I've been trying iRacing for a week now. Got a free trial so i thought why not.

Drove the Mazda MX-5 on a few tracks.

The physics are completely different than LFS. I feel like I basically have to start over from scratch learning how to drive on iRacing. After about 100 laps of the mx-5 I'm starting to get the hang of it. . . lapping somewhat competitively using a fixed baseline setup provided by iRacing.

I spin often in iRacing. There is very little feedback compared to LFS on when the rear is starting to lose traction. Once you lose traction it's very difficult for me to catch it, and if i do, i completely lose momentum. I have to concentrate much more in iRacing on just keeping the car on the road.

I read somewhere that stomping on the brakes on the MX-5 always gets you out of a spin. I thought it was a joke, and maybe it worked before they updated the tire model. But it's completely accurate. That's what I do now when i feel like i'm going in an unrecoverable spin. I just step 100% on the brakes and the car always stabilizes itself. That can't be right and is the opposite of what you're taught to do in real life.

So far, overall, I dislike the physics in iRacing at least for the MX-5.

The rest of the iRacing is excellent though, except the price. It's very expensive, even more than I thought. One year is at least $99 USD, and to compete at the lowest level series will cost me another ~$80 from buying all the tracks. And after buying the track, you don't get to race on it whenever you want (you can only practice on it whenever you want). You have to wait until the series starts using that track to race on it, and it's usually only for one week.

There are series which run the free cars and tracks but it's somewhat limited. For road racing, it's only the MX-5 and 4-5 tracks and i believe CTS-V with 4 tracks. Not terrible but definitely a huge difference compared to LFS's ~20 cars and however many tracks.

Good review and very nice of you to post it here

Besides the "technical" info you describe, can you tell something about the community? In comparence to LFS?
Because I like the communication of LFS (chat, LFS forum, this forum, teamspeak) at least as much as I like the racing part. How is that in / around i-racing?

Did you enable linear force feedback (recent addition, must be done from an ini file)? Allegedly it is a significant improvement.

the mx5 is fun. easy to drive.

if u must learn to drive mx5 use limerock. some funny corners there in 1st sector but is fun.

yes it feel different to lfs but u must never compare. always have open mind. i never drive iracing to compare i drive it to race because it something new. u must be smooth. gentle on throttle and braking or u can get lift off oversteer. brake in corner will make car upset and want to spin. so careful and on exit try keep throttle 3/4 untill u think u can have full throttle.

From what I've seen. There is not much community. I think it's mainly because in iRacing you can't choose who you race against. The system automatically splits everyone up based on their lap times. I've chatted with a few people using text chat after the race. But most of the time people immediately quit out after the race is over and i never see them again.

I have not used the voice chat function of iRacing. I don't have a microphone on my computer. The forums seem to be fairly active. Atleast more active than LFS and cargame.nl.

I live in Asia though, so when I race many of the english speaking countries are sleeping. The people that race with, i believe many do not speak english very well. It's possible, there is more of a community during US/European evenings.

I haven't tried linear force feedback. I will look into that. thanks.



I was hoping all the time that I spent on LFS would be useful to learn how to drive any car in any simulation. If both iRacing and LFS had very realistic physics then I would think switching between them would be very easy.

I have been racing the cadillac CTS-V which should be similar to XRR in LFS. They are much more similar in feeling than MX-5 versus XRG.

the cts is most fun i ever had. for me in lfs xrr is dull predictable. but cts is so alive its fun.

maybe after i get knowlege of tracks in mx5 i will enter cts . we can race along side each other

That's the problem with iRacing! It's difficult to race along side each other! We must have same qualifying lap time. . . even with same qualifying lap time there is a chance we will be placed in separate races.

I have a feeling you are much faster than me anyways.

I got iRacing for one year for $79 (found some bonus codes in internet). That was the biggest mistake i ever done. I got one car and 3 tracks. Then I had to buy tracks, about $15 each, to drive a series with about 10 - 12 race days, each a week. After that I got class up and had to buy at least one new car and new tracks, also about $15 each, to drive the higher series.

The physics are that what you said, completly different and in my opinion worst as LFS. I drove some more vehicles and i can tell you the handling wont be better.

But, the most horrable aspect in iRacing is the safty rating system. You get points in races for clear racing. Thats great so far. But if you go out track in a race, and the curbs counts as out track too, you'll get less points. If go out track more times or you spin while racing you'll get so much penalty points that in the end result you lose points. There is no room for the smallest mistakes. That sucks! That was one of the reasons why i stoped playing iRacing after my 2nd season or after about 6 weeks.

iRacing is a fucking commercial rubbish!

There isnt any ingame community like in LFS. Its a browser based game. That means everything you can do you do in a browser. The directX app starts only for a race and ends when the race is finished. The final result of the race you see in the browser. Its the opposite to LFS. You cant join a server like f.e. cargame s2. Its instance based.

well tbh. that is just ur driving. for it handles nice. yes ok it feels weird and some weird shit can happern but its easy. i won my first online race and picked up two more 2nd places. also. u must have 2 wheels on ground always and curbs dont count. dont know where u maked this bullshit up .



the iracing community is huge. just go forums. also u can talk ingame and join any session (friends, private, practice or race.)

it is like lfs. join a race. and rrace. u can talk during race and u can spectate others. it isnt musch different. just takes many time to adapt.

mazda series all cars and tracks are free as well as the street stock oval series so no you wouldnt your thinking of the d class series

but i do agree it was pricey when i first started but now after 3 years i own almost everything

Thanks! This made a huge improvement. I'm not afraid of spinning anymore. I can catch it almost every time now. Trying to improve my lap times are much more enjoyable.



Mazda series races on only two tracks. Street stock races on only two tracks. Not much variety.

Can you just join in the middle of someone else's race & start driving around willy-nilly?

no.

this is good thing. stop this mid joining noobs from ruining the races.

Now I know why some people don't like iRacing. I'm included on this fantastic group of people.

You are so childish franky

lol

because u dont agree with me i am childish?

mmkay