Not to get too technical, as I agree that it is a game and not purely
realistic, but I think it is pretty close. The "cone" as you refer to it is
larger than most people think. I watched some footage of the land speed
record (granted that is much higher speed, but they are much narrower
vehicles too) and the shot from above the car showed the "cone" & shock
wave of the runs and the cone extended what appeared to be hundreds of feet
to the sides and behind the cars. This said I think it is reasonable to
think that a wider car going approx. 190 mph to throw out a "cone" at least
15-20 ft. out from the car sides and extend outwards of 1/2 to 3/4 second
behind. (190 mph being somewhere near 280 feet per second)
It may be that the cars in N4 are modeled after this newest aero package for
Daytona and Talladega which apparently knocks an ever bigger hole into the
air.
Another couple of points I am sure of though, one is that the inside lane is
inherently faster because it is shorter (NASCAR measures tracks 15 ft inside
the outer wall, an inside/low lane could easily be about 1/8-1/2 mile
shorter depending on track width), and two, never give any kind of credit to
the behavior of the AI cars as their grip and abilities on the same track
that you are running on, are far superior to that of human competitors'
cars.
Last illustration, I did exactly what you desribe last night in a league
practice. We were at Daytona with fixed setups (a good control measure to
test this kind of theory), against all human racers. We went back green off
a yellow with 5 laps to go and I passsed the leader with 3 to go on the
inside and in the interest of winning the race, hugged the apron line all
the way around for the last 3 laps, no blocking, just running the line all
the way around while 2nd and 3rd place guys tried to line up and pass high
several times and got beside me several times but in the corners, they were
simply having to travel a longer distance and could never close the gap
enough to pass.
I've got to go with Dale Jr. ( and Harvick and a couple others) on this one
and say that if we had seat of the pants feel, the sim is about as close as
NASCAR racing can be replicated with current technology.
Not looking for an argument, and I only had 4 years of Physics, so this is
purely an opinion.
edb
