Ever since I was a little boy, I frequently visited the Zandvoort race track in my home town. It is without a doubt a legendary race track and hosted F1 races up until somewhere in the late eighties. It was absolutely my favourite place on earth back then. Legendary racing cars went round the track almost every odd weekend and I was there almost all the time with my dad. Now, more than 15 years later, the racing blood is still there and I watch Formula 1 (and Formula E since last weekend) every race, including qualifying and sometimes FP. I don't visit the race track that often anymore, but when I do, I get this giddy feeling of 'I want to do this as well!'

I have played many, many, many racing games, from Mario Kart to Forza Motorsport and from PGR to Gran Turismo. My favourite racing game of all time, I suppose mostly due to the multiplayer aspect, is PGR3. I had many a great night playing with my friends, playing Cat & Mouse or doing just regular races.

A friend of mine works at a company called Cruden. They make (F1) racing simulators. A couple of months ago, he let me drive one of the simulators for the first time. I did a few laps around Zandvoort and it was that dream. The one of driving around the track in a fast car. This was a fast car. Naturally, it wasn't the real deal, but with all the pneumatics and the actual F1 racing wheel in my hands, it kind of felt like it.

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I don't know if it's clear from the picture, but that thing is loaded with pneumatics, hydraulics and whatever else. It mimics the movements of an F1 car pretty well and it's a nerve-wrecking experience.

Since that moment, and especially since I raced again in the sim with two friends of mine in two others simulators during a real-time multiplayer match, I wanted to get into sim racing. The both of them are avid sim racers, so I asked what simulators I had to get and which steering wheel to get the best experience for my money. A week ago, I got myself the (expensive but amazing) Logitech G27 with H-shifter and a copy of the Steam Early Access game Assetto Corsa.

From what I can tell, the game is great. I am running it on my Macbook Pro with Bootcamp, so it's not the prettiest atm. Nevertheless, it runs at a steady 60fps (with a dip here and there in multi or when I am fucking up fantastically). I have played it for about 10 hours now (including two from before I got a wheel with a broken X360 controller). I am noticeably getting better as my confidence especially in the corners and under braking is growing.

I am now frequenting Imola with the Lotus Evora GTC. It is a car I really like and handles forgivingly which is good for a beginner like me. Remember, apart from some more arcadey racing experience I have no experience whatsoever, so this is all very difficult. I am off the track more than I am on it, but when I am blasting around Monza's parabolica with the Formula Abarth I am sure I can take on the world. That feeling is fantastic.
I am running a 1:49 now with the Evora GTC on Imola and tonight I will be checking out more tracks and more cars to see another great combination to master. I made this thread really to find more racing sim fans and to see if there is a community that can teach a beginner like me things.

I will probably use this thread to keep you updated about my progress. And please, tell me about your racing (sim) experience! It's so much fun to get to know eachother!

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This is how Assetto Corsa absolutely doesn't look on my computer. That Lotus is a beast though! I respect Senna even more now...

Great game, ill check out what time i ran with the Lotus GTC at Imola too.

What about the sim from your Cruden friend? Can't you just buy the software alone?

They make their software in-house, so no. But that's okay, it's not about the software, nor the car of track quality. Software-wise, Assetto is much better. Their hardware is just much, much better.