I think that's an impression that has grown in this thread, but its clear from the iRacing site who they are aiming at:
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Frankly, they're covering all the bases in their marketing, so I think its a mistake to believe that the everyday or (even the casual) simulation enthusiast is not in the target market.
Bob, if they were really targetting real racing drivers, I think they'd have a weather model in place at launch. Real drivers spend all their practice time setting up for track conditions. I think it's a lump of hype-coal.
Very nice tracks but 3 just isn't going to be enough to keep people happy and the majority of the extra circuits on the list are boring circuits that no one is going to want to race on by choice.
TBH ovals need some kind of bump reproduction more than real tracks because they generally have poor quality surfaces and there isn't much else to differentiate one from another.
...except iRacing doesn't bring about revolutionary new things (i.e. incredible aero modelling etc) that make more difference than that tiny dip 3 cm from the edge of the apex of T1...
Ovals (especially older ones) are quite bumpy, which can make quite a difference when your car is on the edge of traction going around a corner at 190mph.
One of them does have an oval section, but the other doesn't (it's more of a short track road course, but nevertheless...). Blanket-dismissing all rovals is expected from Europeans/Brits, I guess, but they're a big part of the racing landscape over here and not all of them are worthless. Like it or leave it, the Daytona roval, for instance, is a classic racetrack.
Well they better get 'cracken' because it will change virtually after every race a little bit and after every rainstorm.... every frost...every sunny day...
Daytona is awful, all it consists of is an oval with a chicane and a little twiddly detour on round some completely flat and dull corners. If you're going to have an oval then run it as an oval, don't try and make a nominal road course out of it because it'll just be crap and oval style racing is never going to happen. The Daytona 24 hours is an event, the location is very important the history and atmosphere of the track is very important but the actual track itself isn't.
The best roval in the world has to be Mallory Park, although most people are probably unaware of the fact it is a roval, mainly because it's a cracking little track which isn't flat or banked and started life as a horse track rather than somebody trying to make a racing circuit, which never ever works.
Cool, it looks like a neolithic cave painting! Well, maybe I have something to thank iRental for: I'd never heard of Summit Point before this and it looks like a neat complex of tracks.
Can anyone trace the origin of this image? Saw it (unattributed) on a couple of sites, but it looks like a Blender render from a GPS trace.
The chicanes aren't part of the car circuit. For those that know Mallory (watch a youtube vid, or try the GPL/rF versions) it's a proper racing circuit that doesn't have any resemblance of an oval, Gerrard's is far too tricky a corner for left turn fans and how many ovals do you know that are unbanked have elevation changes fantastic long multi apex corners and corners that are completely different at each end, I think the Mallory oval is about as good as ovals get
A Locost, Mallory Park, an English spring day - if iRacing could deliver this kind of quality... I should probably spend the money on building a Locost anyway.
While the racing action itself is fine - I can't say that track presses any buttons for me. It's almost as boring as watching a lap of Daytona (since it was compared to that) - two 180 turns connected with two esses. The motorbike layout looks like more fun, but bikes have that effect anyway.
The "oh but it's more fun if you're driving" card works for all tracks really; it's always more fun when you're doing the driving and I still haven't seen much justification to the "all rovals aren't proper race circuits" statement which was tossed.
Mallory is better than that video though, firstly it is unusual in being a real power track where the Locosts aren't so well suited. From that video you also don't get a true appreciation of Gerrards which is not an easy ovalesque corner that it might at first seem and
it doesn't really demonstrate where Devil's Elbow gets its name from. Try it in GPL or rF with a powerful low downforce car and I guarantee you you'll find it much more fun to drive than the Daytona course, which is far duller to drive in a sim than to watch on TV.
Yes it's true that you can race anywhere, even on an oval and some people may like that but there are others who consider the track itself to be an important part, even if sometimes it doesn't actually offer as close racing as a dull track.
Having done a trackday there on a bike, it isn't. I'd prefer to do any other track than Mallory. Quite a few people seem to like it though, so I guess is appropriate.
Well TBH the motorbike layout replaces Gerrards, the Esses and Devil's Elbow with slow chicanes so the hairpin is the only part the current bike track has in common with the Mallory everyone knows and loves.
and after every rainstorm.... every frost...every sunny day...
