grass traction

or lack of it.. awd audi is a spinning top, why is the grip zero on grass?

 

As soon as you hit the grass the car will turn backwards and stay backwards, it can spin zillion times but 9 out of 10 it ends up with the rear pointing to the drive direction.. I think this is one af the things I do not like in AMS2, or in all the sims I played. It looks like it is programmed this way.

 

Taking a step back: Can we point to videos or other kinds of data that show how real life racing cars with slicks behave when accidentally going over dry grass?

I know very little about this subject, and modern tracks seem to replace grass in runoff areas with tarmac, so it's getting increasingly harder to come across videos that demonstrate what happens in these conditions. Also, there is a sampling bias that we need to account for: When searching for video clips showing cars going off-track, the videos that are shared are usually the most dramatic ones, while mundane video clips are less likely to be shared and found.

 

Death grass is native to UK race tracks:

The Bentley slightly touches the grass with the outside rear and spins into the AMG, causing many cars to have to avoid them and spin entering the grass.

 

From RL experience with grass (Motorcycles), moisture level affected grass more than gravel / pavement traction. Dry grass provided surprisingly good traction but, a little moisture could alter traction drastically. Very wet grass can almost be like ice.

 

But that's not dry grass in the video, that's wet or damp and therefore should be slippery. There was rain for the first half hour of race 1 on that day and I'm sure the grass didn't dry out completely by race 2.

Would be more iinteresting what happens on dry grass. i remember Kevin Estre (?) overtaking an AMG with two wheels on the grass on the Nürburgring some time ago. Would that be possible in AMS2 as well, or would you spin out in that situation?

 

From what I have seen, wet grass is extremely slippery, dry grass not so much. However putting a rear wheel on the grass will break traction on most high power cars, have seen that mistake cause spins a lot of times.
I agree though that once on the grass it feels like Iracing did at the beginning, way too slippery.

 

I drive through dry grass all the time in AMS2. Idk why other people have so much trouble.

 

You do not use slicks in cross racing. I rememeber a situation where we had to go back and take a 4WD car to pull a full wood trailer back from a slighly wet meadow. On dry grass and empty Trailer, FWD was enough.

 

You click a video to understand the point someone's trying to make and you find two of your favourite commentators and just keep watching ^^

I remember that Kevin Estre pass at the Döttinger Höhe during the N24, that was a super bold and risky move, almost an unnecessary risk to overtake there. It is always sketchy on the grass, even if it's dry, but I think it depends on the angle you're leaving the track. Estre went in a straight line so that worked out well in that instance. If you drift off track and spin out, that's a different story.

I've found myself in both situations, spinning out and struggling to get back on track (mainly because I got too much wheel spin as I tried to get back as quickly as possible instead of keeping calm), and getting on the grass and just steering back on track without any issues.

This is Estre's crazy move, at 1:15 min

 

Most people’s perception of driving on grass is based of their real life experience of pootling around under 30kph
on dry grass verges or paddocks. Usually applying almost no throttle and if it happens to be wet finding it wheel spinning easily and instinctively lifting off.
But when they jump in a sim they tend to be driving on grass at high speed and applying way more throttle desperately trying to get back on track. Not to mention the drastically different tyres treads.

If people drove like that irl , they would find themselves loosing control and soiling their pants as the slide towards the only solid structure for miles ( Murphys law) .

Personally I find the grass greatly improved since the early days , and simply getting off the throttle and not trying to turn the car much yields pretty controlled rejoins , just let the momentum get you back towards the track , and maintain that momentum with little throttle.

I’m not saying it’s 100% of expectations of grip , but it’s not that far off .

 

It depends on the drivetrain as well. The AWD Lancer can get all 4 wheels on the grass and it's still perfectly controllable - the FWD cars are also able to pull themselves back onto the track easily just by flooring it. But if I get one back wheel onto the grass in a Caterham, I'm going to spin half the time.

 

As someone who's driven off track on the grass IRL, I find the grass traction in AMS2 pretty realistic.

 

Please tone down the slippery green please...

 

I think the dry grass is way too slippery, it's like driving on ice! If you run a bit wide and drop a wheel on to it, you should be able to get off the throttle and navigate back on line but it just seems to turn you round! Not realistic IMO