A Low-Skill Driver's Guide to the Cars of AMS2

This is less about "how to drive this car fast" and more about "why does this car exist in the first place and why would anyone want to drive it?" The answer is often "because it's cheap IRL and fun to drive even if it's not fast."

Since I am a slow, low-skilled driver, I like to drive by feel rather than memorizing all of the ideal inputs to achieve the fastest laptimes. So, I prefer cars that are forgiving and communicative, rather than super-fast cars that demand consistent precision. I like AMS2 because the devs prioritize making the cars very communicative to the driver. I know that sliding around is not the fastest way around a track, but I prefer a car that enters a recoverable slide versus a car that spins or flies off the track when I push it too hard.

EDIT: I found a cheat code to make all cars drive to my taste: loosen the differential. Reduce the preload to 20-40nm and clutches to 2 or 4. This will make it behave more like an open diff, with a wider limit that's easier to control. If you're a master driver this will make you slower, but if you're already slow like me then it might make you faster because the car will be easier to control even if you're not precise.

If you doubt my credentials as a low-skill driver, check out my time attacks under "dudefaceguy." I've done a lap of Interlagos in every car class with default setups.

Warning: I don't like GT3 or modern F1, and I have included hot takes to that effect.

Warning #2: I talk a lot of **** about high-downforce cars. While downforce makes you faster in the corners, it also makes slides more difficult to recover since the aero grip evaporates when you start going sideways. And it makes overtaking more difficult, since the leading car has more downforce than the trailing car driving in dirty air. So downforce definitely makes you faster, and it's great for hotlapping, but I just got a little fed up with it after a while in the context of actual races. Speed is relative when you're racing, so making the whole grid go faster really achieves nothing unless you also make the racing better.


Modern Racecars for Normal People
Formula Vee is a very cheap racecar with a manual transmission and no downforce. This excellent website has a long description of what exactly makes the Vee so much fun to drive: Formula Vee Brasil
This is basically a description of my ideal racecar. I also like that you can crash and replace 20 of these for the price of a GT4 car. Race these on tracks befitting their speed and size: Oulton Fosters, Virginia Patriot, and Velo Cittá Club are all great choices.

Formula Trainers are fun to race on their own merits, even if they are called trainers. They are fictional cars based on Formula Ford, which has many of its own racing series. Both cars are great fun for driving hard and making lots of mistakes, but the road tires on the regular Trainer makes the grip loss more gradual and consequently easier to recover compared to the Advanced. These cars are like faster versions of the Formula Vee with a sequential gearbox.

Formula Inter is a Brazilian series that races primarily at Interlagos and surrounding tracks. Some guy on reddit said it costs about $6,500 for a car and a racing series, which makes it cheaper than Formula Vee (and a lot of simracing rigs). The series website SEASON PRICE USD 78,800 - Formula Inter says a series costs $78,800 but lap times are about 16 seconds faster than Formula Inter in AMS2, so it's not clear that this is even a similar car; they also might be racing in Miami instead of Interlagos, it's hard to tell.
Anyhow, like Formula Vee, it has an open differential and a manual gearbox, but the racing slicks and lack of a swing axle suspension makes it much more stable. The wings look cool but you don't go fast enough to really feel the downforce in the corners - it just adds a little hot sauce to your mechanical grip. It's designed to be a journeyman racing driver's first step after karts. Overdriving causes recoverable slides. I love this car, and I think you will too - it has a great medium pace and it's tons of fun on the limit. As much as I love Caterhams and the Formula Vee, the Formula Inter might be my pick for the best all-around "cheap racecar for normal people" in AMS2.

Aussie Racing Camaro is easy to slide and hard to spin. It really is a miniature clown car, that's not just a distorted thumbnail from rFactor. It's especially funny to put these in a multiclass race next to full-size cars. IRL they are a silhouette club racing series in Australia for regular people to have fun on the track; the cars cost about $45,000 new. The fixed/spool differential makes them a unique and fun driving experience. Here's a FAQ with lots of information about the cars: Aussie Racing Cars - FAQ

Caterham Academy has an open differential and low-grip road tires designed to be very forgiving on the limit, so that novice racers can learn car control. It's meant to have progressive grip loss and to easily recover slides - it's similar to the Formula Trainer in this regard. IRL it costs about $40,000, which includes a whole racing series with a grid of novices. These are very entertaining races to watch - they are all on YouTube with full commentary. Caterham publishes detailed race results so you can see just how much slower you are than the slowest real-life driver (or maybe faster, if you are not me).
Here's 5 hours of Caterham racing at Donington:

Caterham Supersport is a souped-up Academy with upgraded tyres, suspension, and a limited slip differential. It's designed for racers who have already learned car control in the Academy, and it is still very forgiving on the limit. This is my favorite Caterham, mainly because I love manual gearboxes. It's a rough amalgam of the contemporary Caterham Roadsport/270R/310R racing series; you can also find these races and results online.

Caterham Superlight has more power and a sequential gearbox. This lets you use left-foot braking to react more quickly when balancing through corners with the brake and throttle. It's a different mood than the Supersport, but just as fun.

Caterham 620R has a whole lot more power, and it can be pretty hard to get all of it down on to the pavement. I seem to spend most of my attention trying to avoid pressing the throttle so that I don't spin; it's not my ideal racecar unfortunately. There are no official Caterham racing series using this car; note the absence of a full roll cage.

Ginetta 40 Cup is made by the British racecar company Ginetta. They are a bit like Caterham, in that they focus on road-legal racecars rather than road cars, and run their own racing series based on their cars. The G40 is an entry-level car that costs about $50,000. This is the same car as the Ginetta in the GT5 class, but with a manual gearbox. If you like the MX-5 in other sims, try out this car.
Here's a guy talking about why he bought a G40: he wanted a car he could learn to race in, that would teach good habits, and that he could drive to and from the track; he also considered a Caterham.

The more I drive the Ginettas, the more I esteem them. Like the Caterhams, they seem to be designed as my ideal racecars: communicative, lively, and forgiving on the limit. I'm excited to drive them more. Ginetta has cars in P1, GT4, GT5, GT Open, Ginetta G40 Cup, and Ginetta GT4 Supercup classes.

GT5 includes a sequential version of the Ginetta G40 and a modern Puma from the brand's recent revival. I like to use them in multiclass races so I have something to lap. But I like driving them even more. You are on the limit pretty much as soon as you start going forward, and the limit is nice and wide. The manual transmission Puma is similar to the manual Ginetta G40 Cup, but I think I prefer the Ginetta - the Puma's open top is nice in VR and both engines sound beautiful, but the Puma has worse brakes and an annoyingly imprecise tachometer. The Ginetta G40s feel more like racecars. Like with other slow cars, drive them on appropriate tracks.

Lancer Cup is a heavy, slow and unresponsive car ... if you try to drive it like a regular RWD track car. Instead, try "hooning about." (Hoon - to operate a motor vehicle in a reckless or irresponsible manner.) Thanks to the 4 wheel drive it's very easy to go sideways and almost impossible to spin. It works best on a track with lots of mid-speed corners like Goiânia. If you're doing it right you'll get a congratulatory message that says "Lap time invalidated by the Racing Director."
It's also fun to race seriously - treat it more like a FWD car, and use the throttle to get out of trouble.
I normally love manual transmissions but I find myself using the sequential model here for the ease of left-foot braking to induce oversteer. Remember, you can use the Scandinavian Flick even if you are not of Norse heritage.

Mini JCW is designed to be an affordable support series for the British Touring Car Championship. I wanted to hate this car because I think the modern Minis look dumb - they are a monstrous version of a classic car swollen out of proportion to appeal to benighted Americans (I am an American). However, I ended up loving this car because it sounds great and is a lot of fun to drive. As a powerful front-wheel-drive car, it reminds me of a rally car - the back end is lively under braking but you can usually get out of trouble just by flooring it. Like the Lancer, it's easy to go sideways but hard to spin; hooning is in order. This series replaced the Renault Clio Cup series, and the cars are somewhat similar. If you've had fun driving the Clio Cup in other sims, definitely drive the Mini here. The car costs about $50,000.


Modern Street Cars
Hypercars and Supercars? This is a motorsport simulator. Someone has misplaced these road cars - maybe they were supposed to be in Assetto Corsa. In real life these exist to either make you feel cool on the way to the post office, or to spend $900,000 more than you need to on a track day car. As with most road cars, they understeer like mad. Drive these to remind yourself not to waste money IRL.

Street Camaro is useful for reminding yourself just how much better racecars are than road cars. I find it more fun to drive than the Super/Hypercars, but everything it does is done better by other cars. EDIT: It has a handbrake, which almost all other cars lack.

TSI Cup accurately simulates the feeling of going to the grocery store. Are these street cars or racecars? Who cares? They are FWD, but too heavy and underpowered to do anything fun. Yes, you can get them to slide if you really try, but they really don't want to. Like the Camaro, everything they do is done better by the other FWD cars. The TSI Cup was made as part of an AMS2 demo, so they are sort of deliberately crappy.
EDIT: These also have a handbrake, so you can actually fling them around corners sideways pretty easily. However, they are still less fun than every other FWD car. The only other cars I've found with a working handbrake are the Caterham Academy and 620R (other cars, like Vintage Touring 2, have a handbrake shown visually but it doesn't activate when you push the button).

Modern Fancy Racecars
P1/2/3/4, GT3, and GT4 are part of Imperio Endurance Series. While the billionaires were distracted by the scent of money burning in Formula 1 and the World Endurance Championship, Brazilians made an endurance racing series of their own. These don't map perfectly onto WEC classes; the P1 cars are between LMP2 and LMP3 for example, and the GT cars have different performance standards.

P3 and P4 are a lot of fun. The P4 MCR S2000 and the P3 Roco stand out to me as being more lively than the MRX models (which are probably faster). All of these cars can get quite slidey for a downforce-focused car, but it's easy to recover and balance on the limit. These classes race well against GT3/GT4, and the GT cars seem gigantic from the perspective of these tiny prototypes - especially in VR and in the Roco. A new MCR S2 costs about $60,000, so less than half the price of a cheap GT4 car.

P1 and P2 are also fun, but much less lively on the limit compared to P3 and P4. The Metalmoro AJR costs about $200,000, slightly less than an LMP3 car. You can get a P1 Ginetta 58 for about $300,000. The Ginetta is probably the most forgiving of the bunch, and is one of my favorite cars for learning new tracks because it has magic brakes. Note that the Sigma has TC and ABS; the in-game menu info is wrong. They all sound goddamn fantastic.

DPI is an American endurance racing prototype class. It's not part of Imperio Endurance but is similar to the P1 class and races well with them.

GT3 and GTE are dumbass car classes in real life, and also in simracing. Let's take a super-expensive road car, remove all the stuff that makes it road legal, then add a bunch of racing gear to make it into a heavy, compromised racecar that can never be as good as a purpose-built racecar. Also add a lot of downforce and computers that keep the tires from spinning too much, so that it is less fun to drive than a cheapo track day beater. This will cost you half a million dollars. Complete nonsense. They are toys for low-skilled hobbyists who care more about looking cool than anything else, and want to buy performance rather than developing skill - actually come to think of it, this class sounds perfect for me.

GT4 is a somewhat reasonable car class, designed for (well-off) hobbyists who want to run a cool-looking road-legal racecar by themselves without an engineering team. You can get a new Porsche GT4 for about $230,000, and a used Ginetta G55 for $70,000. They run much less downforce than GT3 cars so they are more lively to drive, even with traction control turned up. They are still kind of dumbass and overpriced, but are more fun to drive than GT3 for 1/10 of the price IRL. But I struggle to find a reason to drive these when Group A, Caterhams, and better Ginettas exist. Speaking of better Ginettas…

Ginetta GT4 Supercup is the same car as the GT4 class Ginetta but without assists. This is another support series for BTCC, along with JCW Mini. As someone who is lukewarm on GT4 cars, I was surprised by how much I liked this car. It's like a GT4 car that goes sideways with progressive grip loss and responsive weight transfer. This is definitely my favorite modern, high-performance GT car in the game. I prefer this to driving GT4 cars with TC and ABS turned off, because this car is actually designed and tuned for driving without assists. This little baby costs about $100,000.

GT Open is a multi-class touring car racing series with cars similar to GT3 and GT4 cars. I honestly can't figure out why it exists IRL. The Ginetta feels pretty much like a GT3 car to me. I've heard lots of praise for the Ultima, but I can't seem to find the fun. It feels a bit like a Carrera Cup: it understeers and spins without a lot of give on the edge.

Carrera Cup is like a faster GT4 car without traction control. They are made as a single-make series, with all cars identical. They cost about $270,000, which is a bit more than the Cayman GT4 and a lot more than a Metalmoro AJR from the P1 class. This car is prone to understeer and easy to spin. IRL it would be a big flex to spend this much on a race car toy built off of an expensive road car, but in a sim everyone has unlimited Porsches. Personally I don't have a reason to drive these when there are many more fun options available, such as the Ginetta GT4 Supercup.

Super V8 is for people who think the Brazilian Stock cars don't have enough power oversteer. Just pretend there is a bomb under the throttle and if you push it all the way down you will explode unless you're going straight. This is a premier silhouette racing series from Australia. Frankly, these cars are just too difficult for me to drive; try them if you're a better driver than I am. EDIT: They have a fixed/spool differential; this is probably why I find them difficult to drive. They are on my list to investigate more with this in mind, along with the spool-diff Aussie Camaros.


Brazilian Stock Cars and Friends
Brazilian Stock cars have a long and interesting history that is described on this excellent companion website for AMS2: Stock Car Brasil
I generally like the old cars better than the new ones.

79 Stock Car has a fluffy suspension which gives the impression that it is hard to control, but in reality, you can drive this car extremely hard. You can apply liberal throttle and brake mid-corner without spinning. Just send it.

86 Stock Car is faster and more precise than the '79 cars thanks to its increased power, racing slicks, and stiffer suspension. You can still drive it just as hard.

Omega is like a scarier version of German Group A. You can still mash the brakes with relative impunity like in the 79 and 86 cars, but power oversteer can be a problem.

Old Stock is a contemporary series using the 79 stock cars with added power and stronger brakes. Forget reckless cornering - it's a terrifying ordeal just trying to drive in a straight line. This car slides if a spectator farts too loudly. I'm not skilled enough to drive these fast, but it sure is fun to try to keep them on the track.

2019-22 Stock Cars are silhouette cars. The 2019 cars are actually the fastest, with more downforce than the later cars. The main problem for low-skilled drivers like myself will be power oversteer on corner exit. These are most fun in a full grid with some aggressive door-banging. These aren't my favorite driving experience for hotlapping or cornering liveliness on its own merits though. I'm also not so into silhouette cars conceptually - I get that they have to pretend to look like road cars for the sake of sponsorship, but I'd rather have a smaller, lighter racecar or a cheap road car as a track-day beater.

Copa Montana seems like it would be a slow version of the stock cars because it is a heavy pickup truck. But in reality it weighs the same as the Brazilian Stock cars, and even though its engine is less powerful it's only about 2 seconds slower than the 2020-22 Stock cars around Interlagos. IRL, Copa Montana existed as a feeder series for Stock Car Brazil. Like the Stock cars, it is a silhouette car, made to look like a Chevy pickup for the sake of sponsorship. The Montana is one of many different silhouettes used over the years in this feeder series, which is now known as Stock Light. So if you think it's dumb to race pickup trucks, maybe you're right, but these aren't really pickup trucks. They feel a lot like the 2020-22 Brazilian Stock Cars: low downforce, no assists, and plenty of power.

Sprint Race is a very reasonable car IRL and in the sim. It's designed to be an affordable, safe sillhouette series supporting Brazilian Stock Cars. I've found it most fun balancing through sweeping, mid-speed corners; Cascavel is a good choice. The back end gets very lively mid-corner in these conditions, but the car is also very responsive, communicative, and controllable.


Old ****boxes
Fusca, Copa Classics, Hot Cars, and Copa Uno are all Brazilian series using cheap road cars tuned for track racing. These are some of my favorite cars in the game - you can throw them around with reckless abandon. Fusca and Copa Classics are modern series that race old cars with modern racing kit. Hot Cars and Copa Uno are reproductions of old series as they were decades ago (which means they have weak brakes, so mash them hard). There are many diverse cars in these classes and I won't pretend to know all of them well, but there are some broad groupings among them.

There are 4 FWD cars in these classes: the Uno, Mini, Passat, and Gol. They are all found in Copa Classics B (CCB), with other versions in other series. They drive like rally cars. Less than 40% of the weight is over the rear axle, so the back end will step out at the slightest provocation. All of these FWD cars can spin under hard braking or when otherwise unsettled, but if you learn the limits of the weight transfer it's a lot of fun to keep them on the edge. You can countersteer and floor it to correct oversteer. If you understeer, just lift off or slam the brakes until you oversteer, then floor it. I don't know if this is the best way to drive these cars, and I don't care (I'm pretty sure it's not though).
The CCB Uno and Mini each have another slower and slipperier version with road tires in another class: Copa Uno and Vintage Touring 2 respectively.

Copa Uno is a re-creation of the old Brazilian racing series. You can read about its history here: Fiat Uno (Copa Uno) These races are great fun to watch; find some on YouTube. Here are some highlights:

The Passat and Gol have slow versions in CCB and faster versions in Copa Classics FL (CCFL) and Hot Cars. They all handle similarly, with the Hot Cars tending more towards lateral slides rather than pivoting to oversteer.

The rest of these classic Brazilian beaters are RWD.

The CCFL Puma GTB gives a great old muscle car vibe. Puma is a Brazilian car manufacturer with an interesting history; at one time it was owned by Muhammad Ali. This car is way faster than its class-mates on the straights, but suffers in the curves. All of the fastest laps in Time Attack are set by the GTB. It's great fun to race against an AI Puma GTB in one of the other CCFL cars; I recently had an epic duel that lasted about 10 laps.

The CCB Chevette is the only other front-engine RWD car besides the Puma GTB in these classes. It's similar to other cars with this same configuration - I don't drive it much because there are so many other excellent options in this configuration; I prefer the unique handling of the other cars in the Copa Classics.

The CCB Puma GTE is rear-engined and based on the VW Beetle. It's prone to to spins under braking, but if you brake in a straight line and hold a little throttle through the corners you can drive it really hard. It looks super cool too.

Fuscas (VW Beetles) are all rear-engine RWD, and are really fun to drive. There are 4 models, but I'm not sure what the difference is between the 2 in the Hot Cars class; they may just have different visual models. The Copa Fusca has road tires, but it's hard to even get up enough speed to make it slide, let alone spin; drive this car as hard as you possibly can to find the fun. The Hot Cars models are less stable than the Copa Classics FL model - trail braking risks a spin. The CCFL version can handle some mid-corner braking, and the ladybug livery is my favorite in the game.

Vintage Touring classes 1 and 2 are fancier than the ****boxes above, but even slower. The cars are as they were in their original state decades ago, not updated with modern kit. With the exception of the Mini, these have their passenger seats installed, so you can pretend they are your daily driver.

BMW Turbo sounds great and is fun to drive. In this car you don't have to find the limit: the limit finds you.

Corvette C3 appears again because Reiza is awesome and so is this car. Despite having less power than the GT Classics version, it's harder to handle and easier to spin on its road tires. You still get to feel super cool when you drive it. The brakes are so bad they're good: just mash them and you will never lock up. You might spin though - make sure that you do your braking in a straight line and start early. This car races well against Copa Classic B. You will be better on the straights and worse in the corners, which makes for lots of overtaking. I have trouble keeping it on the track through some of the tricky corners - just pick an easy track if you have this problem. Londrina Long works, but the first chicane after the long right-hander kills me every time on Londrina Short.

Lotus 23 is among the slowest cars in the game, but it feels a lot faster thanks to the low seat position. It's amazing to drive until you realize the brakes don't work, then feels pretty good again once you figure out how to use engine braking to slow the car down. It's still kind of a pain in the ass compared to cars with functional brakes.
Edit: After more driving, it seems the problem is that any weight transfer to the front wheels causes 100% understeer. Attempting to trail brake to aid turn-in will instead cause you to plow forward regardless of steering input. If I use the most feather-light touch on the brakes while cornering it seems to increase forward grip just a little tiny bit, maybe. I can keep it on the track, but I'm still about 15 seconds slower than the Mini.

Mini is similar to the Copa Classics B version but with road tires. I wish I could use these liveries in Copa Classic B.


Old Fancy Racecars
Group A is from a magical time in motorsport when cars had good brakes and low downforce. A cool-looking car can be popular even if it is boring to drive, but a boxy old thing is only popular if it feels amazing, and these do. There are no sexy curves on the bodywork because they saved all the sexiness for the curves on the racetrack. These cars are fast, slidey, and forgiving on the limit. They want you to heel-toe shift and balance weight transfer with the brake and the throttle. They are in every sim because they are so fun to drive. This also makes them perfect for comparing different sims.

Group C is loved by sim racers everywhere for good reason. They are fast, fun, manual transmission cars that sound great. The Sauber C9 has a reputation for being "a beast" and "scary powerful" but I found it to be easier to drive than the other Group C cars. Power oversteer can be a problem in all the cars, but with practice it's not too hard to feel out the right balance. IRL, Group C cars were for top-level endurance racing in the 80s and early 90s. They were idiotically expensive, but they are fun to drive so whatever.

GT1 - "I wish these Group C cars had a sequential gearbox," said no one ever. GT1 was supposed to be a Le Mans endurance class for racing versions of production road cars, but the manufacturers just built the minimum number of production cars to enter in the race (which was as few as 1 in some cases), so they are effectively just prototypes. My favorite is the new Nissan; it is very communicative, and I can feel how close I am to the edge in a way that I can't in the other cars in this class. They all look real cool though.

GT Classics are 2 of the best-looking sports cars ever made. Both of them are a blast to drive, and they each have very different handling characteristics. The Corvette has a 7 liter engine, which is the biggest in the game except for Copa Truck. Despite all this power, it is far from undriveable, and it's relatively easy to get it back in line when it misbehaves. The Porsche RSR is a racecar deity that appeals to pretty much everyone, including me.

M1 Procar is a mid-engine BMW designed by Lamborghini, and it's one of the crowning jewels of AMS2. Before you even get to the first corner, you can tell that it looks and sounds gorgeous. Through the corners it has all of the qualities that make a car fun to drive for me. It will stick to the tarmac if you drive it politely, but once you start to push, it will throw out some beautiful and controllable slides. Going really fast is tricky and rewarding. Make sure to drive it at night for the super cool green dash lights.


Formula 1 and Friends
Formula 3 is a modern formula car with a sequential gearbox that sounds like a car rather than a swarm of bees. It's fast but not so fast that it exceeds the reaction time of normal humans. It has enough downforce to take corners magically fast, but also allows for recovery if you push it too hard. This is Brazilian F3 so the real-life costs are much lower than other F3 classes - about $60,000 for a season on a budget. So they are about 20% slower than F1 and 2,000 times cheaper than F1. Personally, I prefer the prototype classes for modern downforce-forcused open-top racecars at this speed.

Formula Vintage is from the 60s. Gen 1 is about as fast as P3/4 prototypes and Formula 3 but with no downforce and comparatively little lateral grip. If you're careful they can be a blast to drive, but they are definitely not forgiving. If you have trouble spinning out, start with Caterhams and Formula Trainers first. Formula Vintage 2 has wings to fool you into thinking the cars have downforce, so that you drive too fast and crash.

Formula Retro is from the 70s and early 80s. Gen 1 is about as fast as a contemporary Formula 3 car, and Gen 3 is about as fast as the P1 class. These are my favorite F1 cars. They have just enough downforce to help in the corners but you can still recover a slide pretty easily so they are a lot of fun to drive on the limit by feel, without having to memorize every braking point. Drive these if you want a fast manual-transmission car with an open top, some downforce, and a great engine sound. The Gen3 McLaren MP4/1C, Gen2 Lotus 79, and Gen1 V8 are my favorites so far.

Formula Classic is from the 80s and early 90s. They are generally more planted than Formula Retro, but Classic Gen 1 will try to kill you with all that horsepower. My favorite so far is Gen2 M2 and Gen4 M3 - they don't slide around like the Retros, but they tolerate some really hard driving without stepping out of line. The high-revving Gen 3 and 4 Engines sound really annoying to me.

Formula V12 is modeled on the Ferrari car from 1995. It seems like the loosest of the sequential gearbox Formula 1 cars, probably because the regulations were focused on slowing the cars to prevent deaths following the 1994 season, and the teams had not yet found a way around them. This car is actually pretty fun to drive.

Modern Formula 1 hate rant: I haven't spent a lot of time on modern F1 cars because the series just doesn't make sense to me. F1 organizers realized that drivers were dying because the cars were too fast for humans to control reliably, so they regulated the cars to be slower. The teams then started spending hundreds of millions of dollars finding ways to evade these regs, so they had to change the circuits to be slower as well. Basically the cars are idiotically expensive in order to evade regulations that literally exist to be evaded, so they can drive dangerously fast on slow circuits. Heaven forbid they save billions of dollars and drive 3 seconds slower without forcing the whole world to accommodate them (because then they would be Indycar).

Formula V10 (late 90s and early 2000s) and Formula Reiza (2011) are too fast for me and sound like a swarm of angry bees. Drive these if you enjoy memorizing how to drive a circuit and then practicing what you memorized because they are too fast for normal humans to drive by feel. #low-skillDriver #F1hateBoner

Formula Ultimate reflects contemporary F1 cars. It was a pleasant surprise for me: the engines sound better than previous generations thanks to lower revs, and there is some give in the corners. They are still too fast for me to drive well, but it's fun to do some hotlapping. I still prefer Formula USA Gen 3 because they are slower and looser - and I'd really rather drive a Formula Trainer.

Formula USA (Indycar) is like a more reasonable version of F1. The cars are all mass-produced to spec, rather than individually engineered as in F1. A season can cost as little as $3 million (about 50 times cheaper than F1), which puts this series within the grasp of your garden-variety multi-millionaire. They have less downforce than a modern F1 car, and are consequently looser in the corners. I think some YouTubers were complaining about these cars, but I have been having too much fun driving to watch their videos. I know you're supposed to drive them on ovals, but I just drive them around my favorite Brazilian road courses. I prefer Gen 2 and 3; they seem more lively and forgiving than Gen 1.


Other Stuff

Copa Truck is basically a meme I guess. But I tried a Scandinavian Flick and it almost worked…

Karts are the quintessential everyman's intro to racing. You yourself can race a rental kart IRL for the cost of a fancy dinner, and I myself have done so. I've only driven an electric kart, which is much different than these combustion karts. The biggest difference is needing to preserve momentum because the transmission-less karts take a while to get going again once they slow down. I found the karts undriveable at first, but after I figured them out they became super fun. Karts are tiny, and your inputs must be correspondingly tiny; you basically don't use the break on the low-end karts, lifting off the throttle instead. With a delicate touch, you will see the light and start to have fun. They are not exactly forgiving and it's easy to spin, but there is a decent amount of wiggle room on the limit and you will slide sideways constantly. Buskerud is a beautiful track, but I recommend starting on a flat track to feel out the cornering first. I did my learning at Interlagos Kart 1. Note that the Super Kart is as fast as an F3 car - try it in a multiclass race against GT cars.

 

This is flipping hilarious, well worth a read

 

Hi,

The best article on sim racing I've read. Your humor and plain speak....but really hiding what seems to be a solid under stang of race cars....is great. Ur a funny MF.

Excellent.

 

This should absolutely be stickied, fantastic piece, totally agree with everything you say here. Thanks for taking the time to write it all up. This should be in the manual.

 

Wow , what a fantastic piece of writing! Funny entertaining and informative.
You should have a job in journalism if you haven't already.
Thanks for taking the time to write this , cheered me up no end . Am going to search out your TT times , have a sneaking suspicion you aren't as slow as you think .

 

Thanks for taking the time to reflect and write this up.

ByTheWay: My optimistic guess is that if you did use some more time practicing in some of the formula cars then you would find that at least in as example F-Reiza and the F-US cars its pretty possible to both get over the slide/grip level and catch the car. Which means that the behaviour of (some of) the formula cars does allow the same driver dependent catch a slide as you point out with some of your favorite tintops.

 

Excellent, entertaining summary of all of the various machinery in AMS2. Lately, I’ve been partial to racing the Ginetta G40 Cup at various Brazilian tracks. Definitely the Miata MX-5 of AMS2.

Obviously, I’m somewhat biased, but all of these classes are much more immersive when racing against the drivers who actually drove the cars—as opposed to Reiza’s quasi-fictional drivers….

 

Thanks guys for all of your kind words, I'm really glad that some people are enjoying this. I came to sim racing without any knowledge of motorsport, so it's been a very interesting journey to figure out what all of these cars are for.

As far as times go, I was surprised to see that I'm much slower in my favorite cars compared to GT3 and GT4 which I never drive. I'm about 8 seconds off the pace in Caterhams, and about 4.5 seconds off in GT3/4. I got closest to the WR in my first-ever lap in the Ginetta GT4 Supercup - less than 4 seconds.
I'm sure I would improve a lot if I did more than 1 or 2 laps in each car.

You are certainly right. I really like open-top cars in VR, so I will probably put in the time at some point to get used to how the faster modern formula cars feel. It is thrilling to go really fast with downforce magic when your brain is telling you you're about to crash.

 

Great read, and nice work.
Just have to say, though, the Chevette in Copa B is the king of xxxxboxes; that whole class rocks and more servers on MP should utilise them.

 

I LOVE the Chevette in Copa B ... it's the working-class Alfa GTA of AMS2!

I wish the Lotus 23 was the Porsche 550 Spyder of AMS2, but those brakes ... when some people complained about Colin Chapman's safety standards, I kind of see their point!

 

Thanks, I will try it out again. I was hoping to elicit opinions like this about cars I overlooked. Now I just need to find the guy who loves the TSI Cup ...

 

Sadly, it’s hard to find much nice to say about the TSI class in AMS2. I have yet to take a fancy to any of the street cars in AMS2, honestly.

 

Wonderful write-up with great sense of humour. A perfect starter guide for the many people who will have trouble understanding the vast array of cars and series included in AMS 2.

 

Porsche 550 and a 356 would be excellent additions to the touring classes. Just saying.

 

Oh yeah.
I cannot afford a 550 in RL but it would be 2nd best to have it at least virtual.
James Dean was on his way to a race in Salinas/Monterey in a brand new 550 when a butthead in an old Ford Tudor crashed into him and killed him.

ByTheWay: If Reiza did include this car in the AMS2 portfolio then I would have to learn to paint custom car skins. Yeah man a cool #130 Little Bastard

 

No problem with licensing for a 550, either. Anytime Reiza wants to offer any kind of Porsche DLC, I’m buying. A proper 904 GTS, 356 Carrera … heck anything with their legendary Type 547 4-cam engine would be a most welcome addition.

 

Howling

 

Great stuff...thank you...I am a big fan of the Caterhams, Ginetta Supercup, Copa's and the Mini. They are my speed. I also like scaring myself in the Group C's and F-Retro's.
Should be pinned.

 

Speaking of Group C, sim rigs have a ways to go before they accurately simulate this:

That being said, I find the Group C cars in AMS2 to be among the finest simulated in any sim ... loads and loads of inverted-wing, underside grip, where the real challenge only comes when pushing to 9/10ths and 10/10ths. In other sims, these cars are difficult to drive at any speed, which is just so, so ridiculous. Any real driver can drive any race car (especially one with gobs of downforce) on any track--and keep it on the track--with hardly any effort (other than the physical forces involved, which increase as speeds go up). The only real challenge is when the car gets really pushed--that's when things finally get interesting. Other than its reliability, there is a reason the Porsche 962 won so many races--once acclimated to the physical experience, it's relatively easy for a reasonably competent driver to go fast!

Keep in mind, the simulated race cars we always are given are the ones that represent each car at its best. It would be a facinating sim indeed that would present us with a prototype Ford GT and say, "Now go out there like Ken Miles did and turn this wild stallion into a winner." or "Here's a Can-Am prototype, go out on the skidpad like Mark Donahue and sort it out." or "Here's our preseason Williams FW16; please rectify all the issues related to its newly-installed passive suspension before somebody gets hurt...."

 

@Coldsalmon, that's a great appraisal of AMS2's bounty of cars I already know you and I have similar tastes, thanks to your participation in my Caterham Challenge. I'm already working on the follow up and it's the quirky Lancer Cup Evo R that's getting me hooked right now. Just as you say, find the right tracks, with mid speed corners, and let the 'hooning around' commence