I don't have time to grab video atm I really shouldn't be on the computer anyways..but I think they nailed the sound.

Not only the sound of a v8 but the unique sound of an LS series engine.

Its got the low end grunt sound, but then just absolutely screams and makes awful noises as it gets to redline. Its wonderful

The indycar is kind of fun. I think it will be addicting. It feels extremely sterile and easy to drive. It started to come alive the more I pushed it though. Setup is going to be everything on making that car work. I can't wait to see what the masterminds decide to do with it.

Quote from tinvek :

spanks can you or any other american explain to me why rolling starts are so prevelant in road racing on your side of the pond? not being critical, just wondering why when most of the motoring world uses standing starts for most of it's racing

Well I'm not sure why there is more of a difference across the world, but in iRacing we mostly have cars that don't work really well for standing starts.

The solstice...0-60 in about a century
The skippy..such a long 1st gear very slow off the line
The old mazda..no wheelspin or any kind of exciting takeoff
The riley...jam the clutch in and out to get a better start than the other guy?

The radical was really the only car that had some acceleration off the line.

That and rolling starts are just fun. I agree that 45 mph around a giant track would suck haha.

I've done both rolling starts and standing starts in karting. The junior karts I ran did rolling starts because they had no beans and the clutches weren't made for aggressive standing starts. The higher power karts started at rolling starts and people didn't have enough talent to keep from wrecking the entire field so they moved to standing starts.

I'll tell you 60 mph into turn 1 3 wide with people directly in front and behind you is terrifying...Standing starts still got you to near the same speed but it was much more sorted out by then.

___

WOOOOOOoooooooo downloaded

Taking the vette to watkins brb ;D

WOW I'M BACK

The sound is gnarly. It backfires like mad too. Its got a real grunt to it. It has a big tendency to understeer, but then snaps into oversteer big time if you stand on it. I don't think this setup is too grand but it sure is fun haha.

Last edited by spanks, Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:51.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VFGTB9VX

ROLLING STARTS IN ROAD CARS IN HOSTED RACING!

So awesome

I can't believe it has been possible this whole time and they haven't implemented it into the official series. Wtf

Hosted racing kicks ass

The only thing that kind of sucks right now is it is heavily weighted towards ovals whenever I check...but lots of people are active and there are many really awesome combos to just hop onto and race with other people.

Overall a huge improvement to the service.

Also sorry Ant not quite sure how I didn't make the connection the first time

but I have a midterm tomorrow >: (

Actually I shouldn't even messed with it today

It needs to be delayed until tomorrow 4:30 PST lol

site goes under maintenance at 13:50GMT tomorrow morning...new cars ?

Hah the mirrors have been adjustable since last build

Everyone should give the new mazda a go

The rear tires have a ton less grip. You can jump curbs and there is a lot more grip off track now as well. You can peel out for quite a ways from a stop...just one tire spinning though. The rear end steps out now if you stab the gas too soon as well.

I'd say the new tire changes are a pretty decent step forward. I can't wait to see how the corvette and the indy car drive with them (only those 3 cars have the new tires atm).

The mazda got new tires because the real car had a change in the rules for this season I guess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v ... p;feature=player_embedded

Wow most excellent!

Alien supposedly the price break came from the growth of the service, not because of a need of new members. It is definitely much less intimidating on the content side. The subscription is the same price unless you do the participation bonus thing...which people who like the service are probably achieving already. I am actually glad I reupped for my year a couple months ago. I like having the iracing credits in the account.

I am pumped to see the corvette on a full schedule. I guess that means they are planning for a release on build day. Tim said earlier this morning that it was undecided and may come out after the build.

The only thing I'm not liking is all the alternating days. I don't really like to see that...I don't think having two upper division classes running concurrently really affects each other. For the most part you're going to see people focus on one or the other.

I have a feeling I am going to spend most of my time with the corvette. I am definitely going to buy the indy car, but I'm not anticipating it to be much fun to drive. Somewhat sterile tbh. Like a faster mazda but not any more exciting to drive. I may be wrong, but super fast open wheelers aren't always fun to drive in other sims.

After watching the most recent Bathurst 1000 I think I'm wanting the v8 supercar the most

I can't wait to hear the corvette roar though....its going to roar right iracing

Quote from Forbin :

I was waiting around for a while waiting for my promotion so I could run the Radical. Then I actually tried it at a few tracks and found it has some really bizarre physics issues. Even the Mazda's instability, particularly on curbs, is ridiculous.

The Skippy is far and away the best car in that game, IMO. Give me a Skippy with a little more power and an LSD and I'd be completely happy.

hahaha you should try the lotus...although it comes with some downforce and a lot more power

Quote :

iRacers with High Safety Ratings Get In-Season Upgrades

No one likes to wait, and beginning next month with the start of 2009 Season 4 iRacers who achieve a safety rating of 4.0 and fulfill minimum participation requirements will no longer have to wait for the end of a 12-week season to be promoted to the next higher license level – they’ll be automatically promoted immediately and eligible for all the benefits of their new license.

“It seems fair that drivers who demonstrate a really superior ability to race safely should be able to advance their licenses at a faster rate,” said Dave Kaemmer, iRacing’s CEO. “We’ll maintain our standard end-of-season promotion schedule for racers who have at least a 3.0 safety rating, but less than 4.0. This new FastTrack option provides additional incentive for clean driving.”

Kaemmer noted that new automated program also provides for a swifter penalty for drivers who exhibited really bad driving habits, including in iRacing’s Pro series.

“The incentives for good driving are both positive and negative,” Kaemmer noted. “Drivers whose safety ratings drop below 1.0 at any point during a season, including participants in the Pro Series, will be demoted immediately to the next lower license level. This is a pretty serious penalty for a Pro license holder; there won’t be any FastTrack promotions to Pro status, so they’ll also have to wait until the next year before they can be eligible again.”

Holders of C and B licenses are eligible for mid-season promotion and demotion under the FastTrack program. D license holders may be promoted but are not subject to demotion, while A and Pro license holders are subject only to the demotion part of the program. Rookie promotions are unaffected by the FastTrack program; those promotions will continue to take place every four weeks.

Complete details of the FastTrack license promotion program will be added to the Sporting Code prior to the program’s implementation at the start of 2009 Season 4.

Interestinggggg

Man reading that I really feel like iRacing is hitting its stride.

It sounds like a lot of long term projects might finally be starting to come together.

I haven't even read it yet..brand new post wooo

Quote from cat herder 11 :

Having had a few minutes to sit down and reflect on the last few months I have to say it’s been a really exciting summer for me personally and professionally. On the personal side of things I thought I had the best job in the world all these years. I now have to say that that being a dad is the best job in the world and I absolutely love spending as much time as possible with my daughter. On the professional side of things I have also had the chance to see some major projects that I worked on for many months finally happen or get announced which was very gratifying. There was so much exciting news this summer but I think my highlights had to be seeing John Prather get a chance to be a professional race car driver for a weekend in the VW TDI Cup Series, announcing our NASCAR and IndyCar partnerships and seeing Marcos Ambrose take our colors to the track at Pocono.

So as the summer has pretty rapidly come to a close a new build is creeping up on the horizon. I really don’t have too much I can absolutely confirm will be in the next build at this time but I will give you a run down on what we are working on, some of which will be pretty obvious.

It’s not going to be a surprise that we plan on having the IndyCar ready for the next major build and it’s going to be an absolute blast. We will have different cars for different track types and the models all look terrific. We will also have the ability to adjust brake bias, weight jacker and sway bars from in cockpit. We should also have the in car brake bias and sway bar adjustments available in all cars that have this feature. We may not be able to get all of these adjustments done and for all of the cars by the next build but if we don’t they should not be far behind.

The Corvette C6.R did look like it was going to slip past this next build but we have actually just received a batch of data from Pratt and Miller that we had been waiting for so there is a chance this will be done. We still are waiting for some data but we have been promised its arrival in the next week or so.

The next new car in the development pipeline will be the Ford Falcon. Because we actually secured this license with the Ford contract we signed early this year we actually have a significant amount of work already completed on this car.

One feature that will definitely make the build is opponent tire smoke and skids. You will now be able to relive your own Cole Trickle moments on the high banks of Daytona.

There is a very small chance that we may have some tire improvements in this next build but we are probably going to make a change to a single car to start with. We are contemplating doing this on the Star Mazda to start with to get some feedback. We may also be able to sneak in the graphics model changes to this car to bring it up to spec with the current car.

One major project we are targeting for the next release that is not going to be a surprise is private racing. I don’t think I need to go into all the details on what we have envisioned here as it has been discussed at length in the forums. I will say that it is entirely likely that we will have a basic set of functionality with this available when it launches which will grow to be more robust over time.

A major project that is loosely tied into the private racing that has been partially leaked is our inclusion in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Some of you may have seen items pop up in public records regarding this but we have finally executed that contract. This is pretty exciting for all of us because the Hall will have a terrific exhibit setup with show cars running our software and everyone that goes through the experience will leave with a print out of their lap times on a “sales slick” for iRacing. I actually flew down last week to supervise the “training video” shoot for the exhibit that will feature Dale Jr and Terry Labonte and I think that will come out terrific as well. It’s going to be pretty exciting to see how demonstrating our software in the Hall helps us build out customer base over the next few years as they expect at least 700,000 people to go through it in a given year.

One feature that Dale Jr put on our development schedule was the ability to transfer setups to each other. The general concept of what we are building is that you will be able to send and receive setups from other drivers who are connected to the same session you are. I am just going to put it out there now that whoever has the fastest lap in a practice session I join is going to get hassled to send me their setup!

Our friends to the north will be happy to know that the next track to be released will be Mosport and I am fairly certain it will be done in time for next season. The track that is next in line to be completed will be Brands Hatch and we actually already have a track spline done. The Kiwi turned a 1:17 in the Dallara the other day on the track and it’s going to be a fantastic track for the service, although possibly a safety rating killer! We have penciled in at the moment that Zandvoort will be the next track completed after Brands Hatch.

Night racing is coming along with a significant amount of engineering complete on it already. Unfortunately I don’t see this being rolled out with the next build as there is still quite a bit of work left to be completed. We have actually started the process of converting Richmond to a night track and we will send out some screenshots as it progresses.

We have seen quite a bit of discussion in our forums about mixed class and fixed setup racing and we have started the process of figuring out how properly implement this into the service. Quite a bit of the work that we are doing for transferring setups will help move the ball down the field on fixed setup racing actually.

For a media tease, I expect that you will see some iRacing segments on two TV shows this fall. When I have an actual confirmation on if we have made the cut and when they will air I will be sure to pass it along.

I hope I have given you enough of a taste of what we are working on to tide you over to my next blog which I plan to try and do before the next release. I anticipate this will go into more detail on some of these projects I have vaguely described. Until then I wish those of you in contention for a series championship the best of luck. I will be changing diapers….

Steve

Also, laser scanned tracks are a gimmick if it isn't done to or close to iracing's standards.

iRacing is accurate down to like the mm or something...they say that most laser scanning processes can be wildly inaccurate, or not as high resolution.

Quote from titanLS :

Bah. Milwaukee would be great fun, but it's one of the tracks I won't have until I re-sub next week...

You can resub whenever and it adds on to your remaining time. A lot of people think they have to wait and use up the time they already have.

Quote from racer hero :

Just bought the Star Mazda an hour ago, down to only .6 off the fastest qualifying time this week. Going to do my first race in 30 minutes.

What times are you running? Have fun, its a great car.

Towler has the WR at 1:18.260 last season with the same physics. He was flyin!

Quote from John Henry :

So much time has been spent in trying to get Hosted iRacing to work for everyone, that I know some of our members are concerned about our primary focus -- our official series.

If there is one thing I am sure of, it is that our primary focus will always be our official series.

All other racing in iRacing is unofficial.

As many of you know, I am determined to promote the World Cup of iRacing around the globe. The Pro Series is great. The iRacing World Driver's Championships are going to be tremendously exciting. But all of those are completely secondary to our overall focus -- 'round-the-clock, official Rookie Class, D Class, C Class, B Class and A Class racing series.

Every post that opines differently is simply inaccurate. The official series have been our focus and they will remain our focus.

Every post that opines that the sky is falling - whether it is about membership, revenues, the number of drivers - is simply inaccurate. Factually, we continue to grow all aspects of what we are doing.

People have been predicting our demise for various speculative reasons since before we opened to the public. As I've said many times over the past five years, people will be saying this for at least the first ten years we are in business. I think they will always say it.

We love what we are doing and while we will not be able to keep everyone happy all of the time and while we will not move as quickly in each direction as many would like for us to (understandably), we will, however, be absolutely relentless - sparing no expense - in providing the most accurate simulation in racing.

Our official series, the Safety Ratings and iRatings provide the backbone of our service. It is our mission to improve and expand all of that as we grow.

I know many of you have invested countless hours and a lot of money in iRacing. We respect and appreciate that more than you can know. We share something that we all have an extraordinary passion for. I feel very lucky to be in the position of addressing you from time to time and appreciate you taking the time to listen and to comment.

John

Just thought I'd share. It was a nice note from the man himself.

Quote from Crashgate3 :

Just signed up to the month's free trial (although I very muich doubt I'll carry on paying for it once that runs out) and it's so, so hard, but so, so awesome. I'm currently trying to get round enough laps staying on the grey bit to feel confident enough to venture online.

Needs more european tin-tops though, it seems way too centred towards oval geeks.

Oval racing is incredibly stupid until you find yourself in the driver's seat in a late model race at a short track side by side with cars behind you pushing you all the way. It gets pretty crazy.

The jetta makes for very good racing. Very much looking forward to the mustang, ford gt, and the corvette though.

I've always found NKP to be atrocious to drive. I've tried the demo 3 different times...just re downloaded it just now and I still hate it.

Quote from tinvek :

spanks, one thing i've found helps is once you know you can do the sectors, trun off the HUD

you know you can do the times so just relax and stop chasing them, nothing more likely to cause a mistake than knowing that you're first 2 sectors were on the money and "all you have to do" is hit your optimals for the next 2

Haha very good advice. I must admit I am addicted to the real time readout.

Jertje (I've always mispelled your name on here, I apologize) what video editing software did you use for your tutorial you did? That was really well done! I'm not sure if I'm going to go all out like you did with that video, but it would be nice to be able to put HD videos on youtube again with some minor editing...Windows 7 movie maker does not output big resolution.

I've started up a road racing school over on the forums..I've finally started to get some interest and it seems like it might take off.

So far today I've done about an hour of practice with the Riley at sebring, an hour of the mazda at infineon irl, and I've written about 2500 words of stuff about it all lol. I type fast and am full of bullshit, watch out

This is exciting though. I've wanted to do this for a while. It will keep me interested in trying new combos and a reason to get fast. Often times I will just hop in an open practice that I find interesting and dick around until I get bored.

I am going to shoot for top 100 for the jetta series however...so that may get in the way. With my low irating I don't have a chance of staying in the high SoF races, and I'm a couple tenths slower than the fastest guys anyways. I put in more practice for Road Atlanta than I have for anything else in this sim and I just couldn't quite squeek out anything better. I had the splits for a 7.00, and frequently ran splits for a .15, just never on the same lap

Heh, I had a lot of time that I set aside for that race...needed something to do. I used to do a writeup like that for the first few races I did on iracing, I was feeling nostalgic.

It is a way hard track to pass at. I think the best place to get a run is through the sweeper because most people take it wrong. You've really gotta monster that curb on the inside and a lot of people miss it. You have to hit it at the right angle though or you lose a lot of time.

Also, you want to be on the right side going into the chicane because you have the line unquestionably on the exit of the chicane, and all the way for the rest of the lap if you're still side by side somehow lol

sighh...

I probably had the strongest grid. John Stewart, Andre Gomez, Someone else fast, Eric Foss etc etc. That was the top 4 when I left turning out consistant mid to high 7's. Andre ran a 7.15 on lap 4. I've been turning sector times to hit a 7.1 or 7.2 all day, but just couldn't put it together. I was excited

I got to start 19th lol (dead last). I'm making up spots every lap. I had a good battle with Nim for a position.

*story time*

Two cars hop through turn 1 and jump over the crest. Nim Cross Jr. is in front and I'm close behind. We glide back and forth through the esses and make our way to the bottom of the hill. I downshift 16 times until finally it slams into 5th gear. I grab a lot of curb on the inside setting up for a tight line. I'm screaming up behind Nim, tires howling in agony to stay on the painted stripe. Nim decides to make his Jetta a double wide and gets dead sideways in the center of the corner. I breathed the gas a couple times all too ready to give him a little tap. I had positions to make up, I don't care if he's the race steward! :eclipseeh

Somehow I scrub off just enough speed to leave our cars unmarred. I pull it back to the inside and Nim drifts wide. We begin the long stretch side by side, the spotter clamoring off commands in my ear. "Stay right, one on your left, keep to the right!" We fly down the down hill and I tap the look left button a couple times. I have about half a car length on him. I was praying for him to lift early for the corner and I could steal the line, but I had to remember who I was sitting just a few inches away from. He is Nim, and he is the law. I give one last tap of the look left button and I've decided he is not going anywhere. I brake later than usual and keep my line wide to give him room, but just enough. We tip toed through the chicane never touching each other or the grass. I clip the inside curb and sneak out just in front of his nose.

*end of story time, back to ranting*

Lap 7 there is a group of like 5 of us close together, I keep gaining on them. Suddenly I see a couple people swerve...and I clip a stationary car backwards in T1. I barely graze him..like brushed up against the nose because I had no time to react. Apparently that is enough to completely wreck my suspension, give me a 4x, and send me hurdling into the wall.

I had the pace to be a top 5 car..I guess I should race more if I want to be serious about iracing. My irating is like 2400 or something I can't remember. I gain irating every time I finish a race, usually a podium. I have two problems though...one is actually racing, and the other is finishing once I'm in the race.

I had two other 1x's too, my A license is gonna love this. The first one was because I was so close to the car in front I couldn't see the track...he could see and he drove straight through the grass. That was nice of him lol. 2nd one I had to lift in the esses and I was going slower than usual into the sweeper so I clipped the inside a bit too much.

Tl:dr - Fun car to drive until a brush against another car wrecks your suspension like its an 80 yr old woman with osteoporosis.

First jetta race in 15 minutes. No qualifying sessions before it...should be entertaining!

I didn't race the car in the 24 heur du fun either lol, first jetta race for me! I hope it puts me somewhere near the start...I saw the vids of what happened at Road America D:

Here is my quickest so far.

The incident in t2 actually didn't get me through any quicker. I'm actually pretty sure its possible to go quicker completely on the track. I've matched the pace through there cleanly. I know because I obsessively watch my +/- time with the split time add on. The huge sweeping right turn is where I picked up a lot of time on my other laps. I also carried like a mph more into t1 and the chicane, and still picked the gas up early enough.

It was a miracle lap for me lol..I just need to figure out how to repeat it.

A fast lap can look identical to a slow lap...its a pain to try and figure out how to improve. The best way I've found is to watch your mph on entry, apex, and your exit speed. This will show how well you're carrying speed because its really hard to tell inside the car.