Tsukuba Touge Time Trial | AutoBeam Challenge | Finished


–Tsukuba Touge Time Trial | AutoBeam Challenge–

I was going to wait for the new update, but it’s going to be a while yet and I’ll have to balance the rule again so let’s do it now.

Premise

Top Car International is a long running automotive media series based in Japan. They release magazines, books and videos showcasing the latest and greatest trends in motoring.

Turbo Times is a magazine under the Top Car banner which specializes in tuning cars. Established in the late 1980’s. They’re famous for a series of videos which focused on comparing the best cars from all over the world on the famous Mountain Roads, or Toge in Japanese. The featured racing driver would test the car on a section of closed off mountain roads to give both time run and subjective evaluation.

The series attracted fans all over the planet, from the original manufacturers with the latest performance machine to aftermarket parts manufacturers with their complete car demo, with viewership reaching into millions by the time of widespread internet.

tl;dr Japanese Mountain Road Downhill Evaluation


–The Track–

I will be using the Asahi Pass in Ibaraki Prefecture, or as commonly known to weebs as the Tsukuba Fruits Line because that’s the name that was used in Initial D.

The route that I will be taking is the exact same as in the Manga/Anime and not the videogame version, which included the wider, less windy Omote Tsukuba Skyline section for some reason. I will be using the downhill direction.

It is a very curvy track with little to no high speed corner and almost no straight away. The most speed achievable with the most overpowered meme machine is perhaps 180km/h. Most cars will be doing at most 120-150 km/h. The track is approximately 2.8km long and will take around 2 minutes each run. This map can be easily found via your favourite search engine.

There is not a limit to how many runs I do with each car. If I screw up I will reset and try again. I will stop once I get 3 representative times of each car and take the fastest as the result. (I will post the time of all 3 good runs).

Here is a video of one test run. Although I will not be making result videos. It will be text/image/spreadsheet format. (Maybe there’ll be demonstration run of the best few cars? Who knows).


–Judging–

There will be 2 leaderboards for you to compete in.

Not only will there be a timed leaderboard, there will also be a subjective judging leaderboard. Basically a score of how good/bad the car feels to drive.

The subjective judging will be separated into 4 sections. Each combine to the total of 100 points. There will also be a short summary of each section to explain the score.

  • Engine/Powertrain Calibration | Start | (30pts)
    How well the engine/gearbox combo responds in various conditions. Does the engine power curve actually provide usable acceleration? Is the gear ratio appropriate to the course? Can the throttle be controlled easily? Does the wheel spin uselessly?

  • Handling Characteristic | Steer | (30pts)
    How well the car turns. Does it understeer? Does it oversteer? How sharp is the response? Is the car too stiff or too soft or just right?

  • Braking Characteristic | Stop | (30pts)
    How well the car slows down. What’s the brake balance? Does it send you backwards as soon as you touch the brakes? Does it plough into understeer? Does the brake fade into oblivion before the finish line?

  • Overall Driving Package | Smile | (10pts)
    This is an x-factor rating. Basically how enjoyable the car is to drive overall. Yes, although not easy, you can make a car that scored all above sections badly to do well in this section.

The result will be text-based.


–The Rules–

Overall rules

  • Model/Trim/Family/Variant Year : Unlimited. 1946-2020. Trim/Variant Year does not have to match to account for engine swaps.
  • Mod bodies are allowed. Legacy bodies, open wheelers and non-car bodies are not allowed. This is due to general broken-ness.
  • Quality sliders no lower than -2
  • Techpool must be the default +5 (Including the tire/rims)
  • You are allowed to use race parts.

Trim rules

  • Max Price : $30,000
  • Tire Quality must be 0
  • Tire profile must be at least 35
  • A maximum of 2 aerodynamic devices (lip, spoiler, wing). This aero device does not have to be visible
  • Safety equipment era : Must match with the trim year. (Basic type is fine).
  • Minimum Comfort : 5
  • Reliability : Above 0

Engine rules.

  • Engine must be stress free.
  • Engine must be able to run on Ultimate Unleaded RON100/AKI95. This means you can use fuel with less Octane but not Leaded Fuel, Ethanol, LPG, Devmeth etc.
  • Maximum Loudness : 65
  • V16 allowed. I do have the DLC.

After these trim years, the car must be equipped with the following emission and safety device.

  • 1980 | 3-way Catalytic Converter (High Flow type is OK).
  • 2010 | Anti-Lock Brake, Traction Control and Electronic Stability Control

Although the T/C and ESC is mandatory for some years, it will be turned off for driving.

The car should also be road legal, this means the car has to be equipped with headlamp, brake light, indicators, fenders, etc. This is not a strict rule and does not have to be absolutely 100% correct to the book in real life.

Advance Trim Setting

  • You are not allowed to adjust advance trim settings by default.

  • If you wish to adjust some settings to fix something, you have to apply for a special permit by outlining the reason in the DM with the submission which may or may not be accepted. In general, things like tunnel size or engine sound will be allowed, but you’re still having to note this in the DM.


–Recommendations/Notes–

  • The budget given may seem low, but you can make plenty ridiculous cars with it. I am able to make a clone of an R35 GT-R with 720hp which is also actually pretty competitive.
  • Downforce matters only a little bit because there’s only few corners where the speed exceeds 100km/h. With properly tuned car it’s worth maybe half a second.
  • That being said, high speed cornering curve (shown by default in aero tab) matters a lot and should be taken into consideration when tuning the suspension. You can lose more than a second here.
  • It would be wise to actually test the car first before submission. One problem does keep cropping up that can make the car completely undrivable. With the combination of narrow/tall body, lightweight car, and wide grippy tires, risk of grip rolling is extremely high. Surprisingly other handling quirks I expected aren’t that apparent.
  • Yes, you can very much make retro (pre-1980) car competitive in time attack section, although not to the crossply era. Yes, I have tested this, among more than 30 test mules that I have created and run, one of them is a 1955 crossply-equipped coupe with ladder chassis and live rear axle. Indeed, it is not competitive in the time attack, but it is still fun to drive.
  • When testing in BeamNG, I will be removing all of the fixtures except for the aero devices. This is obviously for performance purposes. I will also be adjusting the weight distribution to be as close as possible, but not the weight itself.
  • If you must submit something unconventional like manual locking diff 4WD equipped car. It is totally allowed and I will be running it in the realistic setting. In the example case, RWD mode with differential unlocked.

–Inspiration/Vibe–

Click to Expand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTen-Fu9bAY












–Submissions–

  • Each person is allowed to submit up to 2 cars. Allowing for different approach.
  • If you wish you can send those cars separately, in the same DM.
  • You will be allowed resubmission one time for each car if it breaks the rules or is simply undrivable. Although it will go back to the end of the queue.

DEADLINE: ENDED


7 Likes

Anyone know how to tune a race car suspension? I built this car and it keeps losing grip when turning (I think) does anyone know how to fix?

This would be a great idea, so why, then, do you insist on setting tire techpool to +5, just like every other area? Is it to simplify things?

This is to prevent the tires from exploding immediately upon spawning in Beam.

No, this would not be a great idea because the post you cited is from when strop didn’t realise that techpool does not mean quality slider. Quality slider for tires stays at 0. All techpool +5. This way the tires stay compliant and feels great in BeamNG while simplifying everything as you said.

One main thing is to not forget to iron out the oversteer after clicking the preset. Steering graph going down at the end and the car is your friend.

Preset??? All my cars have the steering graph going downwards but handle very differentley

Yes, just as in real life it is difficult to describe car handling quirks. Losing grip when turning can basically means anything. But if your steering graph is going down the car usually isn’t completely horrible to drive.

Also yes, by anything I mean anything. Even a well tuned car if you’re cornering way too fast it would lose grip when turning.

About the suspension presets, yes, it is a bit of a cheat code if someone doesn’t know the intricacies of suspension. Or even if they know but have to do it quickly. When I was making (by the time I made this thread the amount went into the 40s) test mules I certainly didn’t fine-tune them all. Just clicking preset, iron out the oversteer with camber, spring rate and aero device for high speed cornering, and most of them are at least competitive if not always perfect. The best cars, of course, I had to go back and fine tune them 3-4 times to completely iron out any suspension quirks.

I’ve chosen to adapt my first FM4 entry (which I cloned and tweaked for PAIN) for this challenge - with less weight than the original, and more grunt to exploit it (although it’s not a separate model, but merely a different trim powered by a more powerful engine variant). So far, it meets all the rules (except for advanced trim settings, for which I’ll have to state an exemption in the DM - specifically, chassis tunnel size, because I won’t be able to hide the tunnel otherwise) and sneaks in right at the $30k budget cap - just.

Also, the naming scheme for entries should be “TTTT - your forum username” for car model and engine family.

I’m also contemplating a second entry - I’m thinking of a lightweight mid-engined sports car powered by a low-displacement, high-revving four- or six-cylinder engine - as a counterpoint to my first submission here.

Yes, that will be the submission format. The reason I have not put it in the thread opening yet is because I don’t want early submissions.

The submissions will probably be open sometime in the middle of next week. After I return from a work trip.

I’m surprised you haven’t taken a note that the ruleset is specifically made so the entries from both FM4 and PAIN, along with a few other challenges can be easily adapted and submitted.


To alleviate some concern (of mine). I have created a video showcasing one of the car I’ve been using to practice the runs. Because I know that I may have to do it in some real ridiculous contraption. I guess it can be use to drum up more interests as well.

This is a mid-engine AWD car based on the prototype body with a lot of downforce. It is not made according to the ruleset, but to be as crazy overpowered as possible. The fastest time I have achieved is around 10 seconds faster than the legal mule.

It packs 1,410hp and weighs 1,090kg. So around 1,290hp/ton.

I also have to note that the run in this video would not count as legit run. I know it could be run a second or so quicker because I have already done so previously. There are a few mistakes here and there that if happen in actual challenge I’d reset and try again.

3 Likes

My Armalite which I sent in to THRS Season 5 would fit more here. Since I’m not competive being heavier, lower power and on narrow sport tires compared to the others. But now I get to use my spec engine and tuning to maybe be as competive. Although maybe I too should build a sub 1000kg compact for this also.

Keen!

I have two test builds so far - a relatively ‘normal’ powered hatch, and a higher powered sedan. The hatch is consistently faster by a lot, even with 2/3 the power (and ~20% less weight).

You guys may be wondering what’s the relevance of a subjective leaderboard in a challenge with time trial in it’s name? So let’s have another video showcasing another test mule, even if it’s not exactly legal. (It did pave the way to the ruleset you currently have).

This car is closely related to one of my PAIN entry. Although it is very much NOT the same car. It’s a big, heavy, rear wheel driven sedan with 500 something horsepower. Due to it’s weight it’s not likely to be competitive in the timed section. In fact, it is around 8-9 seconds behind the fastest test mule I have.

It doesn’t mean the car isn’t great to drive. I’ll not pretend to be the greatest BeamNG drifter ever but with this car forgiving handling and ample power it is one of those car I keep coming back to. Not to attack the timesheet but to make it go sideways.

With this, it make sense to allow 2 entries per person. So there’s no dilemma of which direction to aim for.

3 Likes

omg how do you drift like that I keep trying to make cars that can do drifts but whenever I try to drift it just doesn’t end up working at all that’s super impressive!

An old front wheel fryer for drifting???

The 1985 Primus Astrona 200 GLS was the hottest tool in the box in terms of mid-range performance sedans. Efficient and nimble like no other, it concealed the transverse FWD drive and handled like an L-RWD. Really!

This one has been severely modified for amateur racing, however, it might also score well on a downhill drift track. It even features modern driving aids since it is used as racing school car, but it drives fine without any of these activated.



That thing even turns??

A 2003 Globus Dominator is already quite the peak of straightline performance. The R/T model excels this with more than 500 horsepower smoking the rear wheels. You better steer with the gas pedal instead of the wheel which is useless anyway.
IMPORTANT: Set driving aids to “Sport”. With them fully activated you will understeer and see the three when crashing into it, if you deactivate them the car overpowers so bad that you will hear the tree you slide uncontrollably into.

200 Inches long, 75 wide, two tons of Gasmean Pride!



3 Likes

Another day, another run showcase.

This time I’m demonstrating retro car. This one is the lore version of my LHC car. Inspired by old homologation special, it’s equipped with 200-ish horsepower inline-6 driving the rear wheels on (radial) semi-slick. It drives like a retro race car that it is. It likes to be sideways everywhere it goes but in a very controllable manner.

Again, this would do nothing to the timed leaderboard. Fun leaderboard though? It’d certainly be up there among the best. Despite this, I can confirm that you definitely can make a decently fast pre-1980’s car. In fact the recipe might not even be that different from more modern cars.

The submission will open in a few days. I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with!

2 Likes

…any tips or advice for people that don’t really tune or make cars to drive in Beam.NG?

first tip is to make the suspension a lot stiffer than automation suggests, same for the anti-roll bars. The car will probably be a bit heavier in beam too

Stiffer springs are better but if you don’t have enough suspension travel, it might cause the wheels to lift off. Beam only has Standard and Progressive springs simulated so the other suspension options won’t have an effect in Beam. If you’re experiencing too much oversteer, try increasing rear wheel camber. For Touge specifically having more oversteer is good because it makes car turn better (I think)

I’m getting grip rolls

If your car is getting grip roll it usually means the car is too light, tall, narrow, grippy, or whatever combination it can be from that set of characteristic. As tempting as it is, tall (or even low) kei-cars with extremely wide tires might not be the ideal solution to this challenge. I’m only noting this because it is literally the only handling quirk I have found in testing that would DQ the car.

Only other quirks that might DQ the car too is perhaps the oversteer handling graph (steering graph going up) which I have not tested because you don’t want to intentionally set up the car that way. The reason for that is I will not be changing the steering angle in BeamNG to accommodates extreme tail happiness.

However, this is not to stop you guys from setting the car up to oversteer if you wish to do so. After all, it should not be my decision as to what’s being submitted. If it’s too much for me to drive I’ll just relay back that it’s not possible to complete the run and you get one resubmission regardless.

Someone tell me what a ‘grip roll’ is please? :sweat_smile: