Bsimracing Sim Racing Resources and News for the racing enthousiast.
iRacing has just announced a new piece of content for their online racing series, in the form of the Dallara iR-01 open-wheeler car. I never heard of that one, I hear you think. Well… you are correct.
The Dallara iR-01 is a fictional virtual open wheeler, developed by iRacing in partnership with the famous Italian Dallara Automobili racing car manufacturer. The car represents a modern 3.0-liter V10 powered formula spec racer that can deliver up to 900 Bhp. The iRacing Dallara iR-01 will be available together with the 2021 Season 1 build release this December.
Only a week ago, iRacing announced that they were building the fictional Coca-Cola Superspeedway which was a fantasy track from the old Papyrus NASCAR Racing 2002 Season game. Many out there were sure this was just a one-off fantasy product that was the result of Coca-Cola becoming the sponsor in the official iRacing NASCAR series. This on the other hand shows that iRacing is changing its ways, and is now producing more fictional content.
On a personal note, this news made me raise my eyebrows. iRacing is very much a platform on which the majority of customers are hardcore motorsport fans. I could be totally wrong, but most racing fans I know want to race virtual versions of real existing cars and are often not that interested in fantasy content.
The decision to add fictionally cars and tracks seem to go in against the original goals of the brand. Iracing was all about simulating real cars and race them on real laser-scanned tracks.
But hey… 2020 has been a weird year, and it’s safe to say we live in a different world now. So maybe that also applies to racing simulators and the sim racing world in general.
iRacing Press Release:
December 4, 2020 – iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations and Dallara Automobili have partnered to introduce the Dallara iR-01, a world-class open-wheel racecar, to iRacing in time for the 2021 Season 1 build this December. The new vehicle, which blends modern technology with a classic grand prix heritage, will eventually culminate in the introduction of its own World Championship series later in 2021.
“Our partnership with Dallara to bring the Dallara iR-01 to iRacing has been unlike any other project we’ve ever undertaken,” said iRacing executive producer Steve Myers. “With a clean sheet in front of us, we challenged ourselves to build the ultimate open-wheel racecar to bring to our users. The result is an exciting blend of the past, present, and future of grand prix racing that is thrilling to drive and produces incredible on-track battles.”
“The collaboration with iRacing is long-standing, we got to know iRacing people more than 10 years ago when we were conceiving our driving simulator and looking for nice graphics while iRacing was looking for experts in the real life of motorsport,” said Andrea Pontremoli, Dallara Group CEO & General Manager. “That’s why we have enthusiastically welcomed the possibility of collaborating with them on this new project. Motorsport has been in Dallara’s DNA since its inception, along with the continuous search for new challenges. It is a way for Dallara to bring our knowledge and skills to the world of professional video games, with particular attention focused on the new generation of gamers and their interests. We gladly ventured into the design of a totally new and innovative car dedicated exclusively to the world of sim racers.”
iRacing and Dallara began work on the Dallara iR-01 in May 2020, engineering a car that is ready to race in the real world but will make its debut in the virtual one. Featuring a lightweight chassis of only 600 kg, its naturally aspirated 3.0-liter V10 engine can produce more than 900 horsepower. With limited electronics onboard and a fully decoupled suspension, the new car will prove easy for new drivers to pick up and fun to race, but difficult to master.
The new vehicle represents the continuation of a longstanding relationship between iRacing and Dallara, ranging from open-wheel racing to sports cars and dating back to some of the earliest cars released on the iRacing service. Most recently, the Dallara P217 LMP2, a staple of endurance racing around the world, made its iRacing debut in September.
The Dallara iR-01 will immediately slot into iRacing’s Dallara Formula iR Series as its premier open-wheel car. Further announcements on World Championship events featuring the Dallara iR-01 will be made in due course.
For more information on iRacing and for special offers, visit www.iracing.com. For more information on Dallara, visit www.dallara.it.
Official Webpage – www.iRacing.com
