iRacing stuff

towards the end there's an interview with Dave K the man behind iRacing... talking about the tyre model... very interesting stuff

http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/iracing-news/iracing-mclaren-electronic-systems-partner-in-online-racing-data-analysis/

iRacing, McLaren Electronic Systems Partner in Online Racing Data Analysis
by Kevin Bobbitt on May 5th, 20110

iRacing.com, the world’s leading online motorsports simulation service, announced today it is partnering with McLaren Electronic Systems to incorporate the ATLAS Express data analysis software into its system. As a result, iRacing’s more than 25,000 members will now have access to similar data acquisition and telemetry software used on every car competing in the FIA Formula One World Championship since 2008 and on NASCAR’s standard ECU (engine control unit) in 2012.
In addition to affording its members unprecedented opportunities to increase their understanding of their virtual race cars’ performance with ATLAS Express, iRacing is also releasing an upgraded application program interface (API) that will dramatically enhance the service’s compatibility with an array of external features including motion platforms and external displays.
“With the new iRacing telemetry capability, our members will be able to log detailed telemetry from their virtual race car to disk,” says Dave Kaemmer, iRacing’s chief executive and chief technical officer. “Using McLaren Electronics’ Atlas Express data analysis application, members who wish to delve into the engineering details in order to improve their cars’ handling will be able to do so, using very similar tools as F1 and NASCAR teams. In addition, with iRacing’s new real-time telemetry interface, multiple applications will be able to access telemetry simultaneously, allowing easier support for motion platforms, external gauges, and other add-ons from the sim-racing community.”
“Members who wish to delve into the engineering details in order to improve their cars’ handling will be able to do so, using very similar tools as F1 and NASCAR teams.” — Dave Kaemmer
ATLAS Express is derived from the ATLAS suite of software developed in the 1990s to support McLaren’s own Formula 1 team. Continued growth and development of the system saw it introduced into a variety of motorsports environments including Le Mans and ALMS sports cars, the FIA World Rally Championship, the FIA Formula One World Championship, NASCAR and IndyCar. The FIA awarded McLaren Electronics the contract to supply the powertrain control system to every team competing in the Formula 1 from the beginning of the 2008 race season and, in February this year, NASCAR named McLaren as the Official Engine Control Unit of NASCAR for the 2012 Sprint Cup series in support of its impending switch to fuel injected engines.
“Up to now, you had to be a race engineer in a top level race team to access these tools” says Mike Phillips, President of McLaren Electronic Systems’ US division, “and access to reliable real-time data has been a game-changer for car development and race strategy in recent times. Our link with iRacing will now make this experience easily accessible to the current user community and hopefully new players intrigued by the possibilities this gives them.”
In its iRacing application, ATLAS Express will be primarily available as a tool for analyzing and developing the handling of the members’ virtual race cars. Where iRacers have previously been able to monitor tire wear and temperature in the pits after completing a lap or laps, ATLAS Express will make available substantially more detailed information regarding performance such as the real time tire surface temperatures, along with critical data such as lateral acceleration, steering wheel angle and damper/spring deflection.
“Up until now, our members have only been able to work on their setups by ‘feel,’ tire wear and temperatures, and by gauging their performance on the stop watch,” says Kaemmer. “ATLAS Express will now allow iRacers to view driver and car performance in a given session to help them tune the car with actual data.”
Beyond powering the ATLAS Express software, the feature-rich API will dramatically increase the functionality of the iRacing service. For example, broadcasts of online races will now be able to utilize screen overlays of real time on-board telemetry from individual cars, while members will be able enjoy the full benefits of plug-ins for a variety of external custom hardware including vibrating pedals, base shakers and motion platforms.
“The addition of ATLAS Express to the service figures to make everyone a little – or a lot — faster.” — Dave Kaemmer
iRacing is working with McLaren Electronic Systems to develop workbooks and documents specifically designed to help iRacing members take full advantage of the ATLAS Express applications to the iRacing service. Together with the ATLAS Express software, the documentation and workbooks are expected to be released before the end of May, 2011.
However, Kaemmer stressed the service will remain user-friendly for members who would rather race than crunch numbers.
“Although engineering a race car is an interesting challenge, iRacing will continue to provide ‘Arrive and Drive’ racing series with fixed car setups for those who prefer turning a steering wheel to turning a wrench. As has always been the case, members will be free to share their set-ups with other iRacers, so the addition of ATLAS Express to the service figures to make everyone a little – or a lot — faster.”

iRacing.com2.0 out in August... massive upgrade of the tyre model...

here's one of the better video comp entrants for it:

http://www.virtualr.net/sim-racer-wins-nissan-us-gt-academy-2011/


Sim Racer Wins Nissan US GT Academy 2011

Posted 3 days ago in Console



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Bryan Heitkotter from California has won the first-ever United States edition of Nissan’s & Sony’s GT Academy competition, edging out 50.000 competitors to clinch a real-life drive in the 2012 Dubai 24 Hours race.

Even though the competition used Gran Turismo 5, a true sim racer edged out the console crowd as Bryan is an active member of Champion Motorsports, showing once more how much driving talent can be found in the sim community.

The 30-year old American will now be making his way to the United Kingdom for a summer full of training to get ready for the Dubai 24hrs next January. This might very well be the start of a successful career for Bryan who was recently laid-off as a delivery driver as the GT Academy has kick-started successful careers before. Lucas Ordonez, winner of the maiden GT Academy, will be participating in the Le Mans 24 Hours race next weekend, driving an LMP2 class prototype.

Below is a short video feature on Bryan who’ll be another driver to represent the virtual driving community in a high-profile motorsports event. Congrats on the amazing accomplishment and good luck in Dubai Byran!

That's pretty amazing. Hope he does well.

Personally I believe racing is so much about feeling the vehicle. As much as racing on a computer can get you to learn proper racing lines and braking points, I think that what really makes the difference is feeling how your car is reacting and then making the proper input.

you do get tuned into it... i'm very conscious of the weight transfering... transition curves and flicks, on and off the brakes, predicting the need to make a correction etc... the main thing is the secondary movement that you get of the driver shifting as the car grabs and slides on a real track, knowing how deep it can brake, and fear factors... but thats a matter of confidence and experience... to which i'd give 5-10 laps for the average fastish guys... the really quick guys are fast in both and go quick in both pretty much straight out of the garage... theyre just that much better at analysing and feeling it out... but the real application is always on track, as you say... its too much pollution and money for me though... if someone gave me a production racing car, i'd sell it... luckily that sort of thing doesnt happen anyway

Revs wrote:...but the real application is always on track, as you say... its too much pollution and money for me though... if someone gave me a production racing car, i'd sell it...

I'd buy it off you.
Sadly, I couldn't justify giving you a lot of money for it - too much pollution generating-potential.
But I'm sure that we could work-out a price - perhaps involving me planting a couple of trees in my back-garden...

..and promising to drink more beer obviously... (enabling me to recycle more beer-cans, thus saving the planet via Pro-Active Environmentally-friendly methods...)

you can definitely test your drunk driving skills out online too lol... highly recommended...

iRacing.com Announces iRacing 2.0

April 20th, 2011

http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/iracing-news/iracing-com-announces-iracing-2-0/


World’s Premier Online, Multiplayer Racing Game to Release Revolutionary Updates over the Summer Months





BEDFORD, MA (April 20, 2011) – iRacing.com today formally announced its most dramatic software release to date – Version 2.0. Coming in the summer of 2011, iRacing 2.0 will feature enhancements across the board for the popular online, multi-player racing title.

In contrast to gaming software brands that typically release a new title once every few years, the online racing game takes advantage of digital distribution to provide regular updates of its service to the more than 25,000 iRacing members four times per year.


“iRacing is now to sim racing what NASCAR is to stock car racing.” - John Henry

“By summer’s end, we will have clearly ‘launched’ a truly amazing step forward in sim racing. It is incredible how far we have come in just three years. I am thrilled to see our vision come to fruition with thousands of people racing online everyday in our service. iRacing is now to sim racing what NASCAR is to stock car racing,” said iRacing co-founder John Henry.

New Tire Model is the Core of iRacing 2.0

At the core of the 2.0 release is the highly anticipated new tire model, which will revolutionize the way iRacing members race online, providing unparalleled realism and the most accurate racing experience ever produced for a PC. The introduction of the new tire model will be rolled-out over the course of the summer, along with many of the additional enhancements, beginning in May.

iRacing’s CEO and legendary sim racing developer, Dave Kaemmer and his team have been researching tire properties and working on his newest tire model for over three years. “I have dedicated my professional life, over 20 years, to working on racing simulations and physics models,” said Kaemmer. “This new tire model is our best work ever. It was incredibly challenging and time consuming to develop an understanding, mathematically speaking, of a racing tire at the limit and under all sorts of conditions – and that was just phase one. To then translate that into a working model within the simulation was incredibly taxing – but it was truly a labor of love. The tires are clearly the hardest thing to simulate for any racing title, but I think we’ve nailed it! I believe it is going to bring simulated racing to a whole new level of enjoyment and realism.”


“The tires are clearly the hardest thing to simulate for any racing title, but I think we’ve nailed it!” – Dave Kaemmer

“iRacing 2.0 isn’t a new disc that needs to be purchased. Members will download the updates from our easy to use website, all for free”, said iRacing.com president Tony Gardner. “We have improved our product so much in the last three years that, along with adding such an incredible list of new features this summer, we feel it’s fitting to celebrate the next generation of iRacing. We will be releasing some of these features in early May and some in August, but frankly we will continue improving the product long after that.”

The company initially launched its service in the summer of 2008 and 400 people joined that first month. Now three years and over 25,000 customers later, the company still provides updates and improvements to the service like clockwork every three months.

“Although we have moved well beyond our initial vision, we are working harder than ever and the features coming out this summer prove it”, added Gardner. “When we first launched we had only a few cars running on about a dozen U.S.-based tracks. Now we have over 30 official series running on over 60 laser scanned tracks from around the world – over 1,500 official races going-off each week, 24 hours per day, not to mention the hundreds of member-run leagues that take advantage of our hosted racing features each week.”

“I want to thank our tremendous real-world partners involved in this including: NASCAR, INDYCAR and GRAND-AM, who officially sanction series on iRacing.com. I also want to thank all of the tracks, car manufactures and racing teams who have worked so hard with us to get everything simulated as realistically as possible. It sure does make it more fun for our members, ” Kaemmer added. “Lastly, and most importantly, I want to thank our members for their continued support and passion for race gaming and sim racing. Without them we could never have gotten to iRacing 2.0. It is incredible to think how far technology has come, especially in the last few years, and what could be in the future. We look forward to that journey with our members and many more great years of sim racing.”

Highlights of iRacing 2.0



May 2011


■Early preview of Dave Kaemmer’s new tire model available on the new NASCAR Nationwide car.
■Launch of in-game awards program – over 50 different participation awards members can earn.
■Night racing on road courses using headlights beginning with Sebring International Raceway and the V8 Supercar, Mazda MX5 Cup & Roadster, Corvette C6.R, Riley Daytona Prototype, Pontiac Solstice, VW Jetta TDI Cup and Mustang Challenge race cars.
■New NASCAR “Nationwide” stock car – race the car you watch on Saturdays.
■Okayama International Circuit (Japan) – the first of several tracks from the island nation.
■New telemetry output for the data hungry racers.
■Private league racing enhancements including: reduced pricing, advanced scheduling, new race session options and additional grid spots to virtually every track.
■Graphic and shader upgrades in-game for more lifelike visuals.
■Complete graphical overhaul of the Skip Barber FSB2000 race car – updating our first car to current standards.
■Opening practice sessions to all license levels (excluding Pro Series).
■Enhanced pitting and damage repair for all cars.
■Preferred/custom car numbers.
■Improved accuracy of the modeled physical track surface to match the laser scanned data better than ever before.



August 2011


■New Tire Model for all cars.
■Enhanced aero model for improved drafting and more realistic downforce characteristics.
■Heat/Tournament racing for private leagues/sessions.
■Driver aids available for private leagues and Rookie series (ABS brakes, traction control, driving line, steering aids, etc.).
■Enhancements of new sound system.
■Endurance racing and driver swaps.
■Suzuka Circuit (Japan).
■Iowa Speedway (USA).
■Ford GT race car
■Honda LMP ARX-01C race car
■Live pop-up chat on member site.





Current highlights of iRacing.com


■Inexpensive – Standard one-year membership is less than $9 per month. Try it for one month for $5 to learn more first hand. Use Promo code PR-FIVEDOLLAR when joining.
■The most accurate, realistic and feature rich simulation in the world.
■Centralized member website with ease of use being the cornerstone; Regular automatic updates free with membership.
■Live stats, tracking and scoring for every race.
■Robust and passionate community including forums and live chat.
■State-of-the-art graphics.
■Head-to-head racing with same field size as real world racing – some tracks capable of racing up to 60 cars.
■Fully integrated and professionally developed iRacing driving school.
■Over 60 officially licensed and laser scanned tracks.
■Over 25 officially licensed and authentically reproduced cars.
■Over 100 private leagues using iRacing.
■Unlimited racing 24/7: over 1,500 official race each week, unlimited open practice, unlimited time trialing, unlimited testing on track.
■Ability to race any car at any track, anytime you want, utilizing the hosted racing feature.
■Dozens of special events each year: iRacing Indy 500, iRacing Daytona 500, Club style competition, World Cup of iRacing.
■Most prestigious Pro Series in sim racing sanctioned by NASCAR, INDY CAR and GRAND-AM, with thousands of dollars in cash prizes, full press coverage and live broadcasts.
■Fully integrated real-world and sim racing news site (inRacingnews.com) and webcast show (iRacingTV) covering the racing action.
■Mixed class racing, open setup racing, fixed setup racing, night racing on ovals.
■License and division system automatically categorizes each member into the level that they are interested in: from casual race gamer looking to just have some fun to serious competitors looking for the best competition sim racing has to offer.
■World class, live customer service and support.

Thanks for keeping us up to date Revs, one of these days I will get on, my fear is I'll never want to get off. LOL.

i look forward to it
it'd be great to bang around on track with you guys...

iRacing's 2.0 promo vidumentary

a word from Dave before trying the NTM
(Dave is the mathematical genius the co-owns iRacing... he developed the new tyre model)

We’re very excited to get the new tire model into your hands and out into public view finally! We think you’ll find that the new tires are a lot of fun—at the same time easier to drive, but more challenging, too. For sure they are more realistic than the old tires—especially on the high speed ovals, which is why we’re letting you get a first look at them on the new Nationwide car. The car itself represents a big step forward in simulating a Nascar race car—the aerodynamics and suspension have been reworked in addition to the tires. But before you jump into the new Nationwide car and drop the clutch I thought I’d give you a few bits of information to help get you up to speed on these new tires.

First, you’re probably going to be best off if you start with the baseline setups provided with the car (click on the iRacing Setups tab in the garage). You may need to alter your driving style a bit to get the most out of these tires, and you can easily get into a hole by playing with the setup instead of playing with your line, and your technique.

Second, be patient—you’ll need to learn how you can change the balance of the car simply by altering your line, and by changing how and when you lift off and get back on the throttle. These tires, just like real tires, are very sensitive to heat buildup. When you’re going through a corner, especially on a high speed oval, the tire surface can heat up at 50 degrees per second! If the rear tires are heating up faster than the fronts, it’s sayonara—you’re going to spin. If the fronts are heating up faster, the car will be tight, and more steering will make it worse. When both ends are working nearly equally, you’ll know it—and you’ll find out why the drivers have a huge grin when their car is “hooked up.”

By changing how you drive a corner, you can control the heat buildup to a degree. If you drive in really hot, and crank in a lot of steering wheel angle (a very typical simracing technique), it will come as no surprise that you will get understeer, or push, and lots of it. If you do this lap after lap, your right front will likely not make a full fuel run without popping when you wear through the cords. Also you will be slow—maybe not on the first lap, but over a run you will lose a lot of time. That’s because the right front will lose a lot of grip as it nearly catches fire, and melts away.

An alternative is to back off a bit earlier, and turn the car down into the corner without a lot of steering wheel angle. Be patient, and apply the throttle only once the car is heading where you want it, and has rotated enough to get the rears working a bit. Now pick up the throttle, and you should feel the car bite. The easier you drive it into the corner, the earlier you can get back to the gas, but you might find that you start to heat the right rear more than the right front as you do this, and the car will get loose. You need to find the right amount to push the car in order to keep it balanced. A very slight brush on the brakes can do wonders on the way into a corner to get the front planted, and enough speed pulled off to get back on the gas. No need to mash the brakes—that’s another great way to overheat the fronts and move yourself to the back!

Once you have gotten comfortable with altering your driving style while lapping, and seeing how you can move the car from tight to loose and back again, then you might start to play with the car setup in order to fine tune things to be just how you like them. Pay close attention to how the tires are wearing, as much as to the temperatures. Remember that you can dramatically change the temperature and wear simply by changing how you drive, in addition to changing the setup. The keys to setting up the Nationwide car are to keep the front splitter as close to the ground as possible, and to get the four tires to share the workload as evenly as possible. The baseline setups do a good job at both, so if what you really want to do is race, just load the right setup for the track you’re driving, and forget it.

One small disclaimer: remember this is a preview of the new model; there are some features that are not done, such as smoke pouring from your locked up tires. We're still hard at work on completing it, but most of the important stuff is in there. I think it's fair to say that all of us here at iRacing and our dedicated crew of testers can't wait for you to try it--it is a ton of fun.

We hope you like this upgrade to our simulation, and rest assured we’ll continue to improve it for a long time to come!

-Dave Kaemmer

a mate of mine just won the iRacing V8Supercars series, and made a great slo mo vid...

found this on the v8supercars sight...

http://www.v8supercars.com.au/newsarticle/shane-van-gisbergen-online-series-as-fierce-as-the-main-game/tabid/70/newsid/11409/default.aspx

Shane van Gisbergen: Online Series as fierce as the Main Game
By Shane van Gisbergen 7:32 AM Fri 1 July, 2011Source: BigPond Sport

While you're all familiar with my rivals in the Australia V8 Supercar championship – names like Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes and Rick Kelly – you might be surprised to learn that some of my fiercest competition this year has come from guys named Down, McLeod and McLaughlin. With the exception of my "junior" teammate at Stone Brothers Racing – Scotty McLaughlin – you won't find their names in the results of the V8 Supercar Championship Series or Fujitsu V8 Series.

Instead, you need to go to the "online series" portion of the V8 Supercar web site, where you'll learn about some of the best racing on the planet or, I should say, in cyberspace: the iRacing.com V8 Supercar series.

iRacing.com is the world's leading online racing service, with digital versions of more than two dozen types of cars (including the Ford Falcon FG) and nearly fifty of the world's great race tracks – from Indianapolis and Daytona to Spa, Silverstone and Phillip Island. All you need is a computer, gaming steering wheel and pedals and high speed Internet and you can be racing against top sim racers from all over the world, not to mention guys like Dale Earnhardt Jr, Will Power and Simon Pagenaud who use the service.

Checking out www.hyperstimulator.co.nz is a great place to start. These guys will hook you up with some awesome sim parts to get you started.

When my "day job" permits, I compete in iRacing's version of the V8 Supercar championship. Although I've enjoyed some success, believe me, racing against the top sim racers in Australia and New Zealand – there's a few of them who can pretty consistently dust me! And I take it pretty seriously.

Most of the front runners in the iRacing V8 series are young guys and any of them could have a shot at a professional career if they got that opportunity I reckon. There's some great potential there and you can see guys like Madison Down and Mitch McLeod already have great race-craft and great car skills. That's all thanks to the sim racing they've done and how accurate the simulation is. I've seen where another iRacing champion named Greger Huttu got the chance to drive a real race car and he did pretty well, so maybe one day for these guys . . .

Speaking of accuracy, one of the features iRacing recently added is McLaren Electronics' ATLAS Express data acquisition system. You read that right: Sim racers now have access to the same telemetry data as F1 drivers. I've been using ATLAS Express quite a bit in my efforts to improve car setup and driving style in the iRacing V8s. As with the MoTeC system we use in the V8 Supercar Series, you try different things and overlay the traces versus your previous laps and see was it good or not. You can teach yourself with the system and it certainly makes you a better driver.

In any form of racing, your most direct competition is your teammate. And just as I do in the V8 Supercar Championship Series with my SBR teammates Tim Slade and Alex Davison, on iRacing I compare my data with Scotty McLaughlin and a couple of others for a look-see at how our different driving styles work, where what you're doing is a little quicker than your teammates and vice versa, then make some changes where it's necessary and – ideally – blend the best of both.

From an engineering point of view, if you have access to all your teammates' setups and driving styles, you can learn what people are doing to help their car – or maybe you're doing something better that they can learn from.

Atlas Express is a feature of the second generation of the iRacing system – iRacing 2.0 – which is being introduced in its entirety in August. Along with Atlas Express, iRacing 2.0 includes a whole range of major improvements including new cars, new tracks and enhancements to the system.

I've been pretty heavily involved in the development of one of those enhancements – iRacing's revolutionary new tyre model -- as it applies to the Ford Falcon FG. Up until now, race simulations have based their tyres on a sort of "reverse engineering" process, where they take the performance numbers of real tyres and try to mimic them as closely as possible. Instead, the iRacing people have made a massive effort to understand the fundamental physics of tyre performance in order to create virtual tires that inherently behave like "real" tyres rather than as the result of "artificially" tinkering with their performance to make them match-up with a set of arbitrary numbers.

As you can imagine, the ATLAS Express data acquisition system is a critical part of the testing process, as I can actually overlay the data from the iRacing V8 compared to my real V8 at Phillip Island. Unbelievable! The effects of changes in tyre pressures and temperatures, camber, toe, ride height, dampers and springs; aerodynamics; different driving styles . . . it's all there. The notes I've made comparing the sim car vs the real car are all backed-up by the data, which really helps develop the accuracy of the new tyres.

The new tyre model has such huge potential and is already a massive step forward. There's a bit of work to do yet, but it's definitely more realistic already. You can feel the tyre and the road, the gripping and when it slips away . . . the feeling is definitely more positive. We need to make it better and make the car a little better as well, but it's definitely going to be awesome when it's finished. I can't wait!

The new tyre model is currently only available on iRacing's equivalent of the NASCAR Nationwide Series car. Myself and a few development drivers are working with the Ford Falcon FG. A few of the guys from the iRacing V8 Supercar series are in the process of getting into it and all the iRacing cars will be equipped with the new tyres in August. Also, a few of the other Championship Series drivers are in the process of signing up -- so come on, join in the fun and take us on!

http://www.v8supercars.com.au/newsarticle/v8-supercars-continues-international-expansion--online!/tabid/70/newsid/11490/default.aspx


V8 Supercars Continues International Expansion – Online!


V8 SUPERCARS’ international expansion continues to gather speed with the announcement that millions of online racers can now compete in a V8 Supercar on tracks around the world, including the world-class Phillip Island circuit.

iRacing, BigPond and V8 Supercars have partnered to allow gamers around the globe to compete against each other in an online forum - the iRacing.com V8 Supercars Series presented by BigPond.

Current V8 Supercar drivers Shane van Gisbergen, Fabian Coulthard and rising Fujitsu Series driver Scott McLaughlin are regulars on the iRacing circuit, as is former V8 Supercars Champion Marcos Ambrose.

V8 Supercars joins NASCAR, INDYCAR and GRAND-AM as partners in sanctioning competition on the iRacing service.

Although they use the service to help sharpen their skills and prepare to race on unfamiliar tracks, the drivers agree that iRacing is just plain fun.

“iRacing is the best racing simulator, hands down,” says Van Gisbergen.

“Not only for the accuracy of the laser scanned tracks and cars, but anyone can sign up and be racing against professional drivers from across the world who, like me, use iRacing as a tool to improve driving skills . . . come take us on!”

V8 Supercars Chief Executive Officer Martin Whitaker is delighted by the news.

“The iRacing.com V8 Supercars Series presented by BigPond will enable race fans around the world to experience the V8 Supercar racing in a dynamic and exciting fashion,” he says.

“Although the V8 Supercar Championship is an Australian and New Zealand-based series, we are always looking to expand our horizons internationally, as witnessed by our existing event in Abu Dhabi and the recent announcement that the V8 Supercars will be racing in Austin, Texas at the Circuit of the Americas beginning in 2013.

“Our new partnership with iRacing.com is another vital component of our efforts to bring the excitement of V8 Supercar competition to our international audience.”

Claire McFarland, Director Online and Mobile Media said, “The BigPond team is very excited about this partnership with iRacing. As the official online and mobile portal of V8 Supercars it’s fantastic for BigPond to be able to bring this fantastic experience to Australia’s racing fans. iRacing is such impressive technology, it’s a as close to the real thing as you can get.”

Australia is the fastest growing country within the ranks of the iRacing.com membership.

“As the world’s leading online racing service, it’s both appropriate and gratifying to announce our first international sanctioning partner,” said Steve Myers, executive vice president of iRacing.com.

“Many of our most enthusiastic members hail from Australia and New Zealand, and iRacing is proud to be associated with V8 Supercars.

“Our NASCAR, INDYCAR and GRAND-AM-sanctioned series have introduced new fans to NASCAR, INDYCAR and GRAND-AM and, of course, have been instrumental in the strong growth iRacing has enjoyed since going public in 2008.

“We fully expect this new partnership to be similarly beneficial to iRacing and V8 Supercars.”

The Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit is among more than 50 laser-scanned racetracks available on iRacing. The service also plans to add a digital version of the now-defunct Oran Park circuit to its catalogue in the near future to give fans the chance to race on one of the country’s best driving circuits since its closure a few years ago.

Racers can do just that by taking advantage of a special offer for two free months on the iRacing service with the purchase of one month of racing.

New members will be just in time to enjoy the host of new features and content (including two cars and tracks) that will be available with the release of iRacing 2.0 in August.

For a sneak preview of iRacing 2.0 featuring Dale Earnhardt Jr, Tony Stewart and the iRacing staff, go to https://www.youtube.com/user/iRacingTV.

To sign up for iRacing go to http://www.v8supercars.com.au/onlineseries/getracing/tabid/1019/default.aspx

http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/spring-less-rear-suspension-a-quiet-revolution/


Spring-Less Rear Suspension – A Quiet Revolution


In the latter part of the year suggestions were that teams were discarding the rear side springs to allow very soft rear ends. This has proved to be the case, in the past few years teams have been removing their rear torsion bars to gain greater control of suspension set up. This revolution has been quietly spreading as many teams have gone this route.

An early sign springs were being removed was the I-Racing game, which accurately modeled the FW31 with the Williams teams assistance, the game provided no scope for rear springs. Equally comments made by Anthony Davidson over the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend suggested that McLaren’s extreme stiff front\soft rear was due to this set up. Leading to Buttons problems locking up the inside wheel under braking. Closer investigation with technical people close to the sport prove this to be case and the practice is widespread amongst several teams, already McLaren and Williams are highlighted as adopting this practice, but Toyota and red bull are sporting this set up, by virtue of their gearbox supply this suggests that force India and Toro Rosso have the option too. Although this seems to be a relevantly recent practice as most teams first designed this into the 2009 cars, albeit it may have been tested or raced before then.

Suspension on F1 cars has the joint purpose to control the cars attitude both for aerodynamics and tyre dynamics. These often contradictory requirements have lead to compromises, largely against tyre performance and more to the benefit of aero control. Aerodynamicists want the car to run flat (or raked) with little change in roll or ride height. For mechanical grip the car needs softer attitude control. This has lead F1 cars to run quite stiff front ends and softer rear ends, both in roll and heave. A soft rear ARB creates more mechanical grip, which then in turns needs to be controlled by a stiff front anti roll bar. For aerodynamics reasons the front wing and splitter like to be flat to the track surface to gain most downforce, thus this also tends to require a stiff anti roll bar.
At the extreme end of this set up characteristic this has been exhibited most clearly in McLarens handling. The car gains traction from the soft rear anti roll bar, but the stiff front roll bar means that the rear heavy car tends to roll at the rear and this picks up the inside front wheel going into turns.
On a side point although McLaren run what has been called a stiff front axle, their apparent problem with grip over bumps going into turns is not necessarily a reflection of this set up, more that the cars aero requires tight ride height control, it is possible to run stiff anti roll bar and still have a compliance for coping with bumps.

Heave is when the car moves vertically, thus both wheels are rising or falling together
In a typical rear suspension the effect of heave is that the heave spring (blue) and each side spring (yellow) is providing stiffness. The dampers (Red) damp the motion.



Roll is when the car tilts, thus one wheel is rising and one is falling
In a typical rear suspension the effect of Roll is the ARB (orange) and the side springs provide the stiffness. Again, the Dampers (Red) damp the motion



Single wheel bump, which tends to be for riding kerbs or bumps in the track is a secondary requirement to heave and roll control, spring rates are not normally tuned for this requirement, instead the cars dampers allow freer suspension movement when the wheel suddenly rises up at a greater rate than normal, the damper has different rates for the wheel rising at different speeds, known as low speed (the cars chassis moving slowly i.e. pitch roll) high speed (bumps) and often a tertiary setting known as ‘blow off’ where the damper will provide a far lower damper rate for extreme wheel speeds such as kerbing.

Hence in both heave and roll the side springs are providing additional stiffness to the effective spring rate, thus both roll and have are coupled to the rate of the side springs. If we can do away with the side springs then both roll and have can be totally independent and controlled by their relevant springs. If you need a softer ARB rate, then the side springs are the limiting factor.


When you do away with the side springs, the heave and roll bar rates are higher in order to replace the spring rate added by the side spring. As long as each of these devices has a wide enough range of springs then there is no loss in control.


It’s noteworthy that both rear dampers are used, in the nineties we saw monoshock front ends, which utilised both a single spring and single dampers. But monoshocks only have one damper so the control of roll is undamped. With a side spring-less set up there’s two dampers, controlling roll motion. Which is an obvious improvement in vehicle control over Monoshocks.
Although there are some set backs with a side spring-less set up, some suspension designers want a non linear rate to the heave and wheel rates and sometimes different rising rate curve for each of these elements. This is achieved by the linkage (pushrod or pullrod) and the rocker geometry, going for side spring-less set up prevents having differing wheel and heave spring rising rates. In some engineers opinions, this is the removal of a needless layer of complexity.
A heave element not only supports the rear axle heave motion, but the element provides a non linear rate. Ground clearance is used up through downforce compressing the suspension as speed increases. The heave element has a range of free movement, this is taken up as ride height lowers until the then the heave spring itself (or Belleville stacks or bump rubbers) come into effect and add considerable rate to the heave motion. This prevents grounding or choking the underfloor through low ground clearance.
Equally making set up changes is both simplified and complicated. Engineers can now change either roll or heave rates independently, before changing a changing torsion bar effectively altered both. But changing a torsion bar, while not a quick task was the switch of an isolated component. Now teams will need to change the entire heave spring or ARB assembly.
An additional benefit is if a team wants to commit fully to the side spring-less set up, the packaging of the suspension becomes far easier, no longer having to package long torsion bars. This is perhaps a reason why Red Bull were able to effectively package the pullrod set up, as the pivot for the rocker is near vertical, fitting a torsion bar in this position would have been be tricky.

With the design of next years car leading towards a widespread adoption of pullrod, the option to adopt side spring-less will be attractive to aid packaging. Although the side spring-less pushrod set up will also allow dampers and rockers more freedom to be packaged at the front of the gearbox casing. Adoption at the front of the car is possible too, there is lesser need as the front roll rate is higher and the torsion bars can add to the effective rate. But simpler packaging and tuning may still be attractive for a designer.

this is very cool...

and

drum roll...

http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/iracing-news/iracing-com-to-create-virtual-mclaren-mp4-12c-gt3/


iRacing.com to create virtual McLaren MP4-12C GT3by Kevin Bobbitt on September 14th, 20112

Bedford, MA (September 14, 2011) – iRacing.com and McLaren Automotive today announced plans to build a virtual version of the McLaren MP4-12C GT3 race car. Based on the groundbreaking McLaren MP4-12C road car, the first production car wholly designed and built by McLaren since the McLaren F1 – the McLaren MP4-12C GT3 marries Formula 1™ and innovative road-car technology with GT3 specification performance enhancements to create a new generation of racing car. iRacing.com will apply expertise in creating a state-of-the-art digital version of the McLaren MP4-12C GT3 that will be available to iRacing members in 2012.

The McLaren MP4-12C GT3 project is the second development from iRacing.com and the McLaren Group. Earlier this year, iRacing.com incorporated McLaren Electronics’ ATLAS Express data analysis software into the iRacing service, providing the more than 30,000 iRacers access to data acquisition and telemetry software similar to that used on every car competing in the FIA Formula One™ World Championship.

“It’s great to be working with McLaren on another exciting project that utilizes the outstanding technical know-how of our two organizations,” says Tony Gardner, president of iRacing.com. “We’re excited that we’ll be making our version of the McLaren MP4-12C GT3 available to the more than 30,000 iRacers next year.”

A McLaren spokesman said “McLaren Automotive are delighted that iRacing.com has chosen to develop a virtual edition of the MP4-12C GT3. We believe that the innovative features of the MP4-12C alongside our GT3 specification modifications will make an exciting proposition for online simulation racing fans. McLaren made extensive use of simulator technology in the development of the MP4-12C, and we hope this project will allow our fans to get a taste of the GT3 car and inspire the online community to show their support for the McLaren GT teams during the 2012 season.”

The McLaren MP4-12C GT3 utilizes the same carbon MonoCell chassis as the 12C road car, mated with the M838T 3.8 litre V8 twin turbo engine tuned in accordance with FIA regulations. The 12C GT3 features an aero package which was developed in McLaren’s Formula 1™ simulator together with the engine calibration, power steering, spring rates, weight distribution, gear ratios and differential settings.

Designed to be made available to a limited number of customer teams in 2012, McLaren began development of the 12C GT3 in March of this year. Initial tests at the MIRA proving ground and Silverstone were followed by additional testing at Circuito de Navarra in northern Spain and Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal. The McLaren MP4-12C GT3 made its competition debut in the British GT Championship at Spa-Francorchamps in July and has since raced in the Total 24 hours of Spa and Blancpain Endurance Series race at Magny Cours. In August, McLaren announced that the first 20 MP4-12C GT3 race cars had been sold.

You can see for yourself the performance of McLaren’s MP4-12C GT3 in the following videos:

https://youtu.be/375-d3t0guw?hd=1

https://youtu.be/en0n-XD03TA

http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/iracing-news/iracing-pro-race-of-champions-gets-green-flag-wednesday/


iRacing Pro Race of Champions Gets Green Flag Wednesday

December 12th, 2011

Real World Pros Meet in the Virtual World

The green flag waves on the inaugural iRacing.com Pro Race of Champions (iPRoC) this Wednesday, December 14. Make that two green flags, as top professional race drivers from around the world will compete in a pair of online races Wednesday evening, both of which will be broadcast on www.iRacing.com beginning at 8 pm EST.

The first event will see the Pros racing their digital Chevrolet Silverados for 25 laps under the lights on iRacing’s virtual version of Charlotte Motor Speedway. In the “night cap,” the Pros will tackle Watkins Glen International’s Cup Course for ten laps in their Mazda MX5s.

More than two dozen professional race drivers are expected to compete in Wednesday’s races including NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Bobby Labonte, GRAND-AM Rolex Series champion Alex Gurney, ALMS GT champion Joey Hand, IndyCar drivers Justin Wilson and Sebastian Saavedra, perennial NHRA Funny Car winner Ron Capps, Australian V8 Supercar front runner Shane van Gisbergen and Formula One veterans Stefan Johansson and Scott Speed.

“Everyone at iRacing is tremendously excited by the prospects of this event,” says Tony Gardner, President of iRacing.com. “How cool is it to have big names from most of the top series racing each other . . . from the comfort of their living rooms around the world? It’s a testament to the incredible strides online racing has made in just the past couple of years. And the best is yet to come.”

Ron Capps will display his familiar NAPA logo on his race cars in the iRacing Pro Race of Champions

“I’m really looking forward to Wednesday,” says Capps. “It’s going to be fun racing against guys from NASCAR, F1, IndyCar, ALMS and GRAND-AM . . . showing everyone I can race for more than a quarter mile, not to mention turn left AND right. And the fact that fans all over the world can watch it live makes it even more special. I can’t wait.”

Aside from bragging rights, there’s nearly $2,000 at stake, as iRacing will make contributions to the top three finishers’ favorite charities. The overall winner will be determined by the cumulative results from both races, with iRacing donating $1,500 to his favorite charity, $500 to the charity of the runner-up and $250 to the third placed driver’s charity of choice.

A list of expected participants for the iRacing.com Pro Race of Champions is below.

Qualifying for the iPRoC starts at 8 pm eastern time on Wednesday, December 14. Be sure and catch all the action on www.iracing.com.

Joey Logano – NASCAR

Alex Gurney – GRAND-AM

Bobby Labonte – NASCAR

Ron Capps – NHRA

Justin Wilson – INDYCAR

Shane van Gisbergen – Aussie V8 Supercars

Scott Speed – NASCAR / F1

Stefan Johansson – F1 & CART

Matt Plumb – GRAND-AM

Colin Braun – NASCAR

Joey Hand – ALMS

Timmy Hill – NASCAR

Tommy Kendall – IMSA / TV Broadcaster

Matt Halliday – Aussie V8 / Porsche Supercup

Trevor Hopwood – GRAND-AM

Frank Kimmel II – ARCA

Martin Plowman – INDYCAR

Barry Waddell – GRAND-AM

Sebastian Saavedra – INDYCAR

Josh Wise – NASCAR

Eric Curran – GRAND-AM

Brandon Davis – NASCAR

iR ROC

race replay at the top of the archive page
http://www.psrtv.com/archive/index.php