Driving Impressions for Car Profiles?

[Mike Rotch]

I wanted to get the wiki's 'authorities' ( ) view on this before i jumped in. In a car profile, would it not add some sort of meaty value if a 'factual' explanation of the car's driving experience was included as intro? For example, what the AC Cobra and Shelby Cobra might read like:

"In stock form, the AC Cobra is characterised by a predictable chassis which tends to oversteer on corner entry and understeer on corner exit. Braking is not exceptional for such a light vehicle and can cause entry understeer in certain corners. Gearing is ideal for the powerful and torquey engine, with the four speed gearbox allowing speeds in excess of 270kph (167mph). Straight line performance is exceptional, even by modern day standards with little need for engine upgrades. "


...

"In stock form, the Shelby Cobra is characterised by a nervous chassis which can snap from understeer to oversteer or vice versa with little warning. This can be partially explained by the shorter gearing found in this model, with speeds of up to 240kph (150mph) permitted from the four speed gearbox. The shorter gearing allows greater scope for wheelspin in cornering, resulting in looser handling characteristics. Straightline performance is exceptional, although difficult to control due to the inherent handling characteristics."


The description should be based on the stock set up and be as factual as possible, without opinion (eg: i found it to be fast and i culd slide it haxor).

Opinions?

 

[Jondot]

That sounds good

The only thing is, i can see opinion leaking in. Perhaps people could add opinions underneath, so that they can express themselves if they disagree, rather than editing the original description - opinion can still influence the factual part slightly, well, the opinion of who wrote it.

Or maybe there could be a topic for discussion, if we want to keep it away from the wiki

 

[DuckRacer]

I agree with both of you. There should be a factual part, and an opinions part, like Jon said.

 

[niky]

I think it'd be great to add. It's about the only place I can contribute to the wiki, as there are other people more knowledgeable than me in just about any other area.

But it's a potential area for disagreement and abuse... I think askin people to make addenda instead of editing the original would be good.

 

[Jondot]

That's right. I hadn't thought about that...

I think it would just have to be carefully moderated. Any abusers would have to be dealt with, as they usually would.

 

[Mike Rotch]

But it's a potential area for disagreement

Hmm. True. :scratchchin: It is not unforeseeable that I could describe the Cobra's as above, and another the opposite. I didnt consider that.

Who then writes the 'factual' part and what happens if 'fact' is disputed. Nuts. Wiki is supposed to be simple

Perhaps people could add opinions underneath, so that they can express themselves if they disagree

The risk is a 'message board' developing with people getting into arguments, which is the opposite of what wiki is about. Cant think of a solution at the moment though

 

[Jondot]

Well, how about a topic in this forum where people can discuss changes that they think should be made to the information?

 

[niky]

Each car article would have to be a collaboration of several people. Also note that car dynamics and control are just plain different for those guys on DFPs.

The testing and validation should be done in batches. Nothing outlines car behavior better than a comparison with a similar car. The WRS guys could come in handy for this.

Plus we should set ground rules for testing criteria. Stock everything, yes, but what about tires? Stock SMs or N2s all around? Perhaps a list of people who would like to collaborate could be drawn up, and everything done by poll, with different aspects of car behaviour set on a numerical scale, then two or three reviews for each car.

 

[Kent]

I think it's a great idea but too subject to opinion and not fact.

Even in your initial statements I was not quick to agree with your "nervous" view of the Shelby Cobra.

The best way I could imagine this working out is to start a review series (week by week) in the settings and tuning forum.
Get a mod to work on organizing and start a "Official GTP Weekly Car Review" in the settings and tuning forum (or which ever forum the Mods decide on at a later date).

Then in each of the profile pages, link the "GTP Car Review" from the forum.

This takes away the need to use extra space on the wiki and at the same time allows everyone to contribute (with a mod to over-see events in the review series).

What do you all think?

Wiki
-> Car Profile Page
--> GTP Car Review Link
____________> Forum Thread with Moderator made first post presenting the car being discussed followed by "moderated" discussion by active members.

 

[niky]

That'd be cool. So we could separate test drives from the race reports section... maybe.

 

[Pupik]

This is how I handled my first GT4 article.

I kept it opinion-free, included a little real-life info, some stats (they could use some updating), and orgnaized it in a manner that might be best understood by GT4 newcomers and the old guard alike.

 

[Jordan]

This is how I handled my first GT4 article.

I kept it opinion-free, included a little real-life info, some stats (they could use some updating), and orgnaized it in a manner that might be best understood by GT4 newcomers and the old guard alike.

Great work, pupik! [SIZE=-1]Encyclopedically [/SIZE]written and beautifully formatted - this is a model Wiki page that all others should attempt to imitate. Great job! 👍

 

[RedWolfRacer]

Excellent article, pupik!

I can't say I know much about a car's history, but I do about how they handle. I think the article is very detailed, but there's no information about it's handling in GT4 which I think is the primary aim. Even so, I like the format with the picture at the top and the history beneath. I think the end could contain the details of handling. I think that Kent's idea of having a thread for each car would be pretty good, but there are two problems we'll have to work around:
1)New members of GTP randomly walking into, say, a Skyline thread and randomly declaring his fanboy-ism on said while contributing very little else. Two possible solutions are closing the thread as soon as possible, and allowing only certain users to access the thread (I'm not sure if that's possible on GTP but I know it is on some other forums).
2)Giving the GT4 moderators more work. Perhaps hiring a dedicated moderator for that section would be a good idea. Or even one per "country" since there are over 700 cars. Some countries could obviously be combined into one section per mod since a few only have a handful of cars such as Spain, Belgium, South Korea, etc.

Overall, though, I think it an excellent idea since that is possibly the least contributed part of the wiki.