TPTCC 's DTM 2002 machines

by Christian Roy
For many years, The Pits Touring Car Championship has been using "Touring" cars converted from Papyrus' NASCAR Racing series. The GT/Touring car bodies created by Gilles Benoit were pretty lovely, and it was a real "tour de force" to achieve, because of the limitations of Papy's 3D models structure. The series offered a lot of fun, and became very popular (see TPTCC History), but though the cars looked right, the driving sensation remained too close to that of Winston Cup stock cars- so basically, our driving style didn't require any adaptation. Indeed, the "locked" physics from these Nx titles made it hard to simulate real tourers, and this limited the possibilities that the TPTCC crew had in mind...

Then came NASCAR Heat, and it's "open" physics structure allowed the creation of great mods such as DTM. Now, for the first time, we had to learn how to drive cars other than the standard heavy weight and high torque stock cars. In addition to that, DTM-Heat offers the challenge of discovering a new driving technique, that of an All Wheel Drive road racing beast... ;)

In real touring cars(especially in Division1), besides engine power, chassis weight and drivetrain layout, other features play a major role for a car's efficiency. To name a few, low center of gravity, wide track, suspension design, and weight distribution, all of which have great influence in improving a car's performance.

That last feature was an area where Mercedes worked very hard when they developped a new C200 for the '94 DTM. Being RWD only, the Merc was a bit disadvantaged in terms of acceleration grip, so the engine was installed very far back in the chassis, even extending partially inside the cockpit. Not having a front drivetrain allowed the engineers to place the engine basically behind the front wheels. This created a very well balanced car, and the added weight distribution towards the rear helped a lot to compensate for the handicap of 2WD vs 4WD. 

This 'mid-front' engine layout, forced the drivers to be installed very deep back in the cockpit, even behind the "B" pillar, so it took them some time to feel comfortable in this driving position, but it's a solution that proved to be efficient, cause the "C-class" became a very successful machine...

 

An interesting note about the engine: It didn't exist within the Mercedes car line. So they used one of their bigger V8's, and litterally "chopped" 2 cylinders out of it, to create their 2.5 liter / 90 degree V6...(obviously, this was permitted by the DTM rules).

In DTM-Heat, we don't benefit from this great weight distribution, so the Mercedes struggles a bit to exit the turns as efficiently as it's AWD opponents. It demands a little more 'attention' under hard acceleration and late braking, but it's front end really "bites" well at corner entries, and she's got good high speed stability. So, when driven with 'finesse', it still remains a very competitive machine in the Sim...

When Alfa Romeo entered the DTM championship in 1993, they decided to develop an AWD version of their 155 V6 Ti. They were successful pretty quickly, and the Alfa became a popular choice for the privateers from the 1994 season on. It has the shortest wheelbase of the 3 cars, so it's not too bad in tight turns for an all wheel drive car, but it's not as stable as the others at high speed. This characteristic, and possibly a higher torque ratio for the front axle, created the impression that it behaved a little like a FWD car, as many TPTCC drivers experienced in DTM-Heat.

In real, and in the Sim, this Italian beauty is very competitive, and real fun to drive aggressively. Especially when using trail braking- it's tail goes a little wild, and you need to really get on the gas to use the pulling traction of it's front drivetrain, as this will bring back the nose of the car towards the turn's inside...

Opel was already involved in the DTM series - with the Omega - before they entered the Calibra V6 in the middle of 1993. Like Alfa, they chose an AWD configuration, and although the engine was good right away, they struggled a bit with the chassis. Their first victory came in '94, and it's really from mid '95, with a new car and engine design, that they became serious contenders on a regular basis.

The car probably has a more severe understeering nature than it's opponents, especially at low speed, but it's very efficient in high speed turns, and when recovering from wild "4 wheel drifts". To go fast with the Calibra, most drivers will develop a pretty stiff rear setup to create some throttle and 'trail braking' oversteer. Plus, most turns need to be entered a little later than with the other cars, as this will reduce some mid-corner understeer, and allow re-acceleration sooner...

When this car is driven properly, it becomes a pretty fast beast...