Sim racing is a challenging game. You'll learn to drive a race car competitively in many diferent tracks, at diferent levels of competition, against experienced drivers as well as rookies.
SOAR RACINGis the one Racing League where you can find the challenge and the help to develop your racing skills. All of us started here with some apprehension but soon found great help and support from our fellow racers.
Check us out. In our site you will find a list of several venues you can participate in.
Depending on your racing experience, you might want to start at the easier levels of competition such as Hooters, Busch or Trucks, or you can choose to participate in Cup, Winston West or others.
You can also choose between racing On Line or Off Line.
When racing On Line, you are racing against real live drivers through an internet connection.
Off Line racing means you are racing against computer drivers, a. i.'s for short. You don't need an internet connection except to send your results in for evaluation.
The computer.- There are minimum hardware/software requirements to be met. From the game manufacturer we have minimums and recommended requirements. I think realistically the Recommended requirements are the minimum you should have so forget the minimums, you just won't enjoy the sim with them.
So what they recommend is: Pentium III 800, 128 MB RAM, 32 MB Direct 3D - compatible video card. Directinput - compatible game controller, 56 Kbmps modem. A nice, big monitor is also nice to have.
The Wheel.- Now here's a challenge for you. The wheel is as important as the computer. A good wheel definitely helps win races. You can start with an inexpensive controller but soon you'll get tired of it. On the other hand if you don't like or must give up the game, the money spent on an inexpensive wheel won't keep you up at night. I'd say, start small.
The Game.- Did I have to list this? If you don't have it, you can't play it.
Time.- This might sound silly to you but you should know that this game will eat up your spare time. It takes a lot of time to learn it, ti takes a lot of time to get good at it, it takes time to run the races and submit results. Make sure the family is going along with it and will support you.
So, how do you get started?
Here are some words of advise from a man of experience.
Maybe you're new to sim racing, maybe you're returning to the sim, maybe you've had a hardware failure and have to reinstall the sim. Here's a quick guide to getting the software installed on your PC and the correct order to do it in.
The links are located on the left hand side of the page, under the NR2003 header, look for Project Wildfire link.
While you're there, might as well download the other mods that they have listed. They also have a couple of graphics updates/patches for bgn shading and cup damage that can be installed.
You will note that many of the mods have two versions, a high res and a low res. If you have an older computer you may want to run with the low res versions, this will give you the best chance of getting good frame rates when playing. If you download the hi-res and are unhappy with your frame rates, you may install the low res over the hi res and you should see better results.
The remaining mods are pretty much optional, but in order to get the most out of them, it is recommended that you install the patch, BGN and CTS in that order before going on to install others. Once you've got the Busch and Trucks installed, you can install in basically any order. It is recommended that IF you install the Open Wheel Racing mod, that you do it with a secondary install of N2K3.
Here are some additional links to mods that we are running in SOAR-Racing:
So you read all that and understood it right? Well that's great! But if you still need help just contact the league. Directors can be reached throught SOAR Racing web site, or you can join the Forum and get answers to just about any question you have.
I realize you could be reading all this because you want to know more about the game before jumping into it so here are a few more things you should know.
We invite you to join us. We all started with little or no knowledge of what this sim was all about. We all found help and support here and made good friends along the way. Come enjoy the rewards of learning something really challenging, complex and fun.
If you want to go minimum, this is minimum and workable. The computer, monitor, wheel and keyboard, all in about a 3' wide desk. Don't forget the headphones and a good, confortable chair; you'll be seating for hours on end. The game box is included here just for general info.
