I've always felt that even when you have a relatively non-race-spec streetcar lotus 7 thingie, you wouldn't take your spare wheel racing.

It's just dead weight and frankly, IMHO it looks a bit silly. If it's there to distinguish the 4 from the 6, I think the bulge and different rims on the 6 already do the trick.

The spare wheel's an additional bumper!

Vain

Yeah but that cars look naff without it.

naff? Pardon my linguistig skills, but the meaning of that one eludes me.

Is it a negative phrase in response to my suggestion or a positive one in response to Vain?

The Queen uses it when she desribes something of poor taste or style. lol

Ow ok, that's what you get for not living in the UK, I guess.

Anyhoo, I disagree. I think it looks stupid to go racing with the spare wheel on. Have you ever seen a caterham race where they do that? It would just be weird, 'cause as I said it's just dead weight. And as most people here are always saying LFS should be as close to RL racing as possible (including me), I feel the spares should go.

Maybe Scawen has planned a feature for S3 that when your tyre blows up, you can stop by the track and change the tyre yourself.

Or not.

At least it shows that the LFS engine can have more than 4 wheels (even if the 5th doesn't have a realtime generated tyre). Just think - we could have Safari rallies or Dakar type events where you can only use the spares you carry, so a spare wheel, jack, spare spark plugs, a big hammer, a hacksaw...

Then you could make an inventory system like an RPG, and have turn based driving, with real time overtaking and crashing.

Hmmmm, got a bit carried away there. But at least my idea wasn't THAT far from Deggis'

Edit: To make my post useful in this thread, I think we should get rid of it. If it looks silly without it then the model could be tweaked so it mimics a real life track caterham of similar specs. Would be cool if it kept the brackets and bolts that hold the wheel in place, so it really looks like you've left it in the paddock.

Any useful input on the actual suggestion?

Okay, here comes the usefulness (*drumroll*):
No car in LFS is "lightweight". They all have their complete interior, complete with leather-seats and wooden decorations. So at the moment we're just taking normal streetcars right from the street to the track. (Except for the GTR-cars and singleseaters, but the former are just streetcars with racing-frames.)
So at the moment no car in LFS except the single-seaters tries to be as light as possible.
I sincerely hope someone will rip out all the unnecessary weight from all cars, not just the LX4. The reduced dampening will also give better sounds.

Vain

I'm with you on this one...the wheel has to go, I also think it's useless.
Maybe other ways to differentiate the lx6 and the lx4 can be found, but this one is not realistic.

Why wouldn t ther be a "LX5" without spare tyre to replace both lx4 and lx6?

Because no one likes 5-cylinder motors.

Vain

@Vain: Ok, valid point. Just one thing: I get that the FXO and XRT and stuff don't have their leather upholstery ripped out. I always envision the road cars in LFS as cars you can drive at home and take to a track day or something so that makes sense. A spare wheel however, comes off (and back on) in two minutes and I believe it's something everyone would do when going to a track day (or club race for that matter).

@Paranoid Android: As I said, there's allready quite some stuff seperating them (bulge, vents, rims).

@ldriver: Because they're different cars with different characteristics of course. Nobody wants less cars in LFS, me thinks... illepall

He's right you know. I have spent a lot of time at trackdays and yes, everyone removes everything that comes out easily from the car. I've seen people remove back seats.

Sure but i think we want really different carsillepall

Thats not what the title of this thread is suggesting.

Without the wheel it looks just like the LX6's backside, which is fine and just like it looks in RL. Especially with a nice skin.

Although it makes it very easy to differentiate between LX4 and LX6, i must say i agree that it looks a bit silly.

Especially as it bascially just looks as though its floating there. Also, when the number plate gets bashed it clips through wheel and looks cack!

It would be nice to see the LX models tweaked, but imo they are pretty much OK as it is. If the tyre were to be removed, then some other distinguihing feature could be added just to help. I would recommend adding two more bars to the existing roll over bars on the LX6, to make it look more like other 'more racey' caterham type cars.

I particularly like the roll over bars in the second picture, although this type of roll over bar configuration might be reserved for the LX8 if it ever makes an appearance.

Like in these pictures
1. http://www.halling.org.uk/Pics/CCCB/Caterhamback.jpg
2. http://www.ianhardy.net/albums ... lton_a_e_f_g/IR0E2086.jpg

I think bogey is spot on. The number plate can go into the wheel, and imo it looks a bit back heavy with that wheel bolted on. But then again people are correct in saying that they are road cars non prepped racing, exept gtr's etc... But i do think that it needs to be taken off and possibly a little bit of a roll cage added perhaps. But at the end of the day, its a blast to scream the nuts off the engine and race them

If it is there just to make a difference between the LX4 and the LX6 I would like to get rid of it. Or add the wheel to LX6 too. But it has no use and a said before it is just additional weight. And it's too light for being a ballast

Change the spare tire to rollcage +1

Quote from Hyperactive :

Change the spare tire to rollcage +1

I think roll cage including the diagonal roof struts on LX6 as it is the more powerful, but keep the LX4 as it is now just without the tyre.

Yeah, extra roll cage on the LX6 is a nice idea, although you could argue that the 6 cilinder is also available as just a roadcar... Anyhoo, let's leave that up to Victor (as long as he ditches the spare wheel )

As long as he's at it he might aswell change on more thing that's been suggested earlier, namely tape crosses on the headlights. As I understand it that is obligatory even at many trackdays and really makes the car look Race-ey.

I think the spare wheel should be removed too, I've never seen a car gone racing that hasn't deposited its spare in the paddock first.

I'd also like to see rollcages and some degree of stripped interiors in all the cars cars without cages are allowed on track days but there is no competitive track environment where you are allowed to race without them

remember they are still road going cars, so i doubt people would strip their interiors all the time. caterhams are pretty sparse anyway!

@bobvanvliet: its Eric who does the cars.