Birmingham SuperPrix Track Project

Hello Everyone. I'm trying to design the Birmingham SuperPrix track because I felt that the track that was alredy available on the internet was incredibly flawed, and I thought I could at least attempt to design a realistic version of the track. I've got most things covered, except for the technical bits like grip and fuel consumption. I would be forever greatful if someone could help me out on this. I also wouldn't mind help with locating a detailed map of the circuit to get the corners right.

Thanks for you help in this!

sorry , the current version its total acceptable, so i oppose to help you.
What do you mean with flawed? on my pc i never had any problem.

@Made in Brazil. If you read the other thread in relation to this idea you will see that this guy is actually from Birmingham so another version of this track could be a good idea. Look at what Larry O'Meara achieved living by the Montreal track! This is in no way meant to detract from Rob's fine representation of the track and i agree that 'flawed' is maybe a bad choice of words. I have nothing but respect for Robert's work giving us varied tracks to drive on and helping others with his TE knowledge.

@Burkezillar. I wish you luck with your project, but please remember the guys making these tracks have quite a bit of TE experience, so know of the limitations involved(I don't btw!).If you choose your words a little more carefully, guys like Roberto(Scandura) will probably even pass on help to you.(Tell me to piss off if I'm wrong Rob )

Hello here, I have contributed a lot into Roberto's project of the BSP track as I was the person that asked Roberto to make the track. Look in the .txt file and I am the guy that is named David Page (or bigears there as I am not sure)

I believe the track is superbly made and it could have be a lot more better if it wasn't for the GP3 .dat filesize limit (hence you mentioned about the scenery and the unrealistic pit building so Roberto can't add more in)

As obviously I was very excited at the time when it came out and I didn't have the time to look at it.

Now I looked at it again a few days ago before I had my computer upgraded to XP (now it doesn't work now but I will look for a solution in this forum later on) and I noticed that there are some small mistakes that I am sure Roberto can deal with very quickly.

The section from the s/f line to Bristol Street bend to the Telcom chicane is absolutely spot on. Roberto superbly added the tower building on the the outside of the bend from a photo that was taken at the bend.

After the exit of the Telcom chicane, the heights is not quite correct as in the game, when the cars exit the chicane to straighten up along the Peter Barwell Hill, the track starts to rise all the way till it flattens up past the tyres on the left hand side of the Halfords Corner. Roberto got the well known bump spot on again.

Roberto didn't add some track banking into the Halfords Bend as it was slightly banked in the real track as a friend and I drove around the roundabout itself (not in the wrong way like the F3000 cars does!)

When the cars is about to exit the Halfords Corner and about to approach the Belgrave Middleway, the apex dips quickly so some of the F3000 cars have their front right tyre off the ground for a brief time and the downhil crescent starts all the way past the mosque and it flattens out just before the kink approaching to the Ferado Corner.

When the cars goes past the kink, the track gentles rises till the apex of the Ferado Corner and there is a small downhill section and it flattens out when the cars exits the Ferado Corner.

I hope that Roberto will notice this and correct it very quickly and to make a more realistic BSP track with the correct height changes. I got an onboard lap from the 1986 race and I am trying to rip it at the moment and hopefully I will put it in here soon.

Roberto got the Sherwood Straight to the Bromsgrove Chicane spot on again and he make the Cavendish Finance corner very tricky as in real life, a lot of cars struggled there and crashed there.

There is a small uphill section along the Bromsgrove Chicane and again there is an other uphill section on the gentle right hander towards the s/f line.

That's is what I believe that Roberto can improve to make it even more better without modifying the /dat file too much.

Also as I know the section from the Sherwood Straight to the Bromsgrove Straight is very bumpy and it didn't show too much in the game but it is all down to the magic data file so it should be easy to adjust the settings and make it more realistic.

Overall the track is perfect and the advertisements/graphical features are beautiful!

Burkezillar, I got about 300 photos and footage from the 1986, 1987 and 1990 BSP races and some smaller video clips I obtained from the Internet so you could ask me and I can help you out with them. Bear in mind, I gave the same info to Roberto but with less footage as I found more footage after Roberto released the BSP track.

Look in the www.racingcircuits.net photo section and I did a walkabout of the track and took some photos. Roberto used the website to help him a lot. I am happy to take some more photos again to help you out if you want to.

Roberto, (if he sees this) I have found more proposed track layouts and I put them up in the www.racingcircuits.net so I am not sure if you are willing to do more of the other track layouts like you did with the proposed 1990 BSP track.





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Did your birth certificate come with an apology letter from Durex?

Right, lets sort this thing out.

First Thing
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To Mr.Roberto Scandura, I apologise for slating your work. I could've chose my words more carfully, but I feel that it needs to be improved if it's to be realistic. I must apologise for saying the walls were too high. I was using an old laptop with a crappy old graphics card, and it all looked like one huge wall. Until I played it on my good computer, even though there were no graphics but the grandstands were there (again, sorry about that) and I noticed that there has a big kind of wall painted dark grey, and a small wall painted black. I can only assume the black wall was the armco barriers.

Second Thing
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I had a look at the contents of my hard drive, I have four video's, only two of which are any good. But even then, one is from on old touring car event, the other is from a Honda event. I'm sure there is an actual Formula One Video out there on the net, but I have yet to come across it. Any one out there with this video please please please contact me with them

Third Thing
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I would be very exteremley grateful if you could help me bigears (Is it me or did it not sound very polite??). And I would like it if Mr.Scandura could help me out a bit aswell. I have only just found out about the whole editing Grand Prix 3 thing, and I want to be part of it, and I think I could do a really good job of the Super Prix track because I attend the college on Ferodo corner and travel along it most days.

Fourth Thing
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Have you got any photos of the actual superprix bigears? These could help.

Fifth Thing
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I never knew about the limitation with GP3, does anyone know if the same problems come with GP4?

Thanks

I got a lot of photos from the actual Superprix including scans from Autosport, Auto Hebao (a French car magazine) Auto Spirit and so on. I have amassed a lot of photos and it is still growing at the moment as I have contacted LAT (well known motorsport photography archivists) and I have got some contact sheets.

Don't worry about my name too much, I only added some humour into myself with the name really!

I don't recall a Formula One car being raced around the BSP track, only Graham Williams' Fittipaldi car doing a demo run in 1986 and of course there was some F1 cars at the three demo runs to promote to bring racing into Brum in 1978 and 1984 (I forgotten the other year)

You mean be talking about the old F3000 (it was an old "feeder" series)



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Did your birth certificate come with an apology letter from Durex?

I thought I'd tell you all (Well, anyone who's interested), I have started work on the track. Using the Interlagos track as my base because I done some research, and the Interlagos track was as close to the Super Prix track as I could get. I would've used the Monaco track but
the pit lane was on the right hand side, not the left.

I'll keep you all informed on how I progress.

I watched Centeral News around the time it was announced that they were bringing it back, and I saw a black JSP Lotus with a few other cars racing around the track in 1986. I'm really sure that they raced F1 cars around here. But even if they didn't, this track would have made a good venue for it.

Thanks for telling me about LAT. I'll have a look at that later on.

There are two really important things I need urgent help with. The first thing is how many laps were raced around the track using F3000 cars? I only ask about the F3000 lap count because I need to fill out the information for it to work properly. The second thing is I need to know the record Lap Times for the track in 1986. Again, this is for the game to work properly.

Oh and Mr.Bigears, I'd like to have them photos if you don't mind, and any other information you have. My e-mail is bzr_reincarnated@hotmail.com.

P.S: I have started work on the track, but for GP4. I want to see if the same limitations apply with that game as they do in GP3

GP4? you sure? the gp3 track editor does not work in gp4, for gp4 you need 3d editor and the track editing is in the early developments stages (i.e. no one has made a track yet)

maybe gp3 2000?

Well, I was looking at the downloadable utilities for GP4, and there was a track editior for it. But all the track editor is, is a rebadged GP3 track editor. Which in itself was a rebadged GP2 editor. So I've come to the conclusion that if a GP2 editor can make tracks for GP3, and the GP4 game works in a similar way to GP3, whats the harm in finding out?

none at all, i just thought u meant gp3 2000 instead of gp4. And just a little warning that making a gp4 track is far far more complicated. But by all means have a go at it, if you succeed it will be invaluble

I watched Centeral News around the time it was announced that they were bringing it back, and I saw a black JSP Lotus with a few other cars racing around the track in 1986. I'm really sure that they raced F1 cars around here. But even if they didn't, this track would have made a good venue for it.

I think you must be confused with Maurico Gugelmin's F3000 car in 1986. It indeed looked like the old JPS Lotus F1 car but I assure you, it is not a F1 car.

There is a good photo of that F3000 car over at the www.birminghamsuperprix.com website (it haven't been updated for a year now)

As far as I can remember there is the Chequered Bitter demo run in 1984 with some F1 cars like the Maserati 250F and Christopher Mann's 1984 (I think) Williams F1 car. Also there is the other two demo runs in 1978 and an other year and there was some older F1 cars there as well.

There are two really important things I need urgent help with. The first thing is how many laps were raced around the track using F3000 cars? I only ask about the F3000 lap count because I need to fill out the information for it to work properly. The second thing is I need to know the record Lap Times for the track in 1986. Again, this is for the game to work properly.

I got two Excel files of the F3000 cars' laptimes during qualifying and the average speeds that the cars achieved during the races from 1986-1990.

As far as I remember that the 1986 race lasted for 24 laps and then finally from 1987-1990, it was a proper 51 lap race I believe.

There is nothing over at the LAT website as I searched for a long time there. I have asked LAT for some contact sheets and I got some but i will try to ask for more.

Anyway, I got some online photos I have hosted for a photo thread over at the Nostaglia Forum:

















Let me try to Winzip all my photos and the Excel files and I will email them to sometime tomorrow as I am using my housemate's computer for the Internet you see.

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Did your birth certificate come with an apology letter from Durex?

I made a mistake. I read Perry McCarthy's autobiography and I thought he raced a F1 car at Birmingham. When I read the book again, it turns out he only raced a F3000 car around them streets. He didn't spin a wheel in an F1 car until 1990/1991 when he joined Andera Moda. That why I thought F1 races were held there.

Thanks for the pics, they help alot. But I need to ask a question about the track editing. What is the CC line?