So, after @Taylor-Martin's challenge results post went up, I got curious. There were some discrepancies between the stats that Automation spat out and how we actually performed during the BeamNG races. I figured this was down to the drivers so I set out to test all cars under controlled conditions. Luckily BeamNG offers this, with an actual drag strip that has lights and timing. I tried to give every car a fair shake, in that I used automatic shifting to reduce variance on my part and tried again if I felt I hadn't launched a car as well as I could have.
In addition to the 1/4 mile drag, there was a 1-mile top speed run available so I ran it for shits and giggles. The results of that were quite interesting, but I'll get to that later.
1/4 mile drag results:
- Oppocar Wombat 628, @MM54 ---------------------------- 13.206 seconds
- Luxo Barge MKIV, @kgman --------------------------------- 13.349
- Lansing Gazelle 342, me ------------------------------------- 13.376
- Vulcan Motors Banshee, @Snuze --------------------------- 13.377 (so close)
- Pacific Vortex Sport 444, @CivicWagonEngineer ----------- 13.510
- Cocher El Quemador, @awa54 ------------------------------ 13.570
- XMA 380, @save_the_milanos ------------------------------- 13.681
- TSV Stryker 336 GT, @t0ast ---------------------------------- 13.898
- Madillac Mharger, @ItalianJobR53 -------------------------- 13.923
- Inmahday Grandpaa, @CarsOfFortLangley ------------------ 13.988
- Beckerman Hauler, @Jawzx2 --------------------------------- 14.048
- SK Motors Tigre B 4.4 HO, @Longtime-Lurker -------------- 14.349
- Leopard Coupe, @CaptDale-is-secretly-British ------------- 14.887
- Angler Queens, @Taylor-Martin ----------------------------- 15.252
- Sunstar Spectre, @CB ---------------------------------------- 15.313
- Ascender Jupiter, @Zenith2455 ----------------------------- 15.567
Overall, these results roughly mirrored the official 0-60 specs of the cars. Most of the last half of the field was hampered by some incredibly tall 1st gears that bogged down tremendously on launch. Some didn't shift into 2nd until 50+ mph. I suspect this was to quell Automation's wheelspin warnings, which harm both driveability and sportiness scores. Unfortunately what Automation says makes a good car doesn't always translate to BeamNG as a car that's actually good to drive. I eventually want to make a writeup that goes over these quirks because sometimes you have to choose between something that will score well in the point tallies or something that will perform well in our races.
Next up, the 1-mile top speed runs. This is where things got shaken up a bit. For the sake of "just because", I didn't actually do race launches for this round. When the green light went, I accelerated from an idle as hard as I could without any wheelspin. Our transmission choices had a huge impact here and results were all over the place. Cars that did well in the drags fell flat on their faces and vice-versa.
1-mile run results:
- Luxo Barge MKIV -------------------------- 33.30 seconds, 152mph
- Lansing Gazelle 342 ----------------------- 33.68, 167
- XMA 380 ----------------------------------- 33.70, 165
- Vulcan Motors Banshee ------------------- 33.78, 168
- Cocher El Quemador ---------------------- 33.87, 154
- TSV Stryker 336 GT ------------------------ 34.04, 150
- Beckerman Hauler ------------------------- 34.83, 148
- Oppocar Wombat ------------------------- 35.40, 127
- Pacific Vortex Sport 444 ------------------- 35.43, 132
- Madillac Mharger -------------------------- 35.38, 142
- SK Motors Tigre B 4.4 HO ----------------- 35.69, 153
- Leopard Coupe ---------------------------- 35.90, 152
- Angler Queens ----------------------------- 36.29, 139
- Sunstar Spectre ---------------------------- 36.76, 154
- Inmahday Grandpaa ----------------------- 38.05, 115
- Ascender Jupiter --------------------------- 38.49, 136
It becomes clear here who sacrificed top speed to get some good 0-60 times, as well as who geared way too high to, again, avoid losing points because of wheelspin. The three highest speed cars (Gazelle, XMA, Banshee) not only shat on everyone else's top speeds but were still accelerating like freight trains as they crossed the line. A few lower down were the same deal, but that was due to too-tall gearing. They had the power, and a few tweaks to the gearing could have drastically changed their results in both this and the official races. The rest of the top half of the field found a good balance on the gearing. They may have had middling top speeds, but they hit them quickly and were at them for a good portion of the run leading to a good elapsed time.
A few others gave me a surprise. @Taylor-Martin's Queens went perhaps a bit too period-correct with a close-geared three speed, and was pegged at top speed by the half mile mark. @CarsOfFortLangley's Grandpaa outdid this however, with a five (5!) speed geared so low he was at a top speed of 115 right past the quarter mile mark. No wonder you said you had trouble controlling it, it was spinning the tires in every gear! For reference, most of the other cars had hit top speed around the 3/4 mile checkpoint.
Well, that's it for this experiment. It ended up taking up way more of my evening than I intended, especially for something that's not part of the official challenge. Here's a nice group shot for your time:
