Live for Speed now has Mods!

In a sim racing world obsessed with online head-to-head competition, Live for Speed set the standard. Upon its release in 2003 it was revolutionary for focusing entirely on online racing. Unlike its contemporaries, LFS featured easy to join servers with a built in browser. Never before had online racing been so easy and accessible. Coupled with the most accurate physics seen to date, LFS was most's main sim for many years.
Over the years LFS has stagnated while the sim racing world moved on, but out of seemingly nowhere the developers of LFS have released vehicle modding to the sim, kickstarting a wave of new content for us to enjoy.
I never quite found the stock content compelling, but now with some modded vintage cars, LFS deserves another look...
Niels Heusinkveld's video: • Live For Speed after a...
Live for Speed: www.lfs.net/
Email - [e-mail]
Discord - / discord
Twitter - / gplapsjake
0:00 Intro
1:40 Default Content
4:24 Mods Overview
6:19 Garage Overview
7:45 Car - Formula 65
11:44 Car - P166
15:44 Car - Cobra
18:57 Car - 1929 Grand Prix
23:19 Car - Indy 93
28:36 Final Thoughts

[@stef4o23]

If only the publishers had realised how important mods are earlier, LFS would have blown up like assetto corsa! Still, an amazing sim and one of the top in my books in cars with street tyres! 👌👏 🎊

[@b2rStorm]

Nah Assetto is shit in many ways ;) Looking forward for next LFS update :)

[@RTPJu]

Reiza should have realized it just before chose Madness Engine for AMS2

[@gangaindenial]

If it wasn't for the modding community I wouldn't have still be playing LFS since 2004 and spending countless hours on it since then.

[@sheasamuels9320]

@@RTPJu yet you can mod the madness engine. Modders are slowly unlocking the engine.

[@ralphbooger4756]

yeah, if these guys had allowed modding early on lfs would have been an enormous success, we would probably be on lfs 2 or 3 by now! but they sabotaged themselves... and if they dont allow track mods they still are, even with that it is still too late to be what it could have been! the same old handfull of tracks for close to two decades just dont cut it, imo this was better than iracing back in the day... and still is as far as i see it. havent played it in years, but the city driving servers were awesome... getting into police chases in a sim was amazing fun, had they allowed modded tracks and cars for those i think lfs could have developed into something truly spectacular!

[@Jasonsminiadventure]

I have mad respect for devs keeping up support all these years.

[@flapflapflapflap]

Fun fact: Valterri Bottas (yes, the F1 driver) had an account on the forums and was HIGHLY active in the forums and the game before he went to start his racing carreer

[@jaspersleegers7567]

Wasn't it Lando Norris?

[@yasso7up]

@@jaspersleegers7567bottas

[@BakuLH44]

@@jaspersleegers7567 was bottas

[@MrMichalMalek]

Hello GPLaps, I'm Michal, the creator of the 'Grand Prix Legend 65' mod. Glad you tried it out (as well as whole game) and thanks for the feedback. To answer few things you mentioned: The car being very low-poly - unlike majority of the mods which reuse models from internet sites like sketchfab, I made this mod completely from scratch in not very intuitive editor, and as I'm not a professional game developer (in fact I never created anything for any game before this point except for Portal 2 maps) and didn't have too much time in my hands, this is the best visual representation I could deliver at this point. Of course I intend to keep improving the 3D model, but it will never be on the level of models used in AAA games (lets be honest, quite a few car models are 'obtained' from Forza games...). The upside of the 'GPL65' mod is the physics, as all parameters you can think of do match exactly the Ferrari 1512 and the handling is reported to be close to the real thing and very enjoyable. Why is GPL65 part of the promo vid, why not the old Indycar? - Well, that's fairly easy - the promo vid was released at the end of private beta testing stage (which I was part of) and at that point there were simply only 3 decent cars created so far by the testers, so there wasn't really much choice of what to put into that video. We had only three cars and that was all we could show. The Formula US 93 mod came in way later in the public testing stage. Approved mods - so far very few mods got to the approved stage. This is, because majority of the mods have some issues with them - strange handling, mirrors not working, lights not working, sound being terrible, driver animation being broken, imported 3D model having terrible smoothing setup,... I could go on. 'Approved' mod is the one, where the reviewing team and devs can say "Hey, this is a good mod, everything looks and works as intended and community seems to like it". There is no doubt the Formula US 93 will become approved at some point (maybe even get a 'staff pick') but that's yet to come.

[@GPLaps]

thanks for making the car! its a lot of fun!

[@stef4o23]

Michael, thank you for that piece of info - it makes it all the more amazing. Fantastic work, well done! 👏

[@garagekudos3953]

I think it's good you did it from scratch! Not that LFS has a lot of lore but it makes it more interesting for me as it fits with the way the base cars are styled and modelled, I really like it :)

[@BakuLH44]

no micheal no no that was so not right

[@triptechable]

Couple of Fun/Pointless facts about the street circuit: The road name signs have the SE20 postcode on. This refers to a part of South East London called Penge. The bus stop seen at 28:25 says "towards Lewisham and Catford" - actual places as I used to live there - and the numbers are all legit bus routes. Some now defunct. I fancy one of the Devs is from or has lived in SE London at some point.

[@edwardburek1717]

Oh, how we would have all enjoyed the Penge Indycar Grand Prix!!

[@ilikecakeandbiscuits]

I loved the old mrt races at the small se London circuit and the old saloons at the fe gold track. Would go back in a shot if the amazing competition was still there but it’s all non race servers online sadly

[@naluyluka]

@@ilikecakeandbiscuits noooo, there are still race events everyday like fox friday, fbm saturday and much more!, you just need to know how to find them

[@ThomasfromGreece]

FYI Valtteri Bottas used to compete in this game before going pro.

[@coolbigandy]

his lfsw name is "vale"

[@peterdaviesracing]

I remember racing against Rudy Van Buren(simracer who became the McLaren Shadow winner and now Porsche Cup racer) and Nicky Catsburg on LFS, in a touring car series called iTC.

[@Audiojack_]

You can make the engines sound alright in LFS by opening the sound editor with Shift+A if I recall correctly. You can load different samples in and change how they play. Of course it's very limited but you can get clever with your samples.

[@RenaultSport133]

Shift + A; tweak the sounds to your liking.

[@nfkworldjapan1522]

LFS, it never died. Just sat back and watched, occasionally laughed and concentrated on physics rather than dreamy graphics.

[@gatekeeper99924]

now this is a 'game changer' round applause to the dev and community over at LFS!

[@feffe85]

"game changer" would have been the tire physics update Scawen promised us back in like 2008..

[@LogiForce86]

A game from 2002 (20 years old come next year 2022... WOW!)... and I remember my IT teacher telling me proudly that his neighbour worked on this and thus he recommended it to us. Thus we commenced playing this sim in the IT classroom after we were all finished with our work. We most often played: - Unreal Tournament GOTY - Counterstrike 1.6 - Day of Defeat 1.6 - Delta Force - Live For Speed

[@griponreality9716]

I just read delta force and got a very fond memory of playing that game in my class.. God I'm getting old. 😏

[@oskjan1]

Actually, I don't care much that the graphics are old. It's the driving feel and JOY of driving that counts. And LFS had that in spades! I'll be grabbing the demo!

[@PPablinho]

Glad to see that Live for Speed is still being updated and keeping its low hardware requirements for hence is accessible for everyone, I've played it in 2003 without a racing wheel or gamepad, and later I've seen a growing community of drifters and more serious drivers. And now with modding the popularity of the game will increase a lot, cannot wait to race on Rainbow Road or in a track based on my rural city

[@ab8jeh]

I really hope that tracks become moddable too in the future. It seems as if this would be easier to implement than cars, but perhaps a conscious choice by the developers. Force feedback is still the best I've experienced.

[@Nice5fps]

Imagine a rally track o_o

[@yaris684]

Been waiting since 2005

[@AutohousePerformanceProject]

Super glad to hear you liked my P166 mod! I Did a lot of work on that car to try and make it as accurate as possible to the times, getting all the specs correct. You can click the mods in the search menu and it brings you to the lfs page where you can see more details and pictures, Theres an option you missed that allows you to change your body type in the INFO section of the setup menu! Great video man love these little mod showcases with your thoughts and opinions. You got yourself a new subscriber for sure ;)

[@benfennell6842]

Nice!

[@user-bp5py6bh3g]

The MRT5 and RaceAbout are both real cars, not fictional.

[@GPLaps]

ah, good to know!

[@user-bp5py6bh3g]

@@GPLaps Great review either way! ❤️

[@peterdaviesracing]

I remember I was told this once back when I simraced on LFS. I guess the reason people don't know(in case of the Velmet Raceabout) of the car's existence is that the Raceabout is a prototype, created by Finnish design students. So it's a rather obscure car. I barely drove it, kinda hated the handling, seemed prone to just lose stability. The MRT5 kinda looks like a cross-breedof a Formula Vee and Formula Student car :D

[@DabDabGoose]

The first sim I played when I got my first wheel, brings back memories. I liked how even in the free demo you could have online races.

[@Gabson9]

Live for Speed is the most close to the real life physics racing game i have ever played ant therefore the most fun. Still can`t understand why it hasn`t been blown up around gamers. I hope mods help them with that, and i hope they bring them new gamers -> new customers -> more money -> faster development. I really wish all the best to the developers and kudos for not giving up on the project for so many years. But its way too slow.

[@X8X8X8X8X8X8X8X8X8X]

That's big news! Unfortunately well over a decade too late. LFS always was a great sim, but lacked content.

[@sqweezzstr]

This is one of those sims where its goal is to perfect yourself with the essential tools and the ability to club race, love it so much. My friend and i are 1000s of laps in on Blackwood with the demo cars still and have been running for a decade, it taught me to drive before i actually drove!

[@TonyWhitley]

The "Caterhams" look much more like Westfields, a company that started out copying Lotus/Caterham 7s but went their own way after losing a legal case.

[@peterdaviesracing]

There are a lot of those, like Donkervoort, Locost, Striker, etc.

[@mistertheking]

For how long ago this game was put out, it still looks so good. Wow.

[@Streetw1s3r]

LFS always had mods to some extent but not on a mainstream level, years ago I remember replacing the XRT with a 240sx and an S14 and going in drift servers with mates. The difference now is that the developers are acknowledging it and are supporting it which is great, I might get back into LFS and blow the dust off my S2 account. LFS might become the "go to" drift sim again.

[@testthepest6259]

I think mods are only for S3 owners.

[@FloosWorld_AoE]

This finally makes it worth it for me to purchase the S3 license

[@jammytimmy]

Glad to see the interest with LFS has increased in the last month with the introduction of vehicles mods. I have my fingers crossed they'll release a variety of tools to help with making AI lines, track props & other tools to help with making a full track.

[@p6cm9n75]

Dude this channel is insane! So much enjoyable stuff from recent years and the past. You are definitely touching content I was looking for! Keep up the good work👍 Merry Christmas!

[@laurenttomfuel6066]

thanks a lot for this review ! really happy you enjoy my Tommy28' mod ! i am really excited by this kind of racing legend. definitively reserved for reckless racers at 140mph ! i hope this mod will be approved cause it needs 60 votes with weighted notes of 4. the mod is WIP with driver animation lean improvement try the "Sport Lux" configuration (lights and a tiny windscreen) ;-)

[@Tsanislav]

It's the car from Mafia, right?

[@bienmercado1593]

Lfs best sim for people who don't wanna spend 5k on a gaming PC to run Assetto or sum Shit

[@secretRBRman]

I guess i better improve my Formula US 93! thanks for checking it out. Also check my group 4 rally car the talot suns lomus "Talbot sunbeam lotus" based on 1980 rac winner. The thing about these tools is that its so simple and easy compared to factor 1 and Assetto Corsa. We just need a track editor, and rolling start with pace cars.

[@denismarteleur899]

A track editor, yes, absolutely!

[@SharonD369]

May i say Happy Christmas 🤘 only been here a couple a three months, real good stuff dude 👌 keeps me coming back 👍

[@skodalaskoda8754]

Have a Blessed Christmas and New Year Mr Laps.. and thx for the classy content, you have made these crazy times a whole lot more bearable. God Bless you and your family.

[@zoltronr6]

LFS driving was the best. I renewed my license recently and noticed my S2 license was purchased in 2005. I recently got back into sim racing. Just replaced my G25 with a CSL DD and embraced VR last year with a Reverb G2. LFS still does not disappoint in the driving model with the original cars. I'll have to give some mods a drive.

[@DannysDiecastDisasters]

21:49 Whoa! Those are some neck-snappers!

[@johndoe-ee7ko]

I actualy learned to drive with this game. Still remember using a mod so i could change the engines etc.... Happy days

[@Snoop.Driftera]

Thank you for your review. LFS needs a resurrection. I hope more racers will join this Sim and support three-guys-dev-team so they won't quit it.

[@Corrosion37]

Press F9 to see your tire model and temp on screen. You can edit the car sounds with Shift - A Go through the controls theres all kinds of extra cool things you can do

[@JeredtheShy]

today I learned that Heusinkveld is more than just one of the stickers on Jimmy Broadbent's wall

[@acmarston]

Merry Xmas GPLaps.

[@leftish23]

Love seeing LFS content. Long live LFS!

[@drifterApeX]

The track is still there. Just used for road car storage. I remember Cart when it was there in 2001 &02

[@JohnAnderson4242]

I love LFS - it is so much fun and feels right - physics are what you think a real world to computer world should be.

[@nigaud1520]

I've played a lot of LFS, I'm glad to see that it continues to evolve, it deserves to be back there.

[@rayzie8599]

Such a great sim right out of the box. I have never had so much fun racing crappy front wheel drive cars (like from the free trial). This is so exciting to see.

[@1989SupraGuyFIN]

Just have to throw this here. The Raceabout actually is a real thing. It was built by Finnish automotive engineering and industrial design students in 1998. It actually had Turbocharged inline 4 Saab engine in it. In other words, it was just a concept car. Might still be on museum somewhere, not sure. Later got successor named ERA (Electric Raceabout).

[@denboogie9199]

I have so much good memories about LFS. It really got me I to PC Sim racing after spending al lot of time with Gran Turismo on the Playstation. Happy to see it's still alive.

[@jamesbehra2690]

There are also some great vintage mods also for AMS 1. Still well done recovering this old game. Your channel is Gordon Bennett's cup in KZbin.

[@Peaceull]

I remember driving in Live For Speed as a kid - gas and pedals on keyboard, mouse as a steering wheel dreaming about proper Wheel setup, now i have it all and it is so good to drive this game still. Force feedback is amazing actually.

[@fetus2280]

I had never heard of this game until right now, downloading it as i type and looking fwd to trying this out . Just bought a Handbrake, theyre on sale right now on Newegg . Good times coming .Thanks for bringing this to my attention . Cheers .

[@PescaraProductions]

Silly that they spent this long to actually embrace the modding community after trying to stamp it out long ago, but nice that its now finally getting the chance to be what it could have been. Lots of potential with the Live for Speed engine. Also one of the very few games with the now sadly former raceway at Rockingham.

[@NathanFrench]

Wow, I haven't played LFS in years, so seeings an update like this is amazing! I noticed one regular criticism you had was the engine sound. Whilst I agree that they are rather synthetic, have you tried pressing shift+a whilst on track? That should open up the in-game sound editor, and you can edit the engine sound.

[@GTChucker86]

I remember still waiting for the official Scirocco update to drop. Still waiting 😔

[@Endisupertramp]

I love LFS and have been playing it for about a decade now. The last couple of years I got more into other car games such as BeamNG and Assetto and have been checking up on LFS regularly. And yup, I'm glad to say we've gotten the Scirrocco, the graphical updates, new tracks, S3 is now filled with content! Of course not. I still love LFS and the physics is still banging, but the gang are charging 30€ for a game that has seen no content updates since the release of S3 in 2015 (other than some track revamps) and are now actually making mods and S3 only thing. I realize supporting mods actually involves a lot of work and breaking changes but c'mon, they are charging the community so that they can profit from its work.

[@jonnyogpl8906]

I did a test with the demo version and found it very interesting, very good!!!

[@Vollhirni]

Just recently I wanted to ask you for a review of one of the most drivable Sims…Live for Speed. You are the man. merry Christmas, Jake.

[@Chris-rf6xj]

Great video👌👍

[@A3rox]

Great video! Some more facts, there are more than the Sauber BMW openwheeler cars that are real life cars. The RAC is one of them as well as the MRT. :)

[@SonicBoone56]

About freaking time, holy crap. Can't wait for somebody to make a VW Scirocco mod lol. Hopefully they allow for track mods at some point as well.

[@Barry_Mmm]

Wow. That InoyCar looks very impressive.

[@binaryblade7058]

I remember installing LFS from a CD that came with a copy of PC Format UK magazine and I was hooked for years. Unofficial and unsupported modding was eventually available but kind of difficult for casual gamers. I applaud them for keeping it going, however I feel they should have enlisted some community enthusiasts and tried to expand the team to enable them to develop faster and keep the game truely up to date.

[@ZeroMusicTV]

It doesnt matter how many sim racers there are, LFS will always have a special place in our hearts, even after all those years

[@ROLLINGFANATICS]

Could’ve sworn I was using mods on this game back in the day. But this is a nice that there’s a ingame mod menu . Makes life so much easier

[@Gynkys]

Those were local only and replaced the oem cars

[@ralphbooger4756]

there were some cool mods that worked every now and then... but the developers did everything they could to shut it down!

[@SonicBoone56]

I'm looking through the mod repository on the LFS site and there's so many meme cars, it's so hilarious. There's stuff like a hospital bed on wheels! In a game as serious as LFS! That's crazy and I love it. Need to buy the game at some point. The fact a game this old can generate engine sounds is crazy

[@hamedalqubaisi8012]

Ive been adding mods in lfs since 2010 bro its been there for a long time !

[@bafranksbro88]

Man that Indycar mod at Rockingham really reminded me of driving Indycar 2 at Nazareth back in the early 90’s.

[@CJdriftZ]

Hell yeah this is great!

[@oscarzt1652]

i love a bit of LFS my favourite mods were newtweakorder and a peugeot 406 skin for the XRT

[@RaceSimCentral]

Fred Jones and John Smith. Honestly that's so awesome. :)

[@EJ205T]

After all these mods, I can tell, stock LFS cars are pure diamonds.

[@FedericoTesta1]

Agree, myself I made the MZD Na, but I am not convinced. It's not so easy to get the physics properly in the game within editor. The default content is waaay better

[@denismarteleur899]

Federico Testa your mod need improvement, mass balance, suspension, gear ratio, steerwheel,... For my KRT cr mod i've use a mesh from asseto corsa, just for seeing where's suspension is positionned... Do'n't give up, i love MZD Na :)

[@FedericoTesta1]

@@denismarteleur899 yeah I know. As for mass balance and gear ratio, they are exactly like official specs...for the suspensions I used a blueprint to position rods.unfortunately although I had some specs for compression ratio I can't seem to translate them properly in editor

[@TurboRacing39]

That's wonderful news. I can't wait to see where this will lead to.

[@sootyjared4208]

...maybe it’s time to try this game out :)

[@denismarteleur899]

Nice to see Tommy 28 mod, please try my KRT CR mod at Blackwood rallycross you won't regret!

[@viatrufka]

Mods should've been added long time ago! Several years ago I thought about buying LFS, but it was Assetto Corsa which offered much more in terms of modability - not only new cars but also tracks and apps.

[@basic086]

Omg I almost forgot about LFS, I remember the sweaty posts in forums back in the day between rFactor and LFS fanboys, never really tried it as it used to cost money from memory, nice to see it resurface

[@Toxic2T]

The Indycar sounds like a Gen 4 NASCAR

[@goranzarkovic7350]

game i played when i had wheel for few days. loved it(stock cars/tracks)

[@goranzarkovic7350]

long time ago... ¬15y

[@Noukz37]

I'd say that I wished Gran Turismo's cars sounded like this, seriously.

[@mariospapavasileiou8081]

This has always been my favourite sim, but because of the limited content I don’t play it as much as ac or automobilista. If the modding community really puts time in this sim, I believe it can get up there with the big titles.

[@File001]

In some ways, I prefer the force feedback in Live for Speed over Assetto Corsa, on comparable cars at least, namely BF1 on LFS and F1 mod by Virtual Racing Cars on AC. Granted, I still have the old Logitech G25 I've had for over a decade, and never had the opportunity to try anything else (let alone direct drive) so I have very limited experience (and I know I am missing out), but it does feel more natural in this case. I'm glad to see LFS still being updated and worked on.

[@LoosMoose]

All I want for Christmas is a GPL How To Install video.......

[@eversharpaudio8757]

I remember downloading the demo and just doing burnouts and doughnuts as I was really into boy racer culture at the time. Never did any racing or in fact hardly any driving as was on keyboard but really enjoyed how realistic if was compared to need for speed and such titles. Great to see you cover this! Thanks for the vid

[@herlegz6969]

Looking forward to a SW20/MR2 mod soon

[@ralphbooger4756]

good to see they finally opened up for modded cars, i hope they dont ruin it by not allowing modded tracks... imo lfs is one of the greatest sims made, a true classic... live for speed, grand prix legends and richard burns rally are in a league of their own. no newer sim have managed to do it better, assetto corsa is the closest but not quite there! the feel of driving a 90`s road car lfs does the best, been a while since i played and i dont know if they are still around but the city driving cruise servers were so much fun, for years they were the most popular servers in lfs. i always dreamed of those servers with properly modded road tracks, racing gets boring after a while, just going for a drive and maybe getting in to a police chase was refreshing but the same old racetracks did not do it justice... had they allowed modded tracks the sim would have opened up to much more people than just hardcore sim racers, such a missed opportunity... 😕

[@bunkermonkey_uk]

Thank you for featuring Rockingham! If only iRacing could sort it out......

[@LowEndPCGamer100]

if this sim had more offline support id race it

[@ilikecakeandbiscuits]

The ethos of this game is fun and good racing which not many other sims seem to emulate that well. Realism is all well and good but surely fun is what people really should want

[@Hakkifan]

You had me at Indycar!

[@Kilo-sz4ch]

I’d been waiting since mod support came for someone to make an indycar, was hoping specifically for a 2018-2019 model but those 90s cars looked incredible as well

[@coolbigandy]

The Raceabout is a real car. in 2002-2005 there was the Valmet Raceabout

[@peterdaviesracing]

I am not surprised people wouldn't know. As a one-off prototype by Finnish design students, it's a rather obscure choice for the sim.

[@testthepest6259]

Raceabout and MRT5 are real cars that makes 4. And waiting for the new Southcity and night and day.

[@akinav]

idk if u knew it but when u press shift+a u can customise the sound of the car however u like pretty much

[@jalalshahini]

You could mod lfs since the early days. I remember I installed a pegeaout 405, a car my father had, and I was blown away how similar it felt to the real thing.

[@bobmartell5849]

Ha! IndyCar 1 with my Thrustmaster Formula T1, on an 80386 and a 17" VGA monitor. Breaking pedal springs... I should see if I can get that running again (Indycar). Been playing LFS for a long time off and on. Just ran a few laps and the graphics have definitely improved a lot. Not AC/CSP/SOL/Pure but still pretty good. Thanks!

[@lose2live]

So many good times in LFS

[@vedymin1]

Cars sound like in midtown madness :)

[@adr1uno638]

I learned to drift on LFS :)

[@CapyRace]

The BMW formula cars aren't the only real cars in the base game. There are 2 more. The Raceabout was built in 2005 and appeared at the Geneva Motor Show and the MRT5 took part in the real life Formula Student series.

[@___Steinn___]

The livery of the IndyCar looks exactly like the title car of Papyrus IndyCar racing.

[@RTPJu]

When this Papyrus car appeared in your video, an onion cutter ninja just passed by and made drop some manly tears. Hope someone mods the SEGA's Virtua Formula and Hornet. Feels like it's time to buy a new LFS license (because I've lost my old one). Cheers!

[@samuelhicks8277]

damn u got some skill drifting that GP car looks like, if this game is anything like Gran Turismo [5 thru sport of course]

[@LeDechaine]

Visually dated, still fun to play. The demo is easy to try, easy to configure, easy to run at 1080p even if you have "old" hardware. ...but it's 50$USD (S3 "license") just for the ability to try mods. You can get Assetto Corsa for less. I got Assetto Corsa and all the DLCs for 6$USD last year...

[@danolukastik4817]

If you want to do some racing with indycar join our fm modded junkies server! Were doing indycar all week long!