Grassroots iRacing simulator set up

Toying with the idea of signing up again for iRacing and trying to set up a simulator in my house. I signed up for a trial of it several years ago. Had a wheel/pedals, but sat at an office desk. I found I never had time to play, so I sold the wheel/pedals and moved on.

Now my two boys are ages 11 and 8. They love playing Forza on Xbox. I know they'd go ape E36 M3 over iRacing. I'll play whenever time allows too.

How can I set up a simulator without dropping a fortune? Some of the fancy things I've seen are very nice, but I'd rather spend my cash on real racing. So how can I set up a somewhat realistic seat/pedal/wheel without spending a lot?

Take a race seat and make a nice rigid stand at the right height to sit at a desk. Mount wheel to desk. Make a box for the pedals that sets them at the right height for the seat. Use a piece of 1x1 .128 wall and a couple clamps to make it a fixed adjustable distance from the seat.

After dicking around for a long time with custom cabinets and all that - this works great and does not ruin the room or really have to be put away as it's under the desk.

It is my understanding that I racing is kind of serious in that they don't take kindly to messing around and what not. Unless you set up seoerate accounts for the kids or your kid take racing serious and will only race you may have issues with them plawung on iracing.

What is cheap? Give us a $$$$ amount. my rig wad well over $500 and that wad just the seat and the wheel. Add in the ps3 and the new tv and the new stand for the tv and you are getting over $2K. Granted my tv and stand are multy gaskets that also doubles as a home theater type arrangement but you can see that it adds up fasr and I was not going crazy with what I have.

Now, with that said above about how I do it... let me show you how my 15yr old plays PS4:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Openwheeler-SIMULATOR-Racing-Seat-Gaming-Chair-for-Logitech-G27-/301595007037

dean1484 wrote: It is my understanding that I racing is kind of serious in that they don't take kindly to messing around and what not. Unless you set up seoerate accounts for the kids or your kid take racing serious and will only race you may have issues with them plawung on iracing. What is cheap? Give us a $$$$ amount. my rig wad well over $500 and that wad just the seat and the wheel. Add in the ps3 and the new tv and the new stand for the tv and you are getting over $2K. Granted my tv and stand are multy gaskets that also doubles as a home theater type arrangement but you can see that it adds up fasr and I was not going crazy with what I have.

I honestly haven't even gotten as far as setting a budget, I'm just exploring possibilities at the moment. When I did iRacing before, I was never in a league or "live" racing, it was just running solo laps. I'd start them out doing that and I'd hope there's something where they can play...though they do take the racing on Forza pretty serious. I'd try to steer clear of people who take it that seriously anyway. I think I'd feel the same way about iRacing as I do about LeMons...I'm here to have fun. Yes, competing is great, but at the end of the day iRacing is a video game and LeMons is not F1. I try to avoid people who don't see it that way.

I'm not much of a woodworker/builder, but if I can get something that's fairly easy to build, I can probably tackle it.

GPS, I think I get the train of thought. Good idea.

Most people on iRacing take it somewhat seriously because of the time/money involved to get good, acquire tracks/cars, and that doesn't take into account the rig itself.

Between my seat/wheel/pedal setup, 3 27" monitors, big video card etc there is a few thousand in the rig alone. That ignores the subscription fee, costs to buy tracks/cars, etc.

Honestly I'd stick with leaving them on Forza for the time being, especially if it's just to turn laps.

If you are wanting to run on a PC, start with Assetto Corsa. This is a very highly reviewed sim racer without the group racing of iRacing. I am not sure about multiplayer but it is definitely not as serious as iRacer. For a wheel, you can get a logitech G27 for around $240 on amazon, thrustmaster (300 or 500, 350ish and 500ish) or step up to buying Fanatec stuff (anywhere from $300 for a setup to several thousand). I plan to get a G27 at some point and start a mini time trial league in my basement.

I don't have a lot of experience with Forza, I rarely watch them play and have only played it once. It's fun, but it's nowhere near as realistic as iRacing. They are still using the standard Xbox controller thingy. I don't even know...will Forza work with pedals and a wheel?

Or get a ps3 and come join us in the grm gt6 racing. Fun competitive but friendly and we stress clean racing. Allaircooled has done a great job setting it up and has got a great balance of fun and competition.

This is my setup.

I actually got a new tv stand/ entertainment cabinet to sit the screen on so it I at the proper height when I am sitting in the driving seat.

Including the new stand I am well over 2k but it looks nice and that is a big plus.

To give you some scale that is a 42 inch Sony screen.

Mine is pretty cheap.... DFGT wheel ($100) and a Walmart folding card table ($40).

Definitely not the best, but it has served well and has the added benefit of cleaning up into practically nothing.

In reply to BradLTL:

The ability to hide it when not in use is what will usually reduce cost. I got sick of trying to make my setup so I could hide it. This necessitated me getting a nice tv and the nice cabinet. The only thing I have to move now is the wheel and seat and I have that on a small rug turned upside-down so it slides on the wood floor. I can slide it out and hook I up in less than a minute. In the end it made things much nicer

In reply to Klayfish:

I think based on what you want to do with the kids, iRacing isn't the place to go. People pay money and the structure is rather rigid. I know they just launched some league component to the game where the league can set up their own rules. If you find a just for fun league then go for it. Otherwise, I as a former iRacing guy would be VERY peeved to have just for fun crash derby goof offs in my races.

I would say leave them of Forza, the jump to wheel and pedals there will be a big plus already. Hit up craigslist, game spot, and this forum or other sim forums for used wheel and pedals. Rigs can be anything you want, bought for $300-2000(I have a RSEAT.com product), made for less than $100 if you find trashed furniture to break apart, or used on craigslist. If DIY then seek out a recaro passenger seat from a wreaked STI/Evo/etc. Hold a woodworking event with the boys and bam you have a whole new racing experience for the boys.

Alternate plan is to spend any other current funding on the money pits called used racing karts. Then get them GT7/PS4 when it comes out and a wheel and pedals for that. Why GT7/PS4? Well the wheel and pedals that are used on PS3 currently are the same as used on PC, I assume this will stay the same, so you can swap between GT7 and iRacing at ease with no additional equipment costs.

singleslammer wrote: If you are wanting to run on a PC, start with Assetto Corsa.

It's nice to look at for sure, but I don't find the physics very realistic.

Also, if you want to run more than one monitor (with settings to take advantage of the graphics), you'd better have a monster of a machine.

I have a 3.2Ghz quad AMD (old CPU) and a pretty nice video card R9 290, and it get's bogged down quickly trying to push 3 monitors in HD. I suspect it would be fine with one monitor, but that's lame.

Yes there are wheel and pedal set ups for Forza just not as many as other systems. I have Forza 4 and use a Thrustmaster. Not bad but no force feedback. But it was under $100 iirc. I want a Fanatec set up someday. If you dont like woodworking there are frame designs out there made with pvc pipe and fittings. I have one drawn up and the pvc bought just never have built it yet. I need to get to the junkyard for a seat also. Fyi triple screens with forza 4 takes 3 xbox 360s and 3 copies of the game.

Check out the forums at Inside Sim Racing www.isrtv.com for lots of homebuilt rig ideas.

I think the biggest factor to consider is if you have a dedicated place for it, or are you going to have to move it/hide it only bringing it out occasionally. Everything in my setup was bought used, except for the PS3 itself. I have a dedicated space for mine and built it accordingly. The only reason I am not on iRacing is because I don't have a computer that will run it adequately. I suffered through a couple years of running it as basic as possible and still barely breaking a double digit frame rate. My build thread has been whored around a lot recently but just in case you missed it.http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/my-50-diy-sim-rig-build/57426/page1/