Best Sim for F8X realism?

[mKilgore]

I am cross-posting this in the "Sim Racing" forum as well, but I know some of you track-addicts have sim rigs and would value your input. While being late to the party, I am building a sim rig to do some practicing for new tracks, as well as to develop a better understanding of how to make adjustments on the car and the results they produce, i.e., increasing/decreasing compression/rebound, soften/stiffen roll bars, mess with alignment settings, etc.

I am wondering what sim best emulates a "track-focused" M4, and if that requires a specific mod or what. I see that both ACC and iRacing have the M4 GT4, but I'm not sure if you can dumb the car down enough to better represent a street car. Maybe there's a mod out there that is better representative of the street car?

My M4 is on MCS2WR, BW roll bars, full SPL control arms, GTS aero, 200TW RE-71RS, and AP Racing brakes. So not quite a street car, and definitely not a GT4 car, but somewhere in between.

Thoughts? Would love to hear your feedback.

[RugbyBro]

Assetto Corsa - the MNBA F80 & F82 packs are pretty good and will get you in the ball park of handling characteristics. Nukedrop makes pretty good tracks as well. I’m finding sim useful for learning tracks and trying new things (lines, throttle application, braking zones, etc.)

I don’t think any game does suspension adjustments very well though, at least not well for HPDE type cars. I drive a modified F80 in the game that has similar acceleration, braking, and lap times. I couldn’t tell you if it handles exactly like my car but visually it’s doing all the right things and reacts in a similar way under throttle and braking.

[SYT_Shadow]

It depends a lot on mindset.
If you want to learn how the track goes and learn about braking areas, any sim 'works'.
If you want to understand how your car will handle at a track and try new lines that again, apply to YOUR CAR, then
assetto corsa with an add on that allows you to drop power and add a ton of weight to it.
You can build a car that handles just like a track M car and use the game to actually learn things that apply in real life.

I've used other sims as well, and find it supremely useless to drive around in cars that share nothing in terms of handling characteristics with what I drive on the track. I don't have time to play computer games, if I'm on the sim it's to learn more about track handling of a car similar to mine.

Iracing, etc are cool programs, but unless you own a M4 GT4 or a M4 GT3, they are close to worthless to understand handling of your car.

[jfritz27]

In iRacing, I haven't found a way to do it. I've "de-tuned" (power and weight) the M4 GT4 as much as possible, along with matching springs and suspension settings to my car as much as possible, and the thing still has way too much grip (10-15+ sec advantage at WGI, for example).

[Driver407]

I've played racing games my entire life. Had a sim rig for the last 10+ years.
Went down this path many times trying to find the "ideal" setup to practice the F80 when i got mine in 2018.

Original Assetto Corsa is really the only answer for F8X. As it is native.
No matter what sim/game/setup/mod you have. It just doesn't get as close to AC.
I was very close in lap times for a few years. Until I really mastered the car IRL.

The issue arises when you have a few mods on your IRL f8x. Mainly modern 200tw tires, coils, and bbk. (Which you are already running)
Once you have those... It becomes nearly impossible to lap faster in game than real life pace. You usually start to surpass what your capable of in game by a few seconds.

I have found that tweaking the car in game can help learn the concepts. However it didnt really translate to it "feeling" like our irl car with the same settings. As in... making it handle/feel/control 1:1. Could never get it to feel right.

Which at a certain point means the translation layer is broken. There is less to gained from the sim. You cant really practice the line how you need anymore.
It merely becomes a place to learn new track layouts and their associated braking/shifting points. Finding proper steering inputs. etc.

I always run a 20 minute sim session a few days before a track event. Just to get my brain and hands synced.

There is definitely tooooons that a sim can teach to anyone who doesn't have previous car control knowledge. Once you hit a certain level in real life tho. It becomes diminishing returns.
Took me a few years to really hone in on this difference.

[mKilgore]

Thank you all for your comments, they are very helpful!

[4Y_stack_acceleration]

Google Tony Cooke's M4 Comp LHD mod for Assetto Corsa - he designed that mod around his own M4 (Bootmod3 stg1, KW CS suspension)

[Theruleslawyer]

Asetto Corsa is best. 1) you can get local tracks. I can run most of the ones I actually visit, not just big name pro tracks. 2) you can find or modify a car that matches your car irl pretty close. I used the apex taxi m4. It feels fairly close to how mine is setup. I don't like the semi slicks much though. They feel more like summer tires than a modern 200tw tire.

[drroc]

you can also try rfactor2 with the M2CS racing car. They also have a laser scanned Laguna Seca track that you can buy.