Thought I would put the whole press release up as some poor person (namely me) when to the trouble of writing this propaganda! And it may give some answers to the "what do I need to do" questions.
I will post more info when I get home
Midget cars have been around since the 1930s. Originating on Americas West Coast, spreading fast through the country, and soon as far afield as New Zealand and Australia. They proved to be an entertaining distraction from the hard times of the Great Depression where large crowds would attend their local dirt track to watch these four cylinder engine cars throw dirt and clay skyward. With most of the home built chassis having humble beginnings in barns and sheds across the globe in the 1930s, today’s Midgets are nearly all factory produced and have developed into what would barley be recognizable as the same class of car by those first pioneer, leather capped, goggle wearing, dare devil drivers of yesteryear. Although through any and all the great eras of midget racing one common theme runs through them all, close, competitive, side by side and slide by slide action.
In an attempt to capture the spirit of the mighty midgets and bring a small piece of it in to your home, KDSR (
www.kiwidirt.com) has made a modification to the online internet racing simulation game rFactor (
www.rfactor.net) by creating the world’s first online rFactor Midget car game, International Midget Cars. Closely based on real world physics and values these cars can be driven offline in single player mode or raced online against the thousands of rFactor players around the world on tracks modeled from New Zealand and American dirt tracks through to tracks that were designed by rFactor community members.
Below - In game screen shot showing some of the adjustable setup features
RFactor is an open source game where the cars and tracks are made by the people who race them. The rFactor game itself only has a small variety of cars and tracks, all other cars and tracks can be downloaded for free and added into your game. From Formula 1, Touring Cars, Indy Cars, NASCAR to Sprint Cars, Dirt Late models, even Go-karts and lawn mowers, over 100 different vehicle types and 100s of tracks. These vehicles can be controlled by key board, joystick or a game pad similar to most popular home gaming consoles, or for that next level of immersion a wheel and pedal set is a must. While no longer considered a new game, a reasonable computer is required to play and enjoy rFactor at its full potential
Below - Screen shots of on track action
The Midget modification has been widely anticipated by rFactor dirt fans and Midget racing enthusiast alike. Major Catastrophe, well known in the rFactor community for setting new standards in rFactor dirt car physics, took up the job of modeling the popular New Zealand Midget car BREKA chassis for this initial release. The chassis and driver were first made into a three dimensional image, then pulled apart, laid flat and passed on to Darren of DAZA Designs NZ LTD who has a long family association with midgets. Darren was able to create templates of the cars panels, drivers suit and helmet so that it could be distributed to others for painting, with the idea being people would have the chance to paint their very own midget applying a wide variety of techniques to come up with unique one off paint schemes and also the chance to replicate their favorite real life cars, from choosing the color of their rear axle and writing on the sun shield of the helmets visor to the powder coated frame and wheel plug colors.
Below - The painted template of Kasey Kahne’s 2008 Chili Bowl Midget
To test if your computer is suitable to run rFactor a basic demo version, without the Midget Mod, is available for free download, along with a list of minimum system requirements, and full download & purchasing information at
www.rfactor.net
YouTube standard and hi resolution Videos available here -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfLanicW5PE and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi0uVBcGnD4
KDSR will be hosting weekly Midget league races and one off special events for all rFactor Midget players. For more Information and a free download of KDSR International Midget cars please register at
www.kiwidirt.com
I need to get a new potentiometer (sp?) for my pedals for this, though; I have no throttle currently.
It's fun