Alright, let me tell you about this ‘dan wheldon 2005’ thing I messed around with. It’s not as fancy as it sounds, just me trying to recreate something I saw online.
It all started when I stumbled upon some old IndyCar footage. Dan Wheldon’s 2005 season, especially his Indy 500 win, caught my eye. I thought, “Hey, why not try to simulate a lap of that race in a game or something?” So, I dove in.
First thing I did was find a decent racing sim. Assetto Corsa seemed popular and had mods, so I grabbed that. Then the hunt began for an IndyCar mod that resembled the 2005 Dallara chassis. Took a while, but I found one on some forum – looked a bit dodgy, but figured I’d give it a shot.
Next, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Luckily, there are tons of tracks available for sim racing. Found a decent Indy track mod, slapped it into Assetto Corsa. Now the real fun begins.
The car felt like driving on ice at first. Messed around with the setup – tire pressures, gear ratios, wing angles – all that jazz. Spent a couple of hours just trying not to spin out on every turn. It was frustrating, I almost gave up.
After what felt like a million crashes, I started to get the hang of it. I tried to mimic Wheldon’s driving style, watched some onboard videos, tried to find the braking points, the right lines through the corners. Still a long way to go.
Getting close to the speed I wanted. Then spent even more time trying to figure out the AI setup. Wanted to simulate a full race, with all the chaos and strategy. Wasn’t easy, but eventually got a pack of cars racing somewhat realistically around me.
After all the tweaking and testing, I finally managed to string together a few consistent laps. Wasn’t perfect, but it was close enough. I managed to get a feel for what it might have been like racing those cars back then, the speed, the danger.
It was a cool experience. It’s amazing how much goes into just one lap. I have much respect for those drivers.
