Sweden will have the world's longest racetrack by 2012!

Not sure if this has been duscussed already or if it's the right forum to do so..

Gotland Ring is set to be the longest and most exciting racetrack in the world by 2012! (28 km!)

As a Swede I'm quite excited at the moment!

Gotland Ring 28 km circuit profile:


WEBSITE

Oh man, that looks awesome. There was a feature in Evo not long ago about the Gotland ring, it looks amazing.

Took me a little while to work out where it all goes, but yeah, it does look awesome. Shame the FIA regulations state that Grand Prix circuits must be no more than about seven kilometres in length (and even then, Spa only gets away with it because it's Spa).

At the moment the operational track is 3,2 km and FIA race ready next year.

Yah, but I'm talking about the whole thing!

With safety standards being as tight as they are today, I see no reason why we can't go back to longer circuts, sure, they'll be more difficult to maintain, requiring more marshals and safety cars stationed around the circuit. A return to the Nurburgring is out of the question because it's such a demanding circuit and too dangerous to race on, but I've seen videos of the Gotland Ring and it's hardly in the same category. Sure, the race n the full 28-km circuit would only be ten or twelve laps long, but methinks there would still be a lot of interesting stuff: strategy would play a huge part of it.

Besides, what if they did something like the Bathurst 1000 but for F1 cars? Given their engine and gearbox regulations, the FIA would love it ... of course, the very idea is insane.

Swedish Hell. It's almost like a rally course made for circuit racing cars. In one way, this is something different because you see another course that's extremely long other than the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Here's one problem I have with massive tracks like these: you run out of fuel and are about 5+ miles away from getting back into the pits, or if you have a flat tire... you have to go a long way around or may as well just exclude yourself from the race. What if there's a big accident that forces a safety car? Everyone will have to then bunch up no matter where they are on the track. There may be lots of rain (or snow) at the northeastern end of the course, maybe rain at the far southwestern end of the course... how do you prep the car and the tires? I'm not excited about really long tracks unless it's the 8.5 mile Le Mans course. Just throws too many things out of whack and can be too hard to follow.

A conversion I did shows that 28 kilometers translates to 17.4 (rounded to the nearest hundredth), which makes it about four miles longer than the full 24 Hours at the Nürburgring. Nürburgring Nordschleife will still have the history and the personality that this track will ultimately lack. Most of this track compared to the Nürburgring is kind of like a mash-up of various other circuits all rolled into one massive course. The Nürburgring is more like one high-speed course with 160+ corners. The Nürburgring (especially the Nordschleife) is mostly narrow). Judging on this layout, this seems like a wide-enough course to have multiple cars going three-wide for position.

Which would you take: the Nürburgring's full course or Gotland Ring?

JohnBM01

Which would you take: the Nürburgring's full course or Gotland Ring?

Click to expand...

No one knows yet?

I agree that Nürburgring will still have the history and great personality, but I think Gotland Ring will be really exciting as well! I read that experts and race drivers already think the now excisting 3,2 km track is one of the most technical and exciting..

Made the full length track a bit clearer in photoshop:

Hopefully the modders get on top of this ASAP. I'd love to see this track in GTR2/GTRE, or rFactor. I love the long tracks, and the Ring is old hat now.

Sweet Jesus just looking at that track layout is intimidating...

dude thats so totally unnecessary (regarding the length of the course), but looks like immense fun XD

How is the track layout compared to the N'Ring, regarding going uphill/downhill/off camber turns, etc?

Because for me, that (and the narrowness of the track) is what makes me love driving around the Ring, not so much the sheer length itself.

Beerz

How is the track layout compared to the N'Ring, regarding going uphill/downhill/off camber turns, etc?

Because for me, that (and the narrowness of the track) is what makes me love driving around the Ring, not so much the sheer length itself.

Click to expand...

I'm not a huge fan of the 'Ring's narrowness.

Beerz

How is the track layout compared to the N'Ring, regarding going uphill/downhill/off camber turns, etc?

Because for me, that (and the narrowness of the track) is what makes me love driving around the Ring, not so much the sheer length itself.

Click to expand...

Yeah, thats what I've been thinking of as well. Gotland Ring will unfortunately be pretty flat I think.

Time will tell though!

This is the Northern Loop (the today race ready part) and as you can see the landscape is really flat..


EDIT: Just to give you an idea of the size of the full length circuit (the red part is the Northern Loop).

Beerz

How is the track layout compared to the N'Ring, regarding going uphill/downhill/off camber turns, etc?

Because for me, that (and the narrowness of the track) is what makes me love driving around the Ring, not so much the sheer length itself.

Click to expand...

Yep same, if it is going to be flat (and/or wide) then I am not really interested.

Presumably it's only the longest circuit in the world for the 11 months the Isle of Man TT isn't on?

Roo

Presumably it's only the longest circuit in the world for the 11 months the Isle of Man TT isn't on?

Click to expand...

How about "The World's Longest Purpose-Built Racetrack" then, pedant?

And to think I used to joke about getting a T-shirt with 'Pedant' on. Prehaps I should look into it.

Looks complex...... i cant tell you straight off which one i like

I've had muscle spasm with pens that made a better track design. It has TONS of straights that go to 90 degree turns and other random things. The NL looks pretty darn good but I doubt the whole track will be anywere near the 'ring.

Yeah, I think the 'Ring will still be a better course. Though this one looks pretty cool, it's just too, erm, randomly designed. I don't think it'd be too easy to find a flow on it.

Great looking track. They could potentially do all types of racing just using different areas. Heck they could make a series using different area of the track.

I would love to see that track on GT5!!hehe

MASSIVE racetrack! I like 2 c a race on that monsterous place
But it looks like its just a bunch of lines connected just goin everywhere

I must say, the Nurburgring has the history. It's a far more established track, and this one just seems... ridiculous.

Although, from the above photo, I would love to race a track that weaves through massive wind turbines... on a cloudless, sunny day... I don't know what it is about them, I just love them.

I just love the ambition in this track. Seeing how much of a track in a certain amount of square kilometers. Driving the Nurburgring of GT4, its not that really insane. This is the Nurburgring gone bonkers! Seeing this in GT5 would push the power of the PS3, and the amount of track variations would be astonishing.

Sounds like it's true purpose is to have a myriad number of layouts, and I doubt it'll hold super-long course races.

If this is ever incorporated in GT5, how long would you suppose it'd take to build it with weather and day/night cycles? My guess is 1-2 years plus - I know PD says it takes 2 years to fully render a track, but thats with only one person working on it; I'd say 2 years for a TEAM to complete it.

Holy thread bump Batman, it's been 4 years.

And how is that question any different in this case? Yes, it would as far we know perhaps take somewhere around 2 years of individual work to model... And?

It's not like it's gonna happen anytime soon. I remember that Kaz got interviewed in Sweden around November '10 and said that he would like to have a Scandinavian track in GT sometime, but that it wasn't planned to happen anytime soon.