20 years..

[Steve]

Hard to believe it's been 20 years since I joined NAR. It doesn't seem that long ago. Wish we could set up a few fun races once in a while. Been a long time!

[Bilbo]

Yeah, time flies. I'll be 20 here myself later this year (I'm a "late arrival", being only on page 2 of the members list )

We had a lot of good times and good memories. I remember in the months and years after I joined, I went from counting the number of spins/crashes per laps I was doing (voluntarily qualifying as last so as to be sure not to mess anyone up at race start due to my inexperience in multiplayer), to number of spins per race then number of spins per seasons. The high standards we were aiming for ("4 wheels on the track") along with the generous help of members here and the camaraderie have really made me a better driver over time and probably a better person too.

I have a server available, I might try to set it up for racing again someday. Not sure what's hot nowadays but I've got most sims even though I don't have much time to race (gotta keep the "hardcore" sim industry running otherwise there will only be simcades or games when I finally find free time, my retirement from work is coming in 2-3 years at worst). Should I look to install rF2, Automobilista 2 or ACC? Something else? Vanilla or with some mods? I'm really out of touch...

[Steve]

Rf2 and AMS2 have more content than acc. But they are all good sims.

[DanTheMan]

I actually bought an rF2 license after the big LeMans "scandal" and have been enjoying some open wheel action at the included tracks against the AI. But my old Logitech Momo Force is not working right, and I don't see myself spending €400-500 on a wheel when I don't have time to do anything more than sporadic racing.

But wow, has it really been 20 years???

[DanTheMan]

The board has now been moved to a new host, with Debian 11, fresh packages (such as PHP), plus latest version of phpBB. Now we should be good for another couple of years.

If anyone is interested I am using the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure free tier. An amazing deal that I don't understand how they can offer for free. 4 cores + 24GB mem for free. It is arm64 cores, but most stuff already has arm64 support.

/Daniel

[Bilbo]

Thanks a lot Dan! And congrats for your 666th post, that number looks good under your avatar!

[Steve]

Yes, 20 years Dan. NAR was using F1 2002 when I joined. Alx was still racing with us, before he went "real" racing. It sure doesn't seem like 20 years though...

[DanTheMan]

It is a shame to "ruin" the 666 post counter under my avatar (they really go well together!!!). I also happen to like Iron Maiden, and "Number of the Beast" is a really good song.

But... I have some news. I saw the news that rFactor 2 had added ranked online racing, so over the holidays I picked up a Logitech G29 and a Playseat Challenge X Logitech Edition (*). So if you see someone named "Daniel Eriksson" in one of the beginner or intermediate lobbies, that is me.

Getting silver safety rating (SR) was quite easy, but I'm having a hard time getting silver driver rating. I guess I just suck at driving, just like the good old days.

I wonder if I can buy myself some race pace by spending money on a direct drive wheel and some high end pedals? Hahaha

(*) Spending the extra money on the "X Logitech Edition" over the regular turned out to be a good descision. Very happy with the chair, and the folding mechanism feels very sturdy. I fit perfectly despite being just shy of 6"2 and just north of 250 pounds.

/Daniel