A few things really, and i'll get right to the point.

In the garage, when you alter setups etc, how about an option for a corner/situation simulator? For example, you could choose to simulate a hard right turn, the car would then continuously drive a hard right turn untill you told it to stop, this could show you how your suspension/tyres would cope with certain conditions, the same could be done with bumps, for example 1cm high bumps every 1 foot, test your car on that to test your shocks/dampers. Also with braking distances, you could 'tell' the car to be driving at 140mph, and brake 100%, this could test your brake bias and strength to see if it will lock up, skid off etc. I don't know how hard this would be to impliment, but its an idea anyway.

A very simple one now, you know the race position box while you're racing? How about having the lap that a specific person is on next to their name, for example Banshee (1) etc, this would help alot as you could tell if the person infront is infact on the lap you are(so you could push more to overtake them) or wether he's the person in first:P(presuming you're not in second)

I had a few more suggestions, but I cannot think of them now, i'll add them later.

+1

would help making setups a lot.

Not sure I fully understand your second opint. We have the colour coding of the mini map to show if you are about to lap someone or be lapped, plus the car that is winning. I think that's more than enough info in the heat of a race. I do not have names turned on when I an racing. Never seen the point.

Quote from al heeley :

Not sure I fully understand your second opint. We have the colour coding of the mini map to show if you are about to lap someone or be lapped, plus the car that is winning. I think that's more than enough info in the heat of a race. I do not have names turned on when I an racing. Never seen the point.

I don't mean above the cars, the box bottom right of the screen.

And what about having Pitboards instead of all that HUD stuff? (I know, it has been suggested, but it's a good opportunity to say it )

Ofcourse if you use F1PerfView you can achieve the same thing as your first suggestion. Even better in fact because it shows you the data for an actual lap and not a simulated corner.

I think those simulated situations are anything but realistic. You just can't test the cornering behaviour of a car/setup in the box, you have to go out and see it by driving the car. That would be as if you could see in your laboratory how an atomic bomb would behave outside.
BUT: Maybe there could be a computer in the box which tells you some rough impression about how the setup would behave. More realistic I think...

i like the first one verry much!
would help alot indeed.
the second 1 olso, but not as much as the first one...

-1 for that first idea

That kinda defeats the purpose of LFS been a sim.. would get boring after a while, not even testing ya car on the track, u just watch it on a screen with out dooing ne thing.. sure it might help for setups, but it takes the fun out of getting a car setup and beating ppl knowing ur testing has paid off

Yeah, i dunno i'm kinda on the negative for this one.

I think you're looking at it as more of a "cool" thing then something that's useful.

As said above, if you want to test your car, throw it on the track. You're going to get a much better feedback from the setup by driving it then by looking at the car from outside as it drives over 1cm bumps.

i prefer making the AI use my setup, see how "dummy" driver drive my setup. i dont know if this "on garage simulator" will help, since on track there is much more things the suspension need to cope, like bumps, ondulations, and this are not constant...

I just prefer to test and note how it feels over bumps and on different speed corners. Its all about feel and lap time. Of course this approach is impossible if you cannot drive consistently within 2 or 3 tenths.

I agree with what Gentlefoot says. Half of getting the setup right is how it feels, not how it drives in idealistic conditions, which is what that would do. There's no way to simulate how the throttle will rotate the rear around in a corner or how your braking will affect turning into the corner. Since patch U, I'm starting to do my own setups rather than relying on someone elses. I'm starting to understand it more now and have sent my own creations to some who really liked it as well as improved their own times by seconds with one particular set. Granted, the ultra fast guys probably wouldn't like my sets, but for someone who is fast of the middle crowd, they seem to like my sets so far.

Quote from Tanuva :

I think those simulated situations are anything but realistic. You just can't test the cornering behaviour of a car/setup in the box, you have to go out and see it by driving the car. That would be as if you could see in your laboratory how an atomic bomb would behave outside.
BUT: Maybe there could be a computer in the box which tells you some rough impression about how the setup would behave. More realistic I think...

You know they actually DO test atomic bombs on computers.

Yeah, nothin' like nukin' a load of old 386s and Amigas.

Quote from Bob Smith :

Yeah, nothin' like nukin' a load of old 386s and Amigas.

LMAO

I would just add some basic tips that are shown when ever you hover your mouse over certain setting. A braking simulator? The input matters more than some value in the settings. Viper racing had a good way of showing what certain setting does. It was just a rough estimate which was enough. More experienced drivers won't need them anyway.

Thats a good idea, i remember in old Grand Prix 2, 3 and 4 days they had that, so example u hold ur mouse over anti roll bar and it tells u what more anti roll bar does and what less anti roll bar does..

good suggestion

I think this would help you shave the final tenth of because you lock up in the 100mph to 40 in 50m final corner. I often spend hours trying with 1% moving to try and find out, each time having to drive a lap agin. This would save me (and Im guessing many otehrs) alot of time, and add some fun as well.