iRacing – Ultimate Buyers Guide for Season 1 [2022]

Since we know that iRacing can be expensive, especially when starting out, and just like you, we like to protect our wallet, we bring you this little guide to guide you in your first purchases.

First of all, we would like to give you some tips that you should keep in mind before starting each season.

• Plan your season: first of all, check what content you have and what series you want to run last week, so you can make responsible purchases. Always keeping the following point in mind.
• Try to earn $10 at the end of the season with iRacing’s participation program. Remember that if you complete at least 1 race in 8 different weeks in D-C series, iRacing will award you $4 for each of those completed series. If you complete at least 1 race in 8 different weeks in B-A series, iRacing will award you $7 for each of those completed series. But remember that iRacing will give you a maximum of $10 at the end of the season. That is, if you complete 3 D-C class series, (3 series of $4) iRacing will give you $10 at the end of the season, just as if you complete 1 D-C series and 1 B-A series ($4 plus $7 gives you $11, but you will always get a maximum of $10).
• You don’t need all the cars of a series to be able to race, if you have only one of the different cars of that series you can race.
• Try to always buy 6 pieces of content per purchase. This is because if you buy between 3 and 5 pieces of content, iRacing will give you a 10% discount on that purchase. But if you buy 6 or more pieces of content in one purchase, iRacing will give you 15% on that purchase.
• If you don’t know what to run, or what car to buy from a category, we recommend you to use the iRacing test drive page. It is only available during iRacing maintenance hours and you will only be able to test the content you have downloaded. (You can download content that you have not purchased, don’t worry).

Now that we are clear about all these recommendations, we present you 3 different purchase recommendations so you can continue advancing in your iRacing career. As we always clarify, the decision is yours and only yours, always analyze the whole situation and make the decision that best suits you. You can even discard these recommendations completely and make your own lists if you wish.

NEWCOMERS

We will always recommend that those who start in this world start with Assetto Corsa (the original) as it is a very cheap simulator, with enough official and mods content, and with a pretty good force feedback. But if you are one of those weirdos (like me) who want to start directly in iRacing, we can recommend the following.

Since, in theory, you do not have much practice, you do not fully master the cars and do not know very well where to go, we recommend that when you leave rookie you continue using the cars that come in the base content, in Road these are:

• Global Mazda MX-5 Cup
• Formula Vee
• Kia Optima
• Cadillac CTS-V
• Volkswagen Jetta TDI
• Radical SR8 V8
• SCCA Spec Racer Ford
• Pontiac Solstice Club Sport

All these cars are very different from each other, so you will be able to polish your skills and define what kind of cars you want to race in iRacing. At the same time, they allow you to participate in up to 5 different series between classes D and C, so without investing a single extra penny, you can move up to class B.

Now, as we know that from class D onwards, there are less and less weeks to race in base content circuits, we must buy content little by little so as not to be too short.

Taking into account all this, and the suggestions at the beginning, we recommend you to make these purchases this season to be able to participate in 5 different series, completing 8 weeks in 2 of them and thus obtaining $8 dollars at the end of the season.

• Road Atlanta
• Spa
• Hungaroring
• Reb Bull Ring
• Barcelona
• Interlagos

With these circuits, you will be able to compete in all these series and complete 8 weeks in the Sim-Lab Production and Spec Racer Ford.

Notes:

• Clase = Class
• Semana = Week

OPEN-WHEEL SERIES

If you already have a bit of simracing experience and want to get to where the single-seater racing juice is more quickly, we recommend you make the following purchases:

• Skip Barber
• Dallara F3
• Hungaroring
• Nürburgring
• Road America
• Red Bull Ring

Unfortunately, with this content you won’t be able to complete the 8 weeks in any iRacing series, but if your pocket allows it you could buy two more circuits for Skip Barber and get the $4 for the end of the season. At the same time, with this content and some other small purchases, you could complete the 8 weeks in any other series of which you already have content. Of course, F3 has open and fixed series that share the same calendar, so you could complete the 8 weeks to compete in both series and get $8 at the end of the season.

TOURING CAR RACING

In this case we are going to cheat a little bit and we are going to recommend you to buy 7 pieces of content instead of 6. Why? Because this way you will be able to compete in 6 different series and you will be able to complete 8 weeks in two D class series, getting at the end of the season $8 from iRacing. Now, if you are tight on money, leave out the BMW and focus only on the Ferrari, which only allows you to compete in 4 different series. And for sure for next season, you would only have a little more content to be able to complete the 8 weeks in the GT3 open and fixed that share the same calendar. The content would be as follows:

• Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo
• BMW M4 GT4 (optional)
• Knockhill
• Red Bull Ring
• Spa
• Watkins Glen
• Monza

With this content, you could compete in all these series.

If your money is very important to you and you don’t want to waste it, always remember to make smart purchases that you can use to your advantage. Don’t go by what is in fashion or what is trending at any given moment, because the series may have a very fast drop in participation and you would be left with unused content.

Remember, you can join iRacing clicking here.

See you on the track!