A bright and sunny day sees the Simraceway Evo X Course event winners Peter Duivelaar (pro_drifter100) and Steven Diem (acerockolla) join us at our Performance Driving School.
Peter and Steven were greeted by Jeff and Nico from the Simraceway performance Center, they would be coaching the two winners over the next few days as they got to grips with the Evo X and the Infineon Raceway Circuit. After a quick intro, it was time to test if they were as quick in the real world as they are in the virtual one!

Jeff is our Head instructor on Audi Sports car and a lead instructor on Simraceway programs; he had the following to say about the competition and the progress of the guys.
“From the time both Steven and Peter arrived at the Simraceway Performance Driving Center it was apparent that both of them were stoked. During breakfast I was able to speak with each of them to get an idea of their driving experience. It was at that time I found out that Steven had raced go-karts competitively for quite some time and that Peter had only driven some go-karts on family vacations; however, both of them had been driving simulators for many years.”

Once Jeff and Nico got the guys into the cars and began to hustle them through a few of the paddock exercises, it was clear that Steven was able to rely on both his experience from the simulator as well as the race track.
“He was quick, immediately consistent with his lines and had an obvious grasp of proper technique.”
Then it was Peter’s opportunity to drive. “He also had a well established skill set and a great feel of the car working underneath him. Both drivers were able to take the skills that were honed in the paddock right onto the racetrack and completed the remainder of the two days track sessions at a more than brisk pace and seemed to enjoy the heck out of the EVO X and Infineon Raceway.”
Nico Rondet, Chief Instructor at Simraceway Performance Driving Center, commented; “Both Peter and Steven showed maturity beyond their years. Both showed focus, precision and consistency to be their friends. Steven had an extra little age and he also had a history in go-karts, which is probably why he got up to speed even quicker than Peter.” He added “One thing was evident, they were better prepared than most of our ‘regular’ students! Showcasing how the simulator work definitely helps to prepare the drivers to get up to speed faster in the real world.”
Further evaluating their performance, Nico explains “Our Evo courses are designed to both stimulate and educate our customers/students; we always have to be cognizant of their fatigue level. These two showed no sign of that. Youth helping them on the physical side and the virtual experience helping on the mental side. With that, they were able to progress much faster and start to understand the subtleties of the real world of driving, recalibrating their senses from the 2D non G-force world to the 3D heavily G-forced world.”

Jeff finishes off by summarising the results of the two days spent with Steve and Peter.
“In the end it was Steven that took the competition element of the two days, but Peter didn’t make it easy for him. Peter had only simulator experience to fall back on, heck he had only received his license to drive on the street a couple of months ago, while Steven has racing and simulator experience to rely on. It was clear that the time Peter spent on the Sim helped him from the moment he got behind the wheel of the real thing. Again, from my end, it was an absolute pleasure to meet the both of them and I wish them the best.”

Do you want the chance to win a 2-Day Evo X Course at Infineon Raceway and to be taught by our two Chief Instructors, all courtesy of Simraceway? All you need to do is log on to www.simraceway.com today!

Release Build: SimracewayGame_66.exe

Release Date: 05/09/12

Overview

• Garage: added “queued” label to download-queued cars view
• Quick race: improved messaging when track is not installed
• HUD improvements & minor fixes

There’s nothing quite like the sensation of buying a brand new car, is there? The gleam of the freshly-buffed paintwork, the purr of a pristine engine, that impalpable aroma of an immaculate interior.

Unfortunately, while we’re pretty sure we can recreate every other aspect of a vehicle, not even our dynamic duo of Dario Franchitti and Allan McNish can nail that “new car niff” for Simraceway players.

What we can do, however, is make it even easier for you to get behind the wheel of a new ride. So we’re happy to announce that, in response to driver demand, we’ve added PayPal, the world’s largest online payment provider, to our list of payment methods.

Now, whether you’re building your car collection or destroying your rivals in a paid-entry Event, you can do it using any of the following options:

• Credit cards: Pay with the plastic, including Mastercard, Visa, and American Express.
• Moneybookers: Choose from a range of payment methods via Moneybookers.com.
• PayPal: Pay the safe, fast, and easy way, using your PayPal account.

We hope this makes it easier for our players to optimize their in-game experiences and we’ll be sure to keep you updated on our progress in creating “smell-o-vision” for the Internet age!

Release Build: SimracewayGame_65.exe

Release Date: 04/25/12

Overview

• Lap number and lap time are now displayed in replays.
• In-game notifications were reorganized.
• Fixed confirmation dialog when deleting a replay.
• Fixed overlapping UI in Garage and Events screens
• Race submenu is not closed when ESC is pressed
• Improved HUD’s notifications system
• Now displays the lap number and the lap time to the UI of all race replays.

When we announced our beta in November, we listed some of the features our players could look forward to. One of those was the hosting of reproductions of renowned, real-world series on the Simraceway platform. Well the time has come to unveil our first virtual series—and it’s a biggie!

Earlier today we officially announced that Simraceway has reached a deal with INDYCAR to produce a brand new IndyCar video game.

This landmark agreement allows us to feature all the teams and tracks from not only the current IZOD IndyCar and Firestone Indy Lights seasons, but future ones too—and we intend to make the most of the opportunity, doing these celebrated sporting events complete justice and taking the racing game genre in a whole new direction.

Dario prepares to shake down the virtual DW-12 after climbing out of the real one.

Dario puts the virtual DW-12 through its paces at the Simraceway PDC.

So who better than four-time IZOD IndyCar Series champion, Dario Franchitti, to help us get things underway with the preparation of the main car to be featured in the game, the new 2012 “DW-12” IndyCar, named after our friend and Simraceway pro driver, Dan Wheldon.

Dario was at the Simraceway Performance Driving Center recently, shaking down his real DW-12 and our virtual DW-12 back-to-back, to ensure that our players get the real deal when they download the new car to their Simraceway Garage.

We feel truly privileged to be able to work on such a prestigious series which, of course, includes one of the most renowned races in motorsport—the Indianapolis 500—and while we can’t divulge too many of our plans at this stage, we can say that the game will include live, full-size recreations of each season.

The agreement also allows us to fulfill one of our core objectives: to start blurring the line between real-world and virtual racing. We will reveal more about how we intend to do this—along with the key features of the game—at a later date but, for now, we can confirm that we will be looking for every possible chance to maximize the synergies between each virtual and actual event.

Dario puts his stamp of approval on our DW-12.

Dario in the zone while shaking down the DW-12.

We can also announce that the game will utilize our brand new “Skillquant” technology that we’ve hinted at previously on this blog. The world’s first highly-accurate, real-time skill quantification system, Skillquant will allow us to measure each player’s driving ability to an unprecedented level of detail, allowing us to accurately match players online and ensure ultra-competitive, IndyCar-style racing.

We’re really excited about our deal with INDYCAR, and you can expect more details about our plans for the game in the near future. In the meantime, we will be whetting your appetite by releasing a range of preview IndyCar content, including the Dario-tested DW-12 racer.

We look forward to sharing more information with you soon.

In 2008, Volkswagen of America took the bold step of launching its own single-make series for, of all things, its diesel Jetta model. For three seasons, the Jetta TDI Cup produced great racing and an inexpensive entry-level option for young drivers who were looking for a way into sedan, GT, and sports car racing. As part of the program VW put the competitors, all between the ages of 18 and 25, through a regime of physical fitness and high-level driver training carried out by the dedicated series coach, Jan Heylen.

The Belgian-born racer, who has a huge amount of experience in F3, F3000, Indy Lights, and Champ Car (pictured below), and currently competes in GT and prototype racing in the American Le Mans Series and Grand Am, has very fond memories of his time developing the TDI Cup car. Heylen began by explaining VW’s strategy. “The whole idea was to keep the car as ‘stock’ as possible, but we did a lot of development work over 3-4 years and we really had the car dialed in.” In fact, about 70% of the 2009 Jetta TDI Cup car, used for three seasons, was stock, the additional 30% being made up of those essential parts required to turn a street car into a racing car.

The car, a front-wheel-drive turbo diesel, was without doubt a challenge for young drivers, many of whom had little racing experience, let alone experience of racing a car driven by the wheels in front of them. Understanding the set-up of the car was therefore absolutely crucial.

Heylen was quick to point out the importance of this knowledge with the Jetta. “Shocks and camber set up are really important for turn in with a FWD car. All FWD cars will have mid-corner-to-exit understeer (tight/push on exit meaning the car does not want to turn) and we worked hard to minimize it to a point where, on a new set of Pirellis, you could really drive it perfectly.”

It may have been basically a production car but it needed to be treated like any other race car once on the track. “The car had to be stiff in the rear to free it in the mid-corner and exit, but there was a limit before it became too loose (“tail-happy” or oversteer) at the rear. As the tire wear increases, the car becomes more of a handful, especially in the fast corners,” Jan explained.

Finding the limit of the car’s performance was one of the key elements of the competition that separated the experienced drivers from the rookies, particularly when it came to braking. This was something Jan noticed early each season: “the difference between the younger guys and the more experienced drivers was that the guys with experience didn’t drive so much on front tires. New guys went quick but really ate their front tires. The key to going fast is NOT to drive on the front tires. Trail-braking  into the corners and getting the car to stop on the front tires won’t work. It’s all about braking early and carrying the speed into the corner without putting stress on the front. In the second halves of races, the younger, more aggressive guys would develop understeer because they had leaned way too much on their front brakes.”

That point about race craft and mechanical sympathy was backed up by one of the voices of the American Le Mans Series and the head of the Team USA Scholarship, Jeremy Shaw. Shaw was invited to race as a guest in the 2009 Road Atlanta event (pictured below) which proved to be a very wet affair. His measured display netted him a 12^th place against the regulars, equaling the best performance by a guest that year. He thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.

“I loved it,” Shaw exclaimed, still beaming about the event two years on. “Everything about it was new to me, I’d never raced a car with a paddle shift before, the torque from the diesel engine was terrific, and I was even left foot braking.” The biggest surprise for the veteran journalist was the braking. “You could almost go as deep into the corner in the rain as you could in the dry. It was fantastic!”

Heylen agreed that “the brakes were unbelievable”, explaining that they had done a lot of development work on them. “The (standard) ABS worked really well. You could slam the brakes on and the ABS would do the work.” He also shared a helpful hint about using the ABS in the dry.“The car uses both ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ anti-lock braking and applying too much pressure, or being too late on the brakes, activates the hard ABS. You must try to use the soft ABS only because you simply don’t have the power in the Jetta, so you need to do all your work before you turn in so that you can get a good exit and get a good lap together.”

Like Jeremy Shaw, Jan Heylen had nothing but good things to say about the car and the series: “I’ve been in the sport for 22 years and I have never seen anything like it. What we had was something really special. I have never seen any school or series that delivered the same product as we did!”

So there you have it! For a whole 45 cents on Simraceway you can download one of the best training tools ever developed, hone your race craft and have huge amounts of fun in the process. So what are you waiting for!?

Photos courtesy of Jeremy Shaw and www.janheylen.com

A planned update to the racing servers in both US and UK locations is requiring a momentary disruption in service. This is in support of the new release and will require a simple restart of the game to start the updates. As always we are enhancing systems to provide you with the best experience possible, many thanks!

Release Build: SimracewayGame_64.exe

Release Date: 04/13/12

Overview

• Tracks are now loaded dynamically and no longer included in the installer file (to reduce file size)
• Numerous fixes on the flash UI side improving behavior and optimization.
• Stutter on join has improved for hot lap events.
• New Track available:  Troyton (3 layouts, includes Kart, GP & Club)

Fixed Issues

• Race Monitor: Time now correctly displayed after a ghost race
• Game no longer blocks when presssing ESC in the Game Update dialog
• Login time improved
• Paradise Bay Kart track: Fixed Gaps/breaks appearing in driving lines
• Upgraded the navigation to accept both mouse and keyboard when moving focus between components in Events, Garage
• Race Monitor – Player Count now synced with actual number of players
• Options panel – now able to scroll all the way to the top of the mappings list
• improved sorting mechanism for global chat list

Release Build: SimracewayGame_63.exe

Release Date: 03/28/12

Overview

• Option to toggle internal mirrors on/off
• Messaging updates
• Improved handling of audio files
• Stability improvements

We’ve mentioned our car pricing policy a couple of times on this blog before but, now we’ve launched a variety of vehicle types, we thought it was a good time to spell out how we arrive at each car’s price tag, as well as expanding on just how much value-for-money that represents.

We spent a long time looking at various possible pricing models, including those of existing driving games, but we couldn’t find anything that gelled with our two key values of affordability and authenticity. So we went back to the drawing board and developed a unique model that not only reflects our focus on realism but also represents flexibility, transparency, and simplicity for our players—a system that keeps our prices in line with real-life values and allows players to choose cars to suit their circumstances.

What’s more, because we’ve decided to peg our prices at a mere 1/100,000^th of actual USD market values, you can add affordable to that list too. It means that if money’s tight but you need a new on-track experience, you can grab an Audi RS4 for just 67 cents, a 2011 Dodge Charger R/T for 30 cents or, if you’re really feeling the squeeze, you can drive yourself to payday in a Simraceway Kart for a back-of-the-sofa six cents! In fact the vast majority of the 600+ cars we’ll be delivering over the next few months will come in at under $3 each.

Of course this system throws up the odd “collector’s item”, that rarest of rides with the “reassuringly expensive” asking price that only real enthusiasts would consider meeting. But that’s part of the fun too. If you buy, say, a Bugatti Veyron, just like in real life you’re purchasing exclusivity—the chance to sail around the Simraceway tracks safe in the knowledge that you belong to an automotive elite. And by “expensive” we’re not talking bank-breaking—we estimate that only a handful of cars will breach the $10 barrier.

Given the fact that our range of cars is growing all the time, we know there are going to be challenges to overcome, including finding accurate market values for historic cars and racers that have had millions thrown at them by mega-rich teams. However we always try to come to a fair and affordable solution (see our FAQ to discover how we work these values out) and the result is that, with 21 cars launched so far, 16 of them are priced at below $3 (and nine of those are below $1).