Ever since its arrivial in LFS ive found this car one of the most difficult to drive, no matter what i do it will not grip and keep tyres healthy.

The weight of the car makes it tricky also, compare tyres on the (XRT/FZ5/LX6/RB4/FXO to RAC) , ive tried adjusting set so wieght is shifted to front of the car a little more , but then you have all that power at the rears, with very little holding it down + combined with tiny rear tyres make this car just slide.

I want to love this car as it is a beuatiful car as you will no doubt agree, but why does beautiful always come with baggage ?.
Is it just me or do you agree the tyres are just to narrow to give this car stability and stamina ? but in retrospect this car is modeled like the MRT to simulate its realife counterpart , so maybe question i should ask is are the tyres that are used for RAC in LFS a good reproduction of the RL version, or to awnser this quoting a friend whilst discussing this issue before posting, "lfs is ice skating simulator, what you think"
i'd like to think with maybe some patch, that one day it wil become drivable and used more then it is in its present state. (which i think is due to its madness)

I have no complaints about it, especially if you tried patch W9 with the clutch preload. I think one of the problem is the lack of rear anti roll, weight tend to go overboard unless you run some serious spring. and hurts that road holding.

Quote from Gener_AL (UK) :

...as it is a beuatiful car as you will no doubt agree

Hmmm no, it's one of ugliest cars I've ever seen. But agreed that it's not suitable for racing at all. I guess it's very likely that its real life version drives as bad, as it's designed & built by some amateurs in backyard or something.

aye no rear ARB doesnt do it any favours, i just think in its present state although its fun to drive, ultimately its a negative thing every time i race RAC i have gut feeling that car is either just a bad car (which if thats the case due to the tyres and arb etc) or its LFS not doing somthing right, does a great job & and dont take this thread at a stab@LFS , on the contruary, i just want to see how the rest of LFS community feels on this particular vehicle. Would an improved spec RAC be better then a replica spec as part of LFS? as i siad earlier this isnt an atttack on RAC or LFS , just airing some thoughts on this car.

I think it drives fine.. if set up right. It also seems to compete with the fz and lx, its different to drive though.

It's tough, but I don't mind it. Okay, I don't drive it often (there's never that many servers with it, and if the whole LRF class is enabled I'd rather take the FZ50 or LX6), but it's definitely one that you need to pay attention to if you want to stay on the track.

But isn't that kind of the point? If you can be at the front of the pack without having to concentrate, it's too easy IMO. With a bit of setup tweaking, the RAC can be a good challenge.
My biggest problem with it is that the dials are too small

edit: darn should have learn to read country flags.

F 205/45R17
R 225/45R17

Agreed these are substantially thinner than the FZ50 tyres, also thinner than XRTs, although about the same as the LX6.

I'm not convinced they are the problem with the RAC, however.

I've driven it in the new patch, but if you play a little bit with the diff, you can make a quite nice car out of it.

Looking at the website, the RaceAbout should have:

'02 version: Front: 215/45-17 / Rear: 225/40-17
'05 version: Front: 205/50-17 / Rear: 225/45-17

It's ugly and handles like a dead fish, but the latest test patch shows promise for this much-neglected car. Keep your fingers crossed.

I actually prefer the RA over the FZ. Much more balanced, superior suspension and once I've finished with a good base setup, the most fun RWD road car in LFS. The lack of inertia makes it such a joy to drive. If only the turbo worked properly. And if I remember correctly, there are 2 sets for real RAs. One is the road set that has no rear ARB, and there's the track-biased version that does have rear ARB.

The thing with the RA is that a reasonably sized rear ARB would help a lot in helping rear tire to road camber control. Too bad we don't have that now, but one could easily compensate with a well balanced spring setup and a healthy (but not ridiculous) amount of front antiroll. A small touch of rear positive toe in and a well adjusted clutch diff and it's pure utopia. If only we get a M/RWD GTR or supercar somewhere down LFS's development life...

That pendulum FZ50 rear does get tiresome after a while. It SEEMS easier to drive, but it's because of it's relatively slow yaw rate, not superior inherent balance.

My usual LFS rides are the RB4, RA and FZR. BF1 for some insanely fast fun occasionally on the superfast tracks.

i always liked RAC, never had much problems with it and never thought tyres are too small. if i was to run with LSD i always looked that power and coast were in same range i.e. 60/60 or 65/65, but thats mostly on very twisty circuits. But mostly i used locked diff to keep the car balanced under braking. Havent tested the new preload thing on RAC but im gonna soon.

Quote from Jamexing :

I actually prefer the RA over the FZ. Much more balanced, superior suspension and once I've finished with a good base setup, the most fun RWD road car in LFS.

I like the RAC. Recently I have found it more controllable, I dont know whether thats to do with the patch, I doubt it because I have mainly old sets with Viscous/locked diffs. Maybe Im just more used to it now.
Jamexing: you mentioned the turbo. Do you think its too slow to build up? Personally I think this one of the areas that can get ppl into trouble, I find the turbo kicks in pretty quickly and when flat shifting you can easily swap ends on some corners that other cars have no problems with. So more care is needed.

Quote from DratsaB :

I like the RAC. Recently I have found it more controllable, I dont know whether thats to do with the patch, I doubt it because I have mainly old sets with Viscous/locked diffs. Maybe Im just more used to it now.
Jamexing: you mentioned the turbo. Do you think its too slow to build up? Personally I think this one of the areas that can get ppl into trouble, I find the turbo kicks in pretty quickly and when flat shifting you can easily swap ends on some corners that other cars have no problems with. So more care is needed.

I like the RAC as well. It also sounds great thanks to DaveWS!.

As for the turbo; it's absolutely silly beyond words.

The impeller/turbine assembly must weight 200lbs or something. It's not producing 45lbs of boost or anything stupid, so spool up should be very fast. It's a modern car, no modern (or even ancient 1978 911 Turbo) turbocharged engine has/had that much lag. It's plain silly. Silly I tell you.

/resists urge to rant further.

What boost is the RA supposed to be ooomphing out. It does feel like it's trying to force treacle in to the engine, not air...

edit: to answer your question, it's 8 or 9 lbs IIRC. (0.6ish bar?)

http://www.lfsforum.net/showth ... boost+modelling+questions

Relevant thread, with some discussion of the RA's turbo problems.

Pages 2/3/4 have some great videos and informative posts

it could do with a pair of 300s on the front to get rid of that silly understeer

I definitely enjoy driving the RAC more with the latest patch, but I still have a lot of trouble on some of the bumpier SC tracks.

Quote from AndroidXP :

Looking at the website, the RaceAbout should have:

'02 version: Front: 215/45-17 / Rear: 225/40-17
'05 version: Front: 205/50-17 / Rear: 225/45-17

RAC update in LFS would be nice.. 02' version has a horrible interior, the '05 is nicer

Please explain why you would care?

If the RA is a licenced car would it be too heretical to suggest to the makers that if it handles like a dodo in lfs then its real life itteration may be similar.
Perhaps developing a good lfs setup ( a bob special ) then copy that to the actual car may help it's sales considerably, as well as giving a good top gear review.
It will also mean we get the handling sorted for the game cus the car has lots of promise.
If there's money in this then I want a cut btw

try adding a passenger and ajusting your car witrh that slight bit more weight , kinda helps me but then again , its not really needed

Quote from theirishnoob :

try adding a passenger and ajusting your car witrh that slight bit more weight , kinda helps me but then again , its not really needed

*cough* http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=407203#post407203 */cough*

Anyway, I keep meaning to try the RAC now with the preload. Made the RWDs a lot more fun to drive.