SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Feature: GT Legends

And talking with "Chunx" and "guod" in the SimHQ cafeteria during the holiday season, we started dreaming about the longtail ("Langheck") and shorttail Porsche 917 ("Kurzheck"), the Ferrari 512, the Jim Hall Chaparrals, Alfa Romeos, GT40s, etc. In short, a carset or mod that would let us play Le Mans 1970 and for a moment be Michael Delaney and Erich Stahler, the main protagonists in the classic Steve McQueen movie from 1971.

A French Racing Blue Matra 650

I remembered the Classic Sportscar & GT Mod for F1 Challenge and loaded it up. Then I discovered that this mod had been converted to GTR and so I downloaded and installed it and took the 917 out on a 1990 version of the Le Mans track. This 1990 version is interesting because it features the full Mulsanne straight with no chicanes to slow the cars down. If I want to try night time racing, I'll have to drive a newer layout of the track with both chicanes in place.

The Jim Hall Chaparral 2F

So here's a request for night time versions of Le Mans for GTR with a 1990 or even a 1970 layout. A 1967 beta version exists, but I gather it has yet to feature aiw-files. In other words presently it is good for hot lapping only.

But this is about playing, and letting you live the movie Le Mans for a few hours — or 24 if you can keep it up — and the account of my participation in the Le Mans in 1970, driving the GULF Racing Porsche 917 during a rainy race is inspired by playing with the LM70 Mod for GTR.

There are prettier and more authentic-handling mods for GTR than the LM70 Mod. As it is a conversion, it has not been through an overhaul of the physics to adjust the handling of the cars to GTR.

"Your attention please. Your attention please. There's been..."

- Track Announcer

This means that the Porsche is probably a bit too easy to drive compared with the real car (which had the nickname "the widowmaker"). Drivers were actually scared to drive the early versions of the Langheck as it was prone to raising it's front when going at race speeds. Then again; the widowmaker was the nickname for the ´69 car, and Porsche made some changes to it so that later versions were less dangerous.

The Matra 650 is a very nice drive, but the Ferrari 512, and to some extent the Alfa Romeos and Chaparrals are very tricky to drive. Get these three cars sliding and there is virtually no hope of saving the day. I lost the Alfa on the Mulsanne over a bump as it became totally uncontrollable. Perhaps some adjustment to the suspension will help.

A Spin in the Corner

Go To Page 4

Click here to go to top of this page.