Premium VW Beetle much harder to drive post-2.04?

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BlazeTheCat05

BlazeTheCat05

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llClaude_Speedll
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BlazingSol05
For those who are unaware, in update 2.04 the premium Beetle was granted a nearly 200Kg weight loss, down to around 700Kg. The Beetle was also given a very small boost in power up to a maximum of 223BHP. Before 2.04 I had no trouble navigating around the 'Ring with this Bug. Now after 2.04 it understeers like MAD. I drive the car with sports soft tires because any form of racing tire is too sticky for it, and results in the car going to tip, which brings me to my next point: the Bug EASILY tips over on racing softs now! It's madness! Anyone else having this problem as well? It feels like PD took one small step forward, and one gigantic leap backwards with this car.
 
Well, if i'm honest i've only driven it once as it's not one of my personal favourites. But, any car with a narrow track, high centre of gravity thanks to the body shape and some sticky tyres is gonna roll over at some point. My advice... avoid high kerbs! You'll just have to adapt, seems like PD did a pretty good job to me... :)
 
I had no problem rolling the VW Bug pre-2.04. I don't recall which tires I had on the car, Sports-something I'd imagine.

Have yet to load up any races post-2.04.
 
I've clocked in over 400 miles on 1 of 5 premium Beetles I have, and I can say it really feels like with the weight loss came some very serious consequences.
 
ZDUPH
I've clocked in over 400 miles on 1 of 5 premium Beetles I have, and I can say it really feels like with the weight loss came some very serious consequences.
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Does adding a ton of ballast make it anything like it used to be?
 
Did you tune the suspension? This is the tune I made for the ring.
F R
RH -19 -15
SR 7.2 10.2
DE. 6. 8
DC. 7. 7
AR. 6. 2
Cam 1.3 0.7
Toe -0.01 0.00
Brake 6. 5

LSD.
Int. 16.
Acc. 33
Dec.23

Aero 20
 
Toronado
All of those things sound like what should be happening now that the car weighs 800 pounds less, honestly.
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Maybe center of gravity is to blame as well? It's tall and it's on skinny tires, which is a very bad combination. :scared:
 
ZDUPH
Maybe center of gravity is to blame as well? It's tall and it's on skinny tires, which is a very bad combination. :scared:
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Actually the bug was not a tall car and did not have a high center of ballance. In real life it was not prone to rolling over and in fact was very often raised way up for use offroad as dunebugies and for Baja racing. I think PD got lazy on us and used the base handling model from the Samba Bus which does have a high center of gravity.
BajaBug.jpg

Does this look like something you'd do in a rollover prone car?:lol:
That's a '65 by the way...
 
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XDesperado67
Actually the bug was not a tall car and did not have a high center of ballance. In real life it was not prone to rolling over and in fact was very often raised way up for use offroad as dunebugies and for Baja racing. I think PD got lazy on us and used the base handling model from the Samba Bus which does have a high center of gravity.
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Apologies if I sound rude, but the Bug itself was likely never designed to take 1.5G's around a corner, of which is an intense amount of G's for any car on the road today. This Bug is a commuter car anyhow, not a race car, nor a sports car.
 
Welsh-Fury
Apologies if I sound rude, but the Bug itself was likely never designed to take 1.5G's around a corner, of which is an intense amount of G's for any car on the road today. This Bug is a commuter car anyhow, not a race car, nor a sports car.
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The fact remains that the bug had a steel bottom and the upper body panels were relatively lightweight and easily replaced which made it a favorite for customization with even lighter weight body panels. Considering its wheelbase it also was not particularly narrow and its suspension design was another reason it was a favorite for conversion to offroad racing as it provided a very stable foundation. Finally for those blaming narrow tires I can't buy that either as a narrower tire will have a smaller contact patch and thus will be more likely to lose its grip on the surface and not generate so much grip that it flips the car. Again the only explanation I can find for the premium bugs tip happiness is that PD used a bad model for the car. We've already seen that PD messed up the weight and power for the car so why should it surprise anyone that they also got the suspension/handling model wrong as well?
 
Welsh-Fury
Apologies if I sound rude, but the Bug itself was likely never designed to take 1.5G's around a corner, of which is an intense amount of G's for any car on the road today. This Bug is a commuter car anyhow, not a race car, nor a sports car.
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Beetle.jpg


f7458_volkswagen_beetle_fun_cup_racer_feature_featured_item.jpg


VWBeetleSpaceframe.jpg
 
XDesperado67
The fact remains that the bug had a steel bottom and the upper body panels were relatively lightweight and easily replaced which made it a favorite for customization with even lighter weight body panels. Considering its wheelbase it also was not particularly narrow and its suspension design was another reason it was a favorite for conversion to offroad racing as it provided a very stable foundation. Finally for those blaming narrow tires I can't buy that either as a narrower tire will have a smaller contact patch and thus will be more likely to lose its grip on the surface and not generate so much grip that it flips the car. Again the only explanation I can find for the premium bugs tip happiness is that PD used a bad model for the car. We've already seen that PD messed up the weight and power for the car so why should it surprise anyone that they also got the suspension/handling model wrong as well?
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We're pushing cars far beyond their limitations. With the Racing Soft/Mediums (I can't get the Bug to roll with Racing Hards, even while hitting the inside burm) many/most production cars are experiencing G's car designers would never of had dreamed reaching.

For all I know, the Bug on GT5 could be as accurate as it gets or far out of balance. I really don't know.


As for the pictures above, those are PURPOSE built racing Bugs. Nowhere near equivalent to the 1200 we're talking about.
 
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The bug now behaves correctly.

Any of you guys ever tried to make some fast corners in a VW Bug? It's fun. And damn scary.
 
diegorborges
The bug now behaves correctly.

Any of you guys ever tried to make some fast corners in a VW Bug? It's fun. And damn scary.
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Many times when I was young and dumb.:lol:

Funny thing is though that we never came close to rolling one, while I did manage to roll a '70 Plymouth Duster.:crazy::D
 
diegorborges
The bug now behaves correctly.

Any of you guys ever tried to make some fast corners in a VW Bug? It's fun. And damn scary.
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The 66 Bug in real life never behaved correctly. Knowing this first hand from the one I owned and now driving it in GT5, PDI has the 66 Bug perfect.
 
XDesperado67
Many times when I was young and dumb.:lol:

Funny thing is though that we never came close to rolling one, while I did manage to roll a '70 Plymouth Duster.:crazy::D
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Same here. I still have to find out how that skinny tires kept me from rolling it.

But me and my younger brother almost felt over a house in his baja-converted Bug. It was a muddy high road that passes near this house. Fun times when you haven't idea of what was be dumb. LOL :dopey:


maxpontiac
The 66 Bug in real life never behaved correctly. Knowing this first hand from the one I owned and now driving it in GT5, PDI has the 66 Bug perfect.
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Yeah, I said it behaves correctly, because in some ways its wrong. That's how Beetles are. But damn, they are funny!
 
iamsupernasty
What is your point? You can make a race car out of anything. The fact is the beetle was NOT built as a performance car.
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My point is, he has modified it with all the performance parts. It can be a performance/race car just like any other. The 2 door Datsun 510 was a commuter, as was the BMW 2002, these cars were not originally developed for performance. And yet they were tuned into successful race cars because of their chassis. The beetle has a similar history..altho it was much more popular off road and early tarmac rally.
 
I found upping the ballast to around 120 and placing at -50 seems to cure the tendency to flip somewhat and the performance doesn't seem to have suffered a great deal either. Still managed to beat the classic Supercar trophy with a decent gap and without any wings added either.
 
The cure I found to the massive understeer in high speed corners is simply a bit of toe out to the front (-0.20/0.00) and the car is much nicer to drive with a softer suspension set up (also only the front lowered) which also helps with the increased sensitivity to bumps.
It takes some getting used to again but this is how I imagined a Beetle to behave in the first place, especially being slightly tricky with more than 200 bhp.
It's now even more of a joy to drive than before with that understeer dialled out.
 

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