[I am going to hop in the room in a moment and give the new update a few tests using my previous lap times.] - Original Post
I've completed a bit of testing and my earliest experience with the new update. All conclusions have come from various laps incorporating several tyre selection and wear characteristic changes while driving our Silvia upon GVE/R. The combination of short lap time, consistently achievable performance, and varied composition turns lead me to the decision to use this course. While the conclusions are drawn from experiences with this combination, I would suspect them to extrapolate to other similar layouts. I'll try and keep this as brief as possible, but there is a lot I am seeing here.
First impression; wow. Everything I've read has been true. What I haven't read, though, is the how and the why. In my opinion, the approach to driving in the game has changed. The tyre model is where I believe these changes lie.
To corroborate the common sentiments; the car feels pushier. As in more understeer. Using the 'Normal' tyre wear and Sport Softs, the steady state lateral grip of the car appears to have increased. The final turn is perhaps the most significant and repeatable example, however increased minimum cornering speeds were witnessed in every turn. This also contributes to a higher peak speed along the main straightaway, similar to the 2.07 update before the aero revisions.
It feels to me that longitudinal grip has also increased, creating the understeer that folks are describing. One indicator I've found was the increased braking power of the car, making my second impression 'wow this stops, now.' The car also does not spin the tyres upon exit with near the ease that it would in the prior update. This seems to compound the push, as increased longitudinal grip upon exit provides increased acceleration and reduced load upon the front tyres, resulting in understeer. This pushes the tip-in point for the throttle later in the turn, resulting in lower lap times. As what I note to be a side effect of the increased braking grip causing a reduced load upon the rear tyres; the car had a tendency toward pronounced corner entry oversteer.
Another change in the tyre model that I observe, and I've yet to see mentioned; is the effect of slip angle upon the grip of the tyres. This also affects the breakaway characteristics of the tyres. In previous updates, peak grip was achieved with much greater slip angle than appears necessary in the latest. The increased grip of the car that I noted only seems to be available with minimal steering angles, making the car much more difficult to drive consistently. Tyre scrub seems to be increased significantly. When these optimum angles are exceeded the car feels much less responsive to the input, in other words it is slower to recover grip. This makes the car less consistent, as well the increased scrub penalises any mistakes greater than before. It also makes one 'wander' upon the track width to reduce slip angles to produce the best lap times. I feel this was lacking in the game previously.
The final change I believe may have occured, is the aerodynamic drag. While I noted increased mean cornering speeds in the final corner, they do not seem to correlate with the increased peak speed along the main straightaway. I also observed that the increase in understeer was much more apparent in the longer turns, and I might almost conclude the car was more loose in the lower speed turns than previously. This further convinced me that front downforce effect was likely reduced.
Overall, most will opine that the car is pushier, tending towards understeer. I would suggest that in some ways the car feels more realistic. Honestly, a 280hp car with downforce on tyres with the ability to carry steady state grip over 1.5g should not be burning out at 80mph while cornering at under .8g, regardless of how destroyed the differential is. I've commented in the past on how I've felt the game was misrepresenting the relation between longitudinal and lateral grip. I've felt this was kindly a band-aid for the real problem; that the cars were too stable with aggressive inputs and slip angles. I felt the burnout-happy model allowed players to rotate cars and drift in an unrealistic way. In that manner I feel the game has actually improved, much to the contrary of many. I do agree with others I've read, that this will change the racing dynamic in many series.
After my findings above, I decided to experiment with the new changes a bit. With no conclusions drawn, I found that the 'Normal' consumption to be considerably reduced from even the recent 2.08 update. Tyres and fuel appears spent at perhaps 60-70% the rate previous, if not less. Increasing the wear rate does not only seem to increase the rate of consumption, but also how quickly the tyres achieve temperature. Optimum temperatures and peak laptimes were reached in fewer laps, nearly half that, of the 'Normal' setting. Oh yeah, the data. Previously at GVE/R my average 'hotlap' time in 5 laps was 1'07.6xx, now only reaching a 1'07.9xx consistently.
Lastly, I realise that on the surface many will conclude that cars are pushier, not as fun, and that the Silvia now feels like a pig in lipstick. I won't entirely disagree, but it is not so black and white, it is just different. I agree that using the parameters that we have with the Silvia, on the whole it is less 'exciting' in regards to power-on oversteer, and it develops a mid-late corner push that wasn't as pronounced. I also feel that there is a remedy. Reduce the grip. Testing the car on Sport Mediums, it feels very similar to its prior state. On Sports Hards the car is downright unruly. I realise that the series has concluded with this car, but I feel the findings here may be applied to others.
