Sounds like you're having fun spanks

I just posted this to a friend on MSN, so I thought I would share it....

My thoughts on why t1 is better in iRacing:
1) No restarting races. This is your only chance to make t1, and you can't just vote to restart and then do it again, so you had better get it right.
2) Races are longer so t1 is less crucial anyway.
3) Incident points mean you are encouraged to avoid contact
4) Races only every hour or two mean you can't just start a different race if you mess up t1.
5) hiPricing means less 10 year olds thinking they are the shit and divebombing in t1.

I have seriously only have 2 races where I had any issues in t1 at all. Very very different from LFS so far. Of course I am comparing to LFS pickup races, which is a little unfair really. It's totally different in LFS league races and that sort of thing. But my experiences with iRacing so far lead me to feel that they could definitely get rid of the vote to restart a race in LFS. This way people know you have to at least wait until the next race if you mess up in t1. Usually in small races a big pile up in t1 affects close to 50% of the field and it usually ends up being enough to get the race restarted which bugs the hell out of me.

And as for the fact that races are longer in iRacing, well I just need to find the servers in LFS that have longer races. Trouble is, finding a server that has longer races, runs the cars I'm interested in, and has at least 5 people in is often nearly impossible....

There was a comment from someone who hadn't tried iRacing that the Radical didn't look too fun or realistic or something along those lines. I agree...before I started playing iRacing I was not too impressed with how onboard videos from in-game looked. But trust me it feels a lot better than it looks. I wasn't too excited by watching the videos, but that does not reflect on how it feels to play. So if you're put off by videos, try the $20 month and give it a go, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I have been thinking some more about the things that are currently lacking in iRacing. It is quite surprising that there are some basic things missing, as mentioned already. But the driving experience is so good for me that I'm not really bothered about them for the most part. I have been going back and forth about whether iRacing is for me, and whenever I have my doubts, they are washed away once I'm behind the wheel in a race.

Initially I was not too keen on the Skip Barber car; it left me feeling a little flat. But I suspected I just needed more time with it, and I was right. Now I'm starting to get comfortable with it and push it a little harder, it is a joy to drive. There is one particular corner that I just LOVE on VIR with the Skip Barber. You are coming out of a 2nd gear right hand turn, and flick it into first for the following left. If I come in on a steady throttle I can turn it in to the left and then gradually increase the throttle as I go through. If I try and push it there though I often end up with understeer and needing to back out of the throttle a little. One lap I came in a bit faster than usual, and therefore lifted a bit harder on the entry, rotating the car nicely. I then applied full throttle and came through the corner in a lovely four wheel drift, not really needing to correct so much as just unwind a little lock. From then on, I have tried this same technique each lap, just because it's so damn fun. The car really started to come alive at this point and suddenly I have started enjoying it more. It's moments like this that make me not care how much iRacing costs, and the fact that it's missing a bunch of features right now.

thisnameistaken... I felt exactly the same as you with regards to the car content initially. Solstice initially left me feeling very flat, as did the Skip Barber car. I am really finding I need to put a lot of time in with each car in order to start enjoying them. I found it easy to just pick up iRacing and put in some clean laps in either car. It took me a LOT of laps to get close to competitive times though, and now I'm at that stage, I can see there is so much more to learn still and a lot of work to be put in to continue to improve.

Missed it... How did it go?

I have started racing the Skip Barber now my SR is over 4. I wasn't hugely enjoying this car in practice but it comes alive in races and it's nice to be racing a racing car not a road car. VIR course is very pretty and fun to drive. The races are a little longer, more like 35 minutes than 25. Fun so far. I agree with what Hyper said though, I'm not worried about doing well in each series, I just want to have fun races. I won't avoid doing another race in a series if it's going to reduce my average points. I just race what I want to race when I want to race it, and have fun, hopefully improving my SR. Also once I move to Class D I will be able to see how I'm doing with my iRating, and that's something you can improve without needing to worry about standings in each series. So there is still something to rate your progress which is nice if you're not trying to do your best in a particular series.

Great post Hyperactive....I would have to echo pretty much everything you said there (the large one further up the page I mean :P).

Regarding the setups for the Solstice...the rookie and advanced Solstice are the same cars, but yes the baseline for the advanced is faster and more enjoyable to drive than the fixed setup for the rookie car. And then of course you have the option of editing your setup for the advanced Solstice from there if you choose to do so (I haven't bothered yet though..). To give you an idea of the differences in laptimes, I have managed 1:49.3 in the Rookie Solstice at Laguna Seca, and 1:48.3 in the Advanced Solstice.

Right now I'm not 100% sure if I will renew. I really really enjoy driving on iracing. And I don't mind the fact that races are only every two hours. It will become more frequent as there are more drivers. And as I can usually fit a race or two a day into my schedule, I am happy doing one or two longer races compared to a bunch of short races on LFS. But I'm not a huge fan of the points system, as some ppl have mentioned above. But for me I'm enjoying the driving experience so much that the issues don't bother me that much. Hopefully these are things that can be improved with time. If I'm tight for money, I might leave it 6 months or a year to renew, but assuming I can afford it I'll probably renew right away. I'll see how I feel after my month it up.

Quote from greg_slideways :

If you read it power steering then windows, as in power windows...

He was making a joke, hence the at the end of his post

Quote from ksa_land :

Just another video at the nordschleife. It's a "Taxi drive". A normal person is passenger in a Porsche 996 Cup car with a real racing driver (Dirk Adorf) driving it.
Just pure fun to look at the passengers face

Fantastic! That's got to be a hell of a scary experience I'd like to think I'd be all cool about it but I'm sure I'd be crapping myself

Yeah I've tried the Legends cars on the ovals and just not found it entertaining enough. I'm sure if you get competitive and have some really close races it can be enjoyable, but it's just not my cup of tea. I got my Oval SR over 3.0 so I can advance to the next licence on oval but I don't think I'll go anywhere with it...

In the Rookie version of the car there are no setup adjustments at all, just a fixed setup. It's nice for good close racing and allowing people to focus on learning to drive the car and circuit rather than worrying about setups. But then when you get into the Advanced version, it's the same car with the ability to modify your setup. The default setup is also faster and more enjoyable to drive.

I just downloaded the Skip Barber, the Radical, and Silverstone. I decided to take the Skip Barber out first, on Lime Rock Park as it's the track I'm most familiar with from the Solstice. First impression is that the view out of this car is great compared to the Solstice (well duh!), and I can see a lot more of the surroundings of the track which is nice. The second thing I notice is that this track is BUMPY and you can feel bumps through the FF that you didn't even know existed in the Solstice. The wheel is constantly moving about in your hands as you watch the front wheels move up and down over bumps. It feels a little too much given what I've been used to so far, but I haven't driven a real single seater on a bumpy track so I don't know what's right and what's not. Braking into the first corner on my first flying lap, I lock up both fronts badly, oops! I need to put half a squash ball under my brake pedal I think... After a couple of laps I'm actually kind of underwhelmed by the car, but this is how I felt with the Solstice initially until I started to get comfortable with it and began to push it harder. So after another 10 or 15 laps in the Skippy I am starting to get used to it and enjoy it more. It really turns in on the brakes, and it's easier to place it where you want than is the case with the Solstice. The bumps in the last turn of LRP are a non-issue for the most part in the Solstice once you have your line down, but I found them quite difficult to negotiate in the Skippy. Application of opposite lock has to be quick and precise, and more than once I found I didn't get the opposite lock off quickly enough and ended up firing the car off the outside of the corner. Certainly a fun car, but I think it's going to take a bunch of practice to get used to it and for it to really come alive for me.

On to the Radical, again at LRP. Starting out I'm a little uneasy to be sitting on the right side of the car, but within a couple of laps it's not an issue. I short-shift on the first couple of straights and then run it to the limiter through a couple of gears later in the lap, which becomes very addictive! On the no-name straight I hit 85mph in the Solstice, and 130mph in the Radical.... Through the turns the Radical seems more comfortable over the bumps than the Skippy, you can really feel the grip and stability in higher speed turns. But I'm not too confident on the throttle coming out of turns as I imagine it's not exactly a playful car to slide out of corners. Maybe it is for Greger Huttu, but not for Michael Denham at this stage :P The Radical would really be better suited to a higher speed, smoother circuit, and as I just downloaded Silverstone, I load it up The longer gearing I chose for Silverstone took the edge of the acceleration, and the smoother wider track probably make the car feel slower too. It definitely is a lot smoother here, and the car feels much more comfortable on this smooth wide track. The curbs are also much friendlier here which is very good. I always feel a bit lost on the wide Silverstone circuit, and it was no different in the Radical in iRacing. I have never really spent enough time here to get all that comfortable, but I'm sure I will when one of the series comes to this track. The rear wing is adjustable on the Radical (but the front is not), so I decide to set it to zero and see what speed I can hit on the straights at Silverstone. I figure this would change the balance significantly so I set the rear sway bar to soft and add a whack of rear toe-in. Doesn't help much as I still spin into the first turn I also forgot to change the brake balance, and without all the rear downforce, I end up locking up my rear tires and doing a nice 180... On the straight at LRP I managed 150mph, but with the longer gearing and rear wing set to zero degrees I manage 160mph at Silverstone. So not a huge top speed but it sure accelerates quickly up to around 120 or 130mph. When you actually have the sense to put some rear wing on the car, it also brakes very well indeed. Anyway, I enjoy the Radical more than the Skip Barber car, but I have always been into road cars and sports racing cars rather than single seaters...

It's good to know about the tires, thanks for the info. I figured they would be race tires of some kind, making it difficult to compare with real life laptimes done on street tires...

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

Alternate Excuse: You were warping too much, I couldn't find you.

Well it appeared you were looking for me in the middle of a gravel trap as I passed you

Nice job in the last race tonight! You are sucking less by the hour

Quote from wheel4hummer :

Whenever I feel depressed, I go driving in my car!

Whenever I get depressed I look at your avatar

Quote from Mackie The Staggie :

Put a move down the inside going into the corkscrew.....that'll work

Fabulous plan I will have to try that one next time.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

I'm likely racing MD in this next race, I'll be sure when he's lapping me to block like a mo-fo.

Well, you would have tried to block me like a mo-fo when I came up to lap you, except you had just spun off and were busy recovering Just the sight of me in your rear view mirrors intimidated you into spinning. Muahahahaaaa!

Well onto Laguna Seca this morning in the Rookie Solstice....First few laps were 1:55s but after a couple of hours practice I've broken into the high 1:49s. Now it's time to start thinking about good overtaking spots at Laguna Seca! I've driven it before but never actually raced here. I guess t2 is the obvious spot :P And on the approach to t5 maybe.

Regarding the lap times, I guess the RX8 is on street tires, the iRacing Solstice looks to be on some sort of race tires. I don't know if you put a real life Solstice and an identical iRacing Solstice on the same track that the times would be super-close, but I think there are too many variables here to write off the accuracy of iRacing based on this comparison.

For anyone who has just been driving around in the Rookie Solstice and hasn't tried the Solstice that's used in the Advanced series, DO IT NOW! Where the Rookie Solstice setup is safe if a little understeery at times, the default setup for the regular Solstice is very very nice to drive. It just feels like a different car, just a beautiful driving experience. Yes it's still a Solstice but it just feels so much better with a more neutral setup. You don't need that dab on the brakes to get the front end turned in, it just goes where you point it. Just need to watch the back end a little more mid corner and at exits. I am into the 1:03s in the Rookie Solstice but with only a couple of laps in the regular one I got into the low 1:03s and 1:02s would be easy with this car.

Like I say, if you haven't tried the regular Solstice, DO IT :P

Well I just got 3/4 of the way through a Solstice race, was quite a way in the lead, and lost my connection! Doh! Ah well, it wasn't that much fun anyway given that everyone else I was with was at least 3 or 4 seconds slower per lap! Still having lots of troubles with backmarkers just being completely oblivious. That's something I didn't expect to be honest, but hopefully it'll improve with the addition of blue flags and then maybe penalties if you ignore blue flags for however long....

Yeah, I've got to say I'm really enjoying Lime Rock. It'll be nice to have a change but at the same time I don't enjoy Laguna as much...

Woah, looks like I started something with the comment about less talented drivers with money :P I was of course meaning they are still very talented, but perhaps less than some other drivers, and partly able to make it to F1 due to putting up a whole bunch of money to race for a team.

Yes, you can certainly drift in iRacing. As Dustin said, the Solstice is not the best car for it, but you can maintain a drift assuming you're somewhere close to the power band and near the limits of grip in the first place. If you get too much angle it can be hard to avoid a spin, but getting it sideways is not hard if you're near the limit. If you just cruise into a corner fairly slowly and punch the throttle however, it will not suddenly snap sideways.

Quote from Jertje :

I have an incredible itch to try this now, especially since I just ordered a G25 for my brother, and I know I can ninja it from him whenever he's not racing. Is it worth it getting a 3 month subscription right off the bat, or should I take it slow and go for the 20 buck trial?

I'd go for the $20 trial. It doesn't cost that much more per month and you'll know whether it's good for you without getting in for too much money. Then if you like it maybe you can go for a 6 month or 1 year

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

HAHA I AM BETTER!!! I WON BEFORE YOU!!! NOOB FROM MAPLE RIDGE!

Speaking of NOOBS.... I wonder who this is spinning out right in front of me! Haha.

Thanks

Well I just had another race in the Solstice at Lime Rock. I was in 4th behind 3 guys all of a fairly similar pace. The rest of the guys behind us were a long way back, at least 4 seconds per lap slower. We ended up passing a LOT of backmarkers and many of them had no idea there was someone behind them. It got quite frustrating, as we'd spend a whole lap getting past one guy at times. We did have some close battles but they were always broken up with backmarkers, putting one or two of us further apart. The guy who was in 2nd had a spin in t1, putting me up to third, where I stayed for the rest of the race. Oh, actually one guy lost connection infront of me on the last lap, so I guess I ended up 2nd. It was fun, but the difference in pace between the four of us and the rest of the field was too big. Also, blue flags are sorely needed, either that or some lessons on not getting in the way for an entire lap Fortunately there was no spamming ***BLUE FLAG!!!*** although it was tempting at one point, haha.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5BiRGFGhQU

Another excursion ending with the f-word at Lime Rock Park Turns out it's a bit damp on the outside of t2! Or is that considered t3?

Last edited by Michael Denham, Sat 28 Jun 2008, 02:35.

Quote from Forbin :

My new gear, in preparation for my trip to Summit Point in West Virginia (the Shenandoah circuit at Summit Point). This is after 5 years of wearing a black leather jacket that is older than me and was once my father's.

I'm currently using my Dad's old leathers too The most economical way to start, for sure! I am looking forward to getting some of my own though!

Quote from mikey_G :

I just saw this on youtube. and its amazing how close iracing is with reality. It actually wants me to buy silverstone so I can compare it while watching the race next weekend

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mz_RegNic0


btw, do the concrete patches also give you more grip in iracing?

Thanks for posting that video. I don't know whether the concrete patches have more grip, but the bumps in the last turn look very familiar!

Last edited by Michael Denham, Sat 28 Jun 2008, 02:21.