The Chicane Podcast
Welcome to the Chicane Podcast, keeping you up to date on everything sim racing. As we venture into this dynamic realm of esports and virtual racing, we'll be exploring a variety of topics, from the cutting-edge gear that's transforming the way we race to the newest games, hardware and software that are pushing the boundaries of what's possible in this virtual sport. We'll also be giving you an inside look into the lives of some of the top virtual racers in the world, through in-depth interviews that will give you a unique perspective on what it's like to compete at the highest level in this rapidly evolving eSport. So, buckle up and get ready for an unforgettable ride as we take you right into the cockpit of this exciting digital racing world.
The Chicane Podcast
Sim Racing in Your Pocket?!
What does it take to survive a 24-hour endurance race in the virtual world? Our team recently faced this challenge and emerged not just intact, but eight positions higher than where we started. This journey taught us invaluable lessons about preparation, communication, and mindset that apply across all racing disciplines.
Endurance racing represents the ultimate test in sim racing, demanding every skill you've developed while adding the complications of team dynamics, fatigue management, and evolving track conditions. We break down how to prepare properly - from selecting the right drivers for specific stints to establishing reliable communication systems that won't fail when you need them most. The details matter: knowing your fuel strategy, agreeing on a consistent car setup, and understanding how the vehicle's behavior changes throughout a stint can make the difference between finishing and retiring.
The mental approach proves equally crucial. Our team established a clear goal of survival first, with performance as a secondary objective. This shared mindset helped us avoid unnecessary risks while maintaining competitive pace. Even when incidents occurred (as they inevitably do), our supportive atmosphere kept morale high through the grueling hours.
We also explore the exciting world of handheld gaming PCs, showcasing how the new ROG Xbox Ally X with its Z2 Extreme processor is changing portable gaming. Surprisingly, sim racers are already finding creative ways to mount wheels to these devices, opening new possibilities for racing on the go.
Whether you're planning your first endurance event or looking to improve your next attempt, this episode offers practical wisdom from those who've survived the 24-hour crucible. Share your endurance racing experiences with us at thechicanepodcast@gmail.com or in the comments below!
ROG Cammus rig: https://youtu.be/NUQBcVhvEoY?si=vnaRQqf2RWuhZF3e
ROG Ally full sim Rig: https://youtu.be/NUQBcVhvEoY?si=4U3h2TBMjvmCI_zH
Please e-mail the show for any questions, comments or stories/experiences at thechicanepodcast@gmail.com
TGSR/Chicane Podcast Merch Store!: https://trackghost-shop.fourthwall.com
Watch the show in video podcast form on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/@TGSsimracing
All my links: https://linktr.ee/tgssimracing
Affiliates and Discount Codes
trophi.ai | Use promo code CHICANE12 to save 12% on your membership https://my.trophi.ai/get-trophi?via=CHICANE
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Intro/Outro Rights below:
Song: Low Mileage - Hold You [NCS Release]
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This episode is brought to you by Trophyai. We discuss all things in the sim racing world. I'm your host, jason Rivera, and I'm joined here by Mr Eric Kelly and Jeff Smart. How's everyone doing today?
Erick:This week Doing good, Doing good, man Dude Tom and Jerry. This week by Mr Eric Kelly and Jeff Smart. How's everyone doing?
Jeff:today, this week Doing good All time Dude, tom and Jerry, this week Can't complain, can't complain.
Jason:He's got the Tom and Jerry shirt. That's a good sign. That's a progressive. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. How was y'all week Eric? How was your week sir? It was good man, you know, spent a little time with the fam. You know we wrapped up dance recitals last week, so this week has been pretty smooth sailing.
Jeff:Can't complain, man. That's what's up, man and Jeff, how was your week, sir?
Jason:It's just work killing me this week.
Jeff:Killing Ain't us all. Yeah, that's a fair point, that's an absolute fair point. But just more than normal. A little bit of driving, a little bit of just hanging out with the family, but yeah, just kind of an average week. Right, it doesn't always have to be bells and whistles and stuff like that. Sometimes just yeah it was a week. We got July 4th coming up. Hell yeah.
Jason:That's a well of a motivator for you. Look forward to the weekend, and to the weekend, maybe some F1. I got to check the calendar. It's Austria Fireworks and barbecue is the American tradition here.
Jeff:Happy birthday.
Jason:America Can't beat it Can't beat it, America Can't beat some hamburgers, steak, hot dogs and cupcakes and fireworks Some booze.
Jason:Yeah, some hint of booze, oh yeah, Well, not much from me. Relatively quiet. Relatively quiet this week and, yeah, I'm just excited to be here. It's. You know, I had a rough time last week and it is what it is, guys. We all we got to move on. Chicane Podcast prevails and we are still we're in. We're touching the month of July, which means that the Sim Gaming Expo, yet again, is here. It's already in sight.
Jeff:It's like every day I log onto social media and I'm seeing more companies are coming, more guest speakers. George is crushing it. Yeah, I'm telling you, man.
Erick:If you're listening, buddy don't forget to sleep.
Jeff:Just a little bit of sleep.
Jason:I wonder how much coffee this guy has consumed.
Jeff:I wonder how many energy drinks. I was going to say do you think he's a coffee guy or an energy drink guy?
Erick:I got him pegged as a coffee guy, I don't know. He seemed like a Red Bull guy. I don't know Yo you imagine somebody picks up his or maybe he's crushing both.
Jason:His trash and the whole trash bin is filled with breadcrumbs. They're like what the hell is going on?
Jeff:Get some sleep. Buddy, Get some sleep.
Jason:George was here. George, you're at the finish, you're at the tail end. You can see the light down the tunnel. It's coming. So shout out to George Anzaldo. Who knows, maybe we'll have him sometime again on the show before this whole thing goes down. Informal invite. I'm just saying I'm excited to go there and I want to know what's changed. Oh, yeah.
Jason:All right guys, main discussion time. All right guys, main discussion time. This week I have been thinking about basically the beginning of June when we did the 24-hour race and I started thinking, you know, as the year progresses, we just had a new iRacing season start um, there's seemed to be a more 24-hour or endurance, long endurance races coming about. So not just, not just iRacing, but I know ACC did their 24 Nords, I know Gran Turismo was even digging their hands into a 12-hour events. So I figured let's let's talk about endurance racing and the tips and lessons that I've learned. Doing one, just trying to keep it all together was not easy. So I guess we're going to open this up to a group conversation, sort of Preparation. So what does it mean to be prepared for an endurance race? Preparation. So what does it mean to be prepared for an endurance race? Well, preparation is knowing your to the wall driver, open up the race for us. So that way we can, you know, attempt to keep, keep the car live and keep the race going.
Jeff:So I imagine I don't mean to cut you off, Jason, but I imagine you can your opportunity to pass is best at the beginning. Is that an accurate statement? Yes, so that's probably a good tip. Makes sense, Okay.
Jason:And he has to be safe. It has to be an experienced driver that can navigate traffic and accidents and incidents, because that's what happens on the first the first hour is chaotic.
Jeff:You get the blood pumping and.
Jason:Yeah, everybody wants to get ahead, everybody wants to get ahead. Yeah, everybody wants to get ahead, everybody wants to get ahead. They want to create as much distance as they can.
Erick:On cold tires.
Jason:Right cold tires and they want to minimize pit stops. They want to get to the pit with as much time gained as possible, and that's when the second driver comes in, or they do a double stint, depending on the size of your team. So that's the prep phase. The prep phase is to gather the team and figure out each member's weakness and basically their strong points and their weak points. Now, this is technically still in the prep phase, but communication this is technically still in the prep phase, but communication, so a way to communicate with each other and keeping comms alive. I highly recommend creating a Discord server and not just a chat room, because Discord chat room is what we used for this event and the chat room. If there's nobody speaking in the chat room, Discord will straight up boot you out of the chat room and it'll say well, to reduce bandwidth. Oh yeah.
Jeff:Did you know that at the time?
Jason:I knew that at the time.
Jeff:Okay, I didn't have time to make a server.
Jason:So I said, hey, I need one of you guys to stay in here with me and keep that mic open, or one of you guys is going to have to stay in here. So that was a bit of a challenge, but it worked out. But it could have been worse, right? Let's say the call drops and then I'm racing. I can't click in the Discord and answer a phone call, you know. So I have no comms now. So again, prepare your comms, make sure that you test them, make sure it has enough people in it and make sure that it doesn't disconnect on you. Aka make a server. It's free, it's easy, it just takes time. But that's why that's lessons learned for preparation.
Jason:And another thing is practice. This goes without saying practice, the track and the car. This goes without saying practice, the track and the car. And also open communication with what setup we're going to use for this car. We don't want different setups on the car. We want to run a setup that we all agree on and get used to the car feeling that way, that way, if I pick up the car and you can always change the setup.
Jason:But I think it's best to learn the car at its meta stage and then grow with it right and then push on it because it's only going to make things a lot easier, less complicated. What if you forget to set it? What if the other driver forgets to set it and he's like, oh, I don't know what's up with this car. You know what I mean. It doesn't feel right. It's not what we practiced. So that's a big, big one is practice. Make sure you know what the game plan is. Are we running the tank dry? Are we going to leave it with a lap buffer? During our event, dude, one of our drivers ran out of gas, and it's because, what do you do? He's a way faster driver and he was burning way more fuel than we calculated because he's that fast. So then, at the final straight, the car is like and it freaking.
Jason:We had to tow it in and we lost a shit ton of time towing the car oh man.
Jason:So another lesson learned, flashbacks. That's it. And the final one is very simple it's have a goal and communicate that goal. So our goal for this race was survival. We want to do good, but ultimately we want to finish the race. We don't want to take an unnecessary risk or try and see what the guy next to you, if just challenging know, just challenging, you know it's almost better to, it's always always almost better to just let them go, especially if you're being lapped, just let them go. You know there's really no point. You're not racing that person at that point when you see blue flags on your screen or DNR or whatever it is that you're using peripheral. Now, if you're racing and it's clear that you're faster, then be patient. You know this jersey right here, a guy named uh lando norris can take this advice because he was faster than piastri, and that's straight and rammed his bumper, ruined his race.
Jason:What was that? The final lap? What was it Like? The final laps of the race too. It was crazy.
Jeff:Yeah, it was like three laps to go or something a couple weeks ago.
Jason:So you went from fifth place points to no points.
Jeff:Nothing.
Jason:To nothing. And how do you feel? You probably feel disgusted at that point. So it's the same concept here. Just because you think that you can make something happen, or you always have to visualize the risk, you know, visualize what may or may not happen, and if you're faster, you're going to get them. You're going to get them, you just have to be patient.
Jeff:Jason, that's a great point that you brought. I just I don't mean to interrupt here, but I think we should. You know, at least expound upon is your goal is like a survival. But like when I jumped in and you know I think I did like three or four times jumped in and watch you guys racing. You ran your race. You didn't run a guy that you were chasing or the guy behind you is race you got. Hey, if somebody pulled in behind me, this is a 24 hour race, I'm not going to hold him off forever. The worst that I do is I go off the crack, off the track. You know, hit a wall, whatever, have to get towed to the pits and now you're like a 10 minute you know, tow, damage, all this stuff, like you're just like hey, go, go by, you're not my race, I'm driving my race.
Jeff:I think that's. I tip my hat to you guys, we're not. It's hard to kind of like stay in your helmet or, if you will, or in your seat and be like hey, I'm racing the time, I'm racing like our goal, I'm not racing the dude behind me, yeah right, and that's kind of where we were lucky.
Jason:We were lucky because that can go to your head, right because you know that you're faster than the guy in front of you. And it happened to me and I had to pump the brakes a little because the guy was weaving, he was out of control and then later in the race we saw him on the side of the road and it's like karma just got you. You know what I mean. So, honestly, with these events, it could be crushing to prepare so much for them and then only for it to be over in just a fraction of a second.
Jeff:You know, man, it's heartbreaking jason, did you have any pressure when you were driving? Not pressure of the race, but pressure to let. You didn't want to let your teammates down. You wanted to to let. You didn't want to let your teammates down. You wanted to be fast but you didn't want to wreck the car. Was that ever part of you're racing? There's a pressure there, but then there's a pressure to A not let down your team and then B not ruin the car as well.
Jason:I'll tell you what I mean. This may sound a little cocky, a little bit, but I was really happy with my lap times. My lap times were faster than when we were practicing. When we were practicing I was in the high 35s. Then I practiced on my own, dropped it to a low 30s and then I got down to 825, was my fastest and our fastest drivers were in the 824s 823s, so that made me feel good up until I got.
Jason:You know, I got tapped in the back by a BMW, by an M4, bmw M4, and hit the car on the side and I had to repair the car. So it's a mixed bag of emotions, man, and it's a mixed bag of emotions, man. So I mean, I felt bad that the fact that I had to repair the car and now the car is sitting in the pits instead of me handing the car over later, you know. So most definitely, most definitely felt pressure. It's a good sort of pressure, right, that's the game is.
Jason:Racing is pressure and fear and anxiety all over. Not anxiety, that's the wrong choice, but the fear, the adrenaline and the fact that you're racing a 24-hour race and the car has many different stages of feeling and when you pull into the pits. It's like a reset and then you get to start it all over again. The car feels a certain way, it's not as fast and the tire starts to really hook. Then the car gets really light and you have to be careful how you take the curbs. You can't take them so aggressive, because the car will literally fly and it's probably dark out.
Jason:It could be dark out. Yeah, it could be raining. That's a big one.
Jeff:Totally different, yeah.
Jason:Yeah, we got lucky it didn't rain on us oh man, rain. But rain changes everything. Everything, you eat everything. So you have to take a totally different line. So endurance racing, in my opinion, is the pinnacle of sim racing. It has to be because you use every single thing that you've learned in sprint races everything, because everything is turned on and it's turned down to max. And then you have cars that have been on the road for four or five hours. They're tired. It's three, four in the morning for them. Fatigue is kicking in. Mistakes happen within the hours.
Jason:So, it's an experience everybody should have it. But those are the things that I've learned and some of the tips that I'm going to apply to myself on the next go, and the streaming tips. I mean, if you're a streamer, just keep in mind when you start to stream and when your turn is for racing. But for those of you that are just racing it and just driving it, just communication, prepare, have a plan and make sure you all agree to the same goal, whatever that is. If your goal is to beat the fastest lap time, make sure you. Make sure you do that consistently and it's brought across Right, it's across your entire team. So that that's the thing our team had. We had team, had different drivers, different styles, so we all found a happy medium between each other and it happened naturally and it was great. It was great, rob Markman. I'll tell you what we finished eight places ahead of where we started, and that right there was a win for me, because not only did we survive the race, but we actually gained eight places, regardless of what happened. If we lost 10 and then gained 10 back and then lost two and then gained five, it doesn't matter. The car made it and it made it way past where we started. That right. There was a win for me and that's about it. That's what I have for this week, some tips and some endurance tips, that I'm pretty sure there's way more for me to learn, but those are the things that I think were major and those are the things that matter the most. And one final thing is just don't forget to have fun. We weren't cursing at each other or saying don't touch the grass, or you went off track and then you have people screaming in your ear.
Jason:Everybody was very supportive. You had an incident. There was really. I mean, you had an incident. What are we going to do about it? What can we do about it? You know what I'm trying to say, so just make sure you take that time to practice before you commit to an event like this. That is the only thing I would say. But mistakes happen, incidents happen. It's part of racing. The real life drivers do it, the the freaking fastest people in the world. We have a wreck almost every f1 race I mean in real life and these are the professionals best in the world, best in the world and they crash. You know they crash. They jump the start line, they go off track. Some of them do it deliberately. Mr George in Monaco was like I don't give a shit, I'm going off track.
Jeff:Guilty as charged.
Jason:Yes, he did. So that's my take on endurance racing and some tips, just because we're in the season for it, right? A lot of endurance races are going on. So if you have any more questions, email the show at thechicanepodcasts at gmailcom or leave a comment below and we'll get to it. And if you have any tips for me you know that was my first legitimate 24-hour race, you know let me know what are your thoughts. So and gentlemen, what do you guys think of this? Do you guys think that we could have done anything different? Do you think that maybe there's something more that we could have added to just the planning phase, or whatever?
Jeff:I'm all ears uh, tuning in watching the stream. Um, I was I was when I dropped into you guys's um live feed, especially on youtube. It was like you guys were like hanging out around somebody that was driving, it was all just you know like a super cool atmosphere when somebody came up behind you you, you you know like there was a spotter, that somebody came on. Um, you know, you were just talking about all things in and around sim racing, so in that fact, it was super cool. You guys survived, you had a great time. You probably learned a lot, Um, and, and I think like what you kind of got around is like did you have fun? Could you learn some stuff? Like that's what we're, that's why we buy this stuff and build it Right Is to have fun. What an experience that just you know. A bunch of dudes driving a car for 24 hours hanging out.
Jason:Well, the thing is, you know, you know what's interesting, guys, is Michael made a very I and he's just deep-minded. He made a very crazy comment that stuck with me and he's like look how much we had to do to get to this moment right here. It's like iRacing is very inaccessible. You need a PC, you need a rig, you need cars, you need track, and then you need the time. A cars, you need track, and then you need the time. Yeah, and to do that across thousands of drivers that were signing up for this event is insane.
Jason:You know what I mean it's crazy you need a strong internet connection to keep it all together. The streaming cameras, um, everything, everything that went into this is similar to a real race team. What's the difference? The race team is dumping money into the car. They're dumping money into R&D. We're dumping money into ourselves, into a hobby that we all love to do so when he said that Rob Markman, yeah, that was one of the things.
Erick:I was going to say that was one of the things that I was probably the most impressed with is all the pieces that had to work Right 24 hours. Right. I've been in races where we've been doing a GRL and it go to shit in 15 minutes. And so the fact that all of y'all were able to have a race that lasts 24 hours and everybody's rig, you know, stays running, our racing is running good for everybody. Your stream is up going good. I mean, that was just when Jeff was asking about nerves and stuff. I was like I'd mostly be nervous about the car, but then also just all the other pieces, right?
Jeff:car, but then also just all the other pieces. Right, they have to. Bro, I was I'm like you're talking when I asked you about like, were you nervous? I'm in like a staff meeting at work, bro, I hope they didn't crash the car. I hope they're crushing it like the meeting's over I'm like bro, I'm like come on boys, boys keep going, and I wasn't even driving.
Jason:I think it's man. It's quite an experience, right. And then to go to sleep and wake up and this is in my case, because if you, just I was streaming it, so the computer had to be on 24 seven. You don't see a birth of shit. Come on, let's be honest.
Erick:No, Exactly, exactly.
Jason:So my bedroom is really close to the rig right, so I'm looking like under the crack of the bedroom and the DNR the freaking ambient lights, are just going like all the trees and all the colors and then I see blinking like my boys are still at it they're going, and then I try to go to sleep and I pull up the phone and I'm watching the stream, literally 10 feet away.
Jason:My own shit, they're still alive. Okay, I'm going to try to go to sleep. No way, no way. The boys are still at it. The boys are still at it, they're still alive. Okay, I'm going to try to go to sleep. Fuck, no way, no way. What I did was rest my eyes. That's what I did. So also, I mean the basic stuff we did, like a I had, like I got everybody together two hours before the race and I said listen, make sure you eat, make sure you sleep, make sure you hydrate and make sure you don't drink right before you get in the seat because you're going to want to pee. That's just a human thing. That happens. Right, you drink two glasses of water right now. Within the hour, you're going to the bathroom.
Jason:And we were racing for two hours straight each person you know, take it easy on the fiber.
Jason:Yes, you know. But adrenaline does kick in. But then you have to remember, you have to remind yourself to relax, and I remember, if you guys go back and check out the stream I think it was part three, Bro we were talking about all kinds of stuff and the car I think I mentioned this in the last episode. The cars are screaming down the road down the whole way and we're laughing and talking about yes, I would. So it's kind of cool. I need to put it to rest. Go ahead and sign up for an endurance race. If you can, If you have the time, do it. You will not regret it. And that's my take on endurance tips and lessons learned for today.
Erick:It's awesome man.
Jason:Yeah.
Erick:I got to get in one man, I got the bug.
Jason:Now, you got the bug, you got the bug. Yeah, I got the bug. Now you got the bug, I got the bug, yeah. So what we got today, mr Kelly, what we doing today, ben.
Erick:So kind of piggybacking off what you mentioned last week about being able to be on a handheld and enjoy a little bit of racing, taking that to the moon right, yeah. So a little device was announced a couple of weeks ago. I don't know about little, I don't know, yeah, little is definitely debatable, uh, but a, a handheld device called the rog x. I'm sorry, according to microsoft, you have to say the ROG.
Jason:ROG Bo Republic of Gamers.
Erick:ROG Xbox Ally. Right, so this was announced. If you're not familiar, this is the follow-up to the ROG Ally that came out a couple years ago they had the ROG Ally, then they had the ROG Ally X and now there's an Xbox-brand branded version. That is the follow-up. It has the latest gen AMD AIZ2 Extreme processors one of the first handhelds to have it and it's a tight partnership with Microsoft. I got a little video I want to share with you guys 24 gigs of RAM in your hands.
Jason:That's a little video I want to share with you guys, 24 gigs of RAM in your hands.
Erick:That's a little wild. It's legit. I was talking to my friends about it and he kind of knows my history with handhelds and my lack of confidence in them and this one I saw this one and I was like this might be something.
Jason:This might be the one. Let's check it out here. Oh my God, so dramatic.
Erick:Oh yeah, I wonder whose hand that is look at that beaut yo, it looks good.
Jeff:Oh yeah, I love the joystick.
Erick:Alright we're erasing that man, come on yeah it can handle it, I promise looks good, it's clean yeah so, oh yeah, yeah, so, oh yeah, amd, baby, let's go Yep, and I don't know if they're going to necessarily cover any more specs.
Jason:Okay, holiday 25, guys, yep.
Erick:Yeah, so they got guys. Yep, oh yeah, so they got two of them. They have the Xbox Ally X which, as you can see from the specs, the Z2 Extreme Processor 24 gig of memory, terabyte of storage. And they have the regular Xbox Ally, which is the Z2A Processor 16 gigs of RAM and 512 gigs of storage. A processor, 16 gigs of ram and 512 gigs of storage. And so, inside us, back in the sim racing um, you know, these things are legitimate pcs right, there are people, even with the last gen versions that had just you get to work on these, on these.
Jason:You plug them into the monitor and run microsoft office like, oh, yeah, yeah, I mean it like nothing, it's full Windows.
Erick:It's not like the Pocket PC days where you're running some weird version.
Jason:Damn the Pocket PC days.
Erick:Yeah, man, microsoft has done a lot of weird stuff when it comes to mobile OSes.
Jason:They've been trying. They've been trying hard, they've been trying Stop sharing.
Erick:Now I want to share something that I think kind of will steal the show a little bit I have some comments.
Jason:I promise I can't you already know, but I tell you, it doesn't really matter which model you get man. Oh, what is this?
Erick:so this is like I said we go to the moon with this right, no way, so this is a full assembly setup Bro With the ally. No, this is off the ally, the ally X, let's see it. And this, the one that he has, is the Z1 extreme. It's not even a Z2.
Jason:Look, it's on the desk. Look, he's got a steer wheel.
Erick:Yep, so he's got a full Camas setup, which obviously Camas any other wheel you can plug up to it.
Jason:Oh, come on, man, let's get that WD-40, man, Come on now.
Erick:And he is-.
Jeff:He's running ACC yeah.
Erick:Yep Wow.
Jeff:He's in there, man, where there's there. Man, where there's a will, there's a way. Oh yeah, look at this. I'm gonna ask a question here. Oh yeah, could you do VR with it, or is it that underpowered? You can and you know how that's a freaking game changer.
Jason:If, but there's a caveat, Rob Markman.
Jeff:Jr Okay.
Jason:So and Eric, I don't mean to steal your thunder, but-.
Erick:Eric Deggans Jr. I'll just shout out to Eli Nhan, whose video this is Rob Markman Jr.
Jason:I'm about to lose my breath, trying to get this out before I forget.
Erick:Eric.
Jason:Deggans Jr.
Erick:The bomb is up there.
Jason:So if your games are on Steam which is 90% of us there's a thing called Steam Link and if you have it handheld, I'll show you guys my Legion Go, which is a custom skinned out from Gundam. This is my Legion Go.
Erick:Oh yeah.
Jason:This guy can run any game at full settings, ultra settings. Why? Because my PC is running the game and I'm only linking to it using Steam Link and this has. It's basically a virtual. They both have USB-.
Jeff:Rob Markman Like a thin client type of thing, Rob Markman.
Jason:Yeah, but it's on the same network. So there's virtually. I'm telling you you will not see a lag on this thing. I've done Microsoft flight simulator with this thing while on the toilet.
Erick:I mean I clean the grits. Rob Markman, jason's obsessed with the toilet gaming man. That's the toilet. I mean I clean the grits. Jason's obsessed with the toilet gaming man.
Jeff:That's the test, that's wild. Yeah.
Jason:So you, and not only that, there's other software that you can use and you can have your PC upstream the game on the network and you can be in singapore and connect to your pc and run those games. Are they going to run at high speed? That depends on the strength of your internet connection, right? Yeah? Yeah, definitely yeah, so, but it can be done. You know what I'm saying it can be done.
Jeff:Yeah, dude, I love dudes like what was it that dude? Uh, ally, I forget his. His hand, ally in hand. Dude, where there is a will, there is a way yeah 100. That's that. Did I tip my hat to that dude? Yeah, and they're not that bad.
Jason:They're like yeah, there's like 600. So if you compare this to a n Switch 2, this is unbeatable, because the games that you already purchased on Steam are on your account. All you got to do is log in to your. Steam. All your games are there. All your sim is AC. You can run modded AC on this. I do truck simming on this thing.
Erick:Oh yeah, sometimes yeah in it.
Jason:In the washroom.
Erick:This is a shout out to Mikey In the washroom In the washroom, yeah, but I'll say that just kind of here in the past. So for Mother's Day, my wife, she really wanted an ROG Ally and so I got her one and just-.
Jason:Your wife has an ally.
Erick:She has an ally. She plays the Sims on it Like we go through and customize all the buttons on it. She plays.
Jason:Bro damn, son Need to steal that.
Erick:So I've been waiting and, like I said earlier, my homie, he asked me about the handheld because I've kind of generally been just not interested in them because usually there's always some caveat. My homie, he asked me about the handheld because I've kind of generally been just not interested in them because, you know, usually there's always some caveat, right, but playing with her ally and then, like you were saying, jason, using steam link and experimenting with that, it really, it really has boosted my confidence in it being a legitimate way to play, like most games triple a titles is what we yeah like, like real triple a titles, like her rgli, it's not the x, it's the regular rg.
Erick:And still playing tomb raider, playing batman, on there, like locally installed, like not even taking advantage of, like game pass, game streaming or steam link. But even the steam link, the steam link, they the stuff they have figured out with, like you streaming your game from your PC to other stuff. I've, I've, I literally had three different devices up.
Jason:You can have the game link on your phone, on your on your iPad.
Erick:I was testing it out, right, because I was trying to decide. My wife, she was like, yeah, I want to play a couple steam games and so she has a Mac book. And so we tried because I was trying to decide my wife, she was like, yeah, I want to play a couple steam games and so she has a macbook. And so we tried it out on there installed. It ran great, because obviously you can't install all games natively. And then I'm like you know, that's running really good. Let me just see what you can do on the phone. I had the phone up, I had my laptop up, I had my tablet up and all the games were like streaming my gaming PC. But it was seamless. The lag, there was no delay, it was one-to-one and basically just pick a screen you want to play it on and it was really-.
Jason:You can crank the graphics too, it don't matter. Yeah, it does not matter.
Erick:Yeah, the stuff they've thought about, the optimizations. It'll optimize the game for whatever device you're playing on, Even though it's running on the PC. You can tell it optimized for my phone screen and it'll just max out everything and you'll get max your phone out.
Jason:And this service Free of charge.
Erick:Free of charge.
Jason:It's free. You just download the app and away you go.
Jeff:We really are living in the Jetsons.
Erick:I'm telling you, man, and I wanted to highlight too just as far as, how feasible this is for the future. So the recommended specs not even the minimum specs recommended specs for our racing right now is a six-core processor, so it's going to be like an i7-8700K or a Ryzen 7 3700X. Gpu is six gigabytes of dedicated VRAM and, as far as the GPU strength, a GTX 1060 or AMD RX 580.
Jason:Maybe I'm low yeah sure, yeah.
Erick:So it's like it's playable and granted the way that the SoC works in the handhelds you're kind of using.
Jeff:Well, the resolution right.
Erick:Yeah, you got a lower resolution. It's 80p on the handheld.
Jason:It's way less demanding, right? Because we're trying to project high graphics on a big screen at a high resolution. But when you drop that resolution down, you have more. How do you say? A lot more headroom like headspace yeah, headroom yeah then there's also technology with amd and also with nvidia, which is frame generation. So you it may not work for sim racing. I I would not do it on a sim because you're generating essentially frames to fill in the FPS. Basically, that's as simple as I can put it.
Jeff:Especially with like net code and iRacing.
Jason:So all you technical specific guys out there. I'm trying to put this in like two words. That's not easy. That most of us can understand, that aren't super technical if you turn it on, you get a higher fps but you get input lag. That's all you need to know with frame generation. If you turn it on high input lag and what does that mean, is that when you go like this to go left, then he goes left yeah, it's going to be one-to-one. It's not going to be real time Milliseconds depends.
Jason:That's a huge jump, I'm telling you. Rog Ally Xbox version. Xbox is known, and this one's going to hurt Eric Kelly's heart, but Xbox is known for having one of the most comfortable controllers out there, oh no.
Erick:So you know the lengths I went to to try to get the Xbox Pro controller. Yeah, the Elite controller on my PS4. I had all kinds of dongles and all kinds of stuff connected up to it. Yeah, that controller is still the GOAT right now.
Jason:So you basically have a controller with a screen, but the hardware is technically the same. So if you don't care about that, you can pick up an ROG X right now. No, no more ROG X.
Erick:No, so this one is the next gen, so it's supposed to be the.
Jason:It has new hardware in it.
Erick:It has new hardware. So the ROG LIX right now has the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor. This one has the Z2 Extreme with the 8-core processor.
Jason:But it's not out yet.
Erick:Yeah, this one isn't out yet, but you're right, it is a jump.
Jason:My bad, it's a jump. I'm waiting for the Legion Go 2. I like the Legion because the Legion has detachable controllers, so you can set this on an airplane and I don't care who's looking at me. I'm a grown-ass man and, yes, I'm on an airplane and I don't care who's looking at me. I'm a grown ass man and, yes, I'm on the airplane drinking a damn mimosa, playing the freaking Yakuza games, because those are my favorite games. Rob Markman.
Erick:Jr. That's hilarious. You got to shake them.
Jason:Rob.
Jeff:Markman Jr. Yeah, but hey, man, would you like to play, would you?
Erick:like to play.
Jason:Rob.
Erick:Markman Jr, I know what you're looking at over here. You like this Do you like the red on there. You know what?
Jason:I'm saying it looks sharp man, hey this is a custom wrap thing that I did on Amazon, so I'm not a complete noob to wrapping, but this took me a long time. It took a minute. It took me a few days to get that done. Oh yeah, yeah, man, all right man. So ROG that done. Oh yeah, yeah, all right man so rog, so we got.
Jason:Let's go over the specs real quick to. To wrap this one up, it has you mentioned, it has that, that, that z2 processor, 24 gigs of ram, and it also has two usb-c ports. Man, it's got a usb4 type-c, which is technically a Thunderbolt. And what does that mean to you? Thunderbolt means that you will get video and charging capabilities on a single cable which is the next best, bro. It's better than cream cheese, bro, I'll tell you.
Jeff:I wonder where you're going with this.
Jason:I didn't know where I'm thinking of something. Come on, just come to me, yeah.
Erick:Yeah, displayport 2.1 on there, with Power Delivery 3 and Thunderbolt 4. And then the second USB port has DisplayPort 2.1 as well.
Jeff:That's a piece of kit, man.
Erick:Yeah, it's crazy.
Jason:I'm telling you it's, it's crazy. I'm telling you it's um, it's awesome, it's awesome. Imagine playing. I again, be careful playing I racing on a handheld. So unless you got a wheel, like like our boy here that had the cameras, he did it right, you know oh bro, straight up grabbing the cranes, Rob Markman, I mean it's awesome.
Erick:I'm very curious, Like I feel like I want to try that. What are these capable?
Jeff:of type of thing. Yeah, yeah.
Erick:I definitely want to try that.
Jason:To explore what it may be like. You could do that right now, I mean, even if you bought iRacing and I'm speaking iRacing because it's one of the games that you can download and install off the Steam server but if you go into your account and you go deep into the settings, they will give you a free Steam code to redeem it on Steam. So that way you have an installer on Steam on your same account. So it's pretty successful. Here's the other thing too.
Erick:So the biggest thing that probably makes this one different than the regular ROG Alloy 2 that's coming out is this is going to be running a special stripped down version of Windows, so we'll have no Windows UI. It'll have a Xbox gaming interface, like a little game selection piece. Which is cool, yeah, and this will, as far as resources go, this will give you back up to two gigs of RAM. Oh wow, overrunning normal Windows, sure.
Jason:Nice, I know, you know what, and the sky's the limit, because there's a ton of launchers and mods that you can install on these handhelds. It's really incredible what they're doing. They've come a long way and with 3D printing, yeah, I'll give you guys a little and we'll put this to rest. But Eric mentioned the xbox elite controller and the elite controller is known for magnetic attachments like their d-pad, and I created a mod that I well, I printed this 3d printed d-pad and took a xbox controller and stripped the magnets out and got their d-pad and it's hot swappable with the uh, the curved out and got their D-pad and it's hot swappable with the curved one. And there you go. If you want, like a circle D-pad for fighting games, I'll tell you, man, my brother and I my brother is we're street fighter guys and every time I see him he's like bro, did you bring a controller?
Jeff:What type of stupid question is that? Rob Markman, the.
Jason:Kidz, bo. It'd be late at night. The kids are bed. We had a few drinks now and we throw on the Street Fighter. That's it. Just beat the living shit out of each other all night.
Erick:Rob Markman.
Jason:The Kidz BO. That's classic fun, man. So yeah, man, let us know what you guys think you got plans to. You know, take a plunge into the handheld. I know sim racing. Again, this is another topic. It's still related because there's still sims out there that are controller compatible, that are really like truck sim is beautiful on controller AMS2, you know single player, they have trucks in there. You could do that. You have flight simulator non-sim racing, but it's the power is there.
Jason:The power is there and, like Jeff said, when there's a will, there's a way. If you don't have room for a PC. If you can't afford a PC this is 500 bucks.
Erick:So one more addition right, so that USB 4 port. They actually are going to sell a device eGPU. If you don't know what that is, that's an external GPU where you can plug up a beefier GPU to this thing.
Jason:You put a freaking eGPU yep a 4090 right next to it with fans and shit, and then it's plugged in. Yeah, yeah man.
Jeff:They exist right now. They have them. Where there's a will, there's a way that's it.
Erick:Oh yeah, man, that's dope, there's options, that's dope.
Jason:That's it. I mean, that's got to be sick. So if you're a person on the go a lot and you don't feel like fleshing out for a full-blown PC, bro, you get yourself a hooked up GPU and this, and when it's time to go on your business, work whatever, unplug, throw it in the back, let's go.
Jeff:F125 should be great on that. I wasn't going to say it, but I was like man, that's like the one place I think it would be pretty good.
Erick:It would be pretty good.
Jason:yeah, Play the story, you know yeah.
Erick:So just thinking about the endurance racing and the different roles everybody played, imagine having that doc at your house, put it to your rig, but it's not your turn to race or you're not racing at all. Right, you don't have time to race, you don't travel, but you want somebody to be a spotter or engineer for you or something like that, where they don't have to actually race look and you don't have to download any extra files. You got all your. You got your.
Jason:Install iRacing what if you want to spectate the race?
Erick:yeah, because you need to run iRacing to spectate you could be spectating on the go.
Jason:Yeah, and now airplanes, at least in Hawaii. You know, I'm pretty sure we got Starlink. We could be hooked up to the internet at full speed in the middle. Stupid fast In the middle of the Pacific.
Erick:Yeah, man Spectating iRacing race on the go Back to my statement.
Jeff:We're living in the Jetsons.
Erick:I'm telling you man Expectating. I race and race on the go Back to my statement.
Jason:We're living in the Jetsons. I'm telling you, man, it's a great time to be alive. Unless you fall asleep on the airplane, it don't matter. I'm pretty sure when we leave this expo we're going to be dead tired. We ain't going to be able to put that man it was my pillow. You always say sleep when you're dead, sleep when you die, sleep when you die.
Erick:After the conference All right.
Jason:Jeff, what you got for us this week, brother, want to have a live coach available on demand. With Trophy AI, you'll be able to practice with Mansell AI at your convenience A real-time coach in your headphones to navigate and guide you through the track, helping you achieve race pace. This tool is awesome as it provides full brake, throttle and steering telemetry on screen, with the live review getting you ready for your next big race. Check links to Trophy AI in the description and also use CHICAIN12 in all caps for a 12% discount.
Jeff:All right. So I was on the SimRacingSetups Facebook page, or whatever you want to call it group, and there was a quite somebody made a post and it was like one of the. It was like oil and water Throw gasoline on a flame Like with all the comments. And I read it and I was like this is a pretty straightforward question, but boy did everybody have an opinion about it. So this is kind of like a discussion piece I guess you could say is I'm gonna ask you guys a question and I'm curious to see you guys' answer. Okay, so you got a buddy coming over the house. Okay, your goal is to get him into sim racing, but you have two 20 minute sessions to get him hook, line and sinker into sim racing. What sim? What track? What car?
Jason:Now remember hold on.
Jeff:I just want to kind of explain this. What track, what car? Now, remember, hold on. I just want to kind of explain this. You can put them in a super cool car, but if they don't have the skill to do it, they're going to have a terrible experience.
Jason:Very, very good point.
Jeff:So just be careful where you go with this. You got two tries at it, Jason. You look like you're ready to jump in here.
Jason:Who wants to go first? Man, Let me know.
Erick:I mean I can go because I know what I'd do. Okay.
Jason:All right, and he just did it too.
Jeff:The more interesting point is why.
Erick:Yeah. So literally having just had somebody who's never had experience with one taking them through immediately ACC is beautiful, but it's it's scary. The force, feedback and stuff like that is can be kind of scary. So for me I'd say the first one would be iRacing, simply because just seeing his reaction and how close it mimics like a real car, I think from a comfort level, getting them in and like what car. So he was in a Porsche GT3. Oh shit.
Jason:And like I said Just throw him in the deep end.
Erick:Yeah, like he was in the deep end, but like I said, he didn't. You know the track wasn't super technical, but he controlled the car. He said he felt like he was in a real car, which to me, I think that feeling is kind of what you're going for. Right, that's part of it. And for the second one, I don't have triples but I do have VR on PS5. And that's the second thing that I put him in, just if I'm trying to hook, oh, I feel like I'm in a real car a free taste of the product, if you will yeah, exactly.
Erick:And then, like with the vr piece is like this is another side of this, where the you know the force, feedback and everything. The feeling isn't as one-to-one or isn't as um high fidelity as on the pc, but just the like, immersion is like over the top. So. So one gives you all the immersion, one gives you all of the kind of the feedback.
Jeff:So you're saying basic same car, same track, same iRacing, just one single screen in the other, vr.
Erick:In GT7, I probably do like a road car.
Jeff:Oh, so it's GT7. I'm sorry I missed that portion.
Erick:Yeah, and, and the reason why in VR kind of affects people differently. If I got one shot, I'm going to put you in something that's not super fast I'm worried about you getting sick and something that's a little closer to realistic, so your time isn't spent getting out the grass or running into walls.
Jeff:Yeah, resetting the pits? Okay, yeah, all right, jason.
Jason:So for me it's a little different. For me, I'll have questions for you before I decide what I want for you for you to know, like I want to know, what are you most? Do you like cars? Obviously. What kind of cars do you like? Do you like fast, or do you like immersion? What are you looking for? But if he said I don't know, just give me, just show me something cool, whatever. If we're going to go with that logic, just to keep it simple here, because when Jeff came over the house, the first sim I threw him in was Formula One, because Formula One was what he wanted to play, that's what he wanted to do. And I threw him in there for a little bit and then I said do you want to see something realistic, Do you want to see something that? Do you want to feel something crazy? And I put him in ACC, hooked him ACC all the way. His vision of F1 kind of sunsetted a little bit. When he got a sim, he played f1, but then he I was like this shit's gone.
Jason:Yeah, then it was acc for like for six to nine months yeah then he got into iRacing and then the rest is history but if I had to do it again, right, and I didn't know this person's likes or whatever I would put him in a regular ass road car in AC, in a modded map, to show him how vast worlds we can be in, something that a console can't do. Not a shot to consoles. But PC is the pinnacle of sim, it's the end game of sim racing. It's kind of like the options are open to you If you're a GT7 racer. Gt7 is great, you know, but if you want to expand it's really hard to do that with a console. So I will almost almost always steer them away from the console.
Jason:But if he tells me this simple thing I can't afford a PC or rig I say get, get a console, get, get um, get a VR headset, get AC, get um GT seven and start there. And if you like it and that's what you like to do, then stay there. So that would be the first one. And then it'll be in a slow car and an open world and a nice modded, controlled environment. That way he gets to see this is crazy. You get to see the grass and the traffic and the graphics and everything. And then it'll go back to something like iRacing and I'll throw him into a formula car where he's going to be scared to death. I'll probably throw him in an SF23 so he could probably see whoa. This is way different than what I first tried out, whatever.
Jeff:You can't just put your foot on the floor and you actually need to use the brake put your foot on the floor and you actually need to use the brake.
Jason:Yeah, use the brakes, and then I'll jump them, I'll bounce them around in different cars. You know, I'll start them at that one. Then, like, try, gt, try, nascar is a big one that I'm trying to get into. Uh, I'm not a big fan of watching it, but racing it is a lot of fun. I will say, um, racing it is a different experience, bro, because you're on edge the entire time, bro. Oh yeah, those left turns feel forever. They feel forever.
Jeff:Because they are forever.
Jason:Yeah, they're forever so and you're only doing like 30-second laps, like Jeff mentioned previously, but they feel forever. You're not worried about how many laps left. You're worried about this freaking guy crashing me or something or ramming me into the wall or you crashing yourself. But I guess those are my two. I mean, truck sim is very there's a flavor. Drifting is a high skill thing, Like you have to be into that and then to to learn it.
Jeff:They might get frustrated and be like I don't want to do this, you know that is a high skill, like very niche, like hey, I'm not sure I've known anybody that not saying it. There isn't anybody out there that got into sim racing, just to drift, I know know somebody honestly, yeah, I know people that have.
Jason:That's cool, but those are very, very low I want to say low numbers compared to the rest of us. The rest of us are trying to race other people on track, whether it be trucks, nascar, open wheel, indy GT, the numbers are way bigger. Drifting is not a competition between each other. It's about an experience. I would say this is an opinion. It's an experience that you have with other cars that are drifting with you, and it's a shit ton of fun.
Jeff:So I'll give you mine.
Jason:Yes.
Jeff:It's kind of like, basically a combination of what you guys were talking to, I think, when you put me into ACC, that was, and I was terrible.
Jeff:That was enough of like.
Jeff:Hey, the visuals were so good, but the sound gave me this like visceral experience, like, oh, this car is like angry.
Jeff:You know, this is like I felt, like I was like had another sense of like. Oh, I'm not just driving like the car, like the sound was just head and shoulders above what I ever anticipated, but like the force feedback was good, the driving experience was good, the visuals were good, um, it gave you like you were felt like you and I was in your rig, jason with triples, which helps, but you know, like which is part of the discussion like I felt like I was in the car, um, and it felt like I was really in the experience, um, so that would be one, and it'd be on a shorter track, something that you could memorize pretty quick in 20 minutes, so you could kind of know what was coming and you could kind of set up outside, dive into the line. You know you could do a little of the the race craft if you will yeah, you don't want to throw them on the nords bro yeah, yeah, good luck, buddy.
Jeff:See you in 20 minutes, you know see you two minutes yeah, um, and then I think the other one would be like a a3-ish car, some type of sports car in a set of Corsa content manager in VR, or you could just do like a older formula car, but I would put the headset on them and they were outside the rig, so they put the goggles on and they see the car.
Jason:You can kind of like maneuver around it and look at the car and walk into it, and then you can kind of like push them to the seat and then they get in.
Jeff:Like you have that, I am stepping into the car. You're not just press a button, you're dropped in it. Like you get to build that, like holy shit. Like I'm in the car, like I'm stepping into the car, like you're attached to it, like in the air force. We always say like, oh, like I strap the jet onto me, I don't get into the jet, I strap the jet onto me like you are strapping the car onto you as you step into it and you are like in the game, uh, or in the sim, you know, attach the car, um.
Jeff:So I think I'd do something like that where they could look at, look around the car and see the shifter and the, you know the dash, um, and then just drive something. It could be like a canyon drive, for for all intents and purposes, doesn't have to be a race, but just something that gives them the eric, like you said, like the, the immersion of vr, and just be like whoa, like this is something I never experienced before. This is in your house, this is obtainable to have in your house. Yeah Right, a little research. You don't have to jump all the way in, but with a PC and a VR and a wheel and base, you could have this in your house. So those are my two 20-minute polls, jason you go ahead.
Jason:The beauty of this. This man, I'm just thinking to myself and I'm like, when you came over the house, I didn't have a butt kicker, I didn't have that did at all. That has a lot right I didn't have an active pedal.
Jeff:I didn't have a winsim, I didn't have many to show you don't need that stuff too Interesting, you don't?
Jason:really need them, yeah. But then when you add that stuff, it's kind of like a reset moment, like now I need to try all the Sims all over again because I have a book. Tell me, I bet you anything. You went into Rally, you went into into formula, you went into everything again to see how, how you felt about it again. Then you add the lights right, you had the um ambient lighting and then you're like I wonder how this would react with this. And it's kind of like you, you grow with your simulator in a way. You know it doesn't matter if Eric showed somebody and he only has a single screen. Or, in my case, I have a VR headset, but it's not for me. I mean, if they, I guess you guys make sense by putting them in the VR, huh.
Erick:Just giving them a taste of what's possible the spectrum of what's out there?
Jeff:Yeah.
Jason:Because they may feel different about it than I do. This makes sense.
Jeff:So, that's a great question, man, because for those that are listening, put in the comments. If you had two sessions to give your buddy to get him into sim racing, what would your two sessions be? Throw it in the comments there.
Jason:We're super interested, or send an email for the price of 75 or f125. That's a good. You got three days that you can experience it all. Oh, yeah, yep, right, and you got three whole days. You might have to fight some people in the lines and you know some elbowing this guy For the motion rigs.
Jeff:Yeah, but you also get to talk and hang out with the people, right? I think the people is like probably 51% of why I want to go, and 49 is the motion rigs and active pedal. Let's be honest, yeah, I think it's just gonna be awesome to hang out with like-minded people that are there to you know, just passion, as you are yeah, yeah, active pedal.
Jason:Jeff, you're welcome here anytime, bro. Anytime it's right here it may have some dog shit residue on there, but it's welcome here.
Jeff:It's legitimately like three miles that way not that way it's like a mile and a half maybe, maybe less yeah yeah, maybe.
Jason:Yes, I remember I remember jeff flying his drone on new year's and my drone was in the air and I was trying to find him. But yeah, jeff was kind of flying through some obstacles, let's just leave it there.
Jeff:I was like if I don't see you again. It's been a hell of a run, yeah. Send him like into the fireworks, like into the fireworks.
Jason:Okay, good, he's comfortable talking about it, cause the damn drone was literally inside explosions, basically. And then he was flying, it was panning out and the explosions was going. I was like this drone is going to die, bro, the drone is going to be so done. But anyways, that was a long time ago, so we can't be liable. Anyways, it's that time it's that time what? Time it's that time for Track of the Week.
Jason:And this week is Mr Kelly, Mr Kelly, what you got for us, man. What did you come up with? What is the deal today?
Erick:So the deal today is a little track you guys might be familiar with. It is called lime rock, okay Park, yep.
Jason:So we back in the back in the back in the us again, the us of a, an iRacing favorite it looks like we don't change tracks in the us, we just make it and say, hey, man, deal with it well, it's because it doesn't look.
Jeff:It doesn't have time for you right now. We ain't got time for this yeah, we can't behave, then take your ass home.
Jason:We ain't changing the track. We're not adding chicanes, If it's anything. We want to go faster. Yeah, if it's fast.
Erick:Hey, but did you die though? That's the question, okay.
Jason:America's just known for being just balls to the wall, dude oh yeah, man. If we can get a faster car in here, we will put it on this track. It don't care how small it is. We were landing Concords on freaking airports that didn't fit a damn Concord. We were like, yeah, we landed there, don't?
Erick:worry about it.
Jason:It'll be fine. Just pump the brakes.
Erick:I'm telling you man, you're going to use them brakes, you're going to use their steering wheel.
Jason:Air freaking, air brakes, all kinds of shit.
Erick:What does?
Jason:this look like. This looks like a pork chop to me.
Erick:Yeah, I'm a little happy too.
Jason:Or a tomahawk, okay, a tomahawk.
Erick:A little cleaver.
Jason:I don't know where this trend came from, but this is track of the week, it's kind of like when you sit with a shrink. I've never been to a shrink Put it out there right now.
Jeff:Not that there's anything wrong with them.
Jason:No, there is not, but you know how they put the things and see-.
Jeff:Oh, like the ink. Yeah, yeah, tell me what you see. Yeah, yeah.
Jason:And I'm like motherfucker, I see a pork chop man, I'm hungry.
Erick:Hey, I can see that.
Jason:All right, well, have at it, bro. I'm sorry I can't help it. I'm getting hungry now.
Erick:I was about to say you got me thinking now, what am I going to eat for dinner tomorrow? But yeah, so this is Lime Rock. It opened in 1957. Like I said, this is in the US, so this guy's in Connecticut.
Jason:Lakeville.
Erick:Connecticut. Yeah, so it gets a little chilly up there sometimes. Interesting fact so this track is owned by Skip Barber.
Jason:Really.
Jeff:Skip. Barber Racing School, this guy sold milk and he got two tracks out of selling milk. Look, this is some bullshit.
Jason:We didn't plan this. We did not plan this at all.
Erick:This was not planned.
Jeff:This is the dude that sold milk, yeah.
Erick:This is the milk guy. The milk man. The milk man, when we talk about somebody who is dead set on racing, and I mean single handedly two great tracks.
Jason:He don't take no for an answer, bro. That's what that sounds like.
Erick:Nope, and money is unlimited.
Jason:I guess, so I'm in the wrong industry.
Erick:Bro, I'm telling you, man, I'm doing it so wrong right now, what am I doing? Get you that milk truck man. I know man I'm starting to sell milk. Man. I know man Start selling milk in Hawaii.
Jason:I'm telling you hey, man, you want some milk.
Erick:That'll be $54 million. $54 million Donation, exactly, yeah. So this track, obviously, looking at it it's a pretty simple track, only seven turns on it, it's one and a half miles, so nothing too strenuous. But it's a fun kind of road course style track, as Jason said. You know a track we've raced a lot on iRacing and you know you can get up to 140 to 160 miles on it depending on the car you're racing, so get some decent speed on there.
Erick:Some of the main events they that they host on there. They have the emza weather tech sports car championship, they have the michelin pilot challenge, uh, trans am series, uh, skip barber racing school program. So they do some training on there as well and just have other uh, just like events and autocross stuff and track days. So just a well-used, like, well-rounded track. Um, I know, for me I don't know about you guys, but the turn, it kind of sticks out of my head. I don't know if it's because it's the first one and the most dangerous one. Uh, it's called big bend, so you can see it there at the front. There In my mind it's the handle to the tomahawk, the little kind of cameraman style tomahawk there.
Jason:You got to get this turn right, dude.
Jeff:It sets up for the next half of the track. If you don't hit that one, your lap is basically crushed. Yep, your lap is basically crushed.
Erick:Yep, and it's kind of deceptive because you're going in like you got the diving turn here, where you're saving off some speed to make that turn, but going in the big bend you're wide open.
Jeff:Do you guys have to lift in a driving turn in the BMWs?
Erick:Depending on the car yes, yeah, it depends on the car. Yes, yeah, it depends on the car.
Jason:Yeah, in the BMW I have to basically climb on top of the curb, do a slight brake lift because there's a huge runoff right up here.
Jeff:Yeah, you do get them. Yeah, it's a huge runoff, I think, in the F4, you can keep it-.
Jason:You probably flat that out Keep it flat.
Erick:Yeah, yeah, it makes sense.
Jason:And make it fun, though Make it way more fun if you do that.
Erick:Oh yeah, it's scary in the BMW Because, like I say, it's one of those kind of like almost kind of technical things. We have to figure out the right combination of lift braking weight. Make sure you're not like doing too much weight transfer when you lift off. Being gentle, you can mess it up. Yeah, because if you mess it.
Jason:that's exactly right. If you mess it up, if you're a millimeter off, then you're going to find yourself slowing down even further, maybe downshifting, and the other car next to you is going to fly by you. That is a famous overtaking spot right there, very famous.
Erick:You can tell the guys that can drive from the guys that can't. That's straight. It's just like people just start teleporting past you. It's like what's going on, but yeah.
Jason:Draft too they get you.
Erick:Oh yeah, some of the big historical moments, obviously like I said 1957.
Erick:Yeah, draft too, they get you. Oh yeah, yep. And so some of the big historical moments obviously, like I said, 1957 Lime Rock Park opened with an SCCA race and it became a New England staple after that. You know, after there's a lot of other tracks up there, but you know it stuck around as long and so obviously it's kind of a cornerstone up there. Um, in 1959, carol Shelby uh raced there before retiring as a driver. Uh, so they've had some famous people kind of support the track as well. And so, uh, one of the things I want to get to was this seems to be an ongoing theme with kind of tracks in the us. So it seats around 50 000, but this is with a large open grass area, right, so no big grandstands, just like a large grassy area where people can sit I'll tell you he does not believe in grandstands.
Jason:He wants people to stand. He's like man. Listen, we blew. We blew the wine on the track we can't afford the grandstands right now.
Jeff:Stop it bring your own cooler, bring your own chair the beach chair and the cooler that's.
Jason:Hell yeah, yeah, I'll be dude, I'm set dude, you're malabama, come on yeah he's like y'all gonna tip the grass out here.
Erick:Okay, no job doing, but yeah. So a beautiful track, and one of the first games to feature this track was actually iRacing back in 2004.
Jeff:Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, it's not a super popular track and a quick alibi.
Jason:Same thing with Barber Motorsport. It was first featured in iRacing as well, so iRacing for the win, definitely.
Erick:And so iRacing actually put out a little kind of I don't know if you call it an homage, but they put out a then and now of how Lime Rock looked when it first came out versus how it looks it says now. But the now, I believe, was when was this? Five years ago. Five years ago, so not quite a-.
Jason:I'm pretty sure they updated it further.
Jeff:Yeah it's 10 years of development from iRacing right. You said 05 to 15?.
Erick:Yep, so to 2019. Wow, yep, so to 2019. Wow, so they'll skip barbercom.
Jason:It's a line rock club.
Erick:You can see the road texture.
Jeff:Oh yeah, the texture, for sure, it's light years ahead of that too, now, yeah, yeah.
Jason:Because now we have foliage yeah, so the grass is actually standing, it's not flat, it actually moves. Okay, that looks a little better, but yeah yeah these this these tracks got updated further so yeah, but it's cool to have uh, you know yeah, it was.
Erick:The thing that was interesting to me was obviously I'm going to mute this guy while we're talking but obviously, being you know in some of the iRacing classes that I'm in the D classes, this track comes up a lot. It's a simple track.
Jeff:I love the chicane, yeah, yeah the chicane is fun dude chicane.
Erick:Yeah, yeah, it's fine. Um, but seeing the the then and now, but the now being from 2019, it let me see like, oh, iracing has updated the crap out this track. He was just 2019. Yeah, I could barely recognize even the now versions of the track compared to what I've been racing, you know, here on mine. So, uh, you know we kind of talk about iRacing being a lot of money and the subscription model or whatever, but you're getting that's not comparable.
Jason:Yeah, look at this.
Erick:Yeah.
Jason:Dude. Look at the tire on the bottom.
Erick:Yeah, compared to the tire. Honestly, iracing has taught me to forget on the bottom. Yeah, compared to the tire.
Jason:So I don't honestly. Iracing has taught me to forget about the visuals and go for feel and go for realism.
Erick:Yeah, but even the visuals like the visual details.
Jason:The visuals are way better. They're still there. Yeah, that's what you're paying for this right here.
Erick:Yeah, this part here, it's not coming out in.
Jason:Q2 of 26. You know what I'm saying.
Erick:Not one day.
Jason:It's complete, but then it's not complete. No, this is you. I paid what? $15 for the track and I get unlimited.
Erick:basically, development that's being taken care of. Yeah, yeah, every update it's, you know, and they're doing it for the love of the game, as they say.
Jeff:Well, let's not. They're doing it for the love of the subscription plan too.
Jason:And there's also the money, yeah.
Jeff:You know, yeah. Taxpayer money. But it's good right they do update it they're. They're not just sucking you know, sucking you down every month for you know your fees and stuff.
Jason:They're giving it back to you with updates, the tracks, yeah, cars, except that's the problem with iRacing is that the more you use it, the more you rely on. The more you rely on it, the more it hooks into you. You're pot committed, literally. Yeah.
Erick:The hooks are in, man.
Jason:Yeah, I'm telling you, I got Formula taken care of, which could be a little better, gt Racing, 100% taken care of. And now I'm looking at NASCAR. That's three types. Come on, dude, you know, even though the NASCAR tracks are are gonna be a nice stab in the gut but.
Jeff:But even that I mean they're survive. They just have the multiplayer thing down yeah let's like it, let's not. You know, hand wave the fact that it is totally different getting on the line in an ai race versus with a human. It's just different, right? Yep, whenever when you could hear the other person say, hey, good luck everybody, and you're like it's about to get all it's, we're getting on you know yeah so you know that one what the yeah and they got, they have and they're fighting.
Jason:I'm trying so hard not to laugh.
Jeff:I'm like damn, as long as it's not you. You're like sucks for you, idiot.
Jason:Oh, if it's me I'd be getting upset, but like, what are you talking to?
Erick:So the funniest thing is getting in a race and you just hear a guy come on the car. Please, please, everybody, slow down at turn one, please. Just begging Like do everybody slow down at turn one please?
Jeff:just begging like do not ruin the race at turn one. Come on, all right, since we're talking about this, I'll never forget my first time doing a nascar race and we're on the start line after qualifying and you know, we're in the pits getting ready to get the green light and I hear somebody go hot and they're like down on the corner and they lift off and somebody else is like hot in the streets. Everybody, for like four people, five people just kept the song going. Well, I was like we are absolutely in nascar right now, like to uh t.
Jason:It was awesome so that's what I mean. Like, just think about what you just said. Just multiple cultures in the same sim, yeah, Multiple sides. I can meet another person that's playing iRacing and he will know nothing about GT World or he'll know nothing about the form, but then he's like yo but in NASCAR you don't want to come in and that's my game, that's my world. You know you. Come in here, you show some respect, you, you know you come in here, you show some respect. You know around these parts, yeah, the Iowa Speedway is mine. You got to stay away.
Jeff:I got the lab record.
Jason:That's it, you know, and I love that. That's awesome.
Jeff:And I think another thing is and I know we're jumping on the iRacing thing here, but like you, never hear about a pro racer- being like oh, I'm an AMS2. And I'm an AMS2. And I'm an AMS2 guy, right? You never hear about a pro racer saying, oh, I'm an LMU. These are facts. You don't have to like them.
Jason:The fact of the matter is the pro drivers. They drive the cars in real life and we don't, and, we don't, and we don't, and I don't care what articles you read Motor Trend, listen, stop, stop it, just check yourself real quick Daniel, morad Daniel. Morad is iRacing. There's another guy I forgot his name. He's a real F4 driver iRacing. Oh, that guy Tony Kanaan. That guy iRacing. Oh, that guy Tony Kanaan.
Erick:That guy iRacing. What's his name? It's Max Verstappen. Yeah, Max Verstappen.
Jeff:What does he drive he?
Erick:has a couple hours Max.
Jason:Verstappen, not just Max Verstappen, piastri, you have Kimi.
Jeff:Nors.
Jason:Kimi, nors, kimi, and I can just see the comments down.
Jeff:Oh I racing, fanboys, all that other stuff, but yeah, I mean or or um I renting. Yeah, there's some, but don't be right.
Jason:Isn't life rented, though? I mean seriously, do we, do we? What do you keep when you die? Nothing, you mean keep the clothes in your, like this jersey.
Erick:Hey, jeff the ultimate description.
Jason:Ultimate description If I happen, God forbid. You know what I'm saying. You want this jersey.
Jeff:I'll wash it a little bit. We'll rock that sucker.
Erick:Yeah, oh man but. I will say this One thing that I noticed that I really miss whenever I go on GT7, right, is what you were talking about, Jeff, Just the connection to the other drivers. Because if GT7 had open mics where you can just kind of everybody was in a room together, that will really change the way you raced, right. But in our racing, like you're in there and it's like you're saying Jason, you're in that world, like I'm in gt world, like you guys talk about nascar and like I didn't.
Erick:I don't even know beast yeah I don't, I don't see them, I don't. You know, I set my little filter. What do I own? What's my class? And I'm just in my world, and so just the fact that you can enter into these worlds and you're immediately in there with real people, you can take a break.
Jason:Yeah, you can take a break and venture off and see what else is out there. You could do dirt oval. There's also that. There's also rally. Cross the sky's the limit with this thing. Yes, it costs money, but so does Starbucks, and so does rent, and so does mortgages, and so does light.
Erick:That's what I said.
Jason:Is this life not rented? Because even if you own your house, you got to pay a light bill. It's coming every month. You don't own nothing.
Jeff:Nothing Over and over and crew race what you like there you go Whatever you like.
Erick:Race what you like, race it what you like what makes you happy.
Jeff:Whatever you like, race it.
Jason:What you like what makes you happy, but before judging something, please try it. That's what I would say.
Jeff:I wish. I tried it a long time ago.
Jason:Don't let the fact that iRacing costs money deter you away from an experience that you may not know. That is there for you.
Jeff:I was intimidated by it. It's not perfect.
Jason:The sim ain't perfect. We can't speak like it's freaking perfect, because it's not. There's a lot of things that I would love to see, but comparing the package all together, it's unrivaled right now, and this is July. We're about to start July of 25. Unrivaled right now, and this is July. Or you know, we're about to start July of 25.
Jason:2026, acedo Corsa could be completely destroying iRacing and we're over here bashing it. But that's evolution, right. Life is about the experience and growing and changing with it, because that's what life is. You know. We grow, we change, we like something new.
Jason:As a kid, you eat a shit ton of ketchup and then, when you grow old, you're like fuck, I ain't eating no damn ketchup, bro, leave me alone. You see what I'm saying? You can't really. There is no bias. Everybody has their own bias, but there is no full 100%. This is the pinnacle today. Tomorrow, gta might come out on the PC and just completely take us by the storm. Highly doubt it. Yeah, we can dream, but we can dream, we, yeah.
Jason:So this was a great, this is a good. This is the conversations I like, because it's not a conversation to entice you to spend money. It's us trying to open your mind to different um experiences that are out there, because I don't gain nothing by you signing up for iRacing. Do you see an affiliate? I wish iRacing. Please, nim Cross, hook the brother up. Listen, I would love to be an affiliate because I can not that I can sell you iRacing, but I can tell you how amazing it is. We can tell you how amazing it is and how much fun we've had with a sim, and when that $10 bill comes around, I couldn care less. First of all, I pay year around anyway, so I'm locked in that's the truth.
Jason:And when black friday comes around, it's recharged.
Jason:Right again, right, jeff recharge oh yeah, and if they, you know, and, and if things change, then it's like everything right, everything. Nothing is built to last. This is a life lesson. Nothing that we own or create is built to last a lifetime. So enjoy it while you have it, enjoy it while you're here, and that's it the experience you can't beat. Experiences, experiences and memories to me are worth more than objects. That's hands down. You can buy a simulator, hook it up and never turn it on. Or you can buy a simulator and drive the living shit out of it and be like yo. Five years ago I was banging out 24 hours a day. I was doing all kinds of stuff with this thing. I had my time in it. Yeah, I used to ride motorcycles. That's a big one. Oh yeah, I did a lot of things on a motorcycle and did a lot of things. But then after a while I just kind of said I had my time with it and that was a great time and that's it. I moved on, rob.
Erick:Markman. Yeah, I agree, experiences, rob Markman, even though she's still in the garage, though.
Jason:She's still there. She's cleaning in the chip. Anyways, experience is everything experiences. So don't limit yourself. If you're an LMU fan, stay an LMU fan, but if you've never tried iRacing or ACC or AC, try them. Give them a try give them a try whenever you can. I know you still gotta buy the game, but when you can 100%, try it out.
Erick:Still got to buy the game, but when you can, yeah, catch it on the sale and 100%, yeah.
Jeff:Try it out, that's it.
Jason:Try it out. There's many ways you got Steam sharing. If you got a friend that has Steam, he can share the games with you and be like hey, you want to try the game out real quick. That's totally legal, totally there for you to try. So where there's a will's a way, as we saw with the rog, I can't wait to see what that thing does on the to the market. Nintendo is probably.
Erick:Yeah, feeling that pressure yeah, not, not worried because you'll never, probably not worried. They got the mario card and stuff, but I was about to say you'll never drive mario on there, yeah that mario tire, wear that tire.
Jason:So anyways, guys, round table closing this one down. Do we got?
Jeff:anything, nothing. Man drive fast and break late all right, gentlemen, that's it.
Jason:Don't hate us, love us. Send us an email at the chicane podcast at gmailcom, like comment, subscribe and with that guys have a great start of your week, thank you.
