GT86 - AC vs Real Life

Cross post from Reddit because someone suggested I give the same feedback here: https://www.reddit.com/r/assettocorsa/comments/4df7aq/gt86_ac_vs_real_life/

I wrote up this comparison hoping for feedback from other GT86 owners because it is an obtainable car compared to the rest of the AC stable

Hi fellow racers! I recently returned to AC after the 1.5 update (coincidentally). I must say that it feels fantastic. I didn't know the tyre model had changed so drastically since I last played, and for me it feels a lot more realistic. There is just so much more communication from the car, and the difference between tyre compounds is a lot more manifest in the FFB department.

I own a GT86 in the "real world" and I've been to a few track events with it, so I decided to really give it a go in AC for comparison. I set up with Street tyres and 0 alignment all round to try and match my daily. What's my verdict?

• Power delivery / gear lengths feel spot on
• 3D modeling / accurace feels spot on. The bumps over the front wheels are just visible from the cockpit as reference points, same as the real thing. They're a bit low-poly though
• Sound is pretty accurate as far as engine noise goes, but the sound delivery in AC feels very isolated and non-immersive. I also have a downpipe installed and wouldn't mind a bit more rumble in the sim
• Grip levels for Street tyres seems to match my experience, although the game feels slightly grippier than what I'm used to. This depends on a ton of factors including the track, temps and configured grip level. So I'll still play around with that
• The balance of the car feels pretty good (at what rate it spins out, centre of balance, handling characteristics over the limit). I've done a lot of skidpan schenanigans and I just wish my G27 could clamp down better on my desk. Catching slides isn't as much fun when everything wobbles.
• Suspension feels too soft (more on that now)
  • /u/Icecreamtruc disagrees: "Suspension wise, I actually feel the oposite from you. My car feels slower during transitions than in-game. Maybe my shocks are worn down (36k Kms, and 3 years of racing on stock suspension)"

The only grip I have is the suspension. I could swear than in my own car, I can do left-right transitions a lot faster without destabiliing the car. In AC, it feels like the car really sits hard on the springs under cornering (fine), but the recovery is not so good. It's very easy to get the car super loose in AC just by giving the wheel a wiggle. In the "real" world the car just feels a touch more planted.

Otherwise, it really is a blast driving "your own" car through all these exotic locations . Does anyone else here have a GT86 with their own comments? Is your experience similar or do you find AC doesn't really match up to your expecations of how the car behaves?

TL;DR I drive a GT86 in "real life" and in "sim life". The sim is scary accurate in my opinion. How does it compare for you?

/u/Icecreamtruc owns an FR-S and agrees that the sim feels accurate
/u/MegadetH_44 own(ed) a BRZ and agrees that the sim feels accurate

 

Thanks Aristotelis! I'm from South Africa. Here, the BRZ comes with stiffer springs than the 86 (but that might be a global thing). I drive the 86.

 

One thing that all of us can agree on here is that Kunos has made a great job, considering the fact that one has to dig deep into the miniature sub-model differences between markets to explain where exactly the car is different from reality! Imagine what AC 3.0 would look like in 2026 as it wasn't so long ago (2006) when we drove simplistic physics model and called them 'sims'. Utterly amazing. <3 Kunos.

 

I have done a similar writeup when the GT86 first got released. I am able to do better laptimes in the sim than in real life, which I write down to it being a "rental" in the game, and according to Jeremy Clarkson a rental is the fastest car ...IN THE WORLD!

I agree that the car feels pretty much spot on for a brand new GT86 with brand new tires on it, in ideal conditions. It doesn't lose the performance in game the way it does in real life (power due to temperature (and altitude?), grip due to wear and heat cycling, brakes due to temp and wear). But aside from that the balance seems to match my european GT86 very well. I had it on upgraded suspension for a while which brought it a bit closer to BRZ in terms of spring balance (The Eibach PRO springs sit right in between the GT86 and the BRZ in spring stiffness). The BRZ feels a bit more planted in real life due to a less playful setup (stiffer front, softer rear=more understeer) and the Eibachs are a perfect compromise. The stock GT86 is really alive over the rear suspension, which makes it feel like it's about to step out, but once you learn the limits it's really easy to play with it right up to, and over the limit.

I noticed in my last trip to the Ring that the rears would overheat near the end of the lap. They don't seem to do that in the game. Granted, we had air temps of 39C and God knows what the surface temps were (the marshals said the track temps were clsoe to 70C, but I have no idea. Way too hot to touch, anyway), and I had a passenger for most of my laps. By the time I got to Swalbenschwantz my rears would feel greasy and the ESC (sport mode) would start to hold me back quite severely.
Another thing I noted in that heat was that with the TCS in normal mode it would cut power in almost every corner and slight bumps due to the high slip angles, so grip was pretty low at all times. Going up Klostertal was really slow with the ESC in normal due to the bumps, so the car thought I was slipping tires. In sport it only cut in occationally, and it was tolerable. I'm not quite ready to let that particular crutch go just yet, even if I'm sure I would be a little faster with it switched off. That is probably down to the rear tires getting pretty worn at that point, and heat cycled many times over about 4 months.

Other visits to the Ring has been slightly cooler, but I've never driven there in the "normal" 20 or so degrees. My first visit to the Ring with the car was on the stock eco tires. At that point they had a lot of km on them, a few trackdays and quite a bit of parking lot shenanigans. Grip on those seemed less affected by temperature, they were basically equally crap no matter what the temperature was.

The model is good, even though the visual representation is a little off (car is lowered and got wheel spacers in the 3D model, not in the physical model).
Sound is not too bad, it's pretty accurate for a stock exhaust. Torque curve got the same annoying dip in the midrange as the real car, which is a great thing. It's a very important characteristic of the car and they way it has to be driven.

All in all it gives me great confidence in the other cars, because if they get even the lowly GT86 this accurate, the other cars must be pretty much spot on as well. And it will only get better as the physics engine evolve. I can't wait!

 

They don't have the GT86in the US as far as I know? It's sold as the Scion FR-S (Toyota FRS now that the Scion brand is out)

 

Just for the record, here are the spring rates for the different models:

Code:

Front and rear spring rates and ride height (compared to reference)
OEM Toyota 86       0.0"/2.3k      0.0"/3.3k    
OEM Toyota GT86 (EU)0.0"/2.3k      0.0"/3.3k   
OEM Scion FR-S M/T  0.0"/2.3k      0.0"/3.8k
OEM Scion FR-S A/T  0.0"/2.3k      0.0"/3.8k 
OEM Subaru BRZ M/T  0.0"/2.7k      0.0"/3.5k  
OEM Subaru BRZ A/T  0.0"/2.7k      0.0"/3.5k  
TRD (same set on CO)0.6"/3.5k 0.6"/5.8k
Eibach Pro-Kit 1.0"/3.6k 1.0"/4.9k

As you can see the GT86 is the same in EU and JDM
The FR-S is stiffer in the rear than the GT86, making it even MORE playful than the stock GT86
The BRZ is stiffer overall, but balance compared to GT86 is toward understeer, and a proper barge compared to the FR-S

Edit:
Added TRD and Eibach Pro for reference

 

Sound: i cant say much, because my one has a few modofications (stock sound is really really crap).

The gear ratio seems to be incorrect, but maybe this is because of the incorrect speed-display in the real car (you allways have a deviation).
The handling seems to be very accurate.

btw:
I modded my licence plate into AC, so i can drive my real car

 

What's wrong with the gear ratios? I never noticed anything amiss.

Sent fra min SM-N910F via Tapatalk

 

Just to add my 5 cents.. I was gunna make a post the other day about how stiff the gt86 was irl.. As i was taken a back a little.

I have one in at work and i drove it from my old unit to the new one and i noticed it straight away. The car in ac feels soft and really supple.. And its quite hard to get the rear out even on street tyres compared to the real one.

 

I wish AC had more cars people may actually get to experience in rl. It's interesting reading people's comparisons with in game and reality. I feel the devs will have easy access to these cars also so are able to validate the driving experience in game maybe.

Leon Cupra, Audi S3, AMG A45, Focus RS, Megane 275, Golf R (my biased choice as I have one lol...)???

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_automobiles
They only need to aquire a volkswagen license

Thanks to @LostSalad and @Atle Dreier for sharing!

 

When they create the Toyota Camry in-game, I'm your man for feedback!

 

I wouldn't say it was stiff, but it's a little harsh for sure. For the kind of roll stiffness it has it's actually sprung pretty softly due to the low CoG. It could well do with some stiffer dampers at high speed (autobahn, track straights), but that's not what the car is about, really. It's all about having a blast at "low" speeds.

One factor of the car not being that easy to chuck about in the sim is our wheels. Even the T500 is too slow to countersteer when you throw the car into a slide, like in the video below.

Picture below is at about 0.8G on street tyres (Michelin Pilot Sport 3).

 

I also regularly track an 86 and agree it feels scarily accurate in Assetto Corsa.

The only problem is that no one has a standard un modified 86 so I've kinda forgotten what the OEM model feels like.

@Aristotelis, I think this car really deserves some S variants or some tuning options (if ever a car in the game did) because the car has so much potential.

It is very difficult to compare spring rates on face value because the standard car leans on the bump stops quite early into the shocks travel.

I probably shouldn't say this but i've modified the data file to reflect my cars mods and made a duplicate 86 (suspension, power, final drive etc) and it is feels very familiar.

 

So you are telling me you drive with TCS and ESC and other training wheels on trackdays, or the Ring? Clearly you are arcade and hold no simulation value. Sim forums have taught me this.

Great write-ups though. I love reading user feedback comparing their cars to virtual ones. Wish more was available, I remember something similar for a Lotus 2-11 some time ago.

 

It's a little safety barrier since a crash in track is a trifle more expensive than in the sim. The fear factor is real, it makes me drive with margins that feels ridiculous in the sim. It's incredible to drive the real thing though. The Ring is intimidating as hell!

Sent fra min SM-N910F via Tapatalk

 

Sorry, I forgot to add more smileys. I was purely joking in sarcasm at the real-er than real life simulation experts, elitists and makebelieve purists you can find on forums.
There's no way I would drive the Ring in a real car with safety systems off unless I had a good 2000 laps under my belt... errrr wheels.

 

Damn, these spring rates are soft as hell, lol... I've got 5.6kg front, 4.1kg rear on my Miata and it's still soft. Going 9.0kg/6.2kg or so next year most likely. The former tho rides way better on the street than stock, it has to be said. I would assume that the suspension geometry on the FR-S makes it different ? Surely it can't be that soft.

As for the FR-S... I drove one recently. Sport mode was training wheels, omg it was way too intrusive. I thought I had turned everything off, but apparently not. Took me one on-ramp to swear at it and turn it off properly