Help me understand something...

[BnZs]

Roll rate, especially at high speeds, is of course totally unimportant.

[Anaxogoras]

Roll rate, especially at high speeds, is of course totally unimportant.

You are far worse than me with the sarcasm.  Kweassa should take you under his wing and help you perfect it.

[BaldEagl]

Roll rate, especially at high speeds, is of course totally unimportant.

I never said that did I?  Please quote it if I did.

This started out with me making the comment that the Spit VIII and Spit XVI performance stats were nearly identical.  If you don't believe me go to DocGonzos and check for yourself.

Anax countered by claiming the XVI was vastly superior.  He made it sound like a XVI would eat VIII's for lunch then jet away like a Jug in a dive afterwards.  I fly Spits all the time and I can tell you that's just not true.

I pointed out that there's a difference in fuel loading to which Anax replied that EVERYONE drops the drop tanks before engaging.  I simply stated that I' for one, dont.

I'm done with this pissing match.  I started with one simple comment:

The VIII and XVI share almost identical performance stats across the board.  The VIII gives up a little roll rate, swaps the 2x.50's for 4x.303's and adds an internal fuel tank.

which I still stand by, and am now taken to task over every single thing I type.  Well piss off.

[BnZs]

I never said that did I?  Please quote it if I did.

This started out with me making the comment that the Spit VIII and Spit XVI performance stats were nearly identical.  If you don't believe me go to DocGonzos and check for yourself.

Anax countered by claiming the XVI was vastly superior.  He made it sound like a XVI would eat VIII's for lunch then jet away like a Jug in a dive afterwards.  I fly Spits all the time and I can tell you that's just not true.

I believe you. In fact, the SpitVIII has a slightly superior rate and radius of turn IIRC.

However, the roll rate advantage of the SpitXVI is vastly more important for MA purposes than the SpitVIII's advantages, IMO

[Anaxogoras]

Time to complete a 360 roll from zero-inertia start (all times approximate in seconds):

200mph
SpitVIII: 2.88
SpitXVI: 1.92

300mph
SpitVIII: 4.3
SpitXVI: 2.65

400mph
SpitVIII: 10.03
SpitXVI: 4.28

I can run it again a few more times to get a better average over a larger distribution, but the trend is obvious. 

P.S. I tested these times with only 50% fuel to be sure the SpitVIII wouldn't have fuel in the wings.

[Yarbles]

Time to complete a 360 roll from zero-inertia start (all times approximate in seconds):

200mph
SpitVIII: 2.88
SpitXVI: 1.92

300mph
SpitVIII: 4.3
SpitXVI: 2.65

400mph
SpitVIII: 10.03
SpitXVI: 4.28

I can run it again a few more times to get a better average over a larger distribution, but the trend is obvious. 

P.S. I tested these times with only 50% fuel to be sure the SpitVIII wouldn't have fuel in the wings.

I have to agree that in my experience this difference in roll rate puts the VIII at a significant dissadvantage though not in the fairly typical lower speed turn fight as bourne out by the data. 

[WarTooth]

It's more like flying TIE Fighter (Lucasarts) than a spitfire in this game.

When I came up there were no Spit16's.  I learned primarily in the Spit5 and YakU.