Automobilista 2 V1.1.4.0 RELEASED - Now Updated to v1.1.4.5

In all my time reading about motor racing, I've never heard of a flat 12 being referred to as anything other than a flat 12, so I am completely unsurprised that it has no letter designation. The only alternative I know of is calling it a boxer, but that involves specific cylinder timing. I'm probably stating the obvious here, but the letter designation is intended to describe how the engine appears, which means that V, I, H and X all make sense, and this probably is the reason for the lack of a letter designation for the flat configuration.

It's interesting that when you start getting into the semantic differences of firing order, crank designs, etc., then you start to realise some of the limitations of the pigeon holes we try to place designs within. (Is a flat engine just a V engine with a 180 degree angle? Is an inline engine just a V engine with a zero degree angle?)

I'm not sure why you think the H designation (the true one, not yours) is obscure or discredited.

Anyway, as much fun as talking about this is, what I'm trying to explain is that arbitrarily deciding that H makes sense for flat configurations is just plain confusing and goes against the grain of how engine configurations have historically been described.

 

I remember the (well described) "lumpy bumpy" sound of those cars too, but it was only present in the pit lane and it didn't depend on whether the limiter was on or off, so the lumpy bumpy sound automatically went away after the pit limit line was passed, even if you didn't release the limiter (I raised a bug for this). Perhaps it's gone because it was the easiest way of fixing it, but I hope they bring the sound back, but only use it when the pit limiter is on.

 

I'll need to do some Googling, but from memory of it at the time, I recall it would suck itself down to the ground even when stationary and the engine revved.

 

From Renato post #1 of this thread.
"the fan in the BT46B would blow faster as the engine revved up, and as it did it would suck the air from underneath the car, generating astronomical levels of downforce in the process".

 

I dunno - I can't seem to get rid of the pit lane speed warning even with all hud elements disabled.

 

Since you had a lovely graphic of two different flat configurations, here's one for the H configuration (which unfortunately doesn't show the two cranks connected):

 

A few really interesting videos about the Brabham Fan car that include also interviews with G Murray and a really cool 3d rendition of the car in the italian video that I think will answer your questions:

 

I did some searching to see if I could find a source for the car moving vertically when revved and stationary, but couldn't find anything. I think I may have read it in Mario Andretti's biography many years ago (1979 or 1980), hence why it's a bit of a distant memory.

I did find that there was a system of clutches between then fan and engine, as there was concern about the flywheel effect of the fan interfering with gear changes, which turned out to be unfounded.

 

It's hard to verify the validity of what you read, as there is much reference to it being banned, but Gordon Murray is adamant that it was never banned, just withdrawn to keep FOCA united. However, people still seem keen to perpetuate this lie.

 

If we're lucky enough that Reiza gives us the Lotus 43 and/or the BRM P83/P115, then we'll have to use the term H16 in its proper sense, i.e. two flat 8 engines mated back to back with interconnected cranks, rather than using it to describe the simple flat configuration.

 

I don't think it's confusing, or it shouldn't be. The boxer engine is from the flat engine family, just with a specific firing order, which is what makes it a boxer.

 

Here's a better picture of an H configuration engine that shows the cranks connected:

 

changing liveries should have no negative effect (if you do not have liveries twice in your mod), because the system for bringing them into game meanwhile is provided by reiza itself.