rFactor 2 Completes 2023 BTCC Grid with New Content Drop


While the official BTCC game has been postponed until 2024, sim racers can now enjoy the full 2023 grid of the popular UK-based touring car series in rFactor 2: The Cupra Leon has been added to the sim, as well as up-to-date liveries for the rest of the field.

Image Credit: Studio 397/rFactor 2

The Team HARD Cupra Leon was the only car still missing to form a full BTCC grid, and it is now available in the Steam Store. It completes a pack of eight cars, the others being the Hyundai i30 Fastback N, BMW 330e M Sport, Ford Focus ST, Toyota Corolla GR Sport, Honda Civic Type R, Vauxhall Astra and Infiniti Q50. They are avalaible as a bundle as well, which includes BTCC liveries from 2021 to 2023. Owners of any BTCC content will automatically receive the 2023 liveries for free, while the cars that were already available have received small facelifts each.

rFactor 2 Ford Focus ST 2023 BTCC Brands Hatch.png

Sim racers can now enjoy the entirety of the 2023 BTCC season in rFactor 2 - with one exception. Image Credit: Studio 397/rFactor 2

Independent Contender​

While the Cupra may still be looking for an overall win as it is not racing in the Constructor class, it has seen considerable success in the hands of Independent entries, which are fielded by Team HARD: At the time of writing this article, both Bobby Thompson (140 points) and Daniel Lloyd (118) are chasing One Motorsport's Josh Cook (141) as the leader of the Independent standings ahead of BTCC's next event at Thruxton on June 3rd and 4th.

The circuit is also available in rFactor 2 and is featured in the BTCC Total Pack, which gives sim racers access to all BTCC cars as well as Brands Hatch, Donington Park, Croft and the aforementioned Thruxton. This means that only Snetterton is missing from the Steam Workshop to recreate the full 2023 BTCC season.

Alongside the content drop, a hotfix has been rolled out, which is centered around vehicles - see below for the changes.

BRABHAM BT44 V2.64
  • Added PBR materials
  • Fixed drivers toes sticking out of car
BMW 330I M SPORT BTCC V1.63
  • Added 2023 teams
  • Added AI antiroll
  • Fixed visual damage
CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R GTE V3.13
  • Fix for negative VolumeFract values resulting in fuel regeneration when off-throttle
HYUNDAI I30 FASTBACK N PERFORMANCE BTCC V1.61
  • Added 2023 teams
  • Added AI antiroll
HONDA CIVIC TYPE R BTCC V1.61
  • Added 2023 teams
  • Added AI antiroll
FORD FOCUS ST BTCC V1.61
  • Added 2023 teams
  • Added AI antiroll
INFINITI Q50 V37 BTCC V1.61
  • Added AI antiroll
TOYOTA COROLLA GR SPORT BTCC V1.61
  • Added 2023 teams
  • Added AI antiroll
VAUXHALL ASTRA BTCC V1.61
  • Added 2023 teams
  • Added AI antiroll
VANWALL VANDERVELL LMH V1.31
  • Added Michelin tires
  • Updated fuel consumption
  • Modified gear ratios to be the same as the homologated ones

Your Thoughts​

You can find the full announcement of the new content including previews of all 2023 BTCC liveries on the rFactor 2 website. What do you think about the latest addition to the sim? Are you looking forward to racing with a full BTCC grid? Let us know in the comments below!
About author
Yannik Haustein
Lifelong motorsport enthusiast and sim racing aficionado, walking racing history encyclopedia.

Sim racing editor, streamer and one half of the SimRacing Buddies podcast (warning, German!).

Heel & Toe Gang 4 life :D

Comments

Now we have all the cars and all the tracks available between official content and mod tracks. Very tempting to pick this up, as someone who wants to support games getting full grids of cars (and ideally also tracks) instead of a hodgepodge of one or two cars and tracks from a series (which seems to be the common approach in sim racing now).

(Hopefully we eventually get official Oulton Park, Knockhill, and Snetterton at some point as well)

Especially with the "AI antiroll" added. Previously, the BTCC AI (and apparently even in FWD touring cars in rF2 all the way back to when the game first came out 10 years ago) have had serious issues rolling over mid-corner, especially after hitting kerbs. Hilarious at first, but then annoying... would ruin single player racing. If this is genuinely fixed, that's great news.
 
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I've been supportive to rfactor2 for a few time, considering the huge updates made in the last 2 or 3 years but I have mitigated feelings about this BTCC stuff.

75& of the official game (more with mods) for 60% of the full game price (considering the last Nascar game was initially priced at 50€), with MSG still promising the official 100% game in one year.

It feels like "be patient, pay for the half game immediatly in order to wait for the full game (at full price) next year (in an uncertain state)". Something is illogical there. Rfactor2 being receiving (at last) AI updates, this pack should be fun and solid in 2024, what will be the point of a dedicated BTCC game?

Why not keeping selling content for rfactor2 with the next seasons? MSG has brought to itself a very bad reputation, faster that an indie cash grab developper putting awful assets together to sale an early access on steam, but I must admit the way it was going for Nascar 21 was what we all have been expecting for years from a licence game : not a yearly release at full price, but a season pass. And rfactor2 being improved constantly, now that a major part of the BTCC content is there, why not keeping this route? Oh, consoles, right, that's why it needs a dedicated game. Well, maybe it is time to have console exclusivity and PC rfactor2 exclusivity.

Because selling this content at this price on rfactor2 expecting the same buyers paying full price next year for another, probably inferior, game with 3 more tracks is really annoying. That's what F1 games do, but is BTCC as popular as F1?

Anyway, that's good for rfactor2, it keeps the game alive and helps the support and the evolution of the game.
 
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Sadly enough this game is unplayable: no working AI (yes i tried the latest patch, it's horrible). And no normal public lobbies only have horrible looking content or crashes or have only 2 drivers or have a 3 hour practice session. Unplayable.
 
Premium
Sadly enough this game is unplayable: no working AI (yes i tried the latest patch, it's horrible). And no normal public lobbies only have horrible looking content or crashes or have only 2 drivers or have a 3 hour practice session. Unplayable.
LFM has a good BTCC series running if you are on EU timezones. Grids from 20-40 in the evening depending on the track.
 
The Cupra was the last car needed for a full set of seasons, all with official liveries. This is more than ISI or S397 have done for any other series with the exception of Formula E. (ok and Indycar with just the one Dallara IR 18 needed)((Imagine if this was several years ago when the engine manufacturers could also produce their own Aero packages that included monsterous front wings with seemingly and infinite number of wing elements))
The real feature we should be paying attention to, however, is the new Anti Rollover addition to the BTCC files. AI controlled cars that were set to higher than 100% were prone to rollovers when crossing raised curbs. This now is fixed. Another win for offline users.
As far as the No Buy due to MSG, it has been MSG money that has produced more progress in the last 18 months than rF2 has seen in the last decade. They are a complete and utter disaster as a company, but it was their financial input that allowed S397 to capture some key new employees and spend the money to develop new sounds, new hybrid features, dozens of AI corrections(some we have been begging for much of the last 6 or 7 years.) It was MSG's money that allowed the Indycar & BTCC cars to be fully fleshed out.(how many cars does the Caddillac DPi have to compete against?)(((still waiting for Lambo & Acura/Honda & Lexus GT3s)))
 
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I've been supportive to rfactor2 for a few time, considering the huge updates made.in the last 2 or 3 years but I have mitigated feelings about this BTCC stuff.

75& of the official game (more with mods) for 60% of the full game price (considering the last Nascar game was initially priced at 50€), with MSG still promising the official 100% game in one year.

It feels like "be patient, pay for the half game immediatly in order to wait for the full game (at full price) next year (in an uncertain state)". Something is illogical there. Rfactor2 being receiving (at last) AI updates, this pack should be fun and solid in 2024, what will be the point of a dedicated BTCC game?

Why not keeping selling content for rfactor2 with the next seasons? MSG has brought to itself a very bad reputation, faster that an indie cash grab developper putting awful assets together to sale an early access on steam, but I must admit the way it was going for Nascar 21 was what we all have been expecting for years from a licence game : not a yearly release at full price, but a season pass. And rfactor2 being improved constantly, now that a major part of the BTCC content is there, why not keeping this route? Oh, consoles, right, that's why it needs a dedicated game. Well, maybe it is time to have console exclusivity and PC rfactor2 exclusivity.

Because selling this content at this price on rfactor2 expecting the same buyers paying full price next year for another, probably inferior, game with 3 more tracks is really annoying. That's what F1 games do, but is BTCC as popular as F1?

Anyway, that's good for rfactor2, it keeps the game alive and helps the support and the evolution of the game.
You’re assuming that there will be an official BTCC game from MSG… That game, like the Indycar or the WEC game, will probably never happen. And if it is released (and that’s a big if), it will likely be a simcade or worse, an unplayable piece of crap like NASCAR ignition.

My advice: if you want to race the BTCC, get the rFactor2 package.
 
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I am tempted to get this, but I am hoping that, eventually, the full grid will be sold as a package. RFactor 2 DLCs are usually on the expensive side.
 
Premium
I am a bit out of the loop, will this and the Gen3 Formula E be bundled in the Q2 2023 Content Pack later on?
 
I am a bit out of the loop, will this and the Gen3 Formula E be bundled in the Q2 2023 Content Pack later on?
No I would think not. They have released ALL the cars and liveries for both BTCC & Fe as packages already so no need to include them in the 23 Q2 release. There may be additional tracks but since both are already packaged up, it is doubtful they would so quickly add them to some other content. Only after sales fall flat would existing cars get smushed together into a wider package deal. Also Fe & BTCC are not really.......compatible.....very different formats so placing them in the same Quarterly package is not likely.
and now that I think of it...to further cement my claim, Fe already was part of the Q1 drop, so they certainly will not duplicate that for Q2.
 
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rF2 is 50% off right now and there is a full field package currently available in the rF2 store.
I checked the Steam store and the whole BTCC pack is priced at 43 canadian$ or so. This includes 8 cars and 4 tracks. I have complained many times about the prices for rFactor2 DLCs, but this is actually a fairly reasonable price, in my opinion. Will probably get it when I get back home this evening.
 

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