It took me a while too clue in on this. But I have come to realize that what I can watch in racing vids, has a pretty big effect on what I choose to play with in my racing sims. When I first started playing GTR2 a few years ago. There were tons of FIA GTR vids from the last 10 years to keep me interested and feeling like I was racing against real people. There were also lots of profiles and write ups about the drivers from that era to make it feel like racing against real people. Then I got into multiplayer racing. Which had WAY too much drama and too much single mindedness. (Gotta master this track before Tuesday. F&CK!!!!) So when I started playing RRR3 seriously a couple of yrs ago. There were DTM vids everywhere. So I was very inspired to play all the DTM experiences at that time. Not sure what happened with the DTM but now less than 1/2 are open to view for me "Not available in your time zone" messages. So I lost interest in that. No connection there anymore. Then I got interested in the WTCC. Great fun until JM Lopez and Citroen completely dominated the series. "Yawn" who's competing for fifth. Lost interest in that as well. So the american TransAm and IMSA races have gained my attention. And consequently my interests have fallen into the Whelen corvette and other cars of that class, procars 1 & 2 and the corvettes, mustangs and cameros in the gt3 class. Since the GTLM class is the american equivalent of the FIA GT3 class. I'm quite happy with this. The GT3 class is probably the most diverse and interesting in the game at this time. And great fun. It really helps with the immersion factor for me to know a little about the drivres of a certain era. It feels more real too me. Just wondering if any of you are having a similar experience. Or am I just a nut case?
For me it's actually the opposite, I have found interest watching racing series after I have raced 'em in R3E. Something to think about for the ones holding the licenses!
Never watched much racing until I got into sim racing. So the tv has no impact on my choices. I chose cars based on my past experience with them. And as heppsan said above, something for the license holders to think about.
The IMSA GTLM class is the equivalent of the gte class or gtr2 in r3e. The GTD class on the other hand is now a 1:1 equivalent of the GT3 class. Not to rain on your parade or anything, there's just a very big difference
Just to expand on this a tiny bit, as it seems really confusing for most people, IMSA utilizes the ACO GTE and GT3 specifications with their own alterations. So basically if you have an ACO GTE compliant car you can race in IMSA's GTLM category and if you have an ACO GT3 compliant car you can race in IMSA's GTD category. However, you are allowed to change some specific things in the IMSA rules that you cannot do in the ACO rules. The main reason they do this is to maintain their own 'special' setup that they can balance and change according to their desires for competition and the specific tracks they run. The other benefit of running this style is that ANY of the teams that compete in GTLM can alter their cars back to GTE specification and go run in the WEC or Le Mans. Similarly this allows the GTD teams to more easily cross over from things like Blaincpain or some of the 24 Hour series with minor modifications. But you are absolutely correct that GTLM cars are more akin to R3E's GTR2 while the GTD's are more akin to R3E's GTR3. Some people may not see much of a difference between the way the GTR2 and GTR3 cars feel, but when you look at the lap times you get a sense of the higher speed of the GTR2 class.
All true and Good to know. Thank you for your elaborations. But my point was much simpler than that. What I was saying, is that since I've been watching more IMSA and TransAm racing, I have become more interested int the american makes Fords, Chevys and the radicals. Which are the Prototypes and procars. I don't really care what group they are in.
Yup, same here. Picked the McLaren to race with since I like McLarens -> learned the "Blancpain" on the GTR3 windshields means the real-life Blancpain GT series -> found out they livestream everything on YouTube > minted a new Blancpain GT series fan. If it's not F1, NASCAR, or IndyCar, it really doesn't get broadcast in North America. So it's been through RaceRoom (and this forum) that I've discovered first-hand (virtually) a lot of this current European touring car and sportscar goodness. Keep it coming. @marshma11ow8 : nice avatar.
Yes, for sure! Between 2003 - 2007 / 08 I drove each full NASCAR Cup season in NR2003 with a race length of 30%, approx. two hours for each offline racing event (practice, qualification and race session).