Tracks Italotracks payware thread - Napoli 1934-57 released

[Davide Nativo]

When in Rome... Skip the Vatican and go to Terme di Caracalla where a GP was held in the fifties, to get a few reference photos. My girlfriend is very understanding, luckily for me
A beautiful spot for a race!
View attachment 505759

First Ferrari win there, in 1947, two weeks after debut at Piacenza

 

[Italotracks]

I should perhaps set up another thread for Pescara, but for the time being..

I finally got to drive the track

I hired a car, expecting something small, and instead I was presented with something akin to a hearse

That said it was quite a nice car from Locauto (and good service)

Unfortunately though, the speed limit everywhere on the track is a very punitive 50km/h, even out in the countryside between Villa Raspa and Cappelle Sul Tavo. Shame, because the roads are great, but it's not a place to give your car a thrashing because even on a Sunday the grannies are out in force, holding people up at 40km/h.

I managed to get a ton of reference photos, spoke to a couple of bemused locals, and enjoyed myself speaking up the atmosphere in Cappelle and Spoltore, imagining the cars hurtling through at high speed.

Just before the tunnel at Cappelle Sul Tavo there's a wall with several historic photos such as the above.

All in all a nice way to spend the day!

 

[Emery]

There are two payware tracks currently in early stage development that I'm eagerly anticipating their completion and your Pescara is one of them!

Pescara is a huge task, just the buildings & detail alone... is there an Italian lidar site or will you be having to use other methods for terrain?

 

[Rodger Davies]

At least you got a Fiat! Very thematic. Hope you (and your partner) had a good time there regardless.

Glad to see some of the locals could talk to you about it! Years ago, before smartphones, I asked a couple of people in the village of Les Essarts, on the outskirts of Rouen, if they could point me in the direction of the old GP circuit.

Turned out I was about 500m away from the old start finish straight, but they had no idea about it; I drove away thinking I must be in the wrong place and then realised I was driving down the first sequence of corners on it. Admittedly, that might say more about my ability to speak basic French than their knowledge of local history...

 

[Italotracks]

There are two payware tracks currently in early stage development that I'm eagerly anticipating their completion and your Pescara is one of them!

Pescara is a huge task, just the buildings & detail alone... is there an Italian lidar site or will you be having to use other methods for terrain?

Thanks!
It is a huge task, and added to that, with regard to buildings specifically, there is a lack of reference data. With Napoli nearly every building is still there, and historic video/photo reference material covered probably 90% of the track.
For Pescara, that is probably closer to 5%, YouTube videos and photos show footage from the last corner/chicane complex, the first corner, the hairpin and the church at Spoltore... and that's about it.
The high streets at Spoltore and Cappelle are unchanged, so I will try and faithfully recreate those( I took photos of most facades) as well as the 'landmark' buildings from the rest of the track like the Instituto Acerbo . For the rest of the 25km I'll make 'template' buildings instead, swapping their colours/doors/windows etc, so they look similar but not identical to the real thing.
That will be the only way to get it done in an acceptable (months not years) timeframe. And unless you're from Pescara and see your house on the track has three windows and not four on the ground floor, most won't notice the difference at 180mph

The source material is the same as Napoli, there is a government LiDAR database/viewer, as well as Google Earth photogrammetry coverage which makes for an excellent foundation for building an accurate track mesh over.

 

[TWHH62]

Very much looking forward for this and in the meantime I am enjoying Napoli. Thank You very much for creating this track! Just some rounds in an 50ths or 60ths Italian Car (mostly 250 GT SWB Ferrari, 335s Ferrari, 450s Maserati, Alfa Romeo GTA, Fiat Abarth 1000TCR) in the late evening in the magic light that comes with this setting continues to make me happy, even after an unpleasant working day. Thank You again + good luck with future projects,
Torsten

 

[Quikslvr]

Very much looking forward for this and in the meantime I am enjoying Napoli. Thank You very much for creating this track! Just some rounds in an 50ths or 60ths Italian Car (mostly 250 GT SWB Ferrari, 335s Ferrari, 450s Maserati, Alfa Romeo GTA, Fiat Abarth 1000TCR) in the late evening in the magic light that comes with this setting continues to make me happy, even after an unpleasant working day. Thank You again + good luck with future projects,
Torsten

Couldn't agree with you more, Torsten. I don't know what it is about driving around Napoli in the warm glow of late evening (in my case in a '37 Maserati), but it just never gets old. The long shadows...the lights coming on...the gentlemen on the pedestrian bridge on the Viale Virgilio silhouetted against the sky...the period posters on the wall turning onto Discesa Coroglio...the reverberation of the engine as you're entering the "canyon" on Via Giovanni Pascoli. Add a little residual water on the track and you've got magic! Indebted to you for this, Italotracks, and can't wait to see what's in store with Pescara...

 

[Italotracks]

Thanks a lot guys, your kind comments make me very happy and even more motivated to keep building tracks.

 

[Italotracks]

I've had a fair few requests for an update on Pescara, so I'm aiming to get a WIP hotlap video up this coming weekend for you, so any curious folks can see what the layout is like. (Although it will look very bare! )
Sorry for the silence of late - rest assured I have been putting a lot of hours in recently, but at the same time I feel like I'm working a lot smarter than I was with Napoli and making quicker progress, having learnt a lot more about Max since I started out with that project.

 

[Rodger Davies]

Great stuff - you don't owe us anything, but any preview is much appreciated!

 

[Emery]

Giving us a WIP preview is very generous! Being a couple miles longer than the Nordschleife, singlehandedly taking on Pescara is a monumental undertaking.

 

[Italotracks]

Sorry to disappoint you folks, I'm not at a stage where I can post a video yet. It seemed a realistic target to set a week ago, and having sunk 20+ hours in this week I can say I've done my best! It's been a case of eat, sleep, day job, Pescara, repeat! A couple of things are taking longer than planned, hopefully it won't be too long though.
I would fire my project manager, but that's me!

 

[Quikslvr]

We totally get it! Take your time and enjoy the process (and retain your sanity). Whenever there's a video fit for us to see, we'll be a willing and eager audience!

 

[Rodger Davies]

No worries, there's no clock here, it's ready when it's ready!

 

[gecco]

Please take all the time you need.
I for one am more then happy to know you are doing well, and still have these historic circuits on your mind!

 

[Sergio Loro]

dont wory, i feel Asseto Corsa is just about to enter "GPL time scale"

 

[Mitsos1311]

No rush man, take all the time you need, we've waited this long for a Pescara mod, we can wait a little longer to see it!
Can't wait to try it out eventually, keep up the awesome work!

 

[Italotracks]

Hi guys!

It's been a while since I posted, but rest assured I've been very busy working on Pescara!

Had a few requests for a progress update, so...

I've been working for quite a while to do all the kerbs and pavements, and weld them all to the surrounding land, which I will be adding more detail to - it's looking a bit pointy at the moment.

I'm in the middle of building one of the two most scenic villages that the course runs through - Cappelle Sul Tavo. It is here and in Spoltore, (and in the start/finish area) where I will be paying most attention to detail regarding buildings.

There are a couple of reasons for this, firstly, most of the buildings are very old and so I can deduce that they were there in 1957 despite the absence of period photos in some cases.
Secondly, the cars are at slower speed (although the plunge through the high street can be 100mph or so!) and so you have more time to admire the surroundings.

There are a few veeeery long straights of a few km each where there are lots of modern looking buildings mixed in with the old, past which the cars will be blasting at 150mph plus. For these sections, unless it's a really distinctive nice old building, I'll choose from a library of stock houses I've made, matching the storeys and colour, but not going into that much detail. Unless you're a Pescara native who lives on one of the long straights, it won't make that much of a difference to the untrained eye, and will allow me to finish a lot lot sooner.

I'm aiming (although I'm rubbish with self imposed deadlines) to finish Cappelle by February, take a month over Spoltore, another month over the start finish area, then it will be a case of roadside furniture, barriers, fields, vegetation etc...

I'll keep you posted of course

 

[Quikslvr]

My mouth is watering! This circuit, like Napoli, promises to have an incredible atmosphere, which is what it's all about for those of us who love vintage racing. Your strategy for the recreation of buildings sounds spot on. Thanks for this update, and for all the work you're putting into the circuit to make it as good as it can possibly be.

 

[Rodger Davies]

Thanks for the update - I echo Shane's sentiment about the vintage racing immersion being all in the atmosphere and details and this looks to have it in spades.

Not that it makes a difference, but I'll tell you the same thing I'd say to @THL @Fat-Alfie @Sergio Loro or any other vintage specialists.... if you've done all that research and you can't find a specific detail, then I doubt anyone else on here without that dedication will know. And if they do, then you'll have the info you need!

Anyway, gorgeous looking housing models - did you have any joy with considering AO baking methods for this one? Abulzz has just started doing this to his Targa Florio and it makes a really nice difference in towns in particular.