I couldn't find a specific thread on this, nor a sticky, so I am dare to put this question up.
I was always on the verge of taking sim racing seriously, but now i have the mood to give it a try.
(Started with Revs on C64, F1GP2 took a lot of time from me, my favourite NFS is the Porsche, played Colin McRea and GP4 in and out, but all with keyboard.)
Main questions I have:
- what is the cheapest wheel I should by, which can give me proper taste of simracing?
I assume force feedback is a must, so this should be somewhere around logitech formula force gp or something. (Older ones are tend to be cheap). The reason I am looking for a cheap one, (apart from the economical crisis + my wonderful government) is that I am still not sure if I will be a serious racer or not, but I want to give it a try.
Wouldn't be a wise idea to by a G27 just to sell it 2 months later cause I cannot find the fun I am looking for.

- Which Sim should I go for? Rfactor 1? (I do not really like formula 1, but I love NASCAR racing and touring cars.)
Is there any old gem I should try out?

Thanks in advance and sorry for bad English.

I'm glad someone bit the bullet and asked this, I've been hunting for the gold for a couple of days now!

I, however was a bit more careless, and just ordered a G27, and now I'm trying to find the sim to go with it!

So far I've tested rFactor 1, and GTR Evolution.
I'll give you my experiences with the two in the couple of hours I've spent on the demos!

rFactor is available as a demo from the rFactor website, its a full installer with limited features for demo.
GTR Evo is available as a standalone demo on Steam. Note that GTR Evo is an add on for Race 07, although the demo is standalone, you'll have to buy Race and the DLC (Both sims are very affordable though!)

Onto the sims! Note I've only played both with a keyboard so far! rFactor immediately felt a bit dated when I launched it, the menus are low res and the music is a bit ropey! I've only driven the trainer car. The cockpit is pretty well textured, but the trees etc look like they're from Doom or something! Of course graphics aren't the sales pitch for racing sims, but they're a huge help for immersion! As all the critics will tell you however, the physics are amazing! You can really feel how the car needs to be driven into the corners etc, even on a keyboard, so with a wheel it'll be awesome. The mod community for rFactor is HUGE, so it's well worth a look, even if the vanilla game is a little long in the tooth!

GTR Evo, I was blown away by. Menus are much more up to date, and setting up controls was a breeze. The demo is one car on my local track, Brands Hatch, so automatically I was smitten! The demo comes with multiplayer, and immediately I coersed a friend to get the demo. We probably sunk 3 hours ito that demo last night, and I will 100% be buying it. Graphics are as good as they could be for the games age, there is great DLC, the sounds are amazing and from my very limited feel with a keyboard, the physics felt very good.

All in all, I can see myself spending more time in GTR, because I feel like I'll need to do less work to get it to where I can enjoy myself, but I'm going to delve deeper into rFactor too and see what I can get out of it!

Hope this helps!

Hi, good questions!

I can't recommend a wheel because I tend to buy expensive hardware for myself (though the G25 I have was actually quite reasonable). All I can say is that a G27 would sell well on eBay if you decide you don't like it, and you will have minimized your losses in case you don't like it.

I don't like rFactor 1 so I can't really recommend it either, but certainly a lot of people find it good so this is probably worth checking as Ragtop said.
The simbin titles mentioned by Ragtop are really not bad if you like Touring/GT racing. I think Simbin just recently released a package with Race07 and all its extensions. There sure is quite a bit of content there.

rFactor 2 is in beta and you can buy it since a couple of days, however there is still much work to be done (beta) and it's lacking content for now.

iRacing is the best in my opinion, in all respects: graphics, physics, clean racing, web service experience with series and leagues. If you like Nascar, there are not many other decent games out there anyway. 3 months of service will cost you 12 USD, full year 99USD supposedly though there are always discounts to be had and I haven't paid more than 75.

Maybe a Driving Force GT at half the price of a G27 would be interesting. It has force feedback, a sequential stick shifter and a decent number of buttons and dials that will let you adjust and control many parameters from the wheel. I'm pretty sure this wheel also supports PC.

For simulations, a copy of the original rFactor will provide a nice basis for any mod you'd like to try out: Free mods, Touring cars, Nascar, Open wheelers, just about anything you can wish for is available from http://www.rfactorcentral.com/, including lots of tracks.

I think this is a very affordable entry as a way of testing your interest, and also giving you equipment that will let you get a proper taste of simracing, and capabale of doing a good job with other sims you might wish to add later.

Okay well first of all good choice in joining us over here in the motorsport section

Okay cheap wheels, gonna be something Logitech, i myself couldnt afford a G27 and have a Logitech Formula Force EX which is just as sturdy a piece of kit and has all the forcefeedback etc

Sims, well rFactor 1 grab that, tons of mods ranging from everything so you will always find something for you ! and you can join us here at SimHQ for the SCES Endurance racing, where you can drive a tintop or a prototype (dont worry there is always alot of us about who will spend time in the server with you to get you up to speed) and thats all fixed setups so its all down to the drivers

We also run Skoda's which is pretty much like touring cars and is a great bit of fun! and there is also a Daytona Nascar race coming up!

that is all for rfactor.

GTR/GTR2 - both great games in my opinion but the online side of things is very lacking these days, i have GTR2 and because i could only ge a pre-owned copy it didnt have a working online code for me to access online side of things, but both are amazing single player games thats for sure.

GTR Evolution/Race07 - Still another good game though i do not rate these as highly as rFactor and the GTR1/GTR2 games, though both are still enjoyable, both also have a decent following online but i dont think we run anything on them here so you would be looking at competing with complete strangers over at other sites or race2play.com

rFactor 2 beta - Amazing, i reccomend signing up and getting the lifetime membership for the online side of things, a one off payment which is so worth it! will be a beast of a game when released!

GTR3 - thats out later in the year as far as we know no beta yet though but sure to be amazing

So grab yourself a copy of rfactor, or a copy of all the above :P and get on the SimHQ server with us guys, i'm usually about so i'm willing to spend some time in server with you to help you get into the swing of things

If you are thinking of becoming a sim racer something to consider is that it very much depends on whether you want to race online or offline which sim you should buy. If online is your thing then I can recommend rFactor. The netcode is superb and on the SimHQ servers you can race without too much obligation to have to turn up to every session. The skoda races that are run regularly on the SimHQ servers are not meant to be taken seriously and as such offer a great intro into the sim and the online racing here at SimHQ. There is also the VHR mod for rFactor which will give you your nascar fix if that is your thing. As far as Iracing is concerned I would be a bit wary off going down that road unless you are sure you will commit to simracing as a serious hobby as it can get very expensive. This is another plus for rFactor as it is cheap as chips, the mods are free and the online racing is good.

If you would rather be racing offline then one of the simbin titles would be a good bet as they tend to have pretty good AI for you to race against. Personaly I would recommend you get online as soon as you feel comfortable though as no AI will ever compete with racing against other human drivers.

As far as the wheel goes you should get the best that you can afford. You dont want to be put off your new found passion by a ropey wheel and pedals that dont perform as they should. Since the introduction of the Logitech G27, you might be able to find a reasonably priced G25 on ebay. If you do go down the Logitech G27 route you wont have any trouble selling if you decide racing is not your thing.

Finally if you want to try Simracing,dont be too intimidated to join us online. I would recommend you first buy rFactor1 then download the Skoda mod from the forum thread, get on teamspeak and join us online for the time of your life. You will find a wide spread of ages and talent in the SimHQ servers so you wont need to feel embarrassed about not being up to speed at the outset. Heck I am 61 years old and can regularly be found trundling round at the back of the field and if I can do it, anybody can. So, to anyone contemplating becoming a sim racer, I hope to see you on track soon.

Thanks for all the answers, looks like you have a nice community here, which will make things easier for me.
I decided to give simracing a try, see you on the track!

Excellent welcome to the family! Let us know what you invest in and im more than happy to spend time in server with you mate, especially in the Skoda's as Stewart said a nice easy way to break into simracing, also any practice we do on server/practice races arent taken too seriously especially the Skoda's they are a nice bit of fun so, spins crashes etc we usually end up having a great laugh about lol

Hi all.
Short status report:
- Bought an almost unused Logitech formula force ex (was 30 euros).
- Downloaded R factor, re-installed Grid.
Spent a lot of time with configuring, but its getting better every time.

Further questions:
- Any maintenance I should do to the wheel? (apart from the usual dust removal)
- So far I hate if force feedback (especially the centering) is strong, so I decreased strength. I assume its not a big deal, right?
- Should I go for Rfactor2? I am still on low budget, so cannot buy everything.
- If I (sooner or later) go for online racing, are there events in my European time? My time window is quite fixed, only after my daughter went to sleep. Anyway, I will explain my wife somehow, if there is something important. I understand its not like joining Rise of Flight session.
Thanks for all the help so far, I am progressing slowly, and enjoying every single step.

In the Logitech Profiler, you can turn down the centering spring strength....you can even turn it off, too if you want. For rFactor, there's a couple of plug-ins called RealFeel or Leo's FFB....both are good and more a personal preference. The latest version of RealFeel incorporates some of Leo's settings into it.

rFactor Central is a good site for all things rFactor. A link to RealFeel is there, as well as many other additions.

If you're just starting out, and on a low budget, wait a while before making the big plunge would be my thinking. Make sure you like it overall, and you can tweak your wheel and gear to your liking. Then, go from there.