It’s Almost Time to Race. But First…

It’s getting close to race time, but first I wanted to share some of the inside assists and options I’ll be using in the races. I’ll be racing against the computer AI “drivatars.” I’ve set their skill level to “expert.” This makes the racing much tougher on me, but after experimenting with different skill levels, “expert” seemed the most realistic.

Each race will be a sprint, normally somewhere between 20-30 miles in length. My brakes will be set at ABS On, traction control and stability control will be off, steering will be normal, and the transmission will be manual without clutch.

Damage setting will be set at “simulation,” meaning full damage occurs, both cosmetic and mechanical damage. I struggled a bit with this decision. I want the race to be as realistic as possible, but I also know that the AI drivatars can be aggressive, unafraid to bang doors or use their bumper to move other cars out of the way. Even so, if I was to hit a wall or another car was to hit me in real life, damage would occur. “Simulation” seems to be the most realistic way to go. UPDATE: I backed off of my decision to set damage at “simulation.” I want the racing–as well as the damage–to be realistic, but I ran into a problem with “simulation.” Unfortunately, even minor shunts can result in engine and/or transmission damage that ends the race for the car. The more I used “simulation,” the more unrealistic it became. Minor mistakes had race-ending consequences. That’s no fun for anyone. So, I ended up going with “Tire and Fuel Only.” With this option, fuel will be burned, lightening the car as the fuel is used, and tires will wear out over the course of a run. It’s not absolutely realistic, but it’s probably the best choice for what I’m trying to accomplish.

There are several ways to set the grid. Unfortunately, qualifying is one of them. So, the next best way is just a random draw. Some races I’ll start up front, others all start in the back. It should all even out over time.

I won’t be using rewind. If I go off track or have contact with another car, I’ll just need to live with the consequences.

Finally, Forza Motorsports 7 introduced “Friction Assist” which equalizes all surfaces, regardless of weather. Obvioulsly, that’s unrealistic. In the real world, a wet track is more slippery than a dry one. Accordingly, I won’t be using friction assist.

There is one challenge I’m dealing with that is just going to take some time and patience to resolve. It’s so easy in virtual racing to have contact with another car. In real life, drivers do everything they can to avoid contact. It’s expensive to repair the damage and it can be dangerous. Not so in virtual racing. I’m going to do my best to keep the contact to a minimum, but it may take some time to figure out exactly how to do that.

I’m looking forward to getting out on the virtual track. I want the experience to be as realistic as possible. Thanks for following along.

What Car Should I Race?

When I was younger, I would have chosen a high-power muscle car to race. Something like a Mustang or Camaro. I liked the awesome power, the loud exhaust, and the sexy looks of the fastest, most powerful cars. But as I got older—and especially after I started racing—I began favoring the lower horsepower compact cars. To my mind, that seems backwards. It seems like I should have favored the big horsepower the older I got, but it didn’t work out that way.

When I started racing in real life, I raced a Dodge Shelby Charger. Carroll Shelby is normally associated with Ford, especially with the Mustang. But for a time in the 80’s, Shelby worked with Lee Iacocca at Chrysler. He tuned the Charger—which I raced—but was probably better known for his work with the Chrysler Omni GLH (which stood for “Goes Like Hell”).

There were a couple interesting things about my first race car. It started life as a factory Dodge race car in the Firestone Firehawk series. It was driven primarily by Terry Earwood, but Dorsey Schroeder also drove it on at least one occasion.

I bought the car from Sylvain Tremblay, who went on to found SpeedSource, which ran primarily Mazdas, including the early Mazda Daytona Prototypes in IMSA. Earlier in his life, Syl was quite a good driver himself, competing in SCCA and IMSA events. When I went to see the car for the first time, Syl treated me to an unforgettable drive from his shop to his house, through the Fort Lauderdale area, including hitting triple digits on the speedometer on I-95. I was lucky to make it out alive.

In my first year with the Charger, I won the Showroom Stock A class in the South Atlantic Road Racing Championship (SARRC). Don’t tell anyone, but there weren’t many competitors in the class. Hey, a championship is a championship.

The next year, I finished third in the SARRC Improved Touring B class in a Volkswagen Golf. That may have been the start of my love affair with VWs. The Golf started off life as a race car in the 1985 Golf Cup. It was driven and owned by Randy Pobst, and later Larry Brown. I became friends with Randy after he served as my first SCCA driving school instructor, he introduced me to Larry, who sold me the car.

After the Golf, I rented rides for a short time, first in an SSB Nissan 240 SX owned by Mike Guido, and then in a Camaro IROC Z28 owned by Randy. Financially, renting a ride is the way to go, especially if you lack mechanical skills like me. Unfortunately, I liked owning the car, so I ended up buying a former Firehawk (or Motorola Cup) 1993 Honda Prelude.

I loved the Prelude. When I bought it, I cleaned it up and repainted it. It looked sharp. That didn’t last long. Mike Guido and I raced it in the Endurance Championship Racing (ECR) series run by the Southeast Division of the SCCA. By the end of our first season, the Prelude needed to be repaired and repainted again. It was expensive, but I spent the money to have it done. In the first corner of the first race of the next season, another car hit me from behind, pushing me off track and into another car. My new paint job lasted about 150 yards.

Oddly, I have no memory of what I did with the Prelude. My guess is that I sold it, but I don’t remember to who or for how much. I have this recurring dream that it has been sitting in a storage unit since 1998 accruing charges.

After the Prelude, Mike and I raced his Nissan 240sx. This was a different car from the one I rented previously. The 240sx, which began life in the short-lived International Sedan Series, was a blast to drive. Unlike most of the other cars I raced, the 240 was rear-wheel drive. And it drove like a dream. The hot cars in the ITS class at the time were second-gen RX7s and BMW 325s. But we gave them a run for their money. Out of more that a hundred cars that competed in the ECR series, we finished the season 11th in points.

I took a break from racing for several years while raising a family and starting a business. At one point I flirted with short oval track racing, buying a race truck built to compete in the Midwest Truck Series. But my flirtation with short track racing never took off. I tested the truck a couple of times, and then sold it.

My re-introduction to racing was in the ChampCar Endurance Series (nee: ChumpCar) at Nashville International Speedway in a Porsche 944 owned by Donnie Weymer. We had a good day going, but the racing was interrupted by a downpour of Biblical proportions. Nashville had horrible flooding from the storm. In fact, it was so bad on I-24 that people drowned in their cars on the highway. The race was called and rescheduled for later that year. Donnie couldn’t make it back for the race, so I raced with a team out of Birmingham, AL in an Acura Integra. The Integra wasn’t very fast, but it was fun to drive.

Over the next year I drove a Nissan 300zx at Sebring, a Chevy Camaro at Charlotte, and a Toyota Celica at Eagle Canyon Raceway in Texas. Those experiences convinced me to buy another race car. This time, I bought a Geo Storm built to ITB specs. It wasn’t a very good car, but the price was right. My friend, Bill Boye, helped prepare the car, and we took it to a race at Road Atlanta. The car lasted two laps, expiring when the harmonic balancer flew off the car coming through Road Atlanta’s final corner. That was the end of that car. I sold it, and it had a short, violent life with the new owner before it was sent to the crusher.

“Lou has one of the worst cases of race car ADHD I’ve ever seen.”

–Mike Chisek, President, ChampCar Endurance Series

It might have been at this point that Randy and I bought a first gen RX7. We never could get it to run correctly. We had constant fuel starvation issues with the car. We sold it to a young guy just starting out in racing. It took him some time, but he finally figured out the problem.

My next car was a second gen RX7, followed by an Acura Integra GSR, then a BMW M3. There’s a story behind each car, but I’ll save them for another time. My point is, I’ve really come to appreciate lower horsepower cars. They’re a blast to drive, and they’re a lot more fun in the corners than most high horsepower cars. Which brings me back to the question I posed in the title of this post: What car should I drive as I get ready to begin my sim racing journey?

I’m going to start with low horsepower cars. I’ve always said, the best way to learn to race is to learn to go fast in a slow car. At some point I’ll shift over to higher powered car, but I’ll start with the pee shooters.

Preparing for Homestead-Miami Speedway

If my original dream had come true, I’d be behind the wheel of my motorhome right now, towing my race car and trailer to one track or another, somewhere here in the United States. In the old days when I used to actually race, preparing for the race was the worst part of the entire experience. I’d flog on the race car all week (Actually, someone else did most of the work. I am hopelessly not mechanically inclined.), rush to get everything packed, then hit the road at the last minute to make sure to get to the track early enough to get a good spot in the paddock. I loved racing, but I hated getting ready to race.

That’s why I’m so excited about sim racing on Forza Motorsport 7. Very little preparation. Lots of seat time.

To get ready for my first race, I’ll be taking the virtual motorhome down to south Florida to compete on the road course at Homestead-Miami Speedway. In real life, I’ve only been to Homestead-Miami once. I was scheduled to compete in a twelve-hour race with some friends in a Volvo 740. Volvo 740? I know, it seems weird. The car is a brick. But my friend, Randy Pobst, was a Volvo factory driver, and he loves weird race cars.

Anyway, the car, dubbed The Happy Moose, had some mechanical issues when we arrived at the track. We (well, not me) tore into the engine and found a blown head gasket. It took a while to source the parts and put the engine back together, but we got it out there. Randy took the car out for a few laps, but something wasn’t right. The engine would starve for fuel in the turns, and was painfully slow on the straightaways. We couldn’t figure out the problem, and finally called it quits. I never did get out on track.

That won’t happen in Forza Motorsport 7.

Forza Motorsports 7 Intro Video

In an earlier post, I mentioned that Forza 7 is considered more of an arcade game than sim racing. While die hard sim racers may agree with this, Forza 7 is far from a kid’s game. The cars, tracks, and racing are all realistic, the audio is spot on, and the graphics are awesome. Take a look at this Forza 7 introduction video and judge for yourself.

And The Winner Is: Forza Motorsport 7

To get started on this sim racing journey, I’ll be doing my racing on Forza Motorsport 7. If you know anything about sim racing, you may consider this an odd choice. The Forza series of racing games are considered more arcade than sim racing games. I think this is true, but I have very little experience with sim racing, and I wanted to get started without spending a bunch of money.

I have a habit of getting interested in something, only to lose interest after I’ve spent a pile of money on whatever endeavor I was interested in. Starting with Forza 7 is an inexpensive way to begin this journey. I’ve committed to spending my first season of sim racing on Forza 7. If I’m still itching to race virtually, I’ll probably upgrade to iRacing, RaceRoom, or one of the other sim racing platforms.

Of course, to do any of these upgraded sim racing platforms is significantly more expensive. Forza 7 runs on Xbox One, which I already own. The better sim racing platforms run on PC, which means that, in addition to the more expensive membership option of these platforms, I’ll have to buy a gaming computer, monitor(s), and likely, new steering wheel and pedals. Rather than incur those costs now, I’m going to dip my toe into sim racing via Forza 7. Since I don’t currently own it, my only cost is the $30-$80 (depending on edition) it will cost to download the game.

I’ll be concentrating on running sports cars on road courses in the United States. That means that there are 14 tracks across the country that I’ll be visiting. To get started, I’ll be doing doubleheaders at each track, for a total of 28 races. I’m going to try to visit at least one track each week, maybe two, completing the season in around 10-12 weeks, although that may change.

Here is my schedule:

  • Race 1 & 2: Homestead-Miami Speedway
  • Race 3 & 4: Road Atlanta
  • Race 5 & 6: Barber Motorsports Park
  • Race 7 & 8: Circuit of the Americas
  • Race 9 & 10: Long Beach Grand Prix Street Circuit
  • Race 11 & 12: Sonoma Raceway
  • Race 13 & 14: WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
  • Race 15 & 16: Road America
  • Race 17 & 18: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
  • Race 19 & 20: Watkins Glen
  • Race 21 & 22: Lime Rock Park
  • Race 23 & 24: Virginia International Raceway
  • Race 25 & 26: Daytona International Speedway
  • Race 27 & 28: Sebring International Raceway

I won’t be following the career progression that is part of Forza 7. Instead, I’ll likely do the entire season in just one or two cars. I’m not sure how all of that will work out. For now, I’m just playing by ear. In the end, I may need to follow some of the Forza 7 career mode in order to unlock the cars I want to use.

Also, I’m planning to stick with racing sports cars on road courses, but Forza offers a lot of other cars, tracks, and types of motorsports. You never know, I may give something else a try just for fun.

What Gear Are You Using?

The number one question sim racers get asked is, “What’s your set up?” People want to know what sim chassis you are using. What steering wheel? What pedals?

My chassis is from GranStand, a company out of California. I’ve had it for several years, but have gotten very little use out of it. I don’t think GranStand is in business anymore, but they built a good, functional, relatively inexpensive chassis.

My steering wheel is the Ferrari 458 Italia edition of the Thrustmaster TX Racing wheel with force feedback.

The pedals are also Thrustmaster. I have the T2PA pedals that only have two pedals, the gas and brake. It doesn’t have a clutch. I’ve thought about upgrading to the three pedal set, but there seems to be less and less of a reason to have a clutch. Most shifting is now done with paddle shifters, which don’t require a clutch.

As for type and number of monitors, my set up is pretty simple. I use a single monitor, and it’s nothing special. Just an RCA 55″ flat screen TV.

If this Vagabond Racer experiment takes off, I’ll want to get a better steering wheel and pedal setup. I may think about getting a better monitor too. Maybe even a three monitor set-up, although I’ve heard conflicting opinions about that type of monitor arrangement. For now, what I have should work just fine.

As far as cost goes, all of my equipment is quite affordable. I don’t remember the cost of each component, but I’m fairly certain that I have less than $800 invested in the chassis, seat, steering wheel, and pedals. The monitor is just a regular old TV that you can pick up at Best Buy for $500 or less. Every component is of good quality (Truthfully, the pedals aren’t great), but they aren’t expensive. They should serve my purposes to get started. If I get more serious about sim racing, I’m sure I’ll want to upgrade my equipment.

Welcome to Vagabond Racer

As a young man, I had a dream of speed and travel and independence. In my mind, I could see myself traveling the country, towing a car trailer and race car behind a motorhome, going from race to race to race, living as a vagabond racer.

But life moved on. I got a job, got married, bought a house. The years piled up, one on top of the other. There were kids, and promotions at work, and, eventually, a business of my own. Even so, the dream never died. It was just put away, with hopes that it could be realized someday in the future. Someday.

I would stop once in a while to pull the dream out and consider it, but just because I stopped, that didn’t mean time did. I got older, got divorced, and worked on other dreams, while my dream of racing stayed packed away, always present, waiting.

At some point a few years ago—or maybe it was dozens of years ago. Sometimes it’s hard to tell—I realized that my dream of traveling the country and racing wasn’t going to happen. I was too old, racing was too expensive, the dream just wasn’t realistic.

Then, along came sim racing.

What if I lived my dream of racing all over the country, but never had to leave home? What if I could race any car in the world, in just about any form of auto racing imaginable? What if I didn’t have to spend money on a motorhome, gas, a trailer, race car parts and repairs? What if I could realize my dream of being a vagabond racer virtually, through sim racing?

There’s no more need to wait on my dream. The opportunity is here. The time is now. I am a virtual vagabond racer.