historic circuit selection: help

[cangrejin]

Well, it's all subjective, everyone has their own tastes, but I wanted some opinions here, because I'm really undecided.

F1 1967.... that category...that year. it has a problem and its name is "Bugatti circuit"
this circuit is very curious...in fact in the game Grand Prix Legends (gpl) it is not as an official default circuit...it is replaced by rouen les essarts...
the reasons why it was not included is also something very curious (more information here)

GPL French GP 1967 - Racing Simulators Archive

GPL French GP 1967 - posted in Racing Simulators Archive: .

forums.autosport.com

anyway, the point is that if you want to have a VERY historical mod and as realistic as possible from the historical side...you MUST have the Bugatti circuit...but:

cons of the bugatti circuit:
-it is the only time this circuit was used in f1 (it is not a con, but it makes it difficult to recreate just for a single race in a simulator)

-in rfactor the quality of that circuit is VERY low, it is not bad and the ai runs "well", but compared to other circuits this circuit is VERY outdated in quality of textures and modeling... (almost a conversion of very old gpl) (sorry markosamo, but your version too... although less problematic, it needs corrections)

-nobody in real life liked it. Yes, the 1967 drivers didn't like it at all and said it was boring and flat... in fact they WANTED TO RACE AT LE MANS-LA SARTHE (full) . I like bugatti... not much but it's "acceptable" to me (the real circuit, not the sim version). (the fact that nobody likes it isn't a negative either, but it makes it easier to choose another circuit... like the GPL people did)

-continuing with the last thing mentioned, the GPL community -which is the authority and most expert on the subject- decided to choose another circuit (rouen) and leave the historical side at least for that race. (like a selective memory loss in this historical case)


so I'm faced with 6 decisions, can you help me?

1st- keep bugatti circuit, all the old and problematic things that can be seen, but at least it would be as historically real as possible.

2nd- Le Mans (full): the good thing is that the REAL drivers wanted to race there with F1 that year... so it would be a "what if...". (on rfactor there are some very good versions of that classic circuit, and in fact... comparing it with circuits like Nordschleife or the old Spa, Le Mans is smaller in size).

3rd- Rouen Les Essarts: this is THE circuit preferred by everyone, it SOO GOOD (made by vlm)... but it was run in 1968 (one year later)

4th- Reims: another good and well-known circuit in Rfactor...but it was run in 1966 (one year earlier)

5th- Charade (clermont ferrand).... also a good circuit in Rfactor...but it is "not very" historical since it was run in 65, 69 and 70...at least rouen and reims were from the year next to 67. (66 y 68)

6th- Albi circuit: I had to include it for formality, it is a very good circuit in Rfactor...but it is far from being close to 1967...it is from the 55 era and they were not races that count for the championship.

Any opinion?

 

[jgf]

Well, Bugatti was a "Mickey Mouse" circuit, it was when designed, it was when raced, it is in memory. No one liked it then, and the fact that it was only used once, for only one series, speaks volumes about it.

But... if you want a historically correct F1 season for 1967, you run Bugatti. (I have it in my GPL Historic series ...and hate it. Have not even downloaded it for any other sim, nor use it in any other GPL season, including the default '67.) The early versions of Bugatti for rfactor, GTL, and GTR2 were just conversions of the GPL track, and show their age (GPL is capable of much better, check out the relatively recent '37 Brno track); no idea if subsequent versions are "better". Rouen is a much better choice for the French GP, and a more interesting track than Reims; LeMans would not have been a good venue for F1 in '67, giving too much advantage to the fastest cars - Eagle (if it lasted the race) and Lotus would have dominated, possibly lapping the field.

But if your sim racing is for fun, ignore Bugatti and use a real track. Purists would scoff aloud at many of my seasons, but my tracks are chosen for fun (for example, 2005 F1 cars at Kyalami, Bridgehampton, Laguna Seca, Road Atlanta, Dundrod, Mt Panorama, Mosport, Spa67, etc.). I hate street circuits, airport tracks, and modern F1 "Tilkedromes". And a plug for my favorite overall track, the semi-fictional Machwerk; based on real country roads in Germany, it was originally created for GPL, and has been converted to nearly every sim since.

And rfactor is unique in one track which, to my knowledge, has not been done for any other sim - the Gesamstrecke (I'd love to have this in GTR2).