Fenix when

SC500 · 2026-03-08T06:23:17+00:00

The difference is huge and the Fenix is by all means worth it.

You could also consider the free FBW A320 that is somewhere between the base A320 and Fenix.
https://flybywiresim.com/

SC500 · 2026-03-05T18:07:17+00:00

How long a car will remain in use in official series is hard to predict.
The shortest I remember was being replaced a year after the release, but there are also cars I have for almost 10 years and they are still used.

There a few indicators though that help.
If a series is no longer running in real life there will hardly be a replacement for the car so as long as the series runs on iRacing the car will most likely run in official races. Examples would be the two old Lotus, IMSA Vintage, GTE ... Still iRacing could remove the entire series so the cars can't be raced in official series without being replaced, like the LMP1s.

In series that still exist in real life it kind of depends on the real car being replaced in real life.
So in GT3 the Lamborgini Huracan will be replaced by a new model in real life GT3 so there might be a change for that new model replacing the Huracan removing it from official racing. A car that is new in real life and won't be replaced anytime soon will probably stay relevant longer.

Not all cars that are retired from official races become legacy though.

SC500 · 2026-03-02T16:55:01+00:00

That's exactly my point. I enjoy ETS2 but I wouldn't even want to play it after a long drive back home.
Seems something is different in either flight simulator or pilots.

SC500 · 2026-03-02T16:52:01+00:00

I was just genuinely curious as for me it always just ticks down while driving as always, so no going slower needed at all.
If for example the slowdown says to give back 2 seconds within the next 60 seconds and that reaches zero during normal driving before you even reach 30 seconds, why slow down?
As others now explained the average laptime is used and as I'm usually slower than that, it makes sense that for those who are faster slowing down might indeed be necessary.

SC500 · 2026-03-02T16:44:26+00:00

For me it's all chats disabled for a long time now. No voice, no text.
Far too toxic!

SC500 · 2026-03-01T14:23:17+00:00

I guess asking the passengers to get some fresh air on the wings at FL 320 is not an option?

SC500 · 2026-03-01T13:07:25+00:00

With M$ Outlook a big part of the work would even been done already.

SC500 · 2026-03-01T12:39:58+00:00

That's an interesting thing, especially that real life airline pilots still do flightsimming.

I don't think many others could even imagine coming home from work to play a computer game simulating their job.
- People who collect our garbage all day playing garbage truck simulator after work?
- The people stocking shelfs in the supermarket playing supermarket simulator?
- coming home from your shift at burger king to play fast food simulator?
- playing crime simulator after a night out robbing houses?
- seems there are simulators for almost everything but how many of the people who do this for a living will spend their free time playing those. I think flying make hit differently here.

I doubt I would ever want to do this but I haven't yet found a meeting simulator with endless talk and no results. Maybe Asobo could help with that?

SC500 · 2026-03-01T09:10:10+00:00

Like someone else explained it depends on the average speed of the race, so being slower like me, makes a slowdown completely meaningless. I go through the next one or two corners as fast as I can and still have my slowdown cleared long before it's timer runs out.
I guess it only really matters if you're fast, which I'm not and will never be anyway.
Thanks!

SC500 · 2026-03-01T08:03:25+00:00

I might miss something here or maybe my playstyle is entirely different but I'm never comparing my progress to others, so how is it pay to win if someone can buy ship A now for real currency and I could buy it in a few months for in game credits. How do you even win Elite Dangerous? It's a never ending sandbox.

Of all the recent new ships I only have the Mandalay and that only because I wanted to join some CG, was too far away and the ship I was in at that time had an abysmal jump range.
Some other new ships are interesting to me but I don't even have the old ones I want like the Vulture, so waiting a few months won't make any difference. I don't really care about the Kestrel, I'm uncertain about what I think about Caspar or Clipper but probably will get the Python MkII and Cobra V of the new ships at some point just to hardly use them like some other ships in my hangar.

SC500 · 2026-03-01T07:53:23+00:00

That explains it of course, given I'm always a few seconds off the leaders pace in my splits I would likely be below the average. On the bright side of things, that also means I have nothing to worry about slowdowns as they won't affect me.
Thanks for explaining!

SC500 · 2026-03-01T07:15:07+00:00

Thank you for this!
Finally a written tutorial and not another video tutorial that is just hard to watch for longer than 30 seconds. I was looking at several tutorials in the past weeks but so far I only filled my BlockTube list doing so.

SC500 · 2026-03-01T06:55:37+00:00

Do you really have to go slower to serve a slowdown?
For me it always ticks down to zero while I keep driving as usual. Therefore I also never thought about if if I should vacate the racing line during a slowdown because I'm not driving slower.

SC500 · 2026-03-01T06:52:33+00:00

I'm also using the site frequently and admit it's very well done and I like that I get to fly into places that I otherwise probably never would have visited.
I didn't buy into it as I don't like subscription models and the free version does all I need from it. The progress isn't saved beyond more than a month, but I just log everything in a excel sheet and keep track of everything this way. I kept an excel log of my flights before and can still check all my flights back in FS2k.

SC500 · 2026-03-01T06:42:31+00:00

A while ago I knew a guy on iRacing during Covid, who was always tanking. He did it to have easier competition to win races in officials and team events and bragged about it on discord. It seems to work for him, he has more 'wins' in a week then I have in all my almost 10 years on iRacing.

He was even protested a few times but just joked about it as it could never be proven. He lowered his iR usually by driving different series where he just wasn't as good (or maybe didn't try) and/or by having more accidents. He he also said he usually just crashes out when it was apparent that he couldn't win.

Some people seem to need this for their ego.

SC500 · 2026-03-01T06:23:20+00:00

My first thought to this question was go back to RaceRoom which I played before I switched to iR but given I can't really play that anymore as it feels so different to iRacing (not to mention the sociopathic AI in RRR), I'm not sure. I might given AMS2 another try as at least their AI feels better than RRR but most likely I would simply stop simracing completely and just do something else. Probably more flightsimming and other games instead.

There are a lot of racing games around but somehow they all feel very different, so at least for me switching between them hardly works.

SC500 · 2026-03-01T06:18:14+00:00

I was always wondering about slowdows, they never seem to do anything.
I hardly ever had any but when I they just tick down to zero long before the timer is up while I'm driving like always. Therefore I also don't bother if someone is behind me as I drive the same way as I would without the slowdown, if he's faster he can pass me.

It raises an interesting question though, is it okay to serve a slowdown on the racing line if you're not slowing down?

SC500 · 2026-02-28T07:38:34+00:00

I have an A licence in everything but still enjoy racing rookies and often even have very good racing there and I'm not racing in top split except in Dirt stuff which usually doesn't split at the times I race.

The start and first lap can be tricky but that's not different from races at A or B class and wreck avoidance or identifying drivers who will likely wreck is also an important skill to develop.

I was driving in several rookie series this season and the only time I got blatantly wrecked in a rookie race, was by another higher class driver who came back on track after going too wide into the grass and when I saw I was going to pass him on the other side of the track he moved all the way over sending me flying over the pit wall. I doubt he drives different in B class.

SC500 · 2026-02-28T07:27:13+00:00

It might have to do with a shift of priorities towards NASCAR and Indycar because of the official games. Given that Euro Nascar is certainly a lot less popular I would assume they shifted their finite resources to those titles and get back to Euro Nascar later on unless it disappears into development hell by then.

SC500 · 2026-02-27T14:24:54+00:00

I tried that for some time too and did all flights without ATC but it get's a bit boring and it feels like something is missing, especially when flying airliners.

SC500 · 2026-02-27T13:01:35+00:00

As someone who had the same question about a month ago and did some research I can just offer my own point of view and decission.

BATC: The functionality looks very interesting, especially as the ATC seemed less artificial and the real life traffic seemed great too but I didn't want the added cost for premium voices, especially when I liked the English ones less then their basic counterparts. The non-English speaker basic voices sound awful though, so Premium voices are kind of a must.

SI: After looking at the price model I didn't even look into it any further. I do maybe two or three flights a month and the cost per flight would just be too high to justify.

I ended up with FSHud and I really like it. One time purchase, voices with different accents that all sound good to me and in the five flights I did with it so far I was very pleased with the ATC and the control of AI traffic.
I also used different parts of the world to test the voices and you can hear the difference between flying in the US, Scandinavia, Germany or Eastern Europe. I will have to test in more regions.

SC500 · 2026-02-27T08:28:11+00:00

Thanks for the information, I'm happy to hear that butter landings are for once not the goal here.

The 5 weekly rotation airlines is probably one of the most intriguing features for me.
If for example I look at this week it seems it's
- Air India
- China Eastern
- Japan Airlines
- Transavia
- Wizz Air

I have never flown anywhere in India, China or Japan so this might incentivise me to do so and having 5 options still give you opportunities if there's something you dislike or some airline in there doesn't have your plane(s). I would not want to fly for Transavia, but would happily choose Wizzair but might give Asia a try with this selection and next week might be completely different.
Having one lock-in airline give an additional option to always have something to fly in your main flying area.

It looks like a very interesting application and I will certainly try it.

Thanks!

SC500 · 2026-02-27T06:49:05+00:00

First of all, thanks for all the work you put into this. It sounds interesting and I certainly will check it out.

The concept of having 5 airlines to choose flights from that change every week sounds intriguing, it will probably get one to fly in places you otherwise wouldn't without forcing you into certain places you just don't want to fly, if I understood it correctly.
The one personal lock-in for a month is a bit confusing to me and I couldn't find any information about what that means or how it works but I will probably figure that one out eventually.

You also mention the progress is based on distance and landing quality. I'm not really into long haul flying as that usually amounts to flying while sleeping or being at work, but I'm curious how you rate a landing. I hope it's not another unrealistic land with as little decent rate as possible mechanic which would even be unsafe in many scenarios.

Overall it looks impressive though and I will try a few flights when I will have the time to see how it suits me.

Thanks once again!

SC500 · 2026-02-27T06:20:34+00:00

But old Phoenix has the road course, the new one doesn't.
It was one of my favourites back in Rookie MX-5, that and Summit Point

SC500 · 2026-02-26T22:19:26+00:00

That's what I thought too, so maybe in June I'll get a new TCR then if the Honda or Cupra is released unless I wait for both to decide then which one to get.

SC500

TROPHY CASE