So just today I submitted by first resource, a modified I6 Moonhawk, called the Clubsport, using only the stock available parts, but made a really sweet handling and responsive Moonhawk, with some nice tweaks to the motor to give it a bit more enthusiasm. Just waiting on that to be approved... However, once submitted I figured I should do the job properly (and give the I6 some love) so this afternoon, armed with Blender, some patience, and some knowledge from the tutorials and pulling other vehicles apart, the Clubsport-SC is (kind of) born... Should fit under the stock hood, using the stage 1 charger from the V8 and some modifications to make the inlet manifold line up nicely with the charger... Then noticed that on the Stage 1 V8 charger, the air filter just sits on top, looks kinda silly as of course the air goes into the back of a supercharger, so I made up a 90 degree scoop to accept the stock filter... Modified the radiator top hose, filter and charger all on and fit within the confines of the existing mesh! So not being much of a modder (trying to find my way by feel here) this might take me a while to finish up, but I'm pleased with progress so far, I'll turbo it next - which reminds me - does the game support compound charging? I'd love to give it a go!! Anyway, I like the old I6 for its light weight, so I'll get this working in the game next, and start looking at how to bring in the model, and do the texturing... might need some support folks
So what started as... "I'll just use the supercharger from the V8", turned rapidly in to "I think I'll turbo it as well" has finally evolved this morning in to ... "I think I'll rework the entire I6 and give it a little update".
Thanks Can-06 Yeah, I posted initially thinking content creation... but I guess it has a home elsewhere. Mods feel free to move (unless I can move it!?).
So some steady progress, and some serious frustrations with the materials.cs file causing clashes and killing all the stock textures. Seems sorted now after some googling. Only basic diffuse textures right now, with no aging or other mapping, can't for the life of me work out how to even begin the specular and normal textures, so I'll leave that for another day while I continue to model the turbo version... Basic textures on, updated I6 with more details than stock, inlet manifold will be remade also, so its "branches" like an actual inlet, rather than just being a block. And the start of the supercharger on the revised engine with place-holder UV-unwrap as a texture. As you can see, I will need to remake the headers also, as I wanted to make the engine more anatomically correct by having a separate "head" per se, so that the inlet and exhaust ports ran parallel from one side to the other like reality, in fairness, the default headers actually clip through the bell-housing anyway, so I was toying with redoing the headers regardless, but following the block/head redesign it became clear the headers would need quite a notable tweak... Going to get the Normally aspirated version (the plain Clubsport) finished and textured first, then its the supercharger, then finally the turbo install, which very kindly (with permission) borrows the turbo and intercooler mesh from Neidjel's excellent Marshall Turbo mod, though I am tweaking the turbo somewhat as I want the compressor to come out at a different angle. But thats work for another day
Nope, Mods and Skins would be a more fitting place for this mod. OT: This is shaping up to be quite a nice mod so far! The exhaust looks a little iffy (it doesn't really match up that well with the engine head), but I love the idea of making a supercharged I6 Moonhawk! Honestly, the stock Moonhawk I6 has a surprising amount of speed about it, considering that it's only got 151 horsepower and a three-speed transmission, so if this engine pushes out 250-300 horsepower, then it would help cut weight off the nose and give the Moonhawk a decent amount of power. Also, are you planning on swapping this engine into other cars, like the Barstow/Burnside/Hopper/D-Series/200BX/I-Series if you can fit the engine into them?
Yeah the exhaust is a mile out, I've totally rebuilt the I6 and that was the stock exhaust header, its on the cards to be re-made tomorrow Power wise, the stock Clubsport takes it to a slightly peaky 220ish, then the Supercharged variant is around 300hp, and the Turbo version runs about 300hp at stock boost, but has variable boost up to around 460ish To be fair, the 300hp supercharged drives really sweetly, the I6 carries around 4% less weight over the front axle than the V8, so once powered up a bit it handles really nicely, still with some old-school charm! I'll update again tomorrow, started the redesign of the inlet manifold tonight, will finish that tomorrow and get on to the exhaust header.
Awesome to hear that the I6 will finally be getting some of that sweet power that it's always been missing. 220 horsepower N/A sounds amazing, and should be ideal for my intended purposes. However, 300 HP from the supercharged version sounds even better, and will likely make it a very competitive race car. 460 horsepower from a turbo sounds great, as well, but I've never really been a big fan of turbocharging whenever I can avoid it. In fact, most of the time, I prefer N/A engines over turbo'd/supercharged engines. That's the major reason why I tend to use cars that are Class 5 or lower; I just like to have that raw feel that an unassisted engine is pumping out all of the power, rather than resorting to turbocharging/supercharging to try and remain competitive. Also, that's good to know that you'll be re-making the exhaust header - it's paying attention to details like the ones you're focusing on (why, you even bothered to change the air filter position for the supercharger to keep it realistic) that I appreciate from good modders. Hearing that the front axle load will be dropped by 4% is a definite improvement, and one that I'll notice positively once I get to racing this against the stock Track variant of the Moonhawk. Having less weight over the front axle will make it seem less like a Moonhawk and more like a Barstow - which is a step in the right direction. After all, the Moonhawk has a boat anchor for a V8, which anchors that boat (pun not intended) in a straight line, for the most part. Unless, of course, you want to kick the tail out, which will make it quite a bit slower. I absolutely love the Barstow TrackSport over the Kingsnake/Nightsnake for that very reason; it's a light, lithe, nimble machine with a decent amount of power, and it can handle quite well compared to the more-powerful versions of the Barstow. Because the Moonhawk comes with fender flares as in-game options, I'll be able to widen the tires plenty to help control all of that 300 HP from the Clubsport S/C I6, which may make it even faster than the Barstow TrackSport over the course of a lap. Speaking of weight, how much does the Moonhawk weigh with the Clubsport I6 when it's equipped with the big stock bumpers or the Special's front fascia and rear filler panel? If I can get 220, 300, or 460 horsepower from a Moonhawk weighing under 1600 kg with the Special's fascia/filler panel, I'll be one happy person. (For comparison's sake, the stock Moonhawk I6 weighs 1560 kilos with the Special's fascial/filler panel, so 1580 kg should be a reasonable weight for a same-spec Moonhawk with the supercharged Clubsport I6.)
Thanks for your kind words, I'm a twenty year veteran of the tuning industry, so I want to see it look as reasonably realistic as possible without going too over-poly! As a stock Clubsport its spot on around the 1540kg kind of area with the specials bodywork, but thats with the larger wheels and tyres (went up to a 9" steelie front and rear), thats with arch liners out and the sway bar removed. With the Race springs and dampers dialed in the Sway bar really was just ballast and gives no notable improvement in feel or performance, though I'll leave it unlocked so people can toy around adding it back on if they choose. I'll do a quick bit of research on Roots charger weight (around 10-12kg on their own from memory, fitted a few Jackson Racing kits to EP3 civics over the years!) and I'll say we'll be well under the 1600kg kind of area. Though, I'm toying with a Clubsport hood too, with a scoop, which would be fundamentally a fibreglass kind of affair, so saving another good few Kg off the front axle. I actually like the tweaks to the N/A version, I modelled them using real engine simulation software (Desktop Dyno5) and its given the engine a nice top-end character, at the expense of bottom end delivery, as you'd expect a trade off. The basic Clubsport tune and tweak is awaiting approval and should be on soon, I'm hoping to get a modified I6 version out early January, then Super and Turbocharged by Feb, though its work dependant, but I'm making pretty good progress with the modelling!
Once again thinking around the lines of reality. Getting 215/220hp from a 150hp stock engine would definitely require something more focused than a horrible old-school pancake filter, so the redesign of the inlet side is coming on nicely, and rather than just splat a basic pancake on top of it, I'm going to make an airbox with intake trumpet to go with it, as that would definitely be essential in improving the power in reality... Here's the inlet and throttle body so far (I'm claiming fuel injection)... Finishing up the induction side today for the N/A. Want to get the basic Clubsport signed off before making any further moves on the SC and Turbo... --- Post updated --- The I6CS Super-Intake is born --- Post updated --- So the last update for today, great progress with the main model. All the geometry is complete for the revised I6, the new inlet manifold and airbox, and the new exhaust headers. The headers also correct the errors present in the default header model, as now they no longer clip through any other geometry, I've narrowed the collector and moved the mesh over toward the body a little, so it clears the bell-housing and the body I'm pleased. Basic textures are all in place, now its a case of trying to understand how the Specular and Normal textures work!
Looks great so far! Mad props for knowing Blender enough to model an engine, because wow is Blender difficult to get into. I can barely do anything beyond poking buttons and making lines . Seriously, anyone who models with it has my respect. Can't wait to see the finished engine.
Progress seems very quick and the project seems promising. I like it very much so far. Is it going to have a realistic torque curve or is it based on the original i6?
Goood morning all... Thanks for the kind words and support guys, I'm struggling a bit with Blenders slightly screwy handling of textures and data blocks etc, but finally got some reasonable textures baked in with AO to give them some sort of basic shading. I'm getting the feeling I might be looking too far into this and over-engineering the solution... Heres a quick update with the base shading. Taza: Absolutely, the torque curve is based on the results of a 288ci engine simulation, I was running Desktop Dyno5 to make the curve, but have since moved over to SpeedWiz, I'll run another more accurate model later on and post the curve up here. While the supercharger is pure "bolt-on" to the stock revised motor, the turbo version will have a different base torque curve, as of course the turbo modelling is based on being built on top of a traditional turbo-intended motor (lower compression etc), whereas the stock Clubsport, and my supercharged version are very much based on a revised and modernised version of the existing torque curve (if you could call it that, its more like a blob) which resembles something that looks like a single-cylinder dumper-truck, while I can see they were trying to make the I6 feel a bit flat, its woeful performance over 4k does seem a bit excessive. More updates later on today as I get the shaded model in to the game, and start signing off the remainder of the mod (weight) before moving to stages 2 (SC) and 3 (Turbo). Where I am a bit stuck at the minute, is what to do with the nodes and beams, the engine shape is roughly similar to the stock I6, so I'm not so sure I really need to delve into that side... any feedback or support on that area would be appreciated
You can use the stock i6 engine jbeam as a base, maybe even leave the shape untouched if it closely matches. If not, you can just move the node coordinates slightly to more suitable positions.
Taza: Thanks for your advice, worked well, the bounding boxes are similar enough not to be an issue, so I've left the data alone. So the mod is drawing closer to a releasable stage, today I've got the AO textures baked and in the game, its just the Normal's map thats giving me a headache right now, so that may have to wait for another update, as I'd like to get the core mod out there to see what people think of it. To cover the model and texture updates: I'm not going to say its perfect, or that I'm super happy with it, or that its been particularly brave or bold, but I am contented that its a first stab at a mod, outside of just tweaking the config files. Today: With the model built and in the game properly I've driven it quite a bit more on various tracks, and decided to go with a CS specific close-ratio transmission, to keep the motor on song a bit more, its well within the confines of a factory-funded special to have its own ratios, so it now has a 5-speed, with its own ratios custom tuned to the power delivery of the motor. Speaking of which, after a lot of messing around with Desktop Dyno5 and Speed-Wiz, simulating the engine, I decided to use real world data and a little common sense. Working through some graphs for the N/A Toyota 2JZ-JE, the Nissan/Holden RB30 and then (more accurately) the Jaguar AJ6 (which was 4.0 later in life), this is the graph I've come up with, "Ref" being the original torque curve from the stock motor, keep in mind this is meant to be a rather more highly strung version of the stock I6, which would take a hit in the lower revs in order to breath better top end. From my working spreadsheet: and how its interpreted in game... So finally, the original feature of the CS was to be light weight, its tipped the scales a bit heavier than I'd like (but I'm trying to be realistic here). But this is the final kerb weight, fully fuelled, in final trim (arch liners are back in, it looks wrong without them...), but the engine improvements, custom gear ratios, and handling tweaks make it a believable factory special IMHO. Off for final test drive and tune, and will submit the Mod revision tomorrow
Official thread now open here -> https://www.beamng.com/threads/moonhawk-i6-clubsport.51300/ 0.21 Upload awaiting moderation, and details of 0.3 update inside...
I think that you could drop torque around 50 at 1000rpm, torque curve is still quite flat for a sporty motor? At West Coast Usa race track I did not need 5th gear at all, so maybe shorter default differential ratio would work well too? I was hitting limiter at 2nd and 3rd felt bit long during most of the turns, together with lot of low end torque it kind of felt torque monster instead of high revving machine, just my first impression. That being said, I do like it a lot, feels planted like a race car and real fun to go around the race track like club sport should be, looking forward of refinements in future!
So I really played around with the torque a lot, and wanted to retain some of the character of the stock I6, so I have still been quite conservative with it relative to real world data, I kind of used the Jaguar AJ6 as reference for some of the curve, with the car still being 1.5 tons, much less torque at low revs made it feel like really hard work, but I may make those changes if I look at doing a throttle-body version (probably 0.6 onwards, as its all about the forced induction up to 0.5 now). Gearing wise, I kept it low to keep the 0-62 sprint time as sharp as I could get it, the gearing was mostly road-use orientated to be fair, and when I tracked it for the handling side I did do quite a bit of that running with the 6-speed race box. May review the ratios again for 0.3 as thats the supercharger update. It is still really torquey low down, but then it is 4.0, but I appreciate your comments and may knock a little more off low down, certainly when I've played with the turbo I've made it feel really flat off boost, to simulate running low compression, gives it a really good classic laggy feel! Glad you liked the handling though, thats where a lot of my time went in, the stock Race-setup is pretty good, but its too stiffly sprung and damped, so with some refinement I think it drives quite nicely now, but definitely a work in progress Thanks for taking time to feedback though, I'll take it on board for the next update, and may even do two sets of gearbox ratios...
I chose race limited slip differential and played around a bit, for West Coast track I found 3.8 being perfect ratio, but maybe it is too perfect? I really like the car and handling, amount of power at top is actually quite perfect for the vehicle, it is really good combination, which makes you want to do that one more lap, which speaks about how good this car is!
