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wickedrune 2024-04-12

I did it I made a 191 mph car it is mostly about aerodynamics but other wise you just need the 2nd best engine and all of the lightest parts and there you have it a 191 mph car oh yeah and use the lightest and smallest tires

NATHAN 2022-11-18

@Tech2000, Unfortunately when I wrote my comment, I did not understand that one person's saves are not visible to others. I saved my 191 MPH design locally on my laptop, but then I dropped my laptop and damaged the drive, so I am unable to look up the details of my design. I also am currently unable to recreate that top speed. :-( The top speed must be very sensitive to some minor detail, probably something to do with the aerodynamics b/c I would be able to get the rest correct by trial and error. I do remember that I had to use smaller tires, not ones that you would expect a race car to use. I suppose the width of the tire might be a factor in the drag calculation, or maybe the tire weight is a factor.

In designing the body shape, remember that this is not a real wind tunnel. It is some sort of approximation of the aerodyanmics, and so the shape that works best in the program is not the same as the shape that would work best in real life. In particular, the optimal shape was less smooth that it would be in real life. In real life corners would cause the flow to separate, but the program does not seem to capture this. Or if it does capture it, it looks over a fairly short distance to determine the local slope. I think the trick was to basically shrink wrap the body to the car as tightly as possible, but at the same time avoiding steeper angles than necessary. The 191 MPH body consisted of segments of straight diagonal lines (e.g., over two, up one over two, up one, etc...) It also matters which front and rear ends you choose b/c these will anchor the front and back of the body in different locations, and this has aerodynamic implications. With that said, I am still unable to recreate it myself. Unfortunately I cannot remember which front and back end ended up working best. I do recall that it was important, though.

Nickname 2022-04-09

how do i get good low speed cornering?

grind 2022-02-20

Pretty fun

IKNOWNOTHINGABOUTCARS 2020-12-22

i know nothing about cars so this is confusing

StarkN7 2020-11-19

They used this at my middle school in 2002! I wonder how long they kept it up?

TECH2000 2020-10-05

Nathan, I'm unable to load your saves. I'd love to see how you got 191MPH though, that's amazing!

U.R Handsome 2019-07-26

As a person who knows nothing about cars, I approve.

Nathan 2018-04-22

Well, this was a fun blast from the past. I played this game as a kid in the 80s and was fascinated by the aerodynamics aspect of this game. Now I'm an aerospace engineer and I have often wished I could play this again to try to figure out how the game computes the drag. Still not sure what equations are used, but I have noticed a few things about it. The width of the tires affects the drag, which I had not noticed as a kid. Also the streamlines as shown might not match the actual flow separation point in the rear. I find that the shape that gives lowest drag actually appears in the graphic to have separated flow starting at the driver seat, yet the computed drag seems to still correspond to attached flow. Anyway, I got the drag down to 332 with a coefficient of .210000. My car got to 191mph. I've saved the car as "191MPH" and the body shape as "drag332" if anyone is interested. If anyone can beat that drag number, please comment here and tell me how you did it! And save your car and/or body design in the game so I can see it. I am curious to know what the "best" design is according to the game's equations.

PS. To get to 191mph, I had to use the *second* most powerful engine. I am not sure why. Maybe weight is more important than the final 10 HP?

Larro 2018-01-11

181 mph top speed. That's the best I can get