How to start iRacing? Specifically gt3 class

Hi all,

At this point I have all the major sims other than iRacing and I'd like to give it a go.

BUT I'm not sure I can actually afford to get into iRacing and looking at this page: https://www.iracing.com/membership/
I can see what the membership is but nothing about cars and tracks.

Would any of you have advice on how I can get into or at least try GT3 racing, are there car and track bundles etc?

What tracks would I need, is there a good starter car to get in the GT3 class etc.

It's all just like trying to look in side a sealed box for me at the moment.

Cheers all for any imput :)
 
OK, first thing is the series layout.

You'll start in rookies, either Formula Vee or Mazda. All content is free for rookie series.
When you get to D licence, you'll be looking at the Ferrari Fixed Series. This is a single car series using the Ferrari GT3. Obviously you'd need to buy that car for this.
C licence has the VRS GT Endurance Series, 3 hour races every weekend requiring more than 1 driver per car.
At B licence you'd have the VRS GT Sprint Series. 45 minute races every 2 hours, with a required pitstop forced because of a fuel restriction.
Both the Sprint and Endurance series have 8 cars to choose from, including the Ferrari that is used in the D class series.
For this side of things you've got to plan how you'll get to the series you want to run, what series you need to get there, what tracks those series usually run and what cars you have to buy.

The subscription is a fair cost, especially for now as I believe the Black Friday sale is on (25% membership discount for existing accounts, 50% for new ones).

The real kicker is content. Most tracks and cars are $12 or $15 each. Yes, each. So if you run one series for the minimum number of weeks to be classified in the championship you'll need 1 car and 8 tracks. Taking every car/track to be $12 (which they won't be, this is a minimum) that's $108 on content alone. There is a discount for 3 pieces of content at once of 10%, which increases to 15% for 6 pieces of content. So that $108 reduces to around $92.

You do not need to be classified in a championship to get a licence class promotion and get to the series you want, the only time you need to reach this requirement is to be classified in the championship for that season.

The cheaper but under-developed alternative is to buy a subscription and a GT3 car (I'd again advise the Ferrari, very good generally honestly) and run AI races on free tracks to see what you think. Free AI tracks are Laguna Seca, Oulton Park, Oran Park, Okayama, Lime Rock Park, Daytona (2008) & Summit Point (fictional).
 
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Cheers @Littlefysh for that info mate.

So that free content is something you can get access to once signed up for lets say a month to try it out. If so that would be good, so I can see if me and the sim gel with eachother :)

Thanks.
Yeah definitely! I got a month and messed about in mazdas for a while, ending up joining a team for special endurance events. Dip your toe and see if you like it. Feel free to add any questions here too.
 
So there is no way to begin right away in the GT3 class?

Not online no. But it's designed that way and honestly I'd advise against it even if it were possible. The licence system taken seriously does a decent job of giving you time to settle into the sim and learn it. You can run Rookies for a season, then run D Class for a season. You can run slower stuff or you can run the Ferrari Fixed series which is a single-make series of the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo. Onlyafter this can you jump into multi-make GT3 at C Class.

People who ignore the licence system and start C Class GT3 races having only done 10 races in 3 different cars are usually the ones who crash and ruin somebody else's race. Them or people who think they're Senna incarnate. Don't be that guy.

You can of course buy a GT3 car and amuse yourself with AI any time you like on any track you own, even ovals if you're so inclined.
 
In all honesty if you race respectfully then you'll soon get out of rookies and can buy the ferrari gt3 to run the fixed series.
What I would say is when in rookies spend time practicing in the official practice sessions with other cars, and don't run a race until you can lap consistently for the 15 laps or so. We all make mistakes but being consistent will gain you many places in a race even against people who are quicker but spin off once or twice.

All rookie tracks are free ones so nothing spent apart from your membership fee, once you want to race the gt3 then some tracks will still be free, others will need to be bought if you want to race every week.

I've bought content as and when I've needed it, but always try and buy 3 items at a time for a discount, so I'll look at the schedule for series I run and see what tracks I need, and purchase 3 tracks, or sometimes 2 tracks and a car I fancy trying etc.

Be all and end all have fun, the rookies can be tough but remember it's rookies for a reason so there will be people who can't drive so well.
 

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