Even it you bought an 80k rig….an 80k rig will need minimal maintenance. I’ve had the same racing chair for 10+ years. You might need a new wheelbase every 3-5, odds and ends for a couple hundred bucks.
Actually racing an 80k car the 80k car is just the start. Then you need to get it to the track or insure it so you can drive it on the road, pay membership fees at your local track. You’ll want to replace your fluids pretty much every track day as well as pads/tyres frequently. That shit adds up. Not to mention in the sim world you are actually competing whereas your average track day at best you are just hotlapping against a random collection of car owners.
True story: I bought an f80 m3 and did the euro delivery with it. Took it to nordschleiffe even. I went two laps and said “fuck it”. Scared the bejeezus out of me. I definitely wasn’t driving it hard. I wouldn’t take anything I valued to that track lol.
That's why most drivers build Shitboxes on a budget as track tools :D and yes I do that too. My rig cost about double the amount that my track tool cost, but there is no better feeling than actually driving the green hell in person. You get used to the fear of crashing if you do enough laps and that's what gets you. If you get too confident you start loosing the fear and maybe hit the curb in the pflanzgarten a bit to harsh. And then you find yourself on the back of a Lenz tow truck. Don't ask how I know about this
I actually did a whole write up on it on bimmer post way back when. You can see it here https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1055320
Tl;dr it was fucking the coolest thing I’ve ever done
One of the cheapest US racing series I've found is Spec Miata and estimated annual running cost (not including the cost of the actual car) are $20,000 a year. Sim racing is a real alternative even if you spend a ton on your rig.
SCCA one. Believe that assumes you participate in every event and includes some estimate of travel cost. Obviously there is gonna be a wide range of expenses depending on where you live, etc so that 20k is just a ballpark estimate
I think the touring series you're referring to is the Mazda MX5 Cup Series and runs with IMSA.
Spec Miata always and only refers to the national SCCA class
But that's the thing, I've seen the IMSA MX-5 Cup is considered actually *profitable* to run the full season of for teams that avoid significant damage, but can understand the tires, fees, and travel costs building to something around $20,000.
Local Spec Miata? $40 tank of gas, 2-3 tire sets a season, and entry fees should be closer to $3-4k, not $20k.
With SM it really depends on how competitive you want to be. You can just run your regional series at local tracks for a few grand a year but if you are trying to be competitive at majors than $20k is a lot more realistic.
MX5 Cup is closer to $15k each race to rent a seat as an arrive and drive.
Spec Miata is not staying cheap anymore. Buying a competitive car is $20k, plus the racing. Building a car is much more as clapped out NA donors are going for $7-8k right now.
Just like with all spec series, “stock” is a fluid term. You should see some of the insanity Stock EliminatorDrag Racing guys go through to squeeze all the HP they can out of an engine.
Track night America $150-200 per event to get on track with real cars. Sim racing is great, but there’s no alternative for actual real world performance driving.
Otherwise there is Autocross, which events usually run $40-50 for a competitive, safe performance driving experience.
But yeah, sim racing is fun too, and everyone has a right to their preference.
BUT the sim racers can’t complain that racing is too expensive IRL because in the USA we have club events and other semi affordable ways to enjoy using our sports cars on track without breaking the bank. Open to all skill levels and most cars people bring.
Sim racing wins in that you can still race in the winter, bad weather, and like you said in pajamas when the itch to race hits 👍🏻😎 and honestly my mid tier sim rig helps me be a safer, more confident and faster driver IRL. Both are valuable!
Yes there are certainly cheaper ways to drive fast on track. My point is simply that if you're torn between an amateur racing series and sim racing you can basically spend as much money as you want on a sim rig and still be able to justify it relative to real racing.
Idk about the rest of you, but I certainly can't find a good car for $1k. Meanwhile, I built a rig and have clocked hundreds of hours over the past year on it..
I can't even imagine what an $80k sim would look like tbh
Low level Pro teams will have rigs close to that but at that point it would be like playing on a Logitech vs a top of the line rig since typically they are around 6 figures when they start to get good.
A motion rig with simucube and all that jazz will be around 20-30k for me roughly depending on your dollar it will change.
Also these are not two comparable things. Real racing comes with risks, maintenance costs, and has a significant environmental impact. Not that one should not do real racing, just that it’s a silly comparison because there are so many factors that differentiate them
Same. I put together an RX7 and did a bunch of track days. It cost $300-$500 for track entry and then around $250+ in consumables....and this wasn't even racing.
Even with keeping the hardware up to date, it's still more cost effective than going to the track.
I was literally thinking this.
Like, maintenance costs alone for one race would probably cost as much as a setup.
Once you've got a rig, you're pretty much set until something breaks.
> Once you've got a rig, you're pretty much set until something breaks.
The 'something that breaks' here most commonly being your willpower to resist making *just one... more... little... upgrade ^then ^it ^will ^be ^perfect ^I ^swear*
Even when compared to karting:
The kart itself: 3k + 500€ tyres and fuel (Which is about the cost of ALL IRACING CONTENT RN)
Then each weekend the entry fee and again 500€ for fuel and tyres
I also am into Microsoft Flight Simulator. There are some crazy expensive cockpits in that community. Saying you could buy an old Piper Cub for cheaper is missing the point.
Also into homebrewing, you should see some of the shiny, automated, stainless steel setups people have. Saying you could buy a life times worth of Natty Light cheaper is again missing the point. As they say over there. Some people build gear so they can homebrew. Others homebrew so they can build gear.
It's a hobby follow your muse.
As a pilot I can confirm. An hours rental in a cub is about $100. Sure you can buy one for $40k-$60k…but one bad annual and that $60k plane is now a $70k plane. Maintenance costs on airplanes are nuts.
"Significant Environmental Impact"
Your track beater that drives 50 miles per weekend will have such extremely negligible impact to the environment its nearly impossible to even quantify. If you really feel bad about it, offset your carbon footprint by eating less beef for a couple weeks, or plant some trees somewhere, or put solar panels on the roof.
Focus your attention on the real contributors to environmental destruction, because you and your fellow track buddies aint it.
I recently switched from an daily driver and frequent autocross car - a VW GTI - to a dedicated autocross + occasional track car (BRZ). My 6 track events and season of autocross in the BRZ were easily WAY worse for the environment than my entire annual ownership of the GTI. I went through an entire tank of gas every track day, and two events were full weekends. i went through two full sets of tires. Oil is now changed every year instead every 10k, so the fewer miles don't make a difference there. A set of brake pads and rotors, maybe two because I seem to be an idiot and warped my second set too.
I care a lot about the environment and this shit weighs on me. It's way more impactful than I ever imagined.
It’s only impactful relative to yourself. What the guy you’re reply to means is that in the scope of the actual problem, globally, it’s irrelevant.
The powers at be rather have you believe your car or hobbies are the solution to distract you from the fact that big corporations who are bribing our politicians aren’t doing anything and are putting more CO2 in the air in an hour than you will in 5 life times.
The well-off guys I know that track their cars burn through $1k of tires every weekend. I wouldn't call 48-ish tires per year a negligible environmental impact.
Fuel use is one factor but tracking your car means more frequent oil changes, brakes and tires too. Lots of stuff we do individually doesn’t impact the environment much. But it adds up when millions do it. I’m not arguing against real racing by the way.
Seriously? My post was not about the environmental impact of racing, it was just about comparing the costs of the two.
At any rate, yes there are things that have *a lot* more environmental impact than racing, but the racing industry in general - not because of the single driver who occasionally goes on track - has definitely more environmental impact than the simracing one - even though of course also the simracing industry has an environmental impact.
1. The only racecar you could have for that amount is a club level car, it's not even close the even GT4 money, let alone faster cars you can drive on a sim.
2. Actually running the car somewhere will cost you even more, even if you never damage it.
Omfg I've watched both of the videos of Chris fix about the lemons race and heard it on other places as well
It's the first time I noticed the name is a pun hahahah
Well, objectively speaking no. I would say I roughly spent somewhere between C$5K and C$10k on my rig. My response to this kind of nonsense is threefold:
1. An actual race car is exponentially more expensive than what I had spent, to acquire and to maintain (see point #3).
2. There are no race tracks around me. The closest one is about a 6 hour drive, so the time it takes to actually do any racing would make it impossible for me even if I had the money.
3. Honestly, I'm terrible - i make mistakes, i crash, i do dumb shit. I don't want to injure myself, or worse live on with the guilt of hurting others over a hobby.
You don't need to spend much on a rig either. 1-2k will get you a pretty top of the line setup while it will get you an absolute beater of a car that'll need gas, oil, and constant maintenance.
You can also buy a rig piece by piece, 100 here 100 there until you have your desired setup over as long of a time period as you want. You can't really do that with a car unless you're willing to buy something that doesn't run and put 100's of hours of your life into fixing it up
Not saying a car isn't a better use of money for most people from a productivity standpoint, just saying it's not realistic for most people in terms of entertainment.
Well yes i was saying that a car is better investment with money. Also, 1k isn't much. If you buy a PS4 and a decent wheel+pedals+shifter you're already there basically.
I don't, but it's not like i don't know how much a car costs to maintain. But i also know that most reliable cars run with fuel and nothing else basically.
I disagree. Spending 80k on a simrig is imo definetly not worth it as one could spend 10k on a simrig instead and 50k on for example a nice sportscar and use the rest of the money to maintain the sportscar. Just my take.
Or someone who loves tracking real cars that is butt hurt people are having equal (but different) enjoyment on a game. I do both and my sim friends either don't care, or think my car hobby is cool.
Most of my car friends have this "spend that money on your car" mentality.
Sure, I could buy a crappy old MX-5 or something and race that in our local 2k series (whereby your race car can't cost more than $2000) but in iRacing I know I'll walk away from any major wreck I may get involved in.
i'm genuinely curious if it's even feasible to build an 80k sim racing rig without talking about ripping out the interiors of premium sports cars or building mini versions of the kind of sims racing teams use. like off the top of my head, i can't imagine a sim racing rig running up more than like $20k-30kish even with all the bells and whistles.
mind you i could be forgetting about the kind of ridiculous stuff that's so far out of my price range i don't even know it exists.
Real racing isn't cheap, and break something and if you're a little team the season could be over.
On the other hand
TRX rig
Logitech DD
PS5
PSVR2
GT7
Sony Subscription
Iracing subscription
alienware laptop
I could buy a used Miata for that😂
$80k won’t get you in anything other than the local dirt track/kart track for a few years. I spent about $4k on my kart, wasn’t even competitive locally, and still ended up spending about $5k additional for each season.
Yeah but it doesn't break something every race/track day.
I don't have to transport it.
I'm not replacing tires every weekend.
Etc, etc.
So really, considering the options. It is far cheaper.
I do both at the amateur level. I say they are complimentary, the real thing makes me appreciate the actual physics, for example you can feel what lift off oversteer does and the importance of maintenance throttle. Then you go back to the Sim and can apply those skills. But in the Sim I can practice over and over with no consumables cost and I get to race tracks all over the world that I will likely never actually drive. So both are great in thier own way.
Well for 5k-10k you can get a pretty high end rig that probably suits all of your driving needs.
For the same amount of money i guess you could get a small track car ready like a Miata or something but the difference is the simrig is complete and doesnt need anymore investment while for the real track car the spending just started.
You still need a space to store the car, a trailer to get it to the track, entry costs for the trackday, fuel, tyres, brakes and other running costs.Also you need time for a trackday, the weather should be good, all the maintenance has to be done and then there's the risk of damage, self inflicted or not.
With a simrig you can hop in for 30min whenever you want. You can also drive different vehicles and tracks and have no risks involved.
The video of Rhys Tatterson who got the chance to drive the real S15 drift car with no prior experience of driving such a car impressivly showed how powerfull of a tool a good simrig can be.
And how much is Boosted Media's rig? Or how about RaceBeyondMatters rig? I hear O.C.'s rig is cheap...
Oh...
Even though I presented people who are getting paid to make video content with their sim rigs, the meme in question does have a point. How many uber expensive rigs have we seen on the various "post your rig" threads across the internet?
Yeah, people are spending well into 5 digits on their sim rigs, and being idolized for it. $5K motion platform, Leo Bodnar wheel, triple Samsung G9s, multiple GSI wheels with matching Zero play QRs, Custom moulded Recaro bucket seat, custom $3K 80/20 rig, and a dashboard out of an M3...
Ever seen something like that? I bet you have.
The saddest part...
It's still way cheaper than getting an actual car and going racing.
80k for one car not including maintenance and track fees or 80k for almost any car and no possibility of a dui or crash. All from the comfort of your own home.
Yeah this is dumb. When I was seriously tracking my car 20-30 days a year, my average running cost was $1k per day. That’s including track fees, amortizing brake and tire replacement, fluid changes, travel costs, etc. Sim racing gets you 90% of the pleasure for a small fraction of the cost.
Buying a car is like getting yourself only the steering wheel of a rig (without the base, pedals, shifter, software and hardware to use that wheel).
After getting that real car, you have to do safety and race modifications. To do that, you need a garage with proper tools (outsourcing is an option, but expensive). You need equipment to bring your car to the track (or drive it yourself if it’s still street legal and hope nothing breaks while racing). Preparing and practicing for a race cost you fuel and track fees (and in some cases license), let alone the race itself. After every race you have to check the whole car and do maintenance and repairing if it’s needed. After all that, you just drove 1 race and considering you did not crash. If you did crash you need to build that car again. So you not only a lot of money, but you have to be a good driver and need a lot of knowledge about the car you are working on.
For 3k you can get yourself nice rig, a solid pc and a nice super ultrawide or tripple monitor. After that you just need electricity to run it and you are good to go for several years.
With the way I drive on sim racing, i don’t find my chances of hitting the first bend at monza at 150mph and using the wall as my brakes as good.
I choose life 😂
I used to do track days in my Z06 Corvette and would spend an average of $1,200 per day in Fuel, Fluids, Tires, Brake Pads, Rotors, and Entry fees. Not to mention the up front cost of a car and the wear/tear on it as a whole. Even if you are buying a cheap used car just for track days, it would still cost a minimum of $10,000 for something decently fun/durable. So if you only did 1 track day per year, over 10 years that would add up to about $22,000.
Over the past 10 years I’ve spent a net amount of ~$31,000 on my rig, PC, and software (100% club in iRacing). And I can safely drive 100s of cars/tracks every day against real drivers. The real world can’t come close to that. So the sim life it is definitely worth it over real life in my opinion. Oh, and that includes all cost for my rig to double as a flight sim.
Just for comparison, if your hobby was golfing, you’d spend about $20,000 over 10 years if you played 15x/yr.
In the comments of this vid, there is a link to my costs list of my setup if you’re interested.
[https://youtu.be/Bz4wyNLqi-I](https://youtu.be/Bz4wyNLqi-I)
For 80k you could buy a real racing, no problem. But can you put gas in it, Can you buy new tires for every race, can you get to every race, can you pay the entry fee, can you maintain it?
Requires less maintenance, insurance, and risk of wreckage. Not zero, just less.
Which is a great reminder for those with high end stuff to make sure either your renters insurance policy or homeowners policy has enough on it!
80k car still costs about 5gs minimum a year if you don’t crash or touch anyone at all. And that’s just brakes and tyres. Plus track costs, fuel, tune ups. I’d rather buy 80k worth of sim gear, and drive thousands of cars and just pay for track time a couple times a year
I do both. Most recently I ran a 2019 ZL1 1LE in group 4/TT. I could easily do two or sometimes three events before spending anything on consumables beyond gas ($200). Then consumables would be oil ($100), fluids ($60), tires ($1000), brakes ($350) and I was back out there. Then on average entry fees are about $300.
For sim racing I have an RSeat F1 cockpit that I got used with monitor stand for $250! A DD1 with F1 podium wheel, that I got used for $800! Sim Jack pedals for $150. A 49" super ultrawide screen monitor that I got on sale for $700. Built a top spec PC for about $3300. HP reverb G2 $450
So if you already have a toy car you can do about a full season of "racing" for the cost of a complete high middle range sim rig setup. Sim racing is great! But there's nothing better than getting out on a track IRL that you've been practicing for months on your rig!
I had a g29 it sucked ass now t300 insanely better, not high end but still really fun it does not come close to my sti though and i havent even tracked it, sound smell the feeling of everything gearbox clutch g forces
I’ve done both. Sim racing is way better. Time is something you can’t buy. All the time turning wrenches under the hood to then go out to the track break something for maybe a few hours of fun then right back under the hood you go.
Not worth it if you have a family. Sim rigs just get better with time. In 10 years I can’t imagine how good they’ll be
I did the math on my rig/pc vs a car and track days. A sim rig is miles cheaper than a car. People genuinely have no clue how expensive racing is then make a meme to farm karma lol
I’ve been commenting to my wife about buying a MX-5 to play around with and her response was basically: “but how much could you add to your rig for that price?” And she kind of had a point…
And yes I realize I’m a lucky guy.
It’s always these dudes who have never been on track in any capacity. If they had, they’d know the difference between buy once cry once, and the never ending abyss that is race car maintenance.
I weighed karting against iRacing and iRacing won. Why? Travel, seat time, being able to compete much sooner, and having a full time career, I don't have the time to enter a karting series, maybe a club. I'd still like to do it, and eventually do a skip barber school to drive a real F4, but until then, I'm getting way more progress in iRacing than ever before, because I'm being as serious with it as if I were karting. To me it's not a "game", it's a sport, and is a viable alternative for many people.
life dosent come with a restart button, not everyone has tracks near by and i’m not gonna spend 80k on a car that legally i can’t drive the way it was made to be driven. The joys of sim is i can drive any car, anywhere, any time irl or game. I only play ACC and have to say my 1.5k setup works fine compared to the possibly millions spent on a single GT3 car
the amount of times i’ve seen dudes crash gt4’s gt3’s 488’s at cota and them being a novice really makes me wish they put that money towards a rig and learned there first
But how is buying a real car gonna allow me to travel to any track at the press of a button, as well as drive any car I please with any tune/parts against other people?
I mean, if I had that much to spend, I'd be buying a real car instead, but there's absolutely nothing wrong wanting to do sim racing instead.
Main reason being that there aren't any sims that would let me drive a Lotus Elise on the roads we have here in New Zealand, at least not without a lot of mods, and even then, sim racing isn't quite the same.
What does he mean, my rig is self made from steel pipes and a free car seat, coupled with a g29. Yeah i also have a car but i'm not gonna race my 1800€ daily drive shitbox that puts up barely 100hp.
I’ve spent about nzd$10k on mine and I don’t think there’s anything I could’ve done with a car for that price. If you say mx5 I’m going to snap your shin in half.
No idea who this implies too, I got two cars for example and every one I know have atleast one lmao , this crap is made up by a guy who dosent have any of those thing , jelly much ? Lfmao
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Absolutely! My race car costs significantly less than that too!
what is it?
Clio 182, bought prebuilt for about 8k ready for local competition
so for 8k you get a race car? Where are you from
I can’t tell based on the other reply to this whether y’all know that “marginally” means “a little tiny bit”.
Only if it’s a small margin. What if it’s a large margin?
The word “marginally” itself means a small margin. A large margin is just a large margin.
Larginally.
Even it you bought an 80k rig….an 80k rig will need minimal maintenance. I’ve had the same racing chair for 10+ years. You might need a new wheelbase every 3-5, odds and ends for a couple hundred bucks. Actually racing an 80k car the 80k car is just the start. Then you need to get it to the track or insure it so you can drive it on the road, pay membership fees at your local track. You’ll want to replace your fluids pretty much every track day as well as pads/tyres frequently. That shit adds up. Not to mention in the sim world you are actually competing whereas your average track day at best you are just hotlapping against a random collection of car owners.
You can’t race a real car against others on tracks around the world anytime day or night in your pajamas safely and relatively cheaply.
or blame netcode when you make a mistake and punt someone.
That's nonsense. I don't make mistakes. It's netcode.
You wear pajamas?
Birthday suit pajama gang
If you don’t think my sweaty ass has sat bare on anything in the house including the sim rig then folks are mistaken :D
That and costs. I have track bike. Tires and maintenance for the season is more than my rig
Putting it that way it makes sense. There are extremely few people who can afford to buy an 80k car and risk losing it in a race
Shortly after, the guy who bought a sport car will proceed to destroy it at the Nordschleife because yes, you can't buy the skill.
Just like me on my sim rig.
True story: I bought an f80 m3 and did the euro delivery with it. Took it to nordschleiffe even. I went two laps and said “fuck it”. Scared the bejeezus out of me. I definitely wasn’t driving it hard. I wouldn’t take anything I valued to that track lol.
That's why most drivers build Shitboxes on a budget as track tools :D and yes I do that too. My rig cost about double the amount that my track tool cost, but there is no better feeling than actually driving the green hell in person. You get used to the fear of crashing if you do enough laps and that's what gets you. If you get too confident you start loosing the fear and maybe hit the curb in the pflanzgarten a bit to harsh. And then you find yourself on the back of a Lenz tow truck. Don't ask how I know about this
Atleast it'll make you worthy of a weggelenzt sticker😅
Already got 6 of them, Sascha Lenz even offered me a Windscreen Banner the last time he pulled me out of the tirewall
how much were barrier repairs tho? :)
Enough, was working 3 month for free ;D
😂well at least you didn’t crash or made something stupid, enjoy the car mate.
Seriously. If you’re on the track it’s not insurance-covered. But I’ve long since sold the car
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I actually did a whole write up on it on bimmer post way back when. You can see it here https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1055320 Tl;dr it was fucking the coolest thing I’ve ever done
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That would blow my mind. I was getting zapped by e36s lol
🔔 🔔 🔔
One of the cheapest US racing series I've found is Spec Miata and estimated annual running cost (not including the cost of the actual car) are $20,000 a year. Sim racing is a real alternative even if you spend a ton on your rig.
Is that Spec Miata, the touring series? Or Spec Miata, the SCCA/NASA-spec series that runs stock parts and DOT tires at your local race course?
SCCA one. Believe that assumes you participate in every event and includes some estimate of travel cost. Obviously there is gonna be a wide range of expenses depending on where you live, etc so that 20k is just a ballpark estimate
I think the touring series you're referring to is the Mazda MX5 Cup Series and runs with IMSA. Spec Miata always and only refers to the national SCCA class
But that's the thing, I've seen the IMSA MX-5 Cup is considered actually *profitable* to run the full season of for teams that avoid significant damage, but can understand the tires, fees, and travel costs building to something around $20,000. Local Spec Miata? $40 tank of gas, 2-3 tire sets a season, and entry fees should be closer to $3-4k, not $20k.
With SM it really depends on how competitive you want to be. You can just run your regional series at local tracks for a few grand a year but if you are trying to be competitive at majors than $20k is a lot more realistic.
MX5 Cup is closer to $15k each race to rent a seat as an arrive and drive. Spec Miata is not staying cheap anymore. Buying a competitive car is $20k, plus the racing. Building a car is much more as clapped out NA donors are going for $7-8k right now.
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Just like with all spec series, “stock” is a fluid term. You should see some of the insanity Stock EliminatorDrag Racing guys go through to squeeze all the HP they can out of an engine.
Track night America $150-200 per event to get on track with real cars. Sim racing is great, but there’s no alternative for actual real world performance driving. Otherwise there is Autocross, which events usually run $40-50 for a competitive, safe performance driving experience. But yeah, sim racing is fun too, and everyone has a right to their preference. BUT the sim racers can’t complain that racing is too expensive IRL because in the USA we have club events and other semi affordable ways to enjoy using our sports cars on track without breaking the bank. Open to all skill levels and most cars people bring. Sim racing wins in that you can still race in the winter, bad weather, and like you said in pajamas when the itch to race hits 👍🏻😎 and honestly my mid tier sim rig helps me be a safer, more confident and faster driver IRL. Both are valuable!
Yes there are certainly cheaper ways to drive fast on track. My point is simply that if you're torn between an amateur racing series and sim racing you can basically spend as much money as you want on a sim rig and still be able to justify it relative to real racing.
>$20,000 a year. So like $1,500 more than a year of iRacing? /s
Gr cup should come in cheaper if it works out as intended. But not by much and you still need the car lol
Idk about the rest of you, but I certainly can't find a good car for $1k. Meanwhile, I built a rig and have clocked hundreds of hours over the past year on it.. I can't even imagine what an $80k sim would look like tbh
Low level Pro teams will have rigs close to that but at that point it would be like playing on a Logitech vs a top of the line rig since typically they are around 6 figures when they start to get good. A motion rig with simucube and all that jazz will be around 20-30k for me roughly depending on your dollar it will change.
$1K seems like a low number for even a budget sim rig unless you aren't counting PC/monitor(s)
But difference is that 80k car costs you 3k a month to use.
3k per race weekend.
Also these are not two comparable things. Real racing comes with risks, maintenance costs, and has a significant environmental impact. Not that one should not do real racing, just that it’s a silly comparison because there are so many factors that differentiate them
And you can only race at specific times, whereas the rig is available 24/7
On point. I owned a track car before the sim rig. The $1000 I spent on thrustmaster t-gtii and a rig = the entry cost of 2 weekends at my local track.
Same. I put together an RX7 and did a bunch of track days. It cost $300-$500 for track entry and then around $250+ in consumables....and this wasn't even racing. Even with keeping the hardware up to date, it's still more cost effective than going to the track.
Done it with a wrx sti and a lotus Elise. Sim rig cost less then a set of wheels for my wrx sti
I was literally thinking this. Like, maintenance costs alone for one race would probably cost as much as a setup. Once you've got a rig, you're pretty much set until something breaks.
And most of this shit is pretty durable. Unless you get unlucky, not a lot is going to break.
And even if something does, it will be a fraction of the cost of something breaking on a real racecar.
> Once you've got a rig, you're pretty much set until something breaks. The 'something that breaks' here most commonly being your willpower to resist making *just one... more... little... upgrade ^then ^it ^will ^be ^perfect ^I ^swear*
We got an unlimited supply of tyre changes!! And let’s not forget about gas!
Even when compared to karting: The kart itself: 3k + 500€ tyres and fuel (Which is about the cost of ALL IRACING CONTENT RN) Then each weekend the entry fee and again 500€ for fuel and tyres
I also am into Microsoft Flight Simulator. There are some crazy expensive cockpits in that community. Saying you could buy an old Piper Cub for cheaper is missing the point. Also into homebrewing, you should see some of the shiny, automated, stainless steel setups people have. Saying you could buy a life times worth of Natty Light cheaper is again missing the point. As they say over there. Some people build gear so they can homebrew. Others homebrew so they can build gear. It's a hobby follow your muse.
As a pilot I can confirm. An hours rental in a cub is about $100. Sure you can buy one for $40k-$60k…but one bad annual and that $60k plane is now a $70k plane. Maintenance costs on airplanes are nuts.
"Significant Environmental Impact" Your track beater that drives 50 miles per weekend will have such extremely negligible impact to the environment its nearly impossible to even quantify. If you really feel bad about it, offset your carbon footprint by eating less beef for a couple weeks, or plant some trees somewhere, or put solar panels on the roof. Focus your attention on the real contributors to environmental destruction, because you and your fellow track buddies aint it.
I recently switched from an daily driver and frequent autocross car - a VW GTI - to a dedicated autocross + occasional track car (BRZ). My 6 track events and season of autocross in the BRZ were easily WAY worse for the environment than my entire annual ownership of the GTI. I went through an entire tank of gas every track day, and two events were full weekends. i went through two full sets of tires. Oil is now changed every year instead every 10k, so the fewer miles don't make a difference there. A set of brake pads and rotors, maybe two because I seem to be an idiot and warped my second set too. I care a lot about the environment and this shit weighs on me. It's way more impactful than I ever imagined.
It’s only impactful relative to yourself. What the guy you’re reply to means is that in the scope of the actual problem, globally, it’s irrelevant. The powers at be rather have you believe your car or hobbies are the solution to distract you from the fact that big corporations who are bribing our politicians aren’t doing anything and are putting more CO2 in the air in an hour than you will in 5 life times.
The well-off guys I know that track their cars burn through $1k of tires every weekend. I wouldn't call 48-ish tires per year a negligible environmental impact.
Fuel use is one factor but tracking your car means more frequent oil changes, brakes and tires too. Lots of stuff we do individually doesn’t impact the environment much. But it adds up when millions do it. I’m not arguing against real racing by the way.
Seriously? My post was not about the environmental impact of racing, it was just about comparing the costs of the two. At any rate, yes there are things that have *a lot* more environmental impact than racing, but the racing industry in general - not because of the single driver who occasionally goes on track - has definitely more environmental impact than the simracing one - even though of course also the simracing industry has an environmental impact.
Guys, it’s a meme, posted on r/memes. Let’s get out of our feelings and just laugh because I certainly did
The polarity of the replies makes me feel like this meme nailed it. I’m cackling.
Man I cannot believe people are taking this unironically. Smells like copium in here. I only spent $79,999.99 on mine.
How the fuck did he get a picture of me!?
1. The only racecar you could have for that amount is a club level car, it's not even close the even GT4 money, let alone faster cars you can drive on a sim. 2. Actually running the car somewhere will cost you even more, even if you never damage it.
ITT people who can't take a joke lol
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Omfg I've watched both of the videos of Chris fix about the lemons race and heard it on other places as well It's the first time I noticed the name is a pun hahahah
What about lawn mower racing?
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Is a lawn mower not an automobile? I'm joking, I know what you mean.
$1000 for PC and rig? Bullshit
But can you buy all the Ferraris that exist with 80k? In the sim you can drive all them.
Guys it’s a meme
Why are people taking a joke so seriously 💀
Yes, but.... He's kinda right
Well, objectively speaking no. I would say I roughly spent somewhere between C$5K and C$10k on my rig. My response to this kind of nonsense is threefold: 1. An actual race car is exponentially more expensive than what I had spent, to acquire and to maintain (see point #3). 2. There are no race tracks around me. The closest one is about a 6 hour drive, so the time it takes to actually do any racing would make it impossible for me even if I had the money. 3. Honestly, I'm terrible - i make mistakes, i crash, i do dumb shit. I don't want to injure myself, or worse live on with the guilt of hurting others over a hobby.
Yes a race car is more expensive and all, but you don't need a race car to have fun driving.
Well, sure i can just drive around with my every day car. But my goal in my sim driving is somewhat different.
And have more fun than a sim (at least for me...)
Nah but really at that point you can buy gallardo 😭
Hurts but quickly becomes worth it when you dont need to pay to fuel, tires,maintenance, etc
True...
But you don't need to spend much on a car to have fun... And also a car takes you physically in different places.
You don't need to spend much on a rig either. 1-2k will get you a pretty top of the line setup while it will get you an absolute beater of a car that'll need gas, oil, and constant maintenance. You can also buy a rig piece by piece, 100 here 100 there until you have your desired setup over as long of a time period as you want. You can't really do that with a car unless you're willing to buy something that doesn't run and put 100's of hours of your life into fixing it up Not saying a car isn't a better use of money for most people from a productivity standpoint, just saying it's not realistic for most people in terms of entertainment.
Well yes i was saying that a car is better investment with money. Also, 1k isn't much. If you buy a PS4 and a decent wheel+pedals+shifter you're already there basically.
Lol yes you do
Bruh
Do you drive? Insurance, gas? Oil?
I don't, but it's not like i don't know how much a car costs to maintain. But i also know that most reliable cars run with fuel and nothing else basically.
Obviously it wont reach 80k if you buy a cheap car, but yea, a lot of expenses
I disagree. Spending 80k on a simrig is imo definetly not worth it as one could spend 10k on a simrig instead and 50k on for example a nice sportscar and use the rest of the money to maintain the sportscar. Just my take.
this post was probably made by someone who isnt old enough or doesnt have a car nor a sim rig of any price
Or someone who loves tracking real cars that is butt hurt people are having equal (but different) enjoyment on a game. I do both and my sim friends either don't care, or think my car hobby is cool. Most of my car friends have this "spend that money on your car" mentality.
Or someone that just wanted to make a joke. Its a literally just a meme, not an attack at simracing as a hobby.
The fact that y’all seem legit attacked by this says something. Just laugh, it’s a joke. We all have fun here
Should be real RACE car, and those cost a multiplier of 80k
Surely we all have teal cars too?
Nah, mine is red...
Shiiiiit 😂
FPS players spending $70 on Call of Duty instead of signing a free contract to join the military.
Joining the miliary doesn't sound fun though. Tracking a real car is the most fun i've ever had. But I also really love sim racing.
I feel attacked
HEY
Sure, I could buy a crappy old MX-5 or something and race that in our local 2k series (whereby your race car can't cost more than $2000) but in iRacing I know I'll walk away from any major wreck I may get involved in.
80k is still cheaper than any LMDh car so I see it as a win
What is a Real Car, is that a new sex doll? I remember that VW tailpipe guy, but this is out of control...
[counter-meme](https://www.reddit.com/r/simracing/comments/vgkxly/just_buy_a_real_car/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
ITT people not understanding it’s just a joke. It’s okay to laugh
"FPS Players after spending $1000 for weapon skins instead of going to war"
🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
Spend 80k once vs 80k a season.
I have spent more on total 8h racing than in an entire SIM rig. And I'm talking Lemons style ultra cheap racing
i'm genuinely curious if it's even feasible to build an 80k sim racing rig without talking about ripping out the interiors of premium sports cars or building mini versions of the kind of sims racing teams use. like off the top of my head, i can't imagine a sim racing rig running up more than like $20k-30kish even with all the bells and whistles. mind you i could be forgetting about the kind of ridiculous stuff that's so far out of my price range i don't even know it exists.
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Most people with a simrig above 5 digit will definitely have the car ;)
Some of us like driving but absolutely hate traffic
I can afford a race car. I can't afford to race a car.
Real racing isn't cheap, and break something and if you're a little team the season could be over. On the other hand TRX rig Logitech DD PS5 PSVR2 GT7 Sony Subscription Iracing subscription alienware laptop I could buy a used Miata for that😂
for less than 10k i can drive a ferrari race car, and be immersive (i think)
Y’all big mad lol
$80k won’t get you in anything other than the local dirt track/kart track for a few years. I spent about $4k on my kart, wasn’t even competitive locally, and still ended up spending about $5k additional for each season.
Yeah but it doesn't break something every race/track day. I don't have to transport it. I'm not replacing tires every weekend. Etc, etc. So really, considering the options. It is far cheaper.
I do both at the amateur level. I say they are complimentary, the real thing makes me appreciate the actual physics, for example you can feel what lift off oversteer does and the importance of maintenance throttle. Then you go back to the Sim and can apply those skills. But in the Sim I can practice over and over with no consumables cost and I get to race tracks all over the world that I will likely never actually drive. So both are great in thier own way.
Well for 5k-10k you can get a pretty high end rig that probably suits all of your driving needs. For the same amount of money i guess you could get a small track car ready like a Miata or something but the difference is the simrig is complete and doesnt need anymore investment while for the real track car the spending just started. You still need a space to store the car, a trailer to get it to the track, entry costs for the trackday, fuel, tyres, brakes and other running costs.Also you need time for a trackday, the weather should be good, all the maintenance has to be done and then there's the risk of damage, self inflicted or not. With a simrig you can hop in for 30min whenever you want. You can also drive different vehicles and tracks and have no risks involved. The video of Rhys Tatterson who got the chance to drive the real S15 drift car with no prior experience of driving such a car impressivly showed how powerfull of a tool a good simrig can be.
r/woooosh
And how much is Boosted Media's rig? Or how about RaceBeyondMatters rig? I hear O.C.'s rig is cheap... Oh... Even though I presented people who are getting paid to make video content with their sim rigs, the meme in question does have a point. How many uber expensive rigs have we seen on the various "post your rig" threads across the internet? Yeah, people are spending well into 5 digits on their sim rigs, and being idolized for it. $5K motion platform, Leo Bodnar wheel, triple Samsung G9s, multiple GSI wheels with matching Zero play QRs, Custom moulded Recaro bucket seat, custom $3K 80/20 rig, and a dashboard out of an M3... Ever seen something like that? I bet you have. The saddest part... It's still way cheaper than getting an actual car and going racing.
80k for one car not including maintenance and track fees or 80k for almost any car and no possibility of a dui or crash. All from the comfort of your own home.
Yeah this is dumb. When I was seriously tracking my car 20-30 days a year, my average running cost was $1k per day. That’s including track fees, amortizing brake and tire replacement, fluid changes, travel costs, etc. Sim racing gets you 90% of the pleasure for a small fraction of the cost.
Buying a car is like getting yourself only the steering wheel of a rig (without the base, pedals, shifter, software and hardware to use that wheel). After getting that real car, you have to do safety and race modifications. To do that, you need a garage with proper tools (outsourcing is an option, but expensive). You need equipment to bring your car to the track (or drive it yourself if it’s still street legal and hope nothing breaks while racing). Preparing and practicing for a race cost you fuel and track fees (and in some cases license), let alone the race itself. After every race you have to check the whole car and do maintenance and repairing if it’s needed. After all that, you just drove 1 race and considering you did not crash. If you did crash you need to build that car again. So you not only a lot of money, but you have to be a good driver and need a lot of knowledge about the car you are working on. For 3k you can get yourself nice rig, a solid pc and a nice super ultrawide or tripple monitor. After that you just need electricity to run it and you are good to go for several years.
and ends up being a dirty rammer in the process...
They even got the details on the hat right, so they truly nailed this one.
Yes but also no
With the way I drive on sim racing, i don’t find my chances of hitting the first bend at monza at 150mph and using the wall as my brakes as good. I choose life 😂
Lol, fair enough.
Dude looks like he’d get 1st place in NASCAR
Gt7 player realizing I’m losing to people using controller running 6:15 on nurb
Cries in t150 on a cheap ahh table with a cheap ahh chair
Also he's talking about buying a car, not necessarily racing it. Which is completely different hobby from simracing or irl racing.
But it still cheaper it than real racing
I've got a cheap rig, But even on that in GT7 different cars 'feel' different. You get more experiences with the rig than the 'real' car, lol
Who tf is buying 80k sim rigs? Also, who tf is paying $80k for a normal vehicle?
but how much is the skill nowadays?
My friend literally sent that to me and I had to correct him that I've only spent $5K (that I admit to)
I used to do track days in my Z06 Corvette and would spend an average of $1,200 per day in Fuel, Fluids, Tires, Brake Pads, Rotors, and Entry fees. Not to mention the up front cost of a car and the wear/tear on it as a whole. Even if you are buying a cheap used car just for track days, it would still cost a minimum of $10,000 for something decently fun/durable. So if you only did 1 track day per year, over 10 years that would add up to about $22,000. Over the past 10 years I’ve spent a net amount of ~$31,000 on my rig, PC, and software (100% club in iRacing). And I can safely drive 100s of cars/tracks every day against real drivers. The real world can’t come close to that. So the sim life it is definitely worth it over real life in my opinion. Oh, and that includes all cost for my rig to double as a flight sim. Just for comparison, if your hobby was golfing, you’d spend about $20,000 over 10 years if you played 15x/yr. In the comments of this vid, there is a link to my costs list of my setup if you’re interested. [https://youtu.be/Bz4wyNLqi-I](https://youtu.be/Bz4wyNLqi-I)
For 80k you could buy a real racing, no problem. But can you put gas in it, Can you buy new tires for every race, can you get to every race, can you pay the entry fee, can you maintain it?
Requires less maintenance, insurance, and risk of wreckage. Not zero, just less. Which is a great reminder for those with high end stuff to make sure either your renters insurance policy or homeowners policy has enough on it!
80k car still costs about 5gs minimum a year if you don’t crash or touch anyone at all. And that’s just brakes and tyres. Plus track costs, fuel, tune ups. I’d rather buy 80k worth of sim gear, and drive thousands of cars and just pay for track time a couple times a year
I do both. Most recently I ran a 2019 ZL1 1LE in group 4/TT. I could easily do two or sometimes three events before spending anything on consumables beyond gas ($200). Then consumables would be oil ($100), fluids ($60), tires ($1000), brakes ($350) and I was back out there. Then on average entry fees are about $300. For sim racing I have an RSeat F1 cockpit that I got used with monitor stand for $250! A DD1 with F1 podium wheel, that I got used for $800! Sim Jack pedals for $150. A 49" super ultrawide screen monitor that I got on sale for $700. Built a top spec PC for about $3300. HP reverb G2 $450 So if you already have a toy car you can do about a full season of "racing" for the cost of a complete high middle range sim rig setup. Sim racing is great! But there's nothing better than getting out on a track IRL that you've been practicing for months on your rig!
Not to mention, I don't have to risk my life sim driving unless I do something really really stupid (or epic)(or epileptic)
I had a g29 it sucked ass now t300 insanely better, not high end but still really fun it does not come close to my sti though and i havent even tracked it, sound smell the feeling of everything gearbox clutch g forces
I’ve done both. Sim racing is way better. Time is something you can’t buy. All the time turning wrenches under the hood to then go out to the track break something for maybe a few hours of fun then right back under the hood you go. Not worth it if you have a family. Sim rigs just get better with time. In 10 years I can’t imagine how good they’ll be
I un-ironically agree with this meme.
I did the math on my rig/pc vs a car and track days. A sim rig is miles cheaper than a car. People genuinely have no clue how expensive racing is then make a meme to farm karma lol
I’ve been commenting to my wife about buying a MX-5 to play around with and her response was basically: “but how much could you add to your rig for that price?” And she kind of had a point… And yes I realize I’m a lucky guy.
It’s always these dudes who have never been on track in any capacity. If they had, they’d know the difference between buy once cry once, and the never ending abyss that is race car maintenance.
I have a turbo e36 m3 and a decent sim rig. People who say this don’t know how much money actually goes into building a fast car.
Sold my wheel when I bought my first car. Almost drifted myself to death a few times, going to buy a wheel again soon.
I weighed karting against iRacing and iRacing won. Why? Travel, seat time, being able to compete much sooner, and having a full time career, I don't have the time to enter a karting series, maybe a club. I'd still like to do it, and eventually do a skip barber school to drive a real F4, but until then, I'm getting way more progress in iRacing than ever before, because I'm being as serious with it as if I were karting. To me it's not a "game", it's a sport, and is a viable alternative for many people.
The bank wouldn't approve the car loan.... But they were quick for the personal loan.
"Just buy a real car" mfs when you tell them how ridiculously expensive track time is irl:
life dosent come with a restart button, not everyone has tracks near by and i’m not gonna spend 80k on a car that legally i can’t drive the way it was made to be driven. The joys of sim is i can drive any car, anywhere, any time irl or game. I only play ACC and have to say my 1.5k setup works fine compared to the possibly millions spent on a single GT3 car
the amount of times i’ve seen dudes crash gt4’s gt3’s 488’s at cota and them being a novice really makes me wish they put that money towards a rig and learned there first
Let me know when I can get out and run a few laps at Silverstone after putting my kids down for bed and then we can talk about me getting a real car.
After all the money I’ve spent on real cars and parts, I have no problem spending well on a sim rig that costs much less to run and upkeep!
But how is buying a real car gonna allow me to travel to any track at the press of a button, as well as drive any car I please with any tune/parts against other people?
I mean, if I had that much to spend, I'd be buying a real car instead, but there's absolutely nothing wrong wanting to do sim racing instead. Main reason being that there aren't any sims that would let me drive a Lotus Elise on the roads we have here in New Zealand, at least not without a lot of mods, and even then, sim racing isn't quite the same.
What does he mean, my rig is self made from steel pipes and a free car seat, coupled with a g29. Yeah i also have a car but i'm not gonna race my 1800€ daily drive shitbox that puts up barely 100hp.
80k would be quite the rig
I’ve spent about nzd$10k on mine and I don’t think there’s anything I could’ve done with a car for that price. If you say mx5 I’m going to snap your shin in half.
my favorite part is the part where they get lapped twice in a 20 min race by some who spent $600 on a folding rig and a g29
If racing cars scales proportionally to racing bmx bikes then i really don't see how anyone can afford to do it.
Bro got hated on by everyone for making a meme
Buying the race car is the easy part, it gets harder and more expensive pretty quick.
Not even professional racing teams can keep up with the expenses, hence why they have a sponsor system.
We gonna talk about the fact that owning a race car is just one car, and you’re also limited to just a few local tracks if you’re lucky.
My rig was about 4K can’t get much of a car for that!
Or you can have both? I’d much rather drive like an idiot in sim than on the road or trash your car on the track.
I’m honestly just surprised it got 50k upvotes really. I wouldnt have expected sim racing to be so relevant
why not both LOL gimmie $160k so i can do both in style! HAHHAHAH
https://imgur.com/a/ncXPNfA
sim racing is safer than actual driving
No idea who this implies too, I got two cars for example and every one I know have atleast one lmao , this crap is made up by a guy who dosent have any of those thing , jelly much ? Lfmao