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I have the Skip Barber “Going Faster” book and DVD. If it’s produced together with iRacing and Skip Barber, I expect a very professionally done product. I expect real racers, sim racers and iRacers will all benefit.

And since it’s free with a $5 one month subscription, who wouldn’t want to check it out?

Jack B: …since it’s free with a $5 one month subscription, who wouldn’t want to check it out?

The people who don’t like a subscription system lol?

They should make a couple videos on setups instead, for the people who know how to go fast but always beaten by aliens.

And use those Redline team’s youtube videos to copy the braking points and racing line for each track. That’s a competitive driving school.

Looks they are stepping it up a few notches. Bring in a le Mans P1 car and its a wrap

And use those Redline team’s youtube videos to copy the braking points and racing line for each track. That’s a competitive driving school.

I’d wager the quality of the iRacing driving school in cooperation with the Skip Barber Racing school will quite a bit higher than a YouTube video.

I’ve seen plenty of Team Redline Videos. Great stuff and really appreciate those videos and many other Youtube videos. I can see their braking points. I can see their lines. I can see their entry, mid and exit speeds. I can see their turn in points. I don’t need an overlay of that information. I already have it.

What I can’t do is drive like that. Can you? If not, maybe you should spend the $5 and see what Skip Barber and iRacing have come up with. It might help you get better. ;-)

Team Redline tries to help drivers get better by posting those videos. iRacing and Skip Barber are trying to help make drivers better with their driving school. My guess is Team Redline will probaby give them accolades for creating the driving school. You might not, but you can’t please everyone.

setups are not allways everything for example my problem in simracing is that i like the car to be a little loose, but in a sim its really dificult to drive like that because you dont get the little changes the back of your car is doing not even with a good FFB wheel, you feel it loose but not to a point where you can explote a good oversteering setup, IMO drivers who like a car with understeer will allways be faster in a sim, even with the best driving school.

Hopefully they’ll follow this up with, “Racing School”; How to Sim Race On and Offline. This is where they will cover tactics, visual and non visual sight lines and spatial awareness (because of our single monitors many of us sim racers lack much of the peripheral vision compared to real world racers), throttle and braking consistency (how to avoid inadvertant ‘brake checking’), good/proper etiquette, communication, etc. …unless this is going to be covered too. It’s not 100% clear in the intro video.

Oh man, I need some schooling badly. I still dislike the subscription system (I work in shifts, so at best I can drive only during two weeks of a month… at best, as on-line racing requires quite a big time investment and no distractions) but man… it’s tempting as hell. If you can pay with Visa Electron this is really going to be hard for me

i’m very disappointed! i thought the driving school was going to be interactive! now it’s just a bunch of videos!?

I was rather hoping for something more interactive too, though I’m not super clear on just how that should work exactly.

There are things you can do in a sim that can’t be done in real life that could make for excellent tools. Seems to me that taking the most advantage of the medium would make good sense. For instance, the feature in GTR2 that would record your line on previous laps, indicating throttle and brakes with the color of the line, was a very useful thing (being able to share these would be great). I understand in the previous version of Grid you could rewind time. That could be good for getting one or a series of corners down without having to drive all the way around the course again just to make the same slight mistake the next time.

These things aren’t necessarily “realistic” but a simulation does have some real advantages over the real world, and I say may as well take advantage of them.

I’m sure the iRacing folks could come up with some pretty good interactive ideas. I would say they might even go as far as to hire a couple talented sim-racers full time and let users schedule ride along type sessions with voice chat so the instructors could observe you driving and comment. With some good enough talent on their end, I bet there are some people that would even be willing to pay per-session for something like that.

These things would probably require some pretty substantial engine modifications on their end though, and maybe it wouldn’t be worth it in the end.

i think GTR2 and GT4 set a pretty good example of how to implement an interactive driving school. the best part about it is imo that you can drive through a single corner over and over again and see how your time improves.

It’s too expensive imo. (the whole iracing game/subscription)

ScHiRoCk: It’s too expensive imo. (the whole iracing game/subscription)

I like Turtles.

Der_KHAN: i think GTR2 and GT4 set a pretty good example of how to implement an interactive driving school. the best part about it is imo that you can drive through a single corner over and over again and see how your time improves.

I’d like to see an interactive training too. I’d also like to see web based testing after the training. Possibly even required testing. I’d also like to see live instructor led training, maybe once per week like Greg Coultier’s Momentum Racing School, which he runs free for iRacers.

My guess is these videos with Skip Barber will be very high quality, but they won’t be the end. iRacing will continue to add more over time just like they’ve done with everything else.

iRacing is so different than boxed sims. They have a large single, organized community all in one place. They have the ability to do live instructor led training, so I expect we’ll see that at some point, but they need to take things a step at a time.

I imagine the interactive training tool would have taken development resources away from other projects the community wants, so the professionally done videos are a good first step. When more developer resources free up, they can add the interactive training tool.

I’m really looking forward to these videos. I have the Skip Barber “Going Faster” book and DVD. Both are helpful and I really liked the DVD. If these videos are as helpful as the Skip Barber DVD the iRacing community will be very impressed. We should reserve final judgement until we see the videos.

ScHiRoCk: It’s too expensive imo. (the whole iracing game/subscription)

iRacing isn’t to expensive thay run the servers and most importantly the tracks and cars.
The team goes all over the word to scan and have more than 10 employees working on it for months, thay have to get payed aswell.
Its more expansive than rFactor but there is a real quality diffirents iRacing is spot on on evry detail.

I thought the same befour I tried it.

Ferraris are too expensive. Good thing i’m not forced to buy one. What’s even worse is when someone holds a gun to your head and forces you to subscribe to iRacing.

OT I know, but I cant log in at the moment, getting internal server error. Just me or is iRacing down?

Nevermind, it now shows a maintenance message.

Come on guys. Yes, iRacing is expensive compared to other guys, I can see that, the question is, is it worth all that money for the fun you get out of it? Some say yes, like me, some say no, that’s perfectly fine and understandable, but don’t go and have a pointless argue about it against each other , just accept it.

Cost was never the issue. Nobody can argue paying for quality were it’s due, beside this has been talked about over and over.

The real problem I personally have with iRacing is the system just doesn’t suit me. I’d rather make a one-off payment at MS Flight Sim type premium and have all the content from the start. My attention span is just too short and so is my stamina probably. I can do only one 15 lap race online in rFactor, or two shorter races, yet I’m able to spend 3 hours on L4D2. I certainly can’t do hot-lapping and in an unlimited practise I will switch cars every 3 laps.

I just talk myself out of iRacing every time. I’m classing myself as a driving immersion enthusiast only.

Cardonfibre, iRacing may not be a good fit for you, but maybe…. Here’s why. Most iRacers only race 1 or 2 series per season. There are a lot of good drivers, so if you want to do well, it requires focus and practice. Thus, many iRacers will spend an entire week practicing and racing one track and one car trying to improve. Then in their 2nd 12 week season they often choose the same car and same track, because they want to improve their position in their division or overall or just improve lap times. I’ve been racing the Skippy in D Class for almost 2 years, because the competition is good and scales to my ability. I started 2 years ago in Division 8 or something (out of 10) and now I”m up to division 2. It’s rewarding for me to watch my progress over time. Every lap of every session I ever ran is there for me to compare against.

It’s not the kind of sim to jump from car to car, track to track. Some people do race 3,4, 5 or so cars per week, but many focus on one series to try and get better. Maybe jumping into another car during the week for fun, but only focusing on one series at a time.

If you aren’t the kind of guy who wants to track your progress and try to get better, then the sims with lots or cars and tracks may be a better fit.

Race lengths aren’t too long though. The 15 lap races you describe could be 30 minutes, depending on the track length, car speed I suppose. Rookie races are generally 15-20 minutes. D Class are about 30 minutes. C Class a bit more all the way up to A class at around 55-60 minutes for road and about 70 minutes or so on oval.

Some people love the Solstice, Legends and Spec Racer Ford. Some hate them, but if you stick with them and get good the racing in the higher rated splits is very good, so you might have fun in those races. I know people who’ve spent 2 years racing Rookie class and love it. It’s only $5 with the PR-School promo or the Promo on http://www.inracingnews.com. You’re only out $5 to give it a try.

Well put Jack B. I myself unfortunately, or fortunately, jump from car to car and track to track but almost exclusively hotlap. I have so many other sim programs and mods, and yet I do this with iRacing. Am I selling myself short from a value point because I own (or should I say have a right to use, since you can’t really own) so many iRacing cars and tracks and have spent money also on original 1 year subscription and now just renewed for two years? No way! How is this? Especially when I don’t fully utilize what iRacing has to offer on their website for their service subscribers? It is because I have been a sim driver/enthusiast for so long and know the experience with all the other products out there that I realize how incredible iRacing’s car and force feedback physics are and how good the tracks are. It’s like getting into a kart, GT car or Open wheeler and going out and pounding around the track and becoming drunk (not really an appropriate description in driving) in the sheer adrenaline filled ecstasy at the edge of the laws of physics. …yet, I also concur with Jack B.

Well, it seems there are some issues with paying with Visa debit so I’m “safe” for now.
I will not engage in the ‘too expensive’ discussion, as I think it’s pointless. I wil however point out that for someone who can race only from time to time, the timed subscription model is less than ideal.

I have been iRacing for 4 months now. It is expensive if you try to get into any other series except for the basic ones that come with the subscription. I bought the Star Mazda, Silverado, and Indycar (so I could race in the Indy 500). But I can only race in a few races during each car’s series until I buy more tracks. I work shift work so I like being able to race at ANY time of the day. They say the cars are realistic, but I just don’t notice the real Nascar trucks powersliding thru turns like they do in iRacing. When driving, the rear tires feel like they are big balloons. Fun to drive, but seem a little weird. But I love the racing at any time of day. Big plus for me.