My F1 Vintage season race reports

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Finland
Finland
A few people pm'd me and asked about these reports.

I don't want to interfere to the actual long AC Mods thread unless I release something. If you want something, need something, let me know in pm. Always happy to share everything with fellow vintage F1/AC fans.

I figured you'd be interested to see how my vintage seasons are going. I play one race every day (when I have the opportunity, mostly 2-3 races a week). I have a HUGE passion for the F1 between 1982-1994'ish, lots of knowledge of the era and I've done almost all seasons. Of course I haven't done the cars or tracks, just modifications and season files to them to achieve the most realistic results. Many people love the graphics, I love the genuine-like results and I try to adjust everything to achieve that.

Now I have the 1988 season going. Modified SD cars quite heavily. Races are 20-30 laps with mandatory forced pitstops (like all my seasons). This has been achieved through adjusting the car fuel consumption and capacity. I have also modified the cars' tyres so that they become competitive.

I'm always playing full seasons. All qualifyings, all races. I only restart the race if I crash in the first corner. After the first corner if I crash or ruin my race, so be it. I always play the races til' the end, even if I'm 10th.

And whenever I notice something is off, I always try adjust the settings to achieve the most realistic results. As you know this season (just like the 1989 season) was fully dominated by Prost and Senna. Prost actually outscored Senna both seasons but back in those days only the 11 best races counted. Senna was the fastest but as usual the Professor was the smartest.

I play with Prost against Senna (at ai level 100). Initially I had the best drivers' aggression much higher but realized soon that with SD cars that creates a lot of problems (mainly crashes) and downgraded it. Now the season has been good alhough on the street circuits Monaco and Detroit there are some traffic issues because some cars stay crawling on the track after they hit the barrier or crash. Well I guess that creates some unpredicability as well LOL. This kind of stuff don't happen with ASR and RSS cars and admittedly they're better done. ACFL 1994 cars are pretty good too, so are the VRC 2007 cars. I don't like VRC 1988 that much (way too oversteery) and that's why I chose modified SD.

If you want to try yourself, all dl links for tracks and season are always in the season video description.



Well anyway I'll start with Paul Ricard race report. I just picked this up because it was an incredible race. I was comfortably leading the race until lap 10 (about) but then I braked too late in the first corner and Senna took the lead and kept it til' the end. Senna hit a pitting backmarker in lap 10 and I got the lead temporarily. Berger was doing great but apparently crashed at some point and retired. I try to set it as one mistake costs you the win. Sometimes the ai gives you some handicap as Senna can pit two times per race (for no apparent reason). I haven't figured out how I could prevent that. But it doesn't happen that often as I've set the cars' fuel levels accordingly.

Berger is at ai level 96. This was a horrible season for Williams so Mansell isn't a title contender (ai level 95). Nakajima (ai level 89) outqualifying teammate Piquet (ai level 94) was a fluke. Those happen sometimes.

With longer races you'll have to deal with the backmarkers. At the end of the race you'll see the laptimes going down because of the traffic.

PAUL RICARD 1988 (SD CARS, 25 laps, mandatory pitstops) Player: Prost / McLaren

Qualifying results, pole position Ayrton Senna (AI 100)
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Race results, winner Ayrton Senna (AI 100)
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Senna (AI 100) lap times
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Prost (player) lap times
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Positions through the race
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Standings after 7/16 races.


Next race is Silverstone (RAIN just like in the real 1988 season).
 
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Another race in the 1988 Season. Driving with Alain Prost the Professor and trying to beat Senna (AI 100).

The results are pretty realistic I would say. Senna dominated both race and qualifying. I have set Spa at 20 laps and this requires all cars to pit twice (due to my fuel altering mods)

Qualifying was a tight affair but Senna took the pole.

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Here are the real Spa 1988 qualifying results. My season mod got the order correct except that Boutsen and Alboreto switched positions. Real times were three seconds slower though.

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Race results. Senna won the real race too, Prost was second, Berger retired at lap 11 with injection problems.

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Senna's lap times.
Brown areas are the laps when pitted.

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Berger lap times
Brown areas are the laps when pitted

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Prost (me) lap times
Brown areas are the laps when pitted

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I drove pretty much a perfect race and didn't make any mistakes. Senna at AI level 100 is very tough to beat. Berger overtook me during my pitstops which probably were 1-2 seconds slower than his. I also had bad traffic in lap7 that decided my fate dropping to the 3rd place in this race. I should have made my first stop already after lap6. However I've made McLaren and Ferrari way more powerful from the data settings so backmarkers aren't a problem esp. on a fast track like Spa but of course they still slow you down because you have to find the correct area on the track to overtake.

I love the challenge and this season is HARD but very fair.

Championship standings after 11 races.

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Real championship standings in the F1 1988 season after 11 races.

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I'm pretty happy what I have achieved with the endless tweaks. These seasons are actually very realistic, results wise. This race was the longest of the season, took 37 minutes to complete.

Here's a small video of Alain Prost's 1st pitstop after lap 7.

 
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Estoril, race 12/16 of the F1 1988 season. Playing with Alain Prost (McLaren).

I won Monza, Senna took the second place so this was my chance to catch Senna in points.

Senna (AI 100) took the pole and I qualified 3rd behind Boutsen (Benetton, AI 94) and Senna (McLaren). I got a good start and overtook Boutsen immediately. Senna's pace was too much for me as he was constantly clocking 0.5 seconds faster laps.

Senna pitted at lap 10 and I pitted at lap 11 and was driving a solid race in 4th place and chasing Berger. Then a backmarker Luis Perez-Sala appeared in lap 18/20 and it was seemingly a chance to overtake both Berger and Sala at the same time with that very good slipstream momentum.

Berger overtook Sala from the right lane and I thought there was space on the left and I attempted the same what Mika Hakkinen did to Schumacher at Spa 2000 (with Zonta in-between). But then Sala suddenly moved a little bit on the left and I my left tyres went to to the grass, the car became uncontrollable and crashed. That pretty much killed my hopes for winning the championship. Stupid mistake and I should have kept my cool and just follow Berger.

Race was won by Ayrton Senna who increased his championship lead. The biggest surprise was Eddie Cheever's 2nd place which was achieved by driving the whole race through without pitting. I've set all cars so that it shouldn't be possible in 99% of the races but Estoril is a relatively short track and apparently it was possible for Arrows. That was fun.

Despite having a slim chance to win the WDC now, it has been plenty of fun and challenge.

Championship points after 12 races.

1. Senna 85
2. Prost 67
3. Berger 35
4. Boutsen 27
5. Piquet 25
6. Mansell 24

QUALIFYING RESULTS:
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RACE RESULTS:
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The crash that destroyed my race (and pretty much the whole season). LOL.

 
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My list of most enjoyable vintage F1 seasons on Assetto Corsa. I've driven these cars for two years now. I have no idea how many full seasons I've done. Maybe 40-50 LOL and I have adjusted these seasons all the time and trying to get them play as realistic as I possibly could. With a great help of my friends in the AC community we constantly try to improve these. So many track ai improvements, etc have increased the authenticity and challenge a lot.

You have 15-30 lap races and mandatory pitstops. One race lasts for 25-35 minutes which is a perfect length for me. Long enough to feel the genuine atmosphere and short enough not to get bored.

I put them all in one thread in case someone wants to dive into the Assetto Corsa vintage world. I only use Nuzzi's blue flag app, SimHub and CrewChief apps but they're all optional. No apps are needed for anything... pitstops and no ballast/restriction settings needed for seasons. Actually don't use any. These have been designed to work 100% without.

Put subtitles on and read the video descriptions. All downloads and needed files are there.

1. RSS 1990 (pay mod)
Challenging to drive, oversteery/understeery at the same time but very fairly and enjoyably so. I've driven with Prost against Senna who had the fastest car on the grid and I came short of winning the title every single time. It's been close but on certain tracks Senna has the edge. These are pay mod but the cars cost pocket money. Highly recommended. Amazing season. Prost totally demolished his teammate Mansell and Senna smoked Berger that year. It was a true rivalry between the two superior drivers of the era and this mod certainly catches that atmosphere. I have already done six full seasons and I never can get enough of this year (and the cars). Absolute masterpieces! The only downside is that you need the pay mod for Phoenix 1990 layout but I have another season set for free 1991 PHX track.



2. VRC 2007 (FREE)
These are relatively easy cars to drive but very, very enjoyable. 1 1/2 seasons completed so far with these cars and since I wasn't that familiar with some of the newer track layouts (Bahrain, Fuji) I only had 4th place in the season in my first attempt. Driving with Kimi/Ferrari. Hamilton, Alonso have the ai rating at 99. Extremely enjoyable and challenging to win the title (but it's very possible). PS: In the video I have wrong Nurburgring and Spa layouts, the actual season have them all 100% correct. Insanely good season actually just playing this again.



3. ASR 1991 (FREE)
Well what can you say. Amazing FREE cars, work very well on all tracks, no problems whatsoever. Very challenging. I've driven with Senna and Mansell is hard to beat. In real season Mansell would have won the title but had tech. DNFs in his first FOUR races. I've got very realistic seasons with these. Classics. 1991 Ferrari was pig of a car and it's just as bad in this mod as it probably was in real life. It was the year that Prost got sacked from Maranello because he told the car handles like a truck. That's why I drive with Senna this year.



4. ACFL 1994 (pay mod)
People often bash these cars but hey, give these a try. Insanely good sounds, fair challenge to drive and I've got amazing, close seasons with these cars (I've driven with Alesi/Ferrari and never been close of winning the title against Schumacher and Hill (ai 100) who are superior in my season settings. I like this season because for a change it's a lot of fun to fight for the points. And the sounds... man... so good. I think the car handles really well too.



5. ASR 1992 (pay mod)
These are just as good as the 1991 cars but being a Prost fan I've never really enjoyed this season as much as 1990 and 1991. Prost was having a sabbatical year. I've set Mansell at ai 100 and drove one season with Senna. Couldn't win the title but won a few races here and there. The active suspension Williams FW14 was probably the most superior car in the 1990's. Patrese couldn't get familiar with the act.suspension but Mansell did and finally won the title.

 
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6. SD 1988 (heavily modded) (pay mod)
I've modified the SD cars heavily. Removed their race tire models and they race with QF tires. The cars became very competitive and of course it was a great year. First Senna vs. Prost rivalry. Prost actually scored more points this year but due to the points system that was used back then Senna became the Champ. This points system can't be done on AC I think (same for all other years of this era). Let me know if I'm wrong. I've driven (of course) with Prost and lost narrowly my first season. Hockenheim rain race this year was legendary and it's a treat to drive in AC too. I rank this so high because I've managed to make this season one of the most accurate results wise.



7. VS 1998 (FREE)
Virtua Simulazione 1998 season. Only two car models (McLaren and Ferrari and the rest are skins) but with proper season settings I've done make this a Hakkinen vs. Schumi rivalry (as it was). Those two drivers were just so much better that the rest just as Senna and Prost in their era. Irvine and Coulthard were just assistant drivers and Frentzen, Hill, Villeneuve Jr and Fisi are in the 3rd category. It's way too easy to win with Hakkinen in this mod so I've driven with Schumacher and Ferrari which is more challenging to drive. I think these cars are a bit too oversteery but at least the season is challenging. This has been my most popular season adjustment mod (over 2000 downloads). Great year in F1 for sure and if 1988-1990 was the Senna/Prost rivarly, 1998-2000 was Schumi/Hakkinen in their primes. SO good times.




8. ACFL/free 1987 mod hybrid (pay mod)
I created this hybrid season because there wasn't a proper full 1987 mod available. The free cars are just fillers to get a 20 car grid. I drove with Nelson Piquet and actually won the title narrowly in my 2nd attempt. In real 1987 season Mansell outpaced Nelson quite easily as Piquet suffered a huge crash at Imola and that affected his depth vision. But Mansell self-destructed and Piquet won the title with consistency. These cars have pretty heavy tyre wear and make sure you always have tyres changed in your pitstop preset.



9. 1986 Lotus 98T skins (FREE)
This was my first vintage F1 mod on AC and I love it. I have no idea how many seasons I've done. Too many. I've driven with Rosberg Sr. Actually it was a bad year for him. 9 technical/fuel DNF's and he couldn't adapt to the understeery car. Prost was the champion this year with probably the 3rd or 4th best car on the grid. I don't like the RSS 1986 cars (too oversteery) that much so I prefer this free version.



10. SD 1982 (heavily modded) (pay mod)
Sure these cars are bit of a train wreck. But I've modified them heavily. 1982 was a year that was won with Rosberg Sr with a non-turbo Cosworth car that had 150-200 hp LESS than Ferrari, Brabham and Renault. It was arguably the 4th best car on the grid after McLaren. Rosberg won the 1982 title with crazy consistency as turbos were still unreliable. I first tried the ai engine failures but it created too many issues so I adjusted the cars' fuel economy instead. Turbos have superior speed and there's no way you can get a pole on fast tracks like Paul Ricard and Monza. But this has been compensated with Williams' better fuel economy. You can still win the races because you only make 1 pitstops whereas the turbos have to stop twice (in most races). I also had to lower the drivers aggression because otherwise the SD cars become even more reckless at Osterreichring and Long Beach. That last race at Caesar's Palace was hilarious. The track was built on a parking lot and the AC version is pretty decent. Gilles Villeneuve died on Jerez but he was such a legend that I included him in the mod (over Tambay). Pironi's season ended at Hockenheim (after colliding with Prost in practice) but he's also in the mod.

 
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11. SD 1983 and 1984 (heavily modded) (pay mod)
In 1983 you're controlling Rene Arnoux (Ferrari) and 1984 Keke Rosberg (Honda Turbo Williams). Pretty straighforward same adjustments to these cars as 1988 and 1982. 1983 Ferrari was pretty much the 3rd best car (after Brabham and McLaren). Piquet and Prost have ai setting 100 so there's a proper challenge.

1984 Honda Turbo wasn't competitive and it's pretty much the 4th best car on the grid. More info about these seasons in the video description.



 
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Thanks. Fixed Boutsen's nationality. It really was wrong in the 1983 Season.

What kind of mistake comes with the installing? I sent you a PM.
 
If I install the 3files from 1983 version, those 3 files also shows up in the CM championship overview.

I don't know what you mean by "Championship overview". When you extract my settings patch (RAR package) over the SD cars it should work perfectly and appear like this.

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Three champs files to

Documents/Assetto Corsa/champs

And extract the patch
mediafire.com/file/qbv1uq8h7hylt72/Modifications+to+1983+cars.rar/file

to

Steam Library/SteamApps/common/assettocorsa/content/cars

and overwrite everything.

Should work 100%. Of course you need the full version of Content Manager.
 
The 2007 season with VRC cars is incredibly satisfying. These cars are relatively easy and relaxing to drive but it's still very challenging season.

I recorded my first pole at Magny Cours. Not a perfect lap but decent. The real pole time was a second faster though (by Felipe Massa).

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My race was a disaster. Screwed my start and then crashed in the 5th lap and got a DNF. I always play the races as they go... never make a restart or cheat in any way shape or form.

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Despite my DNF I still lead the championship after 8 races. Lewis Hamilton won the race.

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Raikkonen pole lap (video). All F1 2007 season downloads in the video description (if you want to try this, highly recommended).

 
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Just played Hungaroring and placed 3rd. I had no chance against McLaren's but got a lucky overtake on Massa because of backmarkers. Istanbul next. This season is getting tighter and tighter.

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Great battle between Nick Heidfeld and Raikkonen at Monza. Couldn't overtake him and took the 4th place. Alonso won. Hamilton leads by one point now as Spa, Fuji, China and Interlagos left.

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PS: How can we get the CrewChew Raikkonen shouting back to the team radio "SHUT UP, I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!!!" :D
 
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New improved sparks for the 1988 cars. Much more apparent in all tracks. Looks amazing in the Monaco tunnel when you're following another car.

All files in the video description of the 1988 season.
 
The 1993 F1 season. Nigel Mansell had retired and Alain Prost took his seat at Williams. Old arch rivals, perhaps the best drivers of the modern era, Senna and Prost, had their final battles together. After the last race at Adelaide Senna dragged Prost to the highest podium with him.

Damon Hill got the second Williams seat and young superstar Michael Schumacher was starting to write his legacy in F1 at Benetton. Michael Andretti was replaced with another future star Mika Hakkinen at the end of the season but the championship has Andretti.

Prost was completely dominant in the active suspension Williams, with Hill, Senna and Schumacher scoring occasional wins.

These cars are originally from SimDream. Their physics were completely out of whack and I have edited the colliders, sparks, removed all other tyremodels than supersoft (as usual) and made tons of small adjustments to make them enjoyable. Now you can use the kerbs to your benefit without spinning off immediately and now the physics are more like on Lotus98T which everyone likes (see the Alesi qualifying at Kyalami in the end of the video).

Biggest thing is that I also fixed McLaren which had stupid values and the car was uncompetitive. Now Senna is his usual self.

SD is not selling these cars anymore and I suspect they have stolen the base car from ACFL so I guess sharing them is not a big sin.

All cars will pit. You have to pit too. Adjust your pitstop presets before the race.

User is set to play with Jean Alesi (Ferrari) which I find very enjoyable. I like to play with an underdog against better cars and drivers. But you can easily change this to anything you want. Just place Alesi to the ai grid and rate him accordingly (91).

I get my butt kicked in most tracks. Especially at Barcelona but practice makes perfect. It's possible to fight for the podium places especially on the tracks where the top cars occasionally pit twice.

Top Driver rankings
Prost 99
Senna 96
Schumacher 95
Hill 95
Patrese 91
Berger 91
Andretti 90 (maybe being generous here as his season was a disaster but he has a top car)


ALL THE BEST POSSIBLE TRACKS, CORRECT SCHEDULE
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1. Kyalami 1992 ASR 20 laps (Faster AI by Thockard)
2. Interlagos 1992 ASR 20 laps (light rain for CSP DLC buyers as per genuine season)
3. Doningtonpark with 1993 track skins 20 laps (rain race for CSP DLC buyers)
4. Imola 1994 20 laps by Shin
5. Barcelona 1992 ASR 20 laps
6. Monaco 1992 ASR 20 laps (faster AI by Thockard)
7. Montreal 1992 ASR 20 laps faster ai by Shin and Thockard
8. Magny Cours 1992 ASR 20 laps faster ai by Thockard
9. Silverstone 1991-1993 Shin 25 laps great ai
10. Hockenheim 1992 ASR 15 laps (Thockard ai improvements)
11. Hungaroring 1992 ASR 20 laps faster ai by Thockard
12. Spa 1988 (faster ai than 1992 ASR) 20 laps
13. Monza 1988 (faster ai than 1992 ASR) 20 laps
14. Estoril 1992 ASR 20 laps
15. Suzuka 1992 ASR 20 laps (faster AI by Thockard)
16. Adelaide 1992 ASR 20 laps

Spa and Monza 1988 are SUPERIOR tracks, have much much better and faster ai than the 1992 counterparts. And the layouts are the same so...

All downloads in the video description (so if I make changes I don't have to do them in multiple places).

click subtitles on.



Edit: Another SimDream problem was still intact. Steer rod ratio was too low, that's why the cars crashed on Monaco hairpin. Fixed and dl link updated soon. Redownload if you already got the unfixed version. All good now.

PS: Someone should fix the Senna helmet.
 
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1986 season updated. The Kunos Lotus98T didn't have enough power to mimic these crazy cars. The cars are now faster, also sparks have been added, which created much more genuine atmosphere. Also the cockpit adjustable turbo removed as it made winning too easy.

All cars took way over 1000hp in qualifying, Brabham and Benetton even 1400-1500hp. Brabham used rocket fuel. These were insane machines and the drivers had enormous balls to drive these very dangerous cars.

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What an amazing season this 2007 has been. One race left, Interlagos and I lead Hamilton by 2 points. I won China GP. I couldn't keep up with the McLarens (my best lap was about 1s. slower) but since I started with heavier fuel and didn't make any mistakes I pitted only once and won the race (narrowly). I got two backmarkers (Davidson and Sato) in front of me in the final lap and Alonso almost catched me.

I'm really bad at Interlagos though but hopefully I can do well and win the championship.

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The 1990 Season updated with sparks. Thanks to @RMi_wood for this mod. It's not new but I found it just recently. Great work man!!!

Some 1990 layout Phoenix driving here. Use toe settings rear and back -20 for this track.

 
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Finished my 2007 season at 2nd place. I won China GP but Interlagos 1998 ai is just sick fast for me and I wasn't competitive and Massa won the race easily and Hamilton took 2nd which was enough for the WDC. I went to gravel once and that was it. Top AI clocks like 1:09 times in the race and I can't duplicate that as my best qualifying time was 1:10'ish.

I can't emphasize enough how good this season was again. I didn't make many mistakes, only two or three DNF's. Magny Cours being the most frustrating as I crashed on like lap 17 from the lead.

I've done full seasons with almost all Codmasters F1 games, AMS2, AMS1 and honestly playing this 2007 year for example makes those games feel like kids' games. The challenge is genuine and winning the race actually feels something. This is so good, highly recommended.

The only downside that I can think of is that we don't have a proper SimHub leaderboard for this era and I used the 2022 leaderboard which looks amazing but not accurate TV graphics for 2007.

These 2005 and 2007 VRC cars are superb.

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What software, app do you use for making a overview?

This one. It's brilliant.

You get your results in the Content manager. Simply upload the results json file to this site and it will take care of the rest.

Cheers.

 
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