manage to find a team that will have me. lol. I do intend to take part in as many different events as I can, but will put in a lot of practice in the S2000's.

Manuel you said the VW was just a space filler, but does that mean its really that worse off than the others? Or just that the specific handling for this car has no unique characteristics that define it from the others? From what people have been saying, I'm kinda now leaning towards either the Punto or the Peugeot. I do prefer a level playing field.

 

[Manuel De Samaniego]

Hi guys, i said that about the Polo because i believe it may be the slowest of all the S2000 cars, but again that's just my oppinion. Offcourse you can become an ace if you practice a lot with any car, but i think that would be harder to do with the polo and it would take more time, that's why i recommend the 207, because it is fast under almost any circumstances, the polo is good for the bumps, so it may be a good car for someone without a lot of experience, but someone without experience and with a not so good car isn't much of a challenge against the top guys with more balanced cars if you're new to S2000's and RBR then it could be a good idea to drive the polo for some time, but again i recommend moving to something more advanced like a Skoda or an 207 later.

As far as i know Craig, there shouldn't be any special characteristics regarding the Polo's handling, because again, this is a French game now, and the french Rallyesim guys put more attention to the most used cars and make them better, that's why you see a lot of 207's winning and Puntos, or atleast that's what i've seen, Polo isn't very popular and not very used, so no need to create super realistic or good physics for it by the Rallyesim guys, i'm a stable driver and that's what i think it is like. Again IMHO

In this link you can check the best times in any stage in any Rallyesim championship and see how fast S2000 cars are :

http://xi.rallyesim.com/results_best_times.asp

The Punto can go incredibly quick. I'd choose that or the 207

Good luck

 

[Warren Dawes]

In this link you can check the best times in any stage in any Rallyesim championship and see how fast S2000 cars are :

http://xi.rallyesim.com/results_best_times.asp

I suspect that statistics are more influenced by the driver skill/experience than the car choice.
It's always best to test the cars yourself and find the one you are most comfortable (or confident with).

 

[Magnar Haarstadsveen]

Hi Craig. I would suggest the Fiat grande punto, i just love that car. It fits my driving style perfect and it's pretty fast too. You should try it out maybe you like it too.

 

[Craig Masters]

Hi Craig. I would suggest the Fiat grande punto, i just love that car. It fits my driving style perfect and it's pretty fast too. You should try it out maybe you like it too.

Yeah tonight once I'm back from work I'm going to try do some serious testing between the 207 and the Punto. I'm not yet that consistent in these cars on the new gravel stages, so may be more difficult to compare them but I'll get there. Magnar is the Punto still decent under default settings? The only thing I change is the max steering lock to 792.

 

[Craig Masters]

Woops, posted that twice.

 

[Magnar Haarstadsveen]

I dont remember the default setup, i have not used it for a long time. I have made one setup for gravel and another for tarmac that i use on all stages. I use to tune this setups now and then cos my feeling of the car change when i get more confident with it. So if i have drove another car some time i start with the basic setup i have made to the car. I have try some setup from other pepole but i can not drive with them unless i tune them a little. It all depend how you like to have the car. Good luck with the testing.

 

[Craig Masters]

Right well I've spent many hours testing and tinkering, and I pretty much have my mind set on the Punto. The custom setup I have made for it is working nicely for me. I've only really been doing runs of Siprikakim and Tanner. But I think these 2 give good variety for what to expect from Japan. I have my time down as low as 4.51 on Siprikakim, which is a stage I've come to love but hardly believe I will pull the same time when I know there are no restarts.

One question though, the front/rear rollbar stiffness? I currently run 18/18, but should one be higher than the other in an s2000 car on gravel?

Thanks for everyone's suggestions and insight.

 

[Warren Dawes]

One question though, the front/rear rollbar stiffness? I currently run 18/18, but should one be higher than the other in an s2000 car on gravel?

Craig, that is pretty much what I use for the Pug. I may vary it slightly depending on the weather, especially if it is wet and more slippery. I've not tried the Punto, but I had a similar setup when driving the VW too, so I think it would be similar.