East Germany, a particularly drab Soviet satellite whose only claims to
automotive fame (aside from the execrable--and much maligned--Trabbi) were
the long-gone Veritas and EMW? Andre Streu and his pals "Renzani" and
"Muelli," that's who. Andre has already given us three of the best-produced
tracks in GPL: Halle (with its insanely dangerous light poles), Wegburg (a
huge, Nazi-built "roval"), and beautiful Leipzig (with its perfectly-tended
flower beds).
Now Andre has outdone himself with the incredibly ambitious 5.43-mile,
26-turn Sachsenring, another East German venue (it was around from 1929 to
1990, latterly as a motorcycle track--Agostini held the lap record on a MV
Agusta), and arguably the most interesting from a driver's point of view.
It's got more dips, dives, swoops, swirls, crests, leaps and thank-you-m'ams
than most rally stages, with top speeds rivalling Spa's, a couple of
first-gear hairpins, and plenty of roller-coaster elevation changes. (Toy
with those skyscraper ride-heights in the default setup at your peril.)
Isle of Man, any one?
But what's really incredible are the sheer quantity and quality of the
road-side objects: an fanatically detailed collection of public and private
architecture, structures and buildings, signage, telephone poles, spectators
(whose the guy in the red T-shirt, Andre?), even a hidden stretch of
railroad tracks and a lane of the Erfurt-Chemnitz (nee Karl-Marx-Stadt)
autobahn. Going through the densely populated towns, you can see houses two
blocks over! I've driven thru similar little towns in Germany, and believe
me they look exactly like this. Even the skies overhead and the far
horizons look totally authentic...and unique.
Not only do become immersed in the feeling that this must a real place, not
some sim-racer's wet dream, but the proximity of individually-rendered trees
right at the edge of the road also gives you a frightening sense of speed.
If strobing lights on Pikman episodes make you feel woozy, beware of the
Sachsenring.
And all this is done without wrecking the frame rate, either, even at
1200x1024 with all the 16-bit add-ons and the detail cranked up, although in
replays with the whole field on-screen it does begin to stutter a bit on my
mid-range 1.3-GHz T'bird.
The Sachsenring probably won't be as popular online as Leipzig (it's narrow
and fieldishly difficult to learn, much less master), but it's certainly
"worth a detour," as they say in the Guide Michelin. Check it out on
Magnus' excellent GP- tracks database:
http://www.racesimcentral.net/
--Steve Smith