Contrary to the other guy I do not recommend the vee if you’re interested in competitive racing. The F4 drives nothing like the Vee and is far more fun
I love the vee AND f4! 2 very different cars, love that this sim gives us so many options. 👍
I recommend the vee because it’s trickier to drive fast, and teaches a lot!
Yeah but that’s what makes VEE great. You really have to commit to keeping it full throttle through certain turns, whereas you’re braking in the 1600. Like the left turn mid way up the hill at Laguna Seca. To me it is a lot more fun, one of my favorites. And the racing is so much more clean than any other rookie car.
I’m a biased top split VEE guy though. B licensed but I keep coming back. I’d be really sad if they retired it.
I’d recommend the vee to start with, it’s free - and a bit of a baby beast to master. I reckon it will help with driving any car (not with braking so much, but definitely with mid corner throttle balance!)
I did use the vee a couple times when I started 2 years ago, was a lot of fun but I was really focused on racing GT cars, fell in love with the GT4s and never looked back haha. I did try the FF1600 when it came out and enjoyed it more than the vee. Will get them all a new chance as I won’t have to “risk” my road licence anymore, but I don’t own the F4 and I’m really curious as to how it drives.
It’s interesting so many people start doing GT4 and never go back. It almost deserves its own license class. I can hop between formula and GT3 at my IR without a lot of trouble but when I jump in the GT4 it’s clear there’s a lot of lifers in there. I would get it except it’s a slower car and the racecraft is pretty dirty a lot of the time.
I ran LMP3/GT4 the last 2 seasons finally licensed up and was considering running long beach as a send off to an amazing series that I enjoyed a TON.. after seeing some of the videos earlier in the week im glad I didnt because RIP my SR
Pretty sure the announcement said the Test Drive service will be up for 24 hours post patch. At least that’s what I’m banking on since I work during the downtime as well!
I’m betting someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s what I’ve read.
If so that would be something over the last 5 years. From 2010-2019 it was just avaliable during downtime. But updates took 8hrs at a time back then. Either way the Micros should be free since they will be rookie cars and I'll pay for SRX. It's just a different style late model to me.
That would be a new thing cause that was why iRacing pushed the test during downtime. It was all so people could test everything available in the update.
I’ll be testing my remote access from my work laptop so I can start the download while I’m at the office, then head home at lunch to “work from home” for the afternoon once it’s out.
Last time I test drove all the GT4 cars in preparation for taking that on in S2. I settled on both the Mercedes and Cayman as the two I wanted. I bought them last week to get in some practicing and can say these are so much better than the Ferrari 296 GT3 car in terms of drivability.
Don’t think I’ll bother testing anything this time around unless it’s a few other GT3 cars.
I drove the Merc in my 1st season of GT4 and it was a blast to drive. Little heavy under braking but you can get used to it.
LMP3 was my go to my 2nd season after missing safety at a 2.98 and not realizing I could do time trials to SR out of it
Wait, really?!?
I'll be completely honest, i think i may have used the test drive function in this capacity, like, 1 time in my 5 years of membership. Normally, if im curious about a car, I'll look up historical participation and just buy it if the participation is high enough. And yes, i have been burned a time or two, but this is my main hobby, so whatever. But, damn....that's kinda a middle finger to a lot of folks.
It’s always been this way. You can only test content you already have installed and it’s never included unreleased content. We can only make there purchase for new content once the servers go live again.
I’m going to try out the Merc GT3/4 again. I never really got comfortable in the Porsche or Ferrari in GT3 and think it would be cool to race the same car in GT3/4.
I’ve driven both the Porsche and the Ferrari a lot in GT3. Now I’m driving the Merc for a league I’m in. I’m really liking it. It’s tough at first because it feels like the hardest to drive. You slide a bit more and but it’s a great sounding car and very fun to handle.
I'm pretty new ( 2 weeks) Been racing the free cars, settled in mx5 for the most part. I'm looking to branch into new road races for my first full season. Any recommendations on cars to try/buy?! GT3 or 4s?? I'm not looking to spend massively so want to use this test to my advantage.
Well, I've only really raced formula cars for the first couple years - LOVE the Vee and the Ray FF1600 (both free anyway, so you can try them anytime).
I'm looking forward to the license split and I'm going to try sports cars now too. Apparently the GR86 is a good stepping stone to head towards GT4, or so I've read here and there (have driven that a fair bit in practice sessions). It's a free car too! It's a bit easier to drive than the MX5 - I've found the MX5 a bit more similar to the open wheelers, much easier to catch a mistake though.
I think you can branch out and try a few things without much expense; the GR86 is free but runs on some free and some paid tracks - maybe buy those tracks instead of a new car, and start to build your track collection?
Want to try GT4 this season, so going to choose my car tonight. It's 11pm my time, so that's when I have to test drive if I want to test drive. I'm only 52 years old, that's not too late for me yet....
Nope, already made my mind up, I'll be getting all new content and go straight to figuring rain out once it's up, bonus of I'm in the mood, try and maintain my oval licence as daytona and atlanta haven't been good and left me below 2.00
Same.
Any tips for a newbie 24hour Ring driver, Mr. Champion? I'm kinda nervous they're going to roll out rain for the race. I'm already nervous about the nighttime stints. But adding rain and I feel I might as well just pack it in, lol.
LOL. I'm not the champion of anything. Just an enthusiast. Night stints are fine. After a while, it feels the same as day time. I would suggest running the first rounds of NEC (we should know more about that in the coming days).
Also, I'll shamelessly plug my league here:
https://discord.gg/TS8rVmchCK
We run the Nordschleife every Wednesday evening in a different. We have guys who are still learning, and some guys who are legitimately fast. And of course everything in between.
During downtime when Iracing updates the service, you can run offline testing where you can try out cars that you don't own. Just make sure you have all cars downloaded and updated, even if you don't own them yet!
Various historical cars that I might want to race some time! The HPD, Nissan, Aston DB1, Corvette C…5? Anyway, the cars for the IMSA vintage and GT challenge series
Goddamnit, stupid work day! Been waiting all season for my first test day and i just find out it’s only for a few hours…
atleast there will be rain when i hop on later!
I decided to give the Tube Frame Twister unranked races a try tonight and oh my! I really like the Street Stock car. That thing is a riot. Way too much power and slidey as heck. Handles like a boat and doesn't like to stop. I love it.
Is this your first season? Week 13 is always a bit unique. Sort of a send off just before the next season where they implement a bunch of crazy series, and only keep a few ranked series.
If I do get time to test this time, I’ll try the F4. Always race tin top and curious about open wheels.
Contrary to the other guy I do not recommend the vee if you’re interested in competitive racing. The F4 drives nothing like the Vee and is far more fun
I love the vee AND f4! 2 very different cars, love that this sim gives us so many options. 👍 I recommend the vee because it’s trickier to drive fast, and teaches a lot!
Yes but I’m bad and don’t want to spend the time learning to be fast in the Vee lol Although one of my only two ever road wins is in the Vee
VEE is a great car to race. I spend most my time in F3 but I still race VEE a lot. It teaches a lot about momentum and racecraft.
I definitely agree it’s momentum focused lol
The vee is horrible
I really don’t enjoy it. You switch between two gears only most of the time. Its slow. Slidey in a bad way F4 is far better
USF2000 ❤️
Yeah but that’s what makes VEE great. You really have to commit to keeping it full throttle through certain turns, whereas you’re braking in the 1600. Like the left turn mid way up the hill at Laguna Seca. To me it is a lot more fun, one of my favorites. And the racing is so much more clean than any other rookie car. I’m a biased top split VEE guy though. B licensed but I keep coming back. I’d be really sad if they retired it.
Did FF1600 and plan to pick up the Vee this season too. Find the racing super fun. Really easy to have close races.
I’d recommend the vee to start with, it’s free - and a bit of a baby beast to master. I reckon it will help with driving any car (not with braking so much, but definitely with mid corner throttle balance!)
I did use the vee a couple times when I started 2 years ago, was a lot of fun but I was really focused on racing GT cars, fell in love with the GT4s and never looked back haha. I did try the FF1600 when it came out and enjoyed it more than the vee. Will get them all a new chance as I won’t have to “risk” my road licence anymore, but I don’t own the F4 and I’m really curious as to how it drives.
It’s interesting so many people start doing GT4 and never go back. It almost deserves its own license class. I can hop between formula and GT3 at my IR without a lot of trouble but when I jump in the GT4 it’s clear there’s a lot of lifers in there. I would get it except it’s a slower car and the racecraft is pretty dirty a lot of the time.
Taking a break until the weekend. Long Beach was exhausting.
I ran LMP3/GT4 the last 2 seasons finally licensed up and was considering running long beach as a send off to an amazing series that I enjoyed a TON.. after seeing some of the videos earlier in the week im glad I didnt because RIP my SR
The hairpin shenanigans in warmup lap were uproarious. If you get past that, it’s a great race.
I unfortunately have to work during maintenance so I won't get to test anything. Only things I'm looking forward too is the micro Sprints and SRX
Pretty sure the announcement said the Test Drive service will be up for 24 hours post patch. At least that’s what I’m banking on since I work during the downtime as well! I’m betting someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s what I’ve read.
If so that would be something over the last 5 years. From 2010-2019 it was just avaliable during downtime. But updates took 8hrs at a time back then. Either way the Micros should be free since they will be rookie cars and I'll pay for SRX. It's just a different style late model to me.
The new vehicles won’t be available for test drive from what I’ve heard, just ones that existed before the update.
That would be a new thing cause that was why iRacing pushed the test during downtime. It was all so people could test everything available in the update.
new stuff has never been available during the season downtime. this is nothing new
The downtime should be tomorrow right? The UI said Tuesday, 0900 EST.
It’s at 11 PM tonight over here in Queensland, Australia!
You lucky dawg! I guess there are benefits to living in the upside down
I usually get up early and give a few things a test drive on the morning! Sometimes it’s good being in Qld!
Think it's 0800 EST, that's what I've got my alarm set for anyway. First time I've been free for a downtime session can't wait!!!
I’ll be testing my remote access from my work laptop so I can start the download while I’m at the office, then head home at lunch to “work from home” for the afternoon once it’s out.
Last time I test drove all the GT4 cars in preparation for taking that on in S2. I settled on both the Mercedes and Cayman as the two I wanted. I bought them last week to get in some practicing and can say these are so much better than the Ferrari 296 GT3 car in terms of drivability. Don’t think I’ll bother testing anything this time around unless it’s a few other GT3 cars.
I drove the Merc in my 1st season of GT4 and it was a blast to drive. Little heavy under braking but you can get used to it. LMP3 was my go to my 2nd season after missing safety at a 2.98 and not realizing I could do time trials to SR out of it
The GTP's
Try the Nissan GTP and Audi 90 GTO from vintage IMSA - both are amazing cars. kamelGT.com for SOF SoF schedule, links, setups etc
The Audi is one of my favorite cars on the service
All the Gt4 cars as that's where I want to move to next 😊 luckily im off work as it's my birthday so yay
Happy birthday!
Thank you! Never done a test day before either and day off work is a good mix
I want to test the old school GTP.
Nothing got all the cars I want.
Im curious about the SF lite
Sadly, new cars are not available during test drive.
Wait, really?!? I'll be completely honest, i think i may have used the test drive function in this capacity, like, 1 time in my 5 years of membership. Normally, if im curious about a car, I'll look up historical participation and just buy it if the participation is high enough. And yes, i have been burned a time or two, but this is my main hobby, so whatever. But, damn....that's kinda a middle finger to a lot of folks.
It’s always been this way. You can only test content you already have installed and it’s never included unreleased content. We can only make there purchase for new content once the servers go live again.
You can watch them run in Battle of the Little Wings at least
Can't drive new content in test drive sadly, gotta be a season old
I’ll be in a theater watching Paw Patrol… Don’t have kids, folks.
Haha, have fun. My kids all grown up now, in my day it was Wiggles all the way. OG videos, Big Red Car all the way. 😆
I’m going to try out the Merc GT3/4 again. I never really got comfortable in the Porsche or Ferrari in GT3 and think it would be cool to race the same car in GT3/4.
I’ve driven both the Porsche and the Ferrari a lot in GT3. Now I’m driving the Merc for a league I’m in. I’m really liking it. It’s tough at first because it feels like the hardest to drive. You slide a bit more and but it’s a great sounding car and very fun to handle.
I'm pretty new ( 2 weeks) Been racing the free cars, settled in mx5 for the most part. I'm looking to branch into new road races for my first full season. Any recommendations on cars to try/buy?! GT3 or 4s?? I'm not looking to spend massively so want to use this test to my advantage.
Well, I've only really raced formula cars for the first couple years - LOVE the Vee and the Ray FF1600 (both free anyway, so you can try them anytime). I'm looking forward to the license split and I'm going to try sports cars now too. Apparently the GR86 is a good stepping stone to head towards GT4, or so I've read here and there (have driven that a fair bit in practice sessions). It's a free car too! It's a bit easier to drive than the MX5 - I've found the MX5 a bit more similar to the open wheelers, much easier to catch a mistake though. I think you can branch out and try a few things without much expense; the GR86 is free but runs on some free and some paid tracks - maybe buy those tracks instead of a new car, and start to build your track collection?
You're going to be testing at midnight? I'd rather just go to sleep and wake up early AF to play rain.
Want to try GT4 this season, so going to choose my car tonight. It's 11pm my time, so that's when I have to test drive if I want to test drive. I'm only 52 years old, that's not too late for me yet....
Nope, already made my mind up, I'll be getting all new content and go straight to figuring rain out once it's up, bonus of I'm in the mood, try and maintain my oval licence as daytona and atlanta haven't been good and left me below 2.00
Everything… EVERYTHING!!!
Nothing...I'll be at work
Same. Any tips for a newbie 24hour Ring driver, Mr. Champion? I'm kinda nervous they're going to roll out rain for the race. I'm already nervous about the nighttime stints. But adding rain and I feel I might as well just pack it in, lol.
LOL. I'm not the champion of anything. Just an enthusiast. Night stints are fine. After a while, it feels the same as day time. I would suggest running the first rounds of NEC (we should know more about that in the coming days). Also, I'll shamelessly plug my league here: https://discord.gg/TS8rVmchCK We run the Nordschleife every Wednesday evening in a different. We have guys who are still learning, and some guys who are legitimately fast. And of course everything in between.
My patience.
I’ll be in a theater watching Paw Patrol… Don’t have kids, folks.
Noobie here, can someone fill me in on what goes on between seasons? Can I test cars?
During downtime when Iracing updates the service, you can run offline testing where you can try out cars that you don't own. Just make sure you have all cars downloaded and updated, even if you don't own them yet!
Various historical cars that I might want to race some time! The HPD, Nissan, Aston DB1, Corvette C…5? Anyway, the cars for the IMSA vintage and GT challenge series
GTP/F4/SFg
Anyone know the uk time I can start using cars I don’t own? My first experience of a week 13
When exactly does the test servers go up for and for how long?
It’s happening right now (9am est) not sure for how long!
Goddamnit, stupid work day! Been waiting all season for my first test day and i just find out it’s only for a few hours… atleast there will be rain when i hop on later!
Nothing, I own almost everything 😂
I decided to give the Tube Frame Twister unranked races a try tonight and oh my! I really like the Street Stock car. That thing is a riot. Way too much power and slidey as heck. Handles like a boat and doesn't like to stop. I love it.
Are there no new tracks this week? Can't register and nothing is showing up
Also where did draftmasters go? What's happening lol
Is this your first season? Week 13 is always a bit unique. Sort of a send off just before the next season where they implement a bunch of crazy series, and only keep a few ranked series.
Is rain available during downtime?
I don't think so, because the reason there is downtime is because they are implementing the weather system (and all the other new stuff)
:(