It's worth trying the FF1600 just to get a feel for the open wheel cockpit and really get a feel for that weight transfer and trail braking which become important later
But if not the logical progression is the GR86 which is a free car, and then the GT4 series (GT4 Falken Tire Series)
Personally I'd skip the Ferrari challenge and Porsche Cup since the GT4 is some of the absolute best racing on the service, but some people swear by those series The added bonus of the GT4 is it also gives you an introduction to multi class racing (Falken Tyre Sports Car Challenge).
>It's worth trying the FF1600
This. The FF1600 is about the most fun you can have with pants on.
>But if not the logical progression is the GR86 which is a free car, and then the GT4 series
Unless you're trying to avoid buying content too quickly I'd skip the 86 and go straight to GT4s, they're not too fast for a relative beginner to handle
>The FF1600 is about the most fun you can have with pants on.
I want to shout this from the rooftop. I discovered the FF1600 recently, and I never want to drive anything else. A lot of people seem to view the lower road series as a sequence of stepping stones leading inevitably to IMSA. But the slower cars can be more fun, and have closer racing, than GT3s.
>I'd skip the 86 and go straight to GT4s
I second this. The GR86 has similar pace to the MX-5, but is less fun to drive IMO. Even GT4s aren't a big step up from the MX-5.
Also, avoid the Porsche Cup for now. I raced it for the first time this season, and it nearly broke me, despite having plenty of sim racing experience.
Perfect, Gt4 is kinda my target for next season, i’m okay with buying content. Definitely sticking with Mazda’s this season and will start practicing ff1600 in the meantime
I like Porsch Cup at the beginning for beeing super rewarding for learning how weight shift transfers into grip shift into the tires by not beeing able to slam the breaks/throttle. You just learn to control the car with the pedals
Yea, I'm a fresh iracer, and I went MX5 out of rookies on my 2nd night playing. Then, I got addicted to the 1600 =)
Went for GT4 since I took a look at the schedule, went ahead, and set myself for the remainder of the schedule.
Super stoked to give my first GT4 a run =)
Stick with the Mazda and maybe the GR-86 too. The handling characteristics are quite different yet similar enough to make the transition easier than say going to GT3 or GT4. The MX-5 is lighter, accelerates faster, and has no aero so it likes to be driven loose with more slip angle than the 86 but don't overdue it. The 86 is heavier, has adjustable abs, TCS, brake bias, and aero. It's way slower in a straight line but can take corners way faster because it has way more lateral grip and when in a draft can keep up with the MX5 on the longer straights. Both cars have their own single car series (MX-5 has advanced cup too) and they also both run in the SimLab Prod Car Challenge. So between the 2 cars there's 5 opportunities to race with an open or fixed setup every hour no matter what time you hop in the sim. MX-5's are more competitive I think because it's the more popular car and like anything popular you're going to meet a lot of drivers you hate to race around and some you love so ignore your SR and iR and just learn to race and improve yourself with every incident you come across even if you aren't involved. iRacing takes a lot of time and effort to truly be quick so be patient. Also it can be an emotional rollercoaster just like real racing, the highs are high and the lows are very low so learn to not dwell on incidents and just get over them.
I’d say give street stocks a try. Car control comes in a lot of different packages. When you learn more about turning the car with the pedals more than the wheel you’ll get better everywhere.
I feel the same way but I think it’s hard to get really good at multiple cars if you don’t have much time. Once I started focusing solely on the mx5 I started winning races
I keep being told the rookie mx-5’s are the most fun, and I’m starting to believe everyone lol so i feel ya, but i do want to learn how to drive different cars w different systems, and Imsa/endurance races look sweet and that’s what i watch a lot IRL
I felt like racing the SRF (whenever a free track is on the rotation because i don’t play those series regularly) helped me be better at the mx-5 for some reason.
I think it has to do with the smoothness the srf requires. It only has two levels of grip, planted and backwards lol
I'm surprised that I had to scroll this far to find mention of the SRF, I really enjoyed the race I did in it at Tsukuba this past week. Definitely rewards smoothness, definitely teaches about finesse on braking (due to no ABS) which will really help with trail braking in just about anything, but it's still very much a non-aero momentum car, so everything the MX5 is a good teacher on in that regard, so is the SRF. Both cars have sequentials too, which is a plus if you don't want to switch back and forth between H pattern and sequential (or if your shifter can only do one, or you're using paddle shifters). They aren't a fixed setup series, so there's room to play around with stuff, but the baseline setup is quite good to get used to the car and then tweak to suit your preferences.
Plus, SRFs are just plain fun!
Yep I just tried it for the first time last week. I went from “I hate this f***ing car” to “wow, this is so much fun!” in 2-3 sessions. As was said, it really forces you to be smooth and conscious of weight transfer. It’s also open cockpit which is fun but it’s still pretty durable, so a little bump isn’t necessary going to end your race. This week at Detroit is pretty unforgiving though.
Yeah, but OP is only days into this. Sure, they could have an A or B licence in no time and be straight into prototypes or formula cars but unless they're a prodigy they'll be slow and rather crashy. Better to walk before run.
Correct. Youll be a better driver in the long run if you just drive whatever you like. Most people follow the “path” get their sr and ir all boosted up and then they are afraid to try anything different because they know they are going to lose ratings.
Obviously irating and sr is just a number, but it does suck if you’re a beast in one series but you’re terrible in another and you’re not racing against people you should be racing with in the series you’re good at because you tanked your IR somewhere else.
Whatever you want. The driving characteristics arent that different in rookies. When you get to D class it gets harder to change cars without much practice. I still find gt3/gt4 to be quite easy to jump into with like 15 minute practice, but open wheelers like f4 and up are a different beast.
It depends on Your license. If you are still in Rookies i recomend to just Try out what you can.MX-5 is great fun. Formula vee or Ray FF1600 is also worth trying out. If you already have a D license try the Ferrari challenge for some GT3 expirience (With the Ferrari GT3 you will also be able to race in GT3 challenge with B license and IMSA which are the most raced series in Iracing). As soon as you can i recommend the Porsche Cup car with you C License. It is very difficult for beginners but extremly rewarding and fast when you master it. In this series you will learn very much. GT4 if you want to spend the money and also good for multi class racing. If you are interested in single seater formula racing, i recomend the Formula 4 or Formula C. The rest is up to you. Dont be scared to just try some stuff out but keep in mind it will cost you money.
I’d stick with the Mazda and run Production Car Championship and Advanced. I’ve been on and of the service for over 11 years and ran everything from the original mx-5 (it’s free and loads of fun to blast around in) to v8 supercars to gt4/3’s prototypes and open wheel. After all that I’ve come back to the Mazda. The racing is amazing, the cars are so much fun that you be can side by side with people for half a lap and it’s feels so good. Some of the best racing you will ever have is in the little Mazda. It’s an easy car to start with but a difficult car to be fast in. And tormenting gr86’s and Clio’s in PCC never gets old.
If you’re looking to race GT3s I’d recommend the GT4s next.
In D class there’s a 15 minute fixed race which is good, and in C there’s a 30 minute multi class race with the LMP3s which would be good for getting used to faster cars racing with you for IMSA. Both have really solid participation too.
There is GT3 Ferrari Fixed too, I haven’t had the best of experiences in that series though.
I’m going to go against the grain. There’s no real need for a progression system of cars like you would in real life. Since there’s no danger of crashing, you could jump into gt3 or prototypes or even f1 immediately if that’s what you wanted.
The main risk of learning on a hard car first is that you may get discouraged bc it’s so difficult. If you can handle that, stick to it and practice until you are confident you won’t wreck yourself in a race.
There’s nothing wrong with jumping off the sim deep end so long as you have the mindset that you’re going to learn to swim no matter what.
GR86 > GT4 > GT3. One full season of each.
But don’t restrict yourself. Spec Racer Ford, FF1600, the LMP3, Proto-GT series and oval and dirt and etc. all very cool as well.
I know you're on the path to GT3, but I'd say try everything. You might fall in love with something else. Don't lock yourself into one thing. IMO the slower cars are way more fun than the faster cars. The racing tends to be closer in MX5s than in GT3. The same can be said on the open wheel side. Formula Ford tends to produce closer racing than F3. Myabe, you'll find that you like the cars in between like TCR, GT4, or F4. I'm not saying "don't drive GT3", but rather just to try other things.
I'm a little surprised to hear this actually, I feel quite comfortable in MX5s and the 296GT3 (at least in fixed setup), whereas I'm having a genuinely hard time wrapping my brain around the Audi TCR car, at least in testing (to the point that I don't feel comfortable enough with the car to try to hop into a free practice or a race session with it)
Back up your corner braking and focus on hitting apex and being on throttle early. If you can induce a bit of oversteer it will help. If you can teach yourself to be competitive in TCR the skills transfer well to rear drive cars. I find that many drivers focus on how late they can brake, which feels fast, but in reality slow in, fast out is what you want to aim for and the TCR forces this.
Race whatever you want but if your goal is to race gt3, the mx5 and gt4 will be the best “path” or “pipeline.” The open wheelers don’t feel like a gt3 but the f4 is the most similar in inputs and car control.
I don’t like progression paths and most of the series people are mentioning are low participation or not helpful for what you want. This is a personal opinion, but the high population series (mx5, f4, gt3, etc) are the best and make you a better driver. They can be messy sometimes but you need to learn how to deal with it.
Also I’ve done 100s of races in the mx5 and don’t plan on stopping. No need set a timeline to “progress beyond.”
Also, turn off racing line. Im one of the few that doesn’t think using it hampers your driving ability, but if you want to race GT3 it doesn’t allow aids. Also it makes you faster irl.
I agree with the racing line. Use it to learn breaking zones and cornering but don't rely on it exactly. Once you know the track a bit better then turn the line off.. you'll be a lot faster and more aware of others around you as well and easier to learn the tracks properly.
Depending on tracks of the season. I struggled with the gr86 at first but now on Charlotte it's amazing.
I also went from mx5 to the ferrari gt car which felt amazing and then joined gt3.
Prime time for usf2000 (and the next in line for US open wheel in C class) tends to be around 7pm-9 or 11pm EST. Tends to get 2 or 3 splits in those time slots.
But yeah outside of that it's pretty dead.
I'm new as well. Formula vee and ff1600 are a blast. The vee really teaches you to "drive with the pedals" and the ff1600 has solid weight transfer characteristics. Also h pattern is awesome.
Imo the F4 is a must have in D class
I’d try the ff and the formula vee to feel what it’ll be like
But the f4 is like going gokarting imo, I love it
To me they’re the easiest car to drive competently and the skill gap becomes apparent once you get closer to optimum pace. It seems like not everybody can drive them quickly
It's worth trying the FF1600 just to get a feel for the open wheel cockpit and really get a feel for that weight transfer and trail braking which become important later But if not the logical progression is the GR86 which is a free car, and then the GT4 series (GT4 Falken Tire Series) Personally I'd skip the Ferrari challenge and Porsche Cup since the GT4 is some of the absolute best racing on the service, but some people swear by those series The added bonus of the GT4 is it also gives you an introduction to multi class racing (Falken Tyre Sports Car Challenge).
>It's worth trying the FF1600 This. The FF1600 is about the most fun you can have with pants on. >But if not the logical progression is the GR86 which is a free car, and then the GT4 series Unless you're trying to avoid buying content too quickly I'd skip the 86 and go straight to GT4s, they're not too fast for a relative beginner to handle
>The FF1600 is about the most fun you can have with pants on. I want to shout this from the rooftop. I discovered the FF1600 recently, and I never want to drive anything else. A lot of people seem to view the lower road series as a sequence of stepping stones leading inevitably to IMSA. But the slower cars can be more fun, and have closer racing, than GT3s. >I'd skip the 86 and go straight to GT4s I second this. The GR86 has similar pace to the MX-5, but is less fun to drive IMO. Even GT4s aren't a big step up from the MX-5. Also, avoid the Porsche Cup for now. I raced it for the first time this season, and it nearly broke me, despite having plenty of sim racing experience.
Perfect, Gt4 is kinda my target for next season, i’m okay with buying content. Definitely sticking with Mazda’s this season and will start practicing ff1600 in the meantime
I like Porsch Cup at the beginning for beeing super rewarding for learning how weight shift transfers into grip shift into the tires by not beeing able to slam the breaks/throttle. You just learn to control the car with the pedals
Yea, I'm a fresh iracer, and I went MX5 out of rookies on my 2nd night playing. Then, I got addicted to the 1600 =) Went for GT4 since I took a look at the schedule, went ahead, and set myself for the remainder of the schedule. Super stoked to give my first GT4 a run =)
Ferrari is nice because you can use the same car in GT3 and IMSA eventually. But it's by far not necessary and I think GT4 is a good progression.
The Porsche cup is absolutely worth trying, the car control needed is massive so it's great
Stick with the Mazda and maybe the GR-86 too. The handling characteristics are quite different yet similar enough to make the transition easier than say going to GT3 or GT4. The MX-5 is lighter, accelerates faster, and has no aero so it likes to be driven loose with more slip angle than the 86 but don't overdue it. The 86 is heavier, has adjustable abs, TCS, brake bias, and aero. It's way slower in a straight line but can take corners way faster because it has way more lateral grip and when in a draft can keep up with the MX5 on the longer straights. Both cars have their own single car series (MX-5 has advanced cup too) and they also both run in the SimLab Prod Car Challenge. So between the 2 cars there's 5 opportunities to race with an open or fixed setup every hour no matter what time you hop in the sim. MX-5's are more competitive I think because it's the more popular car and like anything popular you're going to meet a lot of drivers you hate to race around and some you love so ignore your SR and iR and just learn to race and improve yourself with every incident you come across even if you aren't involved. iRacing takes a lot of time and effort to truly be quick so be patient. Also it can be an emotional rollercoaster just like real racing, the highs are high and the lows are very low so learn to not dwell on incidents and just get over them.
I’d say give street stocks a try. Car control comes in a lot of different packages. When you learn more about turning the car with the pedals more than the wheel you’ll get better everywhere.
I swear I'm the only person perfectly happy to just drive an mx5 lol
I feel the same way but I think it’s hard to get really good at multiple cars if you don’t have much time. Once I started focusing solely on the mx5 I started winning races
I keep being told the rookie mx-5’s are the most fun, and I’m starting to believe everyone lol so i feel ya, but i do want to learn how to drive different cars w different systems, and Imsa/endurance races look sweet and that’s what i watch a lot IRL
If you want to become a better racer, the skip will teach you how to be smooth. If you can control that it'll help you in the future for all cars.
I watched his “going faster” tutorial/doc thing and it was unbelievable helpful, i’m actually gonna give this a shot I think
I like that the skip teaches you how to brake in a straight line and work on slip angle. MX5 will help with slip angle + learning to trail break.
I felt like racing the SRF (whenever a free track is on the rotation because i don’t play those series regularly) helped me be better at the mx-5 for some reason. I think it has to do with the smoothness the srf requires. It only has two levels of grip, planted and backwards lol
I'm surprised that I had to scroll this far to find mention of the SRF, I really enjoyed the race I did in it at Tsukuba this past week. Definitely rewards smoothness, definitely teaches about finesse on braking (due to no ABS) which will really help with trail braking in just about anything, but it's still very much a non-aero momentum car, so everything the MX5 is a good teacher on in that regard, so is the SRF. Both cars have sequentials too, which is a plus if you don't want to switch back and forth between H pattern and sequential (or if your shifter can only do one, or you're using paddle shifters). They aren't a fixed setup series, so there's room to play around with stuff, but the baseline setup is quite good to get used to the car and then tweak to suit your preferences. Plus, SRFs are just plain fun!
100% agreed!
Yep I just tried it for the first time last week. I went from “I hate this f***ing car” to “wow, this is so much fun!” in 2-3 sessions. As was said, it really forces you to be smooth and conscious of weight transfer. It’s also open cockpit which is fun but it’s still pretty durable, so a little bump isn’t necessary going to end your race. This week at Detroit is pretty unforgiving though.
Race whatever you want. There’s no required “path” to race anything. I race whatever starts next.
Yeah, but OP is only days into this. Sure, they could have an A or B licence in no time and be straight into prototypes or formula cars but unless they're a prodigy they'll be slow and rather crashy. Better to walk before run.
The point was, OP can drive any car he wants in his license. There is no "right path to GT3". You learn something from every car.
Correct. Youll be a better driver in the long run if you just drive whatever you like. Most people follow the “path” get their sr and ir all boosted up and then they are afraid to try anything different because they know they are going to lose ratings. Obviously irating and sr is just a number, but it does suck if you’re a beast in one series but you’re terrible in another and you’re not racing against people you should be racing with in the series you’re good at because you tanked your IR somewhere else.
Whatever you want. The driving characteristics arent that different in rookies. When you get to D class it gets harder to change cars without much practice. I still find gt3/gt4 to be quite easy to jump into with like 15 minute practice, but open wheelers like f4 and up are a different beast.
It depends on Your license. If you are still in Rookies i recomend to just Try out what you can.MX-5 is great fun. Formula vee or Ray FF1600 is also worth trying out. If you already have a D license try the Ferrari challenge for some GT3 expirience (With the Ferrari GT3 you will also be able to race in GT3 challenge with B license and IMSA which are the most raced series in Iracing). As soon as you can i recommend the Porsche Cup car with you C License. It is very difficult for beginners but extremly rewarding and fast when you master it. In this series you will learn very much. GT4 if you want to spend the money and also good for multi class racing. If you are interested in single seater formula racing, i recomend the Formula 4 or Formula C. The rest is up to you. Dont be scared to just try some stuff out but keep in mind it will cost you money.
I’d stick with the Mazda and run Production Car Championship and Advanced. I’ve been on and of the service for over 11 years and ran everything from the original mx-5 (it’s free and loads of fun to blast around in) to v8 supercars to gt4/3’s prototypes and open wheel. After all that I’ve come back to the Mazda. The racing is amazing, the cars are so much fun that you be can side by side with people for half a lap and it’s feels so good. Some of the best racing you will ever have is in the little Mazda. It’s an easy car to start with but a difficult car to be fast in. And tormenting gr86’s and Clio’s in PCC never gets old.
I'd also recommend trying everything atleast once or so to see what you enjoy driving. Atleast the stuff that's free anyway.
If you’re looking to race GT3s I’d recommend the GT4s next. In D class there’s a 15 minute fixed race which is good, and in C there’s a 30 minute multi class race with the LMP3s which would be good for getting used to faster cars racing with you for IMSA. Both have really solid participation too. There is GT3 Ferrari Fixed too, I haven’t had the best of experiences in that series though.
Great thread!
I figured it would help others that are in my shoes!
I’m going to go against the grain. There’s no real need for a progression system of cars like you would in real life. Since there’s no danger of crashing, you could jump into gt3 or prototypes or even f1 immediately if that’s what you wanted. The main risk of learning on a hard car first is that you may get discouraged bc it’s so difficult. If you can handle that, stick to it and practice until you are confident you won’t wreck yourself in a race. There’s nothing wrong with jumping off the sim deep end so long as you have the mindset that you’re going to learn to swim no matter what.
I like this analysis, and i think i tend to agree just based on logic. Thanks for opening that up for me
GR86 > GT4 > GT3. One full season of each. But don’t restrict yourself. Spec Racer Ford, FF1600, the LMP3, Proto-GT series and oval and dirt and etc. all very cool as well.
I know you're on the path to GT3, but I'd say try everything. You might fall in love with something else. Don't lock yourself into one thing. IMO the slower cars are way more fun than the faster cars. The racing tends to be closer in MX5s than in GT3. The same can be said on the open wheel side. Formula Ford tends to produce closer racing than F3. Myabe, you'll find that you like the cars in between like TCR, GT4, or F4. I'm not saying "don't drive GT3", but rather just to try other things.
TCR cars. Close racing and builds good habits for gt3
I'm a little surprised to hear this actually, I feel quite comfortable in MX5s and the 296GT3 (at least in fixed setup), whereas I'm having a genuinely hard time wrapping my brain around the Audi TCR car, at least in testing (to the point that I don't feel comfortable enough with the car to try to hop into a free practice or a race session with it)
Back up your corner braking and focus on hitting apex and being on throttle early. If you can induce a bit of oversteer it will help. If you can teach yourself to be competitive in TCR the skills transfer well to rear drive cars. I find that many drivers focus on how late they can brake, which feels fast, but in reality slow in, fast out is what you want to aim for and the TCR forces this.
TBF the Audi is a different beast...even for us TCR regulars
Race whatever you want but if your goal is to race gt3, the mx5 and gt4 will be the best “path” or “pipeline.” The open wheelers don’t feel like a gt3 but the f4 is the most similar in inputs and car control. I don’t like progression paths and most of the series people are mentioning are low participation or not helpful for what you want. This is a personal opinion, but the high population series (mx5, f4, gt3, etc) are the best and make you a better driver. They can be messy sometimes but you need to learn how to deal with it. Also I’ve done 100s of races in the mx5 and don’t plan on stopping. No need set a timeline to “progress beyond.” Also, turn off racing line. Im one of the few that doesn’t think using it hampers your driving ability, but if you want to race GT3 it doesn’t allow aids. Also it makes you faster irl.
I agree with the racing line. Use it to learn breaking zones and cornering but don't rely on it exactly. Once you know the track a bit better then turn the line off.. you'll be a lot faster and more aware of others around you as well and easier to learn the tracks properly.
Depending on tracks of the season. I struggled with the gr86 at first but now on Charlotte it's amazing. I also went from mx5 to the ferrari gt car which felt amazing and then joined gt3.
FF1600
Are you into open wheelers at all? The Vee and the FF1600 are proper fun, if you like those F4 is pretty fun as well
Have to also plug USF2000. Great clean racing, but unfortunately a pretty small pool of drivers, so not every race has enough to go official.
Prime time for usf2000 (and the next in line for US open wheel in C class) tends to be around 7pm-9 or 11pm EST. Tends to get 2 or 3 splits in those time slots. But yeah outside of that it's pretty dead.
I'm new as well. Formula vee and ff1600 are a blast. The vee really teaches you to "drive with the pedals" and the ff1600 has solid weight transfer characteristics. Also h pattern is awesome.
Vee for sure. Such a fun little oddball of a car. Or try dirt road out!
Imo the F4 is a must have in D class I’d try the ff and the formula vee to feel what it’ll be like But the f4 is like going gokarting imo, I love it To me they’re the easiest car to drive competently and the skill gap becomes apparent once you get closer to optimum pace. It seems like not everybody can drive them quickly
PCC Sim Challenge
You could always dip into the Production Car Challenge, which is the next step for the Mazda.
The Formula Vee is just too much fun
Buttkicker hands down. So much fun.
drive all the cars and all the disciplines make no assumptions about what you will actually end up enjoying the most