(Some) Things We Take for Granted as Sim Racers
Some thoughts on elements we take for granted as Sim Racers, compared to Real Life
Sim Racing is a great way to get the thrill of racing wheel-to-wheel from the comfort of your home, it is not able to fully simulate all of the nuances of real life racing. In some situations, that can be a detriment, for example, sim racers not being able to feel the full g-forces of a race car. On the flip side, we are fortunate not to have some of the more… negative elements of real life racing. Here is a list of some of the top things I feel that we, as sim racers, take for granted.
1. Sim Racing is Inexpensive Compared to Real Life
As with any hobby, sim racing can become quite the investment. While the entry point can be inexpensive, if you want a full motion setup, you can put tens of thousands of dollars into your sim racing setup. For example, a solid turnkey motion setup can retail for over $20,000!
One of the most common questions a person would then ask is “Why don’t you just buy a used Miata and race it?” However, let’s try to break that cost down:
A couple years ago, I found a Spec Miata Race Car on Craigslist for $6,000 in fairly decent condition, albeit with a Salvage title. Not factoring in damage, I would estimate around $1,000 per race weekend in tires, fuel, and travel expenses. With the same budget allocated to a SimXperience Stage V, the $26,000 budget would allow for 20 full race weekends, at local venues.
Some people may say those 20 race weekends may provide a more fun experience than sim racing. However, in my mind, Sim Racing provides greater longevity and variety. I have invested around $5,000 in my Sim Racing setup over the past decade, which has made for hundreds of enjoyable races.
2. You Can Travel Around the World With a Few Clicks
Each red dot on the map reflects a major race track in California
Let’s continue on with the Spec Miata example: in my area, there are around 3 major road courses in Northern California:
Sonoma Raceway
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Thunderhill
Three more are in Southern California:
Auto Club Speedway
Willow Springs
Buttonwillow
Sonoma Raceway is around a half hour drive away from my house, but Thunderhill, the next closest track, is 2 1/2 hours away. Auto Club Speedway is 7 hours away, which would be a full day’s worth of driving. If I wanted to take my hypothetical MX5 Cup Car to an SCCA event at Sebring, that would likely be at least a 3-day drive, after factoring in stops and maybe sleeping at a hotel.
However, thanks to Sim Racing, I can go from my home track all the way to the Nurburgring Nordschleife in a couple minutes! We have thousands of tracks available at our disposal spanning multiple racing simulations, allowing us to go to any track instantaneously. No long drive, no paying for gas money. Even factoring in rFactor 2’s atrociously long loading times, it would still take less time to load a track in rFactor 2 than to drive to Sonoma Raceway.
3. A Ton of Different Cars
In real racing, you’d likely be financially limited to just one car. Maybe, if you have a larger budget, you can swing both karting and road car racing.
However, on the sim racing side, there are thousands of cars available. In Assetto Corsa alone, there are hundreds of different mods, with an insane variety of cars available at your disposal. Even on the more “expensive side”, iRacing has over 70 vehicles available. With a few clicks, you can jump from a Mazda Miata Cup car to the McLaren MP4-30 Formula One car. The variety available in sim racing is simply staggering, and I think it’s one of the things sim racers take for granted the most.
4. The Immediacy of Changes
In Sim Racing, we sort of have the ability to “warp time”. By that, I mean we have the ability to make changes instantaneously, that would usually takes while in real life. Spin out and crash during practice? Press the escape button, and you magically warp to your pit box with a new car. Need to change your gear ratio? A few clicks, and it’s done!
In real life, if you wreck your car, you’d either have to limp your way back to the pits, or get towed back, and then spend time repairing the car. Need to adjust your gear ratio? Then you’re going to spend quite a bit of time to get that done!
Sim Racing allows you to be able to make these changes far quicker, and I think that’s definitely something that we take for granted.
5. Minimal Consequences for Crashing
Crashing is a part of racing and, like it or not, you’ll eventually wreck. As sim racers, we really take crashing for granted. A few years ago, there was a moment that really cemented this point for me. I had gone with a friend to Sonoma Raceway, to drop by a professional racing team, Cameron Racing. The crew was working on repairing an Audi R8 GT3 race car, which had encountered damage during the previous race. The damage was relatively minor, with the front right suspension and bodywork being damaged. Talking with Steve Cameron, he talked about the financial side of repairs. The grand total for the repairs was over $30,000! Imagine if you had to pay to repair your car after a typical iRacing GT3 race. You’d likely get mob bosses knocking on your door after a couple races!
On the sim racing side, we never have to deal with the financial repercussions of racing. We never have to pay for the fuel that goes into our virtual cars, like how we never have to pay to repair our virtual cars. iRacing comes close with the “Safety Rating” mechanic working somewhat similarly to a currency system, but sim racers have never had to pay real life currency to repair a virtual car.
These are some of the things that I feel that sim racers take for granted. I intentionally left some out, because I would love to hear your guys' opinions! What do you think sim racers take for granted? Let us know in the comments!
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