sbelles

I just started but so far it doesn't seem that realistic. I've been doing Summit Point for an hour and nothing furry has run out in front of me.

GuyIncognito

lol

Circuit Motorsports

I always felt that was the best car to learn situational awareness. But as said above, the first lap schlamozzle was always annoying. Just qualify first and go. I still spent most of my time in the practice sessions as the driving was just as hard but much less pressure to not get hit.

Gator_86_951

I also hated it at first. Then proceeded to put a rig in the living room in front of the big TV. Been that way since April of last year. Seat bends down so the girlfriend and I can watch TV.

GuyIncognito

I've learned to stop worrying and love the Mustang.

fun race tonight at Mid-O with Pat Long and Matt Halliday

Gator_86_951

iRacing is pretty amazing (with the right equipment). Awesome enough that one of our JP trainees was concerned enough that he wondered how I was going to get my rig to Tokyo since I am moving there. The biggest problem is the lack of car feel. It takes some time to get over that and the lack of tire feedback, but it is a lot of fun. A learning tool, I guess. A fun tool, yes!

michael lang

I'm glad to hear that you have decided to stick with the simulator. At first, when I signed on several years ago, I absolutely hated it. It took getting used to. I do race on it but I primarily use it to prepare for a driving event. A month before the I am on track, I am on the simulator everyday for about 20-25 mins. Just enough to cover the time of a single session. The week of an upcoming event I will be on it 2-3 times a day to prepare. This has been a huge help in preparing mentally for being on track for real.
A couple of years ago I was having trouble with not looking far enough down the track. I was really struggling with coming to grips with my speed. I felt like I was way out of my comfort zone so I would back off. As a result, I wasn't progressing as I thought I should be. To help me fix my problem, I put a strip of pinstriping tape across the middle of my monitor and literally forced myself to look only above the line. I believe this one training practice is what got me past that mental barrier.
Another benefit that I have noticed, especially this offseason, is my aniticipation reflex (I'm not even sure if there is such a thing) is becoming incredibly accurate. I am making good decisions in incidence avoidance and also the decisions that I am making is allowing me to put my car in much better places to get around other guys or put pressure on guys that are much faster than I am which as an added bonus makes me faster.
I could go on & on but I think you guys get the picture. The simulator is what it was intended to be, a tool that allows people to practice, prepare and learn how to be a faster racecar driver than they already are and that is what I use it for.

My993C2

I have been a member of iRacing for three years now and I played it a lot when I first joined. Now it's more like iPractice to me. iRacing is like driving on ice with slicks. However for all it's faults, it's still the best sim out there.

JustinL

All the closet iracers should come out this Wednesday evening and mix it up.

Also, iracing is developing a RUF car now. Maybe we'll have a 997 variant in the game soon!

car_slave

Ever have one of those races where some guy thinks you did them wrong and he spends the rest of race trying to wreck you?
I've had my share of angry peeps on iRacing.

Rich Sandor

Try to remember that there is a HUGE range of skill levels and experience on iRacing, and with a few hours of Forza under your belt, you're very much on the inexperienced end of that spectrum. Don't feel bad at all if you are having a hard time.

I have been playing racing sims non-stop since the late 80s, and even I had a hard time with iRacing at first, but I knew right away that it BLEW AWAY all the other racing sims I had ever played, in terms of physics realism. Remember also that you are not only learning a new car, and new driving physics, but also whole new tracks!

More importantly, if you are not a long term sim racer, you won't be used to that 'simulated' feeling of getting the car sideways and knowing when you are 100% on the limit.. you will only know when you've gone over the limit and need to correct. These things that can only be learned with practice and can't be learned in a real car where you have a butt-o-meter.

The reason why a lot of people have trouble with iRacing (and other sims like GrandPrix Legends, rFactor, GTR and such) is because they've spent too much time playing GranTourismo and Forza, which have great physics models but dumbed down tire models which make it easier to drive for the AVERAGE gamer. If you spend a few days playing Viper Racing or GrandPrixLegends, iRacing will seem like a breeze. They were the most realistic sims in their era (still are pretty good) and modeled cars that were difficult to drive fast in reality, let alone in a sim.

I applaud you for sticking with it. Let me give you some advice to help you get even MORE out of it:

Every time you go on iRacing, set a goal for yourself. But don't make the goal unreasonable, (ie, to win a race on a track you only have 1 days practice on)
For example:
- First, pick ONE easy track and ONE easy car, and just slow down and try to do 5 laps without dropping a wheel off the track or screwing anything up. Then step it up to 10 laps. Take the fastest of those 10 laps and now try to shave off 1 second, again without dropping a wheel in the grass. These incremental improvements will help you more than anything, because they promote self-restraint.
- Later on, you can look at the scoreboards and try to compare yourself to others with your experience, and try to get similar times. This may require the use of custom setups, obviously. I try to stay away from setup changes until all other factors have been maxed out. (track familiarity and car familiarity)

Once you are familiar with a track, try it with a different car, preferably one that is very tailhappy and hard to drive. Get used to sliding around and catching the car. Don't worry if you spin out a few times. Expect it to happen. Then go back to the Miata or Pontiac.. it will seem even easier to drive than it did before!

User 52121

Some good ideas there.

Re: the Skip - My buddy Russell Hodgson (actual Skip Barber racer) has said that the Skip is pretty darn accurate. Also remember that Dave Kaemmer (iRacing brains) is a Skip racer himself. You would think that, of all the cars, the Skip would be pretty close to the real deal.

That said - I agree the Skip is a handful at first. Definitely feels very tail happy. I remember back when I was still struggling with it (when I first moved up from the Solstice, in 2008) I'd read that, to some degree, the car (even the real life car) is designed to be a little difficult, in that it's meant to be a "trainer." It's supposed to highlight your mistakes, to teach you better car control. Now whether or not that's true (difficult on purpose) I don't know - but it makes sense. Once I mastered the Skip - I became a much better driver all around. Even now, if I take a break from iRacing for a bit, I'll turn some laps in the Skip first to kinda get my legs under me, so to speak.

I'll also agree with the previously-mentioned sentiments re: training and "anticipation reflex." The physics and animations are good enough to be useful - and when combined with enough bozos out there over-driving, you get lots of practice at predicting where someone will go, and how to avoid them.

The real jewel you take away from using the service is the learning of racecraft and the mental game.