Give The DRM Revival’s Assetto Corsa Porsche 935 a Brake.
This past week everybody’s attention got caught mightily with the long awaited release of the DRM Revival packet of cars. Love them or hate them, it seems everybody’s talking about them. I wasn’t among the immediate group of buyers, I waited a couple hours and kept an eye for posts exclaiming, “Cor Blimey … They’re Bleedin’ ‘ORRIBLE!!!”, but that post never came so I cued up and bought the set.
It’s not like there weren’t any complaints. By the time I made my purchase, there was a growing body of folks disappointed with the mods, largely for two reasons, A) YA GOTTA PAY FOR IT?!?!? … and 2) The tires and brakes don’t work properly until you’ve warmed them up.
I gave a bit of thought before I hit the pay now button, and then deleted the promo code that would have allowed me a discount as a Premium Member of RaceDepartment on the price. The biggest reason I did this was so I could have the freedom to speak my mind about these cars, the good or the bad, without being accused of being bought off. I simply want no part of the payware good – payware bad argument.
The other reason I chose to pay full price is that a couple weeks ago a modder /track builder that frequents these hallowed halls just released a wonderful new version of an old US sports car race track. He’s got a growing body of work that I would call PROFESSIONAL QUALITY. Were he charging for it, I remember thinking to myself, I would gladly pay for this version of Watkins Glen simply based on his previous work … and to support and encourage modders to continue to create good content for Assetto Corsa, especially now that Kunos has left the picture.
The warming up of brakes and tires is another matter entirely … and I think it defines the difference between a gamer and a racer.
When the 934-935 Porsche s came out, I was working as a mechanic at a Porsche repair center and was following them in the media very closely. I knew that the consumer-grade 930 Turbo Carrera shared much of what Porsche put into its 934 and 935’s, except for the bits that came off of the 917. Over here in the US these Group 5 cars raced in IMSA’s Camel GT series, albeit with some minor modifications. Although they weren’t as loud as the Can-Am or Trans-Am cars I loved so much, these Group 5 cars were eye-watering, ground-pounding fast, fast, fast due, not only to the magic of turbocharging, but also to the massive 917 brakes that had been installed on them.
To make comparisons, the 930 Turbo Carrera had a turbo about the size of both of one’s fists, the 934 started out with one about twice the size of stock, and by the time development of the 935 was done, they’d stuck TWO of them on the car. The street version 930 Turbo had very good brakes, certainly adequate for street or even on track use … but there was no way the stock units were going to stop, or even slow down, anything as remotely powerful as the Porsche 935 … so Porsche installed the brake assemblies for the 917 program … big 4-piston calipers, paired with cross-drilled cast iron rotors the size of Thanksgiving Turkey serving platters on all four corners, as seen in my horrible, faded and out of focus opening picture.
The day I took that picture, I was roaming around the pits during a lunch break. I struck up a conversation with a mechanic on one of the 935’s that was on jack stands, and we started talking about the brakes. “Yeah” he said, “these brakes are the reason the cars can go so damn fast. By the way, that caliper and rotor cost over one thousand dollars!” I was dumb founded. The year was 1978 and back then a thousand bucks was a LOT of money. The shop I was working for had just installed a RUF turbo conversion kit into a 930 Turbo and the price tag for the work came to only $13,900 US, including the parts from RUF. Back then I was fairly blasé about Porsche’s prices for replacement parts, but a thousand dollars for a caliper and rotor really set me back … far enough that I took that picture, out of respect.
To be sure, I never got the chance to drive a 934-935 Porsche. The street 930’s I drove were brutally fast, but as docile as kittens when driven around town. Clutch pedal effort was no different than the rest of the 911 variants, and the gearing and torque allowed them to be driven with nary a thought about what might happen if you pushed the accelerator pedal more than half down. I don’t recall any customer complaints with abnormally long stopping distances when the brakes were cold. I do remember that driving these cars taught me a lot about pedal application, that it had to be done smoothly, very, VERY smoothly or there was gonna be trouble. Also, the word on the street was that one should never lift off the accelerator in a corner when driving a Porsche 911. NEVER. And that went double in the 930. As an aside, I hope that every sim racer that tries these DRM cars will remember these words, especially when the tires and brakes are cold.
I was racing my MGB by this time. Since I didn’t have Sims (or even computers) back then, and NO access to a track for practice or testing, I did most of that sort of thing on the street. I also had to apply those street-honed skills and whatever wisdom I found there to racing my car.
By class rules, I had to have stock brakes on my MGB, but the choice of pads was open, so I was using Repco’s Metal Masters at the time. Brake pads having such a high metallic content at that time were deemed “for racing use only” due to fears of very high rotor wear (which I never experienced) and poor cold or wet performance, which I did experience. When I began using Goodyear Blue Streak racing slicks I did get caught out once with a first turn spin on cold tires. “Never Again!”, I pledged, and made sure that I warmed up both my tires and brakes sufficiently before I really began to push.
I don’t know if it helps, but when driving these DRM Revival cars, I find myself pressing on the brake pedal on the straights to get some heat in pads and tires during my first lap, even in a race. I’d like to think it’s the racer in me. So far I’ve avoided trouble of the cold tire/brake kind.
Now let’s see if I remember this rule coming out of the pits after the first pit stop of my first race in the wonderful Porsche 935 that DRM Revival has brought us.
Interested in buying the DRM Revival mods? 17 versions of 10 fantastic Group 5 cars and enough skins for an entire racing series. Find it HERE
A free Skins Pack updating those found on DRM’s release can be found HERE
If you’d like to receive the 20% discounted price for DRM’s Revial, grab the promo code for premium members HERE
Not a premium member yet? You can upgrade your account HERE
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Do you have any thoughts about the need to warm up tires and brakes on a simulated racing car? How about your own memories of these awesome Group 5/DRM/IMSA Camel GT cars? Why not share them below.
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