I was able to complete a couple of races with Race 07/Race On/STCC this weekend. It seems like it is a lot harder to control the cars than it does with rFactor. I had to bump my game settings down to "Novice" in order to get the enjoyment factor up a little. I know it depends on what car you are using, but at least in rFactor I was able to get on the track and compete using the SimHQ race settings.

Are the physics/game engine that much of a difference between the two sims or is it my lack of experience?

The two physics/game engine are actually quite similar although the feel of the cars can vary greatly depending upon the mod/car you are using. On the whole i find the two fairly comparable. Which car(s) were you using?

I was using the Chevrolet Lacetti.

Race/Evo/On does the WTCC cars pretty nicely and the Lacetti isn't too difficult, although it does lack all the extra aero widgets that help the rFactor DTM's. I suspect you just need a few hundred more laps

Thats what I figured. It was just a bit of a shocker from practicing on the SimHQ server starting to feel a bit more confident, then moving over to Simbin, and feeling like I'm majorly struggling to keep up while trying to stay on the track.

Was Race07/Race on built on Simbin's "Lizard" game engine? I never tried either of those titles, so I don't know a lot about them.

GTR2, I beleive, was built on ISI's engine, which is what rFactor uses. From everything I've seen and read about it, it's just a very tweaked out version of the rF engine, especially with the weather possibilities. I think GTR2's a bit harder to get a handle on myself, car handling wise, as opposed to rFactor.

We've tried to hold some Simbin series events around GTR2, but in spite of all efforts, the turnout was less than 10 cars for races with few exceptions. I have GTR2 sitting there on the game server in wait, and would not mind a series with it if the turn out was good. If P&G3 opens up their mod to more people, I would probably suggest we try it next. But that is TBD pending the mods release.

Are you trying to achieve good laptimes on the Top Gear track?

Power & Glory covers an era I think would make for good racing, kind of along the lines of GPL for tin-toppers....no real aero, steel brakes and a mix of other things that take the car more out of the equation and add the driver into it. From what I've read about version 3, it sounds promising....received my copy of GT Legends in the mail today, just wating for the mod to be released.

Maybe when GTR2 comes out on Simbin's store again things could pick up?

edit: then again, I forgot there's the issue of mismatched versions not being compatible.

The Lizard engine, as far as I know, has only used in Race Pro so far. I don't think any of the new offerings have used it yet.

edit 2: http://www.raceroom.net/shop/
Collectors edition showing now, that sounds interesting.