The Holy Trinity at the nordschleife
If you try to attempt to push these cars on the nordschleife straight away, you're almost inevitably going to spin out and crash...
It is very rare to find a game that consists of all three of the Holy Trinity (cars we’re talking about here, not religion). Project CARS only has one of them. Forza only has the LaFerrari and the McLaren. There’s one common denominator in all of this. The Porsche mark was always missing. However, EA’s exclusivity on Porsche has now expired. This presents itself with a mass of opportunities. iRacing has made the most of this already by including the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 2017.
The main focus for this article will be Assetto Corsa. Not only is the GT3 Cup in the game, but there are 3 packs worth of Porsches in the game. What becomes key is that the 918 Spyder has become available in simulator form! To add to this excitement, Assetto Corsa already featured both the P1 and the LaFerrari. This provides the ultimate playground to test which one of these is truly the fastest.
The question now remains as to what would be the most suitable ground to test them. Spa is a common track across racing games. It is a challenging long lap amidst high speed and low speed corners. And let’s not forget about the infamous Eau Rouge! However, I personally didn’t feel like that was enough. I needed a track that would test the cars to their limits without having to download an unofficial version of it. The perfect candidate? The Nurburgring Nordschleife.
Typically it takes between 7-9 minutes for a standard car to go around the Nordschleife. If you screw up, it feels devastating as you have to start all the way at the beginning of the lap. Imagine you have almost completed a lap at 7 minutes 30 and then you completely spin off and crash. It makes you want to grab the wheel and throw it against the wall (I would not advise doing that. Decent wheels can be expensive these days). However, when you get a lap right, it feels so satisfying. Mix it up with the Holy Trinity and it feels even better! Below I provide a treat including a lap done with each of three cars.
Way too much understeer...
First up we have the Porsche 918 Spyder. The only taste of this car I had previously was playing Need For Speed Rivals. That was more of an arcade based racer. However, the way it handled on a simulation game was completely different (obviously). You can sense the extra power delivered from the battery. The grip provided by the four wheel drive system manages the power delivery well. However, it soon became evident that the four wheel drive system would be its downfall in comparison to the two others. I was faced with a lot of understeer, especially in the low speed corners. The braking didn’t feel sharp enough to bring it to a standstill. To cover a corner at a similar speed to the other two, I had to brake a lot earlier and approach it in a lower gear. To get this car doing a sub 7 minute lap was tricky. However, the four wheel drive system made it the easiest to handle out of the three. Despite the huge amount of understeer, it was more forgiving when you put the throttle down, making it less likely to spin.
There are scary moments where the car literally lifts off.
Next, we have the LaFerrari. Firstly, the noise this car makes is outstanding. It constantly wants to scream at you and let its anger out on every bit of tarmac it faces. That being said, this became evident in the way it handled. You can throw it into corners no problem. It has the most power out of the three and yet oversteer was never really an issue. Just like the P1, this is rear wheel drive. It is tricky to get off the start but, it explains why you can throw it into the corners. However, at high speeds it becomes incredibly unstable. There were times in the lap where I didn’t go full throttle becomes if I tried to turn the car, it would overturn by itself or the rear would just step out like an anomaly.
Beware of the DRS button presses.
Finally we have the McLaren P1. Even though this car is rear wheel drive, the amount of downforce produced by the dynamic rear wing pushes the rear of car to the ground and provides tremendous grip. Out of the three, this is the car that I could throw into the corners the easiest. However, do not make the mistake of leaving the DRS wing on when you’re turning. The amount of downforce then decreases in the rear causing the back end to step out. What I also found was that on the straights, this was also the slowest. This was mainly because by the end of the lap I had run out of the extra battery power. Even with the DRS on it couldn’t match the speed on the straights.
In the end, the result was the following:
McLaren P1: 6.53:830
Ferrari LaFerrari: 6.55.962
Porsche 918 Spyder: 6.59.753
Given the test that the boys on the Grand Tour did, they really did mean it. It all depends on what you use to control the pedals. In my case, it was just socks.
Hope you guys enjoyed this piece, let me know what you think!
Join In
Comments (0)