New 1986 Race-by-race mod--done right

F1C 1986 Race-by-Race Mod by Neil (neiln1)—done right / April 2024

This new mod includes all the variations in cars and drivers for the 14 teams that qualified for at least one race in 1986, based on Pedro RippingCorpse’s Grand Prix 4 carset. As with earlier seasons, I have  worked over Pedro’s cars to make the physical models and graphics as accurate as possible for each team and race. I believe it’s the most recent work Pedro has released, and it may well be his best. One nice new touch is excellent individual faces in the helmet files, not that these ever show up very well in the game, of course. While the rFactor mod for 1986, converted for F1 Challenge by David Marques, is outstanding, I think Pedro’s models and liveries are exceptional as well, and, moreover, the rFactor mod is not fully race-by-race.
I’ve used rFactor material for the backmarkers Pedro did not make, the AGS and Zakspeed (with editing of the latter’s liveries to suit my desire for accuracy). Per David M.’s request in his conversion, I want to acknowledge Chief Wiggum as author of those two teams. I recall borrowing wheel spokes for a couple of teams, which I believe are the work of Prairie. Pedro also did not do the Osella team, probably because it was essentially unchanged from 1985. I found that neither the GP4 nor rFactor Osellas are satisfactorily accurate; I combined the two and made my own sidepods (see the screenshots), so that team is a real amalgam. For the first time I’ve included discglow for all the teams’ wheels although I’m not sure it adds all that much.

EDIT: I was mortified to realize that I forgot to include one other acknowledgment of the rFactor conversion and the work of Cherry, Chief Wiggum, and Valiante & Markus (i.e., the carmakers) as well as David Marques, I'm sure. In working through 1984 and 1985, I tried to keep track of teams adding digital readouts to cockpit dashboards, and would cobble together facsimiles where appropriate. As soon as I started working on 1986, when digital displays became almost universal, I realized that the cockpit displays in the rFactor conversion were absolutely accurate, so I have incorporated them into Pedro's cars rather than reinventing the wheel by duplicating the rFactor work (no doubt with lesser results, too).

I’ve relied entirely on the Track Megaupdate 1.02 1982-1996 for the circuits because they’re well-done and also for the sake of variety in relation to the rFactor conversion. As always, I have to emphasize that the artwork for the Campari Bridge at Monza is mine.
This mod is intended to be a standalone; copy the folders over a clean installation of F1 Challenge '99-'02 (i.e., the original game with the Audio, Options, Save, and Seasondata folders removed). If you would like to add Jalnervion’s Special Effects 11.1 you can find the files necessary in the Circuits and Vehicles folders with the names “Joseterrain” and “JoseCmaps.”
CREDITS:
This mod would not have been possible without the great carset created by Pedro RippingCorpse for Grand Prix 4; I thank him for his permission to use his work. I also owe thanks to Paul/On Mario for his work on cars and ancillary graphics for earlier seasons, much of which remains; and to Daniel/d4nf1c for teaching me the editing methods that made this upgrade possible. And, like everyone else, I am massively indebted to Wookey for maintaining this website and his Facebook page devoted to F1 photography and F1 Challenge. I couldn’t have done this without the collection of race-by-race photos assembled by him and many others.
I hope everyone enjoys the mod. There are six files to download. If the forum, as it did with earlier seasons, does not allow the full link to be posted and the link gets hijacked by Adfly, paste the link into the address bar of your browser and select the boldface F1 Challenge 1986 Race-by-Race 2024 Part # that appears in the drop-down list.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/ku516i3ruk2equq/F1_Challenge__1986_Race-by-Race_2024_Part_1.rar/file
https://www.mediafire.com/file/1i7zf7m17s2xwun/F1_Challenge_1986_Race-by-Race_2024_Part_2.rar/file
https://www.mediafire.com/file/7s2wzb2pzgkzbgb/F1_Challenge_1986_Race-by-Race_2024_Part_3.rar/file
https://www.mediafire.com/file/k150ndgu46zi5d9/F1_Challenge_1986_Race-by-Race_2024_Part_4.rar/file
https://www.mediafire.com/file/ro6b1vbt4sja2yd/F1_Challenge_1986_Race-by-Race_2024_Part_5.rar/file
https://www.mediafire.com/file/9av8w1jd466gd0u/F1_Challenge_1986_Race-by-Race_2024_Part_6.rar/file