Created By: andy420
E-Mail: bob_andy420@hotmail.com
Version: .50
System: PC
Gene: Racing
DO NOT COPY THIS FAQ IN ANY WAY THIS IS COPYRIGHT ANDY KOPERSKI 2000 IF YOU
COPY THIS I WILL FIND YOU. THIS IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. THIS WAS NOT MADE
FOR PEOPLE TO RIP ME OFF. IF YOU WANT TO USE THIS FAQ E-MAIL ME
(bob_andy420@hotmail.com). IF YOU WANT TO ADD SOMETHING TO THIS OR CORRECT
ME JUST E-MAIL ME.
Speeding down the straight-aways and sliding through the corners, you jockey
for position in the middle of the pack. Pushing the groove as you
white-knuckle the last turn and slingshot past the leader toward the flying
checked flag.
**1**-Goal
**2**-Main Menu
**3**-Game Menu
**4**-Game Structure
**5**-Flags
**6**-Controls
**7**-Options
**8**-Car Tuning
**9**-Tuning
**10**-The Groove
**11**-Credits
=====================================================================
**1**
GOAL
Dirt Track Racing (DTR) simulates a dirt track racing career over several
years. You start the game with $1000. You buy a cheap car and enter in the
lowest class of competition, the Stock class. Win prize money and attract
sponsorship to finance your racing career, allowing you to repair and
upgrade your vehicle and purchase new ones. You must manage your money
carefully as you work your way through the Stock Class and then the faster
Pro Stock Class. Your ultimate goal is to run a professional late model team
and win the Ratbag Grand National Series.
Quick Race
-Select Quick Race if you would like to race without following a career
progression. This mode was designed to allow you to choose a track, the
number and difficulty of opponents, a car, and then race. The AI Difficulty
slider allows you to select the intelligence level of your opponents. The
Track Wetness slider allows you to adjust the traction levels around the
track.
Career
-In this mode you start off as an amateur driver with limited funds. Your
final goal is to win the Ratbag Series. To do this you will need to purchase
a car, participate in events from various series using prize money to
upgrade and improve your vehicle until you can race amongst the fastest and
best drivers the game has to offer.
Career Menu
-Race
Enter a new series, continue racing, or gave a practice drive.
-Car Options
Go to your garage or visit the shop.
-Sponsorships
Check for sponsorship offers.
-Career Information
Check the race schedule, point's standings or view your career highlights.
-Save Game
Save your game to disk so that you can continue playing at some other time.
Series
-Series are collections of events held throughout the year. Each series is
aimed at a particular class of car and other car types will not be permitted
to race. Each event will award a certain number of championship points
dependent upon your performance at that event. The total championship points
awarded to you by the end of the year will determine your overall result for
the series.
The series with the lowest prize money in each class are the easiest. You
should race in these events to upgrade your car. Then you can enter in
richer, more difficult series where the opponent's race similarly upgraded
vehicles.
Car Classes
-Cars are divided into three classes in DTR. They are Stock, Pro Stock, and
Late Model. Each type of car is only eligible for an event for that series
of car.
Stock cars are bought in junkyards. Pro stock cars can be purchased at the
car dealer and Late Model cars can be bought in the race shop. Stock cars
don't have any high performance parts. You can upgrade these cars to enter
them into the Pro Stock series.
Events
-When you enter a race in DTR career mode, you are entering an event. Events
are parts of series and involve a collection of races that are geld over one
or more days. Each event will only allow cars of the particular class as
listed in each event.
Practice
-Practicing provides you with an opportunity to check how your car drives on
each track before qualifying so you can make any last minute changes to your
car.
Qualifying
-The result of your qualifying times determines your grid starting order for
Heat and Main events. You can elect to skip qualifying, but you will be
assigned to slowest qualifying time and forego the chance to receive prize
money awarded to the fastest qualifying time.
Heats
-You will be allocate a heat and placed on the starting grid according
reverse qualifying times.
Green Flag
-The green flag is shown at the beginning of the race. It is also shown
after yellow flags to indicate that it is safe to drive at full speed.
Black Flag
-The black flag is shown when you are disqualified from the race. If you get
a black flag for going of course the race will begin where you went of the
course.
Yellow Flag
-The yellow flag is shown when car is damaged to the point that it's no
longer fit to drive, and must be tooken of the track. At this time the cars
are forced to slow down while the car is being moved. You will regain speed
when the green flag is shown.
White Flag
-On the start of your last lap the white flag is shown to indicate you have
only one lap to go.
Checkered Flag
-The checkered flag is shown when you finish the race. When another car
finishes before you you are allowed to finish your current lap.
Video Options
-These options allow you to tweak the visual appearance of the game.
Selecting lower resolutions and disabling features can improve performance:
although you should be aware that the game will not look as good.
Audio Options
-The audio options let you select the in game sound effect volume and to
toggle crowd sounds, announcers and game interface sounds.
Game Options
-The game options include the following:
Event Format
-Detailed events include practice phase and results for all other races
Damage
-Simulation is the highest level of damage. Arcade damage setting is more
forgiving. Selecting off can also disable damage.
Yellow/Black Flags
-These flags can be on or off
Transmission
-Select manual or automatic transmission.
Auto Reverse
-When enabled, the car is put into reverse gear automatically when the brake
is applied.
Vehicle Handling
-This allows you to choose how the car handles on the track.
Cockpit Jitter
-This turns off the cockpit Jitter than results from racing over the uneven
dirt track.
Watertruck
-Disabling this option will prevent the Watertruck video form being
displayed.
Race Info
-Disabling this option removes the read out including lap times race
position and lap count information.
You can modify the car configuration to improve performance and reduce lap
times.
Toe In/Out
-This is the measure of the wheels when the steering wheel is set to
straight. Most competitors put a lot of toe in on their right form wheel, to
help turn better.
Wheel Offset
-This affects the distance between your wheel and the axle. The back right
tire usually has a greater wheel offset than the other tire, for better
turning.
Tire Pressure
-This will lower or higher the traction that your car gets. Low pressure
gives you better grip and the opposite for high tire pressure. Low Pressure
for wet tracks and High Pressure on dry tracks.
Wheel Size
-This affects the diameter of the wheels used.
Brake Strength
-Adjust the braking power can affect your driving.
Tire Compound
-This choice is a crucial aspect to understand if you are to succeed. Hard
compound gives less grip while soft compound gives more traction. Hard
compound but lasts longer while soft compound will wear quicker.
Steering Lock
-This defines what angle your wheels are at when you input device at full
lock.
SUSPENSION
Bump Dampening
-This is the damping or slowing of the suspension as the wheel moves toward
the car. Bump Dampening and rebound dampening are related and can be both
adjusted to achieve a particular effect. After driving around a left corner,
your car will normally be tilted with the left-hand side of the car further
of the ground than the right. If you decrease the bump dampening of the left
tires, then the car should return to its level position quicker.
Rebound Dampening
-This is the damping of the suspension as the wheel moves away from the car.
Check bump dampening for more information.
Spring Strength
-This controls the strength of the spring part of the suspension. A stiffer
spring will tend to sit higher and be less disturbed by bumps in the road. A
stiffer spring will also cause a car to sit flatter during hard cornering
and cause the car to react to bumps in the road more violently.
Travel
-This determines the length of the springs at full extension of the wheels.
This affects the height of your car and the position of the center of
gravity.
DRIVE TRAIN
Gear Ratio and Final Drive
-Selecting a higher gear ratio will increase you acceleration, but decrease
your to speed. Changing your gearing for each gear will only affect that
gear. As a general rule you should use higher gear ratios on short tracks,
lower gear ratios on long tracks. Changing the gearing for the final drive
ratio will effect all gears.
++NOTE++
-You may not modify the gearing with the OEM gearbox. You will need to
upgrade to a tunable gearbox before you can modify the ratios. High
performance gearboxes can support higher revs without sustaining any damage.
CHASSIS TUNING
Weight Distribution
-This can greatly affect the vehicles handling. Placing more weight over the
back than the front will cause the car to lean back harder when
accelerating, and lean forward when decelerating. Greater weight on the back
wheels will increase acceleration however decreasing weight form the front
wheels will reduce steering control, making it harder to corner. For left
turns put the weight on the left side of the car.
Car Upgrades
-All of upgrade components in DTR have several performance upgrade levels.
To get there go to Car Options, Shops, and Parts. Money is needed here.
CAR UPGRADES
Engine Specifications
-Here you can buy new and more powerful engines for your car.
Performance Upgrades
-Performance engine parts feature intake and outlet port grinding with
polished head high compression pistons. This leads to and increased power
output compared to stock engines.
Exhaust System
-Here you can buy larger exhaust piping and performance mufflers. This will
give your engine more power by increasing the exhaust flow.
Carburetor
2 Barrel Carb-Factory carburetor for your particular make of car.
Performance 2-Barrel Carb-Flow modified carburetor to allow more gas and air
into the engine.
4 Barrel Carb-Provides more gas and air than a 2 barrel carb.
Performance 4-Barrel Carb-Flow modified carburetor to allow a lot more gas
and air into the engine.
Tire Compound
-The tire compound choice is a crucial aspect to understand if you are to
succeed. Hard tire compound provides less grip than soft compound tires, but
they are more resistant to wear. If the track is wet you want to use a
softer compound tire to get maximum grip.
Tire Width
-If your tires are too thin, excessive wheel spin will result upon
acceleration and lower traction levels will apply when sliding sideways.
Tire width should be upgraded when your car's engine is providing too much
power to the rear end and the car is difficult to control when cornering
under power.
Gearbox
-Standard Gearbox: This is the gearbox that the car came with and may not be
adjusted.
-Tunable Gearbox: With this gearbox you can adjust your gear ratios.
-High Performance Gearbox: Its tunable, supports higher rev rates and has a
higher resistance to damage.
Brakes
-Drum Brakes: These are the brakes that comes with the car
-Heavy Duty Drum Brakes: These brakes give increased braking power over
stock Drum Brakes.
-Disc Brakes: Provide superior braking power.
Suspension
-Stock Suspension: The car starts out with this.
-Upgrade Suspension: Increase spring strength and higher resistance to wear.
-Race Suspension: Provides greatest spring strength and the highest
stability while cornering.
At the beginning of most events, a water truck will wet down the track. This
makes the dirt or clay tacky and gives you good traction characteristics. As
the cars race around the track, a groove is formed on the most common
driving line. It is drier than the rest of the track. It is hard and
slippery.
When the groove is developed, two other racing lines become competitive
1. The Cushion: The longest route, on the outside of the groove where tacky,
looser dirt gives more traction. Less braking required with this strategy
but there is the risk of running into the wall.
2. The Inside: Low on the inside of the track where again looser dirt gives
more traction. This strategy protects against overtaking but drivers must
brake hard and if they get it wrong, you can slide out onto the groove and
loose time.
