VELOCIPEDE Posted March 4, 2025 Author Posted March 4, 2025 The 2025 Season 2 build update includes a major overhaul of GTP physics and tires, for a much more realistic, challenging, and rewarding driving experience. Tires now take longer to reach their optimal temperature, making the out lap a critical part of race strategy. Grip has been reduced, particularly at high speeds, meaning careful throttle control and precise steering are more important than ever. In fact, over a two-minute lap, the updated tires alone can be several seconds slower than before—but this is by design. Real-world endurance teams manage their out laps carefully, and now, you’ll need to do the same. To make this update feel more authentic, we worked closely with real-world drivers with experience in both GTP and Hypercars. Their feedback played a crucial role in refining tire behavior across various conditions. Using our tire design tools, we iterated on the model over 100 times in pursuit of greater realism before finalizing the release spec—delivering a driving experience that more closely mirrors real-world performance on the track. The former release missed the mark primarily in high-speed cornering performance, which resulted from too much grip. The adjusted model is true to life and can be a handful at times, especially when the tires are cold. iRacers should reacquaint themselves with their favorite GTP or the LMP2 in test sessions before jumping into a race with their iRacing peers. Practice leaving the pits safely and establishing warmth in the tires. What you experience will give you a greater appreciation for the skill involved in piloting these technologically cutting-edge and high-performance racecars in the real world. Phase 2 of this update includes a complete overhaul of the hybrid system to bring it up to date with the design of the current real-world cars and appropriate rulesets, which remains on track for a Season 3 release. Introducing Adaptive AI - a new feature where AI Drivers automatically adapt their skill level to the driver instead of a specifically selected value. Quickly jump into a session with Adaptive AI to learn a new car or track as the AI progressively adapts to your speed as you improve throughout a race. Adaptive AI can be enabled under "AI Opponents" in "AI Racing." There are 4 AI Difficulty options labeled Easy, Medium, Hard and Extreme that are customized specifically to you.
VELOCIPEDE Posted March 11, 2025 Author Posted March 11, 2025 The iRacing 2025 Season 2 Release Build has rolled up to the starting line! This release has new content, features, improvements, and fixes for 2025 Season 2, which officially starts on March 18th at 0000 UTC! The iRacing vehicle garage expands with three new bays for three brand new ARCA Series racecars: ARCA Chevrolet SS, ARCA Ford Mustang, and ARCA Toyota Camry. The Legends Ford '34 Coupe has received a stem-to-stern performance and physics overhaul, with a few art updates and all-new audio for good measure. The iRacing landscape also grows with the addition of Portland International Raceway. The Track Art Team has also completed multiple full art overhauls of SEVEN classic NASCAR tracks including: Bristol Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Dover Motor Speedway, Homestead Miami Speedway, Iowa Speedway, Kansas Speedway, and Las Vegas Motor Speedway. We are excited to launch the Official Series Redesign, which transforms the way you can browse, learn about, and join Official Series within iRacing - the new full-page layout provides more space and more info than ever before. A new Connectivity Black Flag system has been implemented, which will place participants with connections that are detrimental to others in a type of time-out until their connection quality reaches a satisfactory level. The track debris refresh system has been expanded with the addition of informative local course debris caution flags. The new Adaptive AI Difficulty system is almost ready to debut with this initial release, but we have decided it needs a bit more time in the oven to get extra crispy. With this system, AI Drivers' racing skill will automatically adjust during the event based on the driver's lap times to keep the racing exciting. This feature will be released during a 2025 Season 2 Patch. Our vehicle engineers have completed work on updates to the GTP Class Cars and the LMP2 tires, providing substantial improvements to the changes from 2025 Season 1, ultimately resulting in greater realism. The Ray FF1600 has received an improved suspension geometry model, which improves accuracy across all four contact points and will be the pioneer for changes to other vehicles to come. Six additional tracks have been updated with the 3D modeled curb system (with more coming soon), making the racing experiences there more real-to-life than ever. The entire iRacing Simulator has also received significant lighting updates that transform the appearance of cars and tracks. The Legends Ford '34 Coupe has been updated to be water-ready and may now equip rain tires. The updates to this car have been so substantial this season that the Legends Ford '34 Coupe - Rookie car is being retired. AI Drivers have received updates for a variety of rain racing tracks and have adapted to the updated NASCAR tracks that now feature SAFER barriers. The Dallara iR-01 and seven new track configs, including Portland International Raceway, are AI-racing ready. Finally, our vehicle dynamics team has recalibrated hundreds of vehicle setups to take advantage of the gamut of changes to all cars included in this release. Get ready to jump into all that the 2025 Season 2 has to offer! Season highlights include: ARCA Chevrolet SS ARCA Ford Mustang ARCA Toyota Camry Legends Ford '34 Coupe vehicle overhaul Portland International Raceway SEVEN NASCAR Track Art Overhauls (Bristol Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Dover Motor Speedway, Homestead Miami Speedway, Iowa Speedway, Kansas Speedway, and Las Vegas Motor Speedway) SIX Tracks with New 3D Curbs (Circuito de Jerez - Ángel Nieto, Kansas Speedway, MotorLand Aragón, Rudskogen Motorsenter, Sandown International Motor Raceway, and Winton Motor Raceway, with more coming soon.) Official Series Redesign Connection Black Flag Local Course Debris Cautions Universal Lighting Updates GTP and LMP2 Tire Updates Ray FF1600 4-Bar-Linkage Suspension Model The Legends Ford '34 Coupe is Rain-Ready! AI Racing with the Dallara iR-01 AI Racing at Portland International Raceway (both configs), Daytona International Speedway - NASCAR Road Course, Moto, & Short, and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course - Chicane & Short Hundreds of meticulously improved new iRacing vehicle setups
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