HOME | NEWS | CREW | LINKS | STOCKCAR | GP2 & CART | OTHER SIMS | MULTIPLAYER | ERIK'S EXPOSE | FEEDBACK | NO PIRACY

February 1998
An updated demo of CART Precision Racing has been released. It incorporates all the changes and updates of the patch, and includes the Miami oval in addition to Laguna Seca. Grab the 14MB demo here.

Looking for setups for the Professional and Intermediate skill settings? Jim Getzen's Pro setups includes Miami, Portland, Michigan, Fontana, and Elkhart Lake, with more to be added shortly.

Two other files are available for downloading:

Fil's "Get Rid of the Foggie and Make It Andretti" patch replaces Carl Haas with Michael Andretti throughout the sim. The only remnant: Carl's picture in the driver info. Oh well, I can live with that.

Tim William's 1998 Update, reflecting all the changes to the team lineups for the 1998 season, including driver switches, tire changes, etc. These are text changes and do not make graphic changes to the cars. We'll have to wait for a 1998 car set for the job to be complete.

NOTE: Each program should have installation instructions included in the zip. Please do not email us with technical problems or installation questions on programs not written by us. In that file should be the original author's email... please contact them for any other problems. NEW USERS: You will need to get a zip utility to use these programs.
 

1.01 Patch by Microsoft. This is a must-download item. The fixes are numerous and include better AI, better driving model, and graphics options. Get it.

1997 CART Car Set v1.1 by Devin Pruzin. Complete car set with tobacco and alcohol advertising.

1997 Drivers File by Bradley Lang. A new "drivers.txt" file with the correct driver and team names. Works well with Devin's car set above.

"Get Rid of the Foggie and Make It Andretti" patch by Fil. Replaces Carl Haas with Michael Andretti throughout the sim. The only remnant: Carl's picture in the driver info.

1998 Team Update by Tim Williams. Reflects all the changes to the team lineups for the 1998 season, including driver switches, tire changes, etc. These are text changes and do not make graphic changes to the cars.

PaintKit by Terminal Reality. A utility which extracts the textures from a car and saves them as a tga file, allowing you to modify them with your favorite paint program. The utility then recompiles the modified tga file back into a new pod file called "usercar.pod", which is automatically used by CPR instead of the default "Racecar.pod".

Rookie Race Setups by Jim Getzen. Setups for all 17 tracks based on the grip settings of the Rookie skill level.

Professional Race Setups by Jim Getzen. Setups for 5 tracks (Miami, Portland, Michigan, Fontana, and Elkhart Lake) based on the grip settings of the Intermediate and Professional skill level. More tracks to be added soon.

Need help in diagnosing a car handling problem? Would you like to learn more about the options in the CPR garage and how each of them affects the handling of the car? Then you need our CPR setup guide.

The tips are categorized into frame rate tips, helpful tips, and fun tips.

Frame Rate Tips
-- Set the "draw ahead" (clipping) to 15 or 18, using Cntrl-H to decrease it and Cntrl-F to increase it. This has a dramatic affect on the frame rate, and you may not even notice the graphical difference.

-- Make sure "poll interrupts" is unchecked in your Game Controllers control panel (this option is under the "Advanced" tab.

-- Set the Sound Quality to "Normal 8-bit".

-- Turn off the map ("m"), the leader board ("o"), the sky (Ctrl-N), and the steering wheel (in the graphic options). Make sure your mirrors are set to "cars only." Turn off hills and buildings (Ctrl-B). While you lose some eye candy, if you are serious about racing, you won't notice it anyway.

-- If possible, get a 3Dfx card or a fast D3D card (such as the Diamond Viper 330).

Helpful Tips
-- If you are working on your setup and are following the familiar routine of test driving, returning to the garage, making changes, then test driving again, make sure that you are using the "test drive" button in the in the upper right corner of the Garage menu. Using "test drive" (instead of going to the Race menu and selecting a practice session) will keep the current track in memory, so that the track only has to be loaded once. It will save you a lot of time if you had been going to the Race menu and reloading your track each time.

-- If you are looking for maximum speed (and who isn't?) make sure that the "race car performance" realism option is turned off . If this option is left on, your engine's performance will reflect its real-life counterpart, which almost always means performance will be something less than optimal. By turning race car performance off, all cars perform optimally, allowing you to choose the car/driver you like.

-- When racing at the Zone, you may not be able to keep up with other racers if the host has the "race car performance" realism option turned on and you are using a car which has an engine with a lower performance rating. I feel that race car performance should be turned off when racing on the Zone to give everybody an equal chance. However, to be on the safe side, a wise choice when Zone racing would be Alex Zanardi -- he was good at all tracks.

-- Here is a tip for Zone users: When Zone racing, your realism settings (pitting, crash damage, tire wear, etc.) are changed to match those of the Host. To keep your "solo" settings from being altered, create a new driver in the opening CPR screen, and then use that driver, instead of your "solo" driver, when you race on the Zone. When you create the new driver, make sure the other settings (controls and the like) are setup the way you like them.

-- Suffer from twitching handling? Here are three things that can help: (1) increase the non-linear steering setting in the Controls menu, (2) decrease the steering ratio in the Garage (under suspension - axle), and (3) reduce the front wing angle. Many people overlook that last one, and it makes a big difference.

-- When you are driving and have the map displayed, if you hit "R" the map will rotate so that it is always oriented to your position on the track. This can make it easier to determine where you and the other cars are on the course. Hit "MRM" to change the map view to a more enlarged version and "MRM" again to return to the original map view.

Fun Tips
-- If you want to substitute your name for the real-world driver's name, you can do so by editing the "drivers.txt" file in the "races" folder.

-- Hit "v" to get an outside view of your car, then type "head" to see your head pop off. You'll need to press "d" when you're done to get the dashboard back.

-- Typing "CAR" while you are driving will turn your car into the pace car (you will need to switch views by hitting "v" to see the effect). It can be a strange experience -- when I tried it, I got into some sort of trouble and the front of the car raised up, doing a "fender ballet" for a minute or so. Wild.

-- If you are racing on the Gaming Zone and find yourself out of a race, consider pulling over (well out of the way of traffic) and hitting "K" to switch your view to the other cars in a race and "V" to switch the camera angle. It can just be fun to watch some racing, and it can be a great way to pick up some driving tips if there is a skilled driver in the race. Just make sure to return to your own car (press the "Home" key) when the winner crosses the finish line and drive across the line yourself. Otherwise the race will be waiting on you before it can some to an end.

Here are some other good CART Precision Racing sites:

Official Pages
Microsoft's Site
Terminal Reality's Site

Fan Sites
Unofficial CART Precision Racing HQ - recommended! :-)
The Apex - good site, lots of information
The CART Precision Racing Playground
Rapid Performance Motorsports
CART Precision Racing Car Sets - complete 1997 car set
Red Wolf's Underground Garage - individual cars
The Racer's Edge

Questions or comments about this page? Contact Jim Getzen.