GT3 cars - why is BMW the fastest?

So I'm racing the GT3 cars, and looking at the data, the BMW is the heaviest, and has the worst P/W ratio, yet it is always the fastest (just letting AI run around the track).
The Mercedes, which as the best P/W ratio, is always at the back of the pack.
The Porsche is mid to front, and the Mclaren is usually near the front.
Is there an explanation about why these cars usually perform in this order? I always figured P/W ratio would be the main thing, but what other specifics am I missing?
If I choose to drive the Mercedes, I need to set the AI down to about 95% to compete in the top 15. If I drive the BMW, I can compete with AI at about 100%.

 

Hi Marius! This was at Bathhurst.. I guess I didn't think that it depends upon the track

 

Thanks! Boy this game is incredible if it accounts for those details. So to confirm, I ran a quick race at VIR, and at that race the Mercedes dominated the front.. and the BMW was mid pack...

 

Just did a test on Monaco 100/50,
on average Porsche in front then Merc, BMW and McLaren last

 

Thanks Sax! I guess I will try to choose a good variety of tracks. I want to do a custom Championship. I was going to do GT3 but now decided to do GT4 ..

 

Yeah there is only a general BoP for the class, no ACC-style specific BoPs for specific tracks. The Porsche and the Mercedes really lose out at tracks like Kyalami and Spa in terms of engine power, as the air is thinner and the turbocharged Mclaren and Bmw have forced induction which eliminated this issue.

 

I'm not surprised about Kyalami as it is fairly high above sea level but Spa is close to sea level I think. If forced induction has an advantage there I'm not sure why.

 

Kyalami is about 1500. I live nearby. It's pretty high. NA cars suffer quite a bit here. I did a quick check cause 400m doesn't really seem very high to me. Red bull ring is 700. Nurburgring 530. Cascavel 750. Interlagos 800-this surprised me. Anyway I just picked a few and did a quick search. It does however look like quite a lot of tracks in AMS are very close to sea level so Spa is higher then many others.

 

Is there any chance they all get leveled, especially for a multiplayer race, otherwise you first have to study on what car works best at which track, which doesn't make it fair in a ranked race, basically when you dont know this, and pick the "wrong" car, you're sort of scr*wed.

Or add the option for people to choose if they want equal performance or realistic performance.

 

Yeah, hence the qoutation marks, it needs leveling out, one thing i dont like about raceroom, when you are not into that as much and dont know which car to pick, you have absolutely no chance to even gain rating, hopefully ams2 doesn't go the same way

 

I'd hope that ratings would be based on comparisons between data from the same car and track, and not rely on position, e.g. consistent clean laps being more important than ultimate pace.

If rankings are all about finishing in the top 3 then you don't encourage people to stick around after the first lap - building ranking score by clean lapping for the rest of the race would mean there's a reason to finish after a spin and losing 30s to the leaders.

 

I don't think cars should be nerfed in MP based on altitude, Air temp etc. I like that realism

 

Don't race NA cars at Ibarra with turbo cars!

 

Well, as i mentioned an option to run a server with equal performance or without would be nice then, i like the realism as well, and i think its good for offline racing, but not in a ranked system, where you should be rated on your skill and safety, not how good you are at picking the right car for the specific track

 

What makes me scratch my head is when lobbies have fixed setup with full choice of cars in class with a huge disparity in performance at the track they are hosting making fixed setups rather odd to say the least. I assume the thinking is this will level the playing field when in reality setups are as much about giving confidence in the cars behaviour and how you prefer it to handle and this naturally will make people quicker. No setup though can bridge the difference in certain cars in class which can literally be several seconds per lap on certain tracks.

Making the race fully wet or wet/damp is the only way to give any semblance of equalisation of BOP and not limit the choice of only 1 or 2 cars to be competitive or single car in class are two possible solutions, neither which though are ideal. At least the latter option would make more sense for fixed setups.