I was thinking that after checking out the ‘wheel spin’ rating and the difference between power and acceleration. Back to the garage!
I was doing 1:12:2 with a version of this prototype (now a test car), and as Der Bayer says a balanced car is needed (with some peculiar adjustments).
XRS 1402 - 5.5l V8 Turbo -
What kind of engine are you using to put out 1250kw??? I can’t find an engine configuration (that actually fits in an engine bay) that would put that much out without needing a turbo, meaning at least 2600kJ/s of cooling, which means a prohibitive degree of air venting and therefore drag! (Hint: I don’t know how this translates to your approach but I found using NA engines much easier to use since a 1175kw NA engine only needs about 1500kJ/s!).
In addition, I found to even get close to the Loyer models, you’ll have to pull at least 1.4g@94.7km/h laterals. And the 0-100 time matters far less than you might think, I had to gear my car in the strangest fashions to get the ratios in the right powerband.
Because so many different factors interact with each other, the only way to really chip the time down in a competitive fashion is to tune systematically and test every value, and every permutation of every value. Lighter is not necessarily better if you don’t have traction. Better handling isn’t necessarily better if you don’t have the car in the right point on your engine’s powerband when exiting a corner. Lower isn’t necessarily better, because downforce also changes top speed and top end acceleration. At the pointy end of tuning, a slight change in sway bar stiffness can change the optimal tune for the dampers and springs dramatically, yet the end result may only be a difference of 0.01s. It takes hours to get an optimum tune, and truth be told, I’m still discovering new ways to chip it down. I’m not yet ready to tackle the Airfield, because it took me enough time to tune my models for the Automation Test track, but I can hint right now that my current AT tunes are good enough for 1:11.8 on the Airfield 
Holy Batman, I’m in love with the back end. I use almost the opposite approach (aesthetic minimalism to the extreme) but this is just crazy space age looks, like a futuristic prototype from the 80s!
Loyer have been knocked off their perch at the top of the race board! Surely this is unbeatable?
Oh I don’t know about that… I haven’t even properly looked at the camber settings yet! Thus I have absolutely no idea whether what we have here is the best possible, because when you change the cambers, everything else follows… :\
@strop: you did some impressive work there 
Nothing is unbeatable but at least your test track times will be hard work. 1.5 seconds is quite a margin.
As soon as i find some time(not before wednesday)i’ll prapare the Loyer R4 which hopefully can claim the record again.
I already learned sooo much about setting up the car through this challenge that i could say it was worth it and stop it but im a racer and i have to fight back…
Cheers Hermann, it was a tough benchmark that you set, and I already turned my car mostly inside out trying to figure out how to get every last hundredth!
I’ve submitted (unfortunately outdated) information on the Test Track to show you my approach, though I can also tell you that I have a much smaller model (about 850kg), and a much larger model (about 1350kg), that actually all perform very similarly (their times and info sheet will also be submitted and you may find that their times differ by barely 0.1-0.2s!)
That being said, I’m sure there’s a way to get even faster. I think a little informal rivalry in the search of something new is a good thing, that’s the spirit of racing after all!
True words. My race cars actually are pretty different from each other. The R2 for example was pretty light(under 1000kg) and the R3 was much heavier(around 1100kg i think) but the R3 was still faster although heaving just 50hp more.
As stated earlier i’ll have a new try hopefully tomorrow with the R4 and i can also give more info on the other models.
And a new competitor in the world of motorsport has demolished the former track record set by the Reborn Genisis TA. They go by the name of Striker, and their car - the Sprite R, is an innovation in the car design world! Good luck beating this, chaps!
You guys will have to think outside the box to beat my Striker Sprite R. I’m pretty sure it will happen though
I have a few ideas. Shortly after I submitted my previous attempts I found some new ways to shave seconds (as opposed to hundredths of a second) off the time. I wonder if it’s the same as yours…
p.s. goes without saying though, bloody hell that’s fast!!!
I would imagine it’s likely the same thing I did. I was stuck around 1:11.4 for quite a while until I found a way to take off much more time.
I’ll let you have the fun of playing detective 
I can tell you now though, I am still very impressed by managing to blow it all the way down to 1:08! Though I’m not done yet, my initial efforts are still falling some distance short, though through this I will reveal that I’ve definitely made headway and results are far more commensurate with certain analysis with with the pitch and bump charts…
So I have a new competitor for both this track and the automation track… and it’s ugly as all sin. But it produces downforce about that of an LMP… I think. If not, I need more lips! 
It’s just simply called the 2014 Time Attack Barrage B2.
I wasn’t feeling super great yesterday and took the day off of work. I ended up sitting and working on that car for probably 4 hours to get it down to that time. That’s not including the engine which was mostly done the night before.
I’m looking forward to having time to try applying what I learned to some other body shells to see if there’s a better choice
@OCAdam: LOL yes that’s hilarious. How about if I told you that you didn’t have to make it so blatantly lippy in order to raise the effective aero to over 2.4m…
@Stryfe: I was also playing around with ultra-downforce configurations… there is a certain optimum downforce for each track, though (obviously). It will take quite a lot of time to find!
I’ve really only built cars designed for the Airfield track so far. I should probably take a crack at the Automation Test Track as well, it would probably be a good way to learn more about setting up the car. With that long straight I’m assuming less downforce and more top speed would be needed but I’m only guessing. As you said, there’s a certain optimum downforce for the track but it also varies depending on how much horsepower you have. The more power you have the more downforce, and therefore drag, your car can support.
Indeed that’s the principle I’m exploring now. Though I’m used to simulations where I’m not given specific units, only a slider and some vague arbitrary quantitative measurement, whereupon I simply take a guess and whack the car around a track to see how it feels. This is a rather different game, though, as the driving is all done through systematic algorithms.
Since we’re on topic then, care to throw a bone? I’m not so proud (or time rich, really) that I won’t ask for a hint. I’d be interested to see what you can find for the Automation Test track, since I can tell you now I’ve a car with a time not yet submitted that is significantly quicker than all previously posted (but I think it can improve, pending tests with a different frame), so I can tell you that the optimum downforce for that track would be quite a lot lower in general (I find if your car hits 300-320 on the long straight and coming out of the slingshot you may be in the ballpark), whereas the top speed for the Airfield is closer to 240-260 (if even that?)
For example, the engine for my Reborn Genesis Time Attack develops 794kw (I always tune engines for high end power). It weighs about 845kg (the frame is small and won’t fit a giant 10.9L engine in it). It seems that the optimum downforce for such a car lies somewhere in between 500-700kg @ 200km/h, but any more and the time starts slowing down because I lose too much top end speed. Yet even with all that I’m still more than a second off that crazy 1:08 time! Supposing I were to try using a 1210kg car that develops 1175kw though… however I seem to have messed up the balance between front and rear downforce, which I’m assuming makes quite the difference. And one thing I’m not sure of, is if placement of the downforce fixtures matter, or whether lips automatically contribute to front downforce, and wings the rear…
Ultimately I’m less interested in taking the crown as I am seeing the ultimate time attack machine being built. Once that’s done, I feel like at least I can stop obsessing over it a bit and start designing more aesthetic works 
p.s. aha, back in the game! I’ll finish this round of tuning sometime in the next 24 hours and then maybe we can consider sharing notes then.
p.p.s. disregard what I said about the comparative downforce between the tracks. Perhaps that’s only because I wasn’t working with enough sufficient downforce to begin with. I honestly don’t know. You’ll see what I mean when you see the times I’ve just submitted: they were done with a model of exactly the same tune (including a rather short top speed!).
Lips and wings contribute to F/R DF depending where they are located. It’s why you see my Barrage covered in both. It created over 1800lb of DF with 1300+HP in a car weighing under 2400 lbs. Also… it only hits about 260km/h and still took the top time on the ATT. Honestly I think I could go faster with MORE downforce than that. In essence I am going for extraordinary downforce to improve corner speeds to a point where top speed has no matter. I also went with a car body that allowed massive tires (305 and beyond).
I tentatively agree, though still don’t quite understand what the downforce sliders specifically pertain to. I had an inkling of an idea that the fastest car around the track was the one that could go around the entire track at the same speed i.e. top speed, but that would probably be beyond the practical limits of what’s available. Of course you’re welcome to try… after all I’ll hint that my newest models generate nearly 2600lbs of DF at 200km/h with 1600hp. But I’ll also reveal that my car doesn’t APPEAR to be covered in fixtures… methinks it’s an exploit in the game’s system.
Maybe later, once the newest times are up, I’ll show you what I mean.