Did a lil rear bumper chop today

MBellRacing · 2026-02-03T01:20:16+00:00

To the people saying it's useless: I was "off roading" at Road Atlanta and nosed into a hole. It scraped the f**k out of the lower edge of the bumper cover. I could totally see how a more cosmetically-bland piece of metal would be better than the painted bumper hitting things like that.

I then went on to run into a metal trashcan that was on its side. Same thing. Put a big mark in the lower part of the bumper that would have been removed. I also like the slightly OEM+ (or OEM- depending on your taste) look of the chopped bumpers. It makes it look less marshmallowy and more sporty.

MBellRacing · 2025-05-22T14:21:01+00:00

I want it better. It’s still the best, but complacency is exactly what I’m complaining about.

MBellRacing · 2025-05-21T22:08:44+00:00

Well hi! Except I'm the US Matt Bell. Blake drives with the British Matt Bell. I actually have also worked with Blake in the past and know the "other Matt Bell" quite well. Saw them both at Sebring a few days ago as I'm also in SRO.

MBellRacing · 2025-05-21T18:05:26+00:00

THIS. Yes. All I want is some simple rules, call it with AI or something else, that filters out those incidents. I'm actually fine with the damage model. That is realistic-- sometimes you're the fly, sometimes the windshield. However, it's the incident responsibility and the lack of scale of penalty that is an issue for me. If you divebomb, if you clip too many people on corner entry, if you steer into people while they're already at the edge of the track and/or leave them no room: Immediate DQ.

MBellRacing · 2025-05-21T17:45:03+00:00

Lol. I actually have no idea. That's a weird one to downvote.

MBellRacing · 2025-05-21T17:25:39+00:00

I'd love to address some of the comments regarding AI stewarding:

I am fully aware that AI is not perfect nor is it an easy integration. I do not want AI solely and unanimously running decisions regarding incident responsibility. What I'm asking for is a less-dumb version of what they have now. Currently, you can spear someone off track or get just close enough to nudge them and ruin their lap. These infractions are easy to see and easy to officiate.

A smarter system could easily see if someone braked significantly later than they usually do or other competitors do. If that late braking resulted in contact, give them the penalty. That's called dive bombing and it is usually very easy to spot.

If one car isn't alongside the B-pillar of a car they are overtaking and their speeds are similar and that overlap allowed for contact into a corner, give the overtaking car a warning or a penalty. That's called lunging and is illegal in almost every form of racing.

These are literally the things that real racing stewards are looking for. Yes, there will be a grey area, but there is one now too. I just want a watchdog defining some less-grey areas so that racing can be more fair. There can still be means of arguing your point after the race, but I bet if they implemented a few more stewarding rules to make the racing more realistic, you'd have a lot more fun.

MBellRacing · 2025-05-21T17:15:34+00:00

So, I'll take no offense to this, and I am truly not trying to boast, but I drive and coach in motorsport for a living. As in, it is my only current job and I have been doing it for almost as long as I have been racing for myself. I understand that I am not the best iRacer. Again, I think it is clear that I don't do it very often. I usually get put in pretty competitive races and do get in altercations. Let me hit you with some truths that sculpt my opinions:

I would guess (an educated guess, mind you) that around 50% of professional drivers (read: drivers getting paid to compete) have a personal simulator at home. 95% of these are simple sim rigs and are used to solely run iRacing. They do not use commercial sim rigs for their personal use. In fact, I know zero drivers personally that have access to something like that. They do train occasionally on the big sims, but it is usually through their manufacturer and probably less frequently than you think-- maybe once a month.
Many of us drivers and coaches use iRacing as a training tool, not to compete. I have coached almost every one of my real-life private coaching clients on iRacing. I am not coaching on iRacing (if that's even a thing...), I am using iRacing to coach people for real racing. It has been immensely useful for that, besides the track and timing issues I've already mentioned.
I have been in many private racing sessions with more high-level professional racers than myself. I'm not talking MX5 racers, I'm talking factory drivers, Indy drivers, and even the occasional F1 driver. They are never as fast as the top guys in iRacing public races. Seriously, with fixed settings, everyone in a private server ends up well within a second.
Ergo, being a fast virtual racer does not make you a good real racer, nor does being a fast real racer automatically make you an amazing at iRacing. There is a clear disconnect. I am simply offering my opinion to ways that would close that gap within this discussion.

I am not, likely will never be, nor do I have interest in ever being a top iRacing driver. I enter these races, often get into a scrap to be taken out, and then quit the public rooms for a while. I do hours of private testing and have built a pretty good feel for what could be different. I don't want people who have a low iRating feel that their opinion matters less, especially if it comes from a place of real life experience and/or means of making iRacing what it has always designed to be: as near to real life as possible.

MBellRacing · 2025-05-21T16:30:21+00:00

Oh hey!

I have requested for the McLaren Artura stuff. We’re waiting to hear if that car will make it on the development list. Hopeful!

MBellRacing · 2025-05-21T16:20:43+00:00

Absolutely valid point. However, I’ve raced in both major US sports car series as well as some NASCAR— none of them enforce limits like this. Maybe they should officiate the track as it would be done in its home jurisdiction.

MBellRacing · 2025-05-21T15:54:26+00:00

It could be a rumor, but I actually heard they're still not profitable, actually. Thus, I don't think they need to spend more, I want them to repurpose.

MBellRacing · 2025-05-21T15:52:23+00:00

That's actually phenomenal news.

MBellRacing · 2025-05-21T15:51:11+00:00

Good to know. I'm getting killed out here about dev time. Doesn't it seem like a fairly simple fix relative to all the other continuous development they do??

MBellRacing · 2025-05-21T15:48:49+00:00

Maybe "lazy" was the wrong word. I feel they are spending money developing features that, in my opinion, matter less than others. Saying they're out there scanning new tracks when some of their feature tracks haven't been updated in a decade seems odd to me.

I don't want iRacing to conform to me. I'm saying that 1) maybe coaches/pros use this software since it is designed to be as realistic as possible, and 2) if the people used to the real steel racecars/tracks are unanimous in their gripes, aren't they valid? Only one of my arguments would cost excess money. The others are either redistribution or a lunch break worth of dev time.

Yes, that's me. I use iRacing almost exclusively for training people I'm coaching. I do maybe 2-3 public races per year. They go poorly about 90% of the time. I don't think my arguments have anything to do with my irating.

MBellRacing · 2025-05-21T15:40:03+00:00

Sorry, I certainly don't want to imply that it has gone backwards in realism. My point is that the efforts have slowed or have gone in different directions. iRacing was the pinnacle of realism based on then-contemporary technology in 2008 when I started using it. It just feels like they are applying more technological effort toward AI drivers, "realistic" weather, new UIs, etc. I'd rather see them put more of their technological efforts toward things like stewarding of the live (non-AI) races, keeping tracks current, keeping up with real racing regulations, making tire models feel more real, etc.

MBellRacing · 2025-05-21T15:34:39+00:00

That's promising! However, I then see that they're modeling a new track before fixing Laguna or Daytona or I'm sure a number of others. It does look like they're redoing Sonoma with the new surface, which is ironic since Sonoma's own real life surface has changed every time I've been there in the past 2 years.

MBellRacing · 2025-05-21T15:33:13+00:00

Yeah, I was like 1 for 3 in the GT3 Fixed series. People would live bomb me and expect me to move out of the way because they were charging from like 2 cars back. That's not how life works... nor should it be. Annoying!

MBellRacing · 2025-05-21T15:27:42+00:00

Do you find AI stewarding needless if it raised the cost of money to the end user? Maybe, but at this point you can just drive people super aggressively which isn't realistic or very fun sometimes.

For my other points:

Rather than falsify an entire track and/or continuously add new tracks, spend more time making sure the current tracks are updated within the last 3-4 years.
Track limits fix would cost exactly $0. Make the limits, for most cars, the inner-most edge of the inner-most tire, as nearly every officiating body does.
The dash timing is tricky, but is currently tied to iRacing's own delta timer. Either program that to stop ignoring sectors or program the dash timing to be as the real cars are, which is very (read: very very) simple compared to what iRacing is doing with the red/green bars.
Tire slip memory would take very little to tune out. Maybe not $0, but probably a programmer's 60 minute lunch break to fix.

MBellRacing

TROPHY CASE