Expect some down time as we will go into maintenance mode during that day while we deploy the update.

We also have some great news to share as the store issues mentioned in our last dev notes article have been addressed, and we plan to resume our normal content rollout plans in 2024!

Highlights to look forward to in the update:




The DTM 2023 Car Pack includes five car models, two of which are brand-new to the sim:

• NEW Ferrari 296 GT3
  
• NEW Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II
  
• BMW M4 GT3
  
• Porsche 911 GT3 (992)
  
• Mercedes-AMG GT3

The pack will be available on https://game.raceroom.com/store/ for a base price of 14,99 €
Your personal price will depend on which of the car models you already own, as those will be discounted.

The Ferrari 296 GT3 will be sold exclusively in the DTM 2023 class at launch, and won’t be part of the Premium Pack. More liveries for the car are already in the works, and planned to be added to the GTR 3 class in the future.

All cars have been updated to our New Tyre Model, thanks to valuable data we received from our motorsports partners. Real driver feedback makes us confident this update brings substantial improvements to the way the cars handle at the limit, as it affects vehicle dynamics not only when cornering but also during the braking phase.



Read more about it on our forums.

Many tracks have been updated with additional trackside details, improved layout accuracy and their latest branding.



Join the RaceRoom community on discord for all the latest news.

RaceRoom has a long history with the DTM and we’re excited to continue our collaboration with a grid of stunning GT cars that starred in this year’s championship season. Featuring 23 cars and the latest models from Ferrari, Porsche, Audi, BMW and Mercedes-AMG, our DTM 2023 pack will throw you into one of the most hard-fought GT3 series around.

​

We’re proud to add Ferrari’s 296 GT3 to RaceRoom, complementing the 488 GT3 that was added for our 2021 DTM pack; Emil Frey Racing’s pair of entries represent the Prancing Horse. A trio of teams ran the Audi R8 LMS Evo II, Abt, Engstler and Attempto, entering five cars in total. Schubert and Project 1 represent BMW, with four M4 GT3s. Six Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos raced across the HRT, Mann-Filter, BWT and the American Winward teams. Last but not least, Toksport WRT, KUS Team Bernard and the iconic Manthey EMA squads fielded six of the latest Porsche 911 GT3 R (992).



The 296 packs a serious punch and only looks forward. Modern and daring in design, this mid-rear engined monster delivers 600hp from its 2.9-litre, twin-turbocharged V6.



The car won in its debut appearance at the Nürburging 24 Hours, held on the fearsome Nordschleife circuit, and took one victory in the 2023 DTM season at the Lausitzring.



Audi’s R8 LMS GT3 Evo II is another new model to RaceRoom. The Evo II continues to sharpen the razor that is the R8 LMS: even faster, with even more efficient aero and uprated suspension, its growling V10 powerplant is instantly recognisable.



Developed in 2008 and first raced in 2009, to date almost 300 R8s have been produced across two model generations and multiple evolutions. R8s have notched up 13 overall victories in 24-hour endurance races and eight in 12-hour events – along with countless individual race wins – to cement the model’s place in GT3’s pantheon.



The BMW M4 GT3, Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) and Mercedes-AMG GT3 add new 16 DTM 2023 liveries to car models which are already available in-game.



The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters remains an iconic brand in its new GT3 guise, still a proudly German series at heart but with international reach and recognition.



Over the last decade the series had been on an uphill trajectory and working towards a global expansion – with a tie-up with the Japanese GT Series and a possible move into America on the cards – just as the global pandemic hit. Plans were thrown up in the air, but the DTM immediately changed course, adopting the GT3 rules set to build the foundations for this new, exciting era.



Of course, it’s not the first major change of regulations for the DTM: the championship has always moved with the times. Its predecessor, the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft, ran from 1984 till 1996, and evolved through standard Group A touring cars to the techno-monsters of the mid-90s like the Mercedes 190E Evo 2 or Alfa Romeo 155 V6 TI.



Within a few years the new DTM was born, involving a small name change but a huge change in philosophy: in came bespoke, more powerful machinery, initially coupés but then four-door models to fit more in a ‘touring car’ philosophy. However, by the 2010s DTM racers had morphed into virtual prototypes built on single-seater chassis, enclosed in silhouette coupé bodywork and aggressive aero.



Along with this new DTM 2023 release, you can also dive into the RaceRoom store to experience cars from these earlier eras of DTM, with classic cars and famous drivers plus full grids from 2013-2016. We’ve also got a number of epic tracks that have featured on the DTM calendar across the years.



Raceroom’s DTM 2023 pack will be released in mid December, and will be available for purchase as a Car Pack on game.raceroom.com/store. Watch out for exciting news about the official DTM Esports series that will use these cars.



Manthey’s Thomas Preining took the DTM 2023 title in his Porsche 911 GT3 R on the final race weekend: which car will you choose, and how will you get on?!

A major update to our tyre model will be rolled out in December. It will bring substantial improvements to the way the cars handle at the limit and will have an impact on brake performance as well as the Force Feedback.

In order to provide context and facts regarding the changes, we felt it was time for a new development notes article. Enjoy the read and see you all on track in December!



During the development of our Porsche Pack 2023, we benefited from the precious feedback of various subject matter experts, real drivers and race team engineers. The development of a car for RaceRoom starts by plotting all the hard facts and measurable values that constitute the core character of the car. We then make the car available in closed beta to real life drivers and the first rounds of feedback are usually pretty quick iterations focussed on dialling in the car set up and its handling before going into more details. For the Porsche 992 GT3 and GT3 R, we got pretty close to full satisfaction, but... We had comments regarding excessive grip on the rear axle that resulted in understeer during corner exits and drivers also wished for a more lively behaviour in braking phases.

Now, we were 100% sure of all the data points about the cars, so there had to be something else causing it and that left one possible culprit, one of the hardest aspects of a vehicle simulation: the tyres. Little did we know this would occupy us for months and suck us like a whirlpool into an intense research phase during which we reviewed pretty much everything we knew about tyres and collected books on the matter, contacted various researchers and tyre engineers. This is where working among the KW Automotive sphere proved really beneficial as the network is truly immense and the accumulated knowledge to be found is astounding.

Since this summer, our internal physics chat channels have been at a boiling point. Discussions of tweaks to the tyre model variables, investigations into the core physics engine and comparing it with research data as well as logged data from race cars… It has been pure excitement all this time.

What you can expect from all this work is a much more dynamic feel, achieved by ensuring that the tyre reacts appropriately in the various operating conditions, such as tyre load and camber. Before this, the behaviour was correct in the optimal and most encountered conditions but did not change much when going out of that window as we lacked data on what should happen in those cases.

Now with the research we've done and data we've received we were able to fill in those gaps and also correct mistakes in certain calculations inside the physics engine.


You don’t need to trust our own words on that, here are some quotes from two of our subject matter experts:



Moritz Löhner - Professional esports driver, Moritz competed in DTM Trophy in 2021 and 2022 after winning the DTM Esports Championship. This year, he has accumulated experience behind the wheel of the Porsche 911 GT3 with Laptime Performance.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

I was pleasantly surprised by the new tire model, it gives a great sense of grip and connection to the tyres as well as a more realistic driving behaviour.

The car always felt kind of floaty before - disconnected from the road - and slides were rewarded too much. A healthy amount of slip angle is still fast and the way to go but not as much and abusive as before.

Tim Heinemann - Multiple winner of DTM esports, Tim has proved himself in real racing by winning the real DTM Trophy twice and he made his real DTM debuts in 2023 with Toksport.

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

We all know that the tyre model, along with force feedback, is the most crucial aspect of a simulation. For me, it's essential to 'feel' the car to push it to its limits. This is precisely what we've been focusing on in this work. I'm pleased with the new model so far, and I'm eager to further refine it using real-life data and expertise.

As a side note, the new tyre will make the cars a lot less subject to rolling over, which is actually a great example of where our simulation proved imprecise beyond normal camber limits.

While the feeling for the car is greatly enhanced, the updated tyre physics should not require much change in how you drive or approach a car, it will simply be making a lot more sense at and beyond the limit of grip. Braking for a corner however, that's going to require some changes. In previous physics, you didn't really have to modulate your braking power much, and 100% brake input was pretty weak in comparison to real life measurements. If you have been tweaking your brake pedal sensitivity settings for RaceRoom to reach 100% input with less required pressure or pedal travel, you might want to revisit this as you will need more finesse in this critical phase once the update rolled out.



We know for sure that the changes will make it to you in our December update on selected cars. Feedback we got from test drivers and partners is confirming that the changes currently in beta are spot on and we are now working on adjusting all our other car classes with the V5 tyre approach. We are prioritising the most driven cars in RaceRoom but also the ones for which we have data. We will have to leave certain specs of tyres or certain ABS tweaks for a later update.

We don't want to stop there, however. We already know that there will have to be a V6 tyre:

and received a steady stream of data that opened further paths of improvements in all areas, including effects of temperatures and wear on the mechanical grip.]

In order to secure a releasable package for December, we have to leave this kind of refinements to 2024 as we had run out of time to iterate enough times in testing.

The research also grew interest for the sim by professionals. In the last days, Manthey Racing started using the latest beta in their brand new simulator room and that practice program will surely lead to further feedback and paths for improvements I’m sure. Stay tuned for more on that in the future.



Credit - Manthey EMA


Our 2023 content roadmap had some exciting content releases planned in the third and fourth quarters. However during the summer, we hit a bump in the tarmac when something went awry in our backend, causing noticeable issues. We have opted to play it safe and focus on figuring this out fully before resuming our content rollouts.

This situation has been an annoying setback as we had just hired a senior backend developer to start on a project to completely replace the old python web backend application. That old app has been causing us headaches for years, during which it has been maintained alive by successive teams. In the last months, we have had to spend time investigating these issues and looking for all possible culprits, fixing any issue we found along the way. We have taken the opportunity to also alter the infrastructure to make it more scalable. The positive news from this investigation and sequence of fixes is that it will be benefitting the game's stability for months to come, while we work on the new app.



Some remaining issue relating to Steam transactions is proving hard to debug however and this week, we have added extra logging steps in the hope to fully understand what breaks and why. This means that until a fix is found and deployed, we are considering any further major content release to be done through redeem codes sold on raceroomstore.com.

The content that was planned for release in our 2023 will be rescheduled to later dates. We will communicate on those new plans as soon as we are able.



Some background to these backend issues
RaceRoom is more than a game; it is an online service that was originally released in 2013. Any such service requires a strong server infrastructure and a performant, properly maintained backend. However, throughout the years, it hasn't received the care and attention it deserved. When we transitioned from Sector3 Studios and formed KW Studios in 2022, we have been allowed to put extra focus and resources on its development. Our platform's backend is due for a serious overhaul and refactoring.
The goal is clear – we want to ensure that RaceRoom remains relevant for another decade and steadily increases in popularity.





We haven't forgotten our long-term feature plans, and we remain as committed as ever. The interface upgrade has some elements already in-game, such as the replay interface, the options menu as well as the garage and car setup menus.



What remains to be done is the main menu and the content selection menus. The way we currently present content is quite unappealing and requires the user to make an effort to become familiar with a panel of car class icons and no way to sort by specifications, regulations, type of cars, etc. Improving the content discovery and surfacing all the awesome content that is to be found in RaceRoom is the most important part of the interface upgrade project as it plays such a huge role in how long a player is going to engage with the game. This is one of the areas where the future backend is supposed to deliver results and provide more possibilities to achieve our goals with the interface and improve upon the user flow and content discovery.

Similarly, backend development is required in order to complete our objectives with regards to the ranked multiplayer experience. While we wait for this in-game feature to be fully completed, we might come out with an interesting race organization system through Discord. Make sure to join our official RaceRoom Discord for more info on that. [ INVITE LINK - [url=https://discord.com/invite/raceroom]https://discord.com/invite/raceroom[/url] ]

For the ninth Ranked Event of 2023 we're going to Macau on Saturday, November 18! Will you join the FR3 for a 25 minutes race or will you take on the GT3 for a 20 & 40 minutes race? The top 32 European drivers based on their Ranked Multiplayer Rank will battle for a spot in the Hall of Fame in this live broadcast.



Everybody is invited to set their best lap on the leaderboards to compare your time against others. You do not need to own the track and you can try every car for free. The leaderboards will close on Thursday, November 16 13:00 CEST.





Everyone who wants to race is invited: all skill levels and regions. You do need to own the content in order to participate. You will be matched with other drivers based on your Ranked Multiplayer Rating and Reputation of your region.

The races are organized in three main time zones:
America: ET
Europe: CET
Oceania: AEDT

When the leaderboard closes, a confirmation form will be opened. This form will be sent by mail to everybody who set a lap time on the leaderboard. The form will also be announced on Discord, Social Media and added to this topic.

The confirmation form will be open from Thursday November 16 12:00 CET until race day Saturday November 18. The form will close at a different time for each region:
America: 09:00 ET
Europe: 12:00 CET
Oceania: 18:00 AEDT
Your rating and reputation will be fetched at the time listed above. To be safe, make sure your last race ends +/- 30 minutes before the deadline.

All times below are the local times (AEDT / CET / ET).

FR3:
18:00 - Practice starts
20:00 - Qualification (10 minutes, private lap)
20:10 - Warm-up (1 minute)
20:12 - Race start (25 minutes)

GT3:
18:00 - Practice starts
20:45 - Qualification starts (10 mins, private lap)
20:57 - Race 1 start (20 minutes)
21:22 - Race 2 start (40 minutes, top 10 reversed grid)


It is possible that the servers will be opened earlier for America and Europe, however the qualification for FR3 will always start at 20:00 local time and GT3 will always start at 20:45 local time. It is advised to join before the qualification starts, you can (re)join during qualification and during the first warm-up.

Ping limit
Broadcast server 200
Other servers: 350
Incident limit:
Broadcast server: 30
Other servers: 50
Mandatory pitstop: no
Start: standing start with no jumpstart protection
Setup: open
Qualification: 10 minutes
Join during qualification: enabled
Qualification type: private/flying lap
Warm-up: 1 minute
Race duration:
FR3: 25 minutes
GT3: 20 minutes + 40 minutes (top 10 reversed grid)

Drivers per grid: minimum 16, maximum 32
If a grid has less than 16 participants, the server will start with no password

Allowed GT3 cars:
Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo, BMW M4 GT3, Bentley Continental GT3 EVO, Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R, Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO ‘20, McLaren 720S GT3, Mercedes-AMG GT3 '20, Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)
Classes: DTM '21, ADAC '21 and GTR 3

Note for the players who want to participate in multiple races in multiple regions: you are allowed to do so. You can submit the form on the race day to participate in all 6 races across all 3 regions.

After the changes that were introduced in the previous season, we managed to organize more races for more participants than we had in 2022 combined. All the more reason to start with Season 2 as soon as possible!




No big surprise, the Mazda MX-5 Cup returns for Season 2! As there more participants in that Series alone than we had for all series in season 2 of 2022, you've proven to like this car. This time we're sending it on an all American tour!

The second series is the RaceRoom Carrera Cup, using the new Porsche 992 Germany Cup. The third series is the Praga Cup, using the Praga R1.

The calendar is designed so the races for each series will be held over three consecutive weeks, meaning there are no clashes.

This gives everyone the possibility to enter as many series as they would like!
Three series comprising four championships each – with prizes up for grabs!
Each series has four competitions: the global leaderboard plus three regional, four-race championships.

Everyone is invited to participate in the leaderboards, even if you don't own the cars or tracks – all the content will be made available for free for these events. However, you will need to own the relevant content in order to participate in the championship races.

The global leaderboard standings and regional race championships have a vRP prize pool for the top drivers, with a cool 5,000 vRP going to the winners of each category. The number of drivers who can win vRPs will also increase based on the number of participants in each competition – from the top 15 to the top 30 – so the more drivers who enter, the more players will win!

The nine winners of the regional race championships will also win a coveted RaceRoom victory trophy to celebrate their performance if there are enough participants: these physical trophies will be shipped to you once Season 2 is concluded.

Bonus: if you participate in all races of a series, you will receive a 500 vRP bonus regardless of your final position in the standings.




Each series within the Ranked Championship will have a race day on Wednesday. If you participate in one series, you will race once every three weeks. If you participate in all series, you will race every week.



There is no limit to the maximum number of players per series per region.

A confirmation form will be opened on the Friday before the race. On Monday, all drivers who set a lap time on the leaderboard for that series will receive an email with the same confirmation form. To be clear: this means you do not have to enter the leaderboards if you only want to race. It also means you can enter the leaderboards without having to race.





On each race day, when the confirmation form for a region closes, the Ratings and Reputations of all confirmed drivers within that region are fetched.

The confirmed drivers are then sorted by a simple formula to determine the grids:
rating * (reputation/100)

The first European split for every series will be broadcasted live on the official RaceRoom channels. Drivers are allowed to stream their race. Broadcasters are encouraged to stream the Oceania and America races and can request access to the servers.

Read the full Rulebook for further details.

Let us know what you think about the new season. Will you be participating only on the leaderboards, are you going for more than one series or maybe even taking on racing in multiple regions? We certainly hope you enjoy the second season this year on Raceroom. Good luck and have fun!

Download size = 110MB

Client version = 0.9.4.86
Client BuildID = 11776555

• BoP - Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO - Reduced drag.
  
• BoP - Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO - Improved on-throttle steering, nudged the aero balance slightly forward, tweaked dampers.

Download size = 60MB

Client version = 0.9.4.85
Client BuildID = 11755295

• Adjusted default TC presets to be suitable for beginners (preset 1) to esports level (preset 4-5)
  
• Mazda MX-5 - Reduced engine power output so the 184hp figure is now at the flywheel rather than at the wheels, increased drag. Aero balance is unchanged. Leaderboards will have to be wiped next maintenance.
  
• Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (991.2 and 992) - AI should now give slightly more side-to-side room
  
• Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) - Brake duct cooling adjustments (-5% front / +5% rear)
  
• Lotus Evora GT4 - Improved baseline setup with stiffer front springs, softer rear springs and softer anti-roll bars
  
• Fixed ABS sound that was missing from the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) Endurance, the Bentley Continental GT3 and the Audi R8 LMS Ultra

Download size = 3.6 GB

Client version = 0.9.4.83
Client BuildID = 11744924

Dedi version = 94.0.1432
Dedi BuildID = 11745466

• New Content - Porsche Pack 2023 with the official grid of the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany 2023, running the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992), then the Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) and the Porsche 944 Turbo Cup
  
• New Content - McLaren 720s GT3 in GTR3 car class with a selection of liveries
  
• Improved simulation of Tyre Contact Patch, now affected by longitudinal forces. This will result in more pneumatic trail under braking and therefore a tighter feeling in FFB under braking.
  
• Improved simulation of Traction Control. As a result, we also added new car setup options to control how much the tyres are allowed to slip before Traction Control kicks in. Some tweaks to default settings will be pushed in a hotfix soon™
  
• Improved simulation of ABS. Added a sound effect for it as well. Some cars might still be missing the sound, those will receive it in a hotfix soon™
  
• HUD - Made yellow chat text more readable in front of any sort of background
  
• Controllers - Fixed an issue with the default profile of the T818 where game considered it a custom profile
  
• Dedicated server - Multiple instances of the server no longer share the same live.txt when liveupdate feature is enabled. Each instance now writes to a unique file prefixed with the communication port assigned to said instance
  
• Fixed excessive tyre wear being applied while the player’s car was under AI control
  
• Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO - Adjusted aerodynamic behaviour so that reducing rake has less effect on aero efficiency
  
• DTM 2020 - Tweaks to differential settings
  
• Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO - Adjusted aerodynamic behaviour so that reducing rake has less effect on aero efficiency
  
• Formula RaceRoom 2 - Slight increase of fuel consumption to around 2.2 L/min or 65L/100Km
  
• Formula RaceRoom 90 - Updated brake behaviour to latest versions - now brakes spend more of the lap at and around optimal temps
  Implemented all elements of new underbody/diffuser code
  Adjusted steering geometry to increase steering forces
  Improved differential settings
  Improved base setups
  Nudged around undertray spark emitters and spring packers so car doesn't spark constantly at high speed
  
• Formula RaceRoom US - Tweaked brake cooling so they spend more of the lap at and around optimal temps
  Implemented all elements of new underbody/diffuser code
  Adjusted steering geometry to increase steering forces
  Improved differential settings
  Improved base setups
  
• Formula RaceRoom X-17 - Increased fuel use to approx 75l/100km
  Implemented all elements of new underbody/diffuser code
  Improved differential settings
  Improved base setups
  
• German Nationals - Tweaks to differential settings
  
• Group C - Longer default 5th gear for the Porsche 962, general AI tune up and reduced their tendency to think the cars are shorter than they are
  
• GTE - Tweaks to differential settings
  
• GT2 cars - Tweaks to differential settings
  
• P1 cars - Adjusted differential
  
• P2 cars - Adjusted differential
  
• Group 2 - Volkswagen Scirocco - Tweaked auto and AI g'box to upshift slightly sooner
  Fixed incorrect intertia value for AI clutch which was causing bad starts
  General AI tune up
  Longer final drive ratio at Red Bull Ring
  
• Added high output power steering to Formula RaceRoom X-17, X-22 and the Volkswagen ID.R
  
• Removed power assisted steering from various cars that shouldn’t have had it (now era correct for all)
  
• Autodrom Most - Updated to 2023 specs
  
• Donington - Moved the time attack spawn locator to before Fogarty esses
  
• Redbull Ring - Changed green tarmac to purple to match the latest IRL changes
  
• Silverstone - resurfaced, increased grip
  
• TT Assen - Updated to 2023 specs
  
• Potential fix for reports of “full server crashes” by adding more checks in the area of the code at which dmp files were pointing.

We’re thrilled to announce our latest collaboration with Porsche Motorsports: three more iconic cars from the Stuttgart stable, representing both their latest racing models and a real classic from the 1980s. The aggressive 911 GT3 R (992) is joined by the new 911 GT3 Cup (in both sprint and Endurance specs) and the phenomenal 944 Turbo Cup from 1987.




Porsche’s GT3 R model has been a stalwart of the GT3 category since its inception and the latest 992-shape car continues the GT3 R’s tradition of being a winning machine. It dwarfs the original 997-shape GT3 R from 2007 in every aspect: it’s more powerful, faster and generally bigger and meaner as the car has evolved and bulked up across the generation shifts, through the 991 variants to this 2022 model.



GT3 has become the primary international GT category, and the level of manufacturer support and quality of machinery shows how seriously it’s taken. The GT3 R is a fantastic car to drive in Raceroom, reflective of the latest generation of GT3s which are (relatively) easier to drive than previous generations, delivering their increased power in an optimised way on an even more stable platform. Whether in a DTM-style sprint or a long-distance endurance races, you’ll never go wrong choosing this car.



The 911 GT3 Cup has been a constant factor in international motorsport since the first 964 model was introduced back in the early 1990s. The 992-shape model is the seventh iteration and is even more widely raced than ever. An incredible 5,000 Cup models have rolled off the production line over the decades – literally, as the racecar is assembled on the normal road car manufacturing line as a build option. This new Cup model improves on the 991.2 version in pretty much all aspects, and even exceeds recent GT3 R models in performance terms.



With no ABS or traction control in the standard sprint spec, it takes finesse to manage the car in braking and acceleration zones: you need to learn to understand the car’s feedback and build up your experience. We’ve also included the Endurance version of the GT3 Cup, which races in many international long-distance series such as the 24 Hour and Nordschleife-based NLS; this version includes Porsche Motorsport’s ABS and Traction Control systems. The 911 GT3 Cup (992) adds to our official Porsche Cup roster, which already includes the 964 and 991.2 models.



The Porsche 944 Turbo is perhaps an outlier in Porsche’s 911-focussed race history, but just as important. Following on from other ‘non-standard’ Porsche GTs, like the 914, this coupé brought the Porsche experience to a wider audience: a cheaper and easier to control racing platform that helped make the 944 Porsche’s best selling car of the era. When driving the 944, you’ll have to deal with the old-school turbocharger and virtually no real aero, but the platform is incredibly well balanced and delivers great feedback. It’s a proper drivers’ car – just like every other Porsche.



RaceRoom’s 2023 Porsche racing pack is available now in the RaceRoom store. As part of the new application update that includes this pack, we’ve also released a dozen new authentic series liveries for the McLaren 720S GT3, which previously was only available in the DTM 2021 pack. Among other quality of life updates, there’s also a optimised revision to our ABS and traction control settings which will be immediately available when you download the latest build.

Our 2023 Porsche racing pack includes the already previewed 944 Turbo Cup, the new 992-shape 911 GT3 Cup (in both sprint and endurance spec) and then the big daddy of them all: Porsche’s new 911 GT3 R. The GT3 class has gone from strength to strength over the last 17 seasons, starting off as a sideshow to the brutal GT1s of the time and then standing to the side of the recent GTE era, but outlasting them all to become the de facto top-line GT spec. The manufactures are there, the drivers are there, the desire is there. And that counts in the sim racing world too. GT3s deliver epic performance on track and strength in numbers – the number of manufacturers has never been healthier (and we have 23 GT3s from all eras in RaceRoom). But, GT racing isn’t GT racing without a Porsche 911 involved. Cue the new 911 on the block, coming to RaceRoom next week.



This new 992-shape variant first raced at the end of 2022 on, naturally, the Nordschleife, with – also naturally – Manthey’s Grello car taking a podium on its debut, setting a fastest lap in the process. After this strong start, 2023 has seen the GT3 R take an inexorable grip on GT racing, just like its forebears.



With the epic success of previous models written into the history books, all new 911 GT3 R’s have a lot to live up to: but the new 992 is already winning, hoovering up victories in the sprint-format DTM (and currently leading both the Driver and Teams championship following the Norisring round), finishing strongly in 24-hour endurance races (in the top five at Dubai, Nürburgring and Spa this year),



This new 992-shape 911 GT3 R is an evolution of the previous generation, taking all the lessons learned from the phenomenally successful 991.2 model – which won pretty much everything there was to win – and the sister GTE-spec car. It moves a touch closer in spirit to the RSR GTE – although here the 992 is still firmly rear-engined. The new car just does everything a bit better than before: there’s more downforce; a better base suspension setup; a wider track for stability and power delivery; improved electronics; and it’s generally just more driver friendly.



Pleasingly, it’s even wider and more squat in appearance. After the relatively delicate look of the 996 GT3s we’ve evolved back into big, bad, muscular looks again – just like the last of the 993-era Rock GT2 Evos of the late ‘90s, in spirit if not the actual direct aesthetic. And that’s never a bad thing.



The 992-shape GT3 R’s suspension has been optimised for drivability and the reduction of tyre wear, theoretically making the best set-up window for any given track easier to achieve. It sports double-wishbones at the front, with a central pivot position that delivers a cleaner flow of air to the massive rear diffuser. At the back, the multi-link rear-axle has been pushed back slightly, lengthening the wheelbase while reducing the load on the rear tyres, which particularly helps on longer driving stints.



Like the Cup car, the engine is based on the road-going water-cooled boxer power plant: it’s slightly larger than its predecessor, now displacing 4.2-litres and making a healthy 565PS. It’s naturally aspirated, and has an optimised power curve to make the delivery smoother and more suited to the weekend drivers who are often sharing cars with the pros.



That’s really the story with this car – and many other GT3s. With all cars having to fit into prescribed Balance Of Performance stats to keep a level playing field, and power basically capped, the difference will be made in how the chassis performs. It’s not about making GT3’s ‘easy’ to drive: it’s about making them better to drive – and this 992 is another example of clever engineers delivering just what drivers need.



As with previous models, we’ve spent a lot of time optimising the GT3 R’s performance in RaceRoom, and it’s a blast to drive. There’s not long to wait now: you’ll be able to get your hands on the wheels of all three cars in our 2023 Porsche racing pack in a week’s time.