I'm prepared to say that my goal of getting involved with Papyrus in NR2003 (to get the car to perform and act more like a real Winston Cup car), has largely been achieved. My only regret is that I didn't speak up and get involved sooner, perhaps a few more things might have been do-able. As it was, by the time I started working with them, only four weeks were left in the schedule to bang out the physics end of things. Papyrus graciously stretched the window out to six weeks, allowing a few more things to be done properly. There were a few things (in-car brake bias, for instance), that we didn't get in, and a few other things (meaningful probably only to me, probably), that the short window of time didn't permit.

There will be a "setup philosophy" piece I wrote that ships with NR2003, that covers more setup issues. It's not so much a setup guide, but rather a suggested thought process in wrenching your NR2003 car.

There are also Jasper setups included for each track. They will not be, as I stated earlier, the "Fast" setups. The Jasper setups come from our real work here at the 77 car. I don't pretend to claim that they are optimized for NR2003, although a number of them drive quite nicely. Only minor adjustments to them have been made to afford basic drivability with the game (and to ensure that my real-life competitors don't just take them to work!). They are there for you to enjoy and to gain a bit of insight as to what kind of things are run in the real world. Other teams might do a few things differently than what we've done, but that's what the setup options are for, to try different stuff.

Oh yeah, here's a screenshot out the front window of the final version. Look at the A-post. The big aluminum brace has been rotated not to obscure your view. I lobbied for this only a week before going gold, I think their 3-D artist and I nearly came to blows over it - I'm glad it didn't - all of the Carbones I knew in Connecticut could have whipped my sorry butt.

Manuel Daskalos Chief Engineer Jasper Motorsports