That’s right! Racer on Rails crew have been big fans of the Avants community for a while now and providing discounts but in 2022, we made it officially OFFICIAL!
What’s the deal?
Active Avants Members get 15% discount off all labor
$500 max discount for any single job
$5,000 max discount for a rolling 12-month period
That’s it! For reals!
What is Avants?
Do you like cars and car cultures? As in, you really like cars and car culture? You like hanging out, chatting and meeting up with other like-minded car nuts? Do you like those meetups to be legit and super cool events like dyno-runs, drives, car clinics, off-roading, photoshoots, track days, etc?
If you do, Avants is THE place to be, especially if you live in the Pacific Northwest – there’s a Seattle and Portland chapter.
With events going on almost literally every weekend, there’s no shortage of fun times with the Avants Community.
I’m an Avants Member! What kind of work can you all do for me?
Racer on Rails works on everything starting from high-performance street cars and up to fully dedicated track and race cars.
Normal daily drivers are awesome but there are many other places to give them some love. Below are some of the things that Racer on Rails can help out with:
Pre-purchase inspection of a track or race car
Pre-track day/race weekend inspection and nut/bolt
Alignments and full competition setups
Complete fabrication and chassis prep for roll bars and competition cages
General maintenance and repairs for track and race cars
Install of high performance power bolt-ons and suspension upgrades
Complete brake service and upgrades
Maintenance and support of factory based race cars
Full arrive and drive support with your own car or one of our race cars
Something else? Get in touch – if we can help, we’re on it and if not, we’ll help find the right path for you!
Note, originally we were supposed to be at Sebring International Raceways for the SCCA Hoosier Super Tour but the beautiful white Christmas we had in the PNW overstayed its welcome and by the time we need to have the trucks on the road to the SE, all the passes out of WA were closed due to blizzard conditions and the alternate route going down the west coast and across the SW was riddled with freezing or snow conditions in New Mexico, Texas and even parts of Alabama.
So with about 10 days’ notice, we made the change to instead to go sunny southern California where last year, we attended this same race but it was held at Autoclub Motor Speedway in Fontana, CA.
The Team
For the first race, we had three Spec E46’s running in Touring 3 (T3) trim and one Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport running in GT2 class.
#44 Dave Orem, #81 Simon Asselin, #109 Gama Aguilar and #4 Ann Doherty
The normal crew of Jordan, Bryce and Gama were on hand but this was also the first official race weekend with our new Motorsports Director, Memo Calderon and our service advisor, Reid Morris.
The Fog
Not going to mince words here, it was a tough weekend and mostly due to dense fog that rolled in each night and resulted in each morning’s scheduled run groups to be postponed due to low visibility conditions. One of the locals at one of the on-site race shops with a retail space mentioned that it had been close to 27 years since they had seen such thick fog and turns out that the volcano eruption in Tonga might have contributed to the fog conditions.
In the end, each day we didn’t get started on-track until 11am – 12noon. On the Friday test day, the run groups ran per the schedule as the organizer simply picked up when we started and had the 3 run groups doing 20 minute sessions each hour, until 5pm.
Racer on Rails cars ready to go on-track but under a fog hold on the Friday test day
Thank You Safety Equipment!
There is never a shortage of reasons to not skimp on safety equipment choices, design and preventative maintenance as we never plan on having an issue where safety equipment is needed but we’re always glad when it’s there and it works.
We had two incidents on the test day:
Failed front-right lower ball joint in the control arm (SE46): The #109 SE36 running in T3 trim got a near complete overhaul prior to the 2021 SCCA Runoffs at Indy, which included brand new lower control arms. Unfortunately it got taken out on lap 1 of the race which resulted in a front end impact with at least energy going through the suspension components but not a direct hit or contact. All in, the control arm and lower ball joint had 1-1.5 hours of run time prior to this weekend. On the very first session when the fog broke, lap 2, braking for Sunset corner (the last corner before s/f), the inner lower ball joint failed and the car went plowing through the corner and came to a stand still on the exit of the corner. On top of needing to make repairs to get the car back up and running, it also caused a black flag which ended running for everyone else.
Rollover on the exit of the kink before Phil Hill: With the fog and being in mid-January, the track was not just green each morning from fog moisture but also stone cold. It was 38F on Friday morning and barely broke 50F once the fog cleared for the afternoon. This meant really tough conditions in terms of finding grip and in the 3rd session of the test day, the #44 took the same line as in previous laps with maybe a tiny bit more steering angle, hit the curb of the kink like normal but this time it upset the car a tad bit too much and the backend came around. The car slid off-track and when it hit the dirt, which with the moisture and temperatures was more like mud, the wheels hooked into the dirt and the car barrel rolled. We’ll have another post in the future to dissect and share how the cage and all the safety equipment faired.
Making Lemonade Out of Lemons
New track, very limited run time and low grip conditions – what do you do? Make the most of it and work on the learning process! Expectations for big results are low, so instead focus on developing and that’s exactly what each driver did, with the help of driver coaches Seth Thomas and Ray Phillips!
Ann D studying her track notes and mentally preparing for the next time on-track.
Through the coaching from Seth and Ray, each driver made progress across the limited running and culminated in a podium position for each driver! Below are some areas that were focused on throughout the weekend:
Squaring off corners better in low grip/wet conditions and to setup exit of the following straights
Timing of transitions from brake to gas and vice versa
Establishing a connection or translation layer between what driving Buttonwillow in the simulator felt like relative to real life
Mentality to have when going into a race with changing conditions (both getting worse and getting better)
How to explore grip when conditions are improving
Ray Phillips doing a quick debrief after a session while in post-session tech.
Moving forward to COTA in February
So we came out of Buttonwillow with 3 of the 4 cars running, 4 trophies, 1 race win, 5+ second improvements in dry running lap times from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, a new T3 track record for Buttonwillow CW14 configuration with a 1:55.376 and ready for the next round at Circuit of the Americas February 4 – 6, 2022.
Simon made gains across both races and had an epic battle with a T3 Porsche Boxer, having led a good part of Race 2
Ann made a massive step from Saturday to Sunday, dropping 8 seconds in one day and snagging two podium positions in GT2
Dave had limited running due to the incident but was fully healthy after being checked out by medics and will be back on track for COTA
Gama won race 1, broke the track record by multiple seconds and was leading race 2 (and in a battle with an STU car) but the coolant expansion tank failed, resulting in an overheating engine which forced him to retire the race but not before improving on the track record
With one new track for most of our drivers under our belt, we can adjust the preparation in the simulator and the development plans for the test day and each of the on-track race sessions.
Thanks to the team, Ann, Dave, Simon, Ray, Seth and everyone from the Cal Club who made this weekend possible and making the most out of a pretty tough first race of the year.
2021 was a great way to bounce back from 2020 and while COVID isn’t behind us, we’re thankful that we were able to make it to all but one of the planned competition and racing events that we originally planned and even added in a couple of extra race weekends.
Thank you to everyone who was a part of our journey in 2021!
2022 is shaping up to be an even more jam packed with track action and while we’re mostly booked up for each event, we have limited available capacity to have you join us at the local .
If you aren’t already driving with us, consider this an open invitation. We are here to help! Our current SCCA, ICSCC (Conference), NASA, Revolution Racing League and GT Celebration events are listed below.
If there are any race weekends you would like some crew and coaching support for, please feel free to contact us via e-mail, phone or messenger – raceronrails@gmail.com – (206) 475-1114
Not even a couple weeks into 2021, we kicked off the racing season with a trip to Southern California for our very first SCCA race weekend and a U.S. Majors Tour event at that!
We love the Spec E46 class and series because it’s a national class where these cars can be raced all over the country in a variety of series. In 2019 we did a NASA National Championship run, racing in California at Sonoma and Thunderhill to qualify for the National Championship at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. We were all set for a similar campaign and with more cars and the national championships at Utah Motorsports Park but COVID threw a wrench into those plans (and everything else in the world).
With the 2021 NASA National Championships to be held at Daytona International Speedway, we decided to instead participate in the SCCA Run Offs (SCCA’s National Championship) which is set to be held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. To be able to compete in the Run Offs, you have to qualify by competing in a minimum number of US Majors/Hoosier Super Tour events (minimum 3 weekends and finish minimum of 3 races in the same class) or participate in 4 Divisional race weekends and finish in the top 3 of the divisional points race in that same class.
This race weekend would be the first of our “winter” Southwest road trip, followed by a Hoosier Super Tour event at Circuit of the Americas in February, Buttonwillow in late February and Thunderhill in March. With this “trip” we should have all the races taken cared of to qualify for the Runoffs before the PNW racing season gets going.
New track, trailer and tires
By the time the cars hit the track on Friday mid-day, we had gotten through three new firsts:
New track: This would be a new track for everyone on the team but being able to get some simulator time on iRacing in the Mazda Global MX-5 Cup Car helped us get up to speed on the track and some sense for braking points and a rough setup direction.
New trailer: With a few cars to transport and what is looking like a packed racing year, it was time for us to invest into the shop and buy a larger trailer. This was our inaugural outing in the new truck and trailer. We’ll still be seeing our trusty individual trailers for other weekends but the new trailer made this trip much easier to manage.
New tires: This also was the first time we strapped on Hoosier tires for T3 competition on any of the SE46’s in our fleet. While the Hoosier’s are technically more narrow in diameter 225/45/17 versus the 255/40/17 spec for the Toyo RR’s. We measured them and the Hoosier is still wider than the Toyo RR. ????
Learning a new track and an roval
Having some time on the simulator really helped out and after a couple sessions, each of the three drivers started developing a rhythm and we were able to start focusing on specific sections of the track. While a decent sized track, it ended up being relatively simple. Kind of like Portland International Raceways, it felt like figuring out how to get the first 85-90% came relatively easy but that last 10-15% took a good amount of discipline and intestinal fortitude.
The track is made up of a two chicanes which are similar to the PIR chicane, one very tricky decreasing radius right hander, a deceivingly simple final sector that leads to oval section and longest full throttle sequence and a turn 1 and 2 on the oval that requires a good amount of commitment to stay full throttle the entire time. It wasn’t until after Saturday’s qualifying and race sessions that we were convinced it was possible to stay 100% full throttle through the whole oval and bets were laid out to see who the first one was to stay flat on Sunday AM’s qualifying.
Gama Aguilar in the #209 Full Throttle in the Oval Section
Saturday Podiums and Progress
The story of the day on Saturday was to keep learning and bring back some hardware. With a limited field in T3, podium spots were almost guaranteed but there were other cars from other classes that qualified amongst the T3 runners, which were made up of our fleet of 3 BMW E46’s and the #12 BMW SpecE46 of Brian Ghidinelli.
Racer on Rails customers John Hennessy and Russell Seewald had an incredible battle the entire race where Russell was able to hold off a late race charge from John to hold on for P3 in T3.
Gama Aguilar (person writing this article ????) got behind Brian Ghidinelli, who qualified on pole and stuck behind him for the majority of the race, waiting for an opening to make a pass. About 3/4 of the way through the race there was an opening going into the last chicane of the track. I came out of his draft right before going to brakes, moved into the inside and got side by side. As I started trailing to turn in, I looked at the body language of Brian’s car and it looked like he didn’t see me so I started backing out of the move but he turned in too quickly and we ended up making contact with Brian spinning out.
I made sure the car was still working (it was) and while I thought it was a clean move, I didn’t want any questions or discussions with stewards so I backed off and waited for Brian to catch up. Once he did, I waived him through to give the position back and resume racing. The goal is to qualify for the Runoffs. Winning every race is a goal and would be awesome but that’s not the ultimate goal.
Saturday Race Results: 1. Brian Ghidinelli, 2. Gama Aguilar, 3. Russell Seewald, 4. John Hennessy
Sunday AM Qualifying and Final Race
After getting the bets on the table for who would got flat through the oval first and John Hennessy strapping on some sticker tires, we went out for qualifying. Gama and Russell both went out on scrubbed but still fresh Hoosier A7’s and with qualifying time of 8am PST, the track conditions were going to be near perfect.
Everybody improved across the board, dropping at minimum 1.5 seconds. John Hennessy put in a MEGA lap of 1:52.106, less than 1 tenth of second behind Brian Ghidinelli with a 1:52.048 – both of which broke the previous T3 track record. Gama came in with a 1:52.652 and Russell came in with a 1:54.655.
With the starting grid for Sunday’s race based on fastest lap from all officially timed sessions on Saturday and Sunday so far, we ended up being gridded across multiple cars from other classes.
The start of the race was a bit faster than of us expected as the overall pole setter had us well into 4th gear before the green flag flew. John got caught off guard a bit with that start and missed opportunities to tuck into the inside lane and lost some spots by the time we were braking for the chicane.
Russell took advantage of that and stuck behind John but on the second lap going into braking for the first chicane, he had a spicy downshift into 3rd gear which locked up the rears and sent him on a ride. Fortunately, no walls or bumpers were hurt during the spin. Russell got back on the track, finished the race and made the most of some flat spotted rear tires.
John got into a rhythm but the lost positions at the start created a gap to the P1 and P2 battle that was unfolding.
Gama (err… I) got a couple of positions on the start of the race and was behind Brian by mid-way through lap 1 but an out of class Corvette was getting around me on the big straight aways and getting in the way for the braking zones. It took a couple of laps but eventually created enough space to not have to worry about it.
I started putting my head down to eat away at the gap Brian had created (probably around 3-5 second gap) and around lap 4, a spun out Mazda Rx7 GT2 car almost took me out in the first chicane. Was able to put down some fast laps and eventually, the Rx7 got around me and while it slowed me down a little, it eventually went out of sight and caught up to Brian.
About half-way through the race, the RX7, Brian and I were all bunched up and it became apparent that the RX7 didn’t have the braking or handling performance to hang with us in the corners and while it would motor away on the straights, the lap time gap wasn’t big enough to create separation. It would turn into who would be the last person to have a lap or a sector screwed up by the RX7 and giving the opportunity to the other driver. We both benefited and took hits from managing the RX7 but unfortunately for me, it ended up being on the second to last lap (as I was leading) that the RX7 parked it on the sequence that leads on to the main start/finish straight. I had to lift and adjust my line to not take us both out and by the time I was back on throttle and had cleared the RX7, I looked to my left to take the inside line (and thus make Brian go around me on the outside to overtake), he was already tucked in with some overlap.
This turned into the most exciting sector of the weekend where we went side by side through the entire oval sector for the last lap and I stayed flat for as long as possible to try to keep the position but Brian had the inside line for the chicane and unless he completely over slowed, it would have been near impossible to keep the position by going around him on the outside.
#12 pulling away on the final lap as the RX7 refuses to go away.
From then on, the RX7 hassled me on another two corners which sealed the deal for Brian. Overall, was a great race and incredible time at our first time as a Racer on Rails team, going to a super speedway and roval course.
Sunday Race Results: 1. Brian Ghidinelli, 2. Gama Aguilar, 3. John Hennessy, 4. Russell Seewald
Thank you to everyone at the SCCA Cal Club, Hoosier Tires and all the volunteers who made this race weekend happen without a single issue and in the middle of a pandemic. THANK YOU!
Speed Nerd Bonus Content: What changed over 1 day?
From Saturday to Sunday, the qualifying laps, average race laps and fastest race laps all came down by at least 1.5 seconds. So what happened? Below is a comparison of the fastest race lap time on Saturday versus Sunday. Here’s what we think happened:
More seat time: Saturday was only the third or fifth time any of the RoR drivers had ever driven on the track in real life. Each session would help find more speed.
Staying flat on the oval: Every little bit counts and as we got comfortable with the track, it became clear that you could take it flat every lap and while a little sketchy, it was possible. Just had to believe and trust that it was possible and it appears to have resulted in almost .75 seconds gained before hitting the brakes for the chicane.
Patience on the exit of corners: This is likely tied to #1 but as I understood the track more and more, I started focusing on corner exits – do anything possible to not need to lift or hesitate too much when ascending to full throttle. Still not perfect at all but I think it got much better.
Use that purple crack: The additional grip of these Hoosier A7’s relative to the Toyo RR’s is significant. For example, on sticker tires in the Toyo’s, coming out the hot pits I can drop it into 1st or 2nd gear and light up the rear tires. That was near impossible with the Hoosier tires. I think we got more comfortable with the tires and what they could take under all aspects of a corner. I think we still left grip on the table but that just gives us something to look forward to.
#209 Gama Aguilar Fast Laps from Saturday and Sunday Races
Next up: Circuit of the Americas February 6-7, 2021
Well, 2020 was a bit of a weird year. So what’s the best way to forget about it? Look forward to an awesome and packed 2021 racing and driving calendar.
We are in the business of making smiles and lifetime memories and one of the main ways we do this is by helping people get onto a track. We can help you with the car set up and care, as well as trying to improve the performance of both you and the vehicle.
We want to announce and extend an open invite for those that are interested that we are here to help. Our team has a calendar of events planned with room for additional support for each weekend as needed! Our current SCCA, ICSCC (Conference) and Global Time Attack events are listed below. If there are any race weekends you would like some crew and coaching support for, please feel free to contact us via e-mail, phone or messenger! Let us help you be your best on track!
Give us an E-mail or call to discuss options! raceronrails@gmail.com – (206)475-1114
2021 Race and Track Schedule:
January 15 – 17: Auto Club Speedway SCCA Majors Tour – Fontana, CA
February 5 – 7: Circuit of the Americas SCCA Majors Tour – Austin, TX
February 19 – 21: Buttonwillow SCCA Majors/Hoosier Super Tour – Buttonwillow, CA
March 19 – 20: Thunderhill Raceway SCCA Majors Tour – Willows, CA
April 2 – 4: The Ridge Motorsports Park Global Time Attack – Shelton, WA
April 30 – May 2: Portland International Raceway Cascade Sports Car Club – Portland, OR
May 14 – 16: Pacific Raceways IRDC Tribute to the Volunteers – Kent, WA
May 28 – 30: Pacific Raceways SCCA Majors Tour – Kent, WA
June 4 – 6: Spokane County Raceway Park ICSCC – Spokane, WA
Jun 18 – 20: Portland International Raceway Cascade Sports Car Club – Portland, OR
July 16 – 18: Pacific Raceways IRDC Summer Classic – Kent, Washington
July 23 – 25: The Ridge Motorsports Park Global Time Attack – Shelton, WA
August 13 – 15: Portland International Raceway Cascade Sports Car Club Dash for Kids – Portland, OR
August 27-29: The Ridge Motorsports Park IRDC – Shelton, WA
September 28 – October 3: Indianapolis Motor Speedway SCCA Runoffs – Indianapolis, IN
October 16: Portland International Raceway 8 Hour Endurance Race – Portland, OR (tentative)
November 12 – 14: Buttonwillow Global Time Attack Final – Buttonwillow, CA
December 4 – 5: Circuit of the Americas World Racing League – Austin, TX
Today, we’re excited to release another update of the BMW Spec E46 mod car for Assetto Corsa.
There is only one update to the car but it’s an important one, we’ve updated the suspension geometry to be based exactly off a real-world SE46 race car. Below you’ll see that we took measurements of every component of the chassis and suspension geometry down to the millimeter (while we were building a new SE46 race car), so the virtual car could handle as closely to the real-car, as possible.
The end result? Generally the car feels easier to drive and we found an additional .5-1 second almost immediately (after playing with the setup).
All existing owners will get this update and all future customers will get v1.3 moving forward. Let us know what you think!
The staple of what we do is provide service to the racing community. One of the primary aspects of that is to be at the track, to help you with the car set up and care, as well as trying to improve the performance of both you and the vehicle. We want to announce and extend an open invite for those that are interested that we are here to help. Our team has a calendar of events planned with room for additional support for each weekend as needed! Our current ICSCC Conference as well as intended NASA NorCal events and SOVERN events will be listed below. If there are any race weekends you would like some crew and coaching support for, please feel free to contact us via e-mail, phone or messenger! Let us help you be your best on track!
Give us an E-mail or call to discuss options! raceronrails@gmail.com – (206)475-1114
ICSCC Conference
Event Schedule:
April 19-21 (Fri-Sun) – Mission Race Way Park –
British Columbia
May 3-5 (Fri-Sun) – Portland International
Raceway – Portland, Oregon
May 10-12 (Fri-Sun) – Pacific Raceways – Kent,
Washington
May 31-Jun 2 (Fri-Sun) – Spokane County Raceway
Park – Spokane, Washington
Jun 14-16 (Fri-Sun) – Portland International
Raceway – Portland, Oregon
July 19-21 (Fri-Sun) – Pacific Raceways – Kent,
Washington
Aug 16-18 (Fri-Sun) Portland International
Raceway – Portland, Oregon
Aug 23-25 (Fri-Sun) – The Ridge Motorsports Park
– Shelton, Washington
SOVERN:
June 7-9 (Fri-Sun) – Spokane County Raceway Park
– Spokane, Washington
July 5-7 (Fri-Sun) – Pacific Raceways – Kent,
Washington
July 26-28 (Fri-Sun) – Portland International
Raceway – Portland, Oregon
Sep 7-9 (Fri-Sun) – Portland International
Raceway – Portland, Oregon
Sep 27-29 (Fri-Sun) – Pacific Raceways – Kent,
Washington
October 5-6 (Sat-Sun) – Maryhill Hill Climb –
Mary Hill, Washington
NASA NorCal:
Mar 15-17 (Fri-Sun) – Sonoma Raceway – Sonoma,
California
Aug 2-4 (Fri-Sun) – Thunderhill Raceway –
Willows, California
Thanks to everyone for the support on the SE46 car for Assetto Corsa. We have an updated build to share!
Here’s what is new:
Front and rear anti-roll bars are now adjustable.
The car now comes with additional base factory colors for the car. The sponsored race car livery is still the same and the default but now you have new options.
The .zip file now contains a new folder called “Templates”. This folder contains a Photoshop file (.psd) that you can use to create your own livery.
The passenger side cage tube now goes in the proper location (aesthetic change only).
Wheels now have motion blur.
Enhanced levels of details and interior is now optimized for low resolution graphics cards/monitors
The rear-view mirror has been adjusted down so it is more easily viewable when not in VR mode.
The description, power figures and graphs have been updated.
Dyno graphs are based off a real-world chassis dyno and 15% added to torque and whp for drive-train losses.
How to get the update:
For those who already purchased the car, an email has been sent (including initial contributors to the build) where they can access it and all new purchasers will get the new build in the download link. Click here to check out and buy the car!
How to install the update:
Download the update
Make sure Assetto Corsa is not running.
Right click the .zip folder and select “Extract All” – do not just double click into the folder.
Find the “contents” folder and copy that folder
Go to this path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\content\cars
If you already have the previous version, delete the previous version of the car, which should be a folder called “bmw_m3_e46”. If not, skip this step and go to step 7.
Go up to levels in that director to: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\
Paste the “contents” folder you copied above
Close the file explorer window
That’s it!
Over the next couple months, via our friends at Track Attack, we will have the capability to log telemetry data from Assetto Corsa and compare it with the real world data we already have from several tracks. We’ll use this data to further fine-tune the physics model.
As always, let us know what you think and thanks again for the support!
With the explosive growth of simulator driving for not just training but actual competition, big time dollars and rewards attached, we get more and more questions about how to get started building a simulator setup and specifically, what to get.
Still wondering if simulator driving is really that worth it? Check out this podcast from Speed Secrets and this video about William Byron – now a driver for Hendricks Motorsports, who didn’t grow up driving karts or cars but rather, simulators.
This can be a complicated space because there are a lot of options. In this second post, let’s go down one specific path base on what we think is the most important question.
Why do you want a simulator setup? I want to use simulators to accelerate my driving or car in the real world.
eSports is exploding in popularity with games like Madden, Fortnite and Halo being at the center global gaming tournaments. Gamers from around the world train and compete against world-class gamers at in-person and virtual tournaments all over the world and for real money.
This is not a spoof! That is a real picture of thousands of people watching gamers compete on-stage!
This post is focused primarily for those who want currently or are planning to drive in the real-world and want to use simulators to accelerate their development. Getting to the track in the real-life to get quality seat time, driver coaching, and car development is not cheap. Simulators are an excellent path to do all of those things more often, at a lower cost and increasingly with direct correlation to what happens in the real world.
Recommendation: Go with a PC-based simulator like iRacing, Assetto Corsa (PC edition), Assetto Corsa Competizione or RFactor 2. Yes, Gran Turismo and Forza have had tournaments where the winners compete in real life for chances to be race car drivers as a profession but those are the exceptions.
It’s time to get serious with triple monitors and the very best components you can buy.
Things to get:
There is no way to get around it – this will be more expensive because you are trying to replicate real life, of which a lot of what happens in real life is about how the car and track sound and feel of your inputs.
A quality PC that can keep up with the display you want. The main thing here is a decent processor and ram but the beefiest graphics card you can get and the bar at this level is a little higher than at the ‘simulator only’ level. Here are a couple options:
A PC desktop with a decent i7 processor, 16GB+ of RAM and a 6GB Nvidia GeForce GTX1070 or equivalent from AMD. Get the absolute best graphics card you can get – it will be worth it.
40”+ single monitor/TV: this is not really an option. If you want to really focus on improving your real-world driving, you need an immersive experience.
Sim rig with a seat
A sim rig/cockpit is no longer optional. You need the seating position, field of view and access to the driver controls to be as close to real-life as possible and you can only really do that with a proper and sturdy sim rig. Here are a few options:
DOF Reality – makes a very low cost sim chassis that also includes motion.
RSeat – makes all kinds of sim chassis with and without motion. Most importantly, they look very stout.
Sim Lab – we recently got a GT1 Evo chassis and are loving the sturdiness and adjustability
Motion platform
Yes, it’s now close to a requirement. Driving in race cars on tracks is a rough experience where you’re getting tossed around as you go over bumps and curbs. The feeling of the car pitching forward when you hammer the brakes, the car getting upset as you take too much curb or the backend coming loose when you carry too much speed into a corner or get on throttle too quickly – you need to feel that. All of those things in real life tell you what’s going on and they remind you of the mortal consequences of having more bravery than talent.
Want everything integrated and ready to rock? There several companies who sell fully built and ready to rock motion simulators. Here are a few:
There are few other things that will accelerate your driver development than quality motion simulator seat time.
The quality of your experience is completely dependent on the components you put into your PC and peripherals. If you want better graphics, get a better graphics card. Want better FOV, change your display setup. Want an even more immersive motion experience with real-time data streaming and coaching? You can do that too!
The force feedback and vibration capabilities of the steering hubs and transducers on the market are amazing. You can buy components and configure then so that you feel everything on your feet, butt, abs, legs and hands as you do in real life. You will have a generally authentic steering input and feedback experience.
There is a growing number of retail locations where you can rent seat time on very high-end simulators and get coaching from top-level coaches.
Cons:
No longer “welcome”, you are right in the middle of the slippery slope! It is now the cost of a small car to get a decent motion simulator up and running. It starts in the $5-10k range and goes into the $50-75k range. There are simulators well above those ranges but those are reserved for commercial applications.
Driving consistently well in a simulator is hard and even more difficult with motion. Most people are lucky to end their first 30 minutes in a simulator simply not crashing or losing control. Stick with it!
Pretty much everything is more complicated to setup. There is almost no plug and play experience for any component. You need to connect them, install drivers and configure/calibrate.
The physics and tire model are better than the console world but vary across simulator platforms.
There is even more you can buy, which can be good – for example, buttkickers are sound based vibration devices that give even more feedback to the seat, pedals and generally corners of the car.
Example setups: I’ve only built one motion rig and would be considered “entry level” for a quality motion experience.
Example 1: Entry level, motion with a rig: Everything here is exactly what I have on my current motion sim but my graphics card cost a bit more a year ago than they do today.
Total Cost: $8,741.39 (doesn’t include taxes or shipping)
Custom built desktop gaming PC w/Nvidia GTX1080Ti: $1,200
iRacing subscription: $80/year
SimXperience Accuforce Hub and steering wheel w/button box: $1,299.00
If I knew then what I know now, what would I do differently?
The Next Level Racing cockpit is pretty good, and I don’t entirely regret my purchase decision, especially because their motion platform integrates seamlessly BUT if I were building another rig (which I will in the next 6 months or so), I would try the DOF motion cockpit because I don’t love the following about the Next Level Racing cockpit:
The flex in the chassis, especially under heavy braking. First, it flexes and since it wasn’t designed to flex in the first place, the amount of flex is variable. This isn’t great when you are trying to hit your marks lap after lap or making minor adjustments to brake application to shave off tenths of seconds.
Lack of adjust ability. Having the seating position, steering wheel, shifter and pedals in the perfect position for your body is critical to driving fast and driving consistent. Any unnecessary mental energy used to figure out where things are or having to adjust to not having the controls in natural/intuitive positions will make you go slower. The NLR rig is essentially fixed in place after you set things up and for me personally, we had to add a wood block to the pedal box so that my heels could stay planted and reach properly. The manual shifter position is okay, but I really wish I could move it another inch or two closer to me. Lastly, with the motion set, the slider doesn’t work.
You listed the Fanatec pedals but you have some other fancy looking pedals. What gives?
Yes, when the Thrustmaster wheel hub failed after about a year of use, I upgraded to the Fanatec hub but I wanted as close to the real-world race car pedal feel as possible. On this rig I currently have the Derek Spears Designs pedals which are amazing and use real Wilwood racing pedal box components. You don’t need these if you are only simulator racing. I also have two other rigs with the Fanatec V2.5 Clubsport pedals, both the floor mounted and the hanging configurations. They are solid and when you add the bump stops for the brake pedal, they are close to the DSD pedals but still substantially lower cost.
With the explosive growth of simulator driving for not just training but actual competition, big time dollars and rewards attached, we get more and more questions about how to get started building a simulator setup and specifically, what to get.
Still wondering if simulator driving is really that worth it? Check out this podcast from Speed Secrets and this video about William Byron – now a driver for Hendricks Motorsports, who didn’t grow up driving karts or cars but rather, simulators.
This can be a complicated space because there are a lot of options. In this first post, let’s go down one specific path base on what we think is the most important question.
Why do you want a simulator setup? I just want to have fun!
I want to have fun: Many people simply want to drive some awesome cars and a variety of tracks, without taking things too seriously. You don’t care or want to bother with dealing with things like tire pressures, spring rates, shock settings, etc. You want to jump into a simulator, start driving, sliding and maybe even trade some paint with others or barriers, on your own. Best of all, it’s the cheapest way to get into simulator driving.
My brother and I getting some laps in on Gran Turismo.
Recommendation: Go with console-based simulators like Forza, Gran Turismo, Project Cars and Dirt.
This is optional because there’s several ways you can get your steering wheel base setup mounted to a desk, with the monitor right in front of you.
It’s best to have your pedals secured onto something so you can really work the pedals but in most bases, just having them wedged against something on both sides and the back is good enough.
Pros:
Console-based simulators are generally of super high-quality graphics in the cars and the tracks.
The tracks are essentially what they are like in real-life, it’s a great way to learn a track.
Tons of cars. Everything from high-performance street cars to Formula 1 cars.
The force feedback capabilities of the Fanatec and Thurstmaster lines are great and good, respectively. You will have a generally authentic steering input and feedback experience.
A great tool to focus on your getting your eyes to look far ahead and get ahead of what the car is doing.
Getting a console is much less expensive than building a gaming PC and the there are some lower cost peripheral options from Fanatec. See our shopping list below, where you can get started for under $1k USD!
Cons:
Relative to iRacing, the quality of online racing against other real people is not great. People complain about getting crashed into at the rookie and lower levels of iRacing but online racing, outside of some of the bigger tournaments on Forza and Gran Turismo can be downright horrible.
The physics and tire model are simply not as good as iRacing, RFactor and Assetto Corsa.
Limited triple screen options. It is doable to get a triple screen setup but it’s much more complicated and expensive. A better option would be a large curved screen or virtual reality headset.
Aside from the Fanatec Clubsport V2 and newer pedals, the pedal options are not great. Specifically, is the feel from the brake pedal. Braking is what separates the good from the great and having a realistic and consistent braking feel is critical. Most of these console game quality pedals have limited resistance and you essentially train your braking based on the position of pedal, not the pressure and feedback from the pedal.
There are options to add a rubber bump stop to the brake pedal (of which I did to my Thrustmaster setup) which makes things better but still not as great as some of the high-end PC only brake kits.
Quality – this may have improved but just simply the quality of the components is not great. I was using the setup pictured below to really work on my driving, so I was put on hundreds of hours on the components per year. If I recall correctly, the Thrustmaster steering wheel base lasted just over a year before it just stopped responding one day. That was when I decided to upgrade to Fanatec and shift to a PC simulator and iRacing.
Example setups:
Thrustmaster, Forza and Xbox One: This was my first “simulator” setup going back to 2012 or so. I felt a little intimidated with getting into PC-based stuff, so between a Christmas present from my in-laws, my wife and my own purchases, I had a decent Forza based setup. I spent hours working on fixed setup time attach competitions, primarily in a Mazda Miata and trying to build the cars I had in the real-world, in the game (Mitsubishi Lancer Evoluiont 9). All in, this setup cost about $1,200.
Total Cost (assumes you already have a TV): $1,428.76 + S/H + Tax w/PlaySeat. Under $1k w/out Playseat.
Xbox One S Forza Motorsport Bundle: $389.99
Thrustmaster VG TMX PRO Wheel, Base and pedals: $321.81
Thrustmaster TH8 shifter: $217.96
Playseat sim rig: $499
Yes, that is the pedal set taped down to the floor base.
Memories of me working my tail off to move up in the leaderboards.
For about a 3-month period I had a Gran Turismo and PS3 setup with a Logitech setup but it wasn’t any better than what I had with Forza so I sold everything off. Total cost was right around the same as the Forza.
Do you have an awesome console based sim set up? Post some pics in the comments!
Check out future posts on two other paths:
I want to get serious about simulator driving: This means you don’t care at all or much about driving in the real-world. You are all-in on simulator driving.
I want to use simulators to help me be a better driver in the real world: This means you currently or plan to be driving on track in the real-world and you want a simulator to help with driver and car development
