After a year in production, the long awaited iRacing Nürburgring sim is finally launching today. If you’ve ever wanted to drive the legendary Nordschleife and GP circuit but couldn’t come up with the scratch to do it for real, then this might be your best chance yet to experience automotive nirvana.
The boys at iRacing are saying that this version of the Nürburgring is one of the most visually stunning and accurate version of the Ring ever. As a part-time resident of the ‘Ring and a class winner of a handful of VLN races there, I can fully vouch for that.
How do I know? Because I had a small part in making this sim happen.
It’s so accurate that Greg Hill, iRacing’s VP of Art and Production, got into a debate on whether or not there’s a house located on the outside of Bergwerk. I swore there wasn’t. Greg swore there was. Greg won.
(I have my eyes on the road, not the scenery.)
But don’t just take my word for it. Dale Lomas Bridge To Gantry and ‘Ring taxi fame said this:
The level of accuracy is superb. Incredible. The debate over whether playing Gran Turismo on the PlayStation can prepare you for the real-thing is officially old news.
The kerbs, the fences, it’s 99.9% there. The geek in me would like to see a thicker forest, and a slightly higher kerb on the inside of the final right at Mercedes Arena… but that’s about it.
That’s pretty accurate. (Both the track and that Dale is a geek.)
Keep an eye out for a more in-depth look at what went into creating this track from scratch on Jalopnik later this week. In the meantime. the Nürburgring is available today at iRacing.com.
Robb Holland races in the British Touring Car Championship for Rotek Racing. He’s a Jalopnik contributor who basically lives at the Nürburgring most of the year and is also the tallest man in Germany.