Items to purchase/future of iRacing (rookie's questions)

Jan Roman · Sep 16, 2011

Hi simracers,

I've been playing iRacing for a couple of days (it's a first simulator I've bought) and it's superb. I'm playing just with the basic content package, but since I'm going to hit D class soon, I'm looking into ways of saving as much money as possible during content purchase. iRacing announced a promotion lasting until 23rd of September - "buy three or more items and you'll recieve 15$ from us". I intend to put this in use by buying some of the content. I'd like to ask you, which tracks or cars I should purchase. Now I'm 2.85 Rookie (I've run just three races) and I'm not sure which series I should drive in the future. I'm 100% road racer (no ovals!) so I'm quite sure it has to be road series. I've been driving Mazda MX-5 Roadster in the nVidia rookie series. MX-5 is quite easy to drive I think and I like it very much. Even though it's rear-wheel drive, it doesn't tend to oversteer much (I experience understeer situations more often). I've tried SCCA Spec Racer Ford and it's much more difficult to drive because it tends to oversteer much more than Mazdas (I'd probably get used to it). So I'm asking you, which series/cars I should choose.

I understand that it'll take the most money at this moment, so I intend to save as much as possible. I know I should probably test a couple of cars first to see which ones fit me the most, but it would require to buy them for full price (no -20%). I was thinking about Mustang, but I think it'd be too difficult for me to drive it (a lot of horsepower). Since I'm a complete beginner, I'd like something not-so-difficult to drive (as I said, Mazdas fit me for now). Could you please give me some advice about this matter?

My second question: iRacing is an amazing game, but it lacks a lot. What are the plans for the future? I mean many things are missing - better enviroment, pit crews, look to apex, weather and so on. Is there any official source of information (besides iRacing.com)? iRacing's graphics are awesome (especially cars in reaplys look almost realistic, many people would even say they're virtual), but certainly there's still a lot to improve.

Thank you for your time and patience with these a bit stupid questions

I'd need a "big brother", because new and new questions are coming every day.

See you on the track!

Jan Roman · Oct 8, 2011

Yes, I usually try to find my fault in every incident. "I could have done that", "I could have moved to the right a bit"... I understand every single racer can make a mistake. Today I caused my first accident. My back bumped into back of another driver, in 170 kph, which is very hard to save. I was OK however, but I was punished 5 seconds later. The same thing happened to me. It's a shame and I know for sure it was all my fault, because I was certainly faster and could have waited. It happened in the fastest Suzuka GP corner, just before the final chicane.

But it gave me a lesson and many things seem clear now.

You certainly have a point, but I'd say the chance of getting into an incident is much lower in higher classes. I mean, statistically, there should be much lower chance to get into trouble. For example, when driving a race, usually a couple of players leave the race in the beginning, just because they made a mistake. It this common in higer tiers?

I enjoy Stang very much and I hit 2.26.650 od Suzuka GP today. It's a really bad bad time, but I am now able to "feel" the Mustang and slowly, I'm taming the beast. I managed to be very consistend and safe. Two days ago, I run a race at Suzuka and my common clean lap was around 2.29. Today, I went up to 2.27, without any kind of training. As a simracing novice, my experience is growing very rapidly and I hope I'll stay safe and get faster.

Jan Roman · Apr 7, 2012

I did not want to create a new topic, but I have a few questions (just two for now

), so I used my old one.

I got my G25 and it's the first time I'm driving with clutch and a H-pattern. I've started to learn heel-toe and I think I'm slowly getting used to it, but there's one think that's bothering me. In a real car, when you downshift at high RPMs, the car faces braking forces, leans forward and rear tires loose some of their grip. In a racing car, this might cause a oversteer and a spin.

I'm driving the Mustang at the moment, and I've been trying to simulate precisely the same thing, but I haven't managed to do that so far. My question is - how dangerous is a downshift without heel-toe technique? Since I can't heel-toe properly, I sometimes do it wrong or even forget about it, but even when I forget to blip completely, the car seems to handle it perfectly and that's a bit odd.

And the second one - could you please tell me (from your experience) how should I train the heel-toe? I believe I'm slowly getting it right, the biggest problem at the moment is that I sometimes struggle to maintain the same braking force during blipping and as a result I go too fast into a corner. Any tips or ideas?

Thank you very much.