iracing.com

[Silver-Sylph]

The 3 month for the price of 1 is definitely worth it for anybody to try. If you're decent and a clean driver you will quickly find yourself out of rookie with a D licence, that is where the money needs to be spent. You need (for road racing) either the Mustang or the Skip Barber car and a few tracks to be able to progress any further, unless you want to continue racing in rookie events (which is quite ok and fun to do) it gets expensive from there on, the more you progress the more money you need to spend.

This is what stopped me from trying it.....👎

 

[DaveTheStalker]

This is what stopped me from trying it.....👎

EXACTLY! You are required to spend a boat load of cash to race what you want. Quite sad.

There is no way I could justify (to my wife) dumping money into iRacing hand over fist.

 

[GORDATA2NICE]

I am in the same boat, just got promoted to D license and now i can race in other events but i need to spend about $120 in tracks and cars to complete the series and i am thinking about it twice. The graphics and physics are great but the price spent is off the top. I am on the three for one promotion and i dont think i am going to spend the cash to renew at this time.

 

[Bigbazz]

I really wanna get into it! But when you say spend money, what do you mean?

You get the basic package as part of the subscription which allows you to install the sim and run the rookie licence races, if you want to stay here then you don't need to spend anymore money, there are championships involved with it and time trials just as with any other of the events.

Currently that includes.

Road Racing :

Cars: Mazda Mx5 (2 versions), Pontiac Solstice (2 versions), Spec Racer Ford
Tracks : Lime Rock Park, Laguna Seca Raceway, Summit Point Raceway. (+ Okayama next week)


Oval Racing

Cars : Legends 34' Coupe (2 versions), Street Stock.
Tracks: Charlotte Motor Speedway, Lanier National Speedway, Oxford Plains Speedway, South Boston Speedway, Thompson International Speedway.


Those cars you race either to compete in their respective championships, simply to earn your D racing licence or both. Some people are happy running those championships and they are fun but to move to faster cars and bigger series you must buy the content.

Example.

D Licence series ( You must run D licence events in order to move to C licence). There are 3 possible racing series you can enter in Road racing to allow you to move up, all of them require you spend money (real money) to purchase the car to run them.

iRacing Mustang Cup :

Car : Ford Mustang FR500S - $11.95

Tracks : 11 races, you need to run 8 races to count points for a full season, 3 of the road tracks you already own are on the event, so you must purchase a minimum of 5 tracks to complete a season.

Full circuits cost $14.95 each and smaller speedways cost $11.95 each.


If you're a clean and safe enough driver and you progress to the C licence with the mustang and want to progress further you then need to buy another car, and more tracks in order to compete in the C licence based events.


This is why iRacing is expensive, very cheap to start and it is a great service, the best sim around and by far the best online racing, but unless you're happy driving the MX-5 (which is great fun by the way) or other rookie races then you're going to need to spend money. The more you progress, the more money you need to spend. You may just want to race the F1 car, but you cannot get the licence to drive the F1 car without racing the lower series cars first, which means you have to buy all of those cars.


Without the right licence you can only use your higher licence cars in test sessions and (next patch) in the future practice sessions. But no time trials qualifying or races without the licence.

 

[OLDSKOOLACURA]

I've always be interested in this from people say, but why do they make you spend all that money (also when all said and done, how much would it add up to?)

I might try it when my G27 comes, I have my laptop right next to my 47" LCD. So I would be able to plug it in with the HDMI cable and then play it on the tv.

I prob will give the trial version a try.

 

[Bigbazz]

I've always be interested in this from people say, but why do they make you spend all that money (also when all said and done, how much would it add up to?)

I might try it when my G27 comes, I have my laptop right next to my 47" LCD. So I would be able to plug it in with the HDMI cable and then play it on the tv.

I prob will give the trial version a try.

Around $87 to buy enough content for a full points season in the Mustang cup, one of the D licence series you can compete in after getting your D licence from rookie races. It depends on what series you want to run in, that price still does not include all of the events for the Mustang series, so some weeks you won't even be able to run it. If you move to the C licence a bunch of new series become available using faster cars, and how much it costs depends on what you choose to run.


Basically each series runs at 1 track per week, so if you do not own that track then you cannot run in the series for that week. Obviously some tracks will be used for many different series, and others not. Generally you need to buy a lot of cars and a lot of tracks to get up to an A licence (aswell as being very consistant, clean and safe).

An example though, I've been a member of iRacing since last november and have always been at D licence, because I could not afford to buy content, I bought some more recently and that has allowed me to do what I needed to get the C licence. I have owned the F1 car and some tracks since joining as part of the F1 promotional membership offer, but have only been able to drive them in test sessions offline and the non official Formula Fun series, because I could not progress to the licence without buying more content.

 

[OLDSKOOLACURA]

Around $87 to buy enough content for a full points season in the Mustang cup, one of the D licence series you can compete in after getting your D licence from rookie races. It depends on what series you want to run in, that price still does not include all of the events for the Mustang series, so some weeks you won't even be able to run it. If you move to the C licence a bunch of new series become available using faster cars, and how much it costs depends on what you choose to run.


Basically each series runs at 1 track per week, so if you do not own that track then you cannot run in the series for that week. Obviously some tracks will be used for many different series, and others not. Generally you need to buy a lot of cars and a lot of tracks to get up to an A licence (aswell as being very consistant, clean and safe).

An example though, I've been a member of iRacing since last november and have always been at D licence, because I could not afford to buy content, I bought some more recently and that has allowed me to do what I needed to get the C licence. I have owned the F1 car and some tracks since joining as part of the F1 promotional membership offer, but have only been able to drive them in test sessions offline and the non official Formula Fun series, because I could not progress to the licence without buying more content.

thank you.

So it is kinda laid out like real racing? one week this class and this track the next week this class at this track. Also is that the only time you can run online, during the scheduled race time/date? So if I'm at work or class and that is when a race is I'll miss it for the week?

I'm liking this more and more

 

[RACECAR]

Say all I want to progress up to is the Nascar vehicles like the Camping World Series Truck, the Nationwide Series car and the Sprint cup car. How much would need to be spent just to progress that far?

 

[Bigbazz]

thank you.

So it is kinda laid out like real racing? one week this class and this track the next week this class at this track. Also is that the only time you can run online, during the scheduled race time/date? So if I'm at work or class and that is when a race is I'll miss it for the week?

I'm liking this more and more

Well at Rookie and D licence level you have many options available to you, different series running in the cars, some mixed series. Lets take a look at the Nvidia cup, or the MX-5 cup for example.

Week 1 - Lime Rock :

You set a qualifying time for the week in a qualifying session, these happen every 30minutes and you must put yourself in for it usually with about 5mins notice. You join the session and run your qualifying laps, the fastest lap will be used for all races at that circuit that week, you can do as many qualifying sessions as you want.

Race, these happen every 1-2 hours (depends on the series), MX-5 races run every hour and the race is roughly 20minutes long at average pace. You join the race and the grid is made up by your qualifying time for this week, if you have no qualifying time you get put at the back behind the guys with times. You run your race, and you get points based on position and based on the strength of the field of drivers you are racing in.

You can then run another race in the next hour, and as many times as you want for the week at that track, the highest point scoring race is the only one that counts (I think).

Strength of racers is a rating called "iRating" this will increase or decrease based on your positions in races and based on the strength of the field. Winning a race with many high iRating drivers is obviously better than winning a race vs low iRating drivers.

On the next week the track changes to Laguna Seca, you then need to repeat that process. The MX-5 Nvidia cup is a 2 race championship, so you combine the points you earned in the 2 events.

You can race in as many series as you want.

Licences are given based on how safe you are as a driver, not how fast you are. Each track off, spin, crash or contact will give you an "Incident" penalty point. Getting from Rookie licence to D licence is fairly easy, but the higher you go the harder it is, based on how many corners you can average without making a mistake, if you have a bad race you will lose rating, if you have a good race you will gain rating. Just as in real life it is common for the top drivers to have a completely clean race, this system is what keeps things from being a ramming fest, as if you drive like a dick you wont get out of rookie licence. But also like in real life, accidents happen.

Example, to move from D to C you need to run 4 races or 4 valid time trial events in a D licence series, while keeping your safety rating above 3.0, getting it above 4.0 is an instant promotion, so long as you have run the compulsory ammount of events, if you do not get it above 4.0 then you will be promoted at the date written in the calender on the site.

 

[Bigbazz]

Say all I want to progress up to is the Nascar vehicles like the Camping World Series Truck, the Nationwide Series car and the Sprint cup car. How much would need to be spent just to progress that far?

I honestly have no idea, but you will need to buy all of the cars + the tracks. There are a lot of cars and tracks you will need to buy.

Small speedways cost $11.95 each, all cars cost $11.95 each and large circuits (like Daytona) cost $14.95.

You will need a whole bunch of these, expect to probably spend a few hundred bucks to get to the Class A Sprint cup car as it is an A licence oval series. The Trucks are C licence, Nationwide is B licence.

Class A Sprint Cup has 11 events, 10 of those tracks are not included in the basic package.

 

[OLDSKOOLACURA]

Thanks again Bigbazz 👍

I will deffenityly give this a try when my G27 comes. I kinda stopped playing racing games until then, I love my DFGT but I'm looking forward to the G27

 

[Jav]

I honestly have no idea, but you will need to buy all of the cars + the tracks. There are a lot of cars and tracks you will need to buy.

Small speedways cost $11.95 each, all cars cost $11.95 each and large circuits (like Daytona) cost $14.95.

You will need a whole bunch of these, expect to probably spend a few hundred bucks to get to the Class A Sprint cup car as it is an A licence oval series. The Trucks are C licence, Nationwide is B licence.

Class A Sprint Cup has 11 events, 10 of those tracks are not included in the basic package.

Thank's for braking it down for us man! It sounds like a great system, and after all it is a business and in order to offer a product like this they have to charge us.
I really want to give it a try and as long as I can afford it I will keep on doing it. Whenever I find myself in a possition where I'm stock and can't afford to prgress any more I'll simply move on. Definitely gonna go for the 3 for 1 promo!

 

[isamu]

Posted by BlurredVision over at NeoGaf:

I found this question interesting, so I logged on to see if I could get maybe a little more specific number than what jlevel13 provided.

Cars

There are 23 vehicles total at this very moment. I'm counting the Modified as one even though you get two separate vehicles (SK and Tour) with one purchase. Of those 23, 5 are included in the base subscription and do not cost extra. Vehicles are a set $11.95 apiece, so without any discounts, you're looking at $215.10 for 18 vehicles.

Tracks

I counted a total of 45 tracks (+1 free track next week), of which 9 are included in the base subscription and do not cost extra. Most of these have multiple configurations for the one purchase. Most tracks are $14.95 although some of the smaller tracks are $11.95. I'm currently unable to see which cost less because I've bought most of them. I'm confident that of the 36 purchasable tracks, there are at least 6 that are $11.95, so I'm going to use that as my number. My final price may be give-or-take, let's say, $9. Without any discounts, you're looking at $520.20 for 36 tracks.

When you license any 3-5 pieces of content at the same time, you get a 10% discount. If you license any 6+ pieces of content, you get a 20% discount. If you license ALL remaining content (cars + tracks) that you do not have, you get a 25% discount.

So if you signed up for a subscription and decided that you had to have all of the tracks (no cars) immediately, you'd pay $416.16 after the 20% discount. If you decided to license everything they offered in regards to tracks and cars, you'd pay $551.47 after the 25% discount. These prices are not including any monthly/yearly subscription fees you have to pay just to access these licenses.

Like was already answered before, iRacing does preserve your licensed content between lapsed subscriptions. You only need to license content once in your lifetime for your account. I subbed a couple years ago and bought some tracks and cars. I let my sub lapse for about a year and just signed back up last week. I still have all the cars and tracks I licensed from before. They will stay with my account until iRacing shutters their doors.

 

[Rich S]

I dont know if I want to spend $500+ on this to get my F1 car. But then again PS3's + Gran Turismo is $350 + the DFGT that was $129.99. So once you get passed the start up its not out of the ball park expensive.

I'm thinking about it in the next 6 months if Gran Turismo doesnt have new track content and the new F1 2011 game has no physics engine again (like the last one).

i racing really sounds fun, I think they should suck it up and laser scan the Nordshliefe.

 

[Bigbazz]

I dont know if I want to spend $500+ on this to get my F1 car. But then again PS3's + Gran Turismo is $350 + the DFGT that was $129.99. So once you get passed the start up its not out of the ball park expensive.

I'm thinking about it in the next 6 months if Gran Turismo doesnt have new track content and the new F1 2011 game has no physics engine again (like the last one).

i racing really sounds fun, I think they should suck it up and laser scan the Nordshliefe.

Dont forget that the above counts all of the content, that is including the Oval + all Road content.

You would only need enought content to allow you to progress to the Formula 1 car (Road series) and the content to run it. If you time things right you can get to A licence and skip some of it.


Lets say for example we use Silverstone, a popular circuit that is used in a few series including the F1. You race rookie races, push your way to a D licence through fast track by aquiring a 4.0 Rookie safety rating, this will instantly put you at a D licence 3.4 (ish).

Then you race in the Mustang, which runs Silverstone, running your 4 time trials or races and pushing your safety rating back up to 4.0 at this single event. You are now at C licence, 3.4 (roughly).

You then choose your next purchases..

With careful purchases and timing, along with good driving you will be at your A licence.

(you can do it all with Time trials if needs must, which while taking a lot of time only requires you to run lots of clean laps, and takes away the risk factor of races).

Though I don't recommend rushing, unless you are highly experienced with racing F1 simulator titles you will have a hard time being anywhere near competitive when you get there and you will crash the car quite often in the quest for fast laps, if your experience is mainly GT5 you are probably not ready for exactly how clean and consistant you need to be in order to keep hold of an A licence.


Practice and Test sessions do not count towards safety rating or licences, so you can crash as much as you want there while practicing. You will likely need to spend a lot of time there, especially if you intend to quickly move to the higher licence cars. There is also a Formula Fun series, non official meaning there are no championship points and there is no safety rating involved, or no licence required. It runs at Lime Rock and Laguna Seca and you can have some pretty good fun racing the cars there, to get a taste for it.

 

[hampus_dh]

Should also be mentioned that you don´t have to buy everything.
Many people including myself doesn´t really do full season even though i have all the tracks.

One week there is something interesting in one series then i´ll do that week, then change but for the most part i do Grand Am, the Daytona Prototype is my baby

I sub every 3 months mainly because i was unsure of if i would continue playing.
3 months / $30 for me is absolutely nothing. $10 per month here in sweden is the equivalent of three 33cl coca cola cans.

But if you are smart you go for a full year when one of the rebate ads pop up, usually it´s $75 for a year and some rebates that isn´t ment a member you get other stuff like Spa, Silverstone & the FW31 Williams etc.

1 year / $75 = $6.25 a month, you probably spend more money on coffee that month so as far as subscription goes you can get it cheap if you commit yourself.
I play maybe once a week with another day of practice and for me it´s worth every single penny despite paying $10 a month.

I can drive any road series i want and if i were to buy the remaining content i would have to pay 219,69 with 25% discount for 22 items! that is alot of tracks and cars imo.

I don´t run ovals mainly because i like to turn right sometimes

Without any discount there are,

4 cars for $11.95
8 tracks for $11.95
10 tracks for $14.95

And that is only oval content minus three oval cars i bought just for the heck of it (can´t even leave the pits in some of them LOL assymmetrica stuff should not be on road courses!
Late model is just fantastic on Spa, it actually stops well and with a symmetrical setup it´s massive fun.

So i think i´ve spent around $200-300 top for everything.
If i knew what i know now i could have taken 25% of that easy to save even more money.

 

[hampus_dh]

Right now you can get a full year of subscription, 6 cars and 8 tracks (soon 9 tracks)

For $69, That´s $5.75 month! Nothing imo.
It´s valid until 1 August so you have some time to think about it.

Then in August we will have the new tire model which will take things to another level.

Acura ARX-01c (Le Mans 2010 winner)
Doran Ford GT GT2 (backmarker from ALMS)
Driver swaps (ability to do real endurance races for 6 hours and such)

Suzuka etc.

Motegi, Tsukuba is also tracks that will be coming, there might be a chance that Tsukuba will be free aswell, it´s a small track.
Not to mention a whole pile of other tracks they have scanned like Long Beach (which has cost them $500.000 as of now since it isn´t playable yet due to the track side object being way to many) Oulton Park, Oran Park, Mosport Oval (will be free if you have Mosport already) etc etc.

Then you have Interlagos that i think will arrive before the end of the year.

Just alot of stuff coming and i´m the first one to say that when i joined, iRacing felt like a Demo.
Now we are seeing the step from Demo to a full fledged game imo with alot of content.

Also, the more members that join, the lower the sub and content prizes will be.

 

[Bigbazz]

I enjoyed doing the Rookie Oval races, was last year when I did them but I completely had a blast, even though NASCAR has never been my thing, and I was screaming "Iaaammm gonnna turn leeeeefftt, then am gonna do it again"... I found myself getting into it quite a bit. Been tempted to buy some Oval content but there is just so much of it, I cant bring myself to buy it over Road stuff.

So far since joining last november i have aquired.

Tracks

Silverstone
Zandvoort - Both part of the F1 package deal when I signed up for 3 months.

Spa - Preordered this, was released around christmas time, one of my fav tracks I couldnt resist.
Road America - Recently got it as I really liked the track on Shift 2.
Brands Hatch - A friend always talks about track days there IRL, so I got it to see what the fuss was about.

I got those mainly because I wanted to drive around them in offline mode, was not thinking about the series racing.

Cars

Mustang FR500S - Needed something with more power than the Mx-5, it was a D licence car so it made sense.
Radical SR8 - Wanted something insanely fast that wasnt a Formula type car, very difficult to drive but very rewarding when you get it right.
Corvette C6R - Couldnt resist it, A GT1 Le Mans car was the perfect car to fill the void and it runs alongside the SR8 in a mixed series, so it goes well.
Williams FW31 F1 car - Got it free when i signed up along with the tracks, this was the main reason I signed up to iRacing, it is an amazing car but driving it fast takes a lot of skill.

I pretty much got all of the above with the intent of just running my own test sessions and hotlapping for fun, I play for the enjoyment of the driving experience so for me its not about working through different series so much, I just buy the cars and tracks I am interested in running hotlaps at.


Too long didnt read

I like iRacing for hotlapping and have just bought the cars and tracks I wanted, for driving experience iRacing is the best out there, constantly being updated, great sounds and great graphics, it gives me what GT5 cannot. But no love lost for GT5, I love it as much as I love iRacing, for different reasons.

 

[isamu]

Motegi, Tsukuba

.....Oulton Park, Oran Park, Mosport Oval

....Then you have Interlagos

What about Miyatomi mini ring, Ebisu Circuit, Hazyview 8, Ambush Canyon, Willow Springs, or Tokyo Route 246? These are sorely missing.

 

[hampus_dh]

Yea GT5 is a great game, it´s two different types of games so i can´t see why people would choose sides.
I´ve been a GT fan since GT3 but this is the first one i did not buy.
I thought i´ll wait until GT6 instead and playing iRacing in the meantime.

Regarding graphics, three screens i took at a practice session with a teammate, i should use his skin but i love mine to much There´s nothing like it in Grand Am which is nice. It´s a BMW Art inspired car,

Everything set to max in game, i run almost full across three screens but without shadow volumes, they are not very optimised to run over three screens even though i have alot of horsepower to run the game.

Auto Color
Auto Contrast
Auto Tone
Blur
Sharpen x2
Resized to 800pix in width

 

[marchi]

Really enjoy iracing.
I'm not that great, but even if i use it for hot lapping and occasionally race. I'm only D Class.

Purchased tracks : Spa, Silverstone, Philip Island
Purchased Car: Late model 'shouldn't have bought it', FW31, V8 supercar

future purchases

Corvette, Zandvoort, Brands Hatch.

 

[hampus_dh]

I suggest the Riley aswell. It´s insanely fun.

 

[RACECAR]

What about Miyatomi mini ring, Ebisu Circuit, Hazyview 8, Ambush Canyon, Willow Springs, or Tokyo Route 246?

Please tell me you're joking. Ebisu is a drift circuit and last I checked, iRacing doesn't do drifting. As for the other tracks bolded, those aren't even real circuits and Tokyo is a fictional Street circuit, another thing iRacing doesn't do.

 

[Jav]

Ok, got a question! Are you free to select any 6 cars and 8 tracks you want, or do you have to go 3 road racing cars/3 oval cars and 4 rr tracks/4 oval tracks?

 

[hampus_dh]

It´s a fixed set of cars. Check the homepage for information Jav.

 

[hampus_dh]

Please tell me you're joking. Ebisu is a drift circuit and last I checked, iRacing doesn't do drifting. As for the other tracks bolded, those aren't even real circuits and Tokyo is a fictional Street circuit, another thing iRacing doesn't do.

They have done Long Beach, but the problem with street circuits is time.
Just imagine Monaco, they would need 4 days of scanning probably and that would be during F1 weekend starting thursday the opens for friday then a circuit again on saturday, sunday.

Same with Le Mans, it is possible but they would need help from the local goverment and the event.

 

[Jav]

Yeah I was just there, Still looking forward to steping up to it!

 

[RACECAR]

They have done Long Beach, but the problem with street circuits is time.
Just imagine Monaco, they would need 4 days of scanning probably and that would be during F1 weekend starting thursday the opens for friday then a circuit again on saturday, sunday.

Same with Le Mans, it is possible but they would need help from the local goverment and the event.

I think you've missunderstood what I was saying. My point isn't that iRacing won't do street circuits, I said they don't do fictional circuits, in otherwords no made up tracks.

 

[hampus_dh]

Ahh i see sorry m8 I don´t know why that never registered really because it´s even underlined

 

[isamu]

Please tell me you're joking.

I *might* have been

But seriously, you can't deny how awesome it would be to have Tokyo Route 246 if they were to do fictional tracks. Can you imagine the Williams or Star Mazda going down that straight? *drools*