LEMON ARA

The Lemon Ara is a small family hatchback made in France between 2000 and 2004. Equipped with 1.6 litre naturally aspirated engine and a soft suspension, it was not meant to be fast at all. However, the car is amazingly agile on bumpy, twisty and potholed roads as the passive rear-wheel steering was a standard for these cars. It made them very stable in the corners when a throttle is applied, but prone to some sudden lift-off oversteer (which is easily controllable with the throttle).

This mod is dedicated to LFS players, who like to rally ordinary family cars. The poly-count and textures with ambient occlusion are optimized for slower computers. In terms of speed, the mod is somewhere between the UF1 and the XFG. It has an ABS system, but an opened differential is the only allowed option. The car is FWD, nose-heavy and has a soft suspension. Therefore it is a good rookie car for some weight transfer training, which is essential to handle these cars on the limit. The mod is suitable mainly for slower rally-cross and tarmac tracks. The suspension works well on rough surfaces of autocross layouts with custom concrete roads.

The passive rear-wheel steering cannot be properly replicated using the current LFS physics, but otherwise the mod should be as realistic as possible. It was tuned according to technical data from repair manuals and real-world experiences from opened roads and special slippery tracks. In comparison to real-world counterparts, the mod has slightly less grip when cornering (because of the rear-wheel steering), however it is still capable to pass a moose test at the same speed. The force-feedback feels realistic when the force strength is set between 50 and 100.

A more famous racing version for more advanced drivers can be found here: LEMON ARA COUPE T16