VirtualR – Sim Racing News
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All those scans sure look nice, but it really does take the artistic work of ‘modding’ out of it :)

Only if you define “artistic” as the guessing part of it. You still have to “mold” the polygons to that scan-data, texture it, paint it.

Oh, man thats what I want to pay money for…a freaking Street Stock! Are you kidding me iRacing? Scan something interesting in like an Indy Lights car or a Porsche, or anything but a street stock.

The street stock will be free Femke…

Can’t wait to see how it will look like ingame!

Very Good article that hits the nail on the iRacing head. ” the combination of a subscription fee and paid content, made it more of a professional driver tool than something gamers might dabble with. Compared to traditional Sims, it was a very expensive way to pretend to be a racing driver.”  I believe from the beginning it was marketed as a professional drivers tool? What else could justify the expense.   The price has got to come down more. It needs open track days, with driving while other drivers are on the track, without paying for the tracks. Tracks could be paid for by race entrance fees. With the majority of those fees going as prizes for each race. So new cars can be paid for with prize money.  It’s alright to suck money out of a customer; but it has to be balanced against how much entertainment value they get for their dollar. They really should hire me for ideas. LOL

I’m not American, what is a Street Stock? Is it jet powered?

I always wanted something like the Howmet TX, that and any electric cars are the only categories that have been negletiged entirely by sim racing. I’m just posting random thoughts here.

Entry level short track oval cars. Weigh about 3300 lbs and put out around 300 HP, but varies from region to region. V8, RWD.

Above the little Legends cars, but below the LM. It’s the stepping stone between the two.

I´ve no idea what a stock street car is supposed to mean.  it´s a redundant name for gran turismo car but it´s funny how americans take out of contest the name of some cars just like what they did with Stock car = touring car! 

Its Street Stock, not stock street.

http://tinyurl.com/369bz4n

In American Stock Car Racing. They call the cars stock. But they haven’t been for decades. The only stock part left. Is the basic engine block. Which is it self totally re-engineered. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Your ideas are decent and they’ve been mentioned many times on many forums for the past couple of years, but the business model has stayed fairly constant and iRacing continues to grow.

The price keeps coming down as the feature set keeps going up, so eventually the value may be there for you.  Who knows.  They’ve grown a ton in the past 2 years.  Participation is up from 2,200 drivers per season to over 9,000.  They’re about 2 or 3 times the number of new subscribers each week compared to last year.

A percentage try it and quit and some re-subscribe, but every season more and more compete.  The retention rate for new subscribers and the percentage of resubscribers probably are increasing slightly, but they’ll never get 100% of the new subscribers to race 12 months a year.  That’s factored in…

In the end though, iRacing is not going to appeal to the masses.  Many Console or even PC sim fans want to use traction control and steering help whether the real car has it or not.  Or an H Shifter on a car with a sequential transmission.  Heck, even some iRacers want that…

iRacing just isn’t going to appeal to the masses at any price, but the price should keep going down as they get more and more members.

The Street Stock will be free, so you aren’t paying for it.  The Road drivers have 2 free cars with the Solstice and Spec Racer Ford and soon to be a 3rd free car with the Mazda MX5.  The oval drivers only have 1 free car now with the Legend.  This will give them 2 and it makes sense as a stepping stone on the ladder to the Late Model.

Depends on what level of stock car racing we’re discussing. Nothing is stock in a NASCAR Sprint Cup car. But at the lower, Saturday night short-track levels, there are still plenty of stock parts — such as chassis, engine blocks, front clips, etc., in classes like Street Stock, Pure Stock and Enduro. 

Professional drivers tool?  What else could justify the expense?  You have got to be kidding me.  Do you know how many people are paying $15/month for WoW and other MMOs?  Over 11 million just for WoW.  Let’s say they do the cheapest option, 6 months at a time – that’s $13/month or $156/year.  If iRacing is $100/year (as Felipe says), that leaves $56/year to spend on content.  At current prices, that’s about 5 cars or 4 tracks.

Let’s say you bought one car, the Skip Barber, and spent the rest on tracks.  You’d be able to race the entire current season in your first year except for one event.  If you signed up with the right promo, you could probably race the entire first season with money left over to try out other content that interests you.

FOR THE SAME PRICE AS WOW.

Driver development tool…  Give me a break!

Er, I meant professional drivers tool.  Pricing wise.  My point is that at current pricing, whether you look at it as a professional drivers tool, driver development tool, or just plain game, the PRICING puts it right alongside a typical MMO, or significantly cheaper even, if you can rein in your content spending.