Le Mans Prototype enthusiasts do not have much to be happy about when it comes to rFactor. While there’s more Formula One, Touring Car and Stock Car mods than you can shake a stick at, LMP lovers had to rely on F1C conversions until now.

Enduracers changes this by releasing the Epsilon Euskadi Mod. But will it please interested simmers after a long prototype drought?

While Enduracers’ work-in-progress Le Mans Series mod has been one of the first big mods that have been announced for rFactor, the release of the Epsilon Euskadi came as a total surprise. Two days after announcing the project, the mod was ready to download, surprising a whole community. No hype, no annoying release date questions – Just download and go! Hopefully, this strategy will be adopted by other teams in the future.

The story behind the Epsilon Euskadi Mod is rather uncommon. Usually, modders start working on a car once it hits the track, work on the Epsilon started together with the development of the real life car. Back in 2007, Epsilon started their ambitious project of building Spain’s first ever Le Mans prototype. While the team was developing the real life car, Enduracers started their mod, getting valuable access to certain data and information from the Spanish team. This allowed the team to work in peace as nobody would have expected them to work on a car that did not even exist back then.

The Epsilon Euskadi EE1 LMP1 made it’s real-life debut at Barcelona in March, competing in the Le Mans Series against factory efforts from Peugeot, Audi, Lola and countless privateers. In June, the Judd-powered car will compete in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans along with 54 other entries.

Package & Installation

Now back to the mod. Once you´ve downloaded the 183mb zip file, you´ll find a convenient installer. Just point it to your rFactor directory and you´re good to go. The mod comes with a rather extensive read me file, giving important info on FFB values, set-up information and other useful info to make most of this mod.

Graphics

Once you´ve started rFactor after installing, you´ll get to see a nicely made intro video. You can choose between two different cars, the 2008 Epsilon Euskadi EE1 and the 2007 concept car. The 2007 model is based on concept drawings and renders and was never completely built or raced – It’s more or less a fantasy car but good to have.

Both car versions come with plenty of fictional skins, mostly based on real-life endurance racing liveries. The German Epsilon sports a Porsche works-like skin, the Austrian car certainly says Red Bull and one pair of EE1’s bear a strong resemblance to the Peugeot 908 works livery – Certainly a nice touch that endurance racing fans will appreciate.

Now you can choose your car – Wait, no, you can’t! Sadly, Enduracers have priced the cars at 1,5 million credits while you start out with 300.000. Seriously, I can only ask modding teams to not do that. 99,9% of all players don’t use the credit system anyways and are forced to use the ISI cheat or edit files – Annoying and pointless.
At the track, the first thing you´ll see is the nice cockpit. While the 2007 concept car cockpit is not as detailed, the 2008 EE1 comes with beautiful interior. The button box and other details are nicely done, the steering wheel looks superb. The only downside are some low-res textures besides the button box which ruin an otherwise flawless impression. The POV is perfect, you´ll get the impression of sitting slightly to the right – Just as in the real life car.

Skipping to the outside view, the positive impressions continue. Modeling work is up to modern standards, looking very smooth and appealing. The modeller nailed the proportions – If you compare the car with real life photos you´ll see that the model is spot on. Texturing work is almost as nice, again some low res textures stick out. Why does the Epsilon logo on the nose look so pixelated? Those are just small glitches, overall the graphics are appealing and pretty much top notch.

Sound

This is were the Epsilon Mod really shines! The EE1’s Judd engine puts out a marvelous note and Enduracers did a brilliant job transferring it to rFactor. Both the onboard and exterior sounds are spot-on, the shifting and rev-limiter sounds are some of the best I´ve heard in rFactor so far.

Of course, the team had access to real-life recordings but that fact alone does not make a good sound. Best example for that is GTR2 where some cars just sound wrong – Despite real life sound recordings.

Physics

Being a car in development, the Epsilon EE1 is rather tricky to drive and Enduracers did a good job capturing that. The car is nimble and powerful – And sometimes tough to tame.

The standard setup is very oversteery, causing the car to spin even out of quick corners if you´re too quick on the throttle. Enduracers recommend to use the traction control on low setting and that’s really recommend. Even with TC on, you have to be careful – Pedal to the metal will easily spin this car out.

The brakes are powerful but again, somewhat tricky. You have to be careful as they can easily be locked up, even in 2nd or 3rd gear.As brake pressure can’t be adjusted in the setup settings, you just have to get used to it.

Overall, the car is a pleasure to drive. Le Mans Prototypes are almost as powerful as modern open wheelers but can be driven more relaxed and give you more room for errors. Being a downforce-car, corner speeds are high, making this car a blast on fast, flowing circuits.

Conclusion

After a lot of controversy around their French Carrera Cup mod, Enduracers second mod proves that they are one of the most talented teams in the rFactor scene.

Almost everything about this mod is positive, just a few low-res textures, the 2007 concept car cockpit and use of the credit system spoil a perfect experience.

Finally, Le Mans Prototype fans get something good to play with, even though something’s missing. Enduracers did provide a good bunch of fictional skins but 20 identical prototypes racing at each other – That’s just not what sports car fans want to see.

Yes, the Epsilon can be paired up with existing prototype mods such as the SCC conversions. But because of the car’s optical perfection, it will always stick out of the aged models. If you´re waiting for true multi-class racing in rFactor, Enduracers’ LMS mod will be the way to go. If all their cars can come close to the Epsilon’s quality, it will be a blast of a mod and well worth waiting for. Until then, try to perfect your LMP driving skills by trying out the Epsilon – One of the best rFactor cars around!

Screenshots

 

Download the Epsilon Euskadi Mod Here

Do you agree with me? Or think I´ve got it all wrong? Let me know in the comments :)