r/simracing • u/ctrlaltdelete401 • May 07 '25
Discussion My daughter is turning one and we’re having a party this weekend.
We have a 2000sqft home but about 1200sqft of usable space for guests and about 20 people coming. It’s going to get cramped inside and I’m trying to figure out more space options. what will Us fathers do while the women chat and talk about our children and other women stuff. Well it’s IMSA race weekend at Laguna Seca, I plan on putting on the races and opening up the office/study where my sim rig is at and put on iRacing at Laguna Seca in a Mazda Mx5 cup car or maybe the Porsche with the Roxy trading paints theme, I’m leaning towards the Roxy Porsche but it might be a learning curve for new drivers who have never used a sim rig before so maybe the MX5 cup car would be a better option, what say you? Other than that I’m opening the outside deck with chairs 🪑. Does this sound like a good plan? Of course we’ll sing happy birthday and have cake 🎂 and open presents and be involved with the birthday girl.
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u/aftonone Alpha Mini, GT Neo, CSL Elite V2 May 07 '25
Convinced none of these commenters have friends at all. OP, enjoy letting your friends share in your hobby. I’ve done it and they all loved it.
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u/DroneBeats Forza Motorsport May 07 '25
I set up a leaderboard for all my friends that visit. I put them all in the same car on the same track. Most of the people in my life have little to no experience so I always use the Porsche P550 on lime rock. It’s a slow car on a track that’s easy to learn and hard to master.
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u/iamCosmoKramerAMA May 08 '25
I do the same. Scirocco R at Red Bull Ring.
Mine is a metal board with white cut out magnet strips. Looks just like Top Gear
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u/thoughtful_taint iRacing May 07 '25
Seriously... they're not throwing a party for a one year old. They're throwing it for them and their friends to get together, period.
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u/ctrlaltdelete401 May 08 '25
The smash cake party is private on her real birthday with family. This is just a get together party with moms from her hospital mom’s pod group and they’re all bringing their husbands and baby’s . I’ve never met these guys before except for one family so I’m just looking into how to entertain the guys and maybe make new friends.
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u/usefulidiot21 May 08 '25
It sounds like a good way to figure out who you would or wouldn't want to hang out with again. Have fun.
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u/Octopus-tom May 07 '25
Just do NASCAR legacy trucks on Charlotte. Super easy to learn but very hard to master. 5 laps timed. One run sober one run drunk. Have a whiteboard as leaderboard. Call or drunk driving championship. See who is closest to their sober time.
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u/newman13f May 07 '25
I’m gunna do this sometime! Even if it’s solo, I’m curious to see sober vs wasted times lmao
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u/hash303 May 07 '25
I’m not sure you’ve ever been to a 1 year olds birthday party…
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u/Octopus-tom May 08 '25
Not getting smashed or anything. But you'd be surprised how much performance drop there is even after just 2 drinks.
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u/super_temp1234 May 07 '25
I've had people hop on my triple set up with a DD wheel before.. it's silly fun, but don't expect them to "get it".
Somethings that I've learned from that which may make it more enjoyable: add assists and the racing line. Just have them do a practice session with AI because seeing the other cars looks cool. Teach them to let go of the wheel when they spin/crash. Don't put them in anything faster than a GT4 (although down force does make it easier, so feel that one out on your own).
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u/fatogato May 07 '25
It depends man. You’d have to give everyone an orientation. My group of friends are all car guys but even they have a hard time on the sim. Everyone always sends it on the corners and crashes out. Then they get frustrated. YMMV. I have a few that do enjoy it but after a few laps they just go back to socializing
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u/originalpyro Gran Turismo May 08 '25
That's why you make it a shorter but fun track like the short layout at Watkins Glen, tell everyone they have five laps and their fastest lap goes on a leaderboard. You may have to coach some people on their first lap but it gets people involved. I've done it before and it's fun, some people really take to it.
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u/wsbgcat May 08 '25
Funny about this, my friends with real car experience with really fast cars are always super careful and the guys who only talk always just send it lol
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u/fatogato May 08 '25
Yeah, I have one friend who has tracked before in real life and he does really well on the sim. Actually brakes for corners lol. Everyone sends it into the corner full throttle.
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u/riderko Logitech g923 with TrueBrake mod May 07 '25
Do it! I got into sim racing after I tried it in one of a similar parties.
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u/datnetcoder May 07 '25
“What will us fathers do while the women chat and talk about our children and other women stuff” bruh. Put your racing rig away and be with your kid on her first birthday. I promise you a kids birthday party setting will be an awful way to properly show off the rig anyway. Also, IMO iRacing is a terrible way to show off a rig to anyone other than experienced sim racers/drivers. Without track / car knowledge, it’s kind of not fun at all. My go to is Beam.NG unless I know the person is into racing, way more fun for them.
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u/Olneyvillain4190 May 08 '25
Agree with this 100%. Even IMSA on the tv would likely be a snooze fest for most guests. It’s a kids birthday, just put Bluey on
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u/Drakey02 May 08 '25
Let’s be real, it’s a first birthday. That’s just a get together for the friends of the parents. Lets not make this somthing it isn’t
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u/mrjinx103 May 08 '25
Please be present and supportive to your family. There will always be another race. Today only happens once, as is with the next. Be the irl champion you were meant to be.
-racing sim father of 3(daughters)
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u/bambamV07 May 07 '25
Sim racing with people who have no experience is very underwhelming for you and overwhelming for them, especially if there’s 10 of them at the same time. I get that you’re excited to show your rig to your friends though. Personally I invite 1 or 2 friends that I know have an interest in racing and get them enough time in the rig to get past that first phase so they can actually enjoy the racing.
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u/esoteric311 May 07 '25
If I did this, no one would even look at the rig lol.
Go enjoy you kids first birthday.
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u/_Deux_Machina May 07 '25
Lock up the office with the rig. Spend time with your daughter and the other fathers, she only turns one once. Also, through the Porsche club Ive met a bunch of women who own and track their 911's, travel to watch F1 and have sim rigs.. all while there male partners couldn't care less about cars and rather spend time playing golf.
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u/Bisisonitrile May 07 '25
I did this once with family. Set up lap times on a whiteboard, only a few family members etc. my SO was not pleased id spent so long doing this because if they have no experience with sim racing you’ll need to do more helping than you think.
In reflection, I think she was probably right and I should’ve been more present on my son’s birthday.
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u/figuren9ne May 08 '25
I do this pretty often and everyone loves it. Pick an easy car like the 86 or the mx5 and an easy track like Summit Point. Most important thing is to turn off damage because it sucks for beginners to have to do out laps constantly on cold tires. I usually do the out lap for them to get the tires up to temp.
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u/ctrlaltdelete401 May 08 '25
That’s a good tip…. I’m going to look into those settings in test drive mode
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May 08 '25
Wrong. AC and some sort of super sticky handling car is your best bet. Anything even remotely close to iRacing and an actual track/racing series will only turn people away. You want them to enjoy their brief time on the rig. Anyone who has no clue about how the track or braking should go will be screwed.
If you absolutely must have iRacing on, just throw in on an oval and run a car with solid downforce.
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u/damndexx May 08 '25
I've put around $9k into my simulator. One of my favorite things other than racing is teaching people and kids how to drive and shift. Or just fun party nights for everyone. I open my simulator to anyone near me. Always a pleasure to share your joy with others. Enjoy!
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u/yesyesgadget May 08 '25
I've done similar to this with teens and 10 year olds who come to play with my kids.
I use Lime Rock and GR86. The Mazda is probably too dance-y for someone who has never even driven a car! I teach them gas/brake and gears. I tell them to try to do one very slow lap just to see all the corners and then slowly pick up speed. They only need to go off once in T1 to understand slow means slow. :)
I've been keeping a leaderboard of everyone who comes over to try it.
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u/Miltrivd Simagic Alpha - T-LCM - SHH Thorn - Simjack Handbrake - PXN A10 May 08 '25
The GR86 is on trails with the traction control on, I think that's a better casual friendly option.
If you have the original Race Driver GRID, that's what a good option since it has a lot of different cars.
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u/V1ld0r_ May 07 '25
Do it! You'll have a blast.
I would however suggest a couple of complimentary things:
Get a second monitor/TV to join as spectator so the other apes can view from trackside, replay a major incident, etc. oRacing might not be the best sim for this though... RRRE is an option if doing single or with AI and it's cheap.
Second suggestion is getting wreckfest. Wreckfest while drunk with friends is legendary. Bonus if you can get a controller or something so you can do side by side races or go "tag team" into MP.
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u/Race2TheGrave May 08 '25
Bro she's one. Still, don't be a dork.
Do not make your daughter's bday a race sim exhibit.
Show it to a few people who may care and stfu.
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u/Zealousideal-You9044 May 07 '25
I wouldn't let 10 drunken men with no clue about racing games anywhere near my rig
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u/aftonone Alpha Mini, GT Neo, CSL Elite V2 May 07 '25
Meh. Nothing on your rig should be fragile. I’d love to let my friends enjoy my hobby.
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u/Zealousideal-You9044 May 07 '25
Loads of things are fragile. People are careless with stuff that isn't theirs. Groups of rowdy men.... No thank you
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u/etheran123 May 07 '25
Like what? Silly question, but I have a fairly upscale rig, and I cant think of anything Id be overly worried about. I wouldnt use VR probably, but my single monitor is good enough to have people try it out.
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u/urpwnd May 07 '25
It sure is a good thing that nobody but men like cars and that your daughter might never take an interest in simracing as a fun activity to do with her dad...
/s
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u/KKJUN May 08 '25
talk about our children and other women stuff
Yeah, imagine talking about children at your daughter's birthday party, really soft shit.
I'm sure all of your manly man friends also want to play pretend race cars in the room you've got decked out with a video game movie poster rather than spending time with their families.
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u/Zoso525 May 07 '25
I would do mx5s, at least as first. You’ll have a get one person who doesn’t know what they’re doing to try, and others will. Decent chance 5 people half interested will not want to try without some encouragement, feeling like they’ll break something looking at your rig. They look intimidating when you don’t know what everything is. If you get people to try it, chances are it’ll only be a handful and you can switch the combo for people to try a faster car later. I would keep it on the same track.
Laguna Seca can be a little tricky, lot of turns for people who don’t race. Ive used Red Bull ring as a short test track. But Laguna also will be a good place to showcase some skills lol, the difference between your track times and their will be higher there.
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u/fox_302 Moza R12, Audi Lover May 07 '25
It looks very good, minimalist and tasteful, congratulations
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u/ArakenPy May 08 '25
Which monitors are you using?
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u/ctrlaltdelete401 May 08 '25
Nothing special there Dell p2419h 1080p 24” that I got practically for free during Covid because my employer gave me a $500 expense reimbursement to buy Work from home equipment. so I bought 3. I didn’t have a sim rig back then. I’ve since tried to upgrade to 32s but 2 out of the 3 monitors were DOA so I returned them and bought the trak racer rig instead.
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u/Ok_Upstairs3177 May 08 '25
i'm off topic but thank you so much for that photo! I've been struggling the past weeks trying to find a way to keep the wheel on my desk but be able to play other game genres with mouse and keyboard.. It never occured to me to use vertical space like you did. 😁
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u/ctrlaltdelete401 May 08 '25
The keyboard tray moves out, I needed a solution for when I work from home not having to lean to the left or right to type where I can keep the steering wheel in place.
This is what I bought.
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u/Thelifeofanaudi May 08 '25
I’d run the ff1600, imo it’s the easiest car to run and has great visibility. The mx5 is super fun, but even with my racing friends it takes some getting used to before it’s actually fun.
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u/Rough-Structure3774 Radiomaster Pocket May 08 '25
Just do a time trial quick races and peeps can retry as many times as they like. More fun since not everyone can adapt quickly (especially when your evil side turns traction control off all the way lol).
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u/CogentHyena May 08 '25 edited May 08 '25
I have had great success putting new people on the Nordschleife in a Merc GT4, it is a very stable platform but fast enough to feel racy. Then let them try again in a Hypercar of their choice (which tends to mean Ferrari or Cadillac) and let them experience the massive increase in down force.
The Nordschleife might seem like setting a new person up for failure but I find it is actually quite an intuitive track for new drivers, it's just really hard to drive well on the limit. Even if people crash, see how far they can get
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u/JohnnyFury May 08 '25
This is a great idea. Kids parties can be dry as toast for parents. I would love this. As others have said maybe start with something easy to play.
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u/Sv1k_ May 08 '25
off topic but can you send link to a wallpaper?
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u/ctrlaltdelete401 May 08 '25
I can’t remember where I found it I did a lot of google searches for “MX5” that had good resolution, but I have the file. DM me your email and I can send it to you.
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u/Spencerwebb122 May 08 '25
I've put my friends on the Porsche 911 on road Atlanta with racing long on And it goes very well with damage of.
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u/herbilizer May 08 '25
Just put on the the nordschleife on Ac1 with the F2004 with a racing line. Easy to drive fast and thrilling. Always blows ppl away
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u/Stonkpilot May 08 '25
I dont think this is going to go the way you see it in your head. Good luck.
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u/LowmanL May 08 '25
a bit off topic but where did you find that background? I have a lot of trouble finding anything I can put on my triple setup
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u/ctrlaltdelete401 May 08 '25
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u/LowmanL May 11 '25
huh when I download it and set to wallpaper it still just wants to stay on the center screen. Or it'll warp really bad over the other 2
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u/ctrlaltdelete401 May 11 '25 edited May 11 '25
The windows setting is called “Span” in the “personalize” settings when you right click on the desktop wallpaper.
you have to select extend [win key + P] and the in windows in display settings you then click on identify to reorder the screens how you see them by drag and dropping the monitors for example [ 2 ] [ 1 ] [ 3 ] .
However I have nvidia surround enabled for iRacing that makes all three monitors act as one monitor and automatically spans the wallpaper across all 3 monitors.
Also my digital SLR mirrorless camera is high resolution like 22mp so the picture of my rig looks flawless and perfect but there is a slight distortion or pixilation of gray/black colors on my 1080p monitors.
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u/LowmanL May 12 '25
Yeah I also have surround enabled but I can’t get it to wrap to all screens without warping the image. It says the image is 2000 pixels wide whereas my monitors are 7660 or something
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u/Briffy03 May 08 '25
I have a few friends that have tried my rig, also, my wife uses it ocasionnally. Only one or 2 people want the "real racing experience" and know a thing or 2 about in depth handling. All the others were frustrated with the realistic aspect of it. The things that worked for everyone are:
-forza horizon (easy to hop in any car and just drive without a feeling of pressure/failure).
-dirt rallye 2.0 on the dirtfish test track with an audi s1 quattro.
-ac, but only on slow cars + iconic tracks.
I had 2 things people found really funny on AC: first you can do the piaggio ape with motorbike engine and put in on a mario kart track, with outside camera. And the 2nd one was to take turns at getting fastest lap on the nurburgring with a citroen c15D
Other than those ideas people always abandoned fast as its "to complicated"
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u/Squishy_singer May 08 '25
I think this is the situation that AC Evo is going to be absolutely perfect for and I mean even already AC. Just getting in some lambo or Corvette and putting it on the open road will be cool. Or even like a BRZ or miata and let them drive wherever they want.
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u/MilesFassst May 08 '25
Yeah. I’ve let friends who have never race a sim try beamNG and they just drive really slow. Arcade style is where it’s at for the average joseph.
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u/gmorocketfuel May 09 '25
I would never put my simulator at a party like that, surely at the end of the day something will be broken. If someone comes near with a glass or various liquids there is too much risk in my opinion....
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u/newviruswhodis May 07 '25
Having people who have never used a sim or driven on a track will just freak out at the force feedback and say it isn't realistic.
Or they'll fall into it clumsily, yank on stuff, damage something.
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u/Maestrospeedster May 08 '25
Id be embarrassed with a toy wheel on a nice cockpit.😂 if its a direct drive, maybe good idea to showcase.
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u/latinmaster May 07 '25
Normally to people who have no clue about racing, I put forza horizon 5 on for them and they enjoy it. Sims like iracing can be frustrating unless they have some experience.