iRacing

[Damo]

Anyone else here tried iRacing yet? It is by Dave Kaemer, the bloke behind Grand Prix Legends and it is brilliant! Definitely the most realistic sim I've raced and it really makes you drive properly.

[Mr_Q]

I was a big fan of the Indy/Nascar sims and have been keeping an eye on this for a while. It looks interesting, but the pay-to-play is putting me off. There are no Aussie servers so I'd like to hear more about local peoples experiences with it before giving it a trial run.

The other thing that puts me off is that I enjoy playing these with friends, but the way the iRacing system works there's no guarantee you'll be doing that (it puts you in a race with similarly skilled drivers, not necessarily people you know). That may change though.

Here's the site for anyone who wants to check it out: http://www.iracing.com/

[Damo]

The lack of aussie servers doesn't seem to hurt it too much, it plays well. As for being able to play against friends, yeah, there's not really too much you can do. Plenty of the Australians organise a time to race in the forums and seem to all run into one-another.

As for pay-to-play, yeah, it certainly will be more expensive than other sims but on the other hand it forces the developers to continue to develop it. I'd frankly just prefer to pay for addons though.

All up I'm loving it though.

[Mr_Q]

I've signed up for a trial month so we'll see how it goes. It seems really well put together. The sim itself doesn't seem massively better/different to other modern racing titles but the online play is flawless and the matchmaking/ranking service is excellent.

Anyone else on here thinking of giving this a try or already on it??

[Damo]

What else have you been playing? To me it feels much more realistic than the ISI sims. It really forces you to be smooth like in real life. It has the feel of GPL/netKar/LFS. Pity I have so little time for it. And the Solstice is kinda like an MX-5!

[Mr_Q]

Been playing rFactor, GTR2 and LfS mainly in recent times. iRacing does have a nice "feel" to it, it's just not the jump I was expecting after such a long development time - especially since it's basically the latest version of some of the best racing sims ever, like GPL and NR2003.

Yeah, the Solstice definitely seems familiar.

The little Legends cars make for some fun racing too. They're like our Aussie racing cars but for the NASCAR crowd. Sounds simple but racing around a tiny oval with a dozen or so of them is a bunch of fun.

[TCR]

I got into this sim at the beginning of this year and really enjoyed it.

Then I found myself with very little time for it, and with the crash of our dollar I found it a bit expensive so I actually let my subscription lapse last month.

With aussie servers about to come online and the hint of a V8 Supercar to join the car line up, I'm going to renew my subscription and get back into it.

See you online

[Damo]

I haven't had that much time lately but hopefully I'll hit the track again in three or four weeks. It'll be cool when they get some Australian tracks in there too. Hopefully Marcos Ambrose can encourage them!

The Spec Racer Ford released recently looks like a bit of fun too.

[Bauer]

old thread I know but it deserved a bump

Ive been iRacing since it went to public beta in June 2008 and have been having a ball racing ever since. The cars and tracks are laser scanned for the best possible accuracy. I have certainly had time away from it during that time and paying by the month would have seen me stop and start. As it is, I have paid annually so for some reason it doesnt seem like a big loss to not race for a while.

This past weekend, which I missed due to the time slot of 4am local time, they held a 1 off event. A 2.4 hour race around Daytona's road course. 960+ drivers signed in for the event which split in to 24 separate races of 40ish drivers in each based on each drivers 'iRating'. This meant each 40 car field was as close in speed and ability as it could be. Would have been great to be a part of. Next up is the Daytona 500 1 off race (11am on a Sunday is more doable. I might just make the time for this one). With the reddish necks of a lot of iRacers, I dont doubt that it will attract over 1000 drivers this time around. They are doing a season of these 1 off events during the year. Come Sept there will be a special Falcon race around Philip Island. Neither of these are in the sim yet but I dont doubt that they will be by that time.

The future is bright for iRacing. The Aussie community is looking after itself a bit due to our time line compared to the majority of members and the numbers are growing gradually as sim racers come to realise that you get what you pay for and since their announcement of an official Nascar sanctioned series, the international membership base is growing rapidly (mainly from people crawling out of Alabama swamps I expect)

Stu

[TCR]

I took up a years sub a while ago but I just can't seem to find enough time to really get into it. Was right into it for a few weeks when the Vette came out, and really wanted to do the Daytona 2.4hr race but once again struggled to find time to practice.

Looking forward to night racing and mixed class racing so we can get some real Sports Car endurance races going.

Paul.

[timk]

I was on this for a bit but need to renew. Those little roadsters you start on seem kinda like an NC but don't you have to throw them into the corners??

[Mr_Q]

I've hardly touched iRacing in the last six months but I hopped over to the site today to see what was new ... and spotted the news that they're trying to get the MX-5 included! It's still early days but my fingers are crossed.

Now I just have to get the wheel connected to the PC again ...

[Bauer]

yes it will be a long while away so dont rush to get that wheel set up

here is one of the cars they scanned

http://www.lauraolsonracing.com/blog/20 ... r-iracing/

should be good.

[Damo]

There hand was forced with the leak before the dotted line has been signed, but I doubt that they'd go to the expense of scanning it if they weren't pretty sure it was going to be in. Plus there are already two other vehicles with Mazda licensing, so they will have dealt with Mazda before and should have some form of working relationship. The posts of staff in the forums made it sound pretty certain. Won't happen, but it'd be great to get a RHD variant of one though.

Nevertheless, will be fun to have a fang around Phillip Island in it, and then Oran Park at some point!

Oh yes, Phillip Island is out and it is beautiful!

[TCR]

Looking forward to racing the MX5, pity it'll be left hand drive.