Short oval banger racing, or stock car racing in some countries, is a prevalent grassroots form of motorsport. Here is how to build your very own grid of bangers in BeamNG.drive, both with and without, the free official repository mods!
For those who do not know what Banger racing is, it is a form of short oval racing with full contact rules in play. You can spin, ram and follow in cars to the wall. It is encouraged. The winner is the first to cross the line after a set amount of laps, but you can do anything and everything to get there.
National Banger class at United Downs Raceway in Cornwall, England.
Banger cars, in the top class known as 'National Bangers', are big and heavy saloon cars and estates such as the Ford Mondeo, a wide range of Jaguars from the X-type right up to the XJS and even Toyota Supras. People carriers like the MK1 Toyota Previa are also renowned for being fantastic wrecking cars.
Your choice of car determines what style of racing you want to do. If you decide to build a Jaguar XJS, you will be fast but not as strong as someone who chooses a Mondeo or a Previa. Some drivers come to race and go for the win, whilst others come for the entertainment and aim to get the best crash of the race meeting. Most circuits have a separate award for the best entertainer of the day.
Crowd favourite, Jared Roe, after a mighty crash that put him on his side.
So now you know what banger racing entails, how can you have fun with it in sim racing? The best method, in my opinion, is BeamNG.drive. The damage model of most simulators is not up to the task of replicating the advanced damage model needed to simulate realistic banger racing, however, BeamNG is perfectly built for destruction racing.
Ibishu Claria estate banger car.
For the mod vehicle options, the Ibishu Claria is a high-quality estate car option if the base game Bruckell LeGran's American styling is not to your liking.
To help you build your own banger car in BeamNG, there is a build list for both the Ibishu Miramar with mods and a one-hundred-per-cent vanilla build on the Bruckell LeGran. The lists will appear as they do in the drop-down menus of the garage mode where you customise your cars.
Bruckell LeGran built to banger racing specification.
The Legran is the perfect example of a banger car. The customization allows the payer to go as deep down the route of perfecting their car as possible without an overwhelming amount of insignificant options. The car is strong, especially at the rear with the fuel tank being very far up the car and the radiator being reinforced at the front.
Moving onto the smaller but much faster Ibishu Miramar. This car is a lot weaker than the previously mentioned LeGran when it comes to taking big hits, but it is significantly lighter and therefore faster. This will allow you to out-race the heavier LeGran just like the competitive drivers do in real life.
Banger racing Ibishu Miramar.
The Miramar is a great car to start turning laps and getting used to the rough and tough style of banger racing, however, as mentioned earlier, if you are planning to run a varied grid it is not the strongest car in the world. The Miramar will be folded like a tin can against a wall by something much bigger so keep that in mind when you set how aggressive you want the AI to be.
What do you think of our banger racing builds? Let us know in the comments down below and join the discussion in our BeamNG.drive forum!
For those who do not know what Banger racing is, it is a form of short oval racing with full contact rules in play. You can spin, ram and follow in cars to the wall. It is encouraged. The winner is the first to cross the line after a set amount of laps, but you can do anything and everything to get there.
National Banger class at United Downs Raceway in Cornwall, England.
Banger cars, in the top class known as 'National Bangers', are big and heavy saloon cars and estates such as the Ford Mondeo, a wide range of Jaguars from the X-type right up to the XJS and even Toyota Supras. People carriers like the MK1 Toyota Previa are also renowned for being fantastic wrecking cars.
Your choice of car determines what style of racing you want to do. If you decide to build a Jaguar XJS, you will be fast but not as strong as someone who chooses a Mondeo or a Previa. Some drivers come to race and go for the win, whilst others come for the entertainment and aim to get the best crash of the race meeting. Most circuits have a separate award for the best entertainer of the day.
Crowd favourite, Jared Roe, after a mighty crash that put him on his side.
So now you know what banger racing entails, how can you have fun with it in sim racing? The best method, in my opinion, is BeamNG.drive. The damage model of most simulators is not up to the task of replicating the advanced damage model needed to simulate realistic banger racing, however, BeamNG is perfectly built for destruction racing.
How to build a National Banger in BeamNG
The vanilla cars in BeamNG can be turned into accurate representations of banger cars with just a small handful of changes compared to the real car. The two best vanilla cars to start you off in the world of banger racing are the Ibishu Miramar and its accompanying banger racing mod pack if you want to go for a smaller and faster car, or the Bruckell LeGran if wrecking and destruction is more your style.Ibishu Claria estate banger car.
For the mod vehicle options, the Ibishu Claria is a high-quality estate car option if the base game Bruckell LeGran's American styling is not to your liking.
To help you build your own banger car in BeamNG, there is a build list for both the Ibishu Miramar with mods and a one-hundred-per-cent vanilla build on the Bruckell LeGran. The lists will appear as they do in the drop-down menus of the garage mode where you customise your cars.
Bruckell LeGran built to banger racing specification.
The Legran is the perfect example of a banger car. The customization allows the payer to go as deep down the route of perfecting their car as possible without an overwhelming amount of insignificant options. The car is strong, especially at the rear with the fuel tank being very far up the car and the radiator being reinforced at the front.
Moving onto the smaller but much faster Ibishu Miramar. This car is a lot weaker than the previously mentioned LeGran when it comes to taking big hits, but it is significantly lighter and therefore faster. This will allow you to out-race the heavier LeGran just like the competitive drivers do in real life.
Banger racing Ibishu Miramar.
The Miramar is a great car to start turning laps and getting used to the rough and tough style of banger racing, however, as mentioned earlier, if you are planning to run a varied grid it is not the strongest car in the world. The Miramar will be folded like a tin can against a wall by something much bigger so keep that in mind when you set how aggressive you want the AI to be.
What do you think of our banger racing builds? Let us know in the comments down below and join the discussion in our BeamNG.drive forum!
