About This Site

  Welcome to The Racer Pit Stop. I'm Justin Martin, and this site has the cars, tracks and other stuff i've made for Racer Free Car Simulation. If you are looking for my old Need For Speed website, it's located here, but isn't being updated anymore.

  If you've never heard of Racer, it is a free racing simulator being developed by Ruud Van Gaal. Racer is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. The official Racer webpage is www.racer.nl

  To run Racer you will need a good video card. The absolute minimum for Racer to run would be a ATI Radeon or NVIDIA Geforce. To get driveable frame rates with most cars and tracks, you'll need at least a Radeon 9000 or Geforce 4. The integrated video chipsets used in many store bought computers often aren't fast enough.

News

October 21, 2007 - Mazda 787B updated for Racer v0.5.3 beta 7

 I have updated the Mazda 787B for Racer v0.5.3 beta 7. When model.offset was broken in Racer v0.5.3 beta 2, I had to manually reposition the models so that they were positioned correctly. However, when I uploaded the updated car, I forgot to include the fixed car.ini that went with along with those updates. Thus, when model.offset was fixed, my Mazda 787B became broken again. So i've reuploaded the car with everything fixed. The 787B should now be compatible with all of the v0.5.3 betas.

All of my other cars should be compatible with Racer v0.5.3 beta 7.

October 18, 2007 - Unimog U5000 released

 My latest car for Racer, a Mercedes-Benz Unimog U5000 has been released. It's in the cars section, so go download it now!

November 06, 2006 - Chevrolet Silverado update

 I've found a little time to work on my truck again, so there are two new screenshots of it in the Cars section. It's still a long ways from completion.

August 02, 2006 - A concept car is born...

 The Martin Ocelot is a car that I made for a concept car competition. I only had four weeks to finish it, which wasn't as much a problem as I had thought. Anyway, it's available for your driving pleasure in the Cars section.

March 16, 2006 - New Chevrolet Silverado pics

 I've posted two new pics of my '81 Chevy Silverado. I'm now starting to create textures for it. Most of the textures that you'll see are still far from complete, however, the grille and outside of the bed are close to finished.

February 18, 2006 - Porsche 914 version 2 released

 Version two of my Porsche 914-4 and 914-6 have been released! They were originally released over three years ago. The textures on the original model weren't all that great, and the body had fairly bad normals. Plus there's been three years of Racer updates since then.

So last summer I began to redo the 914. The body has been heavily remodeled; I removed the modeled door lines, fixed the normals issues, reduced the polygon count and fixed a few accuracy issues. The textures have been redone completely from scratch save a few bits and pieces. The car.ini is completely new.

I plan to redo the Porsche 916 eventually as well, and I may add another variant or two to my stable of 914's. ;) But that's in the distant future.


Here's the complete list of new features:

- Heavily remodeled body with smoother reflections and better accuracy
- 4 levels of detail for the main body
- A removeable targa top and side windows (selectable in the car.ini)
- Headlights
- Textures remade about 90% from scratch
- Driver model by Stecki
- New car.ini made from scratch
- Shaders
- New wheels made from scratch
- Raven variants
- AI lines for five tracks - Donington, Fernstone, Imola, Nurburgring & Swiss Stroll


January 07, 2006 - Screenshots of updated Porsche 914

 9141.JPG 9142.JPG 9143.JPG

Here's some screenshots of my updated Porsche 914.

New features:
- Heavily revised body with smoother reflections and better accuracy
- 2 lower level of detail models for the main body (improves frame rates)
- A removeable targa top and side windows (selectable in the car.ini)
- Headlights
- Textures remade 90% from scratch
- Driver model by Stecki
- New car.ini made from scratch
- Shaders

Stuff left to do:
- New wheels
- New gauges
- Taillights / Brakelights / Reverse lights


January 04, 2006 - Mazda 787B updated

 With Racer v0.5.3 beta 2, support for model.offset was broken. This means that my Mazda 787B's body is now horribly misalligned with its wheels. So I manually repositioned the 787B's body to fix the problem.

I also consolidated some of the textures, so that instead of having a large number of small textures, I now have a small number of large textures. This increased the frame rate by a few percent for me.

This new version is available in the downloads section...


In other news, I should have new pics to show of my 1981 Chevrolet C10 soon. It's now partially textured.


August 23, 2005 - RacerWiki added

 I've added a Wiki for Racer to the webpage. It is located at http://pitstop.totalnfs.net/racerwiki.

For those who don't know, Wikis are encyclopedias in which the articles are created by anyone who wants to create one. The biggest Wiki on the internet is Wikipedia.


August 10, 2005 - Two updates

 The first update is yet another update for the Mazda 787B. It seems as though users with force feedback wheels (which I don't have) were experiencing a sort of anti-self centering effect in the steering. In other words, as you go around the corner, the steering wheel tries to keep turning. The problem was that in the car.ini, the caster_offset was set positive, rather than negative as it should have been. Thus, the fix for this is to change the value of susp_front.caster_offset from 0.01 to -0.01.

The download for the Mazda 787B has been changed to include this fix.

The other update is that i've added four new pics to the Chevrolet Silverado page. I haven't had much time to work on it until this week, and most of what i've done has been to smooth out the cab and fix some accuracy issues. There's still alot to go, but i'm hoping to finish the mesh by the end of this month, when I start back to college. Then I can work on texturing when I have time this fall.


July 20, 2005 - Mazda 787B updated

 I've updated the Mazda 787B slightly, I added headlights, better blurred wheels, and much better sounds. The new sounds were made by nihil8. You can download the update here, (2.5mb) or redownload the whole car from the Cars page.


July 03, 2005 - Mazda 787B released

 Finally, i've finished the Mazda 787B. It's on the "Cars" page waiting for you to download it and take 'er for a spin. Probably literally.

You know you want it. =)


March 20, 2005 - Chevrolet Silverado preview page added, Mazda 787B almost finished

 I added a preview page of my latest project, a 1981 Chevrolet C10 Silverado, to the Downloads section. This vehicle is one of the two cars that I own in real life. It's nowhere near completed.

Also, my Mazda 787B is almost ready to be released. It is completely finished, except for the sounds and a little bit of performance tweaking. I hope to get those things done soon.


August 04, 2004 - Mazda 787B preview page added

 I've added my Mazda 787B project to the Downloads section, but no, it's not for download yet. ;) I still need to finish the dashboard view. Maybe it'll be done next week, maybe next year. No promises...

In other news, i'm still working on the Lotus Super 7 some, and i've started modeling one of my two real life cars, a 1981 Chevrolet Silverado. I'm (probably) not going to start working on it seriously until I finish the Lotus. I need to get that project done and out of my way.

The Audi S4 is still on the back burner, I just finished a very complex paint scheme for the 787B, and don't feel like doing another complex scheme anytime soon. Plus that car is no longer being raced, so I don't have the inspiration of seeing it on TV every other weekend. Which is a lame excuse, but oh well. I'll finish the car someday. Probably.

And finally, i've also been fixing up my 914. The normals were pretty rough on it, and I never really liked the modeled in door lines. I'm about 75% of the way to getting the body the way I like it, then i'll have to do new textures too. Yet another long term project that may or may not go anywhere.


 May 23, 2004 - BRE Datsun 240Z updated

 I've released a updated version of the BRE Datsun 240Z for Racer 0.5.2. It includes the following:

- Shaders
- New higher resolution body textures
- Improved dashboard view textures
- 3 LOD (levels of detail) models
- A shadow model
- New car.ini
- Sounds for the v0.5.1+ audio engine

I've tested it with Racer v0.5.0 final and v0.5.2 betas 4, 5 and 6. Note that most of the features listed above will only work in the v0.5.2 betas.

Also, there is a bug in v0.5.2 beta 5 & 6 where all of the lod's are shown in the car selection screen. This is a bug with Racer, not this car. Any emails about this will go straight to the trash bin. =)


February 13, 2004 - New Lotus Super 7 pictures

 There's four new pics of the Super 7 on its page. It's getting close to done...

Still working on shaders and new car.ini's for the BRE and Porsche 914's.


November 16, 2003 - Porsche 916 released

   It's finally done, after almost a year, i've finished my Porsche 916. It has about 6800 polygons, and has a shader file for Racer v0.5.2 beta 4. It's compatible with v0.5.0 final as well. Enough talk, the 916 is in the Downloads section waiting for you. =)

I'll release shaders for my other three cars soon, I hope.


October 26, 2003 - Tracks updated to Racer 0.5.2 standards

   Since Racer 0.5.2 beta 3 is fairly stable and is now widely used, i've updated my two tracks so that they will work properly in that version. They will still work in older versions of Racer, though as always I can't guarantee they'll work in future versions. ;) I'm also working on updating my three cars for this version, and i'm finishing up the Porsche 916. They will probably all be released at the same time, hopefully soon.


October 19, 2003 - Lotus Super 7 preview page updated

   Okay, as promised i've posted new pics of the Super 7 under the Downloads section. It's in Racer now, and looking quite nice with the new graphics engine. There's still alot of mapping work to be done, but it is getting closer. =)


September 24, 2003 - I'm not dead...

   ...just busy. :( Anyway, to answer the question i've recieved in alot of emails lately, i'm still working on all three of my cars, albeit very slowly due to college. The Super 7 has progressed alot since I posted pics in May, the 916 has changed a bit, (though not very noticeably) and i've played with trying to get the normals better on the S4. They will all be released eventually.

I'll post new pics of the Super 7 when I get a chance, it's so much better now.


May 25, 2003 - The Racer Pit Stop opens!

   Today i've opened my new website, The Racer Pit Stop. This webpage replaces my old Need For Speed Pit Stop, which is still up here. This webpage is devoted to Racer Free Car Simulator and has all the stuff i've made for it.

  In the downloads section, you'll find the three cars i've already released, plus three more cars that i'm working on right now. The three cars that have already been released - the BRE 240Z, 914 & 914-6 - were slightly updated for the opening of this website. The BRE has a few minor texture updates, mainly I darkened the interior and the window tint to cover up the lack of detail in the interior. On the 914 and 914-6, I made some minor changes to the textures and some major improvements to the driver. All three come with Racer v0.5.0 final compliant car.ini's.

  I've also released a new track, a brake distance test track where you can test how long it takes to stop your car. I've also updated my drag stip to include a 4 mile long straight for testing top speed. Both are good tools for developing cars.

  In the Stuff section, you'll find odd and end stuff (mainly pics) that i've uploaded. Stecki did the same thing on his website, and I always thought that was pretty cool. So i'm doing it on my website too. Nobody ever accused me of being creative. ;)