I found a great deal on a 3-month subscription I pulled the trigger. Before I started, I read the entire tutorial and the guide. I felt like I was ready to go. I spent 3 days trying to get it installed properly on my computer and loaded. First day I emailed the tech support and they were no help, they just emailed me back and forth. I used the tech guides, but they seemed to be leading me in the wrong direction and ended up figuring it out myself. Finally, after getting it setup I was extremely excited, I went right to Mx-5 test and choose Summit. I turned up the graphics, because I recently got a new computer. To say the least I was disappointed in the graphics, but I felt as though this is a driver’s game, so the realism should take the place of that aspect. The Realism was okay, close to the Sim bin games but poor graphics.
I spent some time practicing all the different tracks. Now I am ready to race…unfortunately when I was ready to race. Nothing was available. Okay so the next day the timing was right and I found a truck race. Spent some time practicing, seemed to be a few clowns in the group. I qualified mid-pack, did not touch the setup just drove it as is. Before the first turn there was a wreck, I made it through clean. Next turn someone spun, I unfortunately I had nowhere to go and was hit into the wall then went into the grass. What grinded my gears is that I was docked for the crash and being off track. Therefore, I reset and continued on, few laps in someone dive bombs me and hits me into the wall; again, I see the screen flash the X2 for off track and an accident. Starting to get irritated. I reset again and start driving, it was mid-race and I had to take a quick break from the computer so I pulled over safely onto the apron and hit the tow button. Again, it flashes the off track. After a quick break, I came back down and finished the race mid-pack. So after that race I exited and it didn’t show that I received any points for the race.
I wanted to run MX-5 cup but it was not available and had to wait until later in the day. I was able to run Mx-5 cup at Summit. There was only 15 cars so not a huge race, probably the right amount for that size of a track. I again qualified mid-pack. Practice did not go well, more clowns I was spun into another car, luckily no points so I did not care. I qualified mid-pack. Drove up to 4th place, lost 3 spots, gathered it together and drove back to 5th place. The rest of the race went well only few issues with some lapped cars and a few points of lag but overall it was fun.
I decided to do some time trials; I read the instructions that you have to do whatever designated laps clean. First attempt did the specified number of laps clean and added 2 mote to place it safe. I exited the game and did not receive any points. Next TT I did double the laps, exited, and still did not get any points. 3rd time I did double the laps clean then sat in the pits waiting for the session to end, in which the clock just re-rolled when it got to zero. So I exited still no points. 4th time I did the same thing I double the amount of laps and waited until time expired an exited and it worked. So I will continue to do research, I even checked in the info portion that tells you if you had any points subtracted.

I currently have a G27 Logitech setup I have not dove in too much into changing the controls. In GTR-2, I have a button on the wheel that allows me to adjust the POV and FOV real-time, every game has that option. All the advice on changing the POV and FOV for IRacing occurs in the settings no real-time changes that I gather.

Obviously, there is a limited amount of cars to choose from which I do not have any issue, with but coming from an Rfactor Mods, Sim Bin Mods, and building my own tracks on GT5, $15 for a track seemed a bit high for me.

Overall, I feel as though some of the Sim Bin games such as Gtr2 is overall a better game, when it comes to, graphics, ease of the game and controls, and realism. In addition, you can modify them and run any track and car combination for free. Rfactor is similar but I always thought the game play was not as strong, I have only played the demo for Rfactor 2, so perhaps they have made some modifications. Obviously, IRacing has the money races, online play, and option to become pro; on the other hand, you have to pay every month unlike the sim bin games and sacrifice game play.

In reply to trigun7469:

Trucks and Dallara are free races at the rookie level which means there are no penalties for the X's you may get. Expect to be crashed out in those events and don't get too bent when you are.

MX5 cup is a good place to start. When you are a rookie you are still getting graded on how well you do and your safety is rated, but neither will show until you "graduate" up to D license. Keep at it. As you get better, iRacing puts you in better "splits" and you will eventually race with better opponents. But when you are a rookie you just need to hope for the best and try to stay clean. It does take practice.

I have a G29. I found a post in some forum somewhere that recommended settings that help the Gx family of wheels. I made them and they improved my driving experience tremendously

steeringFFBSmooth=0.5
steeringDampingMaxPercent=0.2

... both can be found in your Documents\iRacing\app.ini file

I was a member and participant for a long time and I would mostly agree that it's showing its NASCAR 2003 game engine roots and that the points/penalty system and scheduling for races is frustrating. It does not appear to dissuade asshattery but it certainly sucks the fun out of the driving. What real world qualifying lap doesn't count if you put 2 off? Stupid.

I was a B level racer running road racing only for a while but the races get more and more sparse the higher the level so I ended up running back in the crash fest open races just to find a full grid. It was better to be lucky than good - staying clean all race only to get smashed by a disgruntled backmarker stopped being fun.

I let it expire two years ago.

Watch their "auto-renewal," too. They turned that on by default and I didn't realize it until I got the $99 charge on my card. I complained to them and they kicked up a fuss about refunding it; they wanted to give me "iracing credit" rather than a credit card refund. They ended up dinging me a $10 or $15 fee for refunding it, which I strongly disagreed with but did not have the time or energy to fight.

Lesson is: make sure your auto-renewal is off. They do make it easy to turn it off, in your account settings. But my opinion is it should be off by default and opt-in.

In reply to Drew122: What did you use for the settings within the game for your race wheel?

I was fairly uninspired when I tried it out in 2011. There are so many good sims out now that paying for the the privilege of IRacing just doesn't seem compelling.

IRacing initial impressions

I've shifted completely over to console racing. Sure it's not as powerful as a PC, but the access to other players makes it worth it. Plus a PS4 is way cheaper than a top-notch Gaming PC.

Not to thread jack, but Project Cars 2 has a lot of similar features to IRacing (managed leagues, driver ratings, etc.) and we'll be running an organized league starting mid-October or so.

In reply to BradLTL: Project 2 for PC?

In reply to trigun7469:

PC and PS4 do not co-mingle. They play separate, so no cross play between console and pc.

Okay, I have been using the Ps4 version of Project cars III, so far it's good. I will post up how I got my G27 to work with the Ps4 in a couple of days.

So how did you get the big blue font?

In reply to dean1484:

HTML editor

trigun7469 wrote: In reply to Drew122: What did you use for the settings within the game for your race wheel?

Sorry for the slow response...

My other settings are:

• Steering wheel and map ranges both at 900
• Brakes force factor 1.73
• Enable force feedback checked. Linear mode and dampen oscillations both unchecked
• Strength 6.8 (To me, anything over 10 just felt too strong)
• Damping 0%
• Min force 10%

I still have fine tuning to do. The wheel has no feedback just off center and I'd like to correct that somehow.