Car of the Day 10.1.09

Landin Williams and Evan Griffey, 9.30.2009

Why do the car of the day images make the cars look plastic? is it just how they have taken the images? the cars look much better in the actual game, weird?

Car of the Day 10.2.09

Landin Williams and Evan Griffey, 10.1.2009

McLaren is known more for its F1 racing efforts where it won the 2008 world championship with Lewis Hamilton than its manufacture of road cars. The F1 team founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren merged with Ron Dennis’ Project Four Racing in 1981 and soon thereafter Dennis negotiated taking control of the enterprise.

Recently, McLaren has restructured and retooled creating McLaren Automotive to produce more road-going McLaren sports cars, joining the McLaren F1 and Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren. The epicenter of this effort is the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, United Kingdom, a ying-yang-shaped facility with one half being the building and the other a vast reflecting pond. Savvy FM3 gamers may choose to reflect upon the car that started it all; the McLaren F1.

 The car in the spotlight today is one of the rare race-prepped versions. From the 100-car production run, only 28 were F1 GTR ‘long tail’ race cars, specially built for private customers competing in the BPR Global GT Series (current FIA GT) and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. As good as the F1 is on the road, going racing required much more than applying some stickers and adding safety equipment. The F1 needed aerodynamic downforce in a big way. The GTR retains the F1’s carbon fiber monocoque but the bodywork was all purpose built with a dramatically longer nose and tail, as well as a wider, more aggressive rear wing. The wheelwells were also widened to accommodate the largest tires rules would allow.

From its signature center driving position the McLaren offers a unique motoring experience. Its BMW M-Power-built 6.0-liter V12 deals out 600 horsepower and is one of the few engines to be detuned for racing. Road going F1’s are rated at 627, sprint 0-60 in 3.2 seconds and stretch out to a top speed of 240 mph. The road-going car was the world’s fastest production car for 12 years from its 1993 debut until the Koenigsegg CCR dethroned it. Racing GTR’s dominated at Le Mans taking first, third, fourth, fifth and 13^th in the ’95 race. Team Davidoff won the GT class at Le Mans finishing second overall in 1997 wearing the infamous Gulf livery.

But the writing was on the wall and the program wound down as the ‘98 season approached. The Mercedes CLK-GTR was coming into its own. BMW officially left the F1 GTR effort after the ’97 season to work on its own Le Mans prototype. And finally, McLaren withdrew its factory teams. It should be noted that the GTR was a converted street car racing against clean-sheet racers. Team Davidoff and Parabolica Motorsports continued on with their aged cars in 1998, but could finish no better than fifth in a single race. Team Davidoff were the only ones to score points that season, finishing 6th in the teams championship. After 1998 the GT1 class was abolished due to the dominance by Mercedes Benz, and McLaren F1s never raced in FIA GT again.

 The pedigree of the 1998 #41 Gulf Team Davidoff McLaren F1 GTR, the Last of the Mohicans, includes famed Le Mans. It retired but a sister car managed a fourth overall. The GTR’s impressive R2-846 is a testament to its legacy and the abilities of McLaren. Be wary, there was an editorial item in “Autoweek” back in the day touting a McLaren F1 replacement muffler costing $17,000, so watch that damage counter! 

#41 Gulf Team Davidoff McLaren F1 GTR Gallery

I do not like the interior designs in a lot of these cars.  They look so bland!

As i couldn't find the Forza 3 demo thread, i will post my demo impressions here (just got it today since i'm a silver user).

Got to say, this game is a monumental step over Forza 2, in every department. The enviroments look simply astonishing, even if we only play in the Camino Viejo track. The car models are very good too, but i'm not liking the interior cockpit view, it looks a bit lacking.
The physics, car deformation and sensation of speed and handling is top notch too, i especially like the RS8, the 911 GT3-RSR and the Evo X.
But the one thing that really surprised me is the agressiveness of the A.I on the advanced difficulty. They try every trick in the book to beat you, even sacrificing their own car to throw you out of the road, or taking advantage of the slipstream cone to force overtakings on tight curbs. It feels like you're really on a competitive race ;).

I'm going to play around it a bit more, exploiting all the cars and messing around with the damage system, but i got to say, that this is a really good racing game indeed ;).

i agree with u on every aspect and i hope they do fix the cockpit view cause it does look a bit inferior compared to the amazing in game enviorments and car models. The controls are great compared to forza 2 because when i played the demo i had no idea what i was doing. I also am not a big fan of simulation racing games(stick more to arcade type racing games) but i loved this demo and am really hyped to play the full game(i became an addict trying to beat the ghosts so much fun)

Hey so what difficulty do you guys play on? This is my first sim racer so I'm not sure what I am supposed to turn off and what I should keep on to accurately simulate real driving. I'm loving the gameplay though. My settings are currently

auto-brake: off
anti-lock brake: on
stability control: off
traction control: off
shifting: manual
suggested line: off
opponent difficulty: medium (have been trying hard recently)
damage: simulation

Should I also turn off my anti-lock brakes? I was under the impression that all modern cars including racers had anti-lock brakes so I'm not sure what to do with it. If I do turn it off do I need to pump the brakes going around turns?

Also where should I look if I want a cheap but relatively good racing wheel?

Would really appreciate any help.

If you turn it off, yes, you will need to pump the brakes, otherwise you will lock the tires up going into the corner. For wheels, the Microsoft wheel I hear is decent, and it costs $100 now I think. Other than that, the only one I can think of is the Fanatec wheel coming out. That'll be more expensive though.

I'm not sure which cars actualy have anti-lock brakes or not, you may need to look it up yourself, or maybe someone else here knows.