60 replies to this topic

[Argyle1968]

As mentioned in a post in another thread on the missing Tasman Cup GPL tracks, I have spent considerable time painting cars for various "Formula 5000" and "Formula Libre" carsets and/or GPL installations that focus on the Formula A/"Continental" Series/F5000/etc. cars of the 1969-1971 early winged era. For whatever reason, I particularly enjoy the F5000 cars and their history, and have used my very simplistic editing skills to rig and fashion together some "carsets" (NOT mods) very liberally and loosely trying to recreate the various 5.0 litre series of the time.

The purpose of this thread is to gauge interest in this project, in particular to see if 1) anyone may be interested in any of the carskins or carsets as they are finished, and 2) to determine whether there is any current or potential track design activity or interest in the following tracks, all of which were historically relevant and an integral part of Formula 5000 racing:

Pukekohe
Teretonga
Warwick Farm
Oran Park (1970s)
Shah Alam (Batu Tiga)
Mid-Ohio
Sears Point
Road America
Thompson Speedway (road course)
Continental Divide
War Bonnet
Stardust



As for the cars, I'm attaching screenshots of some of my work (these are just a few of the US or "Continental" F5000 cars from the 1970 season). I'll gladly share what I have, but my problem is the "how", as in "how" to go about doing it. This is not a mod. I don't have a magic button for you to press to patch your GPL.

No, I can't do substantial editing of car 3dos, and no, I don't have the world's latest and greatest CPU or graphics chip, nor do I use GEM or any of the carset changers (i.e., I have about a dozen different GPL installs on my machine) so I do this for my own usage requirements and enjoyment. I am using seven car 3dos to try to reflect an enormous number of car types and yes, I realize they are not authentic. Not trying to make anything to set the world ablaze or be 100% accurate. I'm trying to paint car exteriors so I can sim races. Having said that, I'd like the paint schemes to be as accurate as I can make them, and the cars to generally look like the cars that were being driven.

I can't make any mods or any installation packages to fit into a mod. What I CAN do if anyone does want these files is a) upload the carskins/wings/3dos and write step by step instructions as to how I "built" each carset, if anyone is interested in using these files to replicate what I did, but I cannot accept risk for not getting them to work with anyone else's GPL installation or screwing up an existing working GPL installation. That's at your own risk.

As I said, the carsets as I am using them are "stand alone" GPL installs, and I do not use GEM or any carset changer to switch between them. My GPL directory looks like this:

c:\GPL\
AGP\GPL\cars\cars67
AusGS\GPL\cars\cars67
F165\GPL\cars\cars67
F167\GPL\cars\cars67
F169\GPL\cars\cars67
F170\GPL\cars\cars67
F5000UK\GPL\cars\cars67
F5000US\GPL\cars\cars67
FMisc\GPL\cars\cars67
NZGS\GPL\cars\cars67
SEAsian\GPL\cars\cars67
Tasman\GPL\cars\cars67
Test\GPL\cars\cars67

When I want to start any installation, I simply double click the gpl.exe in main c:\GPL\XXX\GPL path. To avoid causing problems with an existing GPL installation, if you are going to try setting up a carset to use one or more of these carsets, I would create a new installation of GPL with only the tracks you'd want to use for that particular series (i.e., for my "AGP"--Australian GP--GPL folder the only track I have installed is Surfers Paradise 68, as a substitute for Warwick Farm, which was actually used to run the GP in 1970. For my F5000US folder, I only have the "Can-Am" tracks such as Riverside, Laguna Seca, Edmonton, Mosport, St. Jovite, Donnybrooke, etc.--the same tracks the L&M Continental Series ran on in the late 60s and early 70s. Fortunately GPL has most of these tracks covered!)

If there's any interest in further developing this for..uh...mass consumption, I would be willing to turn it over to somebody else for further work, or assembling into a "patch" for convenience.

The cars for these sets have, by and large come from the 1969 mod (NOT the 1969 Extra mod, with a couple of exceptions). The Eagle, for example, came from the original 1969 mod, but uses a revised Eagle.3do I hexed with Paul Hoad's car editor to create a shape I liked better to represent the McLaren M10 F5000 car. Before releasing anything, I would compile specific notes about where I found what specific files, and include anything I created myself, to facilitate any efforts to use the cars.

As for the sets themselves, I am slowly finishing them, as I am able to find source material (i.e., good color photos). That is not easy.

The 1970 Australian GP set is done, at least to the point where I am happy with it. I took a couple of creative liberties. No, John Harvey didn't race in the AGP in 1970, for example, but I included him in the set, in his 1971 Brabham livery. I also included Tony Stewart in his 1971 livery. I have what is in effect a semi-fictional "1970-1" Australian F1/Gold Star set (there was no F5000 in the Australian NC until 1971, though Australia had adopted F5000 for Tasman races and the GP and had allowed 5.0 litre cars in F1 races in 1970) which is 90% done. I have a New Zealand Gold Star set for 1969-1970 which is about 50-60% done, a UK/European F5000 set for 1970 that's in the neighborhood of 85-90% done, a US F5000/Continental Series set for 1970 (with one or two '69 cars) that's about 99% done, a "Southeast Asian Formula Libre" set for cars that ran races such as the Japan GP, Singapore GP, Malaysian GP, and GP of Macau, which is about two thirds done. And I have two Tasman sets for 1970, one for the NZ portion, one for the Australian portion, which are both somewhere in the 50% stage.

Attached Files

•  Brack.jpg   67.2K   307 downloads
•  Cannon.jpg   69.11K   377 downloads
•  Grable.jpg   67.79K   346 downloads
•  Hobbs.jpg   64.29K   329 downloads
•  Hutchison.jpg   68.63K   291 downloads
•  Jordan.jpg   70.64K   272 downloads
•  Weitzes.jpg   70.83K   266 downloads
•  Wintersteen.jpg   69.4K   216 downloads

[davef]

Growing up in Colorado I would love to see the Continental Divide track in GPL someday !

https://srmz.racesimcentral.net/inde...?showtopic=7297

https://srmz.racesimcentral.net/inde...?showtopic=8007

[ed76]

maybe , this can help you
https://srmz.racesimcentral.net/inde...?showtopic=6653

[dario]

I would like to see stardust track. someone made it for GTR2 and its fantastic

[Frank_Mueller]

Looks great, Argyle!
The F5000 are wonderful racecars, fine for GPL. Only nobody have interests.

Argyle1968, on Apr 23 2013 - 05:08 PM, said:

The cars for these sets have, by and large come from the 1969 mod (NOT the 1969 Extra mod, with a couple of exceptions).

But i think, the 69 physiks don't match very good. The chassis, maybe, but no engine.

The cars match optical really good.
I think the Advanced Trainer from the ThunderCars will be from the physics (especially the engine) better for F5000.

Maybe there will be a way to have this wonderful F5000 cars, you made based on the cars69 with the TC AD physics. OK, the AD have no different physics for the different chassis, but i don't think the F5000 in reality had big differences in the chassis. The engines were almost the same.

Are anywhere other car sets or driver.ini for the ThunderCars?

[Andy Clegg]

I would be more than interested in F5000. More from a personal view as Brian Redman was a friend of my family. I'd like to know all I can regarding his racing in the USA.

[Manfred Cubenoggin]

Splendid work, Argyle1968.  Seeing the jpg screenies of these big honkers takes me back to a happy time when I got to see them back in the day.  Being born & raised just a 20-minute drive from Mosport, I saw most of these in action.  I take particular interest in seeing the Brack and Weitzes offerings.  Thanks for posting.

[ginetto]

dario, on Apr 25 2013 - 03:28 AM, said:

I would like to see stardust track. someone made it for GTR2 and its fantastic

Is in the making; not far from relelase.

[dario]

Ginetto, on Apr 28 2013 - 08:18 AM, said:

dario, on Apr 25 2013 - 03:28 AM, said:

I would like to see stardust track. someone made it for GTR2 and its fantastic

Is in the making; not far from relelase.

  woohoo!!! thats great news!!

if you need someone to test drive it let me know

[Bo Bruce]

i remember attending an F5000 race in early 70's at the Michigan Int'l Speedway - ROAD COURSE!   those cars (v8's) were the closest i thought i'd ever get to see F1... but it never got the attention it needed and died a slow death of apathy    i'll bet there weren't 10000 'fans' there that day...

[Argyle1968]

Hello all.  Thanks for the replies.

As I said, I'm not a 'mod' guy.  Or a physics guy.  Or a driver.  I really am more of a racing historian and tend to focus on collecting GPL tracks, photos of cars, racing programme covers, and other information related to single seater racing in the late sixties to early seventies era.   I'd really like to just focus on painting cars and modifying track scenery to suit my own needs, but the thought did occur to me that others might be interested in what I was working on, and there might be somebody more talented and more knowledgeable who could take the ball and run with it, so to speak.   Incidentally, I started these projects because initially tracks like Watkins Glen, Mosport, St. Jovite, Sears Point, Road Atlanta and Riverside were available and later Bridgehampton and Brainerd, and most of the European tracks were already done.  So a number of the F5000 tracks were there for the taking.  Plus I had a rabid interest in the Tasman series.  Then recently, with the development of the Can-Am mod, Ginetto has re-done so many of the US tracks so beautifully.  That really rekindled my interest.  So it worked out perfectly.  

Glad to read that Stardust is in the making!  I know it wasn't a Continental Series track, but it fits the "era" beautifully--like Bridgehampton.

[davef]

Now that Stardust has been released and Road America is coming these F5000/Continental/Formula A cars would be a blast !

Check out this site & Program Covers

https://www.myf5000.com/programs.html

[Argyle1968]

_{Those are the programs I am using for my F5000 install.  I now have a working U.S. "Formula A" carset for 1970.  I could upload the carskins somewhere I guess, and leave it end users to use them however they like.  Nothing fancy, but it works.  I can't guarantee they are 100% accurate, because photos from that period are really hard to find, but I did my best with what I had to work from.  Somebody could probably take it and run with it and turn it into something much better.}  

[davef]

Argyle1968, on Nov 20 2013 - 05:26 AM, said:

_{Those are the programs I am using for my F5000 install.  I now have a working U.S. "Formula A" carset for 1970.  I could upload the carskins somewhere I guess, and leave it end users to use them however they like.  Nothing fancy, but it works.  I can't guarantee they are 100% accurate, because photos from that period are really hard to find, but I did my best with what I had to work from.  Somebody could probably take it and run with it and turn it into something much better.}  

I sent you a reply to your PM, but maybe you didn't get it. Please share the carset with the community, it will be enjoyed.

[Argyle1968]

davef, on Nov 20 2013 - 05:46 PM, said:

Argyle1968, on Nov 20 2013 - 05:26 AM, said:

_{Those are the programs I am using for my F5000 install.  I now have a working U.S. "Formula A" carset for 1970.  I could upload the carskins somewhere I guess, and leave it end users to use them however they like.  Nothing fancy, but it works.  I can't guarantee they are 100% accurate, because photos from that period are really hard to find, but I did my best with what I had to work from.  Somebody could probably take it and run with it and turn it into something much better.}  

I sent you a reply to your PM, but maybe you didn't get it. Please share the carset with the community, it will be enjoyed.

Hi Dave,

I guess the PM's aren't working.  I didn't get your reply, but no worries, I will package up the set of carskins and upload it this evening after work.

BTW, your list of "interests" is pretty much a carbon copy of mine, lol.

[Argyle1968]

Attached is my 1970 US Formula 5000/A carset.  Note well, this is NOT a mod, does not modify the physics in any way, and requires familiarity with hex editing to use the car skins/liveries.  I guess that's a pretty basic disclaimer by now, but anybody expecting a press-the-button mod should by-pass this one.

Attached Files

•  USF5000.rar   1.51MB   72 downloads
•  F5000_001.jpg   64.01K   170 downloads
•  F5000_002.jpg   55.39K   207 downloads
•  F5000_003.jpg   55.85K   207 downloads
•  F5000_004.jpg   47.49K   196 downloads
•  F5000_005.jpg   51.21K   180 downloads
•  F5000_006.jpg   67.63K   143 downloads

Edited by Argyle1968, Nov 21 2013 - 05:53 PM.

[Manfred Cubenoggin]

Sure takes me back to great days.  Lemme see if I can name a few as rendered...

John Cannon
Horst Kroll
George Eaton
Gus Hutchinson
Mark Donohue
John Gunn

Any others in there?  Can't say who's shoeing the blue #8 and red/white #21

[Argyle1968]

Manfred Cubenoggin, on Nov 21 2013 - 05:58 PM, said:

Sure takes me back to great days.  Lemme see if I can name a few as rendered...

John Cannon
Horst Kroll
George Eaton
Gus Hutchinson
Mark Donohue
John Gunn

Any others in there?  Can't say who's shoeing the blue #8 and red/white #21

Pretty good! From first to last:  1.  Eaton, Adamowicz, Motsenbacher   2.  Haga, Jordan  3.  Gunn, Cannon  4.  Baker, Jordan, Donohue  5.  Kroll  6.  Cannon, Grable, Gunn, Haga,.. also included in this set are Gus Hutchison, Bill Brack, David Hobbs, Dick Smothers, George Wintersteen, Ludwig Heimrath, George Follmer, Mike Goth, Roger McCaig, Eppie Wietzes and Hiroshi Fushida.

Edited by Argyle1968, Nov 22 2013 - 04:59 AM.

[davef]

Thanks for sharing Argyle1968 !

This will give me something to do on this rainy weekend !

[davef]

Sorry Argyle1968 but I don't have enough editing experience to get the carset up. Hopefully others
will be able to enjoy your wonderful looking carset.