OnlineRaceDriver.com celebrates it’s first birthday

Having been a gamer for roughly 28 years, and a journalist for over 10, I’d thought about starting videogame sites for a long time – in fact my first paid freelance work was for the Official Dreamcast Magazine a long time ago. But it was just over a year ago I finally put some of my ideas into practice and got together with a few people to launch OnlineRaceDriver.com.

The basic philosophy behind the site (and the more recent launch of FPSPrestige.com) is that videogames are a huge part of daily life for many people, and a large number of those people are very passionate about particular games or genres. So why is it that sports magazines generally focus on one particular sport such as football or basketball, with in-depth knowledge and coverage, but gaming magazines and websites attempted to combine coverage of everything, even when journalists and writers admitted they weren’t particular fans of certain types of game? Why shouldn’t gamers who love racing games read news, articles and features by people who live and breathe racing games, or have experience of racing in real life, to give the kind of insight needed for a really in-depth and valid opinion?

Hence why I spoke to people like GTDon, whois incredibly experienced in the Forza world, having started the Forza World Championship many years ago. And TomBowker, who combines an obsessive passion for Formula One with an obsessive passion for F1 games, and also asks questions like ‘Where’s the safety car in racing games?’

And luckily enough, a surprisingly large number of people seem to agree with our plan, considering in our first year, with no money for promotion, advertising, or celebrity endorsements (At this point I have to credit Jigowatt for helping out with our logo), and just enough to secure hosting and a blog template from StudioPress), we’ve achieved:

• 46,831 Page Views.
• 30,705 Visitors.
• 59 Fans and growing on Facebook. (We haven’t really promoted our Twitter account yet!)
• Over 1,100 views of our videos on Youtube.
• We’ve been credited on sites such as Wikipedia.
• We’ve started going racing

Not bad for a few guys who have only ever talked and raced online. And over the last year, we’ve had some great articles. The most popular so far have been:

• Where is the safety car?
• Is iRacing enough to buy racing?
• Cars missing from racing games: #1 The Metro 6R4 (I really need to update that series!)
• The Non-Racing Dept – Hands on with Kinect Sports
• The Demise of Two-Player Split Screen

So what’s next for 2011?

I have a slight confession to make, in that we actually officially launched the site on January 3rd, but the excuse is that we’re all busy working on new stuff.

For example, the current OnlineRaceDriver shop on Cafepress has been updated to rectify our initial logo/colour problems, and we’ll be expanding the range soon.

And if you’re a smartphone user, you should find that the site automatically transforms itself into a smartphone-friendly version when you visit us. It should work with most handsets, but let us know if anything is broken…

Plus the track directory and various other areas for the site will be overhauled to make them way more useful. Plus there’s some new stuff on the way.

But most importantly of all…

We now have an OnlineRaceDriver forum.

So if you want to chat with other racers, get tips on a particular game, track or corner, swap set-ups, ask about getting liveries painted, or anything else to do with online racing, sign up now! There’s also a section for chatting about real world racing, as so many of us are fans of all motorsport, and a For Sale/Bargain area if you’re looking to offload a game or accessory, or you’ve spotted a racing game on sale for a bargain price.

We’re expanding our coverage, with more games, more information and more racing than ever, plus we’ve got a couple of new regular writers and some additional guests. We’re lining up more features, getting involved in more race series and generally going all out in 2011.

But we need you!

It’s you that makes this worthwhile and makes it work by reading and hopefully enjoying what we do – so let us know in the comments (or on the forum) if you’ve got ideas, suggestions, contributions etc. Sign up for the forum, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, and share our content if you use Stumbleupon, Reddit, Digg etc. It’s all free for you and much appreciated by us.

And if you do happen to be in the market for a new game or accessory, if you plan on buying from one of our linked retailers anyway, why not use our links? It won’t cost you anything extra, but does mean that we might get a few pence towards hosting costs and improving the site.

Time to party?

Now if you’ll excuse me, rather than celebrating with a few beers and a cake, I need to get back to practising for the next IFCA ALMS race at Mugello on Saturday, and there are some stories to update first…

Thanks again for making ORD so great over the last year

Dan

ORD enters the IFCA ALMS series

Well, when I write ORD has entered the IFCA ALMS series, what I really mean is that I’ve foolishly decided to enter season 3 of the American Le Mans series being run by the IFCA. And I’m describing it as foolish because I haven’t raced competitively in a few years (Since the days of the unofficial Forza World Championship), I’ve barely tried the GT class cars (I tend to hover around B Spec when racing online), and the season kicks off on Saturday at 8pm UK time on the Sebring track (Which is one of the least familiar tracks for me). Plus I haven’t even started painting the car and adding the decals required to be part of IFCA racing.

But aside from that, I’m looking forward to getting back into organised Forza racing, and there’s still time left to sign up for the series.

The racing includes four classes, using the following cars with some specific upgrades allowed:

LMP -

• ’08 #2 Audi Sport North American R10 TDI
• ’09 #9 Peugeot Sport Total 908
• ’09 #2 Audi Sport Team Joest R15 TDI
• ’09 #007 Aston Martin Lola
• ’09 #66 de Ferran Mortorsports ARX-02a

LMPC -

• ’08 #16 Dyson Racing RS Spyder Evo

GT -

• ’07 #80 Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3-RSR
• ’09 #40 Robertson Racing Ford GT
• ’09 #92 Rahal Letterman Racing BMW Motorsport M3 GT2
• ’08 #71 Tafel Racing Ferrari F430GT
• ’06 #81 Team LNT Panoz Esperante GTLM

GTC -

• ’02 #42 Realtime Racing Acura NSX

This brings me to the first dilemma. I’ve decided to go for the competitive and popular GT class, as I’m not a fan of the NSX in Forza, and the faster cars would simply increase the chances of me causing a racing incident. I’ve found over the years that I don’t particularly like the handling of the various Porsche models I’ve tried, which gives me a choice of 4 cars. At the moment, I’m leaning towards the BMW M3 GT, and I’ve only got 5 days until the race to try the cars, decide which one I’ll be sticking with for the first three races of the series, and set it up.

The races are all an hour long, with a mandatory pitstop to be taken after the end of the first lap, and before the 55 minute mark. And there are eight races in total:

• Race 1 Sebring Full 22 January 14:00 CST / 20:00 GMT(UK) / 03:00 West OZ (sun)
• Race 2 Mugello Full 29 January 14:00 CST / 20:00 GMT(UK) / 03:00 West OZ (sun)
• Race 3 Road America 5 February 14:00 CST / 20:00 GMT(UK) / 03:00 West OZ (sun)
• Race 4 Nurburgring Nordschleife Full 12 February 14:00 CST / 20:00 GMT(UK) / 03:00 West OZ (sun)
• Race 5 Nurburgring GP Full 19 February 14:00 CST / 20:00 GMT(UK) / 03:00 West OZ (sun)
• Race 6 Silverstone Grand Prix 26 February 14:00 CST / 20:00 GMT(UK) / 03:00 West OZ (sun)
• Race 7 Road Atlanta Full 5 March 14:00 CST / 20:00 GMT(UK) / 03:00 West OZ (sun)
• Race 8 Le Mans Full 12 March 14:00 CST / 20:00 GMT(UK) / 03:00 West OZ (sun)

The championship is being supported by Forza developers Turn 10, and the prizes are:

END OF SERIES
1st = 1,500,000 Gift Car (excluding DLC)
2nd = 1,000,000
3rd = 700,000
4th = 400,000
5th = 200,000

And finally, and possibly most worrying, the races are being run with simulation damage, which means I’ll need to be hyper aware of the drivers around me, and those LMP cars coming up fast behind…

Still, I’m looking forward to making my return to competitive Forza racing, and I’m looking forward to 8pm on Saturday when the worrying stops and the racing starts! I’ll be updating on my progress, so expect some increasingly nervous posts up until Saturday, and some shame-faced racing driver excuses being wheeled out on Sunday! One bit of good news is that I’ve got my race number for this season, so keep an eye out for #180

The ORD FM3 Community Choice Classics Project Car

The Community Choice Classics pack of downloadable content for Forza Motorsport 3 has now been released, for 400 points on Xbox Live. And like most people, we rushed online to download it – after all, it’s probably the most interesting car pack released for the game, with the following cars included:

• 1971 AMC Javelin-AMX
• 1973 BMW Motorsport 2002 Turbo
• 1970 Chevrolet El Camino SS 454
• 1971 De Tomaso Pantera
• 1982 DeLorean DMC-12
• 1987 Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth
• 1990 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II
• 1978 Saab 99 Turbo
• 1983 Volvo 242 Turbo Evolution
• 1957 Ferrari 250 California

But we want to do more than just start racing in our shiny new cars. So what better time to unveil an OnlineRaceDriver project car. And from a list including the Ferrari 250 California, the Sierra Cosworth and DeLorean, what better car to pick than the 1983 Volvo 242 Turbo Evolution.

You’ll notice that we immediately re-sprayed it in non-original schoolteacher beige, and added the obligatory OnlineRaceDriver logos. But that’s all so far. The plan is that over the next few days and weeks we’ll explore how to tune and improve the Volvo, build on it’s strengths and combat the weaknesses to make it a truly competitive racer.

Luckily, as the self-nominated Volvo pilot, I’ll be able to call on the immense skills of our own GTDon, and at just 7,500 in-game credits, it’s easy to pick up a small fleet of Volvos to compare tweaks and changes. Plus, with the Swedish dedication to safety, I know I won’t get hurt when I inevitably wreck it.

Finally, before you mock the Volvo too much, keep in mind the 1983 Turbo was built for racing homologation in Europe. That means just 500 were built, all sold to Volvo of North America, and 30 went back to Europe to race. All of the special edition had flat bonnets and upgrades including larger radiators and intercoolers, water injection, the rear spoiler, and better suspension.

Bad set-ups can lead to good lessons…

I’ve slowly been working my way through the single-player event list in Forza Motorsport 3, and having had good results with the racing spec Cadillac CTS-V, I figured a B Class version would be a good choice for 31 laps of Mugello.
Unfortunately I was either drunk or not paying attention when I tuned the B Class version. To put it mildly, it was slow, handled like a tank, and had no rear grip whatsoever. But instead of quitting out and sorting the problem, I persevered, and it turned out to be a useful experiment.

So what can you learn from sticking with a crappy set-up for a few laps:

Better insight into your driving style:

Good set-ups hide some of your bad habits, and emphasis your good ones. Driving something with terrible handling highlights I’d gotten lazy with my throttle control, and a few laps later, I’d started driving far more smoothly.

Better insight into your typical set-up:

Quite often I’ve been focusing on increasing power at the expense of better handling. And yet, driving the CTS-V, I realised the biggest problem with it was actually the cornering speed and the traction out of corners. Power is definitely useful, but only in the right circumstances.

Driving round problems:

After a crash or a mechanical problem, it’s more important to adjust your driving style. Driving something which handles like a wheelbarrow gives you some practice just in case it happens.

You appreciate the good cars a lot more:

Suddenly you’ll have far greater appreciation for a well-sorted car! You might have thought you had major problems with your best set-ups, but once you’ve raced a heap, you’ll realise that actually they’re nothing to worry about…

So…

Anyone want to buy a slightly-used, raced once, ORD-stickered CTS-V? Sometimes there’s too much of a good thing!

ORD: F1 at Spa and F1 2010 comparison

Last week I went to the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. And you can see the pictures I took to provie it in the gallery below. I came back from one of the world’s best circuits after three days’ camping very happy (go Lewis!), very tired and very wet, but with my appetite even more whet (yes you do spell whet like that, even if it does look like a silly word when it’s written down).

I’m whet, not wet, in anticipation of Codemasters’ F1 2010, and having already been very excited about the game which is released in less than three weeks (September 24th), seeing real F1 cars roaring through the Ardennes forest made me want to have a go myself even more.

At the age of 27 and with no track record in any form of real-life motorsport I have to admit my chances of obtaining an F1 drive are now looking slim (however I would like to confirm my availability if any team bosses are reading) and it looks far more likely that I might just have to get good at F1 on the PS3, and I was excited to find that I returned from Belgium to the availability of new in-game footage available on video.

So how realistic is the game compared to real life? Well it looks pretty good. Conveniently someone has made this video putting some F1 2010 gameplay footage of Jenson Button’s virtual 2010 McLaren against some real-life footage of Heikki Kovalainen in the 2009 car – so you can judge the comparison for yourself. Someone else has done the same thing (here) for Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso lapping around a drenched Monza in against Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari doing it for real in 2008. Apart from the gorgeous-looking weather effects the game looks lovely. The cars look well balanced handling-wise and there appears to be an accurate fine line between maximum speed and total disaster.

Obviously we have no way of knowing what difficulty settings the virtual racers were using or any idea of their own skill levels, but my hopes remain high. The game isn’t going to exhilarate me in the same way as watching cars fly up Eau Rouge for real but if it can recreate just a little bit of that excitement I’ll be a happy man – and a much drier one too.

If you haven’t pre-ordered F1 2010 yet then:

• F1 2010 at Amazon: PS3. Xbox 360
• F1 2010 at Game: PS3. Xbox 360
• F1 2010 at Gamestop: Ps3. Xbox 360.
• F1 2010 at Play.com: PS3. Xbox 360. PC

ORD at the NHRA Nationals

Greetings ORD fans around the world! Time for a little show and tell at this years BIR Lucas Oil Full Throttle NHRA Nationals in Brainerd Minnesota two weeks ago!

This is the motorsports event of the year in the great north woods, and one I always attend with my trusty and knowledgeable sidekick “Cuda500″ (a.k.a. Warren). Rather than give you a boring list of names of winners and losers from a sport that I realize many of you have no knowledge of, I’ll just caption the following pictures for you.

Well, I hope I wasn’t too brief and that you all enjoyed the pictures. I can’t show you what happened each every night after the races, but drinking adult beverages was high on the list.

Full Throttle,

GTDon

OnlineRaceDriver goes ‘Back to the 50’s’

Once again it was, “Back to the 50’s” this past weekend at the MSRA “Back to the 50’s” 37^th annual car show in St. Paul Minnesota. With 11,795 cars on display only the State fairgrounds is large enough to handle this record setting outdoor summer event. In fact, this is the largest 3 day rod and custom car show in the world! 125,000 spectators were drawn in this year. The only restriction to be in the show, is to have a 1964 or older car.

My own entry is a candy apple green 1955 Chevy, originally purchased new by my grandfather in 1955. With 120,000 original miles on its 265cid V8, and 3-speed manual transmission, it still glides over bumps like it has four over inflated inner tubes, rather than tires. Driving the old car is a real step back in time as it has no power brakes or steering. Everything happens in a kind of ‘take your time’ slow motion whether turning or braking. Acceleration provided by its approximate 165hp small block V8 is merely average in these modern times, but was actually above average in 1955. Maybe that’s why seat belts were only an option. Gas mileage for the first OHV V8 Chevy ever produced, is about 25mpg on the highway thanks in part to a manual overdrive, and not a single pollution control device. Not bad for a 3600lb car that turned 55 years old this year!

Without further ado, I give you, “Back to the 50’s!”

Full throttle!

GTDon