Gaming
Games
Project CARS 2 gets 600bhp rallycross monsters
Rallycross is coming to Project CARS 2 and we’ve got an exclusive trailer.
1 min
Project CARS 2 trailer Red Bull
Project CARS 2 trailer Red Bull
Following on from the high-octane thrills and spills of Project CARS, Project CARS 2 is heading to PC, PS4 and Xbox One later this year, and the sequel has a lot more in store for petrol heads. Earlier today, Bandai Namco announced the inclusion of rallycross for Project CARS 2, with a collection of licensed flame-spitting 600bhp cars battling for first place on some of the most demanding dirt and asphalt circuits.
Not many Civics look like this
© Slightly Mad Studios
Flat out in the Honda Rallycross Civic Coupe
© Slightly Mad Studios
The developers teamed up with legendary rallycross team OMSE, the winner of every rallycross championship title in the US and 19 X Games medals, in order to offer the most authentic experience possible. The utterly insane Honda Factory Global Rallycross Civic Coupé is included in Project CARS 2, and Slightly Mad also worked with Red Bull Global Rallycross drivers Mitchell deJong and Oliver Eriksson to make the handling as realistic as possible.
We spoke to deJong to find out more.
Pushing the limits
© Slightly Mad Studios
600bhp. In a Civic!
© Slightly Mad Studios
The Honda Factory Global Rallycross Civic Coupe
© Slightly Mad Studios
Bet you can't do this in your Honda!
© Slightly Mad Studios
What did your involvement in the creation of Project CARS 2 include?
I worked with the physics team as a car handling consultant for the rallycross cars.
Were there any particular nuances that you felt were previously missing from racing games, and has being involved with the rallycross element of Project CARS enabled you to make the difference?
The main improvement we've been able to make has been with the handling of the cars and making them more realistic. There’s a lack of rallycross in the sim world, so the addition of rallycross to Project CARS 2 is a project I’ve greatly enjoyed being involved in.
How do you actually go about feeding back information on how a rallycross car should handle, and is it easy to put it into words that developers can understand?
I take my real-life racing experiences and compare them to how the car is handling in the game. I communicate with the game engineers the same way I talk to my crew chief about setup changes I want to make on my real race car after coming off the track. It's quite similar to working with our engineers though, and it's been great working with the developers.
How close were the developers to getting the handling of a rallycross car spot on; is it something they nearly nailed straight out of the box, or did you 'drive' the car and think ‘this needs a major overhaul, it's nothing like the cars I've driven…’?
With rallycross being new to Project CARS 2, there was some fine tuning that needed to be done. For example, there were some drivetrain changes needed to make all-wheel drive mimic a real rallycross car. I feel confident that they've nailed the handling of the cars.
How does driving a rallycross car differ from the other cars in Project CARS 2, and how much work did it take to get the handling to stand out?
Rallycross is quite different in a number of ways. The tracks have dirt and pavement, so getting the grip levels right is a factor and can be tricky. The rallycross car is all-wheel drive and has a handbrake that disconnects front and rear drive, and those are just a few examples that have to be taken into consideration. In order to improve the handling, we had to make some changes to the power distribution and differentials.
For more gaming coverage, follow @RedBullGames on Twitter and Instagram and like us on Facebook.
