Grand Prix Legends Drivers impressions of the Ring??

  • Thread starter Thread starter heymoa
  • 40 comments
  • 2,682 views
heymoa
course its a game and you drive faster than you would in real life! does anyone have the videos of the yellow RUF Porsche lapping the ring flat out, would be a good comparison.

The RUF, the "yellowbird" CTR in the hands in Stefan Roser in the videos you are mentioning doesn't get any "air" off of the hill crests on the 'Ring. Not that it couldn't, but the car is already unstable (old porsches) that Mr. Roser intentionally lifts and brakes to keep the car grounded. In GT4 if you take those same crests flat out in the CTR you will be in the wall quickly.

I've been driving alot of "stock" cars around the ring. Most of them will get some air over 2 or 3 crests (and curb) if taken flat out. I bet they would in real life too but you have one major factor. Fear. Most wouldn't push a car flat out over these crests because the result wouldn't be nice. In fact I don't have any real life on board footage where the drivers, in race or street cars don]t lift in the 4 or 5 hill crests where the car could be airborn.

If you hit the Karousell kurve correctly on entry you can lauch any car over the outside wall into the woods. That is as true in real life as in GT4, though in GT4 you hit the magical virtual clear 'wall" to keep you in the modeled area of the circuit.

Watch a race car take the curve under the bridge off of the main straight at the end, where it plunges downhill, and you'll see a prime example of why the ring is so challenging. You need to be aware of so much while driving it.

I know the nordschleife in GT4 like the back of my hand. I probably have 1000+ laps on it in many cars. I've never been to it in real life but it is on my agenda now. I'd love to take a Porsche around the ring. It may happen next summer as the wife and I was kinda planning a trip to Germany.
 
Speaking of GT4's realism, I did this side by side video a few months ago when the first footage of Nürburgring came out with the BMW demo:

http://aefc.mine.nu/gt/nurburgring_rl_gt4.wmv
http://aefc.mine.nu/gt/nurburgring_rl_gt4.mov
WMV and QT, files are 25MB each

I time-stretched the BMW video so both cars hit the curves at the same time, very impressive IMO. You have to remember there's a camera position difference in the clips and more important, the field of view is different too.
 
DevilGTx
It can only be compared to the course in GPL...how do you know that Papy didn't dumb-down their version to avoid the "dangerous air"?

Because ;

a) The air you get in GPL is already "dangerous" enough. If there was any more it would be positively suicidal air

b) The air you get in GPL matches very well the jumps actually attained by the drivers of the 1967 cars (as can be seen in videos)

c) I worked on testing of GPL right from pre-alpha through to release, and I can assure you there was no "dumbing down" of anything.

As the tracks were modelled one at a time, not all tracks were available from the start. I can still remember how excited I was when I first got the 'Ring in GPL. At that time there was even no trackside graphics, it was just like a big ribbon of tarmac in the sky. It *really* focusses your mind on driving carefully when you feel like you're going to fall off the edge of the world with any mistake! :-)

On the other hand it is a really good advantage to be able to see what is coming!

I must have easily driven thousands of laps around GPL in those days, so much so that its quite easy to drive in GT4. I've only once visited the real track, and was surprised how accurate GPL was (I hadn't seen GT4 at that time of course) but also how "inaccurate" it was, in the sense that you never truly got the feel of the climbs, the bumps, the cambers, even the slickness of the tarmac at various points. The 'Ring has been surfaced and re-surfaced at some points, and the difference it makes when the track is new and relatively grippy compared to some of the older parts which are very smooth is very noticable. This doesn't come across well in either sim. Still, they are both very accurate, and amazing to have the opportunity to drive.

Earlier in the thread someone mentioned it was difficult to appreciate the Ring in GPL because it was tough to drive, and I suppose that's something I hadn't really thought of. I think that would be the case also if you were to actually drive a 1967 F1 car around it, so perhaps that is accurate? The tendency in a game/sim is always to go flat out immediately, when in real life your instinct fir sel-preservation would stop that from happening, so perhaps it just highlights the difference between sim and real life, rather than between GPL and GT4?
 
valli
Speaking of GT4's realism, I did this side by side video a few months ago when the first footage of Nürburgring came out with the BMW demo:

http://aefc.mine.nu/gt/nurburgring_rl_gt4.wmv
http://aefc.mine.nu/gt/nurburgring_rl_gt4.mov
WMV and QT, files are 25MB each

I time-stretched the BMW video so both cars hit the curves at the same time, very impressive IMO. You have to remember there's a camera position difference in the clips and more important, the field of view is different too.

great video, never remember seeing that.

It's funny how the BMW 120 is sped up to keep pace with the CTR....
 
I was thinking the same thing about the jumps, being somewhat unrealistic in GT4. While some cars (some very FAST cars) do catch some air at Flugplatz (the only real "jump" left on the track these days), the vast majority do not. Sure, they lift up a bit, but the tires never leave the ground. It's only when you start talking race cars.. hitting that rise a helluva lot faster than a road car will, and being half the weight and such. But it seems in GT4, I could probably get a Golf to jump the Flugplatz. Which no Golf in real life can do.
 
I bet if you could get a Golf to go fast enough...an R32, perhaps.
I'm sure it would jump in real-life...just gotta go fast enough.
 
Alright, I'll take it a step further, then.... I bet you could get a Fiat Panda to jump the Flugplatz in GT4. Somebody try it. :)
 
What stage will the Fiat be tuned to?
Just kidding.
Hey, I know of a car that would never jump it.
My Dodge Dynasty.
Actually, maybe it would, even at low speed, hmmmm.
 
I'm just saying that real cars don't leap up into the air that easily in real-life, is all. Even in GPL, in a car that's half the weight and twice the power, the car only hops up a few inches.. in GT4, you take a slower, far heavier car over the same hill, and suddenly it's over a foot off the ground. Could be because the suspension doesn't seem to work.. the tires always stay in the same place, rather than extending eight inches or so with the reduced weight of the car. If the suspension worked properly, it would end up looking more realistic, I think.
 
GRD-4-3L is now GT4/Nurburgring enabled. GT4 Nurburgring is a godsend to console racers around the world. It is the best. I am (rather, 'was') GPL enthusiast and I swore by GPL NBRing until PGR2. I have never been to the track but I have seen Frank Stippler's drive in Porsche. GT4 is the closest thing to the real track I will ever get to experience.

Looking forward to many many many laps at NBRing in the future, especially in M3 GTR race car.
 
BTW you Nordscleife guys...I would like to see some times submitted to my leader boards....see the links in my signature below.
 
Back