![]() ![]() The lack of grip sucks away any confidence you have in the handling of the car, making lap times skyrocket. The physics are also brilliantly showcased during wet races, where corners that were merely horrifying in the dry become utterly petrifying. The driving physics are second to none – as you will find out the first time you roll your car onto its roof, after misjudging the entry to the banked Karussell corner, or have the Koenigsegg take off at thirty degrees over the bumps at the appropriately named Flugplatz. It may seem like a contradiction in terms that The Green Hell could possibly be fun to drive, but this is testament to the excellent standard of the modelling within the game. This track, however, suffers a little from the combination of the old and new Grand Prix circuits and doesn’t quite have the same character as the Nordschleife and so is a little less fun to drive. Though if that’s not enough of a challenge for you, also included is a hybrid of the Grand Prix and Nordschleife circuits – the fifteen mile endurance layout. Exhilarating and terrifying at the same time, hardened petrolheads the world over consider it to be the ultimate race track. The challenge doesn’t just come from the extreme length, but also the variety of turns: low speed, high speed, off-camber, over blind crests and even turns with banking, the Nordschleife has it all. When driving this wonderful virtual recreation of the circuit today, it’s easy to see why. Sir Jackie Stewart famously dubbed the Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit “The Green Hell” when it was still a Grand Prix track in the late 1960s. At just over three miles long, it’s a pale shadow of the much more famous Nordschleife (Northern Loop), which, at just a shade under thirteen miles long, is an immense test of driving skill. The shortest of these is the modern Grand Prix circuit, which is the current host of the European Grand Prix. Three variants of the Nurburgring circuit have been added to the already hefty track roster. The most notable additions in the expansion, however, are the new tracks. It builds on the original title by adding souped-up versions of the WTCC cars for a new arcade racing mode, plus a selection of supercars, including the super-sleek Audi R8 and the monstrous 806bhp Koenigsegg CCX. GTR Evolution is an add-on pack for Race ’07, SimBin’s World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) simulation. So when we heard that the latest addition to Simbin’s racing stable included not only a whole host of new cars, but a faithful recreation of the legendary Nordschleife at the Nurburgring, we were practically drooling Castrol Magnatec in anticipation. With the addition of the DK2 and the next-level sims available now I really can't wait to see just how far I can develop my racecraft in a virtual cockpit.Some would consider the idea that people can derive enjoyment out of spending hours tinkering with spring, damper and suspension settings the first signs of mental illness, but we like nothing more than tweaking gear ratios, adjusting brake balances and getting our toe-in and camber angles just right. So it was a 'good job' from SIMBIN to make us the fastest AI drivers in the game. At the time the SRT10 Viper held the production lap record around the Nurburgring, and the addition of the Nurburgring was the big update to GTR Evolution. Gamespot did a story on us, and it impressed SIMBIN so much that the CEO got in touch with me and asked if myself and my co-driver (Sarah) would like to be in GTR Evolution when it was released. We then went to Road America and finished 4th overall having never set foot on the track in real life. We spent hours in the sim finding our braking and turn in points, landmark reference points, configuring the suspension and dialing in the gear ratios and shift points. We used the modifications I did to GTR2 and the 'joystick' to practice on tracks on our race schedule that we'd never actually been to. I built a pretty complex 'joystick' to go with it as well. There was lots of back and forth with the guys at SIMBIN as I picked their brains and showed them the different ways I tweaked the config files to turn a standard Radical SR3 into a spot on representation of my 2008 Becker F1 rig. Since I'm a big sim buff I started modifying a copy of RACE07 and later GTR2 to accurately represent the suspension set up, engine, gearbox, and final drive ratios on my F1 Sidecar. I've been racing modern sidecars with the SRA-West and Superside America since 2006. Im a 'professional' Formula 1 Sidecar driver for Bad Cat Racing here in the US. ![]()
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