All News: iRacing News

Commodore’s Garage #13 – Tire Pressures

November 18th, 2016 by Matt Holden

  Tires are a racing vehicle’s only form of contact with a race track and, as a result, can be the reason why a car is a race-winner or a mid-fielder.  Many factors can determine how well a tire is gripping the track surface, from tire compound, to load, and especially its own behavior when … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #12 – Tire Data

November 4th, 2016 by Matt Holden

Whenever we put a race car on track, be it real or virtual, we have two things that can give feedback on how the car is performing:  The driver, and the tires. Drivers are usually very literal when they communicate what the car is doing. If it’s starting to spin, they’ll say it’s loose or … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #11 – Sway/Anti-Roll Bars

October 21st, 2016 by Matt Holden

  I had a professor in college say, “Springs for speed, bars for handling”.  It’s a short, but interesting statement, and it’s a concept that’s easy to forget and go about things in the other way when tuning a race car, be it real or virtual.  Modern race cars, oval cars especially, have seen huge … Read the Rest »

Behind the Scenes: The NASCAR Peak Antifreeze Series powered by iRacing.com – And So It Shall End

October 18th, 2016 by Matt Holden

Sixteen races.  2400 laps.  3600 miles.  Over all that distance, the championship came down to two drivers, and between those two drivers, it came down to two points.  In my opinion, the finale to the 2016 NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series was one of the most exciting races I’ve ever seen, including real-world races.  Two points … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #10 – Track Bar

October 9th, 2016 by Matt Holden

  Before moving into initial setup options on our cars and how to go about getting what you need to race, we still need to cover the “bars” in the car.  Stock cars typically have a front sway bar and a rear track bar (or Panhard Rod), while road racing cars have a front and … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #9 – Bump Springs

September 30th, 2016 by Matt Holden

So far we’ve gone over how the main springs work on the car, but we still need to cover secondary springs, or “bump stops”.  iRacing has recently overhauled the Gen 6 Cup cars and the Xfinity cars to use bump springs, but those still fall under the category of bump stops.  To understand why the … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #8 – Coil Binding

September 23rd, 2016 by Matt Holden

Last week I went over the various thing that can influence your spring choices for a given track.  How much banking, amount of bumps, and even the weight of the car can drastically alter what you need in your race car, but can those rules be broken?  Of course they can, and it’s not uncommon … Read the Rest »

Nissan GTP ZX-T Comes Alive Again on iRacing

September 20th, 2016 by

In the mid-to-late 1980s, Jaguar and Porsche ruled the sports prototype racing roost, especially in the IMSA Camel GT Series.  But beginning with a win at Miami in ’87, progressing to Geoff Brabham’s IMSA Camel GT drivers title in ’88 and culminating in an ‘89 season that saw Brabham narrowly edge teammate Chip Robinson for … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #7 – Selecting Springs

September 16th, 2016 by Matt Holden

  Last week we looked at how springs work, how they’re rated, and the different types of springs that may be available on our virtual race cars.  The big question, however, is always “What rates do I use?”  Older sims had flaws in the physics, so spring choice was simply based on what you could … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #6 – The Spring

September 12th, 2016 by Matt Holden

In the history of sim-racing, nothing has been more associated with chassis setup than the springs.  At the same time, nothing has been more misunderstood than the simple coil spring.  There are countless different kinds of springs, from coil, to leaf, to torsion springs, and everything in between, and racing series regulate them heavily.  When … Read the Rest »