Yeh, Plates would be needed. IMO, if NASCAR cut down the power and the weight there wouldn't be much of a need for the plates.
Or cut the fall-asleep superspeedways from the schedule. Yes, I would cut Tally, Daytona and Fontana to one date each, and have more races at shorter tracks (possibly one shorter than Martinsville. a 1/3 mile would keep the drivers on their toes)
Actually it isn't. The FZ5 can't go flat out around the Oval and thus needs a lot throttle-control to make it around.
If there were Oval-drivers who drive the FZ5 I would actually show some respect for that.
Imho, in order to make the nascar car useful, we should have more ovals. Basically there should be one very very fast one and one very very slow one. But I'd rather have the mountain track with prototypes
Sure i know Papys Nascar Sim and i also know plates are used in Nascar many times, now forever i think. So it would only add some realism. Same goes to the Tapes and Engine Heat. I loved to hoptlap with low fuel and lots of tape at daytona.
And my really first wish was, as i went from Nascar 2003 to LFS, to get a Nascar (Stock Car) and check it on a oval =) The oval is there, but no Nascar
i agree with more oval tracks *g* but i think first we need a car that is really made for the actuall oval we've got... KY is only flat out if you are alone.
i have been at N2K3 alot lately and a Stocker or a Big torque big power 4 or 5 speed car with a live axle could be gobs of fun, even at blackwood.
this would be a great addition to the game
Aside from acceration out of the pits, don't most NASCAR racing cars spend all their time in top gear? Why add more gears, and thus, more weight, and thus, less speed, when you wouldn't really use them? Remember, shifting gears slows down the car because, even for a split second, you're essentually in neutral!
As far as NASCAR style cars in LFS... I don't get a vote cause I'm a demo-er I guess, but I don't think I'd race it (when I get S2!). So no +1 from me. No -1 though, because what do I care if the game has features I won't use?
He has a point guys. The oval we have isn't even an oval in most respects. For one, it doesn't require any braking or even lifting. Plus it is very strangely shaped. Sure there are some tri-ovals, but Kyoto Oval? MAN WTF is that ???? Nascar is still great to see on road courses, they aren't all about ovals. But like many have said so far.... to have a v8 stock car you need to have proper downforce model /w grille tape and enging overheating, you need stagger, and all the other essential settings for such a car. And of course a better oval....
Nascars are good fun by themsleves. But we've all negelected one thing:
Live axles.
As most of you (if not all) should have noticed, LFS currently has no simulation of dynamic toe, something required for multi-link suspesion and live axles. A live axle is basically a massive axle with a functional differential and drive shafts.
Point is, LFS currently has NO simulation of live axles. Such a suspension type would need to be simulated as a significant tubular mass under the car, with links to stabilize its location relative to the chassis. In essence, we'll need an entirely new physics for a "new" type of suspension.
Wouldn't a live axle be approximated by our current trailing arm suspension (which is the S1 suspension rather than a proper trailing arm, but I'm sure will get improved one day). The fact that it's big, heavy, twists up etc isn't that important to start with. And the dynamic toe is applicable for any suspension type, but not the end of the world without it - remember, rFactor doesn't have any dynamic stuff and a couple of dozen people like that.
I'd love dynamic toe, axle twist, proper trailing arm simulation etc, but I don't think it's 100% necessary to get the jist of a stock car simulated. I voted no anyway.
Oh my god. If we would get a nascar style car - it would be cool. But Please, if this ever comes true: Not one of these new round and ugly ones. We need an old one, of these with sharp edges and a really oldschool body like this one:
wedge (crossweight) adjustments in the pits, trackbar adjustments in the pits... And asymmetrical setups would do it.
IIRC stagger is forbidden in NASCAR's top 3 series (Nextel Cup, Busch, and Craftsman truck). Has been since 2001 I think.
EDIT: By the way... Kyoto would be anything but full throttle... In fact, I think that in a 3400lbs stockcar, it would be very similar to Pocono in the game... Including shifting back to 3rd for the final turn, and trying to keep it gripping while diving low to pass someone in T2.
How do they do wedge? To adjust diagonal corner weights (which I guess is what it is that's being adjusted), the quickest way I can think of is adjusting the local rideheight via the sprint platform. Is this how wedge works? Driving a wedge of material under the spring to lift it?
It would be appreciated if someone could tell me how wedge works, what you actually do to the car, how it effects stuff (I guess it changes lots of things on the car), when you'd use it etc.
I've seen it in various oval games (NR2003) but never understood it or researched it...
Unfortunately tristan, a trailing arm suspension system is an EXTREMLY rough approximation of live axles.
As primitive as live axles seem form a technical point of view, they are in fact remarkably complex in terms of actual physical behaviour. That is also one of the reasons for cars such as Mitsubishi Pajero to switch to IRS: predictable suspension movement and thus, wheel placement. To simiulate it in LFS, we need to simulate a fixed beem with the wheel postions relative to the axle completely fixed. Of course IRL the uprights do flex a finite amount, but ATM that's just excess complication, since things such as bushing compliance and chassis flex aren't simulated yet.
Despite of the obvious live axle flaws, it does have a few remarkably good properties. For instance, its wheel camber relative to the road remains almost constant whilst both braking and accelerating. This is why they're still favoured by dedicated dragstres. This can be simulated with the trailing link system already in existance.
However, it's when cornering when things get REALLY interesting.
The actual toe changes with suspesion motion depends on the exact design of the axle locaters (trailing links, panhard rod, etc). As for the camber angles, they remain remarkably good and can infact only be bettered with a well designed multilink or double wishbone system. It's just a result of the fact that the entire axle turns in relation to the body whilst remaining relatively flat to the ground. This of course neglects tire deflection, but IRL a properly bent live axle to provide some reasonable amount of toe in and camber can perform amazingly well and maybe better than independents(depends on exact setup, of course). Their real downfall is their unsprung weight and interdependance of 2 wheels. Well, as long as the axle is located well, live axles need not lose to independants. Another complexity is the fact that live axles tend to be stiff on vertical travel but soft on roll. This is why coil-sprung live axles IRL NEED anti-roll bars to control roll. For live axles, the turning "pivot point" is actually closer to the inside corner spring.
It's hard to say all I know about live axles in a forum, but the fact stands that they are a different entity form all current suspension types availble on LFS and need to be simulated as their own unique type to uphold LFS levels of realism. A butch job on physics is perfectly fine on many games, but not LFS.
No, we don't have a Need For Speed. We LIVE FOR SPEED!
They raise or lower the rear springs by adding additional tension on the top through a very simple screw. It's like a rocky table... You make one of the shorter legs a bit longer and now it wobbles less... If they need really big adjustments they just tighten up the spring itself by putting a bumprubber in it (or taking one out). Wedge is generally used to fix under or over steering under power (when accelerating from a corner).
EDIT: After re-reading your post, basically that's what you meant... yeah, it adjusts the corner weights (crossweight, LR->RF, RR -> LF) by raising the back end on one corner. Changing the weight distribution using wedge has the advantage of affecting one direction of cornering more than the other, and since NASCAR is mostly about turning left...