Tracks L.A Canyons

[Phoenix77]

I've only made it to the tunnel once.
Well, I wanted to get an idea of whether getting close to 10 minutes was even going to be possible, and I learned that I will need to really learn the track well with a more moderate car before even trying it.

You will learn it, I think it's much much simpler a layout than at first it appears... Then again I probably have done quite a lot of test laps... probably 20 - 30 laps.

I know its an odd opinion, but for learning tracks I have always found fast, high grip cars to be the easiest. Sure I won't be driving at 100% of the cars potential, but I can drive well within the cars and my own limits and still be flying round at a much faster pace than I would be in say a street car.

It was the same years back when we got the Nords, I can get plenty of 9/10ths laps in a reasonably short space of time, meaning I see the same bits of the track more often.

Nothing worse than taking 15+ mins to get 3/4 of the lap just to limply understeer off into the valleys

Couldn't agree with you more mate, exactly my thinking with the F1 car... Seems crazy at 1st going round a corner at 150mph with a 300ft drop into a canyon... With no barriers... But it's a good way to learn... As you say... 8 or 9/10's of your ability is the way to go. Get a "slowish" F1 lap under your belt... Then start gradually pushing a bit more

 

[AccAkut]

For me it's one about 2 mins past the tunnel.

I think it's the same spot for me... and every time I try to wrestle the car back up the cliffs, unsuccessfully Corners are a little tricky in the RAC due to the combination of no rear ARB and the blown diffusor (and my lack of setup-guruness) - it stays planted as long as you have the foot on the throttle, once you have to suddenly lift it goes 50% of the time

But there are certainly a bunch of parts of the track I already recognise from the Smoking Tire videos, especially that fast downhill section.

 

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

That's a fantastic screenshot mate.... You're really getting used to the Photo App...
I'm going to have to put this as an image on the download page... If you don't mind

The whole way of taking pictures is overly complicated and not very rewarding, be it via photo app ingame or in replay or just screenshots. Being able to adjust the sun is a nice addon. That being said I do come from the world of GT and if there's one thing that engine and interface can do it's taking pictures



Sorry for the spam, looking at the NFS thread I had to think of this GT2 version the whole time .

 

[Stereo]

Odometer app is invaluable here... I got 41.5km in before sliding off a cliff. Time to try again.

 

[garyjpaterson]

I did it! Under 10mins, clean lap (on RSR)

9:39.5 with the Formula Hybrid 2017

Hard tyres, 2 laps of fuel (did 3 sighter laps to get fuel and tyre usage), 99% grip and medium/low aero.

Definitely can be beaten, as I still don't 100% know the track yet (especially near the end), plus I'm far from a quick driver anyway. Was a lot of fun though.

I took my own advice and did some 90% push laps to get a feel without risking falling off, definitely helped both with learning the track and learning how much fuel and tyres last. The hards seem to drop off near the end of lap 1, so lap 2 and 3 didn't have the ultimate grip but they seem to level out which is nice.

Overall, I did around 142miles worth of driving in that session - 3 sighter laps plus 2 100% push laps (although the first was a lot of falling off...).

I can finally forget trying to get under 10mins and enjoy some slower cars now

 

[Fat-Alfie]

There seems to be some very steep cambers on this road, especially in the first section - is the road shaping accurate to real life? Or have the cambers been exaggerated in order to improve the flow of the road?

 

[garyjpaterson]

Starting to recognise the different sections of the track now, so jumped onto Google Maps to see how it compared.

Very impressed with how similar most areas are (layout wise and also the background mountains etc), but very excited to see how it could look in future with some detail/polish.

Here are a few bits of interest I looked at (tried to get the cameras to match somewhat):

____

This is the most Northern part, and a part which scares the hell out of me because its so bumpy, very easy to lose it. Checked the maps, looks a little less bumpy IRL, plus the width of the track (or the edges) is a bit different. Can't wait for some buildings and stuff here

____

Here is the Hidden Springs Picnic Site (yes that's the actual name, I love it!). Would be awesome to have this bit added for some cool photo stops!

____

Here is the bridge - took me some time to realise it was actually a bridge in-game! This will look fantastic with a model though, so can't wait for that. Road layout looks a little different in this one compared to the IRL (this is looking back btw, the other direction is towards the tunnel).

____

This is looking back at the first few miles, and is the last section before you turn off the Angeles Crest Highway and onto the Forest Highway. Right now it all flows as one road, so will be a lot more interesting when this becomes a real junction.

The above view its spot on, but the next is in the same location, just rotated 180 degrees and you can see the vast differences. Obviously very early stages, but you can see that this is quite a complex junction, will be totally different to drive this (much slower!)

____

Anyway, i'm seriously impressed with this. Huge undertaking, and brilliant job so far. It does highlight the massive amount that could still be done, but don't take that as negative pressure, just the potential for this to become one of the greatest mods of all time (imo)!

PS. WTF is up with all those 30mph signs! Is that serious? In the UK it'd just be 60mph back roads...

 

[JusTiCe-8]

(for the record, just add it here too
As you want laptimes, not the best I can do, goes offroad a couple of time and did a 26:31:850 with the Peugeot 504 TN driving peacefully and enjoying the ride .

I may win the slowest one

 

[BDA]

PS. WTF is up with all those 30mph signs! Is that serious? In the UK it'd just be 60mph back roads...

Small towns use roads like that as revenue streams: Set a 30mph limit on what would normally be a 50mph road, ticket everybody who comes through. Easy money.

 

[Ryno917]

Small towns use roads like that as revenue streams: Set a 30mph limit on what would normally be a 50mph road, ticket everybody who comes through. Easy money.

Also illegal, and the town/county could be taken to court for it. In such a litigious nation, I'm genuinely surprised no one does.

 

[garyjpaterson]

Sorry for spamming more comparison pics. Really has captured my imagination this track, super excited about what it can become.
____

Here is an example of just how accurate the background environment is... really amazing. Will be more interesting with the outside roads intersecting though, as right now it feels very 'lonely', as in very isolated. With connecting roads it'll feel much more natural and alive I think

____

Similar to above, this on again highlights the accuracy, but also the difference some extra polish will bring, with the underground culvert and other road making each area unique.

____

More amazing backgrounds! A small bridge, I think with points of interest like this, it should really help make it easy to learn the track.

____

This one highlight how much more challenging the final layout can be - that road in the left is the one we drive on! This T-junction should prove tricky, whereas now its just a flat out section.

____

And finally, this last one shows how dangerous it is IRL, see the cross just off the left side of the road... Do the fast driving on the virtual one, not IRL.

____

Anyway, maybe these comparison pics can be of use in future, might help seeing how close your textures are etc (although you've no doubt already analysed the maps closely anyway!)

I may win the slowest one

Sounds like a challenge....

 

[garyjpaterson]

...goes offroad a couple of time and did a 26:31:850 with the Peugeot 504 TN driving peacefully and enjoying the ride .

I may win the slowest one

I raise you 30:24.194 - And this was a balls out, pedal to the metal pushing lap, no off-road expeditions or picnic stops! Average of 51mph if my maths is correct, so certainly worthy of a speeding ticket or two.

I'm sure a second flying lap would improve as usual, but at ~30min/lap ain't nobody got time for that

I actually think its a little too quick, I haven't driven this in some time but I was flying through the bends, seeing peaks of 0.8 lat G... I think the tyres need looking at again.
Damn slow on anything remotely uphill... Can almost hit 70mph downhill bits though

 

[Stereo]

And finally, this last one shows how dangerous it is IRL, see the cross just off the left side of the road... Do the fast driving on the virtual one, not IRL.

Hmm, guardrail should help with that one, right now it's a pretty blind corner since elevation drops a bit into the curve, seeing the rail do a dip to the right will make that more visible..



The slope of the hill right after the tunnel seemed a bit much to me but I didn't get out of the car to look at it or compare irl.

 

[guidofoc]

I've been trying the track few days ago, and sure looks promising. One thing: why do I have this feeling that the road is too wide?

 

[Brandon Wright]

I've been trying the track few days ago, and sure looks promising. One thing: why do I have this feeling that the road is too wide?

It has decent shoulders on it but I kinda like that, gives a slight room for error. I think it won't feel quite as wide once the barriers get added.

 

[aphidgod]

I certainly wouldn't mind if the spots with no shoulder IRL were made so in AC, but for the width of a 2-lane with shoulders in the US it doesn't seem far off. (Not that I've "measured" or anything.)

 

[Fat-Alfie]

The road is 16m wide (52.5 feet), from the section I measured. A quick search says the standard Interstate lane width is 3.7m, or 12 feet. This is more than twice as wide as a double-lane road

 

[aphidgod]

If you leave the shoulders out of your calculation but include them in your measurement, yes.

I just ran the Diablo here, parked perpendicular to the road it's exactly as long as the width of the outer white line to the center of the double yellow. The big beast is just under 4.5m long, so we're looking at more like 80cm of extra width per lane.

 

[Fat-Alfie]

"...about exactly..."

Agreed - white line-to-white line is 9.4m, so the shoulders are too wide? From my track-making experience, adding 2m to the track width makes a huge amount of difference (imagine if Nords was 2m wider along the length of the track?)

I think part of the problem may the constant shoulder width of the road. I only had a short look at the videos of the real road, but the shoulder seems to vary in width, between nothing and 2-3m. The AC version seems to have 3.3m (either side) along the whole length, and when it is a constant width like that, you start to perceive it as the road, not as a variable extra, and the road goes from being 24ft wide to 52 feet wide.

 

[aphidgod]

Lol... Intended to replace 'about' with 'exactly' after a second look, but just added to it instead.

I think the current shoulder width is OK, assuming it's intended to be a full-width shoulder where you can pull your car off and get entirely out of the road. That's pretty common on rural 2-lane highways here in Kansas, not sure about the LA canyons. (We have plenty of room to spread out around here, and a genuine need to accommodate large agricultural machinery...)

I'm with you on the varying shoulder widths, see my post a couple slots above. I think it would be more interesting to drive if it echoed reality in that regard. I'm just saying it's not more than twice as wide as it should be.