This weekend’s challenge is the 1952 Mercedes-Benz W194 at Le Mans Bugatti

Why the W194?

Because legends. This is the car that won the PanAmerica, the ’Ring, and Le Mans in one epic season. It’s also, as Project CARS’ Vehicle Lead Casey Ringley notes, a difficult car to drive on the limit. The engine is strong from 4000-6000rpm, peaking at 180hp near 5,200RPM. The low drag is impressive, but that comes with a fair amount of aero lift. There’s also a big fuel tank slung way out back, so handling balance changes dramatically over the course of a fuel stint. Weight distribution changes by something like 10 percent rear to front as that burns off, so keep that in mind when you’re challenging Nic’s time. The suspension design is also very old fashioned. Zero caster, camber or steer axis inclination at the front means steering often feels quite vague, and the swing axle rear is responsible for some spooky handling. It combines the fun of very high camber change with a very high rear roll center. Not exactly a recipe for the most stable rear end. You’ve been warned!

Why Le Mans Bugatti?
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Because summer! The W194 scored an unlikely win at Le Mans in 1952. But we thought you’d prefer the shorter challenge of the Bugatti configuration with the W194. And don’t forget to read our four reasons why the W194 may well be the most epic drive in Project CARS here. 

Project CARS’ Vehicle Lead, Casey Ringley, forensically dismantles Toyota’s Le Mans challenger.
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The Toyota TS040 was, for many of us here, the highlight of the Japanese Car Expansion Pack. Working out the details for these hybrid LMP1s is always a real challenge, because manufacturers never give out detailed technical info’ for current race cars (rightfully so), and that means we have to go into full forensic science-mode to sort out the details. 

It helps, too, that the TS040 is an absolute hoot to drive. Where its main opposition, the Audi R18 e-tron, is only mildly hybridized in the 2MJ class and consequently drives mostly like a ‘normal car’, this thing has a Mario Kart Golden Mushroom on it. These hybrids are really odd creatures, and the TS040 is no exception. It’s the fastest car with a low top speed that you'll ever drive, and obtaining the fastest lap is all about acceleration, not top speed advantage. It’s a strange feeling because, in order to maximize lap times, you’ll have lower top speeds at your disposal than a GT3 car, but you’ll be getting to top speed so much more quickly resulting in lap times over 20s per lap faster at tracks where they run these hybrids in real-life.
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Strange creatures indeed—but let’s get back to forensic science: here are our dissection notes. 

The Holy Grail of setup is a configuration that allows for maximum top speed with maximum cornering grip. In aero’ cars with wings, this means setting the lowest wings possible while maintaining cornering stability. As with everything in the black arts of setup, however, perfection is not the goal—compromise is. High wings mean more downforce, and more downforce means higher cornering speeds with the cost of extra drag. Extra drag slows your top-speed, and so you’re back to compromise. 

The track will ultimately determine which way you want to go: but remember, if you sacrifice too much speed, you’re going to find cars blowing by you on the straight, and it won’t matter if you’re faster through the turns because you’ll have lost track position. Compromise, sometimes, also means a car that feels unstable through the twisty bits. And, of course, wings don’t work at low speeds; if you’re slipping and sliding through hairpins, your wing configuration isn’t the problem.

By now you’ve hopefully tried the W194 in Project CARS. If you’re like the rest of us, you probably came to the first braking point, hit the brakes, and went sailing off into the trees. Or perhaps you managed to get the thing slowed down in time, only to find yourself facing the wrong way after an injudicious use of the gas pedal. There’s no denying it; of all the fine machinery simulated for Project CARS, the W194 is perhaps the most challenging to master due to it age (over 60 years old), its primitive suspension, dodgy tyres, and adult-only tendency to shake its rear-end at the merest provocation.

The one unique thing about simulation is that you get to drive exotic machinery that is inaccessible in the real world. With the W194, it doesn’t matter if you’re a billionaire or a professional racing driver—unless you’re going to break into the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart, you’re never going to get a chance to push it to its sublime limits. There are hardly any actual examples of this legendary sports-car left. There is one—the restored Le Mans-winning W194 that does the rounds at upmarket Concours d'Elegance (Chassis 194/07, if you’re a stickler for these things). You can look at it, if you want. Touch it, even, stroke the smooth aluminium body (but be careful, because you can puncture it with your finger). Maybe, if you’re really lucky, you’ll get a chance to slide through the gull wing doors and get behind the wheel. 

Sharing the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT No. 28 Audi R8 LMS with Laurens Vanthoor and Nico Müller, René Rast started the 24 Hours Of Spa this weekend from pole position, and was in the running for another win at the legendary event when bad luck quite literally hit the two-time Spa 24 Hours winner. 

Why the Formula B?
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Because Ben Collins. The former Stig, in his interview (you did read it, right?) on Tuesday, chose the Formula B around Oulton Park as his favorite car/track combo’ in Project CARS. Not surprising, of course, because Ben was a bit of a legend in his single seater days for both his speed and propensity for some wild and spectacular shunts! In his days on Top Gear, Ben claimed a few decent scalps as the man who set the benchmark for speed on the show: drivers like Nigel Mansell and Jenson Button tried and failed to beat his time.

Now it’s your turn … do you have what it takes?

Why Oulton Park?

Because … Ben Collins. Again? Ben is a master of the sweeps and turns and undulations around the incredibly challenging Cheshire-based track. There are secrets amongst those hills, and you’ll need to discover them if you’re going to challenge Ben Collins on his favorite Project CARS track.

Are you fast enough to challenge the ex-Stig?

And if, for some reason, you still haven't done so, check out the interview here.

We were fortunate enough to work directly with IndyCar Series’ Schmidt Peterson Motorsports on the Dallara DW12, and their engineering team came through with a mountain of data for us to use in matching the Project CARS model to the real thing. It’s extremely pleasing to note that our aero’ model matches the real car within two percent for drag, downforce, and aero’ balance over a full range of ride heights—all the way from minimum to maximum downforce.I couldn’t be happier with how closely we were able to replicate the real thing as aero is clearly a huge part of replicating these cars accurately.
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Tyre pressures have an enormous say on the ultimate balance of a car, and is one of the only changes that can affect the car’s balance during a race. 

One main aspect of Project CARS’ busy community is, of course, online racing. Facing-up to the best takes place either in dedicated Project CARS Esports Events—with cash prizes—or professional-grade racing leagues organized by the community itself. One of the most highly-rated community-coordinated racing series is organized by the Apex Online Racing group, home of the legendary, highly-popular, and competitive ‘AOR GT3’ leagues. 

This weekend’s challenge is Didier Pironi’s Le-Mans winning 1978 Renault Alpine A442B at Zolder.

Why the Renault Alpine A442B?
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Because it won Le Mans. Also, because the engine—the Renault 2 litre V6 turbo—altered history forever when Renault brought it to Formula One in 1978. By the time the turbo era ended in the mid ’80s, these monsters were producing upward of 1,400hp (though no-one knows how much more, because the dynos didn’t go higher than 1,400hp!). 

Why Zolder?

Because Didier Pironi. The short version? Ferrari legend Gilles Villeneuve felt Pironi betrayed him at Imola. At the next race, Zolder, in ’82, Gilles was after revenge. He lost his life chasing Pironi’s qualifying time at the exit of Butte corner. The long version of that story is here.

Casey Ringley, Vehicle Lead on Project CARS, gets intimate with Audi’s 2014’s Le Mans winner, the legendary R18, and what he finds might surprise you …
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This was a particularly exciting car to work on after it won Le Mans in 2014. The new hybrid regulations provided some cool engineering challenges, and the real-world teams were, unsurprisingly, reluctant to share data which could reveal relative advantages. That meant loads of work on our side with respect to examining all the available data before doing some reverse engineering to nail down the details. 

Here’s an overview of all the essential areas, and what we discovered about the R18.

The best setup is the one you tune for yourself. Some drivers start from stock and work their way to a setup that works for them; others download a package and tune it to meet their own needs. Whichever way you go, there is one absolute truth: no setup will suit every driver’s style. Setups are as individual as the people who create them.

Sure, it’s convenient to grab a proven quick set and throw it onto your car, but as every successful racer will tell you, even that miraculous setup used to run a world record time needs an individual tweak or two.

Project CARS comes with a built-in race engineer who will keep you in the loop during your battles on track. But Britton IT’s creation takes this concept much further by offering in-depth assistance from the virtual pit wall …

The Project CARS Spotter app has a wide range of exciting and novel features that build on Project CARS’ virtual engineer who came ready-available with your simulator. One of these novel features is the ‘name-sake’ spotter functionality. The result of this handy function means you no longer have to worry about turning-in on your rival when dive-bombing into that tight hairpin on the last lap, because your Project CARS spotter will tell you exactly where the cars around you are—handy, when you’re deep-diving into a turn on the limit and don’t have the time to check your mirrors.  
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His first flying lap saw him out-qualify Nelson Panciatici in the Baxi DC Racing Alpine by a slim 0.007s. Unsatisfied with the margin, René went out again late in the session and laid down a 3m36.605s, almost a full second ahead of Panciatici, and the only LMP2 car to dip into the 36s. René, though, isn’t a big believer in that one perfectly connected lap.

Click Here To Discover Part 2 Of Rene's Amazing Journey to Le Mans - ​Part 1 Can Be Found Here

It’s a long ride from speedy Le Mans to sleepy Minden, a provincial town in northern Germany that has slumbered through much of the last millennium. René Rast recalls being six or seven when his dad first brought him here to the local kart track. A spark was fired on that seldom-used kart track that day, both in the mini-motor and the mind of the small boy; soon enough, those initial “laps for fun” turned into laps for wins. ​

Click Here To Read More And Discover René's Amazing Story

Experience the inspirational story of a race car driver’s battle to beat cerebral palsy and his quest to achieve his racing dreams in Inspired to Drive - The Nicolas Hamilton Story.
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Inspired to Drive - The Nicolas Hamilton Story is the true story of how a kid born with cerebral palsy went on to swap his wheelchair for the seat of a race car in the cut-throat world of motorsport. 

Nicolas Hamilton always aspired to follow his brother, 3-time Formula One World Champion, Lewis Hamilton, into motor racing. Born with a disability that severely impacted his ability to even walk, much less control a car on the limit, Nicolas had to overcome incredible odds.

​He used those obstacles to inspire himself. Training for years on a simulator, he allowed nothing to stand in the way of achieving his dream. His remarkable success is why Nicolas Hamilton is #DrivenToInSpire us all.

Experience Nicolas Hamilton’s work yourself in Project CARS’ Game of the Year Edition now.

With bad weather forecast and a first-time experience at Pembrey for both the championship and drivers, Team SMS-R were heading into the unknown...