rec.autos.simulators

The next HOF is due out on Jan 3, 1995 (a Tuesday, I think).  It's been
brought to my attention that altering the AI grip of computer cars also
affects human cars, most noticably when running with traction help
disabled.  Therefore, please ensure that in future times are set with
the AI grip set at 1.  I'd also appreciate anyone who's got nothing
better to do running with various AI grips, both with and without
traction help, to see just how big the effect is.

Cheers, and a happy 1995,
-- Gizmo

Hey, I don't have anything better to do.  ;)

I used WCF1GP.EXE to alter the grip.

Grip =1
Track = Phoenix

Traction Help ON  = 1m15.5s
Traction Help OFF = 1m16.3s

Grip = 99
Track = Phoenix

Traction Help OFF = 1m23.5s
Traction Help ON  = No Time

I really LOST a LOT of grip in the corners when the grip was set to 99.  
The car would even lose traction when accelerating down a straight.  It
was pretty cool at first to breakaway the tires going into 4th gear :),
but that soon wore thin with the lose of traction in the corners.

From this test, the grip set to 99 HURTS the human player, NOT helps.

I normally run with the grip set anywhere between 16 (Hungary) to 28
(Germany).  I have not seen any improvements in my times with these
higher grip numbers.  I also have not experienced the lose of traction
with these grip numbers as I have at grip = 99.

I still don't have anything better to do, so I did more testing.  Same
scenario as posted before.

I didn't experience the same lose of grip with Traction Help OFF and the
grip set to 99 as previously seen.  It's possible that I may have bumped
over to W tires instead of Qs.  I only tried a few laps on that one
set, which isn't a good sample, statistically speaking.

If it is being suggested that setting the grip to 99 somehow gives the
human driver an advantage over another human driver with the grip set to
1 then I say BS.

There is no way in hell that setting the grip to 99 will improve the
human driver's lap times.  It just ain't happenin'.