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Assetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It Sounds

There are a couple of key ingredients that a vehicle needs to go fast. Having 1,000 horsepower is awesome, but it will be less so if said vehicle weighs over 15,000 lbs (6,803 kg). Also, having a low center of gravity is crucial if you're planning on making it through a high-speed corner in one piece. So it makes sense why you won't see people trying to tune their RVs for quarter-mile (402 meters) racing.
Assetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It Sounds 19 photos
Photo: Autoevolution
Assetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It SoundsAssetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It SoundsAssetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It SoundsAssetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It SoundsAssetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It SoundsAssetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It SoundsAssetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It SoundsAssetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It SoundsAssetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It SoundsAssetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It SoundsAssetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It SoundsAssetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It SoundsAssetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It SoundsAssetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It SoundsAssetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It SoundsAssetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It SoundsAssetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It SoundsAssetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It Sounds
But that's the real world we're talking about. In the virtual world, the sky is the limit. And that applies especially to a videogame such as Assetto Corsa, which has a strong modding community behind it to keep providing fresh content at all times.

We've done a few whacky experiments this month after downloading the Assetto Corsa Tuner and a Ford RV we found on one of the online forums. We thought we'd change the setup on our virtual home so that it would be capable of going through a few motorsport challenges.

At first, we went drifting at Tsukuba with a Mazda 787B engine inside. That was perhaps the least nerve-wracking experience so far. Right after that we opted for a Sauber C9, turbocharged V8 engine and took on the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

That was pretty fun too, and still a relatively easy job. But the most difficult endeavor of RV Month here on Autoevolution must have been the Pikes Peak challenge. We went through multiple engine setups before deciding on a Tesla Model S Plaid swap, but going up the mountain felt like a nightmare at times.

Assetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It Sounds
Photo: Autoevolution
Still, we're quite proud of how things went so far with our massive Ford Motorhome. But we knew that we needed to find a new challenge for it. After watching last weekend's Formula 1 race in Austria, the solution was right in front of our eyes.

Seeing that the French Grand Prix is coming up in a few days, we thought we'd give you a tour of the Paul Ricard circuit in advance. Of course, you won't find this track in the base game, but you can download it from the dedicated online communities.

This track is 3.63 miles (5.842 km) long, and it seems that Sebastian Vettel still holds the record for the fastest lap here. Behind the wheel of Lina, his Ferrari SF90, he went around the track in 1:32.740 minutes. We know that we won't be coming anywhere near that time today, but we're still going to have fun in the process.

When you first install the game onto your device, you'll have access to several F1 cars, including four Classic Team Lotus ones, six from Ferrari, and two from Maserati.

Assetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It Sounds
Photo: Autoevolution
Of course, having more cars is always nice, so we set out to download a few more of the classic ones. We chose the Ferrari F310B, which Michael Schumacher used to drive. We went further back in time for the McLaren MP4/4 that Senna and Prost drove in the late '80s. And the Williams FW19 made a nice addition to the bunch as well.

So without further ado, it's time to see how fast we can go in an F1-powered Ford Motorhome. Let's start with the basics, shall we? Let's start with the 1954 Maserati 250F that had a 310-hp V12 inside. This car weighed 1,477 lbs (670 kg), so let's at least bring the RV down to 2,204 lbs (1,000 kg) for today's test.

We will be allocating three laps for each chosen setup. Right off the bat, the Maserati V12 seems like a fun option. Even though you can only get up to about 93 mph (150 kph) with it, the RV feels rather composed throughout the track. Our best time: 2:56.048 minutes.

Mostly using second and third, and almost rolling over a few times, we realized one thing: we had been driving on modern Ferrari SF70H tires. So we're going to keep it period-correct from here on forward. For our next trick, we will jump straight to 1975 and the Ferrari 312T. If we didn't live up to Fangio's driving, it's hard to think that we'll be anywhere near as fast as Nikki Lauda was in this thing.

Assetto Corsa Ford Motorhome Now Has an F1 Engine Inside, It's as Fun as It Sounds
Photo: Autoevolution
This too has a naturally-aspirated V12 inside, but this time we've got access to 495 horsepower and 227 lb-ft (308 Nm) of torque. Even though the top speed is now up to over 105 mph (170 kph), we couldn't go faster than 2:53.748 minutes. You never make it up to fourth gear, and some of the tighter turns are quite difficult to negotiate due to the long wheelbase.

Alas, let's move on to the '80s with the Lotus 98T that used to be driven by Ayrton Senna. This is the turbo era, and we're looking at a booster 1.5-liter V6 that was capable of more than 1,200 horsepower in qualifying trim. This might be a handful to drive.

We're inclined to use Stability Control at this point, but we'll try and see how we fare without it. We're now down to 2:38.996 minutes. Using the boost setting at 50% is more than enough. Once you go higher than that, you'll just spin the rear wheels endlessly.

One thing's for sure, the turbo era was amazing. Moving up to the '90s, we're going to use Jacques Villeneuve's V10-powered Williams. We're going to put up a video containing the fastest laps for each of the eras tested, but we can tell you that it took us two corners to roll over with this engine setup. Also, top speed is limited to about 130 mph (210 kph) in second gear.

Once you shift into third, it's going nowhere fast. But it's impossible to go fast and not flip it on its side. We'll let you enjoy the next two cars without spoiling the outcome, but it seems that older setups will still work better.

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About the author: Dragos Chitulescu
Dragos Chitulescu profile photo

The things Dragos enjoys the most in life are, in no particular order: cars, motorcycles, diecast cars, and drifting. He's seen (and driven) many vehicles since he started his writing career back in 2009, but his garage currently houses a 1991 Mazda RX-7 FC3S Turbo II and a 1999 Suzuki SV650-S.
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