Caterham Academy Coming to rFactor 2


As part of Studio 397's drip marketing for the Q3 content drop, today's announcement saw the Caterham Academy be added for free on August 8th.

After yesterday's announcement of the Mini Cooper S and the news from the day before about the World Wide Technology Raceway, the Caterham Seven Academy is now making its way to rFactor 2.

The Caterham Academy is a road-legal, simple, lightweight kit car that can be bought for less than £35.000.

Technical Specs​

The 1.6l Ford engine produces 125 bhp or 93 kW and 150 Nm torque. With its 5-speed gearbox, it achieves 0-60 in 5.3 seconds.

The main selling point of the vehicle is its lightness, however, which is coming in at 625 kg including the driver.

This may not be the quickest vehicle on the planet, however, it will definitely allow close racing along many circuits.

Outlook for rFactor 2 and Caterham​

In the announcement video, more models from the Caterham brand have been announced to be released in the upcoming months.

A little bit of speculation sees the 420R race package coming to rFactor 2 too. Basically, that would be a higher-powered version of the Academy car, while not being road legal.

What I'm personally expecting from this Caterham Academy vehicle would be to feature in the rookie matchmaking series instead of the Alpine Cup. This would fit perfectly, as the current season is set to run out on August 7th, just 1 day before the Caterham's release.

But whether that can come true is to be confirmed. In the meantime, let's just enjoy this grand addition to rFactor 2.

Are you excited about this announcement? Please let us know in the comments down below!
About author
Julian Strasser
Motorsports and Maker-stuff enthusiast. Part time jack-of-all-trades. Owner of tracc.eu, a sim racing-related service provider and its racing community.

Comments

Premium
Ok Studio 397. You have my attention. Please, continue...

I will definitely fight with my wheel mapping to try the Caterham Academy. My type of car!
 
Although I'm faltering a bit in my enjoyment of RF2, I usually really enjoy the light and low powered cars in the sim. USF2000, Tatuus F4, Radical, etc. Easy to push hard, they don't really bite you, just go out and drive the wheels off them. On that note, if they ever bring in the current MX-5 Cup that should be mega fun.
 
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Everyone has its own preferences of course. I would welcome a dedicated BTCC, Indycar, Le Mans game as well for example, but that is not was rFactor 2 is about. Looking at current racing sims, maybe only ACC fits that bill?
Today: ACC, AMS1 and AMS2 with Brasilian series like Stock Car Brasil, RaceRoom for modern TCR and DTM, and AC with mods of course. In the past: also Geoff Crammond Grand Prix titles, GPL, Papyrus Indycar and NASCAR, GTR 2, and RACE 07 and DLC.

I agree a full season ACC-type game is not what rF2 is "about", but even so I'd welcome a bit more focus in first-party content. Not all cars or tracks from a season, but more than a small smattering would be much more immersive and give more depth to your gameplay (and, if nothing else, is more to my preference :p). And then rF2 being rF2, modders can work their magic adding more. :)

On second thought, maybe it's purely a matter of communication. Maybe rF2 could announce they have three current 'streams' of focus – Indycar, modern endurance racing, and British racing – and present content releases (whether Steam Workshop or paid DLC) according to how they fall into these buckets? Or something like that? So the content drops don't seem as scattershot and disjointed? Like how in the past, ISI seemingly had several "focuses" (if you want to call it that) e.g. 1960s Formula cars and historic tracks and the Stock Car content with rules and 3PA ovals.

This time, could be Gateway in the Indycar bucket, and Mini/Caterham in the British bucket. Could be this is how they're thinking internally... but it'd be nice to communicate this to the community so we could better understand what they're up to.
 
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On that note, if they ever bring in the current MX-5 Cup that should be mega fun.
The Advanced Simulation group (who did the amazing ByKolles, 2013 GT500s, and more) had mentioned in a blog post a while back that they planned on doing a modern MX-5 Cup mod. But I've not seen anything about it since, so I fear the project has been dropped. Hopefully not, though! :D I also would LOVE to have those cars in rF2 – especially given the high quality American tracks the game has.
 
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It will be awesome if turns out these are Ben O'Bro's Caterham and Pessio's Mini
 
Premium
Mmm, sorry to sound like a spoiled child , but can we have a 620R please? It's a nice car in Automobilista (2). This one seems a bit(understatement of the century) too slow to have fun anyway. Only close online racing perhaps, but I'm already used to way faster stuff(and oldskool no downforce etc)
But anyway. Thank!
Cheers
Robin
 
Premium
they have more staff now thanks to MSG, thats why we get so much new stuff in such an unusual short amount of time compared to prior. They are not EA level, but more than before, this year alone we got 4 tracks already and 5 cars, plus the stuff now and in Q4, thats never happend before
For example in 2018, we released a total of three major code updates, 6 tracks and no less than 17 new cars: Sebring, Botniaring, Longford, Buckmore Park, Glan Y Gors, Paul Fletcher, Porsche 911 RSR, BMW M8 GTE, Corvette C7.R, Oreca 07 LMP2, Norma M30 LMP3, Brabham BT44B, March 761, McLaren M23, McLaren MP4/8, McLaren MP4/13, McLaren 720S, Porsche 911 GT3 R, Audi R8 LMS, BMW M6, Aston Martin Vantage, Iame Senior, Rental Kart.

I don't think that year was an exception either, but it certainly shows that Studio 397 has been quite productive throughout the years!
 
Mmm, sorry to sound like a spoiled child , but can we have a 620R please? It's a nice car in Automobilista (2). This one seems a bit(understatement of the century) too slow to have fun anyway. Only close online racing perhaps, but I'm already used to way faster stuff(and oldskool no downforce etc)
But anyway. Thank!
Cheers
Robin
They did mention more Caters are in the pipeline. Perhaps your wish will be there.
 
Very happy with this and the Mini. Nice to have drivers cars that aren't all traction control, a ton of downforce and monster slicks.
Oh boy if we could get new GT Legend's... With full mod support etc. Ton's of oldschool car's and old/new track's. With todays craphics, possibilities with sound etc. I wouldnt ask/need more... :inlove: (stick shifter waiting eagarly :whistling: )
 
Why does it have to fit somewhere? Do the Caterhams in AMS2 fit somewhere? For me the strength of rF2 is that you can drive any car (official or mod) at any track (official or mod) with no restrictions in multiple classes and against a lot of AI (e.g. 24 hours of Le Mans with a mix of 50 AI is no problem), day-night transitions and mixed weather conditions.

They seem to forget how many single car series rF2 has ?

Oh and thanks we still have sims like iRacing, Raceroom and rFactor2 that let you buy a single car or track you want.

Sorry, I just tired of listening to the negativity by the same people over and over like they have to prove anyone likes rF2 is wrong to spend their time with it.

Like we all come to these news/release threads in your own sims to give a well done or read a post of someone happy whatever sim it is but in rF2 we have to put up with this time and time again and none of it on topic.

They must think people that like rF2 were born yesterday to not know of rF2 limitations with gearbox among other things, we know, we know.

I mean how condensing and superior can you get after 10 years to keep stating the obvious everyone bloody well knows.
 
I don't really share many simracer's obsession with series with multiple manufacturers, with all the issues with BoP and licensing that comes with it. Single-make series always provide closer racing and no one has any excuses for lack of performance. Even better in something like rF2 that forces you to buy every DLC car on the grid.

GT3 series on various sims always degenerate to single-make racing anyway: in iRacing everyone drives the AMG (or whatever car happens to be the best on this week's track), in RaceRoom the Ferrari, in ACC the Audi, and in AMS2 the McLaren.
 
Maybe because I have access to the Caterham in my other SIMs, I am not very excited about this new free car for RF2. Still thankful for a free car from S397 for a SIM I have bought such a long time ago.
As mentioned in this thread by many, at this point my interest in RF2 is limited and one additional car I already have in other titles will not raise my interest in using RF2 more.
A complete series, full grid and full season tracks would, BTCC or other.
This may or may not be what RF2 is about, but in 2022, for this old dog, with its limited graphics, to stay relevant, I believe it is something they should seriously consider.
 
Maybe because I have access to the Caterham in my other SIMs, I am not very excited about this new free car for RF2. Still thankful for a free car from S397 for a SIM I have bought such a long time ago.
As mentioned in this thread by many, at this point my interest in RF2 is limited and one additional car I already have in other titles will not raise my interest in using RF2 more.
A complete series, full grid and full season tracks would, BTCC or other.
This may or may not be what RF2 is about, but in 2022, for this old dog, with its limited graphics, to stay relevant, I believe it is something they should seriously consider.
Here is a quote from the latest BTCC car to join rF2: The Hundai i30 Fastback N Performance.
Since we deployed our hugely popular Q2 2022 release back on May 9th, we have been delighted to hear the waves of positive feedback from the community about our first batch of modern British Touring Car vehicles, and following up on our intention to bring the full grid to life within rFactor 2, we cannot wait for you to get your hands on this next mighty new car!
 
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Premium
Maybe because I have access to the Caterham in my other SIMs, I am not very excited about this new free car for RF2. Still thankful for a free car from S397 for a SIM I have bought such a long time ago.
As mentioned in this thread by many, at this point my interest in RF2 is limited and one additional car I already have in other titles will not raise my interest in using RF2 more.
A complete series, full grid and full season tracks would, BTCC or other.
This may or may not be what RF2 is about, but in 2022, for this old dog, with its limited graphics, to stay relevant, I believe it is something they should seriously consider.
"limited graphics" is as such a tired and incorrect statement that it's almost pointless to counter, but obviously you haven't seen how rF2 looks like nowadays...
 
Since then there's been nothing at all BTCC related announced or said - it's like the whole idea just vanished in a puff of smoke, except there wasn't even any smoke.
Are you going to post how much you like eating those words? Or are you just going to continue trolling?
 
Are you going to post how much you like eating those words?
No. Why would I? If there‘s been another announcement then I‘m not up to speed - I have a busy life. Even so I wouldn‘t eat my words as they are accurate at the time they were published.
Or are you just going to continue trolling?
I‘m not trolling, I‘m criticising something which IMO deserves to be criticised. My favourite sims get criticised all the time, but that‘s fair enough as the criticisms raised often do need looking at.

Just because your favourite sim is being criticised does not mean you‘re getting trolled, even if you are so enthusiastic about the sim that it feels like it.

Sometimes opinions need to be heard - even if it does mean a burning at the stake for the opinion provider.
 
No. Why would I? If there‘s been another announcement then I‘m not up to speed - I have a busy life. Even so I wouldn‘t eat my words as they are accurate at the time they were published.

I‘m not trolling, I‘m criticising something which IMO deserves to be criticised. My favourite sims get criticised all the time, but that‘s fair enough as the criticisms raised often do need looking at.

Just because your favourite sim is being criticised does not mean you‘re getting trolled, even if you are so enthusiastic about the sim that it feels like it.

Sometimes opinions need to be heard - even if it does mean a burning at the stake for the opinion provider.
Hmm, front page news, but replying to my snideness is more important than checking up on what might have changed?
 
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