rFactor 2 | Austin Mini Cooper S MkI Group 2 Announced


As if rFactor 2 hasn't had enough surprise releases this year, here's a big (little) one! If you like your wheelbase as short as it can come and your front wheels driving, then look no further than the original Austin Cooper S Mini!

The Mini comes as part of the 2022 Q3 August Content Drop for rFactor 2 by S397.

This charismatic little car made famous in films like 'The Italian Job' and 'Magical Mystery Tour' by the Beatles, became an icon of British fashion in the 60's.
Not only that, it proved its racing ability thanks to Paddy Hopkirk's win in the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally.
With its short wheelbase and low centre of gravity it could take on much more powerful cars such as Mustangs and Chevrolet's. I must say from personal experience it really is quite a sight to see these tiny cars nimbly zip past huge muscle cars with ease through the corners of a race track!

And it doesn't end there!

S397 have also stated that they plan to introduce the modern JCW cup car to the simulation as well in a future quarterly release, so drivers will get to experience how far the car has come in its modern variant!

There's more?

This mighty Mini will be made available as part of the upcoming 2022 Q3 Content Drop for rFactor 2. The car will be available within the rFactor 2 Steam Store as both a standalone item, and part of a wider pack, the details of which will be revealed closer to release.

Does this mean we will see some more historic track partners from the FIA Group 2 Historic series, such as some of the above mentioned muscles cars? Or maybe new tracks from the British calendar such as Snetterton or even Knockhill?

What would you like to see? Let us know in the comments!

What does this mean for future development of technical aspects of the sim?

With this car (and another just announced) being manual H pattern gearbox type cars, does this mean we will see some overall advances in gearbox simulation?

S397 recently added the shift protection feature to several of the more modern cars such as the GTE's, however, when it comes to older manual gearbox's they are lagging behind other sims that have extensive gearbox and damage modelling. These sims will punish you for mis-shifts, or a bad heal and toe technique, to the point where you can actually loose gears and burn out clutches.

Would you like to see more development in this area, do you think it would work well with currently available hardware, or would you rather them wait until advances are made in these peripherals?

Let us know what you think in the comments!
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Comments

Premium
I love these kind of cars and I'm a big fan of Rfactor2, so I say bring em on. Cooper S , then Lotus Cortina, Mustang, MK2 Jags etc... with the BTCC tracks and some classic British tracks RF2 could possibly end up being as good as GT Legends or Power & Glory.
 
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What about BTCC for Q3?
Well it strikes me that alot of the tracks used in the historic touring cars are also used in BTCC, so I think we may just see some seeing as they suit both series, im very much hoping for Knockhill, Snetterton & Oulton Park. Also very interested in what may happen with the gearbox simulation. Im also absoloutely bowled over at the Caterham announcement!
 
Very nice surprise! To me the best Mini in any Sim is one which is free,
one by Pessio Garage, for AC, it drives great and looks pretty realistic.
Let's hope this new rFactor 2 version is even better!
 
Well in theory this is really nice.

But the last time I checked, RF2 did not simulate the clutch natively. So driving old cars seemed pretty pointless as you could simply move the gearbox stick around to get the gears engaged, nothing of the classical car gearbox mechanics were there. OR you could download some obscure dll to implement that, what I found a bit silly, the sim should do it. AMS1, with the older version of the same engine did that...

Is this sorted by now?
 
Holy cow rF2. I know I should stop picking on you but you're freaking asking for it. This is the grand plan on being a relevant sim again?! I can't complain, I got money to sling around (in sim racing sizes...) but there is no way on this earth I'm paying for a Mini and that its going to get me (or non-fanboys) back to the title.

I know that about 90% of the automotive universe is available in sim world. Why spend time trying to *LITERALLY* recreate the wheel? What about a McLaren M8D and a Lola T310 or T160 can-am car combo? THAT'S AN ATTRACTION! A Mini and a Caterham. Both cars that AMS2 does well, so you better hit it out of the park. It can't just be better, it has to be night and day better to establish some cred. Reiza is much better about being on the fringe and giving something interesting, like the P4s, or the '90s Champ Cars, those seemed like good decisions.

How about an 80's Trans-Am series? Mercury Capris vs. Chevy Camaros? The IMSA GTO Pack in RRRE actually got me to buy the legends pack so I could race those. Because no one else at the time had the Z and the Stang. And I think their Audi 90 might have been after PC1 but before iRacing, could be wrong.

My opinion, but I think they missed the mark.
 
Premium
Pfff...more content for a game with broken AI. First fix AI: let them gain speed with slipstream and let them attack. After that fix: bring more content.
Well, the AI on rF2 can work really well with a 5 minute adjustment to the player.json file and by making sure that you run practice and quali before racing.
As for the AI not using slipstream, apparently none of the current sims has the AI slipstreaming, with the possible exception of AMS1 (as someone mentioned).
I will exclude iRacing, which AI apparently is top notch as the way it works is, I believe, completely different - ie. the AI is not "driving" a car with physics, so, in case this is accurate, slipstreaming is "non-physical", merely behavioural.
 
Premium
Holy cow rF2. I know I should stop picking on you but you're freaking asking for it. This is the grand plan on being a relevant sim again?! I can't complain, I got money to sling around (in sim racing sizes...) but there is no way on this earth I'm paying for a Mini and that its going to get me (or non-fanboys) back to the title.

I know that about 90% of the automotive universe is available in sim world. Why spend time trying to *LITERALLY* recreate the wheel? What about a McLaren M8D and a Lola T310 or T160 can-am car combo? THAT'S AN ATTRACTION! A Mini and a Caterham. Both cars that AMS2 does well, so you better hit it out of the park. It can't just be better, it has to be night and day better to establish some cred. Reiza is much better about being on the fringe and giving something interesting, like the P4s, or the '90s Champ Cars, those seemed like good decisions.

How about an 80's Trans-Am series? Mercury Capris vs. Chevy Camaros? The IMSA GTO Pack in RRRE actually got me to buy the legends pack so I could race those. Because no one else at the time had the Z and the Stang. And I think their Audi 90 might have been after PC1 but before iRacing, could be wrong.

My opinion, but I think they missed the mark.
Well, I am extremely happy with both additions so...
As for the cars themselves, personally, I believe that if the Mini and the Caterham are up to par with the usual S397 cars, they will wipe the floor with the AMS2 versions...
You just have to watch the Mini preview video and see how they bounce while turning at speed and loading the suspension.
 
Well in theory this is really nice.

But the last time I checked, RF2 did not simulate the clutch natively. So driving old cars seemed pretty pointless as you could simply move the gearbox stick around to get the gears engaged, nothing of the classical car gearbox mechanics were there. OR you could download some obscure dll to implement that, what I found a bit silly, the sim should do it. AMS1, with the older version of the same engine did that...

Is this sorted by now?
Not as of 4 days prior to the Q3 release.
 
I love these kind of cars and I'm a big fan of Rfactor2, so I say bring em on. Cooper S , then Lotus Cortina, Mustang, MK2 Jags etc... with the BTCC tracks and some classic British tracks RF2 could possibly end up being as good as GT Legends or Power & Glory.
With plenty of properly developed content rF2 could be a lot of times better than any of older sims or classic cars mod packs.

But being better is not enough. You have to somehow attract ignorant TikTok, discord "no U", "push the button - do nothing" generation. Also convince older guys to critically judge new stuff without immediately assuming that the only way something could be done well, would be if same guys who did thing they liked fifteen years ago, would do it again today.
 

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