I wish I would've known there was hidden text... I re-newed my subscription just to see what was on the home page.

Quote from AlienT. :

Whats with everyone using hidden text? Is this the new fashion these days

Anyway I want to report that a Canadian by the name of Shooter has broken into my Garage and stolen my skippy...cry cry! Anyone knowing his wherabouts please call 999

The swine! The next time he comes on our server we'll detain him for you.

Is it just me or is participation rather good atm -- or at least very stable? Also, the standard of racing seems to have gotten better since the last time I raced (except my own, unfortunately).

I hadn't been able to race for a month due to lack of an internet connection and had my first races tonight. One skippy race where only few people crashed or spun and one Adv. Solstice which seemed to have only very little car to car contact and a tolerable amount of spinning.

Myself, I noobishly crashed into the wall twice on the first lap of my skippy race, of course. The second time due to broken suspension from the first crash. And I spun in the Solstice race (also very noobishly), which probably cost me around 3 places in the end. Needless to say that I didn't meet my goal for tonight which was staying clean and pushing my SR further beyond 4.99 to end up at above 4.0 when promotion time comes.

Well, two weeks left to get it done, so I'm not worried. In any case, it's great to be back in business.

Say what you like about the SR system they have, it seems to work, whats more it's reflected onto my LFS racing (have'nt played Iracing for months due to shocking PC). Anyway it encourages the driver to think more and anticipate things and I' finding the benefits elsewhere.........


......I'm still slow, but more safer now

Quote from Linsen :

Well, two weeks left to get it done, so I'm not worried. In any case, it's great to be back in business.

Welcome back

Quote from BigShox :

OK - Never one to judge something without trying for myself I shelled out a $20 one month subscription and gave it a go. Here's my penneth worth:-

Graphics - Set to full. They are nothing special, in fact the tracks look dead and flat, textures are bland, poly count is low. Car models are average and again have a low polycount. GUI and menus (in-game) are plain and nothing more than functional.

Sound - The cars sound great, good engine, gearbox, road noise etc. Better than LFS, on a par with GTR series.

Control - The force feedback is very good, very strong and lots of subtle feedback in there as well.

Physics - Nothing special . . it had that 'ever so slightly wrong' feel that NASCAR always had.

Online - Well, it took me about an hour of searching to find a practice session that had 4 other racers in it. The set-up seems to be that practice sessions, qualification sessions and races take place at predefined times every day (no jumping in for a quick race with buddies here). It's a good idea but in reality it got to be very annoying very quickly. The thought that I could only race when THEY say I can really bugged me (remember it's a $20 per month subscription).

and that leads me to the single most annoying and downright infuriating thing about iracing.com . . . .

You get 2 cars and 7 tracks when you subscribe. You have to PAY EXTRA for the other cars and tracks they have listed. Now forgive me if I'm wrong, but I consider a monthly subscription model should INCLUDE ALL of the content on offer. Maybe you can earn virtual iracing.com dollars to spend by taking part in the races - I don't know, there is no information on the site that talks about that, and in a night and a day of logging in I didn't actually find any active races on the basic content I have.

Other stuff - You can only customise you car / helmet / suit skins within a very limited skin and colour chooser on the website. There are issues with some logitech sterring wheels for which the fix is to turn down the update frequency of the wheel (for a 'serious' sim as iracing claims to be this is not excusable) <- thankfully I didn't suffer this problem, but it's common enough to have it's own section in the faq. The field of view is just WRONG . . I don't know how to explain this properly but changes to FOV are 2D!

The bottom line is that despite all the hype and expensive subscription system iracing is nothing special. Unless you have $$$ burning holes in your pocket I would sugeest not to bother.

How many races you have done? You don´t know what are you talking about.

Quote from Pianoman :

How many races you have done? You don´t know what are you talking about.

I'm pretty sure that he does, actually. It's his point of view. Whether you agree with it is a different matter, but if he paid the $20 for the demo and used it, I can guarantee that he does in fact know what he's talking about.

God I wish you could save replays of races, I hope you can in the october update. I keep having great tussles with people and wishing I could watch them afterwards from 3rd person.

I must say that I'm very positively surprized about how much fun the late model races are. The car handles quite nicely with nice easily controllable oversteer corner exits and in the races you are most of the time running quite close to other cars which means that mistakes can be costly. Passing is very hard too because the straights are so short so it can be hard to get into passing position unless the car in front makes an error. I think the little oval racing man inside me has woke up

(that oval man might be the valium man but whatever .)

With the current selection of cars the late model races are my favourite atm. Enough power for the throttle modulation to make a difference and enough mass for the brake modulation to make a difference. All that I need to do is to get rid of that corner entry understeer and it's all great

Anyone else finding the late models surprizingly fun cars to drive and race?

I'm on a LFS forum roll today cos I've got nowt better to do and my hands are too blistered and sore to race anymore (not joking).

Anyway OT as good as the actual driving is in iRacing I'm finding something lacking and am not really sure what it is, maybe it's just me but I think we need some sort of pick up or private servers so mates can get together for a blast round the track without having to worry about SR or IR. What I mean is I have great fun in random LFS servers and can't seem to find the same fun factor in iRacing, anyone else finding this? I can't get into the lone practicing for hours with no other cars on the track......meh I'll get over it....I'll have to I've got a years subscription.

Quote from Quint999 :

Are you using brakes at this weeks track ? , i was doing it in 4th with no brakes, at one point i fluked a 19.004 in practice, but generally i do 19.300 and get steadily slower from there .. have no idea what im doing in the damm thing . Did one race ,started 4th , finished 9th with a couple of wall scrapes, people passed me quite easily.

I dunno, I'm kinda sucky at ovals . Here's few observations from me though: Make sure you get into the top end of revs at the end of straights and try to make sure you are not coasting too much in the mid of the corner (coasting =no throttle or brakes). I use a tad bit of brakes to cut down the speed in the corner but I try to get back on throttle as soon as possible and keep the rear in small slide and going as close to the wall as possible. I'm using a set with "long 3rd gear" which gives slightly better acceleration than a "short 4th gear". That's all really I'd guess. My speed is around consistent 16.4s. I'd guess you are not geting on power early enough and no braking causes you to lose time and momentum when going into corners

Just a heads up for everyone. I just went and double checked the sporting code and noticed this:

Quote :

2.4. Minimum*Participation*Requirements*

2.4.1. Rookies are required to complete at least four Time Trial sessions OR two Race
Sessions during the current 12-week racing season in order to earn a Class D
license (provided their safety record meets the minimum standard) in a particular
category.
2.4.2. All non-rookies are required to participate in at least four Time Trial sessions OR
four Race sessions during the current 12-week racing season in order to be
promoted (provided their safety record meets the minimum standard) in a particular
category.
2.4.3. Sessions must be completed by the driver in series with minimum license eligibility
requirements that match the driver’s current license level in a given category.
Sessions completed in series for which the driver is only eligible by virtue of a 4.0 or
higher Safety Rating (see section 2.9.2, “racing up”) will count toward the minimum
participation requirements. Sessions completed in series with minimum license
eligibility requirements below the driver’s current license level (see section 2.9.3,
“racing down”) will not count.

So in order to level up to C lisense you need to do at least 4 TTs or races in late model for oval and/or skippie for road. Plus need to have sr above 3.0 in each. Doing sk or mazda races does count as well. But doing solstice races do not count towards getting c/b/a/x/h4x lisense as does not running legends oval races.

I'm writing all this because it is somewhat likely that the forth coming releases of the cup car and the truck will require high oval lisenses.

EDIT: Naturally for getting from C to B and so forth you need to adjust what I wrote to your lisence levels

OK thanks for the reminder Hyperactive. I'm now studying your above posts on how to drive the Late Model .

I wasn't going to do any Oval at all just yet, but not being able to try the truck would be a tradgedy.

Reference my above whinge post I was having a bad day and a few days off from iRacing has sorted me out a tad, maybe a bit of racing round in circles is whats needed.

Quote from Hyperactive :

Just a heads up for everyone. I just went and double checked the sporting code and noticed this:



So in order to level up to C lisense you need to do at least 4 TTs or races in late model for oval and/or skippie for road. Plus need to have sr above 3.0 in each. Doing sk or mazda races does count as well. But doing solstice races do not count towards getting c/b/a/x/h4x lisense as does not running legends oval races.

I'm writing all this because it is somewhat likely that the forth coming releases of the cup car and the truck will require high oval lisenses.

You just saved my life, thank you.

*I am already C licensed, going for B, and had only done 2 TT's with Formula Mazda (raced other cars as well but didn't know about this rule).*

Oh dear I thought I was slow on road races but oval oh my oh my the proverbial 'tortoise on sleeping tablets' springs to mind. I have been using the baseline set up but the car seems to understeer so badly, that along with being totally unable to select the right line is my main problem. Has anyone got any tips on how to reduce the understeer? The Oval 'wedge' type set ups are completely alien to me and to be honest I don't know where to begin .

Anyway I have at least completed two races coming last of those that finished in each case. Maybe if I added 'Jr' to the end of my surname I would be faster.

Hi ho hi ho it's back to the road racing I go....

Which car?

Ahh yes the Late Model

Quote from AlienT. :

Oh dear I thought I was slow on road races but oval oh my oh my the proverbial 'tortoise on sleeping tablets' springs to mind. I have been using the baseline set up but the car seems to understeer so badly, that along with being totally unable to select the right line is my main problem...

In oval racing, you make your time on exit. You do that by backing of the entry. Easy in, hard off.

What happens to alot of people is this:

- Overdrive the entry
- Need more steering AND you let off the gas and/or get on the brakes and put more weight on the RF
- End up trying to get on the gas at the apex still.

This works fine for a couple of laps... but then you start to really heat up that right front tire... and once you've done that, even a good entry will understeer through the apex... so you continue to overdrive it. Once you start understeering, it's best to coast a few laps. You have the ease up and let the RF cool down, at the cost of losing a little time... but overall its less than you would lose sliding the RF the rest of the race.

Oval = Brake on entry, roll the apex, hard acceleration out. Simple in concept, but hard to do right 100 times in a row...

After a while you will feel the car telling you everything you need to know. You will always want to keep a little understeer at the apex (a little!), and as soon as you feel the car shift toward oversteer, thats when you put the power down. Same for entry... you will feel the weight shift to let you know when to get off of the brakes...

Thanks rjm, you've hit the nail on the head, the RF heating up was exactly my problem. I've done a few hundred laps today and am starting to get the hang of it. Although I am severely dizzy and can't see properly it's becoming addictive. My poor wheel has e-mailed me asking why I don't turn right anymore

Quote from AlienT. :

My poor wheel has e-mailed me asking why I don't turn right anymore

In the late model... if you're never turning right, you're doing it wrong

That thing is controlled chaos from the apex out

:bowdown: wheye! I finished my 3rd race in 2nd place at Irwindale, almost breaking into the 18 secs, yes I know it's no big deal but I am rather happy about that. Gregor Huttu you'd better watch out......

i'm getting realy depressed now, had a week off work and was looking forward to finally getting a good group of TT s and races in but guess what? i havent even managed to start one TT .


i've got to pull my finger out, need to get up from 3.68 to over 4 by the end of the season.

Quote from tinvek :

... need to get up from 3.68 to over 4 by the end of the season.

Huh?

3.0 or over is enough sr for getting levelled up to the next license level. 4.0 or more is required if you want to race the cars in the next license level.

i promised / swore i'd get to 4.0 by the end of the season so it's more self imposed than anything else

Was gonna try out iRacing today, but you can't purchase by PayPal! It's friggin' business suicide to not have this function!