Hi everyone.
Has anyone got an idea on what the different chassis lengths give you.
I have always gone for medium.
I assume the different lengths play a part depending on the track, do they also play a part in the weight?
The wheelbase of the chassis is a unique characteristic of all parts to the chassis. A short wheel base will result in better cornering, but will affect the top speed of the car. A long wheel base will be the other way around; better top speed, but a negative effect on cornering. The medium length will be somewhere in the middle.
@tim: As Jean stated from the help page if you look at you car page you will see the car is broken down into the the following:
Weight: My experience has taught me that different length of chassis does effect the weight but should be looked at in three aspects; Short = light chassis quicker through corners but loses top speed, medium = balanced all round average straight line speed & average cornering speed & long high top end speed but lack cornering speed
Aerodynamics: Amount of drag on all your parts that make up your chassis effecting straight line speed.
Grip: Amount of grip generated by key parts of the car effecting the overall cornering speed of your car.
Speed: Overall speed aspect of your car includes straight line & both types of corners.
Fast corners: combination of aerodynamic & speed of the car. Some parts play a larger role then others.
Slow corners: combination of the grip & speed of the car. Again some parts play a larger role then others.
If you look at your car by individual parts you should be able to figure out which parts do what when it comes to breaking down the cars performance and this could give you an advantage some tracks versus other tracks but this hasn't been fully implemented yet.
Which is why we have track character if you click the link to the track page: Here is this weeks character:
Characteristics
Compared to all other tracks on the calendar this season, the track has the following characteristics:
• Speed Normal
• Cornering Normal
• Handling Normal
So this track benefits having an balanced car but if another track has cornering Very important then a team that has a car that has a lot of grip will perform better on this track then a car with high speed.
So when building a chassis you need to consider what your cars strength & weakness as you can help your designer by designing a chassis that can help the performance of your car.
By having a Medium chassis you have a balanced car but if you designed a different chassis length you could help you performance a bit.
Hope that helps but if you don't want to really think about it then a medium chassis is the way to go!!
Short wheel based chassis tend to be a few kgs lighter then medium but again it's based on the strengths of your cars.
I know my car is perfectly balanced so the medium chassis makes sense.
It was also why a few of us where developing multiple chassis for the past two season as having multiple chassis can help also on different tracks but they need to be looked at long term and didn't work very well due to the lack of development and production space as it cost too much to develop multiple chassis (time) and tied up production.
But the benefits where there in doing so!!
Research makes this harder to have multiple chassis.
Is it true though that "research makes this harder to have multiple chassis," if you've developed the original basis for all three chassis before research became a factor? I developed three chassis types - one for the start of S2, one during S2 and one for the start of S3. I should be able to continue building chassis for future seasons based on those initial designs.
I do agree with Matthew that I have had good success with short wheelbase chassis which generally out perform the medium chassis I've developed. Weight is definitely a factor in this (more on that shortly because weight is a significant variable here). From what I've been able to determine, based on setting up cars as closed to balanced in weight as possible (adding fuel beyond what was needed for lighter cars) and giving them the same driver, the difference between wheelbases in cars is at best minimal.
Weight is a significant variable even among chassis of the same type. I have two short, one medium and one long wheelbase chassis. The first short car has a chassis weight of 438.550 kg. At the same time I built a medium chassis that had a weight of 452.630 kg. Encouraged by the weight of the first short chassis, I ordered a second. This weighed in at 451.190 kg or about 1.5 kg less than the medium chassis and slightly under 13 kg heavier than the first short chassis. When I finally built a long wheelbase chassis, it weighed 446.340 kg which is roughly midway in weigh between the first short wheelbase car and the medium wheelbase car. I'm beginning to think the whole process is mere witchcraft.
Deviating from the topic slightly id be quite surprised if current chassis could be continually developed each season and retain their stats, it would seem very unfair as some teams will currently have great parts/chassis and will never have to do any research. I guess we will find out next season but i think this outcome will be unlikely, it would create a divide and then people would just quit.
