schaibaa

Thundermoose

Not iRacing, but on Forza I am within 1 second at VIR, WGI, and COTA. My real and sim E46 M3 have identical specs- power, weight, gear ratio. Other mods are directionally the same but tire grip always seems less in sim than in real life. Also, I can't turn off TC in Sim without over steering out of every corner.

ProCoach

Generally quicker in the Cup car than possible in real life. No surprise!

JarheadGT3

Not sure how it compares to others, but I'm 3-4 seconds faster in the iRacing 991.2 Cup than I am in real life in a 991.1 Cup. Certainly not 100% apples to apples, but I've never driven a .2 in real life.

FLA997

That would be about right....the 991.2 is a LOT quicker than the 991.1

JarheadGT3

Obviously it's hard to get a sensory feel for how quick it is, but I definitely saw more of 6th gear!

GT3DE

No idea. The few times I tried on friends SIM I crashed before getting all the way around.

pontifex4

I would be really interested to know how the SRF compares to real-life times. I think that might be the most accurate, and I can imagine real times being faster, since I have a hard time getting a feel for that model in iRacing.

Circuit Motorsports

It's been a while since I've done iRacing but the sim was always faster.

Paul Solk

Always faster in the sim although to be fair I don't have a real world Ferrari or Cup car for reference

I think that is a tremendous asset though. I find when I drive something faster in the sim while preparing for a new track i've never seen before it helps me slow things down on my first few actual laps. It's as though the overwhelming effect of trying to "learn" the track is gone and I can focus on perfecting lines opposed to learning them almost from lap 2 or 3.
To me that is the benefit of the sim. When combined with virtual trackwalks especially I can literally train my eyes to be where they should be without ever turning a lap.

If you think about it, a lot of pilots now do not make their first certified flight on a new aircraft until an actual revenue generating flight. They can literally certify their type rating entirely in the sim without flying the real world aircraft. If it's good enough for them

I actually think if you aren't using a sim at this point it is going to become more and more of a disadvantage moving forward as those around you start to leverage them not to become better drivers but to improve reaction times, sensory perception, not to mention track layouts etc etc

Bman

Wow, I didn't realize that SIM was that realistic

linzman

You win the internet for the day

ace37

I'm faster in real life, but that's not saying much. I look for sensory cues that the sim can't provide. However, many of the fastest sim drivers don't race in real life, so they are looking for the feedback the sim provides and that's all the input they are used to. They know how to use that feedback much better than I do and, as you mention, sim racers get unlimited laps 24/7 with no accidents and no delays.

If the car and tracks were modeled with 100% accuracy and the sim racers and real drivers have equal talent, the sim racers can always put in far more laps than real racers and therefore they can get better times. They can't be perfectly accurate though.

na94

I tend to drive the sim more ***** out. My ring time in a cup .2 is about a 7:19 which is quite slow for a professional, but is much faster than I would ever attempt with real money.

I generally stick to iracing, but now and then pop into assetto corsa.

Paul Solk

I just started using race room for the Nordschleife. Here is a 6:55 in the 911 GT3r. Sim or not I was sweating by the end of this lol! I wish you could see what my hands were doing during the actual session. Pretty sloppy on the back half actually. Got some coaching last night from a guy who ran a 6:38. I'm pretty sure there is not a chance I would come close to those times in real life!!