This is a scratch-made version of Opel Rennbahn, also known as Opelbahn, one of the very first permanent race tracks in Europe and one of the fastest, located at Rüsselsheim only 3 km away from Opel factory and headquarters.
The 1.5 km long oval track was built in 1919, my version represents 1928s appearance with the bridge over Nordkurve, the waterworks building behind the grandstands and the tall chimney of Opel factory in the distance (with 136 m Europe's highest industrial chimney back then).
The track was built for speeds up to 140 kph and was used for bicycle, motorbike and car races in equal parts (in the 1920s Opel was world's largest bike manufacturer).
Unfortunately with the opening of AVUS, Nordschleife and Hockenheimring, Opelbahn became more and more redundant in the late 30s and beginning 40s. So it had a very short time of glory.
Today there's not much left of the oval track. All you can see is a small visitor platform above the slowly decaying concrete of Nordkurve, surrounded by dense woodland used as catchment area of the still existing waterworks.
I used construction plans, Google maps, an aerial view of the 1950s and a lot of photographs as reference. Nevertheless some things had to be guessed, especially colours.
Direction is anti-clockwise!
Performance should be quite good, on my system I've got 190-222 fps and 570-980 DIPs (clear weather).
Features:
- grass fx
- seasonal adjustments autumn and winter
- rain fx (not tested)
- track lights
- many collision boxes
- surfaces
Credits:
Ai line and track map by Rainmaker
Thank you:
- Opel Automobile GmbH / Stellantis for the support
- Bürgerinitiative Kulturdenkmal Opel-Rennbahn for the reference images/movies and detail information
- YouTube channel GPLaps for the track presentation
Known issues:
- some people prefer a faster ai line (Rainmaker's ai line is according to historic reports: Normal line is on the left, for overtaking they used the right side). GPLaps created a faster ai line, that can be found in the links under his track presentation (racing line only, no pits). Please search for GPLaps + Opel Rennbahn on Youtube.
Changelog v1.0:
(all changes according to reference images and measurements by Bürgerinitiative Kulturdenkmal Opel-Rennbahn)
- more variation of fields and grass parts
- more forests and tree rows in the distance, in between towns Königstädten and Bauschheim
- corrected height of forest in the north, added low hills Bauschheimer Hügel and Am Schnepperberg
- most flags with ksFlags shader
- Zielrichter/Pressetribüne now according to construction plans, reduced height of grandstands
- high poly trees at start/finish
- correction of position of waterworks building
- lower saturation
- additional small lights for night races, illuminated windows at Wärterhaus
- many more small details
Have fun!
The 1.5 km long oval track was built in 1919, my version represents 1928s appearance with the bridge over Nordkurve, the waterworks building behind the grandstands and the tall chimney of Opel factory in the distance (with 136 m Europe's highest industrial chimney back then).
The track was built for speeds up to 140 kph and was used for bicycle, motorbike and car races in equal parts (in the 1920s Opel was world's largest bike manufacturer).
Unfortunately with the opening of AVUS, Nordschleife and Hockenheimring, Opelbahn became more and more redundant in the late 30s and beginning 40s. So it had a very short time of glory.
Today there's not much left of the oval track. All you can see is a small visitor platform above the slowly decaying concrete of Nordkurve, surrounded by dense woodland used as catchment area of the still existing waterworks.
I used construction plans, Google maps, an aerial view of the 1950s and a lot of photographs as reference. Nevertheless some things had to be guessed, especially colours.
Direction is anti-clockwise!
Performance should be quite good, on my system I've got 190-222 fps and 570-980 DIPs (clear weather).
Features:
- grass fx
- seasonal adjustments autumn and winter
- rain fx (not tested)
- track lights
- many collision boxes
- surfaces
Credits:
Ai line and track map by Rainmaker
Thank you:
- Opel Automobile GmbH / Stellantis for the support
- Bürgerinitiative Kulturdenkmal Opel-Rennbahn for the reference images/movies and detail information
- YouTube channel GPLaps for the track presentation
Known issues:
- some people prefer a faster ai line (Rainmaker's ai line is according to historic reports: Normal line is on the left, for overtaking they used the right side). GPLaps created a faster ai line, that can be found in the links under his track presentation (racing line only, no pits). Please search for GPLaps + Opel Rennbahn on Youtube.
Changelog v1.0:
(all changes according to reference images and measurements by Bürgerinitiative Kulturdenkmal Opel-Rennbahn)
- more variation of fields and grass parts
- more forests and tree rows in the distance, in between towns Königstädten and Bauschheim
- corrected height of forest in the north, added low hills Bauschheimer Hügel and Am Schnepperberg
- most flags with ksFlags shader
- Zielrichter/Pressetribüne now according to construction plans, reduced height of grandstands
- high poly trees at start/finish
- correction of position of waterworks building
- lower saturation
- additional small lights for night races, illuminated windows at Wärterhaus
- many more small details
Have fun!
