Ok, I'm not a racer, I'm not a drifter, nor do I have any experience of any real "sports car"...Basically I just drive my Meriva from home to work and back again, and that's it.

Anyway I've been trying the RAC a few times, and I wonder: does such a slippy car REALLY exist ?? Does it really handle that way in RL ??
It is like ice-skating! I think it's the most difficult LFS car.

I mean, how is one supposed to drive that beast ??

I'm sure there are some "alien" people that can somehow manage to make it go round a corner without making a beeline for the nearest barrier, however most of us mere mortals have no such luck.

Quote from Ripley :

Ok, I'm not a racer, I'm not a drifter, nor do I have any experience of any real "sports car"...Basically I just drive my Meriva from home to work and back again, and that's it.

Anyway I've been trying the RAC a few times, and I wonder: does such a slippy car REALLY exist ?? Does it really handle that way in RL ??
It is like ice-skating! I think it's the most difficult LFS car.

I mean, how is one supposed to drive that beast ??

Perhaps you should try a Road going setup.

What you should do is drive the Raceabout on the limit in LFS for a bit, take note of the maximum speeds that you can do particular manoeuvres such as turn a right-hand corner sharply etc.

Then see if you can match the speed that you do those things in your Meriva. It's my guess that you'll be left thinking "bugger.. you can't turn sharp right at 50mph in a real car either!"

Worth testing out, anyway. But I'd recommend doing it in an empty car park rather than on the road

But still this car seems so wild ...

Quote from SamH :

What you should do is drive the Raceabout on the limit in LFS for a bit, take note of the maximum speeds that you can do particular manoeuvres such as turn a right-hand corner sharply etc.

Then see if you can match the speed that you do those things in your Meriva. It's my guess that you'll be left thinking "bugger.. you can't turn sharp right at 50mph in a real car either!"

Worth testing out, anyway. But I'd recommend doing it in an empty car park rather than on the road

Then why is this car so slippy compared to any other cars in lfs?

i think its just overpowerd. (wider tires would fix that a lot)

It's just because it's a rubbish car. :O

I'm by now means "fast", but I find the RAC a lot easier to drive fast than the FZ5. With a good set, the RAC is really nice to drive, and hold at the limit. I found using intake restrictions and slowly removing them helped me to drive it enormously. It is a very tricky car if you just give it beans IMO

Its bloody uncontrollable IMO.

I had a few evenings in real life driving about on a muddy field in a 2.8 V6 mk2 ford granada with a locked diff and well built engine and standard 185/60/14 road tyres fitted, and i was able (after a little practice) to get that to go around corners at a decent speed.

Fair enough, the two vehicles are worlds apart, a FR layout family saloon that weighs well over a ton in comparison to something that has a RR layout and weighs about as much as a packet of quavers, but you would still expect any RWD car on tarmac to be easier to control than a car being driven on mud with a locked diff i would say.

As LFS goes, it is as realistic as you can get pretty much, so i must deliberate that the real raceabout handles like shite too.

The handling is really strange on the RAC because you would think the rear of the car should have more grip because that's there the engine is. But it doesn't. In fact it loses grip much easier at the rear.

Quote from danthebangerboy :

Its bloody uncontrollable IMO.

I had a few evenings in real life driving about on a muddy field in a 2.8 V6 mk2 ford granada with a locked diff and well built engine and standard 185/60/14 road tyres fitted, and i was able (after a little practice) to get that to go around corners at a decent speed.

any RWD car on tarmac should be easier to control than a car with a good 160bhp being driven on mud with a locked diff i would say.

Comparing an old beat up Ford with to a mid engine sport car doesn't work, no matter how you twist it doesn't. Two completely different things.

What makes the RAC "hard" is the lack of rear abr and the rmr layout, just as ussbeethoven mentioned earlier.

I find it much more easier car to drive than FZ5 the whaling boat, it's harder than LX6 most of the time, therefore more rewarding to drive.

Quote from shiny_red_cobra :

The handling is really strange on the RAC because you would think the rear of the car should have more grip because that's there the engine is. But it doesn't. In fact it loses grip much easier at the rear.

Have you noticed, as i have, that if you put the voluntary added mass upto the maximum and set it all the way to the front of the car you magically have 50/50 weight distribution??

Its still far from easy to drive but it does help, even if it slows it down a bit.

A 50/50 weight distribution is not perfect.. maybe static.. but once you're moving it's different. The RAC is more of a momentum car, not a "point and shoot" car like the FZ5.

IMHO it feels exactly like a car that's very light, mid engine, very short wheel base and bald tires....

Quote from DHRammstein :

IMHO it feels exactly like a car that's very light, mid engine, very short wheel base and bald tires....

And no rear arb


Once you get the "feel" for the car it is great fun. Push it too hard though and it will try and kill you

i don't think it's slippery at all. I think it's just the goofiest car in the world and gives me the shits and giggles looking at people fail in it. I now know the purpose of this car in LFS...

it's surprisingly quick when setup correctly. But yeah if it transitions from under to over too fast....it's all over

I also guess that the real car has more sophisticated kinematics on both front and rear suspension to compensate with the luck of rear ARB. Don’t forget that LFS’s wishbones are still 2D. Also the current LFS’s minor tire model inaccuracies really bring the worst results in cars like RAC where you can’t do anything else than having much grater roll resistance at the front cause of the luck of rear ARB, as many mentioned. (considering also that the rear end is much heavier)

i wonder if the next RAC they made has a rear ARB....

Bah, what a bunch of wimps. You should have tried it a few years back before all the tyre physics were changed (patch S i think ?). You could barely drive it in a straight line.

The RAC is probably the most challenging car to drive in LFS, but for that very reason it's all the more satisfying when you do hook it up. Sudden snap oversteer is always lurking there to catch the unweary, but, it's as sweet as a nut when you understand it's handling characteristics, although it can be very frustrating too. But a good setup is vital for this car, probably moreso than any other in the game.

Basically, the RAC is a real mans car

I have been able to handle an RAC quite well recently, much better than before, although I occasionally get a small "kickback" from the car on some turns, when using the default setup. I have made my own setup which resolved this issue, for me at least. It has worked with my driving style, I basically floor it on straights and brake slightly on turns. I have softened the suspension a bit (as said in the link at the bottom of my post) and I lowered the ride height a bit also. I suppose the softer suspension fixed the problem I had.

I actually like driving the RA a lot though, it makes me feel woken up, It might as well be the "Ariel Atom" of LFS in my opinion.

The RAC only has a Turbocharged Saab engine, not like a Honda race car engine, like I thought.

Take a read at this LFSManual page for some advice for making a setup for it. http://en.lfsmanual.net/wiki/Cars:LRF#RaceAbout

I don't have all that much trouble driving the RAC, it just takes getting used to. I just hopped behind the wheel and started driving and was thinking "This car is supposed to be hard to drive?"

My impression of this car is that it handels ALOT like an early Porsche 911, the early 911s had the engine slightly farther back and this made for a very tricky car much like the RAC.

The way to drive the RAC is to treat the rear of the car as a pendulum, you can't let it build up too much momentum in one direction otherwhise it will swing out and then back again causing it to break loose.

I can't say I'm fast, but I don't have nearly as much trouble with it as some people seem to.

I imagine the RAC would be quite a blast to drive in RL... Remember that the ARBs in LfS currently are wrong (in the way they work)... Stiff(er) front ARBs and weak to no rear ARBs are exactly what every race car features, it makes the car stable... We have it completely opposite in LfS, whereas the RAC should be a pretty good inspiration of how it should be done...

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

I'm sure there are some "alien" people that can somehow manage to make it go round a corner without making a beeline for the nearest barrier, however most of us mere mortals have no such luck.

Im not an alien and i can make it go round corners somehow and i could keep it up for about 12 laps.

But tricky car non the less if im not carefull I am in the barier