Comments on: Fixed Setups and iRacing: Empowering Your Inner Driver or Frustrating Your Inner Engineer?

By: Jay

Jay — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:50:01 +0000

Well said Alexandre, fixed setups certainly save time, I’ll concede that, but they definitely don’t do anything to level the playing field. Especially when you consider that a lot of the fast drivers share their setups with the public anyway. So if there are fast/good setups out there, what’s the need for fixed series when you already have the best setups available to you? In that sense what does it really accomplish for you?

Secondly what does level the playing field are the splits. So if you don’t have a setup equal to the fastest guys you still have the opportunity to be competitive. If you’re not being placed in the top split because of your setup, guess what, that’s simply the nature of racing.

Finally the fixed setup, for the Corvette, has taken away from the open series. Like I’ve said before it’s nice to have your options, but not at the expense of something else. There just aren’t enough active members to have this many series going right now.

By: Alexandre

Alexandre — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:27:58 +0000

“…should encourage more people to try racing in these
series thanks to the level playing field provided by the
option of racing in a fixed-setup series…”

some people will never understand that fixed setups
do not level any playing field, much less in the case of
the corvette, where you see people lapping 1.55s at
sebring while others are lapping 2.01s.

people who lap 1.55s in the fixed series would be the
fastest ones with open sets anyway. people who lap
2.01s would have difficulty in any corvette series, no
matter what restriction you made to it.

shorter distances are another matter and that, maybe
is what these people are looking for in the fixed series.

i don’t have an opinion on the oval side of things.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:47:14 +0000

I like fixed setup racing and I’m anxious to raise my license level high enough to be able to run the oval series.

The one “catch” to just “being the driver” is the fact that in the real world that engineer is still there to listen to our feedback and make changes accordingly. We don’t really get to give iRacing feedback to the fixed setups to make any changes let alone dial it in.

I can understand why people are frustrated, but their complaints don’t hold water as long as it doesn’t hurt participation in the open setup version of the series. In my opinion I suspect it will help. You run the fixed setup one day and get comfortable with the car and then you’re more apt to try the open setup on the same track even if you only run the fixed setup.

By: Mark A Warmington

Mark A Warmington — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 09:23:12 +0000

Good article and an interesting viewpoint on the topic that became quite emotive on the forums.

For many, the issue of realism never entered the debate. Instead – the emotive point for many was that the option to satisfy the inner engineer was being removed. The scenario we have now (fixed and open) resolved the issue as those wish to focus just on driving the car can do so and those who wish to develop their own understanding can do so.

It’s all about what you want to get from iRacing: some just want to race and some want to continue the development of their skill-set with what is arguably the finest racing simulation available to the general public.