The Chicane Podcast

Latest iRacing Innovations and F1 Adventures

• Track Ghost Sim Racing • Episode 31

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Explore the dynamic world of sim racing and uncover strategies that could change the way you approach the track. What if you could navigate a race with the precision of a seasoned pro, even when the competition is fierce? Join us as we share our Thanksgiving reflections and dive into the latest updates from iRacing. With Eric Kelly and Jeff Smart by my side, we explore exciting enhancements like new cars and tracks that promise to elevate your racing experience. Discover how graphical improvements and innovations such as wind simulators are taking immersion to a whole new level.

Ever wondered how to maintain your cool when racing against faster opponents? We've got insights that will help you master focus and consistency, crucial skills for avoiding common racing errors. Eric and Jeff provide tactical advice on handling blue flag situations and defending against slightly faster drivers, giving you the tools to hold your ground. We also highlight favorite racing classes, from the adrenaline rush of street driving in Assetto Corsa to the beloved GT3 races, offering a glimpse into our personal preferences and shared passions.

Stay ahead of the curve with the latest iRacing season updates, including new supercars and the iconic Spa-Francorchamps circuit as our "Track of the Week." We dive into iRacing's exciting graphics and telemetry enhancements, debating the potential of integrated features versus third-party solutions. Plus, get ready for a trip to Singapore with an eye on the upcoming F1 race—a must-see event that promises thrill and excitement. Whether you're a seasoned racer or a curious onlooker, this episode is packed with valuable insights and engaging stories that will fuel your sim racing enthusiasm.

Please e-mail the show for any questions, comments or stories/experiences at thechicanepodcast@gmail.com

Watch the show in video podcast form on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/@TGSsimracing

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Intro/Outro Rights below:
Song: Low Mileage - Hold You [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds
Free Download/Stream: http://ncs.io/holdyou
Watch: http://ncs.lnk.to/holdyouAT/youtube

Jason:

The Hello and welcome to the Chicane Podcast, where we discuss all things in the sim racing world. I'm your host, Jason Rivera, and I'm joined here by Eric Kelly and Jeff Smart. How are you guys doing today?

Erick:

Doing good, man Doing good.

Jeff:

Doing good, doing good. I hope you guys had a good Thanksgiving.

Jason:

Hell yeah, man, I'm afraid to get on the scale. Man Pretty sure you know, eating all this turkey.

Erick:

Well, worth it, well worth it, seeing the family, well worth it seeing the family and stuff, so for sure.

Jason:

Hey, I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving. It's probably my second favorite holiday. It's got to be Christmas, but Christmas I consider Christmas part of New Year. I don't separate the two. I kind of tie them both in Celebration the whole time, Jr.

Erick:

Yeah, dude, my Rob Markman.

Jason:

Jr Bro, my tree is up November 1st Puerto. Ricans live here.

Jeff:

I'll tell you Rob.

Jason:

Markman Jr.

Jeff:

Is your tree? Your tree's up, rob Markman Jr. My tree is up for real. Rob Markman Jr. Good man, all right, all right, rob Markman Jr Tree's up the house is decorated, it feels cozy.

Jason:

There's a certain thing, there's a certain feeling when the house is decorated, that one time a year the problem is taking the shit off.

Erick:

That is the biggest problem. Oh yeah. At least you leave it up long enough to where you can enjoy it before you got to pull it all down.

Jason:

Yeah, man, to keep it short, we don't take this down until the second week of January because King's Day on the 6th, you know three kings celebrating, you know, after Christ's birth, which is Christmas, and then three kings Latino holiday, whatever. Anyways, anyways, I hope you guys had a great week. Welcome back. It's a bit of an exciting time for us. Iracing is getting a massive update very soon and a new season. So we got new cars, we got new tracks, we got new physics, tire physics which was the last thing that this simulator needs, honestly, other than graphics. But honestly, if you install some reshade, turn the graphics up, the game looks kind of gorgeous. After you do that, it's not so bad. It doesn't look 2008. That's for damn sure. If you compare any other 2008 title, this is definitely looking a lot better than those. So that's what I got for announcements this week, eric, what you got for us. 2008 title this is definitely looking a lot better than those. That's what I got for announcements this week, eric, what you got for us.

Erick:

No announcements for me. Man Just enjoy spending time with the family, so not too much on my end.

Jason:

All right, fair enough. What about you, jeff? What's going on with you, dude?

Jeff:

I cannot stop looking at the wind simulators. That's my admission to everybody. There's always something, man, there's always something it's I, I just it's talking to me. It's like just chirping. It's just chirping, hey, hey, a wind simulator be cool, a wind simulator, be cool winsim is uh literally yeah so that's a great. Uh, yeah, that would be an.

Jason:

That's how I justify it to myself so we did cover win sims months back when we were covering hardware and stuff like that. And again, things change and people evolve, right. So my view on win sims have changed significantly and it's because of mike from the sim racing den and I know you can hear me, you're probably watching this and it's your fault and you were like dude. I don't even use the the air switching feature, I just have it blow a you know air like an ac vent. That's it. And that's exactly how I'm using mine. I have it mapped to a switch in SimHub and I just flip one switch and I activate the cooling to a certain speed and it's consistent.

Jason:

So I guess, to update my views on it, get the cheapest one you can find. It's a WinSim, it's not really that big of a deal. It adds immersion, but it doesn't need to be switching around and bouncing around like it was before. It's cool when you first get it, but that's my take on it. You know things change, people change. When you use things for a while, you evolve and you find where you want it to be right or what you want it to be right or what you want.

Jeff:

This to be. So, yeah, that's what I, when I when it's chirping, that's what I chirp back at it is. I would just leave it on as a you know you're gonna try it you're gonna try the air switch in.

Jason:

I do. However, I do use the, I still use it, and it's the draft effect, which is awesome. Yeah, you're behind the car. The wind is off. The moment you get out of the behind the car and out, you get a gust of wind, kind of like a yeah, it's kind of like a simulated yeah, yeah, well just out of curiosity what does a WinSim price range-wise run? I think we Somewhere around the $200 to $300.

Erick:

Okay, so not bad.

Jason:

Yeah.

Erick:

I think that's fair.

Jason:

It's not that bad. You can find ones on Etsy. Okay, yeah, I think that's fair. It's not that bad. You can find ones on Etsy.

Erick:

It's basically a computer fan affixed to a dryer hose, or what do you call those little plastic hoses? Just some conduit of some sort or something like that.

Jason:

Yeah, that's it.

Jeff:

And you're buying. Yeah, you're paying a lot for not a lot of technology, but I don't know how to make it, so I'd have to pay for it. I don't know how to make it, so I'd have to pay for it.

Jason:

I have the SRS Hurricane and that one has the brain that allows you to control stuff. But honestly, if you got SimHub, it's going to reflash that device and take over it anyway. So that's what comes, it's an Arduino. As long as it's an Arduino and it's on the list, you'll find the list online, trust me. It's out there on his Discord, simhub, discord. You're good, a fan's a fan. So that's all I'm going to say.

Erick:

Something cool to just kind of tinker with.

Jason:

Yeah, no, it's cool. Trust me, it gets hot in the rig, especially when you have triple screens. It will get hot. It will get hot being surrounded by triple monitors at full brightness. Yeah, after a while it can. Uh, even if even with ac in the house, I have to have it, so, which is kind of cool, but, uh, yeah, so glad to have you guys back here again. Of course, I'm going to open up with the discussion today and the first question or the first, it's not really well advice, question or discussion the one important thing to remember while racing against people that are faster than you. One important thing to remember while racing against people that are faster than you. Now, when I say this and I'll start with Eric, always Eric what is the first thing to you that you need to remember about racing against people that are faster than you? You know they're faster, you know, yeah, so what do you? You're behind the car, you're driving. What's going through your mind?

Erick:

If I'm behind them, the thing that I have to remember is my vision. To keep my vision down the track and not on them, because when I start looking at them I start getting off my line, I start following them and trying to keep up with their pace. But if I keep my vision on the track, ahead of them, then I set myself up. Basically, if I'm like running a, you know, a time trial or a quality lap or something like that, um, I'm there. You know, I guess there might be like a little bit of rough air being behind them, but for the most part, if they're faster than me, I'm able to go as fast as I can go. I can go flat out Like I'm running a quality lap. I'm just taking my turns and, you know, keeping my lines in my apexes as best I can and not really worrying about them slowing me up.

Erick:

That's good, that's the best kind of scenario to be in If you want to be behind somebody.

Jason:

Okay, all right. And what about you, jeff?

Jeff:

okay all right. And what about you, jeff? I think mine is just. I keep, when it lately it's been, you know, when it happens, I just tell myself drive your race, just drive your pace, the, the, the. You know the rearview mirror is small for a reason, you know. Pay attention, look at the track in front of you hit your breaking points?

Jeff:

yes, now I will. You know if he's faster and I'm getting a a blue flag type of he's faster, that level faster. You know, I'm going to do due diligence and I'm just going to take a quick boom, I'm off the racing line and I'm going to get back on it, but I'm riding, driving my racing, my race, and that's what I've really tried to focus on. I think this whole season has really been drive my race, make other people make a mistake, either trying to pass me or me putting pressure on them as I'm just driving my pace. I feel like the whole last season I was like I was being affected by other people. Other people weren't affected by me. Um it does that?

Jeff:

that makes any sense. You know, kind of be the I guess there's a saying like innocence I get you know this for being. You know, having the sayings is be the the thermometer, or be the thermometer or be the barometer. I forget what it is. Make other people change to me, not me change to other people. Um, yeah, and I have found that that's done me a lot of good. It's like hey, hey, if he's faster, as long as I'm just staying on my lines and I'm not doing anything erratic, he's going to go past me and that's all I'm asking for somebody that I'm faster than them is hey, just don't be erratic. You drive your line. I'm going to go around this corner faster and carry more speed and get you in the straightaway.

Jeff:

There, you go, just drive your race and just try to stay clean and consistent, and that's kind of where I'm at with people that are faster than me.

Jason:

So between the two of you I agree 100%. I mean, I've always said that right, drive your line, don't try to overdrive above your skill level. If a guy is faster and he's in front of you, if you try and follow him you're not used to taking that turn like that you might yes, you're going off, you're spinning and it's making you slower than what you can be, it's decreasing your potential. So now, when a car's behind me and he's faster, if it's a blue flag, yes, uh, let let him, let him go, or let let that car pass or whatever. But if he's, if it's not in a blue flag situation and he's slightly faster than me, I'm closing the door, like over and over closing the door. I'm watching for him to take a risky maneuver and I'm closing the door on him. But eventually, that's the whole nature of racing. Racing is a fight, it's a battle.

Jeff:

To what I said. If it's the last lap, Jason, 100%, I'm just letting a dude pass.

Jason:

All right, all right, that's good to hear, jason. 100%, I'm just letting a dude pass.

Erick:

All right, all right, that's good to hear, man, that's good to hear Yep.

Jason:

Pretty synced up on that All right. So, jeff, what you got for us, excuse me, excuse me, eric what you got for us, discussion-wise, my bad. Jeff's got the gold, though he's got the golden topic this week. But, eric, what you?

Erick:

got for us man? Yeah, nothing, just a quick kind of thought process. I know last time we talked about Noheze and that style of driving, more of a kind of fun kind of laid-back style of driving. I wanted to know what's y'all's favorite type of driving. You got your track driving. That's a little bit more serious style of driving. I wanted to know what's y'all's favorite type of driving. Right, you got you know your track driving. That's a little bit more serious, more focused, more demanding, um. And then you got like more casual kind of driving. Um, how well, I guess, what's your your pick? You know rally f1, like what. What's your favorite driving type essentially?

Jeff:

oh, jason, you want me to go first here yeah, man I think if I my favorite so I guess there's a couple different answers to this is obviously I like formula racing and if I got to pick any clock you know to race on iRacing normal schedule, it would probably be a, something with a B or a C class and a super formula or the super formula lights, um, or even the, the SF um 23,. That cars, that's. That's a handful. So maybe not that one, but, uh, those other ones in a B or a C class race on a track that I'm very familiar with, um, I think would be my favorite, and the reason is is and this isn't a knock on anybody with a D class I just feel like once you get into a B, a C and a B people have done a lot of driving at that point.

Jeff:

Where you can, I can go wheel to wheel with somebody, and I think they do could do it with me. They feel trust that I'm not going to touch tires with them. We can be wheel to wheel around a handful of turns together and we're not going to take each other out. I'm going to give him his line, he's going to give me my line and whoever goes around the corner faster is going to get it there's. You're not going to get a, you're not going to get a block turn or somebody just dive, bomb you in corner one in a b class race, it just doesn't happen. Um, and a racetrack that I was very familiar with, where I was comfortable not driving on the racing line so I could take somebody, pass somebody on not the fastest racing line, if you will. So, uh, I don't know if that was kind of what you're looking for, but if I had my way, yeah, it'd be a b or c class, formula light, um, some type of car like that f3.

Erick:

Um but so I know, when we talked about no hissy, you kind of mentioned that being fun as well. So you put driving like in driving and I racing over you know, maybe something you might do in in a set of course or something like that as well, like kind of street driving yeah, I mean, eric, you kind of know, you know some of the things I've done in my past.

Jeff:

When it comes to adrenaline, I like, I like competing, I like getting the blood going, um, oh yeah, and that does it for me.

Jeff:

When you're going wheel to wheel with, you know, joe from kansas, you know, like, uh, around the track at spa or you know wherever, you know, um, that that's, that's what I get in the rig to do, that's what I spent the money for, that's what you know, gets me going um, but don't get me wrong. There's some days I'm like I I'm just gonna jump in and just you know, jump in the bmw m4 on, no hezi thing and just cruise and zipping it out of traffic. And you know, uh, there's some days I jump in acc and just jump in a GT3 and just you know, whatever track is a GT3. It just is. Those are. If you add, if I had to pick a thing, a race to do, or a car and a track and a race, for the rest of my life, without being able to change that's what it would be. It would be a C class, b class, some type of formula race on a track that I'm very familiar with.

Erick:

I feel you Okay. All right, what about you, jason?

Jason:

So my answer is always complex. It's, you know, for me it's a mood thing, it's a mood thing so lately I've been on this set of course of thing.

Jason:

Why have I been on there? Because of this active pedal. The active pedal is just impressing me and it's gotten me to find different things and look for different details. So it's like a review, but it's like a consistent review. It's like, oh, I didn't know this car could do this. Or I can actually feel the pads touching the brake, it's like that. So for me, I know, dude, yes, you could feel the pad. When it jumps off on an ABS, it re-engages and it re-engages kind of like soft. It's a lot. Yeah, dude, that's crazy. Yeah, it's hard to convince people to go out and buy this thing. I understand that. But I'm just trying to say I think it's a mood thing. I think it's a mood thing.

Jason:

Now, my favorite all time is definitely GT3. Gt3 is where my heart is. It's what got me into sim racing. Now, trucking is what actually got me to build a rig, which you guys know the story, and that was because of SnowRunner and wanting to drive big trucks and get them out of ditches. But I've always been yes, that's all you do, bro, in this game. I swear to God, you go in the ditch and you're hauling this trailer through a mountain and it's snow and you got a wench and you hook up a wench to a tree and you pull the truck out a little bit. One time I got stuck and one of my boys was online to Xbox back when I was on the Xbox. He was drunk. He's like, yeah, what are you doing? And I was like I'm playing SnowRunner man, chilling man listening to some 80s and he's like I'm stuck right now and he's like are you stuck?

Jason:

alright, I'll jump in there. So he jumps in my game with a freaking. I don't know what he had, I don't know what kind of truck it was, and he hooked up a wench to the truck and pulled me out. So he pulls me out the ditch, that's wild.

Jason:

And we're going up this mountain and somewhere in Alaska or some shit, and he ends up flipping the truck. It hits me, we both flip and I end up in the lake down there, and that was it. So I just I thought it would be cool to put a wheel and see how would this feel. That's crazy. So that's why I went with a basic setup of huge, but that escalated right, like everything, because now you start to Like a rocket.

Jason:

Yeah, so it's a mood thing. It's a mood thing, I still truck. American Truck Simulator was another thing I got into. I have 800 hours into the game. You can look it up on my Steam profile but that's kind of private. You can find me.

Jeff:

Yeah, I can vouch for it. I've seen it.

Jason:

It's unbelievable, it's something to see the mileage on the truck. Is actual, real mileage.

Jeff:

Yeah, I know, that's the part that's wild.

Jason:

So I just love jumping in there and feeling like there's this open world and there's no end to it. And it's a game, it's a sim that I can turn off and go back to my life whenever it's like when you're locked into a race, you're locked into that race. You're locked into that race. If you leave, you're going to pay for it, but I can drive for 30 minutes and get off and then come back and pick up exactly where I left off. So that's my answer to all you truckers out there that keep telling me just do real trucking. I'm like well, you can't stop being a trucker. Trucking is your life. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, and then there's something about holding a shifter like this. You know that that?

Jason:

area and then you got a drink in the other hand. You know what I'm saying. So it I I'll touch I'll. What do you say? This? I'll piggyback off jeff if I had it my way. The way he says, it'll'll be in a Porsche. No, not a Porsche, excuse me, it'll be in a GT3 car. Any of them, because I like all of them. It's like I haven't found a GT3 car. I mean, I recently found the Mercedes AMG because of Daniel Morad, and now I end up loving the freaking Mercedes now.

Jason:

And it's exactly how he said, said, when you do the finesse turning, it's literally a finesse turn, it's it's, it's one-to-one, as at least in iRacing, even in grand in. Uh, acc is good too, and I would do it on a familiar track, same thing as jeff. It doesn't have to be suzuka or what is this other one? Virgin, virginia, virginia is a good track that Jeff loves too. Yeah, it's a good one. Or the Fuji Speedway, which I'm a huge fan of, doesn't have to be. I mean, yeah, that's kind of where I'm at right now, at this stage. What about you, eric? What about you?

Erick:

So for me definitely gt3, um, my man. But yeah, breaking my heart over it, yeah. And just because I don't have much experience racing formula, super formula, especially in um, in iRacing- it's fun.

Jason:

Don't sleep on it.

Erick:

They're both good yeah, when the the little bit of formula racing that I have done in gt7, it was a blast like it was crazy. Just experiencing the amount of downforce and and things that you have in those cars is crazy. But as of right now, gt3, I like Ferraris Okay, specifically the Ferraris. Something about the fact that they feel like they're trying to kill you. Yeah, it kind of gets you to lock in and they sound like they're trying to kill you too, like an angry hornet's nest.

Jeff:

That's a visceral sound to it.

Jason:

No, they're trying to kill you too like a I don't like a angry hornet's nest. No, you, you. You're not wrong, dude, because if you look at the tc levels on a freaking ferrari, they're way high.

Erick:

Oh yeah, so it's a it's a you can't really feel yeah, when you hit the hit the gas and they're super feathery.

Jason:

They, they're light, they're very light. Any little thing upsets the damn Ferrari, not like the Porsche, though. Anything upsets the you breathe on the Porsche wrong. It wants to freaking ram you into the wall or something.

Erick:

Oh yeah, you blink too hard. You open your eyes, you're in the wall in the Porsche.

Jason:

I'm telling you, if you try out that Super Formula 23, it will burn out going uphill like in third gear. I don't know, man, that thing is a torque freaking disaster.

Jason:

That thing is crazy. So well, that's good to hear, man. Man, I like to hear the different perspectives. It's always been. I know Jeff, when he got into sim racing he was. He presented formula to me like this is what I want to do. But then I got him in the ACC and he spent months on ACC but then he found iRacing and I think iRacing was the one that really settled him into racing formula this much, because he was on the F1 games, the EA F1 games. And ask him if he goes on to that and he I don't think so, man, no, I don't think.

Jeff:

I've opened? I don't think I've opened it. You can uninstall that man Four or five months, Do you get the?

Jason:

storage back Six months.

Erick:

At least 23 or 24. Reclame your storage, man, yeah.

Jeff:

I'm waiting for Evo to come out, and then I'll install another hard Dude, Evo we're a month away from Evo's pre-release.

Jason:

I'm going to have to call in sick. I'm going to have to.

Erick:

I'm telling you Something's going to have to happen.

Jason:

I'm telling you I'm going to have to. I got COVID, I don't know.

Erick:

It's still out there, man, it's going to be out there. It's going to be out there Specifically.

Jason:

It's going to be out there Specifically around January 16th. That's right, it's going to be right around and the chances of me getting it are super high.

Jeff:

Right around release day.

Erick:

Right around, right around 100%.

Jason:

Midnight release day. That midnight release, bro, for all you old school gamers that know what that is. Remember that Midnight struggles, oh yeah, you just go on a game. Stop at 12 o'clock at night, it'd be a crowd too. You try to fight through people trying to get home because you want to play the game and they're over there standing in the way.

Erick:

You're like get out of my way, man.

Jason:

Get out of my way. Oh man, yeah, and then you go home and the server's down. So anyway, because that could happen to us. Actually, with Evo we could literally download the game and the servers be completely trashed, or the game crashing, or just it's a pre-release, guys, literally don't expect much from it.

Erick:

That's why I need a week.

Jason:

Exactly, you need a whole week.

Jeff:

Yeah, I think we should all curb some expectations here when that comes out. I think a lot of people putting a lot of stuff out there for some pretty high expectations. I think what you said is probably people should just take a deep breath and be like let's take this thing how it comes here.

Erick:

Yeah, yeah, I think there'll be certain experiences that are fleshed out, but I think, as far as the whole game, expecting it to be 100%, definitely not.

Jeff:

What you got to say, jeff. Oh no, you looked like you were ready to say no, this thing's going to be mint, as the kids hear. You say cherry for that when it comes out.

Jason:

Oh, cherry, that's right. So here's my thing. We have so many other Sims. I know we're about to go into iRacing update here in a second. Do you think that it's not gonna, when it's not like we're hurting for a new sim to come out? This is an addition of something that, okay, great bring. Yeah, it's cool, it looks great. But we got ACC, we got iRacing, we got Assetto Corsa that has I don't know a million gigs of content that you can go into and race. You got GT7 that just recently got an update. It's not like we're hurting for content. Rob Markman.

Jeff:

It's a great point.

Jason:

That's kind of where my medium is and that's what's going to keep my sanity and not lose my mind. But like if iRacing went down or something like that, and ACC both of them went down at the same time and all I got is a broken game. I'm going to be mad. So with that, speaking of iRacing over to Jeff, please, jeff cover, give us the details. I know people have seen it, it's on the internet, it's everywhere, but we want to cover here on the Chicane Podcast and have a discussion about it.

Jeff:

Yeah, jason, you opened up with it during some of the announcements here, but we're going to dig a little bit deeper into it here and I'm going to share a slide here so everybody can take a look at it as I'm talking through it. And these are the updates that are coming out for the new season. I'm just going to walk through these. Listen, if I touch on something that is interesting and you want more detail, I'm not going to plan on going incredibly deep for each data point here. There's plenty of places you can jump on here, read as much as you want, or there's, you know, other people that have covered this in much deeper detail, but we'd be definitely remiss if we didn't cover, you know, iracings update with the new season that comes here. So I'm going to slowly work through this and we'll talk about it here. Gentlemen, see what you guys' thoughts are on this. So first thing we're going to cover is Cars, bro.

Jason:

Usually, as everybody wants to know what kind of cars we're talking about, right.

Jeff:

So here's some of the new supercars the Camaro Gen 3, mustang Gen 3, some BMW M2. And this is good news, goodness for everybody, right, the more more stuff that's, that's there, uh, kind of appeals to more people. Um, yeah, so can I, can I, can I go ahead? Yeah, go ahead.

Jason:

So just to caveat, with this bmw m2 that you got on the screen, it's a free rookie car. It's going to come free and it's the first car. It's the first, you know what I'm saying. It's the first of its kind. You know what I'm saying. So it's going to have its own. I'm assuming it's going to have its own event, like a M2 event. That's all BMWs. You know what I'm saying All M2 like a m2 event. That's all bnws. You know what I'm saying? All m2, bnws only. And yeah, it's kind of exciting for rookies that want to jump into a modern car.

Jeff:

So that is super cool as a rookie is. You can jump in and grab a cool car like that, not just you, know you don't have to pay for it yeah, that's a that. That's a great point, jason. I like it.

Jason:

And the two other cars you scrolled through as well.

Erick:

Yep.

Jeff:

I think, the Mustang and the Camaro.

Jason:

If you buy the legacy content.

Jason:

do you see that up there? Yep, see, the formal cars will then be classified as legacy the two formal cars. So you know what that means. Right, then be classified as legacy the two formal cars. So you know what that means, right? If you buy those two cars right now, iracing will refund those in full and you'll add two. You'll basically get two free cars for the price of none. Basically, it's free. You put the, you buy both of them and when this update drops, you'll get the credits right back into your account.

Jason:

And what does that do for you if the cars are legacy? Well, the cars are legacy. You can't really use them. But the more content that you own in iRacing you need to own 30 pieces of content to get a permanent 20% discount in iRacing, a permanent 20% discount in iRacing. So if you are new this is 100% you need to go and do that. As a matter of fact, I might go and do that today. I mean, I don't care about these two cars, but it's nice to have them. You know, if I want to test them, you can still test them out. So sorry.

Jason:

I had to put that out because that that's like that. You know, some people miss that. You know no for sure.

Jeff:

So uh, ferrari's got a new car coming out this is the p1 yeah, the 499p, um look at the, look at the level of detail on here.

Erick:

That's nice.

Jason:

Yeah man, 16 car deep endurance race, as well as the BMW M Hybrid V8. Reconfigured and reconstructed, this is going to be a huge update. Huge, that's insane.

Jeff:

Yeah, I mean, look at the level of detail they have in the motor here. I never knew that they had this level of detail behind just the shell of the cars they have Under the hood. Yeah, yeah, behind the, you know, just the shell of the cars under the hood.

Jeff:

Yeah, yeah, so, um, but look at, like the level of the carbon fiber here on the mirrors and stuff that's like. This is part of what I hope is the graphics update that's coming out that I'll get to here shortly, but if this is a level of detail, we're getting on the cars. It's coming here. Gentlemen, I am with, let's go. Yeah, so all right. So there's some of the getting on the cars that's coming here. Gentlemen, I am with you, let's go. Yeah, so all right. So there's some of the updates for the cars. Um, they got some new tracks that are coming out. Some get some of these. Uh, excuse me, I'm going to mispronounce this track. In the uk is thruxton. I'm probably butchering that. If so, if you're from the UK and know that track, please forgive me.

Jason:

That's how I would read it.

Jeff:

Okay, all right, 3.79 kilometers.

Jeff:

Jesus, it's a big big track, yeah, but it's cool that they're looking at some of the graphics here showing you the level of detail and fidelity that these new tracks that they're, especially when they're using, like the drones and stuff that are. You know, the accuracy that's starting to be used when they map these tracks is really incredible here. Oh yeah, uh, they got another one. I'm not going to go through all of them here.

Jeff:

Uh, stuttson, uh, in south dakota, um, and here's one that I was like no kidding, like 30 minutes from a couple what I was at, thanks, back in the east coast for Thanksgiving here, new Hampshire motor speedways getting a refresh, um, so if you read a little bit more here, uh, I racing's looking to do a refresh for a bunch of the NASCAR tracks to bring them up to specs, um, so that's one thing we don't really cover too much here. Maybe we should, uh, you know my brother jumps in my rig and does all he does is nascar and it is the most boring thing, but he has a blast doing it. So, uh, it's a huge following in iRacing. We just don't touch on it too much. We should probably, uh, maybe, I like maybe do some type of rookie race in nascar. That would probably be interesting it's a wreck fest

Jeff:

I bet it is, I bet it is. So, uh, las ve Vegas is coming up on refresh here. Another one I saw I don't know if they got down to it is a. I think they do. I'll save that MO for when we get further down. Some of the things that you're doing is a debris refresh. Here you can read about this.

Jeff:

I want to get more into some of the interesting things here. Updated AI behavior. So, eric, you were talking, you've been doing a lot of ai racing, so hopefully next season you'll see, um, maybe a more consistent uh ai racer race a car that you're racing against, or maybe, uh, here shortly you'll be racing against other humans, but nonetheless, that's that'll be a good, cool little update. Um, we're always kind of getting tire model uh enhancements, which is cool, you know. That just adds to the realism the tiger degradation, et cetera. They're talking about compounds and the constructions of how the tires are made.

Jeff:

The level of detail that is like going into some of these sims now is just like unprecedented. So here's where it gets. Interesting is where we start talking about the graphics enhancement. Now, what I did some reading and listening to some other people is I don't think the graphics engine enhancement is coming out with week one of the next season. I think they're going to roll that out here as the season goes, so don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure that's how we're looking here. So, uh, but here you guys can uh look to see some of the detail. Um, look, you can kind of see some of the shadowing up in the building and off the car reflections. The colors just look a little richer. But, jason, you brought up a point earlier, um, about the, the, the, the re. Is it the reshader?

Jason:

you know it does a great job. Reshade, that mean, when I did it.

Jeff:

It really just gave it a nice facelift.

Jason:

Yeah, and it brings out the dynamic range and makes the colors pop, the shadows.

Jeff:

You can adjust it too. It gives you the flexibility to add where you think your monitors are kind of missing and subtract from things that you think are are too strong.

Jason:

So Yep, and you can use that on any SIM. Just so you know if you want to enhance it further than what it is but, iRacing definitely needs it, so.

Jeff:

So we're going to keep going here. So they're just talking about some other things. This is the one that kind of has there's two things here that are so they're just talking about some other things. This is the one that kind of has. There's two things here that are the. I would say the more of the uh, the iRacers talking is eventually we're going to get a new UI and this is like it's sad that this is like earth shattering, but the UI that iRacing has right now is prehistoric.

Jeff:

I'm going to call it how I see it Embarrassing, okay, prehistoric. I'm gonna call it how I see it embarrassing, okay, like we always, we call it straight no chase, it's embarrassing. So, um, dude, like this looks nice. I think that looks clean. It's updated um, yeah, so I'm excited for that to come out. Um, but here's, gentlemen, is where I'd really like to talk about um.

Jeff:

So they got some overlays, some updated overlays, um, I think. Right now I try not to use any overlays. I just like keeping the realism of not having things that I wouldn't if I was sitting in a race car, um, so I just use um, the black box showing and I can wheel through it with one of my uh, my wheels on my wheel, but anyway. So here's where it gets. Interesting is, they have a lot of these graphics that you can use for the telemetry of your car and the race, so there's not a lot of detail about this, to your fourth monitor. I'm going to ask you guys does this compete with the lovely Pitwall and the other companies out there that provide these at a fee? Are they moving into that? Because this is a pretty good-looking, appealing and it looks like you can customize it where your windows are sitting. What are your guys thoughts?

Jason:

um. Go ahead, go ahead, eric. I'll let you go first yeah, I was like my.

Erick:

I don't have a fourth screen, so my experience with, uh, the lovely pit wall, I'm familiar with it but I haven't had a chance to use it, uh. But I mean, it seems like it'd be a um, definitely a competitor, and then having something that's native to iRacing, you know, there might be some advantages there so my my thing is while it looks nice you know what I mean it looks, it looks cool and everything.

Jeff:

But it's only for iRacing.

Jason:

That's a very valid point, so lovely pit wall is the lovely pit wall for everything that has the data and it's being updated constantly, so something like this is kind of what that's. What you get is basically what I'm viewing here. That's what you get is basically what I'm viewing here. But as far as future development, like the lovely dashboard development versus iRacing development there's no comparison.

Jeff:

Oh, it's not even close. I mean Constantinos is.

Jason:

Constantinos. That's all he's doing. He's focused all his time on what can I do with this bit of data that's not being used or what can I display here that can enhance the user experience. However, my opinion, it's a great start in the right direction. For people that are just starting out and they don't want to shell out for a subscription. This is an option, so it's kind of cool to see it. Will I use it? Probably not, just being straight up, because I like having a physical display with a dashboard in it that has all this data in it already.

Erick:

Yeah, that makes sense.

Jason:

And nothing says we can move this up to a top screen, because when you play iRacing it's only using your triple monitor.

Jeff:

Yeah, it doesn't even quote unquote. Know that there's a fourth monitor there.

Jason:

Exactly so. These windows can float, and you're right, they can float around the screen, but you won't be able to move those past the borders of the game. Yeah well, it'll be interesting to see what I the borders of the game.

Jeff:

Yeah Well, it'll be interesting to see what iRacing does for this, or what they do Right Exactly.

Jason:

I might be wrong, it could be wrong, but even if you could, yeah, I don't think this is a contender at all for Lovely Dashboard and his ecosystem. Now, do you need it? I'd say at a minimum. You need the dashboard, at a minimum. Lovely Pit Wall is very good, it's very nice to have, but it's not a must-have. Again, remember how you guys told you things evolved, things change, people change, so your needs change with that, and I find myself not using the pit wall no more because I have all these other peripherals around me. But that's my situation. Jeff's situation is different.

Jeff:

Eric's situation is different situation, jeff's situation is different, eric's situation is different, so it's almost like they were trying to compete directly with the pit wall. They got the map, they got relative, they got the pedal pressure stuff, they got the wheel moving well, like it's like 100 they. I mean it. Yeah, you're not fooling anybody, but I see where you're going, I, but I see where you're going. I racing, I see where you're going, yeah, but anyways, yeah.

Jason:

So let's, I'm going to keep moving on here, assuming these are not just widgets, and they're just updating the widgets that are currently available, cause that might be the option too.

Jeff:

Jeff. So these are. I think these are overlays that you can have. Like right now you have the black box that you can have up there, so this will be like a black box that is on your screen, like on one of your three screens. I would use one of them.

Jason:

And you see that telemetry, the gas and brake and the graph, that's what I would use to practice, to see, um, to trail brake monitor, even though I have a trail brake monitor. But if I didn't have any of that other equipment, that's what I would use not to race but to practice.

Jeff:

But yeah, continue um, okay, fair enough. So here's some graphics. They're talking, or some, uh, you know, anticipated before and after with their new lighting, um, so after is on the left, right, okay yes, yep, so yeah, let's not I'm not a lot, not a lot of night racing in iRacing, at least in the formula.

Jeff:

I don't know, I can't not gonna speak for any other one, but uh, very little rate uh driving at night. So I don't know, I can't not going to speak for any other one, but uh, very little rate uh driving at night. So I don't know if I'm going to see a huge uh bump in the with the rendering of light, but I'm sure it'll be. The graphics is graphics, that I'll take it, no matter where I can get it, but yeah and endurance races is where you see night the most oh, fair enough, you know that's true, that makes sense so also there can be some additional um update for the force feedback.

Jeff:

Uh, so that'd be great. Getting more detail.

Jeff:

You'll be able to feel more detail in your wheel uh get the tire, those that have it on uh in their some type of haptic in their wheel um, and always like and this is like, I think, why I racing is kind of the, the, the premier sim, if you will with their tire uh models and braking um, they're pushing another um tire model um and they talk about, like how it's made and the compounds and the construction of the wheel, how how it affects the road. So if you're into that, come in here and you can read all this stuff about the wheel, the new tire model that they're looking to do for some of the cars.

Jason:

Right there, jeff, single-player career mode coming to iRacing. That's going to be amazing, bro, do you think it will be? That's going to be amazing, bro, do you think it will? Be, Hell yeah bro.

Jeff:

I love career mode. I mean, I guess I would like a career mode, potentially in the formula His career is trash bro.

Jason:

You know that it's like five races Fair. I guess that's fair.

Erick:

They're getting ready for Assetto, corsa, evo of uh, evo evo.

Jason:

they have a single player this is a direct answer, bro, to them that's probably very accurate. Like, yeah, I love the campaign stuff, like in the rally games and f1 games, their campaign is dope so.

Jeff:

So back to the nascar. It seems like iRacing is uh really jumping into a big update to a lot of nascar tire models, gen 4 stock cars, um, some indycar physics refresh, um just a lot of you know um things that we'd hope like iRacing would be doing in the background. Um, another thing that, as a formula guy, I'm excited about is they are starting to uh do some new mapping and release the track of the Miami um GP, so that will be available here shortly down in Miami, uh, at the Hard Rock Stadium slash parking lot. So that'll be super cool and it'd be awesome if they start putting some of the street courses in the formula, like it would be cool for a Singapore I'm really Monica would be a dream really that. I mean I think that's would never happen, but maybe don't never say never. Um, but yeah, like this is stuff that we'd hope iRacing would be doing and it seems like they they are doing.

Jeff:

But, um, I guess, gentlemen, let me question for you put you on the spot here is you had one silver bullet to give iRacing to go do to update what would it be? Um, well, you think about that. If to to listeners the the chicane podcast at Gmail. You got a silver bullet for for iRacing, for one update for them. What would it be? And I'll throw you a mind If you guys are still thinking about it find a way to do If you get hit from behind, if your bumper gets hit, you shouldn't get incidents for it or some way to fix the incidents that truly aren't your fault. Don't get penalized for them.

Jeff:

Like bump drafting, or like if somebody comes, bump drafting is If I'm brake, if we're going into the first corner and I'm braking and you just either didn't see me braking or think your brakes are going to stop you in time and you hit me from your front bumper on my back bumper, I shouldn't get. What is it?

Jason:

four incident points, so better stewarding is what you want.

Jeff:

Yeah, some type of way to keep that.

Jason:

I'll piggyback on that with you, bro. Okay. So I would want the same thing with a caveat and or not a caveat wrong choice of words like a addition um, is that if I report an incident and I send you a video, and I send you meaning iRacing, I send iRacing a video and it clearly, it clearly shows it's not my fault you should be able to remove points from. You should be able to go back and penalize or make the changes accordingly, just like they do in league racing. Okay, like reestablishing positions or penalizing people, like give them a 10 second penalty after the review of the race. It's a service and we're paying for it monthly, so it's not like people are doing this for free.

Jeff:

So I don't know. All right, no, hey, you had a silver bullet, that's what I would want.

Jason:

I could get behind that effort.

Jeff:

Yeah, that's true.

Jason:

That'll fix the whole rules thing about. Well, what if somebody just came I don't know where and hit me? Sometimes I get a plus four. I didn't. I didn't even see the guy, you know that happened to me the other day.

Jeff:

I'm driving around like I look up I'm like plus four. I didn't even touch anybody. Nobody touched me. I didn't think yeah.

Erick:

Man.

Jason:

All right.

Erick:

So is that it? Is that it?

Jason:

for iRacing. I think that's about it, oh whoa Dude, this is a long update.

Jeff:

Yeah, it's going to be a big one here. This is still more of some of the UI in Sim UI.

Erick:

This is iRacing 2.0, ain't it?

Jeff:

Bro, look at these graphics. Where did this come from? I don't know, but I like it.

Jason:

You kind of forget about them though.

Jeff:

Look at the detail that they're working, like the knots that the cables are in. That's wild.

Erick:

Fence. That sounds about like iRacing.

Jeff:

Updating seats and curbs. Jeez, wow, I can't wait, fellas, I can't wait.

Jason:

That's what's up, man. I'm excited it should be out here in a few days. And then, of course, we'll go over about these new cars. I might pick them up because they're technically free, because you're gonna get that money back, promise you yeah so with that, uh man, poor jeff, jeff's got track of the week today. And what track are we talking about today, brother?

Jeff:

well, we're going to continue our new tradition of track of the week today. And what track are we talking about today, brother? Well, we're going to continue our new tradition of track of the week here and uh, since I think we're all doing our favorite tracks um, I think everybody knows where I stand on this and uh, today, man we're going to talk about spa.

Jeff:

So, without further ado, here we're going to do a quick. I'm going to show everybody a quick overview. Um, yeah, it looks like every. I see it on uh. Uh, looks like eric's got it and I see it on jason's pit wall there.

Jeff:

So, um, but here it is for those that aren't dude, that was completely unplanned yeah, unplanned just locked in man, but all right, I'm going to start with a quick background here, while everybody's looking at the track there. Spa started in 1920s. In the town of Spa. They had a 15-kilometer public road circuit surrounded some of the nearby hills, shortly after it was deemed too dangerous, so they had to kind of clear out out, change it up just a bit. Um, but they had their first race, which is the french grand prix, in 1921. Yeah, 15 kilometer race, that's wild, right. Um, so, um. After the, uh, right after the, they did some changes for safety purposes. Um, and if you're changing in the 20s for safety, I can't imagine what, what it was so wrong, what was that bad about it? Um, so, anyways. So in night this is crazy, fellas In 1924 was the first 24 hours of Spa. Let that sink in. That's 100 years ago. 100 years ago they were racing cars for 24 hours. That's crazy. Yeah, I mean, it makes me want to kind of go research.

Jason:

Yeah, it makes me want to kind of go research.

Jeff:

What type of maintenance and failures were they expecting of cars in the 20s for 24 hours? That's wild. They underwent significant modifications to change some of the safeties, safety factors and, which is interesting, to add some accommodations for the, for the, for the spectators. So it's starting to gain traction here, become a major track, if you will here. But okay, this is where I need to put my caveat or my asterisk here. I am a public school educated in the in the Northeast, so, please, if you're from Europe, I'm about to butcher some names here, so please, uh, forgive me here. Um, it's my favorite turn on the whole damn track, and I don't, I don't, can't really pronounce it Rouge and La Source remain unchanged from 1929. 90 years, wow, that stretch of pavement hasn't changed and it's still some of the most interesting testing asphalt in the world. That's wild, that's crazy bro.

Erick:

Yeah, it's that old and when oof the amount of wreckages on that yeah.

Jeff:

I mean, just like you don't like, you could probably pick, like that 100-yard stretch, or let me go, since it's in Europe, 100-meter stretch of track and anybody that follows motorsport would know that. That spa, you know like, there's not a lot of other tracks. Iconic, bro, it's known for that. Yeah, oh, it just is, yeah, so anyway. So I'm going to move on here. So, um, it kind of remains, uh, really untouched and un, uh, updated uh during the war. But after uh the world war two here it came back to life and hosted a majority of motor sports events, um, the first uh belgian grand prix at spa was um, just after the war, in 1950, I believe, um, and that's where it established itself as a fixture in the F1 calendar. Wow, dude.

Jeff:

Yeah, it is the largest track on the circuit and we can talk about why the large track took George Russell's championship or GP win away this year after. Still a little sore about that.

Jason:

It's been a while man.

Jeff:

So here's here's another interesting point. By the 60s, though, the original layout of the track became increasingly dangerous as the speed of the cars increased and technology advanced. It was so dangerous that, in 1970, f1 pulled Spa from the calendar until they made changes. Yeah, so they've had. I think they had a handful of deaths that really made F1 reevaluate and they obviously Spa Motor Speedway has made the changes because obviously they're back, but currently they have 17 versions or updates over the years. Um, the most recent update to the track was in 2022 and they currently have four versions of the class to suit, um the class of racing. They have numerous uh cars. Uh, they have motorcycles there, um, but okay, just an awesome, iconic uh track. Um, but spa is a favorite amongst the drivers and fans.

Jeff:

It is a mixture in my opinion here the perfect mixture of high speed straights, technical corners, tight short or tight slow corners that you have to tiptoe around and it's just like if you're next time you get in there, just drive it and like you look around, you're like driving through some awesome countryside and like it's chiseled out of the trees, out of the forest, through the countryside, um, and honestly, like, I think the last couple years at f1 has the weather has played a role there too. Where it's just you're like perfect, quintessential racetrack, where it is elevation changes, great turn. You know tight turns, fast turns, elevation, the weather plays a role. Um, you know, in the direction of the sun. You know the sun to your back, just a awesome track, um, so it's really cool. So now that you guys are looking at the track here, a lot of people think that it starts down the main straightaway, up through where I'm going to put you here again, aiden Rouge, and through the straightaway. But it actually starts here, before the La Source hairpin corner. Here, as they come down this way, make the corner and then go back and around the F1 pits are over just before the start finish line. I think the other pit section that they have here is after the hairpin turn here. But yeah, so we can talk real quick.

Jeff:

Interesting is, this is the only track on the F1 circuit that they don't have an outlap, if you will. So the cars come by and they cross the start finish line and the race is over. So traditionally every other track, they go all the way around again, but because the track is so long, they'd be like the cars are going to be gone for like 20 minutes before they come back. You know as moving it, you know idle speed, more or less. So they have them do a go in the pits backwards and just come right in and they do the victory celebration. You know, guys get out of the car, pump up the crowd, whatever.

Jeff:

Because of that and this is my opinion of speculation, you know, obviously mercedes isn't going to say anything, but george russell didn't have enough time to go back around the track and pick up rubber that wasn't off the racing line. Is he going to pick up what was it? Three kilos, um jason, I don't remember um the, the weight that he was under, but he didn't have the chance to go around, like they always do at every other chance.

Jeff:

It's like free weight, right, they just pick it up and it's not going to hurt me, it can only help me because I'll make weight. Didn't have a chance to do that cross the cross finish line. Obviously he only did one pit stop, which was you know the reason he won. Everybody else did too, came in and missed weight. Um, interesting story of uh this last f1 season and spot. But um, yeah, really interesting. Um track beautiful countryside. I would love definitely on my bucket list of tracks to go and attend. Um here is kind of like a satellite view. Um. Or if you're flying over a plane, um really like super out in the middle of nowhere, like yeah, I mean like there's just nothing out here um, it's like farmland or something looks like jason, like you said last week about the go-karts, look at this little guy over here I don't, if we gotta, I gotta make sure that's sure I'm zooming in here like that.

Jeff:

Sure looks like a go-kart track, huh yeah it does definitely, I see. I see rumble strips there, man yeah, I mean it's, it's like a thing. But anyways, gentlemen, I love the track. It takes a while to learn because it's so long, um, but it just feels like it has a little bit of everything, do you? Guys have any comments about it.

Jason:

I do, man. There's this, Wow. So this track's been featured in many sim titles all of them, I think. We looked back and we were doing research, and all the way back from the. Nes game. I think it was the first one.

Jeff:

Sorry I left this out. This is super interesting. Michael Andretti's World GP in ready, December 9th of 1988. Yeah man, spa was in. That's wild.

Erick:

And it's been in NES days.

Jeff:

Yeah, it's been in. What are we? Probably maybe 20, 25 titles since then.

Jason:

Yeah, and it's going to be in every major Sim game permanently. That's a staple. This track is legendary. It looks like an axe or like a Uzi or something.

Jeff:

That's what it looks like to me. It does.

Jason:

Yeah.

Erick:

I love it.

Jason:

I love spa. Um, it's one of my favorites. I I gotta admit it's it's. There's no problem. Right, spa comes up on the calendar.

Jeff:

I'm racing 100 every time, my only, my only problem with the iR dude qualifying when it's at Spa takes forever Because it's a huge track and you get two laps at it right. It just is like, gentlemen, can we just all agree to do one lap and then hit ready for race Like let's go?

Jason:

Qualifying takes forever anyways. Oh yeah, you don't want to be that guy.

Jeff:

Trust me, because you got the out lap and then you got your two go laps and then you can, you know, like it's just this.

Jason:

Oh, it takes forever All right man.

Jason:

Well, thanks, jeff. I really appreciate the coverage on this this week. Again, we're still beta testing this on the show. Track of the week is a new thing, that well, you know. We all got together and figured, hey, it'll be nice to know where you're racing and what exactly. You know. Why is this a classic track, why is it so popular, why is it iconic? And here on the show, you know, we're trying to help bridge the gap. And if he has any questions, uh, for us on the show, please email us at the chicane podcast at gmailcom. And yeah, man, we'll also be open to suggestions. If you guys have any suggestions for the next track of the week, we'll also take those into account. Uh, thank you so much, jeff. Um, my pleasure.

Jeff:

We're at the.

Jason:

We're approaching. We're having too much fun, man. We're approaching our time limit here. I just wanted to do a round table and check with everybody to see if there's anything else that you would want to share out on the show before we go.

Erick:

Yeah, I'll just say I'm ready to run some more races, man.

Jason:

There you go, man. There's nothing wrong with that, Eric. That is totally acceptable, brother.

Jeff:

I got a quick admission. I booked hotels for Singapore in 25.

Jason:

You did, oh no.

Jeff:

I can always cancel, but at least I got them. At least I got them.

Jason:

Listen, you need to go back and check out basically Jeff's episode. Oh yeah, His time in Singapore. I'm still mad and jealous at the same time. It's far enough out, buddy.

Jeff:

Just under a year now.

Jason:

Yeah, I know I was supposed to go with him but some things came up and I couldn't make it. But maybe for 25, man, let's see what happens for 25. I might have to break the bank.

Jeff:

If you're listening out there, go to an F1 race. You won't regret it. There you go.

Jason:

There you go, all right. So I don't have anything else to put out. Guys, I'm just very thankful to have everybody back here safely. And to all you listeners and viewers out there, please have a great start of your week, thank you.

People on this episode

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Jason Rivera

Host
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Erick Kelly

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Jeff Smart

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