r/gtaonline Aug 11 '20

DISCUSSION Review Of The BR8 and DR1

Hey everyone, I decided to blow half of my well earned GTA cash on the 2 new open wheelers and here are my reviews of them:

Benefactor BR8

definitely based on the Red Bull RB6 f1 car from 2010, with the low(ish) nose position of the MP4/27 mclaren from 2012 / rb9 from 2013. the car has the option of fitting multiple front wings seen from 2009-2013, likewise rear wings (i think the 2013 front wing with the shark fin looks the best). in terms of livery, you get the modern and vodaphone mclaren liveries, renault, mercedes livery (fixup), old lotus and red bull testing camouflage (I went for the latter). The engine sounds like a highly tuned version of the turismoRs and it is a v8 with blown diffuser (sadly not off throttle). you have the option of installing some bodywork (chimneys and winglets seen in the mid 00s) but it looked out of place imo.

Now performance: with extreme wings, it feels very slow in a straightline in freeroam BUT the car has easily the most downforce of all the cars in the game (handling felt a bit slow imo but more on that later). In races however, this was faster than PR4s, R88s and DR1s (however ill touch on the DR1 later). the best thing however is that the BR8 is easily the most durable open wheel car in the game and can survive multiple collisions without losing its front wing or sides.

In terms of negatives: the thing eats its tyres (like irl f1 cars from that period running pirellis), no off throttle blown diffuser noise and whilst it takes corners fast, it doesnt turn as well as other cars in the game. that being said however, this is the gold standard car for open wheel races. Alsothe car is massive compared to the others (it is huge in terms of length) and the tyres look very small (particularly the back) and the rear wing just looks ugly from behind / oversized and out of place.

Declasse DR1

based on the Dallara DW12 indycar. in terms of modifications, either mercifully or unfortunately (depending on your view), the bodywork can only be modified slightly and doesnt have the option for the bumpers seen in 2012-2017. the front and rear wings can be modified for different downforce configurations (I went for an oval inspired front wing and a modded rear wing). overall, i felt this looked better than the BR8

Performance: the car has the least traction of the open wheel cars according to the game BUT imo is the best handling one and can beat the BR8 in right hands. straight line performance is ok but is more responsive / neutral handling than the other cars, thus is better in slow speed corners.

negatives: the thing is quite fragile compared to the other open wheel cars (especially the BR8). doesnt handle well in high speed vs the br8. whilst the tyre life is better than the BR8, it still feels quite bad vs the PR4 and the R88.

Summary

In summary, both cars are great additions to the game. the BR8 performs better but the DR1 looks better. Ultimately, I prefer both to the PR4 and R88. whether you get one is up to you but id keep a hold of both of these until you can get them for free or something better comes up (come on mid 00s ferrari and modern mercedes f1 cars).

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u/OstrichAssassinYT Aug 12 '20

I’m dumb but which livery for the br8 is the martini Williams one?

1

u/Colanzi Aug 13 '20

there isnt, OP has made some wrong appointments over that car, specially its model, its definetly a 2013 RB9... lmao

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u/gorikun Aug 15 '20 edited Aug 15 '20

rb6 not rb9. rb9 didnt have blown diffuser and the bulkhead of the cockpit is more in line with the rb6 than the rb9. the bulkhead has protrusions on the side of the top of it, whereas the rb9 has a ramp. the reason it isnt an RB5 is because the RB5 has a much narrower nose.

1

u/Colanzi Aug 15 '20

sure about its blown diffuser? ive heard many people on the paddock during 2013 talking about that they still using that in an asymmetrical form

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u/gorikun Aug 15 '20 edited Aug 15 '20

blown diffusers were banned at the end of 2011. 2012-2013 the exhausts had to be top mounted but a lot of teams ended up raising them high and wide and raised the rear bodywork to create a curved ramp which helped channel exhaust gases into the diffuser region (these were called coanda exhausts as they exhaust gas flow was attached to the curved bodywork a la coanda effect, the principle where air sticks to curved surfaces). exhaust blowing was reduced during this period as well but there was still some blowing. therefore the RB8 and RB9 would not have had blown diffusers

the only red bulls which used blown diffusers (ie exhuasts in the diffuser region), were the RB6 (exhuasts were mounted centrally, a bit like the BR8) and the RB7, which uses flat exhausts that were mounted at the sides of the diffuser just in front of the rear tyres (this helped diffuser perfomance as the hot exhaust gases acted as a barrier reducing tyre squirt adversely affecting diffuser performance). most teams using blown diffusers used cold0blown off throttle blowing (ie when off throttle, air would flow through the engine out the exhausts), however red bull were the 1st to grasp onto hot blown off-throttle blowing (ie combustion happened off throttle to allow higher energy hot air / exhaust gas to create a stronger barrier). that is why the rb7 sounded so aggressive off-throttle / braking towards the end of 2011. it also helped the RB7 with rear tyre warmup as the inside

the only team which tried (and failed) using asymetrical exhausts were mclaren in 2011, who used something called an octopus exhaust, which was a failure and ended up going to the RB7 exhaust design. saying that however, mclaren did use asymetrical air outlets from 2010 as the left and right side air vents at the back were different shapes and sizes.