Nah that's to buy the content. Cars are $12.00 and tracks $15.00 each. Once you buy content you only pay for it once and it's always there. You don't have to buy all the content either. Some cars you might not be interested in. Basic content is free and includes 6 cars and 8 tracks that have various configurations. If you decide to take part in higher series after the basic content you will have to buy a few tacks. One per week as it rotates the schedule. Eventually you own most of the tracks and you can take part in a lot more series. It's up to you really. I've spent $80 + sub and I am buzzing off my tits. The laser scanner tracks are truely awesome, you feel every bump like you're really driving a car flat out.

If you eventually own all the content that $500 figure, then more tracks are released as time goes on. But there's a huge choice already. Last content release Dec2010 was the Street Stock Car (Free) and Spa. Every few months new stuff comes out I think. There's enough for all tastes as it is, no dirt though if that's what you want.

You pay the month subscription extra. approx $100 per year.
It only costs $12.00 to test it out for 3 months to see if it's up to your standards and you get free cars and tracks with that.

I'm the tightest prick with money I know and I'm happily buying into this It's like when Homer eats the free cookies at the mall and moans about how they 'jack-up the price after your addicted' haha

As far as I know, once you have 100% of content, if any more content gets released you buy it at 25% off, which isn't too bad. Pity I don't have 200 quid lying about.

I've been a member for 20 months. I've done it the expensive way as well... 3 monthly subs and never more than 3 bits of content at a time.

I have all road content and a few ovals.

The grand total for the best 20 months of simming I've ever had? 42p per day.
(and remember..I could have done it a lot cheaper if i'd bought bulk and gone for yearly subs)


It's hardly breaking the bank now is it?

I've had it since beta, and eventhough I have stepped away from it a couple times, I tried to keep getting as much content as possible. Now I have had 100% content for a while now, and much prefer it that way. Now when there's 4 pieces of content coming out a year, the $10 a season "paybacks" pay for the content (25% off ftw!).

My money spent per day: $0.67

^That above isn't true because I was a beta tester, but it shows if you were around from the beginning how much it would cost to have all the content. My real money spent per day for being a beta tester is $0.32

I gave it another try. To my disbelief there doesn't seem to have been a single physics update in the past 2.5 years!

The rear wheel drive skip barber formula car still encourages flooring the throttle as a remedy to oversteer. Yeah right, that's realistic, a car made for beginner pay drivers behaves as if it were trying to kill you...

Then there are still the ridiculous x1 penalties whenever you dare to put a wheel on the grass, even if you are still able to keep the throttle planted without problems.

On a positive note the graphics and performance have made a nice improvement.

A few questions for the iRacing regulars:
I'm still interested in the Formula Mazda, Spa and Brands. If I shell out for them, will I be able to drive them in competition? As far as I can tell iRacing still dictates which cars are driven where and when. Which means that there is no Formula Mazda on either Spa or Brands. Or are there free servers somewhere where people can drive on any combo they want, LFS style?

Quote from J.B. :

I gave it another try. To my disbelief there doesn't seem to have been a single physics update in the past 2.5 years!

There have been physics updates every 3 months!

Quote from J.B. :

Then there are still the ridiculous x1 penalties whenever you dare to put a wheel on the grass, even if you are still able to keep the throttle planted without problems.

Don't know how many times this misinformation has been spread, but the fact is you have to have over half your car off the racing surface to incur a 1x. You can happily stick two wheels on the grass with no problem at all.

Quote from J.B. :

A few questions for the iRacing regulars:
I'm still interested in the Formula Mazda, Spa and Brands. If I shell out for them, will I be able to drive them in competition? As far as I can tell iRacing still dictates which cars are driven where and when. Which means that there is no Formula Mazda on either Spa or Brands. Or are there free servers somewhere where people can drive on any combo they want, LFS style?

If you have the correct license ('C' for the Star Mazda) you can drive them in competition.
Not sure of brands is in the Mazda schedule this season. Spa should be on most schedules next season.

There are always plenty of hosted servers to race on, whatever your license.

Quote from Greboth :

Bit of advice from people, just got my D licence so next cup to race. I am looking at the mustang, skip barber or jetta but which is the better ones to race?

Mustang races are more populated than Jetta races, so it's easier to get an official race (or more suitable split) with them. Apparently the skippy is even more popular, although I'm not an open-wheel guy so I've never raced it.

You might want to wait until the next season is announced before you buy your next car. You might be gearing up for a season only to find it's changed completely in a few weeks.

Mustang understeers like a boat and isn't fun to me. I chose the Skippy when I was going from rookie -> Class D and then went to the Star Mazda. I still race both to this day while I'm running the higher class series. Jetta is hard to find official races in, Mustang fits some peoples interests and the Skippy fits some peoples interests. If you like understeer go with the Mustang, if you want to drive it harder and slide a bit, go with the Skippy.

Quote from The Moose :

Don't know how many times this misinformation has been spread, but the fact is you have to have over half your car off the racing surface to incur a 1x. You can happily stick two wheels on the grass with no problem at all.

Also not true... The centerpoint of the car needs to be off the "racing surface" to get you a x1... You could have all four wheels on either kerb or tarmac, if the centerpoint is off you get an incident... You can test that with every suddenly ending kerb...

Quote from bbman :

Also not true... The centerpoint of the car needs to be off the "racing surface" to get you a x1... You could have all four wheels on either kerb or tarmac, if the centerpoint is off you get an incident... You can test that with every suddenly ending kerb...

Thats exactly what he said?

Quote from DeKo :

Thats exactly what he said?

I thought so too...

Quote from racer hero :

Mustang understeers like a boat and isn't fun to me.

Haha I agree with that. Bought the mustang and skip barber to try and the mustang is horrible. Maybe my driving is partly to blame but I cannot get the car balanced. I seem to understeer everywhere or I dial it out then I feel I am in a drift competition I oversteer so much.

Also bought the chevvy impala to try some proper oval racing instead of the legends. Time to see how that goes.

Regards the off the road penalty, what is wrong with that? Its annoying when an incident forces you off the track but normal racing just stick to the track it isn't difficult. Though does feel sometimes its alot more harsh in handing it out but watching the replay usually shows how wide you really were.

The Mustang take work to get right....but when you do oh boy what a car. Had the Celtic league race last night and we had the Mustangs at Mosprt, such a blast.

I think for now I will race the skip barber but keep practising with the mustang and getting it set up for the tracks. Watching some replays it does seem a good car but at the moment too much fighting going on to be quick or enjoyable.

Just did a skip barber race at summit point, was horrible though too as it was more demolition derby in the mid field. Oh well, onwards and upwards.

Figure out how to get the Mustang to turn in and its an epic car.

It's like the FZ5, you either love it or you hate it.

+1 Phil. The Mustang is naice when you get used to it.

Quote from DeKo :

Thats exactly what he said?

No, "over half a car off" is quite a bit more than one point (in its center), especially when I bring a perfect example where even a small portion of the car being over the grass gives you an unsafe driving penalty...

So I get wrecked by some idiots on purpose and now my rating is at 1.43...
great

And the other 27 incidents in that race were whose fault? If someone does deliberate wreck you then report them of course. But, if you are in the bottom splits all of the time then you kinda have to expect some idiots, especially on track change day. And the more races you finish low down in, the less iRating you get, which means your keep getting put in the bottom splits. So race clean, stay out of trouble and finish near the front and you'll get better SR and iRating

Quote from bbman :

No, "over half a car off" is quite a bit more than one point (in its center), especially when I bring a perfect example where even a small portion of the car being over the grass gives you an unsafe driving penalty...

I must not be understanding what you're saying...

The centre-line of the car must be off of the racing surface to incur a 1x. Hopefully you're basically parallel with the track anyway, so... ?

Won't moan too much in the progress report thread, but suffice to say I just bought iRacing for a year.

Don't look at my irating, let some people use my account a while back

Look me up, you can guess my name

In the first races I always crashed my self (alone, I didn't wreck anybody) So I had a pretty bad rating of 1.67.
That must be why I'm with all the idiots now

I finally started with it.

Still under the name of my father though...

Williams @Zandvoort after some laps 1:19 and something I think.

MX-5 1:00.6 at Lime Rock. I think I like Open Wheelers more. Even though I only have the Williams

Quote from jasonmatthews :

Won't moan too much in the progress report thread, but suffice to say I just bought iRacing for a year.

Don't look at my irating, let some people use my account a while back

Look me up, you can guess my name

Bernard Matthews?

Quote from pearcy_2k7 :

Bernard Matthews?

Jason Turkey?