News

Hello sim racers, 

Welcome to the start of the 2023 Q1 hype train!

For this first announcement, we’ve got something that we are pretty certain will prove to be popular amongst our own audience both new and existing – the GT3 set of cars is being updated!!

Featuring no less than 14 models as of February 2023, the GT3 category is a popular specification of race car throughout the world of virtual motorsport, and the cars available within rFactor 2 are absolutely no exception to this trend. 

With varied models from the likes of Aston Martin, BMW, Porsche, McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari, Bentley, Radical and Audi already available within the simulation, all of which having been released at varying times during the life of rFactor 2, this February, the studio has taken the opportunity to refresh these popular vehicles with the latest physics, technology and tyre development progress deployed with our more recent releases. 

What does this mean in reality, we hear you ask? Well, it means a wholly new and much improved driving experience, from the way the cars interact with the racing surface, to how you need to drive them to extract the maximum lap time over both time attack and long stint running. 

For this new refresh, all 14 currently available GT3 cars have been updated to the latest tyre technology, in order to deliver the closest to reality driving experience possible within the software. Alongside the new tyres and physics improvements, the GT3 class has also received support for the newly developed tender spring, the latest technology around our traction control and ABS behaviour, and of course the introduction of shift protection. 

Furthermore, the new sound engine released during 2022 has required a full overhaul of the audio aspect of these sensational cars, so as well as feeling much more detailed, the audio experience within this new build has been vastly improved.

As always with a category update as substantial as this, the GT3 cars have undergone a rigorous balance of performance exercise to ensure parity between each manufacturer, just like in real life, so now drivers should find themselves with just as good of a chance to score big results regardless of car, it’s all down to personal preference, and driving ability. 

The new GT3 changes will be available as a free update to anyone owning the GT3 cars within rFactor 2, and is set to release as part of the Q1 2023 content drop and build release in early February. 

Key Improvements

New Tyres

Introducing the latest spec and technical understanding that has come to rFactor 2 in recent months, these new tyres provide a significant improvement of the behaviour of the car and the experience it will relay to the driver out on the circuit. Much like the GTE tyre update we launched last year, these changes have come about thanks to our latest gains in tyre technology, so expect to have to change both your driving style, and existing setups to accommodate the new experience. 

New BoP (Balance of Performance)

Critically important for cars of this nature, the Balance of Performance has perhaps been one of the most difficult things to get right for this update – lots of cars, many different styles and a multitude of variables mean finding a good balance across the full grid takes up a significant amount of testing time and fine-tuning – something we feel we’ve got in a good place for this initial launch, although we aren’t afraid to dig back into the cars again in future should it become necessary to provide further tweaks down the line. One of the best parts of this BOP has to be the fact the new BMW M4 is now very firmly aligned with the car set, so no matter which vehicle you choose, you should be in with a solid chance of scoring good results. 

Traction Control and ABS Improvements

Bringing the latest technologies introduced to rFactor 2 into this update was a key desire of the Studio 397, and thanks to the great strides made with the software throughout 2022, we’ve got quite a few of those to introduce! As many of you will remember, back in late 2022 we introduced a fully revised and refreshed batch of code updates for our of code for Traction Control and ABS features. These changes, developed to vastly expand both the complexity and execution of these two important aspects of modern race cars, have quickly proven to be valuable improvements to rFactor 2 – improvements we are delighted to finally integrate within the GT3 set of cars. 

Coupled with the tyre updates, the way you drive these GT3 machines has changed quite significantly from the original launch spec, bringing you a richer, more immersive driving experience that edges yet closer to how these cars should behave in the real world. 

Shift Protection

Not sexy, often frustrating but absolutely critical in modern racing series – shift protection is here, and with it the removal of potential laptime gains from gunfire downshifts into a corner in order to find a ways to slow the car down quicker than is realistically feasible. Again, introduced during the Q3 2022 update, Shift Protection has been a great addition to rFactor 2, and one of the major physics features missing from our current GT3 offering of cars. Added to all 14 current GT3 models within the game, this is another small, but very noticeable change to the way our drivers can manipulate the car out on circuit. 

Sound Engine Compatibility

This is a big one, and will probably be one of the first things you notice when firing up the update for the very first time. Since the massively popular introduction of the new sound engine last year, we’ve been absolutely desperate to get these wild and varied GT3 cars integrated fully into the new sound engine. As I’m sure we all know, GT3 cars sound outstanding in real life, and with the powerful opportunities our new engine offers, the audio experience of these cars in rFactor 2 has been something we’ve all been very excited to experience. As of this update, the new sound engine is now fully compatible with all cars, so why not take the opportunity to reacquaint yourself with each model, and bask in the glory of that beautiful noise bouncing around your virtual racetrack of choice in rFactor 2! 

The new GT3 update is one we are very excited to share with you all – we can’t wait to see you out on track!

GT3 Update – Available February 7th for rFactor 2! 

During the third running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual, it is clear that there were two major server issues which necessitated red flag stoppages. These were global disconnections caused by a security breach, resulting from the unintentional sharing by race competitors of IP addresses connecting teams to the server.

We have had 180 competitors taking part on 164 different simulators all around the world, and we appreciate the frustrations of any individual drivers or teams affected. A full investigation will be launched at the conclusion of the event, and we will report back on the findings in due course.

Updated 27.01.2023

2023 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual Statement

Following the conclusion of the 2023 running of the 24 Hours of Lemans Virtual, and the unfortunate issues that resulted in a double red flag stoppage and player disconnects, the technical team of Studio 397 are undertaking preliminary investigations to determine causes and direction of development to be applied to future product updates.

Once again, we apologise to fans and participants of this event for the obvious frustrations these incidents have caused. Issues like these are massively frustrating to all involved in such a considerable production, and we remain determined to use the 2023 event as a platform to expand our knowledge and experience, to help build in a stronger, more robust set of solutions for every online player of rFactor 2.

We are aware that the IP addresses of the servers were inadvertently made public, and we observed unusual levels of traffic during the event, combined with logging of some concerning events taking place during this period. We are not aware of a malicious attack, but will be implementing new procedures to ensure that in future our servers are robustly defended. The use of direct IP addresses for access to multiplayer sessions is clearly not an ideal solution, and we take full responsibility for any inadvertent distribution to non-participants – we are actively working on new processes to allow only permitted users and prevent similar issues in the future.

Additionally, the four instances of spontaneous multiple disconnects that occurred during the race were highly unusual and have only been seen once before in competition. Whilst we have made significant improvements and bug fixes to the multiplayer code of the game in recent years, we are clearly still experiencing problems with legacy low-level networking code. Naturally, this is an unacceptable situation for any multiplayer environment, and we are committed to rewriting this code over the coming months to ensure a better experience for all players.

The spotlight on the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual over the years has been both rewarding and challenging for rFactor 2 and Studio 397. As the most widely visible sim racing event, any issues are thrust into the spotlight by the incredible competitors from around the globe. We aspire to be the most realistic racing simulation experience and will continue tirelessly to ensure that we take learnings, along with the Le Mans organisers to produce spectacular virtual racing events as we move towards the future.

As a leading motorsport simulation product, rFactor 2 has to dig deeply into the advanced world of automotive physics in order to accurately portray many varied characteristics of real world driving and racing dynamics. In order to recreate real world behaviours in a simulation environment, the rFactor 2 software has to undertake a mind-boggling array of calculations from many varied aspects of the car, road surface, ambient conditions and more in order to present a precise and accurate experience to the end user. 

Of these multiple calculations and dependencies undertaken at any given time, one of the key areas to ensuring a robust driving experience comes from the way the physics engineers at Studio 397 interpret tyre data and behaviour characteristics within the simulation. More than simply bolting a standard set of behaviours onto the tyres within the simulation across the full spectrum of cars, each set of tyres has been tailor-made to match their real world counterparts, both in terms of behaviour, but also construction, interaction with the car and surface, and of course how tyres react throughout a range of different potential situations and stress factors on track. 

To help the physics team at Studio 397 understand the very deep and complex construction and reactions of racing tyres, the team have recently struck up an enhanced partnership with the world-famous tyre manufacturer, Goodyear. Working in close partnership as Goodyear seek to expand their own virtual tyre modelling capabilities, Studio 397 have benefitted from an exceptional collaboration and sharing of data and insight of late, data that has gone some way towards rFactor 2 yet further enhancing the already advanced tyre model within the simulation. 

In this new insight video, we took the opportunity to sit down with Tony Ward, Motorsport Marketing Manager EMEA of Goodyear tyres, to discuss how things work with this new partnership and how Goodyear and pushing the team at Studio 397 to make even better and more detailed tyre model calculations going forward. 

rFactor 2 continues to strive forward with our intentions to enhance both the detail, usability and visual fidelity of the simulation in the weeks, months and years ahead. This close partnership with Goodyear is another major milestone in our development intentions, and already the benefits of this early collaboration are bearing fruit with our latest tyre model iteration – one that will continue to be enhanced and refined within rFactor 2 as we further progress with the rFactor 2 title moving forwards.

As such an important aspect of how a car engages with the racing surface, tyres are something that provide a critical impact into the overall driving experience – and working together with Goodyear, Studio 397 are presented with a fantastic opportunity to uplift the racing experience for all our players – one we cannot wait for you to fully experience out on the track!

rFactor 2 – Available Now on Steam

Hello sim racers!

The final day of the year is about to roll around, and with those last dying embers of the 2022 almost in the rearview mirror, we thought now is a good of a time as any to have a quick look back on what has, quite frankly, been a fantastic 12 months for rFactor 2.

This last year, we at Studio 397 have worked exceptionally hard to both increase our rate of development, and continue to offer a healthy stream of new and exciting content for our users to enjoy – and hot dang, that’s been a successful mission!

In terms of the general development direction for rFactor 2, this year we instigated a new and much more ordered update release schedule, pivoting from a somewhat haphazard approach of recent years, to scheduled, quarterly plans that both help us resource, and sets a clear expectation to the community about when new things for the simulation can be expected. We think this quarterly release cycle has worked even better than expected, and we are of course delighted to see our community appear to be pleased with the new structure as well. The quarterly release cycle (Feb / May / Aug / Nov) is something we plan to continue into 2023, as well as the Release Candidate build program we have used for the last couple of years.

In terms of the simulation itself, although rFactor 2 has been out for a number of years now, I’m sure you’ll all agree that the level of progress we have enjoyed in the last couple of years has been nothing short of outstanding, with many fundamental improvements and advancements having been brought on stream in recent months. Does this mean we’ve achieved everything we want with the software, or that we are happy with the current feature set and development? Far from it, we recognise we still have a long way to go in order to push rFactor 2 forwards, and already the early plans for the simulation into 2023 are looking very good indeed – Q1 should be a popular one for our current and future fans!

We remain passionate, committed, excited and determined to bring great things to rFactor 2 in the future, and just like our incredible community, we are highly motivated and excited for 2023 and all that it will bring to the simulation.

Now, seeing as 2022 was pretty packed with goodies, let’s have a look at a few key highlights from the year that’s about to close…

New Content

Number of Cars | 13

Number of Tracks | 9

An unprecedented number of content items came to rFactor 2 this year, and perhaps more significantly than the sheer volume, 2022 proved to be a great year for us in terms of the scale of licences we managed to sign for the simulation. You wouldn’t have to look back far to see a time when some of these licences would feel like nothing short of a pipe dream, so to sit here at the end of the year and reflecting on what we have achieved, not to mention what we already know is coming in 2023, is an incredibly satisfying experience for the studio.

The first of these big licence agreements has to be the introduction of both the often requested Daytona International Speedway, and of course the ridiculously impressive IndyCar championship – two of the best US motorsport has to offer. Both IndyCar, in extension to our relationship back in 2014 with the DW12, and Daytona, proved to be massive additions for a small studio such as ourselves, and with these new relationships, we look forward to working closely together well into the future.

Another big one for 2022 has to be the British Touring Car Championship, and the full 2021 and 2022 grid represented in particularly strong style. As well as this being a great opportunity to partner up with a big brand such as the BTCC, it also allowed us to do something we haven’t done in a very long time – develop a robust front-wheel drive experience within the simulation. We appreciate that the trend of racing fans is to preference a rear driven car, however I’m sure many reading this will agree, the added challenge of learning to master front-wheel drive is a unique and satisfying experience, something that we know a lot of people have taken the opportunity to enjoy with these new cars.

Build Updates and Features

Number of Core Build Updates | 6

2022 has also proven a very fruitful (or should that be hectic?!) time for our code team here at Studio 397, as we’ve pushed exceptionally hard to bring a huge number of improvements and additions to the simulation. rFactor 2 at the end of 2022 is a very different, and much improved product over the one we closed out 2021 with. It would be, quite frankly, near impossible to list the full set of changes that came the way of the title over the last year, however, for the benefit of this feature article, we’ve attempted to pull together a few highlights from the year – just in case you might have missed or forgotten them in all the excitement we’ve just been through!

New UI

More Details | Announcement Post: CLICK HERE

With such a substantial rebuild of the entire rFactor 2 UI experience, below you will find a brief bullet point list of some of the key areas that have been improved or expanded upon when we launched this new build. Please note, these are just some areas of change, as the new UI fundamentally affects the entirety of the rFactor 2 user journey – with some aspects of the new 2022 UI Update adding substantial changes and improvements over the previous UI release. 

• Brand-new audio and visual design across all pages.
• Main menu improvements for clearer navigation, more call to actions and an easier layout to understand for new users.
• All single player related functionality brought together into one area with cross navigation from, and to, any page in this area in order for optimized user flow.
• Enhanced layout of every page to improve user flow and simplify interaction.
• The settings menu has undergone a big update with clearer navigation, an easier layout and simplified user flow with fewer pages.
• The setup area has undergone a big update with clearer navigation, an easier layout and simplified user flow with fewer pages.
• Event screen optimizations and user flow improvements.
• 2 brand-new showrooms.

Real Road 2.0

More Details | Announcement Post: CLICK HERE

This was a big one for us in 2022, and a key element of further developing our immersive simulation experience in rFactor 2. With this update, we took into account various factors present within a real world track surface and applied that into how our previously static track surface behaves. What does this mean? Simply put, our track surface (on all tracks) now has an element of dynamic functionality, where the surface temperatures, and thus the behaviour and levels of grip they give up, will change and can be influenced by varied factors. These temperature changes can be influenced by things such as geographical location, cloud cover, time of day, ambient temperatures and heat transfer from cars running over the surface of the tarmac. 

As a driver, this means each circuit will offer up varied levels of grip, and produce varied amounts of tyre wear, depending on the factors stated above. Furthermore, this opens up the opportunity for us to now expand how wet tracks dry (or dampen) over time, with covered areas less likely to change surface behaviour as quickly as those open to the elements.  

New Sound Engine

More Details | Announcement Post: CLICK HERE

A brand-new sound engine was a massive boost to the simulation earlier this year, significantly enhancing the audio experience of the software and really helping to put our drivers firmly in the heart of the racing experience. Onboard and offboard audio have been significantly enhanced from what our players are used to hearing, with a much richer, more detailed and immersive output possible with this sound engine change. 

Another major improvement of our new sound engine is the ability for us to now properly filter between different types of car style within the sim. With this new release, the simulation can now automatically detect when the player is using an open cockpit car in comparison to a close cockpit machine, and adjust how and what audio effects are played back to the driver – allowing us the scope to really up the immersive aspect of the different types of car, and tailor the audio experience to best represent how things would sound within a real racing machine of the type you have chosen. As an additional benefit, we can now support HRFT, which as well as significantly improving the audio experience for headphone users, will also greatly enhance how drivers using Virtual Reality will be able to recognize and interact with the placement of sounds within the simulation environment – yet further increasing the immersive experience of the title. 

Wet Weather Improvements

More Details | Announcement Post: CLICK HERE

This represented a significant update to how wet weather conditions and racing behaves across the simulation. Here, we have reviewed our wet conditions in rFactor 2, adding a raft of improvements that should make for more immersive and realistic racing in wet conditions, from how the rain falls and dries on the circuit, to how the AI choose their tyres and manage the wet conditions. Drivers will now have to pick the best and most grippy line in all conditions out on the track, and the AI should behave in a realistic and believable way in terms of tyre choice and strategy. It is also worth noting here, users can now select the level of wetness on the track before the session, allowing players to dictate the track surface conditions to their own preferences. 

In-Game Store

More Details | Announcement Post: CLICK HERE

With the way things have historically been configured to utilize the existing functionality within the Steam Store, we quickly realized that in order to translate our desires for a more robust experience into reality, we would have to go a little further than simply fine-tuning the existing feel – and so, the brand-new rFactor 2 Steam Store was born!

• Consistent, clear design with ease of navigation.
• Clearly shows owned content.
• The store will calculate the best deals, based on owned content and items within the basket.
• Under each content heading, the store will dynamically present you with content you don’t own at the head of the page. 
• When reviewing the basket, the store will show similar, relevant items.
• When collecting single items, the store will recommend packs when they are cheaper.
• After purchase, content gets downloaded and installed right away.

Track Cut System

More Details | Announcement Post: CLICK HERE

Having reviewed the limitations of the previous iteration, this new system has been developed to both closely mirror how real world circuit racing penalties are applied, whilst also providing a more robust, fairer and clearer way of dealing with on track infringements by drivers. The new cut track and penalty detection system has been optimised for both non race and race events sessions, with appropriate weighting of infringements and penalty issuing developed in accordance to the type of session in which those infringements are collected. 

In terms of track cutting, for the purposes of this new system a track cut is defined as leaving the legal bounds of the race surface and re-joining it and gaining a lasting time or positional advantage from it. The system has a number of parameters in which to calculate the severity of the cut, and what type of penalisation will be awarded.

Once drivers re-join the track, the system then takes some time to consider the situation and to see if the driver is trying to correct for their errors, under control or even going quick enough. This will help reduce false detections and receiving warnings for making a mistake

Sparks

More Details | Announcement Post: CLICK HERE

Anyone who likes themselves a good motorsport picture has probably seen an early 90s Formula One car kicking up a rooster tail of sparks from the undertray at any given circuit, those types of pictures are firmly embedded in the minds of racing fans, and now you can recreate this for yourself in rFactor 2! The team here at Studio 397 have worked exceptionally hard to not only bring these features to the title, but to ensure they interact properly with the types of cars we have in this simulation, showing off the sparks, rain spray and off track debris kicking up, while also ensuring they behave in a way that is accurate and interacts with the shapes and styles of cars that produce them – another very important step in our quest to continue building upon our aim to mirror real life as closely as possible. 

AI Improvements

More Details | Announcement Post: CLICK HERE

Yes, we admit this has been a little while in the making here in rFactor 2 land, but this release was a great first step towards offering a substantial improvement to the way the AI responds in game – from more controlled and believable behaviour on the track, to the abolishment of the frustrating on and off throttle pedal control – literally a game changing fix and improvement to the core offline racing experience! 

• Eradicated erratic throttle and brake behaviour.
• Smoothed out steering inputs and car control.
• Improved AI ability to adhere to racing surface and avoid unnecessary off track excursions and spins.

Traction Control and ABS Improvements

More Details | Announcement Post: CLICK HERE

The new ABS functionality utilises the same ABS onboard map as the original implementation, however, with these new developments drivers will be exposed to a much more accurate and realistic set of behaviours. Under heavy braking, when the tyres start locking up the ABS will activate and releases the brakes on an individual wheel basis, until grip returns and the ABS turns off again and brake pressure returns – exactly mirroring the mechanical functionality of real world ABS behaviour. ABS working hard? Expect quite a jolt through the force feedback!In terms of traction control, in this new build we now have three onboard TC maps, these are as follows:

• Onboard TC
• Power Cut TC
• Slip Angle TC.

The power cut TC controls how much power is cut when TC activates, with a higher map value simulating a higher level of power reduction. The slip angle TC controls how much lateral (side) slip a car can have before TC kicks in, with a higher map allowing less slip. Not all cars have these two settings, so one or both of these may be disabled, in which case they are controlled by the main “onboard TC” map. Next to this, the onboard TC map also controls the longitudinal (forward) slip the driven wheels can have before TC kicks in, again a higher map means less allowed slip.

Furthermore, additional dashboard ABS/TC lights will be introduced to cars with these features enabled.

Looking Ahead to 2023

With the year over, don’t for one minuite think this means the team at Studio 397 will be taking their collective feet off the gas – far from it, as 2023 is set to be another year of significant change and improvements – with quite a big surprise set to be announced towards the middle of the year ahead…

It would be fair to say that each and every member of the team here at Studio 397 are massive fans of real and virtual motorsport, and I think that often shows through in the commitment to quality and diversity we bring to rFactor 2. From big licences, to continued and enhanced development of the core code within the simulation, we remain firmly focussed on bringing our players the best driving and racing experience we possibly can, pushing the boundaries of what we thought was possible to achieve within this software.

2023 plans are already very advanced for the future development direction of rFactor 2 and Studio 397 projects, with plenty of exciting things in and around the world of this simulation lined up for you all to enjoy in the coming 12 months and beyond. A lot of what we have planned, even at this early stage, are shaping up to be very exciting for sim racers the world over, and we cannot wait to go on this journey together, and share what we hope will be another year of great developments and enhancements to our favourite hobby.

Final Thoughts

On a personal note, I wanted to take this opportunity on behalf of Studio 397 to thank all our fans, both new and old, for sticking with us and continuing to enjoy the rollercoaster ride that is rFactor 2. This past year has been an eye opening experience for us all, as we buckle down and continue working exceptionally hard to bring bigger, better and more important improvements to our favourite racing simulation. The journey isn’t always the easiest one to take, and from time to time we make the occasional misstep, but as in everything in life, the most important thing is always to take all of that collective experience, both good and bad, and feed that into our future learnings to continue to improve and progress going forward.

From new ways of working, further integration into the structures within Motorsport Games, new staff and different roles and responsibilities througout the team, I think we at Studio 397 have worked incredibly well over the course of the past 12 months, and that work continues to put us on a fantastic trajectory for the future – a future that is, in my humble opinion, an incredibly bright one, and one that should continue to bring joy to sim racers the world over for the foreseeable future.

TLDR? I’m pretty stoked for 2023, and I think you all should be too!

Have a great and safe New Year celebration, and we will see you all on the other side in 2023.

Hello sim racers, 

The final car of the Q4 2022 Bonus Pack holiday special is ready to be revealed…. folks at home, please give a very warm welcome to the spectacular Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992)!

Loved by fans and drivers alike, the 911 GT3 Cup (992) is a brutal, intense, powerful and dynamic driving experience that allows for exceptional racing and seat of the pants feeling behind the wheel – which sounds to us like a recipe for some incredible moments out on the virtual circuits of the world. 

According to Porsche themselves, the 911 GT3 Cup is the world’s best-selling racing car, and with championships at both national, regional and international levels, often with consistently packed grids of drivers for many consecutive years, that claim is a very easy one to believe. But, why is this car so very popular with fans and drivers? Put simply, the 911 GT3 Cup family of cars, of which this 922 is the most recent, represents exceptional value for money, a thrilling driving experience and one of the most iconic shapes in the automotive world – all of which combines to elevate the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) into the stratosphere of desirability – plus, it’s a damn fine piece of engineering that rarely fails to test your driving abilities to the limit, which is never a bad thing with this type of car! 

The Car

Faster than the 991 it replaces, with more downforce and increased corner capabilities, the new 911 GT3 Cup (992) has been improved in almost every single area, making this the most refined 911 GT3 Cup car built by Porsche to date. With performance now capable of producing 510 hp, plus optimisations around the intake manifold, electronic gearshift and power steering, fully digital cockpit, larger rear wing, and a double-wishbone front axle headlines amongst the onslaught of changes that came the way of the new 911 GT3 Cup (992), the latest in a family of models that dates all the way back to 1990 is a true thoroughbred racecar in every conceivable way. 

Drive | Rear-Wheel

Displacement | 3.996 cm³

Performance | 375 kW (510 PS)

Weight | ca. 1,260 kg (2,778 lbs)

Length | 4,585 mm

Width | 1,902 mm (74.88 inch)

Wheelbase | 2,459 mm (96.81 inch)

There can be no doubt that this is an impressive car on the real world circuits, but in virtual terms, this 911 GT3 Cup (992) is also a highly sought after piece of (virtual) machinery, and a car that has long been desired by the sim racing community here at rFactor 2. With this new build, we have worked exceptionally hard to ensure we have something that can match up to the hype and anticipation of this model introduction, as we paid a great deal of attention not only to the visual model of the car, but how the physics interact with the core simulation software. As always, we’ve worked hand-in-hand with Porsche Motorsport to pull masses of data from the manufacturer into the simulation, but for this car, we’ve also got a bit of an ace up our sleeve – our very own Stig… OK, not Sting, but we do have a racing driver on hand with significant experience in this very car, World’s Fastest Gamer, rFactor 2 ambassador and Porsche Carrera Cup Germany driver, Rudy van Buren!

As an experienced sim racer and Porsche Cup driver, Rudy has been invaluable with his feedback and development support on this car, helping us to get to the point where we believe the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) in rFactor 2 is an incredible likeness to real life – one that we absolutely cannot wait to share with you all when it goes live on Wednesday 21st December! 

Q4 2022 Bonus Pack Announcements:

• Vauxhall Astra BTCC
• BTCC 2022 Update and BOP

The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) is the final car reveal of the new, surprise, Q4 2022 Bonus Pack content release for rFactor 2 – right ahead of the upcoming festive holidays – so plenty of time to get out of the action and lock yourself in your racing rig for some on track fun! 

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed bringing this car to rFactor 2, and we can’t wait to hear what you’ve all got to say about it once it becomes available to purchase from the rFactor 2 Steam Store, this Wednesday, December 21st. 

Have fun.

The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 992 – Coming December 21st to rFactor 2!

Hello sim racers,

With our (almost) complete field of British Touring Car Championship vehicles now in your virtual racing garages, it’s time to give the cars a fresh lick of paint, and bring our expanding grid right up to date and into the most recent season of racing. With this new release scheduled for just a few short days time, we will add the full 2022 BTCC liveries to the simulation alongside the already available 2021 set, as well as a brand-new Balance of Performance and updates to the existing Goodyear touring car tyres. .

2022 Liveries

This is, of course, the most visually noticeable part of the new update. In motorsport, the livery of a team is one of the most important aspects of the overall branding experience, the way that each team and car can differentiate themselves on the grid, in front of the fans, and the TV coverage beamed into thousands of households around the world. In the British Touring Car Championship, unlike in series such as Formula One for example, the liveries of the various teams are even more important, as often you find very different designs and sponsors on the cars each year, sometimes even between each event!

For this update, we have brought the full collection of the most recent designs into the simulation, separating the 2021 and 22 seasons in the main UI, so our players have the opportunity to recreate whichever season they desire within the rFactor 2.

Working closely with the teams to ensure maximum visual proximity to the real world, each car has been fully recreated to represent how it looked during the season that has just passed, including specific driver variations (of which they were a lot!), to really help bring to life the beautiful look and feel of the 2022 British Touring Car Championship year. From the all new West Surrey Racing design at BMW, to the stunning NAPA Racing UK livery of reigning champion Ash Sutton, the grid looks outstanding – and soon you can drive them all yourselves!

Balance of Performance (BOP)

As we continue to expand our BTCC offering in rFactor 2, this end of year bonus drop provides us with the opportunity to perform a detailed Balance of Performance across the 2021 and 2022 grid. Working just like in real life, the BOP has been developed in order to present a certain amount of parity between the various different types of BTCC car in rFactor 2. This doesn’t mean the cars carry the same characteristics, far from it, however it does mean that, just like in real life, no matter the model picked, drivers should still have a reasonable chance to score top results in any given race.

Now of course the cars of the BTCC differ greatly throughout the grid, so some circuits will certainly favour a particular model or drive type, however with this new update and refreshed tyre model, the difference between choices has been vastly reduced, leaving it up to the driver to extract the ultimate pace of the car.

Of course, as always with things like a Balance of Performance, we wouldn’t be surprised if further tweaks are required in the future as more people get to experience these new cars, but for now at least, things such be much closer between the front rear-wheel drive cars of the series.

TOCA Hybrid – Coming Q1 2023

2022 was a big year for the British Touring Car Championship, with the introduction of hybrid proving to be one of the most significant rule changes of the NGTC specification regulation era. Unlike in other forms of racing, Hybrid in the BTCC acts as more of a traditional boost button type of power deployment, something that both decreases the overall lap time of the cars, and introduces an interesting strategic dynamic for attacking and defending within a race.

For the initial launch of the BTCC cars, Studio 397 utilized the existing ‘Push to Pass’ feature within the sim, however, as we now get very close to realizing the full 2021/22 BTCC field, 2023 will see us take the opportunity to develop a fully fleshed out hybrid functionality for these cars – adding another important aspect of immersion and simulation to this already outstanding set of vehicles. The TOCA Hybrid system is something many of you have been looking forward to seeing, and trust us when we say, we can’t wait to get Hybrid in its many forms introduced into the sim as well! We anticipate the TOCA Hybrid system, as well as the remaining BTCC cars will be introduced as part of the Q1 2023 content drop and update, so not long left to wait now…

Q4 2022 Bonus Pack Announcements So Far

Vauxhall Astra BTCC

2022 and the introduction of the BTCC licence into rFactor 2 has been an incredibly exciting time for us here at Studio 397, and with this last BTCC car of the year adding the total up to six models alongside all the other content we’ve released, it’s been a pretty big challenge to get everyone done – one we are delighted to see has been well received by the sim racing community. We’ve not quite done yet though, as we’ve still got one final bit of content to announce for this Q4 2022 Bonus Drop release, so stay tuned to all the usual rFactor 2 social media channels in the days ahead… we think you’ll like this last one…

BTCC 2022 – Coming December 21st to rFactor 2!

Hello sim racers!

‘Tis the season to be jolly, and what’s more jolly than a surprise batch of new content for rFactor 2?

Hot off the heels of the popular Q4 2022 release back in November, this Christmas we have not one, but two new cars coming to rFactor 2! First on the list, as we take a further step towards locking down the full 2021/22 British Touring Car Championship field, we are delighted to introduce the wonderful little Vauxhall Astra BTCC – set to join our already released BMW 330i M Sport, and previously released cars from Infiniti, Toyota, Hyundai and Ford. 

The Vauxhall brand is very well known in the world of touring cars in the UK, and with the return of the Astra, built and developed by the Power Maxed Racing out in Bidford-on-Avon, the car still enjoys some strong performances despite being one of the older models on the current grid. Something of a fan favourite thanks in no little part to often exciting driver line-ups and the bright colour scheme of Power Maxed, the Astra might be small, but it’s certainly still mighty!

rFactor 2 BTCC | Steam Store:CLICK HERE

The Vauxhall Astra made its debut under the current NGTC regulations all the way back in 2017, marking the much heralded return of the British brand following an incredible run of success in the early 1990s through to the mid 2000s, however as per the NGTC rule set, the return of the Astra wouldn’t be a fully works attempt as previous years, with Power Maxed Racing, forming the new adventure with support from the main dealer, but predominantly going it alone following a toe in the water exercise with car sponsorship in previous seasons. 

Run by Team Principal Adam Weaver and Race Director Martin Broadhurst, Power Maxed and Vauxhall achieved instant success with a podium on the car’s very first attempt at Brands Hatch, with 2017 seeing further glory with numerous top 10 finishes throughout the year, including a season best second-place finish at Silverstone. It wouldn’t be long until Vauxhall found themselves back in the winners circle once again, with sophomore driver Senna Proctor and new recruit Josh Cook securing three victories from the opening three rounds of the 2018 season. 

2019 would mark the final occasion the little Vauxhall took a chequered flag in the BTCC, with former double champion and tin top legend Jason Plato taking the final of his 97 victories in the series – a nice synergy of history between the two, as Plato also secured his first BTCC championship racing under Vauxhall colours back in 2001.

Since returning full time to the BTCC following a truncated, Covid affected season in 2020, Power Maxed Racing have run a number of fan favourite and rookie drivers in the team, occasionally showing flashes of pace despite the car clearly starting to show its age against some of the newer machinery that has arrived in the series within recent seasons. 

The car remains a firm top 10 possibility in the right hands, and given a good turn of luck and things falling in the right way could still be a victory contender – but regardless of results, one thing is for sure, the car looks great, and is a beautifully well-balanced and nice handling machine that should be a great introductory experience for players new to front-wheel drive machinery. 

So there we have it folks, the first of a few surprises coming your way, and not long left to go now, so stay tuned and hold tight, we are nearly ready to go…

Vauxhall Astra BTCC – Coming December 21st to rFactor 2!

The brand-new INDYCAR Holiday Hot-Lap Challenge is coming to rFactor 2 this November 28^th.

A new hot-lap competition within rFactor 2 is here, as we team up with the INDYCAR organisation to put on a series of three weekly events in the rFactor 2 Competition System, with the aim to find out which of our community is the quickest behind the wheel of the beautiful Dallara IR-18 INDYCAR within rFactor 2.

Developed as a competitive way to see you through the festive season, with slots suitable for any driver regardless of time zone, the INDYCAR Holiday Hot-Lap Challenge is set to be short, sharp, fun and highly competitive indeed!

Buckle up, get into that virtual cockpit of the rFactor 2 Dallara IR-18 and show us what you are capable of out on the track…

The Series

As the name suggests, the INDYCAR Holiday Hot-Lap Challenge is a test of raw outright pace. Using the current generation INDYCAR IR-18 within rFactor 2, across three very different circuits, drivers can put their ultimate pace to the test – with the fastest drivers from each event in line to win some awesome prizes, and the title of kudos of being the known as the quickest INDYCAR driver in rFactor 2.     

Not the fastest of drivers in rFactor 2? Worry not, even if you aren’t going to be setting the timings screens alight during these events, we have you covered with a range of awesome prizes set to be given out at random to select drivers who set a time – so if you want some fun in a great car, and a chance to win something cool, this is the competition for you!

How to Enter

Participation in the INDYCAR Holiday Hot-lap Challenge is simple – all you need is the rFactor 2 simulation and content, access to the internet and the desire to push yourself to the limits.

Held within the rFactor 2 Competition System, prospective drivers will need to sign up for the INDYCAR Holiday Hot-Lap Challenge event and register for the respective qualification sessions, as detailed in the calendar graphic below. Entry to the INDYCAR Holiday Hot-Lap Challenge is free, providing you own the content for the series.

INDYCAR Holiday Hot-Lap Challenge | Forum: COMING SOON

Calendar

Rules and Regulations

A full list of the rules and regulations relating to the IndyCar Holiday Hot-Lap Challenge can be found HERE.

The official INDYCAR Holiday Hot-Lap Challenge is a new, quick fire and super intense esport competition for those with a taste for going quickly! Supported by INDYCAR and set to feature some great prizes, make sure you get signed up, and lay down those fast laps to beat the competition!