If I remember correctly, I read something about it on either BH Motorsports or Race Sim Central, looked interesting, downloaded the demo and was hooked ever since. This was just before S1 went final (about patch E i think was my first version). I got my S2 licence the day S2 went beta!

a friend who had DSL back then. late 2002 i think found LFS 0,05 or somthing? well the very 1st one. i back then had a crappy pc and no internet. well he told me to come over and when i tested it i obviously wanted to have it. so its from the very beginning that i play LFS. i played with mouse. later bought used wheel. i think it was Trustmaster Modena 360. i play it today, which is the longest time that i play a single game. all others i gave up much sooner.

I heard about LFS a long time ago, but did start playing it until not long ago. Here's how I started:

I used to play Racer since it's free and I wanted to try something besides Gran Turismo. I stopped playing after 0.5.0 because my computer couldn't play it back then. Even I got another computer that can run it some time later, I eventually quit because the downloadable content aren't so good (missing textures in a track even it's completed, for example) and its "collision detection" is very bad (drive into a wrong place will send the car up in the air in unrealistic means). Around that time, I heard of LFS. It was still S1 back then, but my computer isn't good enough to play once again. I was really amused by the video "South City Robbery" (you guys may remember that video). South city Cab Co., which is a team that still exist, was part of the cast.

I get bored with GT4 pretty quickly as there are too many events to complete and the "driving mission" is driving me nuts (can do any of them except the last one). I soon rediscovered LFS. Spent some time on the demo and really liked it. Then I decided to get S2 and never regret it. I started at about Patch X when you can get fault start.

I was chatting with an internet acquaintance when he abrubtly said he was going to play "lfs", when I asked what that was, he directed me to the demo. So I played the demo until I got bored and got S2.

I found it from a magazine called BUG and it have a cd. I was looking for a demo games and found LFS.

I was searching the net for driving games and ended up on bhmotorsports.com and found LFS.

I had been playing Race Driver 2 online quite a bit and I'd met some nice people. I remarked to them that RD2 was not realistic enough for my tastes, it was too arcadey, so they suggested I try the LFS demo. I downloaded it, did a few laps of Blackwood in the XFG, and within the hour I had bought my S1 license. Best £12 I ever spent.

started for me when my roommate and i were playing trackmania nations, and we heard folks talking about LFS on there. i'm somewhat of a racing sim connoisseur, so i had to check it out, and within 2 weeks of d/l the demo, i was hooked and S2 licensed.

Well, I was over on the Virtual RC Racing forums many moons ago and the folks there were discussing the development of online multiplayer facilities for VRC. I think one poster mentioned how good online racing was on something called "LFS". Other folks agreed, but said that would be a while off yet for VRC, as LFS's online mode was probably one of the best there is.

Hmm, me thought, wonder what this "LFS" is all about then, and off I went to Google.

When I got to the LFS front page and hit a few links to find out more, I remember thinking, 'Wow, is this for real?'

I installed the demo. It went without a hitch.
I tried the demo offline with a gamepad (no wheel back then ) ... Hey, this looks good. It feels kinda 'real' and runs smooth too, even on my piddly machine.
Then I hit Multiplayer and zap! - a stream of active demo servers poured in faster than I could read them!

So I decide to find out more ...

Wanna run your own server? Go ahead, a few clicks and your up and running.
Wanna paint your car? No problemo - all skinnable Sunshine!
So how many people actually play this then? Off I go to LFSWorld. Woah! This is serious stuff. All the records, stats etc., EVERYTHING is here.
So what about the forums? Blimey, there's people from everywhere here! And just look at all the leagues and events.
And would Sir care to view a recent STCC event video? Yeah, go on then ... Ho-leeee Cow!

But hang on. It says here that this is only at Alpha stage!?

You gotta be kidding me, right?

Ah, just a minute though. Calm down. If I want to open up all the cars and all the tracks apparently I have to buy an "S2 Licence". I see. I thought so. Here's the kick. Brace yourself ... [clicks on link] ...... :jawdrop:

I "played" the MS Flighsims alot from 2000 till 2005, also making skins and other mods for it (20GB..:schwitz, but was kind of tired of flying.
Than I read an article about RFactor (in a magazin called Gamestar) when it was brand-new (beginning of 2006?)
There it was stated that the physics were not bad, but that Live for Speed had better.
Downloaded the demo of Ocrana's (german multigaming clan) website that was a bit different (alternate skins and advertising boards IIRC) but got addicted and played it for half a year. Than my comp broke, on the other I couldn't use my wheel (pc for whole family)
Than after christmas 2006 I build myself a new comp, again installed that demo(from a backup disc) and bought a lincense two days later

PS: For that special version, it came with skins like this for all demo cars. Is it in the "official" version?

Found it on a german RC car drift site, and thought: "another of these pathetic pseudo games with no real cars and awful physics".
Tried it, and after one day I bought the license.

Well it all started for me in January eairlier this year..Bought S2..Found that, even attempting to be nice online, was a lost cause.
But I kept trying, hoping there would be someone nice amongst the servers. But no, all I ever got was people saying BS about america because I live there.
I was actually hoping i'd make it one year with LFS, but I guess everybody is wrong sometimes.
*waits for demo users to flood pm box with "Kan I haz ur Stoo licenzes?"*

Quote from GruntOfAction :

Well it all started for me in January eairlier this year..Bought S2..Found that, even attempting to be nice online, was a lost cause.
But I kept trying, hoping there would be someone nice amongst the servers. But no, all I ever got was people saying BS about america because I live there.
I was actually hoping i'd make it one year with LFS, but I guess everybody is wrong sometimes.
*waits for demo users to flood pm box with "Kan I haz ur Stoo licenzes?"*

What servers were you on? I've never had this problem.

It was a dark and stormy night... a pink beam of light came in through the window and struck me on the forehead. I could hear a faint mechanical humming coming from outside... My brain, previously jumbled and disoriented from the flash of pink light, presently rearranged itself and I could see the words liveforspeed.net imprinted in my consciousness like living letters of a supernal quality both incomprehensible and directly understood. My fingers moved quickly and sweatily over the dusty keyboard and the screen was filled with light and new meaning. I arrived...

Quote from GruntOfAction :

Well it all started for me in January eairlier this year..Bought S2..Found that, even attempting to be nice online, was a lost cause.
But I kept trying, hoping there would be someone nice amongst the servers. But no, all I ever got was people saying BS about america because I live there.
I was actually hoping i'd make it one year with LFS, but I guess everybody is wrong sometimes.
*waits for demo users to flood pm box with "Kan I haz ur Stoo licenzes?"*

Quote from UncleBenny :

What servers were you on? I've never had this problem.

Same here... i race almost exclusively on the CTRA SS1 server, but i've never had anyone harrass me for being American. My experience has been quite the contrary... LFS has been a pretty welcoming community. I've never come across anyone unwilling to share fast setups or have light conversation...

Sorry to hear that GoA. It's been a long time since I've heard of those problems.

On-topic: I've no recollection of how exactly I found LFS.

I remember Racer, and vaguely BHmotorsports leading me here. I was in a quest to find a somewhat accurate representation of my dream car, a Caterham (despite being almost 6'3"). LFS had my beloved '7' and got me pretty hooked. I remember hours upon hours of SO Classic FOX pick-up races.

GT4 somehow pulled me a way for a little bit, but in finding a great group of guys with LOTF drilled me right back into LFS for good.

Wow, makes me feel old that a thread like this comes up and nobody mentions the West Racing forum.

saw it at a mates house, was hooked thereon

Quote from J.B. :

Wow, makes me feel old that a thread like this comes up and nobody mentions the West Racing forum.

Hmm..Your a demo user with an avatar...lol?

Quote from GruntOfAction :

Hmm..Your a demo user with an avatar...lol?

Yeah, it helps me to get more attention from people. There even was a thread about it once!

Found it while browsing the net one day - Some one had said - have you seen Live for speed- I thought they said - Need for Speed -I checked it out - loved it - even back then... Must have been at least a very early demo, maybe even pre demo. Cant remember - many mons ago (lol)

Quote from Electrik Kar :

It was a dark and stormy night... a pink beam of light came in through the window and struck me on the forehead. I could hear a faint mechanical humming coming from outside... My brain, previously jumbled and disoriented from the flash of pink light, presently rearranged itself and I could see the words liveforspeed.net imprinted in my consciousness like living letters of a supernal quality both incomprehensible and directly understood. My fingers moved quickly and sweatily over the dusty keyboard and the screen was filled with light and new meaning. I arrived...

Damn... i think god was involved... or you were high... anyway xD
i just remembered about my cousin, whosan avid Counter-Strike player... i showed him this game and he said ``Oh my god thats terrible if you turn too much while too fast the car goes straight??? this game sucks``.



Three weeks later:
``Hey my fav cousin can i borrow one of your unlocks??``

well..i got ingured in work..my back got dislokated disks..so when i was home and trying to heal myself i found LFS on internet when i was googling for a cargame..

since LFS that time was the only game i could drive with a mouse thats what i stuck to..

the first 2 months i was lying in a hackysack ..playing lfs 24/7 even got in a team
then my favorit was oval racing since it was easyier with mouse..i even went thru some 300 lappers...
LFS got me thru the hardest time in my life..

sry for bad spelling

now i use a modified playset,g25, and cant stay away from the game more than a few days..
LFS imo is the best Simracinggame there is..not eyecandy but more realistic.

thx to the devs/ Mike

I think I was looking for a colin McRae patch, and ended up seeing a link of it with a demo at another page.. I checked it out saw the screen shots then downloaded it. I played for about 5-6 months, and bought it when you could pre-order the S2 patch

Before that all I really played was CS online

Quote from Easy_Mike :

not eyecandy but more realistic.

Am I the only one that finds it eye candy for how smooth it runs and everything is layed out.. I remember the first time I saw the preview S2 video! Then it blew me away once I could download it how smooth it still played one my pc.