Nine years have already passed since Assetto Corsa was launched on PC. Nine years during which the amount of official and unofficial content for this game has been steadily growing day by day. The ability to mod Assetto Corsa has kept this simulator from falling into oblivion even after nine years, making it more relevant than ever today.
From cars, tracks, apps, graphic mods, weather conditions, physics, day/night cycles, to Android Auto integrations on the vehicle’s interior screen, we’ve seen almost everything in Assetto. It’s the “go-to” for anyone who wants to have some races or practices with any car they can imagine on any circuit they can think of.
On the other hand, something that was always missed to fully enjoy its magnificent mods and physics was an online racing system, iRacing-style, with a licensing system and parameters that measure driving abilities and cleanliness on the track, to avoid ending up in the chaotic sessions seen on standard and freely accessible servers.
That’s when the folks at Low Fuel Motorsport, after all this time refining the system in Assetto Corsa Competizione, published the following tweet with a survey:
If you had to choose… which simulation should LFM include next?
— Low Fuel Motorsport (@LFMotorsport) September 4, 2023
Assetto Corsa won the survey with almost 80% of the votes.
We didn’t want to get our hopes up, but it was impossible to calm the hype with that announcement.
After three months of silence, LFM releases a trailer on their X account (Twitter).
We won't tease you any further, this time we promise you'll get what we're up to.
We are happy to announce.. pic.twitter.com/SnDlpa2uZv
— Low Fuel Motorsport (@LFMotorsport) December 1, 2023
The alpha test was ready, and anyone could test it.
How can we start racing on LFM with Assetto Corsa?
The first thing we need is the original game, ULTIMATE version on Steam. It has to be this version since many mods use original content. You can find it at a symbolic price with our link:
Next is the Content Manager. Honestly, if you already have Assetto Corsa and don’t have this mod/launcher, you’ve been living in a cave all this time. This launcher is the best thing that has happened to Kunos’ title since it came out. Trust me, it should be integrated into the official Steam download. You can get it here:
It’s not necessary to pay for the full version. The free lite version is sufficient.
We also need the Real Penalty, a mod that quantifies penalties for contacts, track limits, etc. You can download it for free from the creator’s Patreon:
Another recommended but not necessary mod is SOL, although we strongly recommend installing it. It’s a weather and time transition system developed by Peter Boese that allows day-night transitions, graphically improves the game by taking care of exposure, and provides even greater realism. It’s completely free, and you can download it from Race Department. Read the instructions carefully as it includes an executable that installs everything automatically.
Additionally, some of the series organized by LFM will require some car or track mods. On their website, they will provide the required link to participate in the series.
Once we have all this, we are ready to register on LFM. We go to the official website and select the original Assetto Corsa icon:
That’s it. Content Manager and the LFM website will “communicate” with each other to prepare the races. Don’t forget to activate the real penalty once you are inside Assetto Corsa!
We hope that this platform has the same reception as Assetto Corsa Competizione , and with the immense amount of content that Assetto Corsa has, we can have a great variety of championships and series different from what we are used to seeing in other simulators (ahem GT3).
With the arrival of Assetto Corsa 2, and after seeing how well Kunos and LFM worked together (just look at the support they gave each other through Twitter), we wonder if for Assetto Corsa 2, Kunos might count on LFM’s help to create a competitive and enjoyable online experience. Who knows.
We’ll see next year!
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