Just be aware that once you get out of the Rookie series (which doesn't take long at all) the costs for new tracks for your first full series can be quite high.

Your best bet is to get one of the 1 or 3 month promos to begin with so you can see what its all about, whether you like it and to understand the costs involved before commiting to a years subscription.

Hmm, no offline play So it's basically an COMG, a Complete Online Multiplayer Game. You can't quietly race for yourself and hide your driving style.

How big is the game when you download? Bigger or smaller data than LFS?

Quote from The Moose :

Just be aware that once you get out of the Rookie series (which doesn't take long at all) the costs for new tracks for your first full series can be quite high.

Your best bet is to get one of the 1 or 3 month promos to begin with so you can see what its all about, whether you like it and to understand the costs involved before commiting to a years subscription.

So you have to be in a series to get money back? And the fee increases the better you are? I mean I'd first search for a server where cilvised and fair people play. I am probably rather playing around with it first, before going into any series or champs.

-> Do most championships have an entering fee, also Rookies?

Thanks for the help though, it's very useful to know beforehand.

No, you don't pay to enter the official series, but of course you need the required Licence for each one. And when they say you get paid to race, what they actually mean is, if you buy the car ($11.95) and usually 4 tracks (at $14.95 each) and race at those in addition to your free rookie content, then you get max $10 back in iRacing credit (which can only be used on the site) at the end of a 13 week season.

Essentially, you can try and save some money by buying content in bulk, getting a cheap renewal deal or getting credits for racing, but you'll still need at least $100 minimum and around $150-200 to play iRacing properly...

In terms of download, it's much much bigger than LFS, in fact I've seen tracks which are bigger than LFS to download... but then again you won't buy everything at once and you only need to download when you want to drive the content.

Quote from Swiss-Spirit :

Hmm, no offline play So it's basically an COMG, a Complete Online Multiplayer Game. You can't quietly race for yourself and hide your driving style.

You can do practice sessions alone, or time trials alone, or you can race as a ghost (invisible to others) in official races. So you don't have to be competing with others all the time if you don't want. But you still need an active account and internet access to do those things and start the sim.

Nobody answered that yet for you.

Also from you first post, if you let your subscription run out you don't "lose" anything, it'll all be waiting for when you resubscribe.

The rookies series' have some wrecks, but by and large you'll find the caliber of competition and sportsmanship much much higher at iRacing.

Quote from boothy :

In terms of download, it's much much bigger than LFS, in fact I've seen tracks which are bigger than LFS to download... but then again you won't buy everything at once and you only need to download when you want to drive the content.

Oh dear... Could that already kill me and my laptop?Just not sure if it's worth it when the game lags more than it's running fine. Also even if I only download certrain tracks, I still need space for it...

About the price and "re-fund" thing again: Do the cars&tracks cost more when you move up the ranks? For how long do you have them or is it different to the subscription to the whole game?

For the re-fund, it would also work if you did many single races against other Rookies for it to work? As long as you race often? Or are you required to hit a certain amount of kms/miles?

And if I play it, I really hope I can find a server where nice rookies are. Sadly, they aren't named after something like "NDR.something" or another trustful server in LFS where you know there are a lot of experianced people on.

Thanks again, also @ Ball Bearing Turbo for the answer

Quote from Swiss-Spirit :

Oh dear... Could that already kill me and my laptop?Just not sure if it's worth it when the game lags more than it's running fine. Also even if I only download certrain tracks, I still need space for it...

You could store cars and tracks on a DVD or external HDD and copy the car and track you like to run to your internal HDD everytime. The sim, one track and one car requires about 400 MB space. But, is your laptop capable to run iRacing? (CPU, GPU, RAM)

Quote from Swiss-Spirit :

About the price and "re-fund" thing again: Do the cars&tracks cost more when you move up the ranks? For how long do you have them or is it different to the subscription to the whole game?

Cars are always $11.95, most tracks are $14.95, some are cheaper. It is a one time purchase. You´ll keep them when your subscription runs out. When you come back later, everything, including your licenses and ratings are still there.

Quote from Swiss-Spirit :

For the re-fund, it would also work if you did many single races against other Rookies for it to work? As long as you race often? Or are you required to hit a certain amount of kms/miles?

You get a refund of 4$ for D/C-class series, 7$ for B/A-class series for participating in 8 of 12 race weeks of a season, max. 10$. Participation means one race and completing at least half of the laps of the winner. There is no refund for rookie races or fun series.

Quote from Swiss-Spirit :

And if I play it, I really hope I can find a server where nice rookies are. Sadly, they aren't named after something like "NDR.something" or another trustful server in LFS where you know there are a lot of experianced people on.

You´ll be put into a server with people who are at the same iRating level. An experienced simracer will be in the best race splits very soon. There are several trial offers. At the moment, there are 3 months for 12$ or the Grand Prix promo which includes 3 months, the Williams, Zandvoort and Silverstone for 35$. In the latter, the price for the car and tracks is higher than the complete 3 month deal. It also allows you to participate (even as a rookie) in a Williams fun serie, which runs on these tracks + 2 tracks of the base content. Any of theses new customer promos can only be used once per account.

Hi guys, I'm thinking about giving iracing another test after I was really put off by the terrible handling of the Skip Barber car, over two years ago.

Am I being thick or is there no price list for the cars/tracks on the site?

Quote from Klaus T Maus :

Cars are always $11.95, most tracks are $14.95, some are cheaper. It is a one time purchase. You´ll keep them when your subscription runs out. When you come back later, everything, including your licenses and ratings are still there.

That should be answer

Quote from EliteAti :

That should be answer

Ah, thx. Gotten quite some cheaper since the last time I tried.

Quote from J.B. :

..... terrible handling of the Skip Barber car

Sacrilege ! It's handles just great (it's not changed since you last tried it btw) Just gotta learn how to deal with lift off oversteer. Once it clicks you can make that car do anything you like. Massive drifts around Pouhon is my current hobby

Just bought the Truck and a few tracks, can't wait to go racing with it, just need to get my SR up to 4. Also bought the C6.R and the Radical and a few more tracks, both are great fun.

Quote from DeKo :

Just bought the Truck and a few tracks, can't wait to go racing with it, just need to get my SR up to 4. Also bought the C6.R and the Radical and a few more tracks, both are great fun.

Great choice getting the Radical and C6R..both are awesome cars

I'd get your SR as high as you can before entering truck racing... it's an SR killer

I got my oval to A 4.99 racing trucks, if your good you can get SR in it easily.

Quote from Klaus T Maus :

The sim, one track and one car requires about 400 MB space. But, is your laptop capable to run iRacing? (CPU, GPU, RAM)

Don't you rather wanted to say 4GB?

My laptop:

Axxiv Ferm:
Model: Pentium Core
Classification: 5.7
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8400 @ 2.26GHz 2.27GHz

Installed RAM: 4GB(2.96GB useable)
Systemtype: 32-Bit

Graphic card that is installed seems to be:

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650

94.5 GB left of 162GB on C.

Quote :

You get a refund of 4$ for D/C-class series, 7$ for B/A-class series for participating in 8 of 12 race weeks of a season, max. 10$. Participation means one race and completing at least half of the laps of the winner. There is no refund for rookie races or fun series.

That means I am as Rookie won't be even D-class at the start, yes?

And 8 out of 12 race weeks of a season? Can that be 1 single race per week and complete it? It sounds like a championship it has to be to me.

Quote :

There are several trial offers. At the moment, there are 3 months for 12$ or the Grand Prix promo which includes 3 months, the Williams, Zandvoort and Silverstone for 35$. In the latter, the price for the car and tracks is higher than the complete 3 month deal. It also allows you to participate (even as a rookie) in a Williams fun serie, which runs on these tracks + 2 tracks of the base content. Any of theses new customer promos can only be used once per account.

Hmm, interesting. Bit expensive with the Williams though. Where do I find that offer? I only see normal 3 months right now, is it a promo code or something(GP PROMO)? Last time, I saw the Star Mazdas on a 1 month deal I believe, also Zandvoort, but these have run out now I guess.

But thanks, very helpful post!

Quote from Swiss-Spirit :

Don't you rather wanted to say 4GB?

Uhmm no. Basic package (that's the content you get with basic subscription) is/was <400MB (installer). This may grow to a few gigs later on with tracks and cars purchased and downloaded individually - mine iR folder totals on about 4-5GB's. Nothing to be really worried about.

Your laptop should do fine.

Quote from Swiss-Spirit :

That means I am as Rookie won't be even D-class at the start, yes?

Correct. Getting ClassD however shouldn't take you more than a few hours or days of driving/learning/improving at maximum.

Quote from Swiss-Spirit :

And 8 out of 12 race weeks of a season? Can that be 1 single race per week and complete it?

Yep basically taking 1 official(!) race per week would suffice to meet participation requirements for given class.

Thanks for the help

Sometimes, I am asking tiny little things about stuff, but iRacing only takes raw money, so I am better thinking before doing

That means I better advance fast to D(I saw it's split into Road an Oval ranking?) so it could also benefit me at least a little.

And D hopefully has several races and series you can enter with basic cars.

Quote from Swiss-Spirit :

That means I better advance fast to D(I saw it's split into Road an Oval ranking?) so it could also benefit me at least a little.

And D hopefully has several races and series you can enter with basic cars.

When you are just after the participation credits, yes, then you should be out of the rookie license at the beginning of a new season. (Next season starts end of January) And no, there are no series with the rookie cars other than the rookie series. For a D-class series you have to buy the car and some tracks. It´s realistic to say you´ll spend another 70$ for the D-class participation. That´s for 6 items, because you´ll get the 20% bulk discount then. Sure, you don´t need all of the tracks, but then you can´t participate in a week when the series runs on a track which you don´t have. Not good for the participation credit.

The link for the Grand Prix promo: http://www.iracing.com/grand-prix-racing/

Should have known, otherwise those guys wouldn't earn cash

In that case, I only have to decide which offer, but I guess 3 months is fine to try it out.

As for more cars, I rather look at non-oval. I may be a Dale Sr. fan(still), but I am not the best oval racer I guess

The trucks are epic fun, just had my first race and managed to avoid a couple of wrecks and finish in the top 10, they are great fun to race

Going to start running either the Corvette or the Radical properly this week at the Glen, had a few races on Zandvoort the last couple of days but I was fed up of Zandy after I spent tons of time going round it in the Mazda, both the C6.R and the Radical are great aswell.

Swiss, it's pretty easy to fast-track up the classes, I only signed up to iRacing just over 3 weeks ago and I'm already Class B on the road side and Class C on the oval, if you get above SR 4.0 you automatically get promoted. With the road side, I got my SR up to 4 in the rookie class, then got it up to 4 again, still in the MX5, then once I was D 4.0 I raced the Mazda to get myself up to C, then B. I never fancied anything in D class, so just skipped it out. I'm only 2 or 3 races away from being class A now aswell, either in the F1 or the C6.R/Radical.

Wow, that's really quick! Nice!

I hope you won't have to spend much time with setups... Like rFactor, like LFS, I'll probably also be shite at them in iR.

Quote from Swiss-Spirit :

Wow, that's really quick! Nice!

I hope you won't have to spend much time with setups... Like rFactor, like LFS, I'll probably also be shite at them in iR.

You can normally get a decent one from the forums, but I spend most of my time in iR making really bad ones or begging Phil Diaz to give me his! :P

Quote from Swiss-Spirit :

Wow, that's really quick! Nice!

I hope you won't have to spend much time with setups... Like rFactor, like LFS, I'll probably also be shite at them in iR.

the MX5 and the Street Stock are fixed setup to get you started, then the further up the classes you go the more setup options are available. There is a sharing setup function inside the sim, so in practice sessions and hosted sessions people will almost always share a setup if you ask them nicely, including a lot of the aliens.

Setups make more of a difference in iRacing then in any other sim. And most of the ones on the forum are a second or two off.

Quote from racer hero :

Setups make more of a difference in iRacing then in any other sim. And most of the ones on the forum are a second or two off.

Setups are quite important, but most of the setups posted are brilliant, definitely nowhere near 2 seconds a lap off of the best times, maybe it's not the setup?

Quote from DeKo :

Setups are quite important, but most of the setups posted are brilliant, definitely nowhere near 2 seconds a lap off of the best times, maybe it's not the setup?

It's the fact Ken can't drive for love nor money...

:hidesbehi