Latest news from the ZakStunts crew:

• dreadnaut, January 14

  

  Season 2024 starts today!

  Welcome everyone, ZakStunts 2024 opens its doors in these hours. The first track of the year is up: ZCT270 is Swiftshire by Alan Rotoi. We have five custom cars, completely replacing last year's set. You might want to grab the car pack from the download page. Let's introduce them!

  Ferrari F40

  After a few years of absence, Zapper's F40 is back. Introduced in 2011, the F40 is a beloved classic: it has already seen ten ZakStunts seasons, and yet people keep asking for it. Get in the driving seat to discover why!

  Ford Thunderbird

  Among the slow cars, stock or custom, none is as pink as Alan Rotoi's 1957 Ford Thunderbird. First released in 2022, when it took part to the Custom Car Championship, it appears in ZakStunts for the first time this season.

  Lancia Stratos

  After a year on holiday on the coast of Sardinia, Ryoma's Stratos is back with a vengeance. Choose your favourite combination of livery, headlights and spoiler (yes! in Stunts!), then take this 2021 custom car for a spin.

  Lola Cosworth Indy

  While Stunts originally acknowledged a single Indy car, more have appeared in the past years. For season 2024 we are excited to introduce another of Alan Rotoi's creations, the Lola Cosworth Indy from 2022. Sitting close to its Porsche cousin in terms of performance, the adrenaline is guaranteed!

  LWT-ZR1 GT3 Mark II

  Last but not least, Duplode's precisely-named car (GT3 among friends) is back on the track after a decade in the garage. You might not remember it if you have joined us recently, but you will at the end of this season!

  ---

  No rules changes compared to 2023, although you might want to review the replay verification changes introduced in July last year. The rules discussion over Christmas was productive, and a leading-time revolution might be brewing. Join us in the forum in the next weeks to shape the competition, or joining our other Stunts projects.

  Also, remember that the teams thread is still open, so head there if you are looking to partner up for 2024.

  Now it's time to go and try the new track, folks. See you on the scoreboard!

  —dreadnaut

• dreadnaut, January 8

  

  2023 Season Wrap-up

  Just a few days left before the start of the new ZakStunts season, and yet the last one is still fresh in my minds. But after some lazy holidays, it's time to close the lid on 2023. Let's travel back in time and review the year!

  Excitement was in the air at the start of year: Alan Rotoi had successfully defended his title, Duplode was on a winning streak, and Argammon had just gone from a 16-year long hiatus to a third place. KyLiE and Frieshansen were eyeing the top of the scoreboard, tires still warm from their great previous year, while Heretic had claimed the first Amateur championship. Old names, new faces, strong regulars: would 2023 deliver? Deliver it did, with non-stop surprises!

  Duplode started off strong, extending his winning streak into March. Argammon grabbed one of the two top positions, and... there he stood. Race after race, for a total of 8 victories and 4 second places, and close to an extra leading time point per race. If you are new around here, that's a lot, in particular since the fight for bonus points waged fierce throughout the season. Alan Rotoi was also part of these battles, but seemed to step back from the championship. In the end, only two racers would step on the two top steps of the podium: Duplode and Argammon. This left space for an interesting third place battle between Alan, KyLiE (another LTB contender) and Frieshansen—clearly not an amateur anymore.

  The rest of the "pro" racers where fighting a really hard battle with the strongest "amateurs" in a long time. Erik Barros joined us at the end of 2022 and was immediately scouted by Doubleplusspeed. And what a season for him, racking up championship and experience point race after race! He brings home the amateur trophy for 2023, moves up to the main group, and word has it that he owns the coolest Stunts t-shirt ever. The Amateur league brought in more surprises, with Mark Nailwood and Ryoma returning to the races, and completing the season respectively second and third—but also in great global positions, close to so-called 'professionals' like dreadnaut and Overdrijf 😛 Just behind them came in Spoonboy of DOS Game Club fame. After half a season, I feel we have not seen his full potential: he's one to keep an eye on for the new year!

  Full participation also for the Cas, afullo, Shoegazing leo, and Stan 286XT, who are taking up the role of benevolent gentlemen of Stunts, trying not to dent their Porsche, while they continue grow and nurture our community. Also great to see Alecu, dstien, Friker, Marco, and Shorty popping in for several races. Stay a while and listen burn some rubber!

  Team competition

  The Rolling Stunts crew basks in the glory of the 2023 team title, with 100% participation and an incredible 242 points, one-upping Doubleplusspeed's record score from last year. The latter came second in the team competition, and also achieved 100% participation for the second year in a row. Third place for Cork's Crew, with a couple of ghost members affecting their attendance score. The DOS Game Club folks joined us in spring, and needed some time to get into score range, while Slowdrive suffered from patchy participation, recovering only in the last third of the year.

  If you are looking for a (new?) team, head to the forum thread. There are no deadlines, but feels nice to do it at the start of the season.

  Community

  Wow, that was a lot. And I've not even touched on the many events that this incredible community has organised outside ZakStunts. Let me briefly mention:

  • We successfully organised four Live Racing events, with multiple tracks and formats. Help us organise for 2024!
  • Race 4 Kicks had another great season, with OWOOT aficionados KaoS, Igor and Ayrton.
  • Daniel3D continues to surprise us with his experiments, including the Custom Cars and No Time travel competitions. Look out for mystunts.net as the next big website for your racing needs!
  • Overdrijf took the lead on the @stunts-retrogame YouTube channel, including a great series of instructional videos.
  • The folks a DOS Game Club produced a podcast episode on Stunts, and set up their own leaderboard.
  • Finally, our own stunts.hu portal is now showing events from different competition: the one place to check to know what's on in Stunts land!

  My thanks go to all you awesome people, on the track, the forum, the many shoutboxes and channels out there, for your dedication to racing and this community. I can't wait to see what you'll come up with in 2024 🎉

  —dreadnaut