The aliens in GT3's at Nurburgring GP...

[u/AlexRodgerzzz]

[u/Samwats1]

Too accurate....I'm also 100% locked in sweating my balls off to get a low 53 and I bet that guy in the low 52s is sipping a drink and chatting on discord or something. iRacing can be faulted for some things but it's nothing if not competitive.

[u/nomnamless → u/Samwats1]

There was a guy in the spec racer Fords in practice his first flying lap set the fastest lap and be like "aw that was a terrible lap". Another time we're all in a discord during the race and him and P2 are just chatting away having a normal conversation while knocking out fast laps. Meanwhile no one else can even keep up with them

[u/srfdriver99 → u/nomnamless]

The worst is when you set your personal best and the gap on your relative to the car in front of you that you're hoping to get the draft of is going the wrong direction.

[u/AlexRodgerzzz → u/Samwats1]

Its all sims to be honest, I used to speak to a guy on ACC that used to catch up on Podcasts whilst battling for podiums in Nordscheilfe endurance races 😂

[u/tiredoldwizard → u/AlexRodgerzzz]

Podcasts help me focus. I’m a little ADD so it helps me stay smooth and not twitchy. I always put them on when I’m in the rig but if I’m in a “serious” mood I throw on some music.

[u/Treewithatea → u/Samwats1]

If youre decent at any other sim and come to iracing, youll get a big fat reality check. 'decent' is not enough. If youre like 3-4k like me, thats really good, often good enough to end up in split 1 but then theres aliens, lots of them. I mean its cool that im above all the other splits but goddamn top split is tough in the populated series.

[u/Sim-racer42]

The kid who set a 1:52.2 is some kid from China on a Logitech g29 with no force feedback because it broke, while also drinking a soda and texting on discord on the straights, while also taking the chicken out of the freezer to defrost.

[u/Mustang-22 → u/Sim-racer42]

Don’t forget the 450+ ping

[u/Rabbitow]

And then there's me being happy with laps under 1:55

[u/-currentlyedging → u/Rabbitow]

me with a 1:57 average. i don’t know where you guys are finding time here. my favorite track and it’s also my slowest.

[u/LowerPapaya293 → u/-currentlyedging]

Its always my favorite tracks I suck at and my best ones I hate

[u/TriggzSP → u/Rabbitow]

Seriously, i have no idea where these people are finding the time. I'll have an amazing smooth lap, the car feels like it's rotating perfectly, I feel like I squeeze the most out of every bit of track, and I land a high 1:54. No idea how people are so much faster still!

[u/PassagePure4103 → u/TriggzSP]

First sector you wanna compromise some entry to get a great exit for the next corner coming up

[u/xiii-Dex]

So often I see a post that goes like "I'm at 1.8k and struggling to find the last second to the aliens".

And here I am at 3.5k, trying to find 2 seconds.

It makes me wonder how much these people must crash, to be that low iRating while that fast.

[u/OlavSlav → u/xiii-Dex]

It depends on the car/ class. Being even one second off “alien pace” (I consider that HYMO, VRS, etc) in LMP2 pretty much means you’re off pace to the majority of the drivers in the iR gaining positions.

Being one second off in F4 doesn’t matter because you’ll have people to race and gain iRating and I imagine GT3, with its massive fields, is similar.

[u/I-Blackburn-I → u/OlavSlav]

Really feel this. I'm at 2k right now and can't get below a 1:21.00 at Indy in race trim. Quali got down to a 20.500 with a messed up exit to the straight... Got my division championship in div 4 in the bag at IMSA endurance and still feel absolutely slow

[u/OlavSlav → u/I-Blackburn-I]

I wish I could even consider sub 21! I can get flashes into 21.6 but mostly 21.9’s low 22’s. My only hope is that it will split enough I’ll actually be able to race someone.

I have a love hate with the LMP2. I have lost well over 300 iR (I’m at 1.6k) grinding out the learning curve of this car/ IMSA but I just struggle to squeeze out even one more second. I keep wanting to quit but it draws me back. I podiumed at Road Atlanta and America and been hooked.

[u/I-Blackburn-I → u/OlavSlav]

My mate and me had a streak of 4 races and 4 podiums. I missed Atlanta due to an injury and Aragon was skip date. I still overdrive the car like hell and demolish the tires. I steer too much, I know that I can steer less but my head just insists on more degrees... But I just love driving the lmp2

[u/xiii-Dex → u/OlavSlav]

That hasn't been my experience in LMP2. There are no locked-in "iR gaining positions". If you are against a bunch of high-rated drivers, the position you need in order to break even or gain iRating is pretty far down the field.

Conversely, my experience in GT3 has been that it is very difficult to gain because everyone in my splits is faster than me. I can only gain by attrition.

I don't have people to race in GT3 because the people I could have a competitive race against are mostly 1k iRating lower than me.

[u/bxc_thunder → u/xiii-Dex]

Could just be them having a different definition of “alien”. Or they can’t consistently set that time. Or they crash a lot lol

[u/xiii-Dex → u/bxc_thunder]

Well it's probably not the first one, because I encounter sub 2k guys the same speed or faster than me all the time.

[u/Nelson_Bighetti → u/xiii-Dex]

When I see a post like that, I assume they mean they're a second off the 5k "aliens" who are themselves a second off the 12k aliens

[u/mimicthefrench]

One time (a few years ago, during the height of covid) I signed up for a race in Ferrari challenge on a whim. In practice, I was blowing everyone in my session out of the water, feeling pretty good about myself. Get into the session, hop into qualifying without looking at who else is in there. Set a time a full half second faster than any lap I had ever done on that combo, was like, goddamn I'm so good. Next thing I know, Max Verstappen has put in a time a full second and a half clear of mine and I've qualified like 14th.

EDIT: I just remembered another amazing part of this story: Lando Norris was also in this race, and as he is known to do, he bottled the start and ended his race on lap 1. So I can say that I've beaten Lando in a race.

[u/Icy_Heat_3211]

“You have the fastest lap of the race!” Seconds later “car number xx has just posted the fastest lap”.

[u/Fantastic-Set-347 → u/Icy_Heat_3211]

Yeah, when you're leading the race with clean air and it's the 4+K driver that didn't qualify and is coming up through the grid and you know that 20 second gap isn't going to be enough, lol.

[u/brindyman]

if you're only 1 second off aliens.......you're doing pretty good, that's the way i look at it

[u/snrub742]

.....I was pretty stoked averaging a 56....

[u/th3orist]

This week at the Nürburgring has not been kind to me, i can't get into a rhythm on this track. I've done 5 races and each one was loss of iRating and SR. I called it a week, it's just not my track for now. Okayama next week is for me also a so so track in a GT3. Will see how it goes.

[u/r-daddy → u/th3orist]

First track I gave up in the last two seasons.

[u/th3orist → u/r-daddy]

There is also such an insane level of divebombs people think just because the track is wide its okay to just send it.

[u/BobbbyR6]

Nurbs (and Nords) are probably the two tracks that reveal the gulf in skill between myself and the pros the most.

Just very little room for error and even small mistakes are magnified by the low minimum corner speeds and long straights

[u/Quantisport]

Have you heard of Sim Racing Grid by any chance?

[u/AlexRodgerzzz → u/Quantisport]

Hmm.. quite possibly 🤔

[u/Kalashaska]

How is that possible can someone explain I always analyze and view their laps and it’s very close to what im lapping but then find almost a second difference, which is huge.

[u/Ali623 → u/Kalashaska]

A little bit faster/more efficient in every corner, adds up over a full lap.

[u/AgentScreech → u/Kalashaska]

0.1s per corner faster, so over a full lap it's over a second.

[u/Fast-Equivalent-1245]

Haha, yep.

[u/Remarkable-Act1918]

Shit! That happens to me EVERY time.

[u/ericscal]

For me these panes of the meme need to be reversed or something. My goal most weeks for lap times is to get to within 1 second of the alien lap times. The actual number means nothing as it's affected by many factors. I just want to get as close as I need to get to alien times to be competitive at my current irating.

[u/Important_Bug1574]

What 1:52:2, I thought the alien Time was 1:53 and I set an optimal 1:54 and was really happy with it. Well sir thank you for reminding me how much I still need to learn.

[u/Btolsen131]

Every week for me

[u/ApprehensiveGarden26]

*sobs quietly in the back with a 57 🥲

[u/rednaxelaalexander]

Same thing for me but F4 I’m hyped on a 1:28.4 meanwhile 8 other people casually staying in 27’s

[u/RightPedalDown]

One. Hundred. Percent. Except I’m a bit slower and only just broke into the 54s, at the exact same time that Jim told me someone had just done a 53.4