Tuesday 18 January 2011

Virtual Broadspeed GTS

I have never had much up with computer games. But now that the Broadspeed GTS is about to make it to the virtual world I may be tempted to give 'GT Legends' a try. One of its creators, Lasse Kärkkäinen of Finland, sent me an enthusiastic message about it:

"While the original GT Legends game featured the Austin Mini Cooper S for FIA TC-65 classification, my friends and I were annoyed that none of the faster GT Mini variants were featured. Not even Mini Marcos cars that were racing in FIA Historics in 2004. As I am a Mini freak and have been modding racing game physics over a decade, I started searching all possible information I could come up about the ultimate Broadspeed Mini. After finding basics on how much the GTS differs from the standard Cooper S, I started work on the car's physics."

"Now, about 2 months later, the car seems to be close to its release. Lots of real car information has been found during development. The car features a 1366cc A-series engine (120bhp/140Nm) with redline at 7800rpm and homologated short ratio 4-speed gearbox. Weight is reduced from the original Mini's 650kg to 490kg. Weight distribution and center of gravity have been altered with half of the car being GRP. All of this makes it pretty close what it should be, at least on top speed and acceleration seems to be what Broadspeed claimed for GTS: it reaches 140mph at the Mulsanne straight." There is a preview on youtube, click here to see it.

So what's next? "Well", says Lasse, "They have started modelling the Mini Marcos. We'll see when it gets finished."
A drive in the real thing. Picture: Jeroen Booij

4 comments:

  1. To own and drive a Unipower GT is priceless.

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  2. Feel free to write more about it. It would make a nice feature sharing your experiences with other readers.

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  3. An update from Lasse:

    "Here's few pictures how it looks from outside...
    http://sefi.dyndns.org/~nappe1/dc.net/nogrip/GTS_01.jpg
    http://sefi.dyndns.org/~nappe1/dc.net/nogrip/GTS_02.jpg
    http://sefi.dyndns.org/~nappe1/dc.net/nogrip/GTS_03.jpg

    Still fine tuning the physics, after adding adjustable anti roll bar to rear, re-estimating the weight distribution (now 69% front / 31% rear) and switching tyre physics to the ones which it should be using in FIA GTC-65 class, it became too quick, eating Elans as a breakfast in twisty tracks. Amount of top end power seems to be about right but torque curve might be a bit too aggressive, giving a bit too much power to lower end of pulling range. Dyno graph from race tuned 1360cc would be a big help, but haven't come across any. Weight (including oil and water, but no fuel and driver) is now 500 kg... Seems a bit low, but I don't have much real world weight figures for it, except one test drive report of GT 2+2 stated that GTS would have weight around 9.5 cwt."

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  4. This is close to be released... beta3 seems to be pretty much correct. Big thanks for Jeroen about this inspiring blog and some weight data.

    Soon available for download.

    Lasse 'Nappe1' Kärkkäinen

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