rfactor 2/Sim Racing for a complete newbie

Chris Sanderson · Nov 6, 2013

Hi all

I'm a keen motorsport fan generally and quite fancy installing rFactor 2 and doing a little bit of sim racing but before I do I wonder if anyone could point me in the right direction of where to start.

So I say Im a complete newbie, I did briefly do a few races in GTR Legends a few years back but couldn't commit to the time.

I have a computer, hopefully powerful enough to run rFactor reasonably well but I'm going to try the demo to be sure. I also have a G27 wheel gathering dust for a while that I plan to reconnect.

With regards to racing I need to start right at the beginning, I don't want to be responsible for taking out professionals but it would be nice to start right at the beginning and then work my way up a little.

The other thing is time, I have very little of it so I need something really that isn't too time consuming in terms of the racing. With GTR Legends league I tried there was lots of testing, qualifying and racing that consumed a fair few hours a week. Ideally I would like something I could do on a Saturday or Sunday night for an hour or two a week. Unfortunately I have a child to look after and work full time so that adds to my difficulty.

Really appreciate any help on how to get started

Stefan Woudenberg · Nov 7, 2013

Hi Chris,

there are a few categories of sim racers. The need loads of practise to get around the track, the load of practise to be fast, the never practise crashers, the never practise but right from the start fastest (we call the aliens

) and the I cannot win so I quit.
I have no idea in which one you would fit into.
I am the one that needs the practise to be mid field fast and never quits even if I finish last with 10 laps from the leader.
I also haven't time on my side. I also work full time, got two kids and a wife and I am a staff member here at RD which costs more time than you would imagine. That time I cannot drive, but make it possible for others to drive.

Personnaly I think that the AI of rF2 is pretty decent, so if you don't feel confident yet to drive against humans you could do the practise offline against AI. To have an idea of the alien drivers put the ai strenght to 110~120%.

The club races we organise always have practise, qualy, warmup and race. Which takes about 90 minutes. There are a lot of people who only come for these times and also don't have practise. The fun part is coming on TS and have chats with all kinds of people across the world. It is not scary it is fun. One thing is for sure that everyone shares the same passion: motorsports.

Just install the game and start driving. You will get the hang of it sooner than later.
Here on the forum there are enough manuals how to install the mods. Start with the easy cars (clio, megane, classic f3 and 370z) and work your way up to the faster/harder cars (Corvette C6r, Marussia MR01, Classic F1, etc).

One thing is pretty sure: practise makes perfect!

David O'Reilly · Nov 12, 2013

I want to second Stefans post and add:
Start with slow cars but drop assists asap. You will learn much faster.
Search for a tutorial on basic car setup and have a play with that as you go.
Have fun