yes there is engine damage, but you have to reduce gears from very high speeds. actually, I broke the FXO GTR in Aston Cadet reverse and I thought it was just fuel, but there was 10%
In about 9000 miles I've yet to damage an engine, I know I genrally drive them lightly but this does seem to suggest the damage is fairly non-existant.
At current version of LFS you can pretty much flatshift all you want. The engine may take little damage over it, but the race has to be really long to it to have significant effect on lap times. Only car I have noticed to start to make popping sound after a few laps is the XRR.
the damage is very low, but if you try to damage the engine, you'll get. that's how I broke the FXR. Yesterday I played for an hour and a half and it had very little damage, so, the only way (for now) to blow the engine is to force it
Flatshifting means that you just floor the throttle when changing gears (when "throttle cut on upshift" option is turned off). Unrealistic but it's currently faster way than manual cutting or using the auto cut.
I don't know about that. I have driven it about one hour straight doing flatshifts all the time and I did not notice any damage (or even popping sounds).
Actually gearbox damage could make things more interesting as currently the fastest way in some fast corners is just to "snap-shift" from 6th to 4th without braking (snap-shift = new word). And just turn the wheel. Interesting last laps, left front tire flat, engine making strange noises, 1% too little fuel left, only 3rd and 6th gear alive and hood twisted against windshield so you can't see anything...
And time related suspension damage...mmmh...Who dares to drive over those curbs at the chicane at Aston tracks...
I heavily use "snapshifting" when playing GT4, always have and probably always will, out of habit, haha. I haven't noted my using it in LFS, as engine braking seems much more realistic, and i tend to drive the slower stuff anyways. I'll have to try it, just to see how it works myself, though I doubt it'll become an LFS-habit there too. Flatshifting.. I can't stand to do that, just because how unrealistic it sounds, and how often you'd have to hear it. I have auto-cut/blip on, because for now I'm stuck driving with a joystick, and throttle blips/cuts are just too much input on one stick to keep from flubbing up your steering in the process. I have severly damaged the XFG's little 1.3L by continously slamming down gears and banging the absolute top of the tachometer, over and over and over. It eventually pops constantly and has very little power. I have to try REALLY HARD to get the damage so bad that it'd make much of a difference in any races though. (and if you were shifting that poorly, you wouldn't be worried about placing in said races anyways )
EDIT-oh yeah.. I completely agree with the above post. I'd love to see all that type of damage modelled! (and more, like cracked glass for the cars that wouldn't use plexiglass) I remember the game that got me into driving games.. The Duel TestDrive 2. As far as I know, that was the first series, and one of the very few games to ever even let you, blow your engine and strip gears. (though IMO, the series died after "The Duel", and never came back) It flat out rocked for the time. (and though it was called arcade racing, I consider it an early street racing simulation, haha) I dunno if Porsche's and Ferarri's of the 80's didn't have 'em, but that game didn't even give you rev limiters. You went too far over redline and you were done. It was hard to strip gears, but you could. I remember quickly shifting from like 2nd-4th, to make sure I didn't blow the engine upshifting past the dead 3rd, as when a gear went, it'd just rev like in neutral, and like I said, there was no rev limitation other than a popped engine/game over. That was back before they knew they were supposed to make games easier for the sissies..
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