VRC Pro releases details of 1:8 Offroad Buggy testing (with video)

 

Earlier this year, our good friends at Virtual Racing Industries announced that they would be working on an 1:8 offroad buggy class for the popular VRC Pro Simulator. Since that time we have heard and/or seen little of the progress being made on the new class of racing, however, we are all smiles this morning as Peter Bervoets, President and founder, has shared with us some good news in regards to the highly anticipated release of 1:8 offroad buggy racing.
 

 
 

Peter says, "After the initial test with the new 1:8 nitro buggy early August of this year, it was obvious that Todd 'Doc' Wasson, the VRC Pro physics specialist, had to go back to the research lab. The buggy drove, but nothing close enough to the real car so beta testing was halted for 2 months. In these 2 months a lot has happened. A lot of research was done in understanding the dynamics of the buggy better.
 
One of our beta testers, Nicolas Loriot from France, offered to build a differential dyno to measure differential torque with different oil viscosities. This data was then used by Todd to develop an algorithm or formula for the behavior of the diffs. Another important step was to add the effect of camber to the tire model. Until now camber was more or less neglected in the tire model, but for the buggy it turned out to be extremely important to add that effect. Handling tire rolling resistance in a different way in the physics added another important variable which influenced the way the buggy handles, especially on jumps. In this period we received valuable data from manufacturers like Associated, Serpent and Proline to update the moments of inertia of the drive line and the wheels, and the overall inertias of the complete chassis. Very important data as these moments of inertia have a big influence on how the car turns and behaves in the air. Just last week 'Team Loriot' provided us with important data from a special built roller dyno. This data gave us excellent insight on clutch performance as well as acceleration.
 
Todd not only has to analyze all the data, he also has to implement it in the chassis configuration and into the physics engine. And then have about a ton of variables to play with to tune the chassis. Not an easy job for someone who has never driven a 1:8 nitro buggy before. In fact his real r/c experience is limited to about half an hour with 1:8 nitro on-road and 10 minutes with a 1:10 electric touring car.... But in the past 12 years he has developed very good virtual r/c skills and a good feel for how an r/c car drives and feels. The last bit of fine tuning comes from our group of beta testers who all have vast 'real life' r/c racing experience. For the 1:8 nitro buggy, European champion David Ronnefalk has just joined our beta test group to provide us with the highest possible level of setup and racing feedback. VRC does take its job to deliver you the most realistic r/c racing sim seriously.
 
Virtual Racing Industries has published an early beta test video. The footage was captured from test events we organized on 2 new tracks, Psycho Nitro Blast 2012 (US), and Speed Paradise in Buenos Aires (AR), the 2012 IFMAR Worlds track. We thought the cars were driving decent enough right now to give you a first impression of this exciting new class for VRC Pro. The physics, graphics and sound are certainly not finished, expect even better performance in all these areas in the final release which is slated towards end of the year!"

  

  

We look forward to seeing the future progress and upcoming release of the new 1:8 nitro offroad buggy class, as it will be a welcomed addition to an already outstanding VRC Pro Simulator.

 

For more on VRC Pro, visit www.vrcworld.com.

  

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