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.