Letter to Developers - Why didn't we get Super Tourers sooner?

Raceroom Super Tourers - why not sooner.jpg
Images: KW Studios
In a few weeks' time, RaceRoom Racing Experience will launch its newest DLC pack focusing on the Super Tourer era, a period in racing many fans have been begging for. OT Contributors Angus and Connor wonder why these legendary machines are only just arriving in sim racing as first-party content.

One month to go in 2024, and the sim racing space is exploding with exciting announcements, giving even more meaning to the phrase 'Christmas hype'. From Assetto Corsa EVO's early 2025 launch to Automobilista 2 hitting 1.6 soon and now RaceRoom's next historical car pack, the industry is well and truly "popping off". Apologies for the youth term.

But it is that latter news story, set for release on 10 December, that is gathering more and more momentum in the weeks leading up to launch. In fact, the title's next update will bring a quintet of recognisable Super Touring cars to its roster, including the all-wheel-drive Audi A4, rear-wheel-drive BMW E36, Eastern Honda Accord, and a pair of Volvos, the dominant S40 and the antithesis to aerodynamics that is the 850 box.


Models that many sim racing enthusiasts grew up watching as they battled for every inch of track position around the world in various series, the Super Tourer era is one that the community has cried out for years. Yet somehow, this is just the first official, first-party inclusion of the class since it ran competitively. Remember the TOCA/DTM Race Driver games?

Super Touring Hype​

However, the lack of first-party content has not stopped the category from holding centre stage in recent years, namely in Assetto Corsa. Upon the title's launch, one of the first mods available for the game was the PM3DM 1999 Nissan Primera, a challenging but fun touring car with a thrilling soundtrack.

Soon joining the Primera were two more models from the same creator, @Patrik Marek. From a few years prior, the same 1998 BMW 320i was inbound to RaceRoom next month, while the most recent addition saw yet another Volvo hit AC's roster, this time the S40.

Raceroom's Swedish Super Tourer pairing joins the Assetto Corsa S40.

Raceroom's Swedish Super Tourer pairing joins the Assetto Corsa S40.

In addition to this trio, several external modding groups have worked on the most infamous Super Touring machinery for Assetto Corsa, allowing you to faithfully recreate many of the best seasons of the British Touring Car Championship.

But it seems the announcement of this upcoming R3E pack has the community even more excited than ever for the late-1990s touring cars with a fresh set of liveries by @MR SKINS, this time looking outside of the BTCC. In fact, Super Tourers raced all around the world from Germany to America and even down under, where the Bathurst 1000 was not always run in burbling V8 Supercars. Indeed, the 1998 running, sporting a long list of Super Tourer models, was one of the best editions of the great motor race.

Three liveries for the famous event are available, with hopefully many more on the way.

A Super Touring Passion​

If it was not obvious already, we here at OverTake love our Super Tourers. From the unique five-cylinder Volvos to the plucky Accords, this era of touring car racing holds a very special place in many of our hearts. With KW Studios introducing these cars as first-party content for RaceRoom, the number of sim racers being exposed to this era will help the discipline grow in popularity and bolster grid numbers.

Honda Accord.jpeg

Honda's underdog, the Accord.

RaceRoom has been on a bit of a hot streak recently with both their 1995 DTM pack and their 2024 DTM offering. This Super Touring addition fits perfectly into their lineup. Many of Germany's tracks, like the Norisring and AVUS, are available. Brands Hatch and Donington Park are also in RaceRoom, meaning you can recreate some of the most famous moments from the BTCC.

Overall, the Super Touring pack is a great addition, and RaceRoom is the perfect platform to implement it. Starting next year, the online portion will be bolstered with Low Fuel Motorsport support, and player numbers could steadily rise as a result. The future is looking bright for touring car fans!

Why So Slow?​

Clearly, the sim racing community's passion for Super Tourers is a terminal diagnosis that one must learn to live with. Worse yet, speak with any non-afflicted member of the community for more than five minutes about these stunning beasts of a by-gone era and you will learn that the passion is highly contagious.


Though there may be side effects of addiction and pale skin from spending more time than usual in your sim rig, relief from said infection is a very simple one - and yet developers have been gate-keeping the prescription for years. The solution to our ailment is greater inclusion of Super Touring racers in racing games.

A few hours a week controlling lift-off oversteer, bashing through gears on a sequential shifter, and brainwashing yourself with the tunes of a screaming naturally aspirated engine is sure to appease your unhinged need to chat about these monstrous touring cars. So why are we only now getting first-party representation for the era?

Well, the answer is no doubt multi-faceted from GT and Formula racing cars providing great popularity online to licensing complexities due to the cars' ages.

Raceroom is the first title with first party Super Tourers in decades.

Raceroom is the first title with first-party Super Tourers in decades.

In fact, this is not the first time a game developer has toyed with the idea before moving on to something new. Last year, Straight4 Studios, in its search to figure out the focus for its new simulator, pondered a late-1990s BTCC title before evidently switching to its bread and butter, early 2000s GT machinery. Meanwhile, during Motorsport Games' talks of an official BTCC game, the idea of Super Tourer DLC packs caught the community's attention with immediate effect. But we all know how that ended.

At the end of the day, we could spend all day looking into the past, wondering why this often-forgotten category never received the attention of other popular series. But with Super Touring excitement on the horizon, we choose to look forward to RaceRoom's pack in the hopes that other developers finally come to their senses and follow KW-Studios down this retrospective path.

How do you rate Super Tourers among other famous racing categories? Let us know in the comments.
About author
Angus Martin
Motorsport gets my blood pumping more than anything else. Be it physical or virtual, I'm down to bang doors.

Comments

Can't be more happy for this content into Raceroom, with iRacing, rF2/LMU, and ACC, I have all I need.
Like the Crosslé 90, I would like a fast vintage formula car.
 
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Very nice to see Raceroom adding variety, I have enjoyed those “super tourer” for years, as modded content, on varied modded historical tracks, one of the perks of appreciating community supported sandbox title.
Seeing official content different from other title offering is refreshing and welcome. I hope many will encourage Raceroom for this courageous endeavour and that other developper will think better before offering the same new shinny thing that is already old news a year latter. One title with Hypercar is more than enough.
 
Personally I think it's down to licencing. A lot of the manufacturers would rather deny super touring ever existed than have them in a sim.
 
Completely agree... One of the most popular periods of motorsport in general...
 
Touring cars are maybe THE most fun to drive category for me, regardless the sim I choose.
Recreated also many seasons within AC (see also my BOP mod Project)

I hope KW can add the missing cars later
 
The VRC super tourers for AC are fabulous ...learned a lot about FWD car setups with them and best approaches to corners with throttle and braking etc...of course RRE and AC Evo etc would have to use real names and have the licensing requirements, if their cars approach the immersion of the VRC cars they will be indeed "super".
 
Premium
For marketing reasons, modern horsepower monsters are more likely to attract buyers than old obstacles driving around with a chicken breast. I don't have to understand this decision, but I have nothing to do with advertising either. In addition, and I don't know much about this either, the licenses for using them definitely cost a lot.
How expensive should a game like this be?
Who drives - and this is more important, who can control every vehicle on every race track?
I don't mean messing around in front of the village ice cream parlor on a Sunday afternoon to impress the village beauties. In new-gaming terms, "just drive around and make stupid YT videos".
The community also has heart attacks almost all the time. See ACE, Update AMS2 1.6.
They're already turning the tree because the update will only come when it's there, they're praying tosome obscure higher being, selling their houses and giving away their spouses becauseit's coming out late.
If ACE is delayed, the community will only consist of maybe 100 players.The rest of the waiting group have nailed a meatball to their left kneecap out of frustration and are now turning it to welcome Captain Tuddle.
So my question is, how long should the game be in development before it's released?
1 year?
5 years?
10?
There was once a game that delivered historical vehicles. GT Legends. Unfortunately, this very good game only contained modern race tracks and modern rules.
And what happened?
It was modded with content from GTR2 and IRacing.
It got to the point where entire vehicle classesmigrated to GTR2 or entire series sets came to GT Legends.
I'd say that was a complete licensing disaster. The costs for GT Legends were probably not recouped as a result. If GTR2 owners were able to play around with the historic vehicles because the same engine was used, SimBin was left empty-handed.The GTR2 owners definitely didn't buy GT Legends. So there will probably be no successor. No, I think software developers should find a focus point and then follow through with it.
For me, they should release paid DLCs afterwards. Then I can decidewhether I want this DLC now or leave it. But even if the companies release the one perfect game with all the race tracks and vehicles that exist and have existed, the toxic gaming community would still have something to complain about.
Why is the eighth washer missing on the rear left axle beam?
Why is the glass not 95% transparent but only 89.999765%?
Why the hell doesn't the game know which vehicle/race track combination I want for which day and weather conditions?
I don't care if steering wheels, VR glasses, or multi-monitor solutions are supported. As long as the sewage system of the next town is graphically represented precisely. With the lighting and the brackish water flowing off.
The red of the GUI is a bit too funky for me.
It's presumptuous to think that we'll get a simulation that will satisfy all wishes, hopes, and preferences.
But why make your own game?
As an AMS2 and former AC driver, I have completely changed my AC to the period from 1950 to 1990 due to a lack of content. The textures of the vehicles have my racing driver name and AMS2 even features my own team, McClure Motorsport. I'm more than happy with how it looks on my computer now. If it weren't for the rules. Personally, I don't need another game that offers me the same content and the same mods as in all other games. I can easily do without the interior lighting of the portaloos at the edge of the race track. But I want to do a real introductory lap, for example, even when starting from a standing position. With damage to the vehicle and all that stuff. I think the closest thing to that was IRacing. No, a game that includes everything and anything that has and does occur remains a pipe dream, or you sit down and start programming, texturing, lighting, etc.
Have fun.
Grand Prix 4, for example, would have easily taken 60 years of work if it had been made by one person.
Geoff Crammond said at the time.
 
I figure a lot of sim racers (and the people that make the games) are of an age where super touring was a formative era of racing in their lives.

The mid 90's really were a golden age for the BTCC. Moving from Group A with it's complicated class system and from a more endurance focused style of racing to a single class with lots of manufacturers (and top line drivers) and the 2 sprint race format transformed the series into a bit of a phenomenon (and a Grandstand staple!) Unfortunately, like all the best era's of racing series it was fairly short lived. it was great while it lasted though.

If RaceRoom supported Triples natively then I'd reinstall it and buy this content :laugh: And then more cars and more mid 90's historic versions of the classic UK circuits.
 
Definitely all sequential. Not sure whether they were 'shift without lift' (like CART was by then) but I assume they were. In photos the cars of the era have a conventional 3 pedal layout but I assume they only used the clutch at the start of the race. It's possible they still had to use the clutch on downshifts or at least blip the throttle (unless that was automated). Most of the drivers were probably still right foot breaking (as that's what they would have been brought up to do). That's not to say some drivers were not left foot breaking of course (as was commonplace in F1 by then).
 
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