are Formula Vintage Gen1 dead?

It's anybody still driving these cars? I can't find any activity with these cars, no servers, no new track records.

After two years off from AMS2, I still find these cars still too unpredictable to drive, and there is a big difference between the v8 and v12 on the handling and overal feeling. The v8 feels really alive, while the v12 feels like a heavy truck. However, the biggest problem is the way the cars change their behaviour without any apparent reason, it's too difficult to replicate a race line lap after lap because the cars seem to react in a different way time to time.

I tried to host some races in the past, and there was interest, with 20 or more players joining the server, but it always ended up in the same way, the cars were atractive but too unpredictable and players used to left after a while.

I hope that v1.6 and the new tire model make these cars more natural to drive and allow us to enjoy good races. There still a big GPL community out there (and other players using the AC mod), but the cars must be better to make them jump into AMS2. A thrird model wouldn't hurt.

 

I really enjoy them and don't find them overly difficult at all, challenging yes, but enjoyable. Unlike AMS1 where they are extremely difficult and maddening to drive.

They are pretty unbalanced though with the V12 having a much higher top speed advantage than the 10hp difference would make, even more so with the Model1 having the Cosworth DFV, a much superior engine, even with 10 less HP.

 

I never tried these cars on AMS1, my only previous experience with these kind of cars comes from GPL and some other mods.

I can drive the cars and race, but I think there is somethings rare on the behaviour, I think it's mostly about how the tires lose grip when get over 1.4 psi and get warm.

Do you know if there are events with these cars? I couldn't find any until now.

 

I was in a middle of a Custom Champioship driving this car (I picked the BMW V8) but i am waiting for the 1.6 update since it promises a more unforgiving grip. I found these cars on AMS2 easier to drive than other sims.

 

I have done a couple of long championships, while I am doing newer stuff now (I am doing them in chronological order) I still started another one in parallell in May (to cellebrate Monaco historic, haha). I like them, as maazdaspeed wrote there is a huge performance difference among the models (particularly in fast tracks). About "impredictability", they have vintage non-slick tires, old suspension technology and no wings, so they feel like a boat. Once you get how to drive them you can get the consistency, though they are not as precise as a heavy downforce machine.

 

Yes the model 1 specifically does get a bit tricky once the tires get to temperature, the rear gets lighter under braking and downshifting to 2nd specially gets tricky. But I have driven them so much that I have gotten used to it, hopefully once 1.6 releases it improves on that little quirk.

I am primarily an offline player so can't really help you with leagues and online communities.

 

Yeah, I been doing some long stints at Estoril yesterday and downshifting to 2nd gear wasn't easy. Once the tires reach 1.4 psi and 80C the car start to loose grip in middle of the corners, if you can't correct it with throttle the car ends at the outside of the corner.

Version 1.6 with a deformable tread should make a big difference, as these cars rolls and twist all the time, making it a rollercoster of camber.

 

Just to set expectations a bit: Based on how the F-Ultimate in current v1.5 build changed when it got v1.6-like physics, you should expect the handling of the F-Vintage G1 in v1.6 to be closer to the handling of the old formula cars in rFactor, rather than the handling of the Lotus 49 in AC/iRacing. Especially the one in iRacing is notoriously difficult to drive and doesn't match well with the few onboard videos we have of this thing being driven during real life racing scenarios.

 

About 2nd gear nervousness; I had the issue and I fixed it by setting a lower coast ramp angle (5 degrees less if I recall it correctly). It actually became an habit and just in the middle of the Retro Gen2 season I am racing now I changed my setup approach (In particular the BT49 was annoyingly tight all the season and I was trying to fix it in other ways). But yeah that was helpful to stabilize the vintages on entry. With the Gen2 you can also set up a tighter rear with aero.

 

Well, I have been testing more today, and I found that rising the Preload value of the differential changes the handling a lot. The Preload range is wild, by default it's 60 or 90, but it goes up to 500 ! I been using 250 in two races with both cars and it was a big improvement.

What it does? It makes the power and coast to act earlier, avoiding those moments when the car seem to be floating on the wheels without any other force involved (or at least it feels like that)