Sim Racing and How It Helped Building My Passion for Cars.

"Flavien Vidal" (flyingfrenchy)
02/15/2014 at 10:36 • Filed to: None

What originally started as a Simracing article, ended up being more of an autobiography about my life with cars... I will go over Simracing dos and donts more precisely in an upcomming article.

It all started back in 2004. I am one of these guy who got his driver license very late, thanks to never reading the french road rulebook and therefore never even passing the writing test. I was still doing driving-ed, but with no hope of passing the driving exam as the writing test is required to do so.

Then in the end of 2004, I moved to the US, where, let's face it, the writing and driving tests are jokes. It took me two weeks and there I was with my driver license, ready to face this whole new world that was openning itself to me.

I bought a '97 Mazda 626 with my roommate (manual of course, as I refused to drive those weird american things that keep going forward even when you don't touch the accelerator... I had never seen an automatic gearbox before putting a foot on US soil), and quickly noticed I liked driving! My father was a car geek in his time, I grew up with an Alpine A110 1600sc from 1973 in my garage, my godfather collect cars (Capri, Alpine A310, VW bus among many other) but I never exeperienced how fun driving could be. But the problem was that I live in a society, with other people around me, how the hell am I going to learn to drive fast and enjoy my car? Washington state is a bust when it comes to racetracks, I had no idea what AutoX was at the time and anyway, I had no money to spend on track days. But I was a bit of a geek. I knew Gran Turismo, but it never appeared realistic to me. I wanted real racetracks, a real cockpit view and feel the car somehow. So I downloaded rFactor and it was a huge revelation for me. After a couple years, I was among the fastest in Megane Trophy (the most used car online at the time), and administrating racing leagues with a friend. I had also seriously gotten into cars in general, more specifically classic cars. Did a few videos also just for the sake of it ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

But would my skills translate into real life? By the time I had invested in a triple screen setup with a G25 wheels and so on, I had yet to get into an accident of any kind with my car (got into one later, but never to this day got into one where I was responsible), and for some weird reasons I felt like I knew Spa, the Nurburgring or Lime Rock Park like the back of my hand. I would see a picture of a real corner on a track somewhere in the world that I had never been to in real life and I would recognize it right away, knew how to take it depending on the car and so on. Would I be dangerous if I were to go on a real racetrack? The typical know it all, who is going to crash at the first corner? Keep in mind also, my daily driver was still the Mazda 626... I had NEVER driven a RWD car before. I could heel and toe, double clutch an old car if necessary, rev-matching was second nature while going to buy bread, but I had yet to drive a RWD car in real life.

Winter 2007 arrived and I moved to Montreal. A friend also sold me his old V6 Mustang, so I finally had a RWD car. Granted it was a slow one, but despite the lack of LSD, it would still get sideways and it was tons of fun for someone used to drive a basic FWD car for his entire life.

I arrived in Canada on a working holiday visa (I could make money to buy that mustang) and worked at a gokarting place (Action 500 in Montréal), because, what the hell, at least, I could smell gas all day long there! Working there at night, with a forgiving boss, I got to do hundreds of laps each night when there was no customer (the place is opened 24/7, so I was all by myself, setting new lap records after new lap records). I worked there only 3 months, but I was fast, kicking the ass of some actual gokart racers who were bored during winter times and coming here to play with 9hp karts once in a while... Being somewhat fast, yet very safe and not "crazy", I quickly got in contact with a go-kart racer who was sponsored by Action 500 and who offered me to help him as a mech, in exchange of doing what the hell I wanted with his karts, as long as I kept them in good shape. I jumped on the opportunity of course and holy crap were these karts fun! Rotax Max, DD2 and even a 6 speed shifter that would do 0 to 60 in less than 3s!! So much fun, so fast! (Here is a quick video of that shifter, my first time in it)

But as I said, I like cars, openwheelers and gokart are tremendous fun, but I love CARS! So going back to virtual, I was still playing on my computer a good two hours per day on average for the past five years or so now. I had discovered iRacing very recently and really enjoyed it, aiming for world records in the Miata (still today I think, I am in the top 3 to 25 of most tracks used in the Mx5, especially Lime Rock)

And finally, time had come. After saving a bit, I was able to spend the 100$, the money on gas and a set of 20$ almost bald street tires to go and have fun at Sanair, the cheapest racetrack around Montreal (yes, I was back to school, no more working visa and I was THAT broke at the time)! Keep in mind we are now in 2011... 6 years or so after I started sim racing. Sucks to be broke heh? Especially when you end up being a lifetime student... I was 26 years old in 2011... As I said, I had go-karting experience, so I sort of knew this racetrack atmosphere a bit before, but damn was it fun to finally go as fast as I wanted in my car. 6 freaking years have I been waiting for that!! 6 years, dreaming of finally driving on a racetrack as fast as I wanted. I was just happy... sooo happy.

Since then I finally finished school, my mustang got destroyed by a driver who did not see his red light, I went to spend a couple days at the Nurburgring (did a 9 minutes 35s lap BTG in a rented Suzuki Swift on my very first lap btw. I knew the track by heart, every bump, everything, thanks to rFactor so it helped...), among other smaller racetracks and bought a properly fast, fun car, a 95' Corvette. Next step will be to have my own garage, a little Datsun 240Z that I will prepare for track days and maybe race some historic races wherever I can find some! I keep simracing, but mostly went back to rFactor and now on Assetto Corsa since I got banned from the iRacing forums :)

Wish me luck and success in my work, I need more money now hahaha!!

DISCUSSION (47)

PardonMyFlemish16 > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 10:58

Very nice!

I live near 2 tracks but I want to get a wheel and do more "virtual" racing. I have been controller racing since Outrun, Ridge Racer, and then Gran Turismo. Sim racing gives you some of the experience without any of the risk or expense. It's a great thing. There are sim racers who have gone on to become successful real racers... you never know!!!

Flavien Vidal > PardonMyFlemish16
02/15/2014 at 11:01

I'm not looking to become a proper racecar driver... I'm getting old (29 going on 30) and I lack fundings. The only thing I want is to be able to race once in a while as soon as I make enough money for it. Meanwhile Simracing, gokarting and occasionnal track days compensate :)

i-do-strange-things > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 11:03

A big thumbs up for reconizing rFactor. Tired of hearing everyone spewing about GTA +NFS all the time. Pick a track—ANY track-its out there. Pick a series ANY series—its out there. All with a $20 game. Formula V's at Lime Rock-sure. GP1937 at Reims? Sure. Right now I'm running in a league racing 68-72 Trans-Am cars. Road America tomorrow nite. We'll get 30 cars on the grid.

Somethingwittyer likes noisy > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 11:42

Sims are pretty much one of the best reasons to be a car enthusiast right now. While most aren't 100% realistic, the fact that you have something that allows you to replicate driving at the limit can really help you understand vehicle dynamics. Plus you can pretty much drive as much as you want without having to worry about things like track time or actually damaging the car.

WarShrike > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 11:44

Good to see a sim racing positive post.

I started out with SCGT (A sim from EA Sports built by ISI which are the guys who did rFactor), you'll have others here that probably started on Papy sims like Grand Prix Legends and stuff.

I moved from that to the F1 2002 sim as I got more interested in F1 racing. Then it went downhill. I found the GTR2002 mod by Simbin.

They went solo and released GTR, then GTR2 a few years later. All of this was using a customized ISI engine. The biggest boon was the use of the Motec i2 telemetry system.

I spent hours doing practice laps and fine tuning my suspension for the races. I got to race against the awesome Gregor Huttu a few times in international endurance races. 3 hours in a sim race can be...challenging.

I always loved when the guys would allow variable weather. I never crashed out of a bad weather race and would usually climb to at least podium during those races even if I qualified lower.

I helped here and there in modding, mostly doing liveries of different cars. I had painted maybe 100 different cars by the time I stopped sim racing.

I've switched back to full time focus on school, but I've joined our Formula SAE team, so hopefully I can get some good experience in that environment.

CCC (formerly CyclistCarCoexist) > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 11:49

Mazda 626...my parents had one of those..

Grigore > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 12:09

There are no tracks in my country, no auto x, and the go kart circuit in my city is so short I could walk it in under 1 minute.

So what do I do? Buy a $500 steering wheel for my computer, and a $200 graphics card so I can race pixels? No way man, for the money I would rather buy gas and do a touge.

Only good thing in this country is I can go on the Transfagarasean and Transalpina every summer. For the price of a track day on the Nordschleife I can tear up the road for days here :D

ridered777 > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 12:20

You seem like a good fit for ChumpCar racing, you should look into it once you get a little more money.

NotRickyBobby > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 12:29

Assetto Corsa mentioned on Jalopnik...WOW, I didn't think I would ever see the day.

aldo > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 12:37

i agree thanks to sim racing, racing passion came back a few years ago, now ocasianally run TAG crg karts, and shifters. AS a bonus online you get to practice with Dale JR. nascar, Indy Sebastian Saavedra, Tudor grand Am The taylor bothers, Gustavo yucaman just to name a few... i suggest using a tipple screen for better field of view..

OTE_TheMissile > Somethingwittyer likes noisy
02/15/2014 at 12:42

Well it's important to remember that no sim is ever going to be 100% realistic, everything's based on mankind's current knowledge of physics and the limitations of computer systems, but that's nitpicking. The hardcore racing simulators like rFactor and iRacing are very, very close.

But yeah, I race R/C offroad trucks in real life and have competed in summer-long regional touring series in the past, and even with "toy cars" the lack of operating costs and travel expenses I have with my "video game cars" is a very nice perk. Thursday night I was racing Australian V8 Supercars at Watkins Glen, then yesterday afternoon I won a PASS Super Late Model race in Irwindale, CA, and about an hour later I was in Bathurst driving an SCCA Spec Miata up and down Mount Panorama, for a yearly subscription cost that's only a little more than my R/C truck's tire bill going into this season

David muscleguy > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 12:58

Dude you Rock you really do! really nice write up article. BTW which one do you think it still the best sim racing game? looking forward to read more ohhh i swear if i have money i will support you but yeah my situation is worse i live in Vermont,19 years old but i have Driving license and sometime a take my Dad's Charger SRT8:)

David muscleguy > Grigore
02/15/2014 at 13:01

I'M REALLY SORRY but if you have no chance there i think it'd be really nice to start by racing sim at least you will have a lot skills when you do it in real life.

feather-throttle-not-hair > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 13:12

I'm about your age, and I grew up playing gran turismo. When gt3 came out, I was a freshman in college. My roommates and I all got really into watching initial D and before I knew it, my gt3 cars just sort of....started drifting. By that time I had a wheel setup for my ps2, and before too long , all I did on gt3 was drift and slide around. I've always loved rally cars and drifting in gt3 gave me a bit of a taste and wasn't too far off from that discipline.

But a defining moment in my life came a year or so later. I was visiting a friend in Bellevue Washington, near the Canadian border. It never snows where I live, but in Bellingham that winter it dumped all over us. We were snowed in and bored. My friend looked at me and said "there's a parking lot not too far from here, why don't you take your car and I'll take my truck and we can learn about handling dynamics in the snow. My car at the time was a 1988 celica alltrac, and so this sounded like an excellent idea.

We got out to the parking lot and my buddy slid around, spun a bunch of times and generally had trouble controlling his car in a slide. Then it was my turn.

I lined up the celica, got a little speed going, steered a little bit to the right, lifted and thin swung it back to the left. It got really sideways.

But I didn't spin. The muscle memory was all there, my foot hit the gas, balancing the car, my arms counter steered, and within minutes I was sloloming e small islands in the parking lot, never once straightening out. It was beautiful.

It was that moment in the movie oldboy where the main character is released from captivity and immediately picks a fight with some hoodlums only to beat the shit out of them.

Can 15 years of training against imaginary opponents be put to use in the real world? Yes. Yes it can.

gaius_marius > WarShrike
02/15/2014 at 13:13

I did a lot of SCGT and GPL back in the day and dabbled in GTR2. It was a hoot, but I dropped video games entirely in college. I went to the June Sprints once and still dream about doing low-level SCCA racing someday. Who knows.

WarShrike > gaius_marius
02/15/2014 at 13:17

Yeah I hope to get into low tier racing as well. Heck even just getting into closed course time trials would be a blast.

wiffleballtony > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 13:25

I got my interest from cars from racing games. My parents couldn't care less about cars, my dad still takes the bus to work. As scary as it sounds I learned to drive from games like NFS Porsche Unleashed in the late 90s with a wheel and pedals.

Phathead > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 13:44

Very happy to see WordArt is still being used

ddavidn > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 14:24

What's your lime rock time? Mine is pretty pathetic on iRacing right now...

Grigore > David muscleguy
02/15/2014 at 14:32

Thats the vibe I get from reading this article, and I am all about improving my driving skills. I did play some rfactor and a little bit GTR2 but I used a cheap wheel with only 2 pedals. Was fun, but does not even come close to 2 hours spent snow drifting.

I can't really relate to the cars I drive in games, and I have no way to measure actual learning progress. I feel that driving an actual car teaches you more about weight transfer, applying the controls smoothly and makes you feel more confident.

and001 > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 15:33

I also put my first pay cheque in a G25 back in the days when I was an intern in Germany. I was stuck in front of my screen trying to get the "real time" of the M3 on the Nürburgring which I finally achieved. Your story reminds me of these good times

Flavien Vidal > i-do-strange-things
02/15/2014 at 18:33

rFactor is great, but the main problem I have with it is that the mods are very inequal in term of realism... You have some pretty awesome stuff by appexmodding for exemple (E46M3 or 288GTO) and a few other modders, but the HUGE majority is far from reality... Love the Corvette 3.2 mod also, extremely close to reality and tons of fun at that :)

I've been using only one track for the past 2 or 3 years on rFactor... The Ring :)

Flavien Vidal > Phathead
02/15/2014 at 18:33

lol it was written on Notepad :)

Flavien Vidal > ddavidn
02/15/2014 at 18:35

if I recall correctly I still have the third best time ever on iRacing in the cup (you can check the world records yourself and find me)... Around 58.34s I think, in the cup with the base setup. I still have that replay somewhere.

Keep in mind it was an older tire model too... I don,t think this kind of laptime is reachable today.

Flavien Vidal > ridered777
02/15/2014 at 18:36

Could a way indeed... But I'm very picky with cars lol. I don't want to race a POS, I enjoy the driving more than the racing :)

Flavien Vidal > feather-throttle-not-hair
02/15/2014 at 18:38

Muscle memory :)

Try out proper sims if you can though... rFactor is an inexpensive start, so is Assetto Corsa. iRacing is great for racing, but forget drifting as 99.9% of the cars are on slicks and you can't change that...

Flavien Vidal > Somethingwittyer likes noisy
02/15/2014 at 18:41

It's a very different way of driving comapred to real life... Lots of very good racers are incapable of being anywhere near good on a sim due to the lack of "butt feel". Everything works with your eyes and I would go as far as saying that even FFB is secundary. Very different, but it transfers very well in reality. You HAVE to have a properly setup field of view though as everything can be completly screwed during the transfert in real life if you've practiced without one.

Flavien Vidal > CCC (formerly CyclistCarCoexist)
02/15/2014 at 18:42

Great little car, very reliable and confortable at that... I had the 4 bangers one though :)

Still fun and with its new owner we did brought it to the racetrack a couple times :)

Flavien Vidal > WarShrike
02/15/2014 at 18:48

I think most people criticising sim racing don't go past that first attempt where they crash into the wall right away... If you are a professionnal racecar driver and crash immediatly for no reason, of course you will feel it's terribly wrong.

It takes some learning, whatever the experience you have in a real car. As mentioned in another comment, it also takes a proper setup (FOV, FFB) which are very very wrong most of the time.

I will right a dedicated simracing article later next week and I will go over all this.

I hope to meet Leo Parente sometime to go over simracing WITH HIM this time, and actually explain him very clearly what he has to have in mind when switching from reality to virtual... His shakedown when he talks about simracing felt terribly wrong, but typical from a racecar driver who wasn't properly taught how to do the switch from a car to a computer.

Flavien Vidal > Grigore
02/15/2014 at 18:53

It's two very different thing... I would give everything to move near the Ring and be able to drive there every day. What will those 700$ give you in term of car racing? Two track days entry fees at a Spa? A set of tire maybe? How long will they last?

How much money will you waste trying to learn Spa where you've never been to when you could arrive and already know it by heart? Simracing is used professionnaly also to learn tracks. Sure nothing is better than the real thing, but as i said, it compensates when you can't access the real thing as much as you want

Flavien Vidal > aldo
02/15/2014 at 18:54

A triple screen setup is necessary if you're gonna be somewhat serious about transfering to real life at some point yes...

Flavien Vidal > David muscleguy
02/15/2014 at 18:57

hahaha, thanks but I'm not looking for donation of any kind :)

I would feel stupid asking for anything with zero racing pedigree to show haha. I'm still happy with the fun daily driver and the occasionnal track day :)

As far as the best sim goes... Hum...

In term of pure racing, I would nothing beats iRacing... Lots of race, very organized and no mess like every other online racing sims...

In term of driving, Assetto Corsa takes the palm and by far at that. rFactor is very good but it really depends on the mods... (everything from Appexmodding or the Corvette 3.2 mod are probably the very best). I have not tried rFactor 2 seriously for now.

Flavien Vidal > wiffleballtony
02/15/2014 at 18:58

NFS Porsche unleashed, damn, memories! Was playing with a gamepad at the time though... tried again a few years ago, it got OLD now :)

Flavien Vidal > and001
02/15/2014 at 19:00

I started with a Logitech Momo but switched to the G25 as soon as I could have saved enough... Then came the triple screen setup :)

Flavien Vidal > NotRickyBobby
02/15/2014 at 19:01

Better late than never :)

WarShrike > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 19:34

It requires a bit of a different mindset. It took me a day or two to get my setup dialed in to where it all felt "right" with little tweaks here and there.

I'd crash.

A lot.

But I got to where I could tell what the car was/wasn't doing just from audio cues and what I could feel through that Logitec MOMO FFB wheel. I started to get faster.

I got pretty good in wheel to wheel racing online. After a few years of open room racing, I joined a league. Won the championship my rookie season. Not out of sheer speed, but from consistency. I think I only crashed out of one race. We ran long-ish races around 1 hour long and so making good use of tires and fuel was key. If you could get away with not taking on tires during one pit stop, it'd save you a good 15 seconds!

I managed to leapfrog for the win in one race because I managed to double stint a set of tires at the end in my F550 where the Murciellago and S7's were eating them alive. Good times :)

My old championship winning cars:

Kinja'd!!!

Different season, different cars:

Kinja'd!!!

One I did for a friend in the same league:

Kinja'd!!!

feather-throttle-not-hair > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 21:36

Yeah, I dunno if I'd be able to stand the intense organization of iracing, but I bought assetto corsa a few days ago. I have a fanatec csr wheel and csr elite pedals. Assetto corsa is very very good.

I'd really like to try forza 5 with a nice wheel, since forza 4 is nearly as good as AC with my wheel (AC has better physics but F4 has better force feedback.) I've played F5 with a controller and the physics are really really good.

Unfortunately Microsoft are nazis and they don't offer compatibility with the wheel I have. Their loss I suppose, I'd have an xbone and F5 right now if they did allow compatibility. Instead I'm 560 bucks richer.

ddavidn > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 22:51

Nice! I'll check the records... soon as I figure out how...

ddavidn > Flavien Vidal
02/15/2014 at 22:57

Sorted by time in practice, you are still third in the word with a 58.323. Nice job.

Eazy-O > NotRickyBobby
02/16/2014 at 06:29

A guy on Oppo was actually giving one away a month or two ago. :)

PardonMyFlemish16 > Flavien Vidal
02/16/2014 at 14:18

Which racing game has the best combo of a realistic Ring layout and realistic physics? I mainly play FM4 but its Ring layout is totally unrealistic.

Canajun_eh > Flavien Vidal
02/16/2014 at 16:02

There is a 24 hour GoKart place in Montreal???

After I read that my head went all fuzzy for a while. I have changed my mind. Quebec SHOULD stay in Canada.

Flavien Vidal > Canajun_eh
02/16/2014 at 16:04

lol

http://www.action500.com/en/home.html

Flavien Vidal > PardonMyFlemish16
02/16/2014 at 16:09

https://www.rfactorcentral.com/detail.cfm?ID=…

you need to have a properly setup FOV to actually learn something out of it... Without it, like in sim-cade games such as forza motorsports or Gran Turismo, forget about learning anything... I will go over that next week end.

freds4hb > Flavien Vidal
02/17/2014 at 01:07

Don't knock it till you've tried it.

Canajun_eh > Flavien Vidal
02/17/2014 at 01:15

I'll be damned. You cant even find that in Vegas.

Many years ago a friends brother built a go-kart with a german motor and a top speed of about 60. Several of us took it out for the inaugural run at an abandoned small oval that was on some fairgrounds that was the former site of demo derbys, low grade stockers etc. It was in no small state of disrepair. When my turn came, after a lap or so, I realized the throttle was stuck and I was gradually going faster and sweeping out of the corners wider and faster. I was about 4 or 5 laps in and realize that on the next turn I could very likely hit the wall so I decided to apply some brake to scrub off some speed and ohh damn thats too much brake oh shit that is a big pothole for that small wheel and look down theres the ground and wheres the kart and fade to black. Laying there semi conscious I am aware a really loud howling sound and of everyone running across the infield over to me. Then they ran right past me. They were running to source of the howling sound - the kart. It was upside down, wheels spinning furiously, with the motor redlined and screaming whereas I was on the ground not making a sound. The kart was $14oo so it got first treatment. Meantime, the Canterbury rugby shirt I was wearing melted and shredded right off my back and my whole back looked like it had hit the cheese grater. I had flipped the kart, slid down the track on my back while semi-twisted in the frame til it came free and came to rest. I went to the hospital riding in the back of a pickup truck, starfished and face down, hating the breeze blowing across me and looking at a bent wheel on the kart which, of course, had to ride with me. I hated it for that. The hospital got me stoned out of my mind, and I spent a couple hours having gravel tweezered out of my back.

That kart was a friggin rush though, and I realized that nothing else that cost that kind of money could ever be half as much fun. And now I drive a C63 AMG, cos nothing else that costs that kind of money can be half as much fun. I am hooked on the smell of gas and burnt rubber, and that goddamn kart was my gateway drug. There is every chance this junkie will be found outside that track in Montreal at 4 am with a sign that reads "Will work for laps".

Thanks for telling me where I can score.

s2kburton > Flavien Vidal
02/17/2014 at 10:53

I disagree with your comment on there being a lack of tracks in Washington state. Here are the distances from Seattle of 4 tracks: Pacific Raceways 30 miles, Ridge Motorsports 90 miles South, Spokane Raceway 4 hours East, and Portland Raceway 2.5 hours south. This doesn't include Evergreen Speedway that has weekly racing during the summer. Pacific and the Ridge have consist open track days throughout the year too.