- 3,957
- Cleveland
As I'm working on comparing and evaluating the cars of GT2 I'm become quite annoyed by a glaring lack of authenticity in what is my favorite racing simulation.
In order to calculate gear settings I build a little Excel tool to calculate top speed in a gear and what RPM you drop to when up shifting at the red line, given your gear settings, the red line, max rpm, and your tire diameter.
Tire diameter, as many of you know, is calculated from the tire size, say 195/55R14 by taking 195*55/100/25.4 (mm per inch) times 2 plus 14. 195 is the width of your tire, 55% is its aspect ratio or something like that, so that tire wall height is 55% of width. Add this twice to the wheel diameter and you have your total tire diameter. Multiply this by pi and rpms and divide by final gear ratio and the ratio of the gear you're in and supposedly you know your speed. Easy enough, right?
Here's the problem I'm finding in most of the vehicles i look at: in the car description, if a tire size is listed (and it often is) when I use this in my calculator, it doesn't match up with what I see on the track (given gear settings, what speed am I going when I shift?) Since tires only occur in set sizes, it's not too hard to pick the size that works in the calculator, and then I know (despite what the description says) what size tire the game actually has on the car.
So now I'm fine, whatever with the descriptions, right? But wait! It said in the description that this car had 195mm wide tires but in the calculator I determined that they're only 185mm wide! Does this mean that the car in the game doesn't handle as well as it should? Probably. And what does this do to my simulation experience? Arghh!
And for the sake of accuracy, I've done a little research into cars like the Toyota 2000GT '67, and have found that the stock tires don't match what the game has, either.
In fact, I'd say 80% of the cars in the game don't match the tires they're supposed to have in real life... (though they do often look the same from photos)
And while I'm at it, related to this subject, why doesn't the game allow you to replace your stock wheels and tires (195/55R14 eg) with something grippier (215/45R15 eg)? Isn't this what tire upgrades are supposed to represent anyway? So why don't I notice tire size changing for a given vehicle whether I've got stock, sport, or slicks on???
And finally, more on a note of curiosity, I notice that the calculator is always a little high for low gears and a little low for high gears. I just wonder if this is because tire diameter actually increases with rpms (only by like 0.5 percent apparently) and this is something the game does model.
When I first noticed threads on hybridizing vehicles I thought it might be a nice project to rebuild these cars to have the right tires on them, but obviously that's not going to work. Oh well. Still a great game!
When I'm done, if anybody is curious, I'll post what tires the game actually puts on the cars.
In order to calculate gear settings I build a little Excel tool to calculate top speed in a gear and what RPM you drop to when up shifting at the red line, given your gear settings, the red line, max rpm, and your tire diameter.
Tire diameter, as many of you know, is calculated from the tire size, say 195/55R14 by taking 195*55/100/25.4 (mm per inch) times 2 plus 14. 195 is the width of your tire, 55% is its aspect ratio or something like that, so that tire wall height is 55% of width. Add this twice to the wheel diameter and you have your total tire diameter. Multiply this by pi and rpms and divide by final gear ratio and the ratio of the gear you're in and supposedly you know your speed. Easy enough, right?
Here's the problem I'm finding in most of the vehicles i look at: in the car description, if a tire size is listed (and it often is) when I use this in my calculator, it doesn't match up with what I see on the track (given gear settings, what speed am I going when I shift?) Since tires only occur in set sizes, it's not too hard to pick the size that works in the calculator, and then I know (despite what the description says) what size tire the game actually has on the car.
So now I'm fine, whatever with the descriptions, right? But wait! It said in the description that this car had 195mm wide tires but in the calculator I determined that they're only 185mm wide! Does this mean that the car in the game doesn't handle as well as it should? Probably. And what does this do to my simulation experience? Arghh!
And for the sake of accuracy, I've done a little research into cars like the Toyota 2000GT '67, and have found that the stock tires don't match what the game has, either.
In fact, I'd say 80% of the cars in the game don't match the tires they're supposed to have in real life... (though they do often look the same from photos)
And while I'm at it, related to this subject, why doesn't the game allow you to replace your stock wheels and tires (195/55R14 eg) with something grippier (215/45R15 eg)? Isn't this what tire upgrades are supposed to represent anyway? So why don't I notice tire size changing for a given vehicle whether I've got stock, sport, or slicks on???
And finally, more on a note of curiosity, I notice that the calculator is always a little high for low gears and a little low for high gears. I just wonder if this is because tire diameter actually increases with rpms (only by like 0.5 percent apparently) and this is something the game does model.
When I first noticed threads on hybridizing vehicles I thought it might be a nice project to rebuild these cars to have the right tires on them, but obviously that's not going to work. Oh well. Still a great game!
When I'm done, if anybody is curious, I'll post what tires the game actually puts on the cars.
Along with other 2600 games if I've got a friend around. And Mall Tycoon (at work) on the PC.
