Widebody effect on physics

[apff]

Hello all!

When applying a widebody, the width of the car changes on the stats panel. Does that mean the game considers a wider track, and thus less load transfer when cornering, improving grip? Is the aerodynamic drag increased in the process? Did anyone test the top speed before and after the modification ?

In the meantime, the modification also reduces the PP in most cases. So there should be an effect on performance one way or another.

By the way, the CSL ‘73 looks so beautiful with the widebody. But for most cars, we may not even see the difference. Is the a database of widebody effects on cars somewhere? Any other cars than the CSL that become real race cars once widened?

Thx,

 

[Pizzicato1985]

I don't think anyone really knows at this stage. Economy is so bad it's hard to buy a bunch of cars, let alone multiples of those cars for testing purposes. So outside of how an individual car will fair with a wide-body I don't think we'll have a good general idea of what the kit does to different car layouts (FF, FR, MR, etc) performance levels, weight-disto/balance, or just when it's a good option for a class of car for a while. The changes to the economy that are alleged to be occurring in April may significantly decrease that time, might not.

I know that for the Camaro SS I barely noticed a difference in how it handled, but when I put it on one of the air-cooled Porsche's ('81 Turbo, maybe?) the wide body made it have even more snap over-steer while also inducing more understeer during turn-in. It was drastic enough that I bought another copy of the car. So in my very limited experience the wide-body's efficacy is largely down to the car on which it is being installed.

 

[Magog]

Yes it effects all of that.

 

[apff]

I don't think anyone really knows at this stage. Economy is so bad it's hard to buy a bunch of cars, let alone multiples of those cars for testing purposes. So outside of how an individual car will fair with a wide-body I don't think we'll have a good general idea of what the kit does to different car layouts (FF, FR, MR, etc) performance levels, weight-disto/balance, or just when it's a good option for a class of car for a while. The changes to the economy that are alleged to be occurring in April may significantly decrease that time, might not.

I know that for the Camaro SS I barely noticed a difference in how it handled, but when I put it on one of the air-cooled Porsche's ('81 Turbo, maybe?) the wide body made it have even more snap over-steer while also inducing more understeer during turn-in. It was drastic enough that I bought another copy of the car. So in my very limited experience the wide-body's efficacy is largely down to the car on which it is being installed.

Interresting you noticed a change in car behaviour. Then probably the track is modified for the driving model too. I’ll try the drag aspect tomorrow if I’ve time to spare for it.
Looking at the track, maybe just looking at the max G in the setup sheet it enough to get an answer…

 

[apff]

So, I've come up with a test looking at the widebody effect on drag.

1- I bought a RX7
2- I installed a racing gearbox, set it to 300kph
3- Had a run with 3m/s West wind on Route X. Reached 285kph at the 3000m mark
4- Wide bodied the RX7
5- Launch enough run of Route X to get a similar wind condition. I ended up doing the test with 3.1m/s of west wind. I just hit 284 kph when I passed the 3000m mark.

Result:
There is a 1km/h difference between the widebody or not. We don't have the speed with tenth of kph so I can't tell if it's 1.1, 0.6 or 1.9kph difference. The 0.1m/s wind difference represents an error of 0.36 kph.

Others:
I checked the official G mark of the car in the setup sheet before and after the wide body, nothing changed. So according to what PD repports to us, this may not impact the track of the car. But this doesn't correcponds to @Pizzicato1985 feelings on his Porsche.

Conclusion:
1- PoDi, please allow us to set a pre defined wind in time attack mode
2- Wide body does impact the vehicle's drag, but 1kph at top speed is quite ridiculous. Adding a rear wing costs more top speed.
3- We still need to come up with a test for cornering handling that's not only based on feeling, but on numbers.

Note:
I only tested one car. Some car may be more or less sensitive to the wide body modification than the RX7.

 

[nickg07]

If you fit wider tyres it should create more grip which in theory should increase pp...

 

[apff]

If you fit wider tyres it should create more grip which in theory should increase pp...

And increase drag, thus reducing top speed and PP. not sure they actually modeled that. Maybe the wide body option’s goal is just to fit wider tyres. Or only to increase track without changing the tyres. I’ve no clue