rFactor2 seems otherwise quite promising but I never got comfortable with the driving feel. Though its much better than rFactor, it still leaves me driving based on visual and audio feedback. The wheel forces seem more distracting than useful. Note that many people have the opposite opinion so this is very subjective. Perhaps a good rule of thumb is that if you like (or even tolerate) the original rFactor driving feel, maybe its worth trying rFactor2 to get more of the same but much improved.

As far as beta quality at the moment, online racing is possible for fun but there seem to be a couple of major problems (people experience slowdowns of several seconds, poor fps, 36fps gpl collisions sending cars flying etc...). Also the server seems to require a lot of upload bandwidth, our trellet.net server manager mentioned the usage of about 1Mbit/s upload bw per driver.

The GT430 is otherwise faster than 8600GT but it has slower pixel rate. This suggests that resolution and level of antialiasing should have a clear effect on performance. Also worth checking that you use z-buffer (drawmethod=1 in the core.ini or "Use zbuffer" in GEM+, not the "Run zbuffer..."). When not using z-buffer, every polygon (visible or not) ends up being rendered and this is a bit heavier especially when GPU pixel rate is not high. Using a z-buffer might result in less pixels rendered.

No problem, my car had damage and was difficult to control so I had to brake early. I would probably have finished 4th in any case.

Managed to finish a full gp without too many mistakes, even though the car and the track are not exactly my favourites. I did not run into many situations of fighting for position so mostly this was an exercise of keeping pace and avoiding driving off-track for 1.5 hours. Still it was enjoyable to finally keep concentration together for this long, hope to manage it in future full gp races as well.

Apologies to Mario Wilhelm about the contact. I tried to leave space but could not keep the car under control at the end of braking. Nice to see you got a good result despite the accident.

I'm almost always relatively slow for the first couple of minutes of the race. One reason is somewhat low tyre pressures, which give optimal grip for most of the race when tyre temps are high but there is a significant loss of grip when tyres are cold. This may cause some surprises in the first few corners since I have to brake/slow down a bit earlier than expected.

No problem, I should have been more careful even though we weren't on the same lap.

Since the track is new to me, its a bit unclear what is an acceptable driving line. There are at least two places where it could be beneficial to go completely outside the track limit: the left-right esses after Sachskurve (the asphalt area inside the right turn in the esses), and left side of the track when approaching the last corner. So far I've driven so that two wheels are on track (assuming the dotted line is the track limit). Is it acceptable to use these areas completely, i.e. crossing the dotted line with all four wheels? A quick glance at the replay suggests that it is, but I'd like to confirm it.

Exhausting race, didn't know driving in circles is this difficult Managed to improve my setup and the pace was slightly better than in the practice race. There was some nice racing in the first half of the race, apparently my qualy result was worse than race speed. Eventually things stabilized and it was mainly a matter of keeping up a decent pace while avoiding mistakes. Fifth place is quite satisfying, not having that much experience in oval racing. Grats to all finishers, leaders were driving at impressive speed.

At least I know what not to do in the actual race Got a good start and lead the field, but made one of my several mistakes in the last corner. Sorry for the mayhem. The rest of the race was chasing after the leaders, making a mistake, chasing again etc... Definitely worth it to take it a bit slower and avoid mistakes, especially on this track. Grats to Mario, very consistent driving.