Quote from iFastLT :

so now I have to wait for another season to race in tracks that I have and that really sucks :/

Nope, they have the "fast track" system in place now. Get your SR up and your 4 rookie races in, and you'll get promoted automatically to D. No more waiting until the end of a season.

Quote from anttt69 :

I have found SR to be very important as it is the biggest leveler in the overall standings. For instance drivers with 3xxx irating are mixed in with 4xxx & 5xxx rated drivers purely because of the difference in SR. I dont think this is right as any 3xxx drivers are just gona get their asses handed to them if they make it to Pro.

I'm not sure what they can do to improve it but the current system favors those who have been iRacing the longest.

My goal is to make Pro next season(I was up to 215ish on the oval side last week), and I will hopefully be one of those 3xxx drivers getting my ass handed to me.

Quote from JeffR :

I guess this stops at "pro" level though, where I assume there's some minimal iRating requirement?

Drivers are picked for Pro based on their iRating and SR, its a 70/30 split so SR is not as important, but it still helps to have it as high as possible. I'm currently rated above many faster guys just because of my high SR.

The only thing that annoys me about the SR system is that so many people put such a huge focus on getting their SR up. They will just pull over and let you by because they're "just racing for SR". That just seems pointless to me, shouldn't your SR be based on how safe you are when you're actually racing people, not just running laps by yourself? I have gotten to A 4.99 just fine without farming SR. I am much more concerned with increasing my iRating than I am about my SR, the SR just kind of happens when you're trying to get good finishes, it does no good to wreck yourself out of races. I just wish more people would just race hard and clean and stop focusing so much on getting that number up at all costs, I think it dilutes the actual racing a little bit at times.

After almost a year with iRacing though, I am convinced that the SR system is pretty good. Its not perfect, but in most cases people seem to be more respectful of other cars on the track because of SR. If anything, I think the SR system is TOO easy on people, if it were tougher to get the higher licenses, I think races might be even cleaner up at the A/B level. I realize iRacing wants to make it easy enough for people to race whatever they want though(and thus buy more content), so I don't seem them making it harder any time soon.

Quote from shadowww :

just because it wastes 5x more fuel yet power output is barely 3 times bigger?

America!!!! Yeah!!!


I'm extremely disappointed the forum won't let me type in all caps.

Quote from Luke.S :

the focus rs is an english ford you fool. American fords are crappy. English fords are good.

Which is why I said an American car BRAND. No need to rub in the fact that you get the awesome RS and we get the crap Focus over here, we know.

An American driving for an American brand in the WRC? Pretty cool, hope this generates a little more interest for the WRC over here and gets it some more TV coverage, although I doubt that.

Agree with everyone who said get Sennheisers, best headphones I've owned.

Do people really think that's "real" rallying? It's the X-Games, its set up so its run mostly in a stadium to be entertaining for the fans. What's the big deal?

Both Pastrana and Block run real rallies for the USA Subaru Rally team as well. Would they stand a chance in the WRC? Probably not, but just because they compete in the X-Games doesn't mean they don't do the "real" stuff too.

Quote from senn :

if the cd is scratched too badly, it won't work. And you need hyperlobby for online play. there is usually a couple hundred people playing.

Really that many? I need to check that out soon.

I picked IL-2 up before Christmas on Steam for $5. I've been pretty addicted to it since, already had to get a new joystick/throttle combo so I had better trim controls.

I grabbed IL-2 for $5, awesome!

Quote from yeager :

What amazes me is that Ford have built some AMAZING cars released in the UK, basically all the Rally offsprings, yet NONE of these seem to have made it to the US... madness. Subaru and Mitsubishi made some great sales with their WRC based cars and I can't believe Ford never got in on the act.

I never really understood that either, I guess the Ford guys know something we don't? The Focus RS looked like a pretty cool car. I see plenty of VW GTI's rolling around here, I'd think the AWD of the Focus would be even more attractive with all the snow we get up here in the north.

Quote from flymike91 :

I think they should axe everything but Chevy and Cadillac. When they become solvent again they could reintroduce Pontiac but they are incapable of success with any other brands. I'm speaking only of the north american market I don't know much about what they do in EU and AUS.

All these failures by GM only make Ford look even better. Ford is really kicking ass and it all started with them refusing government bailouts. I know a lot of people actually were influenced to take a second look and buy a ford just for that reason. Half of the new cars I see on the street are ford fusions or focus and I know from driving a fusion that it is a solid, relevant, fun car that is more than enough competition for Camry and accord. I went to their dealership recently and was impressed with every car in their lineup. The only GM car that means anything is the camaro.

The Camaro means nothing. Its a hype machine right now but that will die off in a couple years tops. If I'd have to pick GM's most important car right now, it would probably be the Malibu, a car for the masses that actually stacks up against the competition, unlike GM cars a couple years ago. The Equinoxes have been getting good reviews as well.

Modified flipping over the fence into the stands

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CHYaYG_1ok

Fallen F1 Drivers Tribute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMc42RZf8pA

WRC - The Road Dance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmAxSLy2Kdc

I love Antti's videos

Working on that too. This is what Shawn Nash of iRacing said:

"There is an issue with contrast and color balance. We're working on graphics updates that deal with that, and true HDR lighting, DOF blurr, etc. We've had higher priorities right now, but all of that stuff is on our todo list. I've been able to play around with the contrast and color balance and it makes a huge difference.

Our track surface shaders are very lame right now. :-) The only objects with shaders doing anything complicated are the cars.

Shawn Nash, iRacing Staff"

I'm looking forward to that update, you'd think just tweaking contrast and color couldn't take that long to get in there.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

iRacing seems to lack a certain amount of red in every picture... It still all olooks too clean.

Agreed, they did say they are working on adjusting this though.

shirt.woot

http://shirt.woot.com/

I think they only do new ones once a week or something though.

You can buy best-sellers from the past here:

http://shirt.woot.com/Blog/?cat=reckoning

What size engines do you guys run in those?

My winter car I just picked up the other day. My roommate says it makes me look like a redneck hahaha.

Happy birthday guys

Eh, like they said right on the broadcast, what Stewart did is pretty common, he put the slide job on Montoya. Montoya just didn't like it, he could have easily let off the throttle if he wanted to, he chose not to. I don't remember there being anyone right on Montoya's bumper that would have caused a chain reaction.

Interestingly enough, the EXACT same thing happened to me in iRacing the other day. Got the "clear" call from my spotter, slid up with room to fit in, guy behind me had a run since he was running the high line and decided not to let off when he got to my bumper. Needless to say, I was pissed.

I was just coming in here to say the same thing, Homestead was a surprisingly good race. Denny did kind of run away at the end, but there was plenty of decent racing throughout the day. Watching Junior run an inch from the wall was also pretty entertaining.

I want to be pissed at Montoya for wrecking Stewart, but he kind of had it coming. Sure Stewart was mad at Montoya for running into the back of him, but his payback was a little harsh. And if I saw Montoya coming up behind me after he was in the garage for so long, I would have gotten the hell out of the way before he got to my bumper.

Congrats to Jimmie I guess. I didn't want to see him win, but you have to respect the guy for winning 4 in a row.

Thankfully the Nascar off-season is ridiculously short, only a few months and they'll be firing them up in Daytona.

Or maybe BK is just really good at not getting crashed.

Well, Denny did bump Brad like he said he would, only ended up hurting himself though when Nascar held him for a lap. If you're going to dump a guy to prove a point, you should probably do a better job making sure he actually gets some damage in the process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jtVQ8cBWlU