rec.autos.simulators

Regular viewers will be familiar with the schizoid adventures of Andrew McP in
iRacing-land. You will be sick and tired or reading about his whiney, in-out,
in-out (shake it all about the track) trips to the virtual world where nothing is
free except the speech in the forums... well, sort of. It's free if you've paid to
view them.

Is that free?

In the background I am downloading $90's worth of additional content. The man who
prides himself on doing iRacing on a budget ($20 + $20 + $54-ish + $25 + $90 now =
sh*tloads!) and avoiding the hypnotic, marketing-led stream of iTemptations, has
iCracked.

I could say it's because the Spec Ford Racer has inspired to to feel more at home
there. That wouldn't be a total lie... it's a great car and the racing I've had so
far in it has been exciting and closer than in the Skip Barber, with much bigger
fields than I'm used to.

And ok, it was just noticing that today's '24 heures du fun' race is the SRF at
Road Atlanta which led me to look at buying Road Atlanta again... and of course if
you buy 6 items you get 20% off. And I did want to buy the Mazda just in case I
wanted to shift up to Class B later, and I needed Sebring for the Skip Barber
series, and...

Three little words... slipperly effing slope! The road to Hell is paved with good
intentions, and I *so* intended to just sit back and enjoy the extra dimension the
SRF added to my iExperience.

I'm ashamed of myself! I had buyer's remorse even before I hit the buy button. In
fact part of the reason I actually did it was to punish my irrational self for
constantly *thinking* about buying more content.

But the worst is yet to come. In the background as I type there is a pickup truck

I could defend myself by saying that I have the SR to race up from D where I am now
on ovals. I don't race many ovals, but N2003 is still on my HD and I do enjoy the
whole 'pack racing' thing sometimes. I skipped D class content because they're
nearly all short circuits, and the 'all turn and no burn' format doesn't appeal.
That leaves me with no choice, if I want to try life on bigger ovals, but to buy
the iVan!

Oh well, it's done now.... though whether I'll be too ashamed to take it out on the
track is a different matter. As a pickup truck doubter there is something more than
a *little* hypocritical about it.

Mind you, I'll probably only get to race it once. One or two spins, or get mixed up
in a crash (they're apparently compulsory in the iVan), and my SR will plummet,
sending me back to the Rookie Legends to build it up again.

Pathetic, isn't it? I mean, I don't even want to race 50 lap races! Knew I
should've gone to bed instead of having a look to see if there was anyone racing.

Anyway, now the download's finished. I'm going to go visit my credit card site and
find out how many British sub-prime-pounds my $90 cost. Then I'm going to sob
myself to sleep.

Well, after a few laps at Road Atlanta in the SRF. :->

This is Andrew McP, your embedded reporter in iRac, signing off. May Gawd have
mercy on my soul! Or preferably my tyres. I need grip more than I need eternal life.

    My take in iRacing so far (I have little enthusiasm for sim racing atm
anyway) is that I don't like the idea of paying for mm perfect tracks - all
"sim tracks" are mm perfect anyway - they are what they are. It seems
simmers are used to subsidize the "training tool" - I don't care about the
training aspect at all! Also, by the sounds of things, simmers are pretty
limited and denied what many have become accustomed too - and I get the
impression that much of the reason is the "training tool" mentality as well.

    The lack of portability of the software (run only on iRacing servers)
seems to be a huge obstacle, particularly since you can't run your own
leagues - I don't want to be compromised by this rubbish - cater for
"simmers"
or..................................................................

I guess that makes me a John, not an Andrew. :-)

I suppose part of my semi-***ion is the fact that I am genuinely grateful that
this code exists. The West brothers offered a sim Holy Grail at one stage, but
sadly it went AWOL. GPL2 was always a dream I thought would never happen. But it
has happened, it's just they had to sell their soul to a Hedge Fund owner to make
it happen. A mixed blessing, perhaps, but would I prefer it if Dave Kaemmer etc
were sat at home with their feet up, watching daytime TV instead?

No, I wouldn't.

iRacing, for all its sins, continues to annoy and inspire me. But there are only
two choices... play the iGame or go back to sims where I no longer feel deeply
attached to the on-track experience, and have no reason to turn on the games
machine. I wasn't part of any particular sim community (and hadn't been for a long
time), and I rarely raced (never online). So I was, I suppose, waiting to be
inspired again... or to give up completely.

In that respect at least, there may be something 'evangelical' about my reluctant
conversion. Or maybe just having handed over money *makes* me drive. And when I
drive (instead of think about driving) I enjoy myself more often than when I just
sit around wishing for a version of iRacing which suited me better.

Anyway, as something of a control freak, the only way I can redeem myself from this
profligate spending will be to *definitely* not resubscribe at the end of June when
my cheap deal runs out. Taking the summer off will hopefully restore some kind of
sanity. :-)

Of course the more you spend inside the service, the more tempting it is not to
write off that 'investment' and continue to subscribe. I look forward to finding
out whether I have any willpower left whatsoever.

Andrew McP

PS I forgot it's pay day today. Mmm... maybe I should buy the Radical and Talladega
now? ;-)

1) The money I spent on the Mazda was pretty much wasted. It's both too easy and
too difficult to drive. By that I mean it suffers -- for me at least -- from too
much downforce right up to the point where you push too hard. Then my reaction
times are far too slow to cope. So while the sense of speed is nice (as in all
other 'f1-style' sims), it's not -- so far at least -- the same kind of involving
ride which leaps out at you from the Skip Barber and SRF.

2) I'm moving to Arkansas! :-) The trucks at a big oval like Daytona are an
absolute blast.... though the bumps scare the heck out of me with an approaching
pack catching up fast. There's more disconcerting jiggling than at a lap dancing
convention!

I haven't raced, but the long practice session (where you haven't got to worry
about points or your safety rating) are perfect for me. Half the fun is picking up
a passing pack in the first place. Then it's a case of*** on for your life,
knowing a whole heap of good-natured southern scorn is going to be heaped on you if
you wreck the party!

My heart hasn't pounded so much since I had to quit a Monza GPL race a long time
ago because I couldn't stop my hands shaking! :-) I may never commit to a 50 lap
race (too long for an amateur like me, with too much at stake for those who take it
more seriously, and with the prospect of many long, tedious laps on my own when I
lose the pack), but who needs races when the practice sessions can be such intense
fun?

I will no doubt calm down and get tired of turning left, but I just had an SRF race
and it was such a calm, soothing race in comparison that I nearly fell asleep at
the wheel! The only e***ment I had was getting close to the next car early on,
running one cone too deep into T1 before braking, and having a trip into lawnmower
land. That hardly compares with scraping along the walls at Daytona at 170mph, in a
pack.

Overall the iTruck may not be my preferred drive, but when you're up to speed you
don't really care what it looks like. I may regret spending more money, but I don't
regret the fun I had last night racing and listening to the collection of American
accents chatting on the comms. It was a real experience!

Andrew McP

<snip scary stuff>

Now, stop it! You made me recover my iRacing iPassword,
and login into iRacing again. Luckily I couldn't find the prices
of the cars and tracks, so that was enough for me not to subscribe
again. But it was a close call... I hope I've enough resistance when
they release the Lotus '79 f1 car...

Cheers!

Remco

You and the road-cars are like me and the circle track cars, I like the SK
mods best, then the trucks, then the impala's.  in real life I'm ready to
race the "legends" equivalent, called the mod lites.
(http://www.racesimcentral.net/)
website is blocked but I think you will get an idea.  They're a *** to
drive because they are too short.  lol.

> I hope I've enough resistance when
> they release the Lotus '79 f1 car...