MeanMachine Baja 250 LS

MeanMachines are surely the most advanced and best looking machinery currently in ROR. Not only do they drive unbelievably fast and controllable but they are neat looking as well. There are two MeanMachines that are quite suitable for challenge of hill climb track - Baja 250 LS and Race 400 LS. I took the first one on a tour around the mountain...

The machine made by Lifter make an impression of bending the physics laws of ROR world. It is very unlikely to spin the wheels even though its engine produce 10k+ torques. It makes quite good in corners and does not need an analog controller to make a good lap time on our track. What is the secret of the car ? Well, you have to as Lifter himself. I will not get into tiny details of contruction of this baby, I will take this car for a quick ride ... and this is what this car was made for!

I was very sceptical towards the Mean cars from the very beginning. They looked great but I suspected to be driving another beauty with big engine, enormous torque, shitty suspension and tremendous over/under-steer. I was very wrong. Lots of kudos to Lifter for working hard not only on the great flexbody model, but on traction as well.

The reactions of the car on the input is very different to other cars in ROR. Its behaviour is very understeery, especially in the range of speeds far beyond "100" on the speedo. Drivers have to brake a lot before the corners to initiate the turn smoothly, however car's behavior on exit will definitely compensate for slower turn-ins. To keep the turning momentum inside the corner keeping neutral throttle is necessary. With no gas input the car turns a lot less vigorously and makes it almost impossible not to kiss the barriers on the outside in slower turns. Pedal-to-the-metal strategy on the exit of the turns is actually a very good one because of the fact that oversteer is almost unnoticeable. 

The suspension is prepared for any discomforts encountered on the hill-climb track. Bumps and jumps is nothing for the incredibly looking springs and dampers. I don't know if the actual mechanism of the car works the way it looks but I don't care - it looks masterful. 

The rear axle is a lot wider than the front one so body roll is a lot more noticeable on rear wheels. For the same reason the driver has to be very careful - seeing the front wheels does not give a good idea where the rear ones are. Touching anything with the rear wheels results very often in roll-overs, what can not improve the lap time in any way. The car is quite highly settled so it can jump over the barriers quite easily. Driver can find himself way out of the track if he is not careful enough when approaching slower corners.

The car's aerodynamics are quite advanced. There are 30 wings sections in the car's truck description file what gives a good idea about how much force is generated purely from the "air". The wings keep the car very stable during long jumps and surely impact the way it behaves on the track.

The car was a pretender for the highest place on chart board from the beginning. My best time is 1'22.997, what already is a greatest result on the chart! The perfect lap time would be as follows:

Section Time

1 10.876

2 18.871

3 16.009

4 9.094

5 24.153

Sum 1'19.004

Volvo 240 Badass

I remember quite well my first attempts to run the hillclimb track. It was the time when flexbody meshes were not yet implemented and sub-mesh cars were the kings of the roads in the ROR world. I really liked taking the Volvo 245 on small trips up and down the mountain. The car was very controllable due to low power, however was a great challenge because of RWD. Before ROR 0.36 version it was the ultimate drift machine. Absolutely no lateral grip on the rear axle resulted in long tail-slides in almost every corner. Currently the car is very slow making about 2.00+ minutes on the hill climb, however its younger, slightly insane brother - Volvo 240 Badass - is surely a great pretender to tighten up the competition on lap chart board.

The car has body of standard Volvo 240, however noticeably greater engine and higher suspension surely adds to fun factor. High center of gravity is not as big problem as I suspected, however the car rolls over quite easily so drivers should avoid braking when going sideways (and they will surely do that in V240BA quite often).  The springs are actually making the car run very comfortable. Lots of bumps on the road are almost unnoticeable from the in-car view. When sitting in the car, the first thing you notice is a big compressor emerging from the hood, ready to squeeze some air into the cyliners. It is the most characteristic part of the body, that actually gives some promises about the car's performance ...

...which is actually acceptable, however adding 30% more power would not be a bad idea. The car looses traction on each of four driven wheels quite easily with the torque provided, however drops revs significantly when trying to powerslide through the corner. The car likes to be swinged aroung, however it should not be let drift too much if quick lap time is a target. 

Car's traction differs quite a lot from other 4WD cars way of driving. In most cars throttle can be used to pull the car out of an oversteer situation. Volvo, however, tends to loose too much lateral traction during cornering with throttle in the floor. Throttle-work is of no use when going too fast into the corner - adding some power will only widen the car's path through the turn. On the other side, the car is very neutral and responsive when off-throttle.

Volvo should be thrown into the turn with full-gas initiating the turn. Realising the throttle and corrections with the steering wheel should let the car pass the apex smoothly. When slipangle is low enough, the gas should be re-applied to launch from the exit of the turn. 

The car has quite low corner speed in slow ones so braking is necessary before turns 5, 11 and 15. High speed corners, on the other hand, are no challenge for the Volvo. This is the first car, in which I had so much control in high-speed corner number 14.

The fastest lap time, I achieved is 1'35.96.

Perfect lap time is 1'34.742.

Section Time

1 13.677

2 22.109

3 18.993

4 11.828

5 28.135

Sum 94.742

Nissan Skyline R34

"The monster from Japan" is surely one of the best export products of the Japanese motor industry. The R32 version was created and designed to dominate the Japanese Touring Car Championship and Australian Touring Car Championship. The highly understated engine of the civil version of the car was a sandbox for the unlimited imagination of car tuners all over the world. It was not a matter of "if" but "when" we were going to experience the "Godzilla" on the ROR roads. And it surely is a monster.

The R34 version of the Skyline, created by Akoss, can not be mistaken for any other car. The characteristic shape of the body was recreated using submesh techniques, which gave very good results, considering the amount of vertexes used to construct the car. The Nissan looks very slick on big alloy rims with wide sporty tires, which are the first things you see when you enter the car. The wheels are visible from inside, and that gives a big advantage of knowing what angle the front wheels are at.

The car has lots of power so white clouds of smoke will definitely float around the track long after the car vanishes from sight. Even though the Nissan has both axles driven it is not an easy task to keep the car under control, especially on a narrow twisty road we use here as a testing track. The driver has to concentrate all the time and be very gentle with the throttle. Oversteer "on demand" is expected on almost any gear on the corners' exit.

The handling of the car is quite good, however not perfect. The Skyline is not a neutral car. It struggles which a lot of understeer in entries to the corners only to snap the grip and go totally sideways on exits. The car is very hard to control on the edge. Much braking before the turn and gentleness with throttle mid-corner are necessary. The suspension is quite low but not too stiff. Each and every bump on the road is easily noticeable however it is not as disturbing as it was in Slammed S10. The front suspension is quite well set - the wheels seem settled on the ground all the time. The rear suspension, on the other hand, is acceptable in slow corners, but not very suitable in faster ones. Every time the car requires lots of lateral grip, the rear end of the car jumps up and down throwing the car off balance. The effect is easily recognisable during high speed drifting. As the car loves (or is incapable not) to leave the turns a bit sideways, it is quite a common effect unfortunately.

The car does not forgive hitting any obstacles, since it has quite stiff shocks. Any contact with the barriers will definitely cost lots of time. The car jumps up losing all the grip and remaining in control of the car is only a matter of luck. Since the car's rear suspension is not perfect the car feels a lot better on the flat sections of the track. Drivers have to be very careful on bumpy turns 3, 10 and 14.

As far as modifications are concerned faster steering is very helpful to tame this Japanese beast. Changing the hydros from 0.25 to 0.35 or even 0.45 is recommended for quick and consistent lap times. Moreover, increasing the amount of "spokes" in wheels makes the car react a little smoother. Both modifications are included in 2.1 version of Skyline by K.CMODS.

My quickest laptime is 1'33.37. Perfect laptime is the fastest laptime so far on this blog breaking the 1.30 border.

Checkpoint Time

1 12.186

2 21.501

3 17.822

4 11.046

5 26.913

Total 1'29.468

Big thansk to Sam Farrelly for spell-checking.

S10 Slammed

S10 Slammed

The Chevrolet S10 Slammed is the first good looking car on this blog. The car is the same as thr normal S10, however it was tuned up with specific mannerism. Great flexbody model, big full rims, lowered and stiffened suspension, cambered front wheels, scoop on the hood - it all result in a very good silhouette of the car. It makes an impression that you would want to hop into the car and spend sime time behind the wheel enjoying the slow ride. But this blog is not about going slow ...

What first comes to mind after leaving the parking garage is - "god, this thing is looow". A moment after that another thought appears in my head "jeez, this thing is stiff". What you already should know is the fact, that low and stiff cars dont have a pleasant life in the Rigs of Rods world.

The car has a high-reving engine under the hood which feels powerfull and lends to the overall character of the car. Most other vehicles limits the revs to about 3k, 3.5k. This propeller goes up to 5,2k resulting in high pitch engine sound every time you drop the throttle.

When I first wanted to take a lap with the car ... it was impossible. This car understeers. It is not a simple understeer. This car completely redefines this term! The front wheels does nothing, absolutely nothing, apart from looking good. They have lots of negative camber which reduces the amount of contact points with the surface. To make the matters worse the default steering angle is so much reduced that it is impossible to make a 90 degree turn on a normal intersection. I had to increase the hydros values in .truck file to make the car anywhere near drivable [0.075 to 0.175].

As I said, this car understeers a lot, even with the faster hydros. The steering is completely numb in the middle, which feels like a giant deadzone. The steering wheel has to be turned to the full lock to make the car start cornering. Pushing the throttle helps a lot to overcome the understeer. It makes the front wheels pull the car into the corner like in the real FWD cars. The throttle should not be released mid-corner. When off-throttle, the car starts feeling numb again and most probably hits the first encountered barrier. The car feels always on the edge. The grip level changes rapidly from no-grip to full grip.

I did not mention the fact that the car is very fragile. It is very low and the front bumper seems to be 2cm above the ground which causes a lot of problems with curbs. The car does not have any suspension (or it is so stiff that it does not matter anyway) so when you hit anything all the energy goes into bending the car. One misjudged corner and your "Slammed" starts looking like a banana with a hood coming under the front axle and front wheels spinning with no contact to the ground.

The lack of suspension does not help on the twisty track. There are lots of elevation changes and bumps which are really noticeable from inside the car resulting in lowered comfort of driving. I felt the same when I took a Formula Star Mazda on Lime Rock Park circuit the first time in iRacing - like driving a gokart on cobblestones.

The corners are a real challenge. At the entry to the corner the front wheels have to be turned to full lock which increases the amount of contact points of the front outer tire. Push the throttle to reduce understeer. Keep the throttle long enough to provide enough power to drift out of it. Steering mid-corner is reduced so the main philosophy is to turn-in, push the gas and pray that the car chooses the correct path by itself. Taking into consideration that the car breaks up after a single contact with the barriers, the cornering with this car gives quite a good impression of how it would feel to ride a bicycle on a dense minefield with your eyes shut.

Changes that I made in the .truck file are as follows:

I changed the hydros from 0.075 to 0.175 and increased wheels springs from 200,000 to 400,000. It makes the car lose less speed when drifting through the corner and makes the car react quicker tosteering input. Decreasing the spring ratio did not result in anything good.

My best laptime is 1'39.031. With a lot of troubles all around the track.

The perfect one is 1,5 second faster.

Perfect

1 13.483

2 23.895

3 19.772

4 11.626

5 28.798

Sum 1'37.574

Thanks to Sam Farrelly for some spell-checking.

Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman

Welcome the first truly RWD car in ROR Top Gear .

Most RWD cars in ROR lose lots of lateral traction under acceleration which causes it to be very hard to maintain direction and not to exit the corner sideways / backward / upside down. 4WD cars don't have much more lateral traction, however their front wheels can pull the car out of the corner quite easily which compensates the overall oversteer. The drift is much more controllable with front wheels propulled.

The Merc Pullman is quite a long limusine with overall acceptable power. The length of the vehicle is actually an advantage, the longer the vehicle the more force it requires to swing this coffin around, which gives you more time to react.
The Merc is quite challenging to drive at a good pace. Gentleness with the throttle and ability to turn the steering wheel fast enough to countersteer are definite advantages if you want to beat the clock.

When off-throttle the car understeers like a pig. The turning radius is bigger then radius of Hadron Collider so expect problems at the hairpin [turn 11].
The car needs enter corners earlier than it might seem necessary. Full throttle midcorner should help maintain turning momentum. Release the throttle and tap on the brakes a little in the exit of the turn to catch some grip and obtain the correct direction before you drop the throttle again. Just remember that the wheels and engine have some inertia which keeps them spinning for a second after releasing the gas.

The model of the car is neat, not very high-poly but very acceptable and it is so much fun to crash this big fella. The wheels are very well protected which helps a lot when you get too close to the barriers. The only place where caution is necessary is the hairpin, hitting the inner curb with left front wheel results in total destruction of the front suspension.

Overall, driving with the car is really rewarding. It is a blast to drive on this twisty track and it turns out that the top speed is nothing to be ashamed of. The Merc is quite fancy to drift and play around with as well.

Laptimes. 

I managed to do 1'39.051 using keyboard steering. I made several mistakes however - one at landing after the second checkpoint and again at the hairpin. I will try to beat that with the steering wheel. Perfect lap time is a second slower than the Buggy, which is quite a good result considering the one axle propulsion and length of the car.

Perfect lap time:

1 13.291

2 23.004

3 19.25

4 12.012

5 27.813

Sum 1'35.37

Big thansk to Sam Farrelly for spell-checking.

DuneRacer SolidAxles 4WD

The car you see here definitely wasnt designed for tarmac, however it seems to have a lot of potential on our mountain track as well.

Dune Buggy designed by Simp does not have great power. 2300 torques is nothing comparing to some other monsters we can find around. It is not a pretty car as well. A red rollcage, engine, 4 seats and 4 wheels do not compare to any flexbody models found in latest ROR edition.

There is however something more than just power and good look to make a fast sports car.

A rigid frame and low weight results in very good handling. The car is unbelievly agile in slow corners and very neutral in faster ones. When driven properly, it does not loose speed while cornering which compensates for low power. However it almost stops to null when trying to drift through the bends or when entering the corner with too much speed.

It is one of very few cars that does not suffer understeer when cornering at high speeds. I has, however, understeer on demand : P You should not turn wheels too much. Just little corrections with the steering is surely enough to make the car go where you want to.

The car is very neutral on full throttle and very stable when you release it. A very short moment off-throttle is more than enough to calm down this little buddy when necessary. The brakes dont lock up so you dont have to tap it to make the car loose some speed without a cloud of smoke.

The suspension is quite hard so the body roll is almost unnoticeable. Because of this, landings after jumps are not very stable and quite tricky if you dont want to release throttle in mid-air.

When going for a good laptime engine revs are crucial. Remember to downshif after almost every corner, or whenever you hear the engine dying in low revs.

I must admit the car is very easy to handle when going for a cruise however you have to concentrate a lot to make a decent laptime. A little moment sideways or not enough braking before cetrain corners can add several seconds to your result.

My best time is 1.38.40 with some mistakes all around the track. Perfect lap time is about 4 seconds faster. I tried several times to make a good overall lap however it is hard to make it flawlessly.

Perfect checkpoint times:

1 12.811

2 23.001

3 19.829

4 11.07

5 27.749

Sum 1.34.46

Dodge Challenger

The Chally is my most familiar car due to the fact that I was creating it from the scratch.

The real car is RWD however due to not very precise tire physics in ROR the virtual car was completely undrivable when RWD only. Even though, the car is very oversteery now with 4WD and quite challenging in corners.

The suspension is very soft which is very useful in ROR envionment. It makes the car very predictable in corners and causes weight travel during braking and turning. The jumps are not big deal for the Challenger. Just remember to strighten the front wheels at landing point.

You should release the throttle at entries to the corners. It will make the front of the car heavier and gives the front tires more grip. Push the throttle even before the apex. This will make the car oversteery, however the car likes to do the corners with a little drift. Just turn in a little and push the throttle - the car will swing even more by itself. You dont have to brake much before corners because you will loose some speed when making the turn sideways.

The front wheels dont turn as fast as they should so make little change in challenger.truck file. Change -0.1 and 0.1 Hydro values into -0.12 and 0.12. This will make the car more controllable.

Lets talk about dark sides of this baby. The car is not tiny so the barriers will seem just a bit closer than in other cars. The hairpin (turn 11) is not very friendly for this big muscle car. It can be taken with a 4 wheel drift, however it is very hard to achieve because of the barriers. It will save you at least a second if you menage to pull this trick.

The suspension is easily breakable so dont hit anything, especially with naked front wheels. It is common that the wheel disappears inside of the body. You can pull it out easily wth the mouse cursor but you can say bye bye to your good lap time. Sometimes the wheel starts to wobble at higher speeds. This means you have broken the spring and the wheel has no suspension. If you encounter the problem very often try changing the shocks section in .truck file. Change the sixth value ( 0.1 i believe ) to 0.66 or simmliar in every shock, this will prevent the springs from breaking.

Final truck file here.

Laptime

I managed to make 1'34.49 with a little mistake in 3rd section. Perfect laptime that could be achieved from my laps is 1.33.15. I believe 1.31 is possible.

Perfect lap:

Section Section time Summary time

1 13.535 13.535

2 22.353 35.888

3 18.400 54.288

4 11.152 1.05.44

5 27.711 1.33.151

The track

THE Track 

The track consists of 16 corners ( i thought that there are a bit more ) divided into 5 sections. Most corners are quite easy and very visible so they should not be a problem. There are , however, some blind spots and places where you should push the car to the very limit to achieve a decent speed.

This is how the track looks like from on the map:

1st Section

Gain as much speed as possible before entering the first gate. Heavy cars have to brake a lot before turning right on the intersection so it is not a bad idea to start from the small hill on the other side of the street.

1st corner is a bit tricky. There is a barrier on the outside that I touch way to often destroying the suspension. There is some grass on the outside of turn 1. If the car is stable I cut it to have better entry into turn 2. Push the throttle as soon as possible after entering turn 2 because of the following uphill section. There is a small crest on the exit of turn 2 so strighten the wheels as soon as possible to cross it neutrally. 3rd corner is not an easy one. - blind uphill with a small jump. Just after turn 2 go to the right side of the road. Start turning left several meters before the top of the crest so that you start flying on the left side of the road.

2nd Section

Release the throttle after the jump to land neutrally. Turn 4 is quite easy, however 5th one is tricky. Slow down because it is almost 90 degree turn. It is blind as well and you should not cut it too much because of the barrier on the inside of the turn. 6th corner should be easy. Try doing full throttle all the way. 7th has low visiblity but you should not have problems with it. If the car is not too low you can cut the inside of the corner to have better line (turn to the left as much as possible) for 8. 9th corner is hard one. It tightens a bit just after the time gate, so dont push it too much on the entry and concentrate on the exit.

3rd and 4th Section

After exiting tun 9 turn to the left to have an easy line through 10. There is a small right corner between 10 and 11 which is a bit blind but is not a great challenge. You should go to right side of the road just after it and brake for turn 11. 11 is a pain in the ass. Most cars are understeery so you should go through it as slow as possible. There are obstacles on the inside of the turn and on the outside so you should be very precise not to break the car here. Sometimes it is impossible to do this one the right way so I go on the grass on the outside to go around the corner. You should turn in as soon as possible and try to drift out of the corner to have proper revs before the small stright. 12th one is wide on the exit and should be made with as much throttle as possible. 13th corner is fast as well. Beware of the barriers on the outside of the turn. The exit of the corner is important because of the longest straight on the track.

5th section

14th corner is important. Try doing it without braking. Find the right turn in point so you dont hit the cliff on the right and dont clip the barrier on the inside. Brake a little before 15. Dont cut the corner. Just make it easy. 16th one is the last corner of the track so dont rush it. Find the right entry so that the exit of the corner is stable. Accelerate asap and head on to the finish.

Introduction

Hello Rigs of Rods fans,

Let me itroduce myself. My name is Michał and i'm 24 years old. I am computer programist rising the power of the big computer corporation :P I live in Gdańsk which is a city placed on the baltic coast in Poland. I am a huge racing and sim-racing fan. I was spending quite a lot of time playing hardcore sims. I really enjoyed Live For Speed and iRacing, that I race currently. I came across ROR on LFS forum. The game has made a very good impression on me because of the spring physics it uses for vehicle simulation. It was the time I was using the same methods for cloth simulation and I was surprised that spring physics can be used for rigid (actually semi-rigid) bodies as well.

As it turned out, it was quite easy to create new vehicles for the game. I used to have much more time than now and as a big fan of muscle cars I created the white Dodge Challenger that was included in official realese of ROR ( well, till 0.36 version ).

As I am no big fan of cruising around I started using the time trial's to race the clock in small cars. I find the small hill-climb track on Island map very atractive so i decided to hit the road and find out what vehicles are the fastest on this twisty road. 

I will post reviews of cars you can find in ROR and on the ROR repository. I will concentrate on how they behave on the small twisty track. What are their good and bad sides. I am no Stig so the times will not be perfect so I will try to write down the best section times and sum them up to find out what would be a perfect lap.

All right, time to hit the road. I will post a small guide of the track in the following post.

Waiting for your comments.

Regards

ps. Im sorry for not the best english. I will make this blog a little excercise for my english writing skills :D