Anybody know how to modify a mod car?

I would like to have a car like mine on the sim that is actually like my car so I can get some seat time in it and have some fun, the problem is that nothing I can find is like it. I know it's possible to create a vehicle from scratch but I'm not technically savvy enough to do it but am willing to pay someone else to do it. Here's what I need: 1967 or 1968 Camaro with 600-700 hp, 6 gears with adjustable ratios, sticky tires and firm suspension with adjustable dampers, sway bars and tire pressures, Traction control and adjustable brake bias. It needs to work with Assetto Corsa

What's the goal?  To have your car in the game for fun?  Or to realistically simulate the driving of your car?

If its the former, a few of us could help you approximate it by tweaking values on an already existing Camaro, and possibly a few visual tweaks.   1967 or 1968 Camaro with 600-700 hp, 6 gears with adjustable ratios, sticky tires and firm suspension with adjustable dampers, sway bars and tire pressures, Traction control and adjustable brake bias.  <--- That part is all doable with just numbers in a few different files.  Easy to do.  

Now if you want it to be really accurate for simulation purposes, it could be a whole rabbit hole.  Accurately modeling some of the visual stuff is another level of difficulty.  Some of the suspension work might require getting accurate geometry measurements off the car, etc.  

If you want to spend $$ and make something super serious, reach out to this guy:  https://btm-simsport.com/



 

In reply to TravisTheHuman :

I would like to realistically simulate my car but I also have realistic goals for accuracy. I don't expect it to be exactly like my car but if the rate of acceleration, braking and turning were pretty close, I would be happy. I would like the 6 gear ratios to be accurate to my car as well. If the car looked like my car, that would be a bonus.

I could probably get you something close.  Do you have discord?  There are a few of us in the GP Simpsorts league who have done enough tinkering that could help.

In reply to TravisTheHuman :

I do not have Discord. Let me know how I can help

Are you willing to share the data here?

if so, right off the bat the easiest thing to dial in is the powertrain.  Can you post a dyno, trans ratios, and rear end ratios?

For suspension, what wheel/tire combo do you run?  Do you know your wheel rates?  Sway bar rates?

I can take a Camaro from one of our car packs tonight and rough something in.

I can share the data here. I have the front and rear suspension loaded into Performance Trends software so I can tell you almost everything. I don't have a dyno graph but it made 558 wheel hp @ 6484 rpm and 485 ft/lbs @4951 rpm. The gear ratios are 2.66, 1.78, 1.30, 1.00, .80, .63 with a rear ratio of 3.89 and tire height of 25.6". Tires are 315/30-18's at all 4 corners, 12" wide wheels and the grippiest 200TW tires available. Redline is 7100 rpm. Front wheel rate is 430, rear wheel rate is 285. Front sway bar is 450 lb/in to 650 lb/in with 6 adjustments, rear bar is non-adjustable at 176 lb/in. wheelbase is 108 inches. front suspension is double a-arm and rear is solid axle with a torque arm and Panhard bar. Weight of the car is 3300 lbs with me in it and the weight balance is 54% front and 46% rear. CG is 16 inches high

Well, this has made me dust off some garbage files which is good.  I've got something started, but I'll be in and out the next few days, then gone for a few weeks.  Hopefully one of the other guys will jump in and take over.  Especially @aircooled who can probably get the skin correct. This looks fun.

This is the power curve I came up with based on your numbers (blue = hp).  I'm not sure how meaty that tq curve is down low, we may need to adjust some values.



 

Several people's cars have been simulated in Assetto Corsa.  We did a Mini that was going to be raced in the one lap so we simulated the car's physics in a mini of the same year and then ran the tracks that one lap was going to that year as a series in the GP Simsports League. That was a bunch of fun.   The mini that was created is still one of my favorite cars in the game to take out on the Targafloria. 
 

I have an excellent recreation of my daily driver CLS550.  In all its under steering glory.  
 

We can do a decent job of the stance and the tire width and tire placement under the car using the car editor that is part of content manager. I have done that. The cool part is how a car looks does not change how it drives. The car physics are all controlled through data files. This includes the suspension and its geometry. Pro is very good at messing with this stuff.   
 

I am almost positive I have a 68 or 69 Camaro in one of the car packs we have raced.  One of the biggest things will be getting the proper tire model under the car.  
 

This looks like a really fun car by the way!!!   Who knows it could become a series.  I have wanted to do a series with cars of the people that we are racing with. It could be your DD commuter or your track car or your fun weekend car.   This may be the start of something!!!   
 

Once Pro gets the car set up Air is the master of paint an graphics   He did this the other day in short order for the race announcer that has been streaming our races on YouTube.   
 

I started with the ACL 68 Camaro from the Trans Am series.  They make high quality mods so I believe it will be more than good enough for this use case.

Certainly much closer than the Brad_Mini we ran in the past.

I'll put some more time into it on Sat and should have a solid beta test car.

It's doable without a huge amount of work if you can find a similar Camaro (ideally a stock one of the same model) to start with. I have a "digital twin" of my Toyobaru in AC that has all the performance mods of the real car and matches it pretty closely (close enough that I've been able to virtually test parts before buying them and simulate the changes quite accurately), using basically the same method ProDarwin describes:

https://viewsync.net/watch?v=QiU9Gh6NF-U&t=0&v=eYFJk0CS4jE&t=3.5&mode=solo

When you're starting confirm that your base car's suspension linkages and fuel tank are in the right place (a mislocated fuel tank is one of the most common inaccuracies I run across). For sway bars if you can find the stiffness of your aftermarket bars vs. stock that will be very helpful. I like to program in all the available rates at different bar settings and then comment out the lines for the ones I'm not using, that way it's easy to "adjust bars" by changing which lines are commented out in the suspension file (unfortunately the in-game adjustable bars don't let you switch between specific rates, there are only range and step options sort of like a rotating-blade adjustable bar).

One other thing to be aware of is that in AC, every diff is simulated as some variety of clutch diff with different power, preload, and coast (decel) settings. These are set to simulate different diff types and diff settings. So an open diff would have all 3 at zero, a spool would have all 3 set crazy high, and any kind of torsen or clutch diffs would have some settings in between to suit.

(Edited to match diff terminology to what's used in AC)

Yeah, that would be a rather simple livery.  The splitter, spoiler and hood bump probably won't be there (though I could probably give some hint of them).  That would require messing with the 3D model.

Of note is that many of the stats you quoted are pretty easy to mod in an AC car, but... weight distribution is a royal pain since the suspension locations are based on distances from the cg!

I am wondering though, since Gameboy noted that fuel tanks are commonly in the wrong place, could you mod the cg by moving the tank? (And potentially artificially carry extras fuel). Total weight is super easy to mod, so it could even be a big tank.

You did not mention brakes, I suspect they are very good(!). That is super easy to mod also.  Probably the best way to do that would be to figure out the tires first (which might be best found by comparing lateral g's) then just adjust until a set stopping distance is the same.

The brakes are 14" discs in front with 6 piston calipers and the rear are 10" discs with 4 piston calipers. The fuel tank is in the stock location under the trunk just in front of the rear bumper. The diff is a Torsen T2R. I had no idea that the cars could be so accurate to the real thing, that's amazing. 

I put a folder for this car inside the TESTING folder:

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1gt9NbVrpdPYGqYn5r2bUE5KE4C1KKE1u
 

It has the first rev, which really only has the engine mods so far.  In the spreadsheet I made a crude kanban:

I doubt the spreadsheet will be used for much else, but any calculators needed can be setup in there.  The "power" tab allows you to put in dyno numbers and get out exactly what needs to be put into power.lut and ui_car.json (yellow = input, blue = calc, green = output for copy/paste)

This allows us to actually have accurate car info for once in CM:



 

In reply to TravisTheHuman :

Use this dyno graph, it should be spot on what my car makes.

Dunno what the interior of your model will look like but here's mine

In reply to TravisTheHuman :

I don't know if it's relevant but the cars actual 0-60 mph, measured with a Dragy is 4 seconds flat.

This is a great conversation, as modeling your real-world car on a sim is incredibly useful for both learning new tracks and testing changes.

I've worked up a pretty good analogue for our K-swapped Miata from a Spec Miata on AC, but I'm still making small tweaks.  What it lacks most is aero, and I have no idea how to go about adding it.

loosecannon said:

In reply to TravisTheHuman :

I don't know if it's relevant but the cars actual 0-60 mph, measured with a Dragy is 4 seconds flat.

That number (and max speed) is just a "stat" that appears when browsing cars in CM - no correlation to actual performance in game.

I'll change it to 4 flat though

Is it possible to give the car a few levels of traction control?

In reply to aircooled :

Weight distribution changes are tedious and annoying but doable...first you should take a side-on screenshot of the car in the showroom before you start because this will be your visual reference for putting the wheels back in place (!). Then you start by setting the CG_LOCATION in suspensions.ini and massaging it until the DISTR number in the Car Physics app matches the target weight distribution (this is what matters, CG_LOCATION isn't the same because it's for dry unsprung weight IIRC). You then play with the third GRAPHICS_OFFSET number in car.ini to relocate the wheels back where they're supposed to be.

In reply to loosecannon :

Yes, we just recently added some sweet racing-grade adjustable ETC and ABS systems to some '60s cars in our AC league.

In reply to GameboyRMH :

Thanks for the CG info. 

Regarding the interior:  That is in the 3D model, so that is not easy to change.

Another "data" point that might be useful is, let say, 6 to 10 tracks you have run on, or want to run on.  With that, and your model, we might be able to provide you with some track times to shoot for (and likely will never reach!) and some replays of how they were done.  (this is what we call "the Sauce effect" )

loosecannon said:

Is it possible to give the car a few levels of traction control?

That is simple. I can do that. This other stuff is where the others in this thread are really good at.  I did the cars in the current series. I used the TC and ABS files from the Kunos McLaren GT3 car. It is a very well sorted setup.  

Luckily the F/R balance of the ACL car is exactly the same as Loosecannons car, so no shenanigans needed there.  Haven't messed with CG height