Checking the Assetto Corsa page on Facebook for the regular image updates and news, it was interesting to see the impressions of professional racing driver Alessandro Balzan. He’s an experienced racer, having won the Alfa Romeo 147 Cup in 2002, Porsche Carrera Cup Italian Champion 2009-2011, Ferrari Challenge European and World Champion in 2012, and finished 4th at the 24 Hours of Daytona in the GT3 Grand Am series.
Just finished to test @AC_assettocorsa I never never had a feeling of tyres and car like that. Later I will write all impression!#shockreal!
— Alessandro Balzan (@BalzanAle) August 28, 2013
The Ferrari 599XX at Monza in Assetto Corsa
The full impressions from Alessandro go into a lot more detail on the experience of driving in Assetto Corsa:
Today, thanks to the staff of Assetto Corsa and Luca Casarotto, I had the opportunity to test their simulator.
I’d like to state that I’m not paid by Kunos Simulazioni, except for the coffee, and indeed I’d like to thank them for their commitment and dedication. I’m looking forward to buying a copy immediately.
The impression, never had with other simulators, is the feeling of the car, the feel of the tyres/adhesion and especially not having to do ‘forced’ trajectories where the grip is higher. I started at Imola, professional bias, with the 458 GT2, the car with which I won the 6h of Vallelunga in real life.
In terms of graphics, the combination of track/car give a staggering result, but I do not give that much importance to the beauty. I go out of the pits on cold tires and forcing immediately, I can feel that the car is not ready… taking it easy for 2-3 laps and apart from overshooting the braking point a couple of times, I never go into a spin. It’s not me that is good but the fact that I finally feel so gradually the loss of grip on the gas. Counter-steering gives an obvious waste of lap time, but also big satisfaction for having controlled oversteer in third and fourth gear.
I could never drive like this right out of the box with any simulator, 5-6 consecutive laps without crashing heavily somewhere. Sorry in advance for the long post, I will add details if anyone is interested.
Trying the 599XX EVO, that I’ve really driven, the admiration for Assetto Corsa increases. From the sound of violent acceleration, to the active rear wing, stunning in the replay… and then a bit of vintage Lotus Senna (98T) where you are brainwashed… manual gearbox, locking the wheels, turbo lag… thank God for modern electronics!!! Beautiful and cursed at the same time.
The classic Lotus 98T
Changing to the road car BMW M3 where Aris gave me a little lesson on drifting… you can appreciate the drive-ability and the authenticity of the steering wheel even more… Watching the replay at Magione of car drifting, left you speechless, but not with me driving eh!!!!
I have one word to describe Assetto Corsa. SENSATIONAL CORSA! I’d like to thank all the guys at Assetto Corsa for the opportunity. Last thing, I wanted to write what I really think based on my real-life experience, so it should be taken as free-thinking that you might agree with or not!
Ciao!
A promising response from a professional driver, and it’s hard not to feel a little excited that a guy racing for a living comes away from a simulation game sounding that excited.
How good does the cockpit of the McLaren MP4 look?
Also looking good on the outside
As we pointed out last week alongside news of a further netKar Pro price drop, access to the Assetto Corsa Technical Preview is still available by downloading the preview file and using netKar’s licence code. The preview includes a couple of game modes, a Lotus Elise SC and an Italian track to test your skills on (Magione). From keyboard to wheel, controller compatibility is excellent and there’s always netKar to keep the hot-lapping fun going until Assetto arrives
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