timwheatley.org

I’ve been a racing fan all my life. From a very young age in the UK I would be woken up at 3am by my parents to watch just two things: American Football and Formula One races from East Asia. I had to get to bed early so I could wake up early and unfortunately I was the only person I knew with an interest in those sports.

As I got older I continued to find that the only person crazy about auto racing, was me. When the internet came along it allowed me to find other people with similar interests at last and finally allowed me to find other people who raced simulations.

Until the Inaugural A1GP event at Brands Hatch in 2005 I had only ever seen any racetrack in either a racing game or on TV, I was so shocked to see just how different that fantastic British track was, compared to those games and the 2D image TV had given me.

I’ve been lucky enough during my time with iRacing to be sent to a number of racing facilities (as scanning team backup coverage in a scheduling emergency) and every single one of them I have been shocked by. Those little intricate details that are finally captured and used by the production team after they’ve been captured by the scanner, they’re all things that (having a photographer’s vision) I’ve analysed, trying to figure out how it’s going to affect the cars as they drive it.

This year I’ve been on two scan trips, both of them ovals. Each one amazed me for different reasons and gave me a whole new respect for what those who race on them actually do…

The first track had pretty high banking and as I was standing, gripping hard on the safer barrier for support, I actually realised that if I slipped, I was going to really hurt myself. The greasy sheen that the surface had (because it had newly dried from rain) meant that my sneakers gave me no grip whatsoever. I actually ended up coming down the banking each time with one foot tucked beneath my butt as I just scraped and controlled the inevitable slide down to the apron using my hands. The scale, just the sheer scale, left me in total awe.

So, as someone who isn’t actually afraid of heights, I had a pretty good appreciation after that. I realised that some of these ovals are the modern equivalent of the Roman Colloseum because - even if their life depended on it - some people just could not save themselves from competition or the location itself.

I’m sat in a hotel right now as I post this, I fly home tomorrow. I’ve been at another track this week which frankly looks lifeless and simple on TV, yet I’ve seen now a lot of the little elements that must make this track one of the most challenging facilities around. I think with the level of detail and the magic wand of those guys in the production department, this place could actually become my favorite track within the service.

As crazy as some events might look on TV, they are most certainly a sanitised version of what you see when standing beside the track as a fan, and they cannot possibly compare to the experience within the cockpit. I think that the level of track surface detail you have experienced after racing at Daytona in the Chevy Silverado with iRacing, finally gives fans like me and you a closer appreciation than we could get from standing in the infield. I know that each track I have helped the production dept. with, I have watched the next race there in a totally different way.

I get a lot of questions about whether iRacing will work on the Mac, so I thought I would post this and hopefully satisfy some google searches with this answer…

What you need:
1. A Mac that meets minimum system requirements.
2. Apple’s Bootcamp.
3. Microsoft Windows XP or Vista.
4. Steering Wheel.

You should be aware that if you screw things up, that’s your fault, not mine. You’re taking full responsibility for your actions.

Firstly, you need a Mac that meets the minimum PC system requirements that are listed on iRacing.com. Currently you can go to iRacing.com and there is a link in the footer straight to them.

If you meet those requirements, you should then try to find out if anybody using your Mac model has experienced problems with running Windows XP natively. Apple do make minor changes to hardware to make them work better with their software. I have heard that some graphics cards fans always run slowly (causing overheating) when XP is running on a Mac. Check things out first, better safe than sorry.

Next, if you are going ahead with the installation, you need to use Apple’s bootcamp and install Windows XP or Vista (there’s lots of guides around explaining how to do this). Make sure you have all the relevant drivers installed. (Mac’s are basically PC’s on the inside, there should be Windows drivers for everything in your Mac).

So, now you have a working installation of Windows, right? Go to iRacing.com and subscribe as if you had a PC all along…

Make sure you get a good steering wheel.

iRacing have announced that the Chevy Silverado will be available October 15th and that an Impala and Monte-Carlo are in production. Read the full story here.

One of America’s most historic road courses, Sebring International Raceway, is now available to all members of iRacing.com. Sebring is the first of three Panoz Motor Sports Group facilities that will be offered to iRacing members.

Built on the site of a World War II bomber pilot-training base in Central Florida, Sebring has since 1952 been host to an annual, 12-Hour sportscar endurance race. The facility includes three configurations, the 3.7-mile circuit used for the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring round of the International Motor Sports Association’s American Le Mans Series, as well as the shorter test loop and the club circuit. All three configurations are available to iRacers for $25.

Tradition hangs in the air at Sebring like the scent of the neighboring citrus groves, and if iRacing’s version of the track were any more authentic, you could walk next door and pick the oranges.

As posted on the members Web site:

Vintage racers, Grand Prix Legends veterans, F1 fans and anyone who ever wanted to know what it would be like to be Mario Andretti: rejoice! We are very pleased to announce the first vintage racing machinery to be added to the iRacing stable will be the black and gold John Player Special Lotus 79 that carried Mario to the 1978 Formula One World Drivers Championship.

This famous and significant vehicle ushered in the ground-effects era, and through Clive Chapman, managing director of Classic Team Lotus and son of Lotus founder Colin Chapman, we’ve arranged a license to produce an exacting virtual version of the car. With the generous assistance of vintage racer and Lotus 79 owner Joel Finn, our team has already scanned the car, and the production process has begun.

Our connection with Mr. Finn comes courtesy of iRacing director of partnerships Divina Galica, who drove his 79 at Watkins Glen recently - and that was not Divi’s first encounter with this landmark machine. To read more about the 79 (and Divi’s history with this groundbreaking racecar), please visit the news section.

Really exciting that we’re going to be offering this one for those of you who have been fans of Formula One your entire lives! This was a fantastic car and thanks to the sim, you can experience just how fantastic pretty soon. You can read the full article on the iRacing.com Web site.

Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo Wheel, Pedals & H-pattern gear shifter.

I was sent the Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo Wheel for review having not heard much about it, other than what I’d read on a few simracing Web sites, of course. I knew the build quality would be good and that I’d be overcome with new things to get used to, but really I had no idea what an ‘awakening’ I was set to experience with the first truly spectacular wheel I have ever owned.

I did have a lot of things to get used to with this wheel. Firstly, I had to adapt to 900° of rotation from the wheel. Both wheels I have owned recently hit a physical stopper at around 90° each side and totaled out at 180°. Second, I had to adapt myself to use a more realistically stiff ‘racing style’ brake pedal. Third, the big one, I had to adapt to use the clutch… I’ve never had a three pedal set before and have hardly ever driven on normal roads… Lastly, I haven’t used any force feedback since about 2000… I would have very many bad habits from years of simracing and this wheel was going to rip them right out of me…

Upon reading the wheel specifications, one thing stood out for me as an area of concern: Wireless. This steering wheel features no cable between wheel and PC and this worried me for a couple of reasons: Would the latency of the wheel be fast enough for my steering commands to be instantly delivered to the simulation on the screen? Would interference from the ‘wireless world’ be a problem?

For the PC I think that the wireless option isn’t really too much of a bonus, I have cables going from every device except my mouse to my PC. But, for the Playstation 2 and 3, wireless is an obvious requirement: You can be sat on your couch as far away from the TV and Playstation as you need to be and not worry about someone tripping over controller wires.

I was quite worried though that someone next door might turn on their microwave and cause me to crash in-sim when the wireless lost connection (yes I’m joking with the microwave, but this genuinely concerned me)…

My concerns turned out to be absolutely wrong as I found there to be no issues with the connection and absolutely no problem with controller lag.

INSTALLATION

Please note that I suffered problems during installation. I had read in other reviews that there are some problems on installation of the wheel… I wanted to prove that everything worked perfect when you followed instructions but I found that even following the instructions turned out to be difficult… I have since contacted Fanatec about it and they told me they have a totally different procedure for installation now which matches the conclusions I drew myself during my own struggles:

1. Fully build and mount wheel and pedals.
2. Do not use the automatic updater on the USB stick.
3. Download the latest driver manually on the Fanatec website.
4. Plug in the RF dongle before you install the driver.
5. Run Setup.exe from your manual download.
6. Calibrate the controller.

I spent nearly 1½ hours trying to figure things out the way the manual I received was telling me to. I eventually gave up and did it my own way (shown above).

FIRST USE

I went into the Control Panel > Game Controllers and calibrated the wheel next. This was a simple process, but I was concerned to see a lack of Force Feedback preferences available… I set the wheel to a 0% dampening strength, 900 degrees of rotation and loaded up iRacing to take the Skip Barber 2000 for a spin…

Unfortunately, spin was a bad choice of word: I have been so used to using a wheel with about 180° of rotation that I wasn’t moving the wheel nearly enough to catch the little slides and wobbles that the car does, especially at a track like Lime Rock Park… I asked on the iRacing member forum for help and someone thankfully told me they had experienced the same thing. I went back to the control panel and temporarily set the 911 Wheel to (it’s minimum) 200° of rotation, finding that I could then drive perfectly I knew it wasn’t a problem with the wheel, it was a problem with me.

Note: If you wind up purchasing this wheel, be aware how different it is to almost every other wheel on the market. If you haven’t experienced huge amount of wheel rotation or stiff brake pedal like this before you might find it quite hard to adapt at first - be patient. It’s taken me about four days to re-claim by pace and consistency.

BUILD FEATURES

The power supply for the wheel is nice and long. It’s the little things like this that make life easier and I was delighted to see that where this wheel needed cables, it provided cables long enough to not make life difficult.

The pedals for this wheel are one of the biggest features of it and actually a major step forward in terms of realism. I have driven the Skip Barber 2000 in real life and the brake pedal for the 911 Wheel is getting pretty close to reality in terms of stiffness. It isn’t quite as hard to push down the 911 Wheel’s brake as it is most race cars, but it’s close enough, for sure. The pedals can be either wireless (with the use of four batteries - supplied by Fanatec), or they can be wired. It would also be nice for the pedals to be made of metal… They are currently plastic and while they both look and feel solid, my clutch pedal has started making a noise when fully pushed after just a couple of weeks, though this has not affected performance.

The 911 Wheel's pedals. Solid, with a stiff and more realistic brake pedal.

The fixings and clamps for the 911 Wheel are strong and tight, I haven’t experienced any slippage. Like most wheels though the desk clamps don’t reach far enough under my desk to get past the ‘lip’ my desk has, but this doesn’t seem unusual. Like with other wheels I have had to clamp the wheel to the lip itself.

The wheel also comes with a set of ‘knee fixings’ which should allow you to use the wheel on your legs… I have not tested this as I can’t imagine being able to keep it on my legs while force feedback is active. This feature is undoubtedly useful for the Playstation 2 and 3 users.

The desk clamp and leg fixings for the under-side of the wheel.

Having a choice of gear selection sticks is a major reason to buy this wheel. Not only is there a set of buttons behind the wheel (which simulate the paddles most open-wheel race cars have), there is a sequential gearbox (forward and backwards to shift gear) and H-pattern shifter that will sit at the side of your wheel (on the end of poles clamped inside the wheel housing). The gear sticks are very strong and feel they’ll take a lot of racing, the method of housing them (on the poles) also feels strong and sturdy.

Dual metal poles go through the wheel body and the (changeable) gear stick.

The steering wheel itself is based upon the real Porsche 911 steering wheel. It feels so wonderful when driving! Being able to slip your fingers around a stitched leather steering wheel is an absolute privilege. It is perfect thickness, the construction feels solid and the amount of available buttons means you can control everything you need to control. I haven’t found anything to use the buttons on the front of the wheel for yet, but the ‘paddle’ buttons on the back of the wheel are in use whenever I drive the Formula Mazda! The front of the wheel also includes a very cool illuminated LED display that I assumed can be configured to work with software and display output of speed or shifting indications. I’ve personally turned it off (via the control panel shown above in this article) because, like I said, I don’t use any of the front buttons.

Note: Fanatec say that they are about to release a driver update that brings information from the game or sim out to the LED display.

The Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo Wheel provides the perfect look and feel.

FORCE FEEDBACK CAPABILITY

Until very recently I used a Thrustmaster steering wheel, I also hadn’t bothered with Force Feedback since the year 2000. I got a Logitech Driving Force EX and tried it’s Force Feedback - I wasn’t impressed enough to continue using it.

The Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo steering wheel is a totally different animal. I am now hooked on Force Feedback and can say with absolute joy that the experience this wheel is capable of delivering converted me to a fan of Force Feedback in general.

With a setting (within the iRacing simulation) of between 8 and 10 in strength, the feel this wheel gives is simply amazing. I can feel the changes in camber of the turn, levels of banking and occasionally can feel the tiny transition from one type of surface to another very, very well. That feel, combined with a higher degree of rotation in the wheel, is making me a much smoother driver and I’m finding myself able to tame circuits I have struggled at quite badly over the last couple of years.

To sum up: 911 Wheel Force Feedback = YES!!

NOISE

I actually don’t remember hearing the motor of the force feedback, ever. It is far quieter than any wheel I have ever owned, have seen on show displays or have seen in friend’s homes.

When you run a long session with Force Feedback the unit gets warm and there are fans that will run until the unit cools off. They’re not loud, but I did wonder what on earth the noise was the first time I heard them!

The body of the wheel has airflow grills above the fans.

PROS

Fantastic build quality. Feels solid.

Looks the part. Porsche-branded and cool looking. Nice leather finish.

Sequential and H-pattern gear shifters are provided and easily swapped.

900° of rotation, the same as many road cars (and the Pontiac Solstice featured in iRacing).

Wonderful Force Feedback capabilities that allow you to really feel things at a whole new level.

Stiff brake pedal that is much closer to the resistance of the real thing. It isn’t exact though, from my experience it feels about 50% as rigid as a real-life racing brake pedal (but that’s better than the 0% resistance most pedals offer).

Clutch pedal. Not every set of wheel and pedals has a clutch… Although it can be quite difficult to perfect, it might be worth it in the long run.

Non-slip pedals. When I say non-slip, I mean it. If you fix the metal plate to the bottom of the plastic pedals like you’re supposed to, these pedals aren’t slipping anywhere…

Haven’t had to recalibrate the wheel since I had it. Normally I had to recalibrate Thrustmaster and Logitech wheels before every running as they would both lose ‘center’ - I’d find myself having to turn the wheel to go straight. No sign of this issue with the 911 Wheel.

Wireless pedal to wheel communication. (Batteries in the wheels provide wireless communication, cable is provided if unwanted).

A choice to use a cable for pedal to wheel communication, rather than wireless (useful if those batteries die).

Wireless connection between wheel and PC/PS2/PS3.

Compatibility with PC, Playstation 2 and 3.

CONS

The installation from the USB stick of the USB wireless hub. Bad drivers/software… Fanatec are aware of this issue though and confirmed my installation method (above) works.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

Working instructions need to be shipped with these wheels.

The clamp could do with being a bit longer. It’s wide enough for any desk but doesn’t get over the ‘lip’ on the edge of mine so I’m attaching it to the edging, rather that the desk - it doesn’t feel safe like that. Fanatec do have a solution though, they have a different clamp you can buy…

Clutch pedal has started to make plastic ‘tapping’ noise (after two weeks) when pressed fully. Still works perfectly though, I guess a part is hitting the casing.

CONCLUSION

My concerns over the wireless being interfered with or laggy seems to be misplaced and although the installation was a bit of a pain, it hasn’t caused me any further stress. The lack of configuration options in the control panel was a concern, but after using the wheel for some time now - I haven’t needed to change anything outside the game or simulation’s own settings. Amazingly, I haven’t even needed to recalibrate the wheel at any time!

At the moment, all in all, the Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo Wheel is probably one of the best pieces of equipment you can buy in terms of quality, feel and performance. It is genuinely making me a much better simracer and that’s only after weeks of usage… In terms of pricing, it is a lot of money, but I honestly think it’s worth every cent if you want one of the best wheels available today.

Buy from: fanatec.de. Wheel is for PC, PS2 and PS3 (untested by me).
Price: $350 (approx).

Note: The wheel comes with a 1GB memory stick (that looks the same as the USB hub). This stick contains the PC drivers but you can use it like any other memory stick. I’d advise against using the drivers on the stick and instead suggest downloading the latest ones from Fanatec manually.

This was one of the most satisfying simracing experiences I have ever had. After huge struggles with the Formula Mazda, being totally unable to lap this car, I managed to complete a race having only made a single error during the whole event. Even better, during this event - my best race ever in the Mazda - I had a wheel-to-wheel battle with two other drivers.

I hadn’t bothered to qualify. I would rather start at the back in this car so that I am not a burden to other racers. I wound up being iRated as the 8th best driver and would start 9th on the grid.

I got a good start but dropped to 10th within the first few turns. I eventually got in a good position behind the man who had passed me (Georg Naujoks) and overtook him into the final turn. A car soon dropped out and gave me 8th.

I had a good little battle for 7th going on when I clipped a kerb and almost spun out. I fell back down to 10th. On the next lap I was back up in 8th after two cars let me by (one moved over, one spun).

Cars gradually fell off the track and I eventually found myself in a fantastic battle with the 5th (Georg again) and 6th-placed cars. It was the best battle I’ve ever had in the Mazda obviously and one of the best ever battles I’ve ever had in simracing. I wound up finishing in 6th place right behind Georg.

Here are the edited in-car highlights of the entire race:

Here is the battle with the two cars from out-of-car:

I had one incident during the race which is when (on lap 7) I lost control and spun onto the grass. My fastest lap was 1:29.964 - a personal best.

After my earlier trip through hell I’d run a Mazda race (as I talk about in this post). After that I ran the 11:15pm race at Lime Rock Park in the Skip Barber 2000’s.

I started 2nd on the grid and led most of the race. I made a few errors and kept dropping into 2nd-place, but got it back again each time and won the race. It wasn’t an interesting race… But it was close. I was constantly only able to lead by under 5 seconds. Winning never seems as interesting as a really good fight for position with another clean racer!

The great thing about this race was that after that earlier race, where I felt ‘gotten at’ - this race, everybody was ultra clean and very polite. It really helped to bring me out of my bad mood.

This is the race I was talking about the other day.

Probably my worst race ever. With a huge amount of incidents and one incident in particular really getting to me quite a bit - it wasn’t fun at all. You don’t get these kind of races often with iRacing but this one most certainly was a challenge to finish when all I really wanted to do was quit and try again later. Saying that though, I really think this is only the second time I’ve ever felt ‘taken out’ in an avoidable accident.

I started from 5th on the grid and got a decent start. Because of slower cars around lap 1 I wound up losing a position down the start/finish straight on lap 2.

I only really feel it’s safe to overtake down the straight at Lime Rock Park, so quite often during the race I was lifting off heavily just staying clean and biding my time. Eventually moving into 3rd place I set myself up for a pass on a slower car down the straight when to my great surprise, he came over and ran me off the road, making me take to the pit entrance to avoid him. I lifted off and now knew that if I was to make a pass on this guy, I’d have to do it at my first opportunity, which I did, which is when he hit me in the back after the pass - and spun me around. I dropped from 2nd to 10th.

I carried on driving but was pretty upset at what had happened. Eventually working my way back up to 4th-place, I made three major mistakes during the rest of the race and wound up finishing 5th.

Still not happy and I’m writing this days after it happened.

Yesterday I had (what felt like, anyway) my worst ever race in iRacing (click here to view the race report). I got 15 incident points in a single event.

I don’t know why but it seemed like everyone was trying to block and as I’m someone who will only normally overtake on the main straight at Lime Rock Park, I found myself getting thoroughly involved in problems I felt were not of my own making. My Safety Rating after that race went down to Class C 2.21 - I think the lowest it has ever been. I’ll upload race reports from yesterday/today’s races tomorrow.

I felt like I learned a little bit yesterday because after the Skip Barber Race Series event at Lime Rock Park, I ran a Formula Mazda event at Infineon. I made quite a few mistakes (9 incidents), but to my great surprise I gained Safety Rating (up to Class C 2.31). I then realised that while it may be easier to lose safety rating in Class C - it also seems easier to gain it at times. I had a chat with Alison Hine after the race and she told me to cool down and said that she is driving well within her limits in order to preserve her safety rating… During the race I had been passing her then spinning and I kept repeating that pattern over and over while she consistently lapped away… I knew what I was doing, I felt I was pushing 101% and realised that by doing that, I’m making myself look a lot worse of a driver than I know I can be…

After the Mazda race (I was feeling pretty low), the iRating threw me a ‘pity win’. I ran a Skip Barber Race Series event at Lime Rock Park and found myself in quite a commanding position. I won by 10 seconds… (Read the race report). I went to bed with mixed feelings over my racing events that evening.

Today, I decided to run a Skip Barber Race Series event first. I had an awesome race and had some great battles. I’d also lapped fairly cleanly and my safety rating went up to Class C 2.46. I finished 7th while I was iRated (and predicted) to be able to run for about the 12th place!

After that race, I joined a Formula Mazda race and to my total shock and surprise I had fun - In the Mazda! I have quite clearly stunk in this car, absolutely stunk. I’d actually go far enough to say that I hated this car. Like I said to Alison after the race last night, it feels like it’s too fast for me (even though I know it’s relatively slow) and it feels too ‘big’ for the tracks. I described it in the chat as like ‘threading a needle’ trying to keep the car on the black stuff. Taking Alison’s advice I toned my driving down a bit and decided not to ‘experiment’ with lines and braking zones like I normally do during races. I convinced myself to be happy with my laptimes and to finish, where I finish.

The race went very well and apart from an off track -> loss of control on lap 7 I ran a perfect race! Did you hear that? I managed to run a Formula Mazda race with just a single error! Not only that, but I found myself in the most wonderful three-car battle for 5th-place… After the race, my safety rating was Class C 2.70, a gain of 0.49 in just four races (two good ones). Something that was really pleasing was that when I felt I was driving at 95% of my proper pace, I was lapping (at best) 1s per lap faster than I had when driving as fast as I felt I could… Weird, huh?

This video is well worth a watch as we battle hard for position: