Hello racers!

We seek input and participation to help us prepare the cars and this season of the TBOFR Challenge, which is slated to start sometime in January.

It will run with Slickmod, so you will need to be sure to have slickmod running to connect to the server.

TBOFR will attempt to combine the FXO, XRT, RB4, RAC, and FZ5 into one group. Race format still to be determined.

We would like your help testing the cars, driving them to the best you can to help us get the best possible data to decide on the restrictions, and tracks to use.

CURRENT INTAKE RESTRICTIONS
FXO: 5%
XRT: 2%
RB4: 1kg (only to have it seperate from the regular RB4 for Airio purposes :razz
RAC: 23%
FZ5: 21%

RESTRICTIONS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE FOR THE RAC AND THE FZ5 - the FXO, XRT, and RB4 are pretty stable now.

In Airio, all the TBOFR Challenge cars are their first two letters, with an S at the end: FXS, XRS, RBS, RAS, FZS. They are in a TBS class for all together.

Server information and Slickmod links will be posted in a separate thread.

Deko, on your app download i would recommend renaming the lfs.exe so you can use the same LFS folder.

Also, RB4 gets raped on those restrictions (but who the feck uses Rb4 anyways), but those are what we use in Live for Slicks and the balance between FXO and XRT is great on the right tracks. Will be sure to try FZ and RAC

I'm sorry i am not so sure the balance between tbo's is that great, the rb4 is still not an option, and the fxo is so freaking slow on the straights and passing is done on the straights, not in the corners. This leads to problems with desperate overtaking by people in Fxo's. That is my experience so far with these restrictions. I wil continue to look at results in Life for Slicks, but also there, there are hardly fxo's.

ok, if the tracks are equally balanced its fine. At ky2r FXO was just as fast, sure it was terrible for overtaking, but you could set a pace atleast.

My first experience with slick-mod. Gave it an hour, drove a 100Kms.

Impressions so far are that FXO is too freakishly quick. It's just bang on into the 19s. Yeah, it might be little bit slower with R3 in the race and on straights, but car is IMO atm by far the quickest of the lot on clear pace.

XRT is got this weird wobbly feeling which i dont like, probably need a bit stiffer suspension to get rid of that. Very quick as well. Tires look to be heating up tbh, and maybe r3r3 in the race even if r2r2 race tires dont work.. live for slick guys know more about that i guess.

FZ5, well the car is beautiful over the curbs and heats tires less than xrt surprisingly, but im surprised to see it so slow in sc2 and yes I fixed the gearing. I suppose it's over-restricted as I did more laps in it than xrt and xrt was straight equal on pace with it. Maybe 1% less and 10kg instead? Didn't really check top speed delta.

RAC, well a horrible car of lfs, still horrible with slicks, Yann showed its quick, but its horrible to drive with it's snappiness and still better tires than any other car... I'm afraid RAC might be quickest with proper setup...

RB4, I did only 1 lap in it and it's really quick, but eats up fronts and most deff needs stiffer tire in front for race. But horrible to drive as I don't like 4wd tbh.

it depends on the track niki, according to Ramon Blauhoff FXO is too slow

Surely, all cars are quick enough. It's all dependent on the tracks.

To me, the FZ5 felt amazing to drive, was not the fastest but easiest of the bunch to drive.

RAC was pretty amazing as well on the slicks, even though, without the rear anti-roll bar it struggles under braking and on power out of corners, but it was the fastest car on FE tracks.

FXO followed very closely, and with a proper driver, or someone who are not only driving RWD like me, would possibly beat both RAC and FZ5.

XRT, well, i drive it in the Live For Slicks, it's a nice car to drive and surely it can be as fast as anything else.

RB4,.... Who the hell drives RB4?

Yeah, FZ5 doesn't feel too difficult to drive, more like gt3 car, but I think that's because it's only car without a turbo and we have so much FZR experience. I believe that someone less experienced might not handle it so very well and might say FXO is easier to drive. FZ5's problem might be it's weight and that's why it might have lost time in sc2 of bl1r (Essses). So maybe adding more weight would be bad, just needs 1% less? Just a thought after hearing Dennis' impressions from Fern Bay.

PMD is an expert in this testing? Would like to hear him on this subject.

P.S. lol bl1r has a huge straight, fxo can't be too slow...

I think thats why they didnt bother balancing it Dennis. In L4S we were gonn remove it because BTCC is only 2wd, but decided to leave it incase some beginners came.

I'm not entirely sure that BL1R was a proper test track for us. Unless no one is scared about the curbs.

Okay so my gathered knowledge of it is:
1. FXO and RAC are good at the same tracks. One with lots of cornering and not many straights. They are the two slowest cars in a straight line so tracks with long straights will hinder them.

2. XRT and FZ5 are the fastest in a straight line, and they are also quickest on the bigger tracks.

3. You can already see the two groups that have formed. Therefore trying to balance the RAC and FXO, and then balancing the XRT and FZ5, will be the easiest way to get them all "relatively close" in terms of performance.

4. The series surely would have 3 short tracks and 3 big tracks. Therefore the RA/FX can have their opportunity at the short tracks, and the XR/FZ can have their opportunity at the large tracks. Think of it like FZR vs XRR throughout a season. Must weigh each car's advantage at each track and pick accordingly. So eventhough it would be lovely to pick 6 tracks where all 4 cars are equal, we might have to sacrifice a tiny bit. But it's good because it might have us driving tracks we normally never get to.

5. Tire heat. The RAC is by far the lightest, and because of this will probably be able to run a compound lower than the others and secure its heat fine OR it will use the same compound and be able to slide around and not heat its tires as badly (meaning push push with no consequence). The FXO is similar to FXR in that it might be doing something like R3/R2. XRT is going to be either R2's all around or R3's all around. FZ5 will be similar to FZR in that it'll be R2/R3 or R3s all around. It all matters on what track we are at and what the length of the races are (could be sprints or enduros, but no more than 2 people a car if enduros).

I probably forgot stuff I wanted to say but I decided to drive 2 laps with RAC @ BL1R during #3 so got distracted.

Current top 4 BL1R times:



I wish we could get more people to actually test it. I'm no RAC master but I did that lap in literally 2 laps (check LFSW if you care enough). So there's probably more time in it, and without more testers we can never really know. The times however reflect how the balancing should work currently.

If anyone needs base sets I'll try and attach some. Might need to modify the restriction on the FZ as I don't think I have fixed it to the current ones on server.

A bit wild idea,but why not throw some weight into NGT cars and mix the field even more? Seems like almost same car class now - tintops,slicks,no downforce,only difference is that they are stripped off from road car extras like seats,stereo n'stuff and have rollcage,which has optical effect only anyway.

Would be interesting with an LX aswell imo, i mean it would be friggin awesome on slicks, maybe just nerf its engine so it cant dominate. If you can get all the cars balances it would create insane racing with real diversity.

Quote from Bmxtwins :

Would be interesting with an LX aswell imo, i mean it would be friggin awesome on slicks, maybe just nerf its engine so it cant dominate. If you can get all the cars balances it would create insane racing with real diversity.

it's too light, you would have to give it so little horsepower it would be useless on straights..

Hmm, what about adding some mass to it

edit: try 22% and max kg

Yeah great Idea Kingsbury. How will you make the suspension last now?

Dennis i drove like 4 laps offline i really wasnt testing that

You don't need to be online to test suspension.

i drove like 4 laps. I didnt really test much

It would be fun to overtake an LX every stright away just to get passed by it in a corner and pass it again in the next stright