V8 Supercars - color me impressed! (Also: Let's talk about hard slicks)

Alright, so I didn't know where else to put this, hence this thread.

When I did a quick race weekend earlier today, culminating in a 10-lap race using the V8 Supercars on Cordoba (TC course) I was very, very impressed (and that's an understatement). I had been following the recent improvements to these cars, but hadn't tried them in a while. The last time I did they were already better, but still nowhere near as much fun as they are now!

They really do feel like proper high-powered touring cars now. Taking corners, particularly fast ones, is still a delicate dance where you are always (ideally) riding at the edge of tire grip - except it's super fun now! Wow, those cars... And they are a natural fit for the Cordoba TC course, IMHO.


That being said, after doing a pit stop and swapping to Hard Slicks I noticed an ugly return of their previous behavior: A very narrow band of longitudinal grip, less stability when going through turns and a nasty tendency to wander left and right on straights, as if the car was using excessive amounts of toe.

So my main question is: Are the Hard Slicks still to be considered WIP? Because I could understand if they were similar to the Softs but less capable, but it's more than that. The difference between soft and hard slicks is like night and day, and not in a way that makes sense (to me at least).


Either way, it's cars like these that prove that the trust we put into Reiza really is justified one hundred percent. These cars were never really my favorites in Automobilista - always felt off - but they are tons of fun with the latest updates. Kudos to you, Reiza Studios!

 

Tbh I still don't like them because they still have that wandering issue. No other car but that one has it.

 

Yes. The issue that this car has, since a few updates, is that once it gets a slight input from the steering wheel, sending it into any direction, it then continues to turn slightly in that direction. In order to correct that, you need to tap the steering into the opposite direction, but then it wanders there ...
All in all, this means that the only way to keep this car from weaving is to never move the steering wheel on straights. That is hard to do on a wheel and even harder on a controller. I have somewhat delicate thumbs, so I can do this if necessary, but it's not an enjoyable way to play the game.

There's not a lot I've found out to do against it, setup-wise, because I don't know where this issue comes from. Reducing steering lock helps a little (because small taps of the steering become even smaller that way), but it's not really a solution. I'm very hesitant to do anything with my controller settings, as they work very well with every other car except this one.

Thanks, I'll try that and report back.

 

Haha, to say that I like the new and improved V8 Supercars would be a big understatement.

Wow, I had no idea! I makes sense of course, but that you were able to gather that information - and make use of it the way you did - is amazing. I'd say it was well worth the effort!

Even though I already knew this to be true it is always reassuring to hear.
Right now, the 'worst' thing about AMS2 for me isn't even the remaining imperfections, or features and content I am still missing - it's the simple fact that it has ruined every other racing sim for me by virtue of offering the best driving* experience by far!

While each and every sim has its own quirks that you need to accommodate to, AMS2 really provides me with such communicative feedback about what the car is doing - and why - that I always feel "in control" even when I lose it. (And this is on an ancient G25 with the "Default" FFB version - I don't dare imagine the quality of the FFB provided by a more advanced wheel!) It inspires the confidence to push harder and harder. The vehicle dynamics just make sense to me on a level no other sim ever has, to be honest. Sure, there may be a few noticeable outliers here and there, but those are getting fewer and fewer with every update.

One thing that I remember every now and then is from the early days of the Madness Engine, when PC1 was still in its alpha and beta stages. (I was an early backer of Project CARS.)
Right at the time before the Seta tire model was introduced, the older, simpler Beta model (AFAIK this is the one the AI is still using?) had reached such a point of maturity that feedback and handling were outstanding. After swapping to the more advanced but also much more complex Seta model, it was a game of playing catch-up, obviously. Still, seeing how even the simplified tire model could give such great results always kept a spark of hope alive in me that the true potential of the Madness Engine had yet to be unlocked. And I'm overjoyed to say that AMS2 is slowly but surely doing just that!

*Notice that I said driving rather than racing. Racing offline has become better with the improvements to AI but it's obviously going to be worked on for quite some time. I can't speak about multiplayer as I'm not much of an MP guy and my connection has been very unstable for some time, but at least from what I've read it still has its share of issues. That being said, the driving itself is superb *chef's kiss* - when I'm doing some test runs, sometimes even just for my SIM Dashboard designs, I often end up falling into the "just one more lap" trap.


tl;dr AMS2 has ruined all other racing sims for me - and I love it!

 

This seems to make the car more stable in corners, but doesn't do much for the weaving issue; it reduces it, but the underlying tendencies are still there.

 

I wish I could offer some helpful advice, but I'm clueless.

All I know is that it appears the most recent updates have made a lot of cars very twitchy when using a gamepad (which I often do when I just need to do some quick test runs for my dashboards), whereas overall stability and control seem to have improved to the same degree when using a wheel. Not sure how to counteract this short of adding some driving aids for enhanced stability or something along those lines.

 

I don't feel that "a lot of cars" suffer from this, just this specific one. Every other car I've tried, and I've tested every car with updated physics, seems improved or unchanged in terms of straight line stability. An excellent example is the Brazilian Stock Cars, which have become very forgiving to small inputs - but again, all the others are fine, too.
There have been reports about the SuperV8 wandering also by wheel players. This is a car-specific issue, not something broader.

Ugh, no need for that, I don't use assists as they tend to just feel artificial. I'll just not drive the SuperV8 as often as I'd like to. I do the same with the F3 at the moment, even though the issues of that car are of another nature.

 

I agree with you.
We are currently half way through a 10 week online League, racing the v8 supercar. I dont think anyone has used the hard compound tyre as of yet , as it just seems to be lacking so much grip.

But the car overall is an absolute blast!
I'm sure once the updated hard tyres are in place, it will be almost perfect!