rec.autos.simulators

by **Cliv** » Sat, 26 Jun 2004 20:07:22

I've only been playing GPL for a couple of weeks and I'm hooked.

I've played F1 games and done quite well: but GPL..... learning curve very
steep, to say the least!

My question is.... Why is the Lotus so fast? It doesn't seem to have the
most power (I don't see any torque figures for the cars in GPL). It seems
(to me) to be the hardest to 'handle'

Whats the best car for a GPL newbie to learn on? I keep going for the
Ferrari, but even on novice I only come 3rd or lower.

Thanks guys

Clive

by **Jan Verschuere** » Sat, 26 Jun 2004 20:31:01

There's info on the performance characteristics of the cars in GPL in the
GPL Race Engineer (setup utility), which I think can be found on this site:

http://eaglewoman.racesimcentral.com

The Cooper, IMO.

The "difficulty" setting in GPL doesn't affect AI strenght, only the race
distance and the amount of damage collisions do.

You're pretty quick for a beginner, I'm usually down the wrong end of the
top-10 and I've been at it since '98.

Jan.
=---

by **Remco Moe** » Sat, 26 Jun 2004 21:01:11

>I've only been playing GPL for a couple of weeks and I'm hooked.

>I've played F1 games and done quite well: but GPL..... learning curve very
>steep, to say the least!

>My question is.... Why is the Lotus so fast? It doesn't seem to have the
>most power (I don't see any torque figures for the cars in GPL). It seems
>(to me) to be the hardest to 'handle'

It's fast, but if you're using full damage you'll notice it fails fast
aswell.... :-) Almost as bad than the Eagle.

Cheers!

Remco

by **Eldre** » Sun, 27 Jun 2004 00:56:59

You've only been driving for a couple of weeks, and you can finish 3rd in the
Ferrari? Well done - most of us weren't that good so quickly.

Eldred
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by **Eldre** » Sun, 27 Jun 2004 00:58:05

Gotta just be different driving styles. I've never had many mechanical
problems with the Lotus.

Eldred
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by **Cliv** » Sun, 27 Jun 2004 02:44:43

I've played the 'modern' GP/racing games for several years. I've also had
several goes in 'real' karts, which 'drift' very similar to the cars in GPL

Clive

by **Steve Smit** » Sun, 27 Jun 2004 05:55:52

Did your copy of GPL come w. the strategy guide I wrote 5 years ago? They
edited out my Ferrari comments, the gist of which is that the Ferrari is the
best all-around car. The Cooper is the easiest to drive, but slow. The
Lotus is the fastest car, based on a fat mid-range. The Eagle is the
fastest in a straight line. (The Honda *should* be, based on RW figures,
but it weighs as much as a Hummer.) The Brabham is the fastest on tight
courses, like Monaco (where its small size is also an advantage). The BRM
is fairly easy to drive (it has a high vertical moment), has 6 speeds to
play with, but is ultimately clueless. Using aftermarket utils, it's
possible to cobble up a Lotus 43, with the BRM H16, but it still isn't a
race-winner any more than it was in real life.

by **Ped Xin** » Sun, 27 Jun 2004 07:57:26

Looks like you are well on your way to 'alien' status. ;-)

--
Ped Xing
GPLRank -31.657

"A good racing driver doesn't really look like he's going that fast; but
in fact it's a clean, smooth, progressive performance that supplies the
real speed."
-Sir Jackie Stewart

by **Ruud Dingeman** » Mon, 28 Jun 2004 00:02:23

> I've played F1 games and done quite well: but GPL..... learning curve very
> steep, to say the least!

It is. But in part because of this, it's also particularly rewarding if
you can learn to drive (and race) these cars.

Well... It's main advantages are nimble handling, relatively low weight
w/good power, good top speed, and especially, good acceleration. Throw
all that together and you'll always have a winner, of course - although
it's real-life reliability in 67 left something to be desired, and even
in GPL, it's best not to rev it over the limit.

The very best car would probably be the 1965 Cooper... Download the 65
Mod, hop in, and have fun because of it's good handling. Very soon
you'll be able to step up to a faster car like the Lotus 33 or BRM. Once
you mastered those and want a real challenge, the 1967 Eagle would be
the best car IMHO, since it's both one of the fastest cars yet more
forgiving than Ferrari or Lotus.

Regards, Rudy
--------------------
GPLRank: -22

by **Eldre** » Fri, 02 Jul 2004 01:40:02

The Eagle? That's about my 4th best car. I've never come to grips with what
seems like knife-edge handling. The Cooper may be slower, but I'm a lot more
confident using that than the Eagle - so on some tracks I'm faster with the
Coop.

Eldred
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by **Steve Smit** » Fri, 02 Jul 2004 21:08:29

Agreed. The Eagle is surprisingly difficult to drive...altho not as finicky
as the twitchy Brabham. Gurney--who is NOT into sims, altho his son Alex
is--says the RW car was a dream to drive. It had an unusually long
wheelbase 'cuz Dan is so tall, and was particularly comfortable on long
tracks and fast bends. IMO, it is the least realistically modeled car in
GPL (altho the Brabham's ludicrous top speed always raises some eyebrows).

by **John DiFoo** » Sat, 03 Jul 2004 01:36:47

On Thu, 01 Jul 2004 12:08:29 GMT, "Steve Smith"

>Agreed. The Eagle is surprisingly difficult to drive...altho not as finicky
>as the twitchy Brabham. Gurney--who is NOT into sims, altho his son Alex
>is--says the RW car was a dream to drive. It had an unusually long
>wheelbase 'cuz Dan is so tall, and was particularly comfortable on long
>tracks and fast bends. IMO, it is the least realistically modeled car in
>GPL (altho the Brabham's ludicrous top speed always raises some eyebrows).

Hmm the Brab is about the slowest car as it is in GPL-you mean in
real life it was even slower?

John DiFool

by **Uwe Sch??rkam** » Sat, 03 Jul 2004 03:06:55

> Hmm the Brab is about the slowest car as it is in GPL-you mean in
> real life it was even slower?

> John DiFool

The Brab is right up there with the Ferrari and maybe even the Lotus,
if you know how to deal with its massive low end grunt. It's small,
light, nimble and sturdy. Personally I find it the best car in 67 GPL
by far (for my personal driving tastes).

Cheers,

uwe

PS: I'll go, hear and see a "real" Lotus 49b on Saturday, yay! 8-)

--
mail replies to Uwe at schuerkamp dot de ( yahoo address is spambox)
Uwe Schuerkamp //////////////////////////// http://www.schuerkamp.de/
Herford, Germany \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ (52.0N/8.5E)
GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

by **Mitch_** » Sat, 03 Jul 2004 06:20:57

Hey Uwe, Klaus Graf (sp?) had a pretty good run at Sears. Hopefully he is
going to run more Nextel races. As tough a nut is Nascar Cup is to break
into I was pretty impressed all around with KG.

Mitch

> > Hmm the Brab is about the slowest car as it is in GPL-you mean in
> > real life it was even slower?

> > John DiFool

> The Brab is right up there with the Ferrari and maybe even the Lotus,
> if you know how to deal with its massive low end grunt. It's small,
> light, nimble and sturdy. Personally I find it the best car in 67 GPL
> by far (for my personal driving tastes).

> Cheers,

> uwe

> PS: I'll go, hear and see a "real" Lotus 49b on Saturday, yay! 8-)

> --
> mail replies to Uwe at schuerkamp dot de ( yahoo address is spambox)
> Uwe Schuerkamp //////////////////////////// http://www.schuerkamp.de/
> Herford, Germany \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ (52.0N/8.5E)
> GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

by **Ruud Dingeman** » Sat, 03 Jul 2004 12:00:40

> Agreed. The Eagle is surprisingly difficult to drive...altho not as finicky
> as the twitchy Brabham.

Agree on the latter, advice to change your setup on the former ;)

The Eagle is a relatively easy and forgiving car to drive in GPL,
contrary to the Brabham, which is twitchy indeed. I used the Eagle as my
basic 'learner car' without too much trouble (and I'm no alien) until I
gradually moved onto Lotus and other motoring giants.

Hm, I've always thought the GPL Brabham mainly was probably a bit more
twitchy than it probably was in real life... It's so on edge I'm having
trouble anybody could drive that rig for 15 laps anywhere and not get in
dire trouble. (I always thought Brabham built his cars for 'easy
drifting', not 'drift and be likely to lose rear end on most occasions'.
I can do that in the Ferrari more comfortably than the Brab...)

But hey, what do I know. Gimme a real 67 car and I'll be happy to report
the differences (from hospital, probably ;) .

Regards, Rudy
--------------------
GPLRank: -22

rec.autos.simulators

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