Just got an idea from another thread.
If you want a very simple way to even out the TBO class, I believe the transmission is the place to look.
We do agree that in real life, such vehicles do not have adjustable ratios transmissions, right? Well then, why should we be able to adjust our own gear ratios in that in LFS?
I believe they could be fixed ratios and adjusted so the 3 cars are more equal in terms of performance.

That wouldn't be much fun..

final drive ratios are pretty easily changed, so this wouldn't really even anything out.

TBO class are just normal road cars, nothing else special on them... just road cars.

TBO feels like a class where people would just take their normal sporty "daily drivers" out for a race on the track. Only thing performance is the tires. Changing the final drive or gear ratios in general is "easy", but for these kinds of cars it just feels wierd.

But you have to think about all the options LFS gives you (suspension, steering, etc), it is all not-so believable for a typical roadcar. So just the gearing isn't the answer, you'd really have to make the car virtually uneditable.

Now, I would like the roadcars to be realistic in terms of how much you can edit on them. But the beauty of LFS is that it allows you to change many options. I am pretty sure LFS might once make some limitations on what you can change, and narrow it all down to just tire pressures and small stuff for road cars and vice versa.... but right now doing just the gear ratios might not be the answer because clearly the FXO is faster with handling in my opinion...

But either way, a gear ratio limitation could solve something, but not completely.

For everyone's information, please read the Severe 4WD defeciency in LFS thread I started some time ago. To be absolutely truthful, static gear ratios can only make things worse, sice it unfairly penalizes both the RB4 and XR GTT as they both lack the required powerbands to make them perform as well as they should, a close ratio set is used, which cannot be made with only 5 gears and without ridiculously low top speeds or poor start performance. No, a gearbox cannot magically even all cars out. Beside, road cars modified for track days do have their gear ratios changed(usually to close ratios) IRL, so fixing the gearbox is a moot point.

Good try, but this suggestion is a vast oversimplification of the TBO classs imbalance issue. For instance, the RB4 is undertired for the chassis's potential. Both RB4 and XR GTT could use a few extra bhp.

And to be absolutely honest, the TBO class is already a bit slow for the class(except of course the invincible FXO ). All too many games make the mistake of excessively nerfing things. As an example, real life Lancer Evolutions have significantly better acceleration than the RB4 even though its power to weight ratio is slightly lower. A classic powerband problem.

Oh, by the way, I'm also glad I'm not the only one to see how unrealistic and unfair intra-class imbalace severely affects racing and thus overall gamplay. Thanks Nick II for raising an obvious issue that has remained relatively neglacted.

Quote from Nick_ll :

Just got an idea from another thread.
If you want a very simple way to even out the TBO class, I believe the transmission is the place to look.
We do agree that in real life, such vehicles do not have adjustable ratios transmissions, right? Well then, why should we be able to adjust our own gear ratios in that in LFS?
I believe they could be fixed ratios and adjusted so the 3 cars are more equal in terms of performance.

That would just mean that some cars in the TBO class would be more suited to certain tracks than others. It wouldn't actually even out the class at all.

Experimenting with fuel as weight it seems that 50lbs added to the FXO and 50lbs removed from the RB4 puts the cars an pretty even footing...

Just my experimentation.

Quote from Gimpster :

Experimenting with fuel as weight it seems that 50lbs added to the FXO and 50lbs removed from the RB4 puts the cars an pretty even footing...

Just my experimentation.

or adding passengers

Quote from Tweaker :

TBO class are just normal road cars, nothing else special on them... just road cars.

They're really like Group N cars with fully adjustable suspension and rigid body simulation meaning they are much closer to a shell with a cage attached to the suspension mounts (effective spaceframe) than a road car. For a Group N car final drive ratio changes are realistic, but not individual gear ratios. Maybe a restriction to final drive, addition of cages (cosmetic change only) and removal of the unrealistic locked diffs and addition of slicks would create a good range of Group N cars. Then true road cars could be made out of sets like the road_going ones and very few adjustments.