Is iRacing worth it?

[William Moody]

I have rfactor 2 and AC i am thinking of getting iracing just for the open wheelers is it worth it just for that?
If so how much would it be for 1 year membership and the open wheelers?

 

[Kristóf Kerekes]

Wait till St Patrick's Day, as someone said here on the forum. They usually have the discounts at that time. I'm doing the same atm, cause sadly I wasn't quick enough with decisionmaking at Xmas.

 

[swervedriver]

I would also add that it depends on which car you're interested in running. The Skip Barber is the most popular open wheeler by far, and you can get an official race pretty much at any time; some of the other cars have surprisingly low participation numbers. I was originally planning to run the Dallara this season until I saw that I'd never be able to get an official race (I can only race in the early morning, when the Dallara fields consist of about two or three cars).

 

[Martijn Hoekstra]

I got my favorite cars either way, I love driving in practice mode So much fun and no race stress. The V8 Supercar is the new heroin imo!

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

You will also have to drive cars you might not want to and buy tracks that you don't care for in order to get you license up to the class of car you want if you want to race it in official sessions....otherwise you will buy the car you want for $12 or so and tracks you want for $10 to $15 each and rent a hosted server at a rate of $1 an hour or so if you just want to race now...If you look around you can probably find a free trial membership to see if you like how the sim drives......I don't think it is worth much of anything and others think it would be a bargain at twice the price so you really need to try it and judge for yourself...If you can't find a free trial you can rent a month for $12

 

[William Moody]

hmm so i would need to work my way up lets say to drive the williams car in a race? then it dont sound so good i was just wanting to buy the open wheelers and just drive in races.
Think i1ll just stick to rfractor 2 for open wheelers then thanks anyways mate.

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

Yeah, if you want to race the F1 car it would be pretty pricey and would take at least a month or more working your way towards an A license. (the car was an A license a few months ago when I was still a member, it could have changed by now)

It gets pretty complicated because you have to work your way through the licenses by racing (or time trialing) different cars to work your way up to the A car. If you bought the car and track you could practice it in public servers but not race it.

 

[Martijn Hoekstra]

It requires a lot of effort and time to get to race the Williams you're aiming for.

 

[swervedriver]

It's still an A-license car, and a lot of pro-license guys aren't exactly thrilled with it. To quote one of the WDC forums: "The car is retarded". I haven't spent much time driving it so I don't really know what makes it "retarded", but it's not exactly iRacing's crown jewel at this point.

 

[William Levesque]

Yeah, if you want to race the F1 car it would be pretty pricey and would take at least a month or more working your way towards an A license.

Takes less than a week to get to A from D.

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

Takes less than a week to get to A from D.

I doubt he wants to spend 100 straight hours time trialing....

 

[muscimol]

It gets pretty complicated because you have to work your way through the licenses by racing (or time trialing) different cars to work your way up to the A car.

You can go up to the A license by buying only one car. First using Mazda MX-5 get the D license, then using included in base content Spec Racer Ford or Cadillac (if he used the Cadillac Promo) up to the C4.0.
Now he can choose any car driving in C or B series (I would recommend RUF - there are four different cars in the price of one) and get the license to at least B4.0 and he can race Williams FW31.

Of course you have to buy additional tracks, but when buying in bundles of 6 items you can have 20% discount.

Hosted sessions cost 50 cents per hour, not the $1.

As for the retarded comment about Williams - it used to have some quirks with it's tires, but right know it drives pretty well.

 

[sgspenceley]

Working your way through the license scheme is not hard, especially if you enjoy doing the time trials and race safely. The V5 tire model dramatically changed the feel of all the cars in a positive way in my opinion. The skip barber car is now fun to drive and a great way to learn car control and racing. The RUF porsche cars are really great fun to drive, great sound & handling.
In my opinion iRacing is only expensive if you choose to make it expensive, buying lots of cars & tracks. It offers great racing with just the base content.
The only negative is it takes a long time to master and their are lots & lots of really good drivers. If you come from GT5 or Forza and expect to win races you may be disappointed, you typically need to earn the wins which provides more driver satisfaction.

At the moment they have 50% off all memberships. Often you can get specials which include extra track & car.
http://www.iracing.com/membership/

 

[William Levesque]

I doubt he wants to spend 100 straight hours time trialing....

He can race... If you don't drive like an idiot and also realise that most don't know how to drive, it takes less than 20 races to get there.

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

Do you really think somebody that doesn't know how to drive iracing is going to have 20 clean races in 3 or 4 different cars on several different tracks right out of the gate? There are plenty of experienced sim racers that can't even leave pit road and complete a lap for a week or two...doesn't really matter, I think he realizes that you can't just buy the car and jump into a race, it's quite a bit more involved than that. It's also going to cost the better part of a hundred dollar bill.

 

[William Moody]

Well i got the 3 month sub so i`ll give it a try downloading it now.

 

[Bakkster]

Do you really think somebody that doesn't know how to drive iracing is going to have 20 clean races in 3 or 4 different cars on several different tracks right out of the gate? There are plenty of experienced sim racers that can't even leave pit road and complete a lap for a week or two...doesn't really matter, I think he realizes that you can't just buy the car and jump into a race, it's quite a bit more involved than that. It's also going to cost the better part of a hundred dollar bill.

I promoted pretty quick in both road and oval. Fifth race on road to get above R3.0 (the new fast track), sixth on oval, plus a few TTs in each while practicing but mostly racing. Had a win in each, and this was back when the rookie cars drove terrible and I was using the awful XBox wheel with combined medal axis.

I'll agree the F1 isn't an ideal destination unless you're dedicated and willing to schedule it (at which point, why not a league somewhere else, unless you're going DWC?). The Skippy is a solid open wheel choice for participation, if you prefer. Star Mazda and Radical go official for prime time as well. If you really want bang for the buck, buy the Ruf which gives you four models and three available series. I'd buy 1-2 cars, plus four or five tracks the series you're looking at use to get the 6-pack discount (presuming you like the rookie content). Between the Miata, GTC, GC, SRF, and cars you've bought you'll have plenty of options even if it isn't a full season in any of them. Costs about the same as a boxed title, and enough variety to keep you entertained and know if you want to focus on a certain series.

 

[Reinis Dreijers]

hmm so i would need to work my way up lets say to drive the williams car in a race? then it dont sound so good i was just wanting to buy the open wheelers and just drive in races.
Think i1ll just stick to rfractor 2 for open wheelers then thanks anyways mate.

You can drive Williams in private leagues and hosted races without need for A Class License

 

[Mark Hewitt]

Hearing that you have to progress up the licences must put a lot of potential customers off, but it really does stop casuals coming into the service and straight into the most powerful cars. As does the cost.
Yet I've had a few hobbies - RC planes, Flight Sim - and iRacing is by far the cheapest. Especially when you cost it per hour of entertainment.

If you are interested in Open Wheel racing, please have a look at my Skip Barber videos in the video section. Great wheel-to-wheel racing and races every hour.

 

[Thomas O'Leary]

in a word. Yes!