International Competitive Racing Mod Development Thread

[Mystical]

NOTE: ICR mod is now available: http://www.stunodracing.net/index.php?threads/icr-mod-discussion-thread.9552/

Preface

I don't usually do this with my projects (actually never in my entire NR2003 modding history) but I am going to be open on this one. Before everyone starts jumping all over the walls let me temper your expectations, please don't make me regret doing this. I am not and will not be the next Cup 2020 mod creator or whatever, if you are looking for an official Nascar Series mod creator I'm not the one to do it sorry. There is a reason why many modders don't publicly reveal their development of work becasue it usually turns into a fight over requests, when is the mod coming out, and people being 'disappointed' like I saw with the SRD NXS19 mod thread over there and I don't want to deal with that. I'll gladly ask a moderator to close and shut this thread down if it gets that.

I am making this open becasue this mod will essentially be a Pandora's box of opportunity and as I build it I would like to show the process as I go along with maybe motivating others to make their own mods. You may not like what I am making but it might allow you to see how a mod can be made and make your own as a result.

So yes, if you have probably noticed the past few days I had been 'testing' mod creation:

A MUST SEE on MODING

Modeling a Car and Getting It In Game by Burnout3d Hit Show More there are 2 links 1 all the tools you need that are at the pits 2 Nisbet_3do_Tutorial It 5hr long if you watch it all

www.stunodracing.net

The ultimate goal was a proof of concept so I knew how to hopefully make a real mod after I was sure I could pull it off. I am now confident that at this point I am ready to jump in. I know how to get custom models/texture in the game, damage, lods, and custom flap deployment working. Pretty much all of the core stuff. My biggest issues has been the scripting stuff, its my weakest thing when making mods for games. I am very confident when it comes to models and textures and graphics (basically anything visual) but the behind the scenes hookup stuff always has scared me lol.

I want this to be public so others who may be interested in this mod can follow along, provide input, and if/when the time comes help out with testing. So what is this mod all about? Well look below to find out.

Time to make a mod

The International Competitive Racing mod (currently a placeholder name, may change) is a mod directed towards those who like to paint fictionals and also create fictional manufacturer templates. This is pretty much a painters paradise mod as I like to put it where you can create your own series with their own manufacturers with ease having friendly templates and body shapes that allow easy to apply manufacture textures to make whatever you reasonably want for a stock car. Just like I always do stuff I make this will indeed be a fictional stock car mod. I don't know if we've ever had a fictional mod made as many are made replicating real car bodies but that is not the goal with this mod.

I've personally been wanting a mod that allowed easier fictional template creation. Over the years the real life counterpart Nascar series have gotten more complex and focus nose/rear parts towards each manufacturer. As a result it has made it increasingly difficult for fictional series creators to keep trying to shove that Pontiac on a Toyota nose for example:

I tried to get a Pontiac on say the latest cup 2019 mod and kinda make some template but realized if I'm going to want to go back to the days of having the templates look exactly how I want its going to require an entire mod so thats why we are here. Some of my favorite mods to paint on were the default Gen4, BR2012, NXS13, and Gen6BR 15 mods. I pretty much want to bring the fun back to the fictional side of things. I've already made fictional tracks for my series so might as well have a fictional mod at this point too.

Goals of this mod

While I am building this mod I have specific goals I do want to hit, they are after all the ultimate reason I even want to make this mod in the first place.

To get a good idea of the goals for this mod here is a breakdown:

• - Car body noses and rears will not be super complex shapes which will allow easy template manufacturer creation. Each body will have slightly different shapes (round, flat, etc) so different manufacturers that generally gravitate towards a certain shape will look best on those bodies.
• - Templates will be configurable so layers such as the default manufacturers that are planned to come with this mod can be turned off and replaced by whatever you'd like to add.
• -Mod will resemble a modern Gen6/7 stock car in Nascar Cup/Xfinity series but is not planned to exclusively be an exact 1:1 replica of those design choices (see below for spec details).
• -Mod will have its own features, style, and custom series expectations. This is not a NASCAR mod but an International Competitive Racing (name subject to change) mod which will have its own sticker logo, body specs, rules etc.
• -A mod everyone who likes painting fictionals cars and creating a fictional series can enjoy either online with friends or offline. Those who do like real paint schemes are welcome to recreate those on this mod but this mod is not meant to be a Monster Cup 2020 for example.

 

[Mystical]

Introducing the International Competitive Racing Mod

Currently the mod is in pre-alpha stage. What this means is everything is still subject to change and the current look of the mod is not final yet. I have modeled the 'core' body at a moderate poly count at this point which will be used as the template for the 4 body makes:

Spoiler: Animated Turntable render

For display purposes the windows were cutout so you could get a general shape but they will not actually look extruded inwards like that for the mod. Model has not been refined so it is still in a very blocky shape, the nose for example will be more smoother.

Body specifications

While I am making a stock car I would like to be very clear this isn't a Cup 2020 but just different nose and rear. It will be its own stock car with its own likeness but I did want to resemble the current Nascar bodies at their core at the very least. So far this is what I know I want this mod to look like:

• -Body will have some characteristics from Gen 4 and Gen 6
• -Roof will be more flat compared to the Gen6
• -Rear Decklid will be larger compared to the Gen6
• -Tire Fenders will not flare out as far and be more minimal from sides of the car
• -Larger quarter panel section so logos placed will be big and able to have less distortion caused by tire fenders
• -Shark fin design will be custom
• -Rear Spoiler design will be custom
• -Roof and Hood flaps will be present, an additional flap may be included on the decklid section as well
• -Rear of car will not be canted but exactly symmetrical unlike the Gen 6.
• -Middle section of car body will be the same for each 4 makes in terms of geometry. The front and rear bumper areas will be the only area that each make will differ in design (not counting template decals)

Development, timeline, and helping out

I've been away from doing NR2003 for awhile and just came back like no less than a week and a half ago and decided to just try and make this mod. I am very excited at this point in time to try and do this. Please understand things in life can/could get in the way in the future and I might have to pause development or just completely stop. Right now I don't want to of course and I'm going to go as far as I can so please be patient. I will try to be as transparent as I can in the development and if things get busy I will try to let you know if the mod goes on hold so no one is left wondering.

As far as timeline goes there is no planned time to get this done, it'll be done when I am satisfied with the results and quality. I have modeled much harder stuff than a car for NR2003 before (like my Skyrim/Fallout 4 mods) so that is not the challenge. It really relies on what NR2003 will let me do and keeping things reasonable. I can't promise this mod will be on the same quality level of say the SRD Xfinity and MENSCS 2019 mods but I'm going to try and make my mod the best I can with detail and paintable part options.

When it comes to helping out the team currently stands at 1 (me). I have always liked to do things on my own and at this point in development I don't need any current help so just sit back and enjoy the ride. To breakdown what is covered take a look:

Custom Models: Covered
Custom Textures: Covered
Scripting/compiling: Covered
Testing: Covered
3DS Max Render Scenes/Carviewer X files: Not Covered

The only parts I may need help later down the road on the actual mod itself is in orange with the scripting but right now after completing the proof of concept mod I know at this point how to get all the mod assets in the game. If I try and do more complex stuff I may need to reach out to some of the great modders in the community for help. When we get to testing while it won't be totally closed doors but I really do only want to employ the best. What I mean by best are those in the community I trust. These are people who have been around for awhile, have proven they give quality feedback, and are not just here to 'beta' test so they can play with a mod.

Once the mod is actually done I will need to find an experienced 3DS Max Render scene specialist or carviewer creator (unless I can figure out how to convert my 3dos to that format). This is an extra step for the community so they can have a render scene as I personally do not use 3ds max to render stuff but I know the majority of the community does so I'd like to provide those files.

For now if you have read all of the stuff above and think this mod is for you I'd like if you could answer the questions in this thread: http://www.stunodracing.net/index.p...l-painters-template-creators.8261/#post-77490

It will give me valuable info of things I could take into consideration while building this thing.

 

[DaleTona]

I love this already! I see some things from gen 4, gen 6, and even some late COT likeness. I could see this becoming very popular

 

[Mystical]

I love this already! I see some things from gen 4, gen 6, and even some late COT likeness. I could see this becoming very popular

Glad it is looking close to those. I've enjoyed body features from those 3 eras and have tried to incorporate them together. Some stuff like the shark fin and Spoilers are my own ideas, I'd like them to have a somewhat cool/futuristic style to them.

 

[Rollo75]

Some stuff like the shark fin and Spoilers are my own ideas, I'd like them to have a somewhat cool/futuristic style to them.

And here I was thinking that those flared guards looked right out of 1984.

Apart from the deck wing, this is what I was thinking of.

 

[Mystical]

Development post #1

And here we begin with the first development post. The core outer shell body modeling continues as I tweak and refine the shape I am going for. I literally started on this model last night and have put about a good 6-8 hours in as of now. A lot of it has been playing around with the shapes and silhouette more than struggling or anything. I only get this one chance to lock the body down becasue once its done every other part (like the windows, hood, interior) will need to be able to fit it correctly.

For those following along all I have been using tool wise is Blender 2.8 with a few add-ons that let me model faster but nothing special. I started out with a cube in blender and have been extruding, adding edges, edge loops, and having the mirror modifier enabled so I can do half the work at twice the speed. As far as references go I pretty much have been free-style modeling and not using like a background car image or anything to follow. I did import another car mod at first to make sure my mod around the same size (so when it goes into NR2003 it won't be too small or large). I did this same thing with my blue box car test as well, thats how I knew the model would be the right size in NR2003.

Since the main post a few hours ago a few changes have been made to the model:
- Hood height has been flattened more closer so its not as tall above the tire rims on the side
- Sides windows slid back a bit along with b-pillar so front windshield could be more curved with the hood
-Additional edge loop added to nose so its more curved now
-Experimental roof rails added, these are taller like Gen4 rails would be with some extra design to them, still deciding on a final look but these would look cool to color to match a paint scheme for sure
-Side walls of the car have been straightened up more and entire top section of car is less an an angle

For anyone concerned the still looks to blocky its not meant to get more detailed. Adding more edge loops or hitting the subdivide button is the wrong thing to do. Instead the trick is applying smoothing groups which will smooth the edges that you define and keep other edges still sharp as light hits them. I did a quick smoothing and you can see how the car appears to be more high poly buts its literally the same geometry:

Currently the body is at 682 verts and the limit is 1000 before I'd have to start breaking things apart so things are looking pretty good with the poly count that low still.


Now lets talk Manufacturers, the plan with the 4 bodies is to include a featured make for each one with a template that includes a few other makes that can be used right out of the box. Here is the planned ones I'd like to include:

• Make0 - Slight curved nose (what you currently see in screenshots) - Honda (Accord), Chevy (Monte Carlo or Impala), Nissan (Sentra)
• Make1 - Harder flat edged nose - Dodge (Charger), BMW (M8), Volvo (S60)
• Make2 - Slightly flat and rounded nose - Infiniti (Q70), Ford (Fusion), Tesla (Model S)
• Make3 - Pointy angled nose - Pontiac (G8), Mitsubishi (Lancer), Toyota (Camry)

The ones in italics will be the default appearing make on the template and also the ones I will have the nose/rear modeled slightly for. I say slightly becasue I will design make3 for example have more of an angle for a Pontiac but it would still work great for like a Toyota or whatever other make may fit for it. While I have about 12 listed about these may change or switch makes depending on what fits best.

 

[martinrace]

As for the 3dmax scene I can not help you with but I can do the Carviewer files And some zModelers files if you would like. It look great so far.

 

[Mystical]

As for the 3dmax scene I can not help you with but I can do the Carviewer files And some zModelers files if you would like. It look great so far.

I've not actually looked into how to make Carviewer files but if it turns out all I have to do is convert my models to it with a program that is easy to use I can do that, if not them someoe who is more familiar with Carviewer files I can consult them when we get there.

 

[garrett1127]

Looking great so far Mystical, would lend a hand when needed, I have yet to master making a 3ds max render scene, but there are a few guys at SRD that could possibly help in that area, Carbine, DER, maybe even smoke, Rogue (member here and there), I'm sure they would want a good scene since this type of mod will gain acceptance widely. There will be a lot of render requests for certain. One thing that maybe you should take a closer look at (my opinion) is the number of vertices around the wheel openings, maybe add in a few more for a smoother rounded look.

 

[Mystical]

Looking great so far Mystical, would lend a hand when needed, I have yet to master making a 3ds max render scene, but there are a few guys at SRD that could possibly help in that area, Carbine, DER, maybe even smoke, Rogue (member here and there), I'm sure they would want a good scene since this type of mod will gain acceptance widely. There will be a lot of render requests for certain. One thing that maybe you should take a closer look at (my opinion) is the number of vertices around the wheel openings, maybe add in a few more for a smoother rounded look.

Yeah I will probably add some more smoothness to the wheel area once I am sure about all the other stuff. If I add too much too early it gets harder to move stuff around with all the extra detail in place. Once I am sure of everything the windows will finally get blown out as separate meshes, front and rear areas will get a bit more detail, flaps will be cut out along with the hood piece, and wheel sections will be smoothed.

 

[garrett1127]

Glad you will do that, it always bothers me when the openings are jagged. I know they can be added and smoothed out in the render scene, but that doesn't carry over into the game itself.

 

[Mystical]

Glad you will do that, it always bothers me when the openings are jagged. I know they can be added and smoothed out in the render scene, but that doesn't carry over into the game itself.

Yeah its a fine line between making it look smooth and then going over the poly limit. I know there are some really good mods out there with high detail and those modders have expereince making the game be stable. I want to be moderate with mine and make sure things work good before I try and put too much eye candy in and then realize the game won't even run lol

 

[Mystical]

Development post #2

Its only been 4 days since this project began and already a lot of good progress with the body has been done. Behind the scenes I've also been preparing the code setting up all the segments for future preparation. While it is kind of skipping had since I don't even have all the models complete I'm able to start setting up the names and at least the basic stuff. As with last time a lot of work was done on the body fine tuning and carefully sculpting little by little and I am happy with the results coming out so far. Here are some of the main things updated since the last screenshots were posted:

• -Top of car (this includes side windows and front) were slightly slid back to make a little extra room for the hood
• -Hood lowered and angled slightly more to curve downwards towards the front bumper more so its not a blocky
• -Roof rails were rebuilt, the side attachments are now less dramatic
• -Placeholder roof details added
• -Rear decklid fins slightly lowered, glass section added to the rear one. Front nose smoothed and sculpted to fit the Honda/Chevy
• -Rear decklid fins made thinner
• -Front splitter variation added
• -Front and Rear windows have been blown out (aka detached from the body now)

Spoiler: Animated Tunrtable video

With everything that has been completed there is still a lot left to do later on throughout this week:

• -Rear bumper will will be lowered a bit so the rear trunk area will have a bit more space height wise
• -Rear Bumper will be shaped slightly more for the make0 Honda/Chevy/Nissan body
• -Tire rims will be smoothed with extra poly's (this one most likely be one of the last things I do)
• -Rear Spoiler variations need to be modeled, currently still the same placeholder one
• -Side windows need to be removed/blown out
• -Extra details such as rear cam and any other fictional pieces I may want to include as eye candy (this would be the last icing on the cake)
• -Hood still needs to be blown out along with the hood flaps

Speaking of windows, there has been some discussion about making the rear windows paintable, this would mean fake windows as they would need to go onto the template. The reasoning given was so things such as logos could be placed on them. Personally I would just want the windows to be like the others and have transparency along with not being included on the template. For those who do want them paintable a good example would be NR4 where the rear windows were fake:

Is there is big demand for something like this or is it ok to do without? As I mentioned earlier the sides of the car just above the rims in the rear are flatter to provide more sponsor space height wise so I was hoping that would mitigate any reason or need to put logos on the windows unless that extra free re-estate is good for a fictional series. If there is one thing that I will agree to is making the car more fictional friendly but keep in mind with every feature added it will increase the pressure to make this all fit on a template.

Up next is the nose, how is everyone feeling about it from the above turntable render video? Does that look satisfactory to work well for a Honda/Chevy/Nissan nose? Remember I'm purposefully not trying to go all out on the nose (as hard as it is to resist lol) becasue every bump or indent I add will make it harder for template creators as they will have to fight with distortion more. Not everyone has 3D Coat or Substance painter like me and can paint decals in a 3D Space with ease. I can always harder the ridge between the hood and front bumper, add side ducts indents or other stuff but I'd like to not go overboard.

More work has been put into the fictional roof rail design, I kept a similar look but lessened the side of the brace parts. Personally I am liking how they look but what do you think? I want them to almost act like a mini wicker bill from the 2000-2001 era with those braces breaking up the air slightly more. I know the model has (sadly) no real aero effect in the game but for fictional purposes when I race at superspeedways the racing is always crazy 3-5 wide with my ai settings so I want the car to look like its the roof rails in part playing a roll in the action on track just as the beloved wicker once did.

Last but not least for feedback in this dev post is the valence/ splitter. I've taken a bit more time to concept out a few variations which one do you like best? (I didn't smooth them out so they are a little blocky still)

Short valence and short splitter:

Tall valence and short splitter

Tall valence and long splitter:

Short valence and long splitter:

Of course there are just some rough ideas, I can always make another crazy shape, make the valence even taller or whatever. Personally I like the tall valence and shorter splitter the most or the default currently on the car.

For those following along so far I've only been modeling in blender 2.8 still. So if you are making your own mod the process is just a focus on refining that outer body shell still and making design choices. Of course if you are not making a fictional mod you probably won't be doing as much concepts as me as you probably are following a reference image. Either way there is no way to rush this process no matter how well you model. Its all in the details and every vert you move can dramatically change the shape of the car so its careful smoothing and iterations to get a final result.

Another tool introduced is Atom Text editor which is what I use to edit and create the script/code for the mod. It really does not matter what text editor you use but I like atom becasue I can collapse lines of code right out of the box and I like the dark mode theme it has. I will get into the coding part more in future dev posts but if you want to skip ahead to you can always watch the videos Cosmin made or Burnout videos as well.

I am quite surprised with myself and how the car is coming along, not that I doubt my 3D modeling ability but I still amaze myself when I see the model and realize it will be in the game eventually. I think its looking pretty good already. Currently the body shell is only at 800+ verts so we are still under the 1000 limit! Best part is once I blow out the side windows and remove the bottom part of the mesh the count will go lower or even out after I add the extra details on. I will then do some poly cleanup at the very end and merge a few of those verts that really don't need to have so many edge loops. I'm not trying to sculpt a roman statue here, if the body looks good enough I don't have to hit that 1000 limit just for the sake of it.

Well that wraps up this dev post, it was quite a bit to take in. Coming up in future posts I'll be talking more about the UV's and how the template may possibly look, the template dimensions, and what this could mean for details with the painting space. Also I am happy to report this mod will include paintable rims AND paintable tire brands. Someone on Cosmin's Discord reached out to me and shared the code to do this. I've already integrated it into my script for preparation. I'll be sure to show all the tire details in the future when we get there.

 

[garrett1127]

Very impressed, keep after it, will learn a lot by following along with you.

 

[Nuttyboy812]

Holy shit, this is exactly what I was hoping for. I've been working on a fictional series for myself and a few friends that has an absolute ton of makes, and I was using Gen6 for it, but this will be far better for all those templates I'm going to have to make. You're doing holy work my man.

 

[Mystical]

Development post #3

Lots has happened since the last update. The focus has still been on the modeling phase of the mod but this is soon coming to a close for body0 (aka make0). The outer shell for the car was mostly finalized with a few things updated.

Spoiler: Exterior animated preview

-Tires are now fully modeled
-Rear quarter panel windows windows now have more space left to the quarter panel for large logos. The rear windows I've decided wont be paintable but this window design for the car should give that extra space to have logos are are very large so they won't be cut off nearly as much by the window in the way
-The Tall Valence, short splitter design is what will be chosen for the car
-More body details finalized (gas entry area, hood intake cutout, paintable wedge circle meshes,etc)

The main thing left was the interior detail (for the exterior cam views of the car, actual interior and rearview mirror are separate scenes for a later day). These past days and many hours yesterday the interior was carefully crafted, it literally felt like I was welding a frame together as I was basically reconstructing a model of the insides of a stock car. The pieces alone are simple geometric shapes, the challenge came in trying to fit them all together inside the car. The good thing is I only had to do this process once since every car body shares the same interior (hence it being a 'stock' car). I had to include a animated turntable for this, afterall I spent so long on it, would be a shame to just have a single screenshot:

The rollcage is compromised of triangular cylinder shapes which have its normals smoothed so it appears like a tube but its really really low poly actually.

The interior minus a few pieces hidden so it reflects what a real interior looks like if you have just removed the outer shell.

Spoiler: Animated Interior view

At this stage there are only a few details left to finalize in the model which is mostly on the exterior:

-Spoiler design/shape
-Extra roof details
-Hood Flaps cutout

These few things won't take me very long, once they are locked down then the next step will be model cleanup. Essentially I will be deleting faces that will never be seen. The poly count for the total exterior model is just about 8k which looking at other mods ranged anywhere from 3500-8000+ so I am on the mark. Once I collapse a few more verts and delete faces this will reduce my poly count even more. I'm targeting no higher than 8000 which is looking like it will be quite feasible so in terms of LOD1 memory my mod won't be doing anything extra ordinary in terms of poly count but it will be in the higher detail range for sure. A lot of that detail comes with the interior section. After everything has been decimated and cleaned up and every piece of mesh has been looked over like I'm going through a Nascar tech inspection the next phase will begin: UV Unwrapping.

This is the most important part for the exterior car body as this is where the template that painters would paint on is created. There will much more discussion about the UV template layout over the Thanksgiving weekend for the next dev post but I have already done initial tests and they are looking promising. With tools like 3D Coat I can cut out the hassle of unwrapping and with its real-time solutions I can pretty much in a matter of minuets spit out half decent UV template that I can then paint on in 3D Coat and test things out like stretch issues or other seam errors I see. So even if I am not finished modeling I can take my current work in progress and get a quick workable template going to see how things are shaping up:

As you can see above I'm looking to have a template that is in a 1:2 size ratio where the height will be 1024 and the width will be 1536. This extra width will allow more painting space for things such as the paintable tires, extra parts, etc. This is a little different than other mods that just used a square, I'll be able to have a little extra real estate but it wont be overboard in texture size. For the released template the painter will paint on a 2048x3056 template so they can get high resolution with their renders and easier to paint on, it will be recommended to compress that down by half for NR2003 to the 1024x1536 size though. If anyone is wondering "NR2003 cant do a size like that" actually there are files in NR2003 for tracks (especially the grandstand textures) that have a similar size ratio. For example the Talladega stands have a UV size that is wider than its height. As long as the UV is in squares it doesn't matter.

So for those following along wanting to make their own mod its just been more Blender all this week pretty much with a little pre-3D Coat preparation. I recently upgraded to Blender 2.8.1 and the new outliner has made things a lot easier especially when you have a ton of models in a scene. This entire model so far has been made using basic modeling tools like extrude, creating new edges, mirror modifier, and smoothing the normals. All it takes it time in the details to achieve what you want really and knowing how to manipulate the geometry to create the shapes you need while also having efficient topology. If you want to model and make a model but don't know where to start I highly recommend Blender 2.8.1 and there are lots of great tutorials out there on how to use the tools and make objects. All you need is the time and dedication.

So that wraps up this dev post. Like I mentioned over the Thanksgiving weekend I plan to spend a lot more time on the mod. The days leading up to it I will have the model prepped so I can go into the UV unwrapping phase for all the parts.

 

[garrett1127]

Nice post.

 

[Mystical]

Couple quick questions for everyone:
- For the roof cam is there any specific reason why on the most recent gen6 cars they are not centered? Would it bother anyone if I just have mine in the center of the roof? Also should I go with a classic circle camera or that new thin one?
- Does anyone know of a good repository of images of the Gen6? Mostly engine pictures from top/side angles and the bottom of the chassis. Most textures I am creating from scratch but if there are some images for the under section I could use those to better recreate it would speed things up.
- Are there any small details I am missing for the exterior? I've got stuff like the roof/rear cameras and little antennas already. Hood pins would be a texture and I could add a driver side mirror but not planning to unless it really matters. Is there any cool small attachment on a car from another series you think would look cool on the roof or other area? I'm not talking about things like "Yeah add a giant scoop on the side of the car" but a little tiny mesh that would be inconsequential to the poly count really. This would be a paintable object as well just for that extra flair. If not then I won't add anything for the sake of it but always open to ideas.

 

[Rollo75]

- For the roof cam is there any specific reason why on the most recent gen6 cars they are not centered?

May I propose a theory?

I think that this looks like a packaging problem.

The driver already sits really close to the roof on the left hand side; that means that camera unit probably needs to be mounted on the right.
I suspect that it probably lies directly atop a cross member; which is just below the roof on the right hand side of the car.

Fw = 1/2 ρ v² A

ρ = 1.275kg/m³ at sea level (according to IUPAC)
v = 180mph (80.4672m/s)
A = 0.0035m²

Fw = 0.5 x 6474.97 x 0.0035

11.33 N

For comparison:
Two pints and a packet of crisps have a force due to gravtiy of about 12N.

Imagine that force, vectored backwards relative to the direction of travel for several hours. The roof can certainly take it but I'd still want to anchor it to the frame/rollcage underneath.

 

[Mystical]

Yeah it probably makes sense they have it there for a reason with the way the car is at top speed and all the force on it. I will keep it off center for mine as well.