- iRacing.com Announces iRacing 2.011,313
- iRacing.com to create virtual McLaren MP4-12C GT37,989
- Scanning What’s in Store for iRacing with Tony Gardner5,984
- Dave Kaemmer Comes Clean on Dirt5,423
- Improving the Sound of iRacing4,808
- iRacing 2.0 Debuts in 2011 Season 34,763
- Preview Shots of HPD ARX-01C, Ford GT & Suzuka4,739
- Two New Cars and Two New Tracks Coming to iRacing Soon4,244
- iRacing Pro Race of Champions Gets Green Flag Wednesday3,300
- Gooden Plenty II2,940
- iRacing.com Announces iRacing 2.0 41
- FW31 Envy 27
- Dave Kaemmer Comes Clean on Dirt 27
- iRacing's Corvette: Good Enough is Not Good Enough 23
- No Obstacles Here 18
- iRacing Simulation Gives NASCAR Hall of Fame Guests Authentic Driving Experience 17
- 2011 iRacing.com World Championship Series Road Racing Field Set 17
- iRacing, McLaren Electronic Systems Partner in Online Racing Data Analysis 16
- V-Sunk 14
- Trading Paints Derek Speare Designs Race King 300 Set for June 28 14
- iRacing.com2130
- NASCAR 1753
- Motorcycles 1708
- Formula Cars 1566
- WRC 1235
- IndyCar 1149
- Touring Cars 748
- Sports Cars 300
- Other Racing 313
2D or Not 2D?
by Katier Scott on January 13th, 2012
Is 3D the way forward for sim racing? Probably sim racing’s biggest technology ‘buzz word’ during 2011 was 3D. What with the growth of 3D TV, the vast increase in the number of 3D films being released and 3D’s cause being championed throughout the gaming world, inevitably, 3D is a subject the sim racing world is keeping its eye on, be it in 2 or 3D. 3D is also a technology that visitors to the Autosport International show are getting the chance to sample for themselves, as the VRX simulators running at iRacing.com’s booth at the NEC this weekend are both triple screen, nVidia 3D setups. However, with one setup running in 2D mode to allow spectators to view the racing easier while the other is running in 3D, it’s [...]
Racing the Plan
by David Allen on January 6th, 2012
I get up every morning just like most people and I have a plan. That plan is carried-out based on the events of the day, what I have to do and when I have to have it done. Now, I can see that funny look on your face already, one that says “What does this have to do with iRacing?” What this has to do with iRacing is this: It’s all about management. We manage tasks in our daily lives. We know when to give a task everything we have and when giving a task a little less is enough. Sim racing is no different. iRacing has advanced in so many ways that we are now forced to manage our resources during a race. We have to think about when [...]
To Sleep, Perchance to Dream . . . and Go Faster
by Chris Hall on November 19th, 2011
Looking for those extra tenths? Try sleeping on it. At its fundamental basics, racing is about being the fastest driver on the track on a given day. It sounds simple, but when you extrapolate that to the thousands of competitors on iRacing, it soon becomes apparent the battle isn’t just with fellow competitors, but with the track that rolls out ahead. Because to be at the top in virtual or real motorsport, means being the one to hustle their car around x miles of circuit the fastest. Whether it’s practice, qualifying or racing, time is one of the governing indicators of who will rise to the top of the pile. In the search for those few extra tenths of a second, sim-racers have been known to spend a small fortune [...]
Got Setup?
by David Allen on October 9th, 2011
Boy, this new iRacing 2.0 is something isn’t it? Personally, I really don’t have any complaints, but I do enjoy the depth that iRacing goes to in order to give us an accurate racing simulation. Entering various sessions soon after the build was released all I heard was complaints . . . which, to be honest, was somewhat expected. Thanks to the new tire model, those super-loose or “alien” setups as referred to in the forums no longer worked effectively. If they did work at all, it was only a few laps before the tires were virtually melted-off the car. Human beings in general seem to resist change and having to redo testing and research to achieve a fast lap didn’t make anyone happy. However, if you take a moment [...]
Divi’s Guide to iRacing Driver Aids
by Divina Galica on October 3rd, 2011
Listed below are some really awesome iRacing assists for “Rookie” drivers like myself who are challenged by the intricacies of racing simulations. I truly wish some of these aids had been available when I started racing the sim in 2006, but now I use them frequently and find they help a lot. I’m listing them in order of my preference. Splits For some reason for several months I had no idea that if you hit your tab key you brought up a green and red line at the top of your driving screen. Now I use it all the time and find it helps with my lap times especially in qualifying. I usually run in Best Lap mode. The great thing is that it remembers your best lap for that [...]
The State of Sim Racing
by David Allen on August 19th, 2011
I was cleaning out my office a few days ago and under the mounds of paperwork an old memory was revived. I found my collection of old racing games and simulators from years ago. I flipped through the pages of some of the manuals and read the system requirements and kind of chuckled. Back in the day, 16MB of ram and a 1MB video card were considered state of the art, and hooking a steering wheel to the computer made your house the local hangout for everyone. Then, I got to the back of some of these manuals and started reading the credits. Some of the names from 15 years ago are still involved in sim racing development. Ironically, I thought of the idea for this article before the release [...]
Let the Tournaments Begin
by David Phillips on August 4th, 2011
One of the most exciting aspects of iRacing 2.0 is the new Tournament Racing feature. Now you can organize, host and stage your own sim racing tournament, with multiple heat races winnowing the field down to the crème de la crème in the final/feature. To learn more about staging your own tournament, check out this great “how to” video: http://youtu.be/F3QDoIpAsKE
Introducing: The Allen Wrench
by David Allen on June 4th, 2011
Editor’s Note: inRacingNews is pleased to introduce David Allen who will be contributing a regular column focusing on the technical side of iRacing. A long-time sim racer himself, David brings two decades of experience to bear on some the technical challenges associated with sim racing. Ray Bryden fans relax. He’ll still be contributing to his, er unique perspectives to inRacingNews. In other words, it’s a win-win situation for our readers. Building a competitive race car can cost a considerable amount of money right? If you’re a racer, rookie or not the decision on how to spend that money to run up front can be a brain-numbing decision. Racing on a simulator in your game room can be the same way. Confused yet? Don’t worry that’s why I’m here. As a [...]
ROWA: Goddess of Filenames
by Ray Bryden on December 21st, 2010
The world will not end on December 21, 2012. That momentous occasion will occur sometime the day before, on December 20, 2012. The story of this revelation begins with my breakfast, for when I was about to ingest my toasted English muffin, I noticed the image of a god-like figure in the toasted pattern of butter-infused crispy porosity. Though I marvelled at its comforting portrait, my stomach was even more curious about it, so I sent it down directly for its opinion. Immediately I was struck by its loud verbal proclamation: “ROOOOOWWWAAaaaa!” Thus, I concluded, I was possessed by the great goddess “ROWA.” I was taught to always trust my gut. First among the things taught to me by ROWA – long may she be jam smeared – was proper [...]
IndyCar Aero Primer
by Henrik Müller on November 20th, 2010
Most of new (as well as many experienced) IndyCar drivers feel a bit overwhelmed when they look at the aerodynamic setup options the Dallara IndyCar offers them. However, this subject is not as daunting as you might think. Since most sim racers lack a bachelor’s degree in physics but do know how to race the car, iRacing has developed the aero calculator just for you. You can find this extremely useful tool in the garage on the “tires /aero” screen (see screenshot below). So what does the aero calculator do? This tool calculates the amount of drag your current aero settings generate in relation to the amount of downforce they produce. For example: A high rear wing wicker setting combined with a low rear wing angle can generate the same [...]
Knobs Explained
November 13th, 2010
Extracting the maximum performance from the fiendishly complex new Williams-Toyota FW31 figures to be a major challenge. Luckily there are some simple things to remember when dealing with the few controls available for in-sim adjustment of the car set-up. First don’t be distracted by the colors of the buttons – they are meant to keep help you keep your bearings when selecting parameters from the LED display menu. Luckily the colors are rather intuitive: Green = Yes/Enter Red = Drop/Subtract Yellow = 6 Orange = Repuldurance Blue = Re-introvert/Start Over The blue dials correspond to the monopodial shaft vibrocompensator settings. On the left is the ENTabulator, on the right is the EXTabulator, and in the middle is –of course — the MID range retro encabulator. For right hand turns one [...]
My Netflix Queue is ‘Going Faster’
by Ray Bryden on September 18th, 2010
I’m in the doghouse at home. Perhaps I deserve it. I convinced the family we needed to subscribe to Netflix because of the streaming movies we could watch on our new DVD player, and also get a steady stream of DVD’s sent to the house to watch at will. Of course I had an ulterior motive – I had learned that Going Faster, the Skip Barber Racing School DVD, was part of the Netflix library and I was eager to study it. Several weeks later it is still in my DVD player and we still haven’t nudged the queue to the next DVD on the family list. It’s not an addictive disc to watch, and it does cover a lot of the same ground as the iRacing driving school, but [...]
iRacing Takes Realism To The Next Level
by John Bodin on August 8th, 2010
With the 2010 Season 3 build, iRacing unveiled a new transmission model that introduces a much higher level of realism to the online racing mix in terms of shifting options. Previously, clicking out of a gear or into another gear would instantly do just that – regardless of whether or not such a gear change would actually be physically possible. The new transmission model changes that by properly modeling fully-automated sequential, dog-box sequential with throttle cut, dog-box sequential, dog-box h-pattern, and synchromesh h-pattern transmissions depending on the car type and the transmission type associated with the car in real life. This sounds great, but what does the new transmission model really do, and how do these changes affect the cars in iRacing? According to the Season 3 release notes, when [...]
Fixed Setups — Creating A Level Playing Field?
by John Bodin on August 7th, 2010
All of this talk about fixed setups got me to thinking, and when it comes down to it, I realized that I don’t really have a good idea of how fixed setups would impact me, personally. So as an experiment I ran an online race in the Rookie Solstice last night, just to see what jumping into a fixed-setup race would be like. Laguna Seca is a track I’m pretty familiar and comfortable with. I did my time in the Solstice as quickly as possible just so I could move on to the Spec Racer Ford at the Advanced Rookie level — I’ve run a few races in the Solstice this season for fun, and even though I’m more comfortable and safe in it during race conditions than your typical [...]
Fixed Setups and iRacing: Empowering Your Inner Driver or Frustrating Your Inner Engineer?
by John Bodin on August 4th, 2010
When iRacing unveiled the 2010 Season 3 schedule they also announced the addition of two new fixed-setup series — both of these fixed-setup series will be B-Class series, featuring the C6.R Corvette on the road course side, and the Impala SS Class B on the oval side. These new fixed-setup series will run in addition to the existing open (adjustable) setup iRacing GT Championship and NASCAR iRacing Class B series on the same schedule but with race distances set at 50% of the adjustable setup events. Fixed setups are nothing new to iRacing — every member initially stated out in fixed-setup series: The Rookie Legends on the oval side is a fixed-setup series, and the Rookie Solstice on the road racing side is also a fixed-setup series. Moving up the [...]
Sharp Abe’s Short Tracks
by Ray Bryden on July 17th, 2010
My old buddy Abe was a tall imposing guy; kind of scary-looking in fact. I found out how scary one time when I asked him to remove a tree for me. I came back hours later and he was still getting his axe ready. You see, Abe was kind of a bit crazy about preparation. His axiom was “give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” I learned a lot about preparation that day. Like when you see Abe heading in your direction with an axe he’s been sharpening for hours, find a soft patch of grass when the wooziness hits. After I regained consciousness, I realized Abe was a wise man. My light-headedness was solely from a fear [...]
Hot and Tired
by Ray Bryden on July 3rd, 2010
I have always been confused by sim racers who complain about the tire temperatures being meaningless and wrong in iRacing, as I have always had the opposite experience since they tweaked the tire model last year. In fact, I find that reading the tire temperatures is vital when trying to tweak a setup. There are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, tire temperature is highly transient and tends to spike as the result of high corning loads. Thus the temperatures you observe will depend somewhat on what has happened to the tires the seconds immediately preceding your exit from the track. For instance, a long progression down pit lane at slow speed will cool-off the tire and may reflect the straight-line aspect of camber on the contact [...]
Tips from a Human Sim-Racer
by Ryan Terpstra on July 1st, 2010
Welcome to tips from a human sim-racer. Unlike the alien iRacers I only have two eyes, two hands and two feet. I don’t have eyes in the back of my head and my reflexes are only slightly better than average. This article is designed to help you increase your iRating and lower your lap times. While many of you don’t know me as I am relatively new to iRacing sim racing isn’t an entirely new concept to me. The techniques that I use to be fast should be able to help anyone improve their times. The first thing I like to do is start with a base setup depending on the type of track I’m driving. A track like Road Atlanta with a lot of elevation changes and some fast [...]
Sim Racing Setup Advice from a Blockhead
by Ray Bryden on June 5th, 2010
William Blake said that only blockheads copy each other, but obviously he’s never tried to set up a racecar, real or simulated. While working on setting-up the Dallara for the iRacing.com Indy 500 event, I was struck by some of the detailed advice Dale Jr had made on the iRacing forums about setting up the COT, which was a great ‘teach a man to fish’ kind of moment. But I also relied upon some other advice I stumbled upon on the Buddy Fey blog site called ‘The Race Engineer’ (http://buddyfey.blogspot.com/). I hesitated to post the advice here for fear of being called-out as a plagarist/blockhead, but a couple of things convinced me that it is ok. First, they are not his words, but those of a colleague of his named [...]
Adjusting the Nut Behind the Wheel
by Ray Bryden on May 15th, 2010
We are often in search of the perfect setup, for obvious reasons. But doing a lot of tinkering in the garage can be quite intimidating, and at the end of it all there may not be a perfect universal setup since driving styles can differ from person to person. So a setup that feels optimal to one person may be undriveable to another. But there are some golden rules to keep in mind before worrying about getting dirt under your fingernails in the garage. Primary among them is that you have to know what the car is telling you, and this can only be achieved by running consistent laps until you know for sure what is happening. Don’t feel frustrated if you are not sure, just do more laps. If [...]



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