[Wally]

What I want to do for season 6 is put up three cars which are fairly close in lap times, and have people choose one of the three cars to stick with for the whole season. People will choose cars by "secret ballot" - i.e. by PMing me. Half way through the season only, you can swap cars if you want to, again by secret PM, but you don't have to.

In order to balance out the points a little, I will give slightly more points to the slower cars. This will be based on the best race laptimes of each type of car in the race. E.g. if one of the cars ends up being 10% slower than another car in a race (just to pick an easy number), then each person driving that car will have their points boosted by 10%. This will give a points advantage to picking a slower car.

The three cars that I have chosen (based on the old RSR times, post AC 1.0 and my own testing) are:

• McLaren MP4-12C
• Lotus 2-11 GT4
• Ferrari 458

Each car is better at some tracks than others. The two street cars are faster in a straight line, but poorer at cornering and braking than the Lotus race car. They all have semislick tyres. Choosing a slightly slower car will give you slightly more points.

[marty]

Interesting Wally, I have never compared the lotus gt4 against those 2 but have found the 458, mp4, ruf and f40 stock version to be very close at most tracks. Well within 1 second between the 4 of them so you may want to have a look at those 2 also. I will put up a server with all 5 somewhere and see how the laptimes compare on one of the public servers with stracker data.

[Wally]

From my RSR data, the F40 is too slow for these cars. I don't know where the Ruf fits in.

But here is another combo that were *very* close in lap times:

Ferrari F40
Lotus 2-11
Mercedes SLS AMG

This could be an interesting mix, as the three cars are very different. In my first 3, the McLaren and the Ferrari are similar in style. There is also the question of relative tyre wear, as just being a good hotlapper doesn't make a car a good racer.

Also, don't forget I've averaged the times over many tracks. These cars are faster at some tracks, slower at others.

[marty]

Rsr reset has likely skewed results a bit I think. Not that many have run laps yet so data there isnt so great atm as it used to be.

I did run these 4 together quute a bit and was able to win races in any one of them. I drove the ruf and f40 more then the other 2 but when trying those even though they are both easier to drive by a fair amount my best times were pretty much the same. This was at Mugello, Imola and Monza 66 with servers that were full most of the time.

The older cars will need a quick driver to get the most out of them but they are surprisingly similar. Even a long time ago I used to just run f40 vs 458 at monza which was very similar times too.

[Bird]

oh I like this 2nd set better  
I know which one I'd drive! (but nobody can guess it, right?)

[marty]

The lotus surely bird isnt that the one youve been campaigning for the last 5 seasons or so.

[StanDaam]

Loving it, all the options sound schweeet as, where do I sign!! 

[marty]

From my RSR data, the F40 is too slow for these cars. I don't know where the Ruf fits in.

But here is another combo that were *very* close in lap times:

Ferrari F40
Lotus 2-11
Mercedes SLS AMG

This could be an interesting mix, as the three cars are very different. In my first 3, the McLaren and the Ferrari are similar in style. There is also the question of relative tyre wear, as just being a good hotlapper doesn't make a car a good racer.

Also, don't forget I've averaged the times over many tracks. These cars are faster at some tracks, slower at others.

F40 and sls I found as far apart as sls vs the 458 and mp412c. Seeing the f40 can match those 2 in my pretty extensive testing of them but sls is one car I have never found a match for.

There are also the hypercars 599, laferrari and zonda r which can get fairly close at many tracks. But I think the slower cars are a bit more fun.

The ktm and 2 eleven are generally pretty close at most tracks too so if you have one the other is worth adding.

[Wally]

I captured times before the RSR reset, for versions > 1.0. That's a big sample set, which I'll be favouring. I'm tending to like the second set better, because of the bigger variety in the cars.

[Bird]

I captured times before the RSR reset, for versions > 1.0. That's a big sample set, which I'll be favouring. I'm tending to like the second set better, because of the bigger variety in the cars.

Exactly

[Wally]

I captured times before the RSR reset, for versions > 1.0. That's a big sample set, which I'll be favouring. I'm tending to like the second set better, because of the bigger variety in the cars.

Exactly

Not biased at all there, Bird?

[Gratulin]

I captured times before the RSR reset, for versions > 1.0. That's a big sample set, which I'll be favouring. I'm tending to like the second set better, because of the bigger variety in the cars.

Exactly

Not biased at all there, Bird?

I think he is getting all excited about driving the SLS

[marty]

I have the day off today so I put up a server with all the cars wally suggested and some more, I will try and put in a good lap in each car and see how they compare at imola. Server has 100% grip

There are the 3 cars Ive ran so far 458, RUF and f40 with a wopping .199 between the 3 of them 

http://54.66.240.28:50041/lapstat

I needed plenty of laps in the ruf and f40 tp put down a proper lap closer to my limits, in the 458 its pretty easy so maybe there is another second or so in that but its quite easy to pass others driving a 458 in a ruf or f40.

[Wally]

I've found the RSR rank has a history of records set at 1.01.
Here's a close group of varied cars, averaged over many tracks:

Ferrari 458
Ferrari F40
KTM XBow
BMW M3 E30 Grp A

Different cars - and each of them is the quickest at some of the tracks.

[Bird]

so how would you determine who's driving a "slow" car (for extra points) ? Based on your RSR records?
In that case, could you give us that brakedown now, or it's secret material?