Why I Spent $30,000 on a Racing Simulator Instead of a Real Racecar

All the time, I see people commenting on Facebook when they see a nice sim racing rig that a “real racecar” could be bought for the same money. Let’s take a look at that and break it down with my own experiences, as well as the experiences of a few others.

The year is 2015 and I’d just taken a job in Atlanta to be the CTO of a credit card processor. (For those of you that don’t know, every credit card processor in the world is somehow connected to Atlanta.) Back then I was still living in Cleveland, OH and commuting to Atlanta on a weekly basis. I’d fly down early Monday morning, and then back home Thursday morning so I could spend time with my young kids. I didn’t have a lot of friends there other than the people I worked with at the time, so I was looking for something fun to do to occupy my nights.

So I set out to get myself a track car so I could race at tracks on weeknights, or weekends that I was still in town. I figured I’d learn the ropes, and with hard work and dedication, get faster over time. We all have had aspirations of being a racecar driver at some point in our lives, and this was going to be my way of making that a reality.

People that know me, know that I don’t half-ass anything, so after seeing a deal on a 2015 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car that a local Atlanta company was doing a lease promotion on…I was immediately in. $10,000 down, and $2,500 a month for 12 months. I pay for maintenance the car needed, consumables, and track time if it was to be used at a track that wasn’t on the schedule. They brought the car to wherever I’d need it on a schedule of track nights they had predetermined, and all I needed to do was show up with my racing suit and helmet. Seemed like a great deal. I was going to be a real-life racecar driver!

Fast forward to month 12 of “racecar ownership” and the reality of my situation was much worse than I’d anticipated. “Consumables” was new tires about every time ($2,500), Oil Change every time ($500), Brake flushing every time ($250), track time was, thankfully, part of the deal but God forbid the car needed any work done. I had gears replaced twice in the year of ownership and that was $6,500 both times.

Worst of all for me, I was scared to death of the car. It was fast. Like…really fast. Other drivers were also VERY fast. I was always the slowest guy on the track because I was afraid of A) wrecking the car and having to pay for the repairs, B) wrecking someone else’s car and having to pay for their repairs AND mine, and most of all C) hurting myself. I didn’t even spend the effort to have a livery designed, so like a few other drivers, I was the guy on the track with an all-white car in a white helmet in a white fire suit. I was in WAY over my head. The end of my 1-year lease couldn’t come fast enough! There were months when I didn’t run it at all.

All told, my total for 1 year of track car ownership was close to $100,000 for about 12 days of use. And after all of that…I still sucked at racing. For me, the money wasn’t the issue, but the danger was. I learned that year that I am NOT a racecar driver.

Now, admittedly, I could have just as easily gone with an MX5 and taken the same path. Likely cutting the price tag for my ownership experience by more than 50%. Or so I thought. When thinking of writing this article, I reached out to a few friends of mine that have raced in the actual Global MX5 Cup series, to ask their opinion and get a cost breakdown. Here’s what one had to say:

“New, the base car is about $85,000. Back in 2017, you could get one for about $58,000. If you just want to rent a racecar, that’s $4,000 for the weekend. If you’re campaigning in the pro series, you can expect $30K over the course of a weekend. Basic costs are this though: Pre-event prep: $1000. Tow: $1.50 per mile. Crewman: $1,500. Tent Fee: $3,000 Tires: $2,500. Fuel: $500 Brakes: $500. Entry fee: $1,500. Flight: $1000. Hotel: $1,000. Rental Car: $500. In the race series, all those partner stickers you see? They gotta get paid, and the drivers are the ones that pay.”

As you can see…it’s super expensive to race in the Global MX5 series. Way more than even what I spent. Now, again, I bit off more than I could chew with my own experience. I started way too big for my britches and ended up just wasting the time and money. But the point is ALL racecars are expensive. Let’s get to how I ended up sim racing, and then I’ll circle back to more realistic expectations for racecar ownership.

When COVID hit in March of 2020, like so many others, I was looking for something to do. I loved the weekends when there was a “Virtual Grand Prix” or the “Virtual LeMans” and was watching all the “real” racecar drivers race against each other in their sim setups. I thought to myself “That could be cool.” I knew from past experience that I’m NOT a real racecar driver. But could I be a decent Sim racing driver? I’d seen a few random YouTube videos about sim racing, so I knew it was a thing. So I started doing research…

I spent hours and hours watching videos from Boosted Media and Sim Racing Garage, putting together my build list for the “Ultimate” sim racing rig. My wish-list seemed to change after watching each video of the next better thing up the ladder. I got opinions on Reddit and FB communities. I wasn’t going to cut corners. Even as expensive as it was going to be, it was still WAY less than I’d spent in the past on a real racecar.

The idea was clear and the logic sound. I’d get a lot of the benefits of the racecar experience without any of the constant costs and liabilities. I’d spend money once, and then never have to spend more on fixing a broken car, track time, tires, lodging, fuel, or any of the other associated costs of running at the track. I could race at hundreds of different tracks all over the world…all without leaving my basement. If I wrecked, fixing the car was a button press away and there would be no threat of a helicopter ride to the nearest hospital. If I wanted to run at 5:00am in my pajamas at Silverstone in an LMP1 car, I was a few mouse-clicks away. If I wanted to run my old Porsche at Road Atlanta again, I download the content and I’m running it 5 minutes later. It was a no-brainer for me.

After a month of research and countless hours of hunting the far corners of the internet (and some creative social engineering through LinkedIn of all places) I had everything I needed to build the ultimate sim racing rig. I had no experience with any of this, but it was a project, and this was going to happen. Finally, after a few weeks of building, I was ready for my first laps.

It. Was. Perfect. For me, I had all the rush and exhilaration of racing, without any of the worries. I could wake up in the morning, go race for a bit, and then go do some laps later in the day. I could run laps before work, and after dinner with 5 minutes of notice. I’d run races on weekend mornings before the kids got up, and still have the whole day to spend with them. I was racing with people of similar skill in most cases, from all over the world. The best part was, if I wrecked…it wasn’t a big deal. If I wanted to get good at a particular track, I had the whole place to myself in whatever car I wanted. For a car guy, it was a dream come true and exactly what I was looking for.

Eventually, friends of mine started coming over to race too. A few of them now have sim rigs of their own and we race together all the time. Discord allows us to race together and talk at the same time. It’s brought a whole new level to our own “virtual track nights”. We pick a track. We pick a car. We pick a time…and we race. Nobody has to travel anywhere. We don’t have to schedule with our family. We don’t have to prep cars, and best of all, it doesn’t cost us a dime.

Can you just buy a cheaper street car and do the same thing? Sure. So let’s look at a few examples of that. Take my friend, Jake for example. He picked up a 1992 Miata to be used as his track car. Now, Jake is a mechanic at a local Porsche dealership, so he knows how to work on cars and can do all the maintenance himself. We also share a 2000 sq-ft garage with a lift and probably $150K in tools that another friend owns, so we’re set up to be able to do whatever we want with a car mechanically. He spent $4,500 on a clean car that needed an engine and some other bits. He picked up a used engine for $500 that was well sorted already. Being a collector of Miata parts with several parts cars at his disposal, other bits were not an issue. Let’s say he used $2,000 worth of parts from his own stash. (Rollbar, shifters, seats, sway-bars, and other stuff.) He grabbed a nice set of lightweight rims for $600 and tires for $400. So he is now $8,000 deep into his track car. Totally affordable for those of you with the money and desire to get a track car. He still has the expenses of consumables associated, but he certainly was able to buy a track car for much less than I spent on my endeavors. (Admittedly, that’s the route I should have gone.)

A few weeks ago, I went with Jake and another friend to a track night at Pitt Race outside of Pittsburgh PA. I took my regular street Porsche 911. The sights, sounds, and smells of a real race paddock took me right back to my days in Atlanta. It was familiar and there was a sense of “cool” that you just don’t get from sim racing. It’s honestly intoxicating. No doubt that part of the experience can never ever be replicated in the sim world. But as soon as I hit the track in my car, all the old feelings for me rushed right back. What if I wreck? What if I brake too late? Is that car ahead of me going to yield? What about that guy behind me? My sim racing experience certainly DID help me on the track in real life. I had a much better understanding of track lines, braking zones, and general race craft. But I was still nervous the whole time I was on track.

Let’s go over those costs. I flushed my brakes and changed my oil. That cost me about $200. I already had relatively new tires, but would have needed a new set after 2-3 track nights, so let’s say I took $250 worth of life off my tires. Track time was $185 for 3 20-minute sessions and some parade laps. It took 2 hours to get to the track, and track insurance for the night cost me $200 through Hagerty. So I was about $835 for the night using my own street car. Not too bad, but I didn’t get anything for it other than the memories. Doing that monthly would be just over $10,000 a year. You can buy a LOT of sim gear for $10,000.

So what does all of this mean? It means Sim Racing is where I belong. I’m never going to be the fastest guy on any track. Sim or real. But I know, for me, sim racing gives me something that I can’t get on a real track. Peace of mind, and ease of use. Of the 16,321 people on iRacing at the moment I’m writing this article, I’d guess that 95% of them would shit their pants in a real racecar too, if given the opportunity. You may THINK it’s for you and you’d be super fast, but the reality is that may not be the case.

Do you NEED to spend $30,000 on a sim racing setup? HELL NO. There’s a streamer that I watch almost every day, Blair Patterson, that kicks all kinds of ass with a $400 wheel. I’ve raced with him in his weekend league and watched hours and hours of his streams. He’s always one of the fastest guys out there. He primarily streams NASCAR races, but I spent a whole day watching him in an LMP1 car at the virtual 24h of Daytona with a setup that cost him way less than Jake’s Miata. I spent what I did because I’m a gear junky. Plain and simple. My gear isn’t the issue with my racing…it’s my ability. I’ll never be great. But I can and do have a lot of fun.

But the debate rages on. Every week on Facebook Sim Racing Groups, I see the same comments from other sim racers when shown an “over the top” rig like mine. “You could have bought a real racecar for that!” The short answer is “No. No I couldn’t have.” People often only look at the one-time cost and don’t think of all the associated costs and potential risks. That’s what I’ve tried to point out here. Is it the same? No way. Is it close? Possibly. Is it more fun? Debatable. It all depends on your definition of fun. For me, yes…very, but your mileage may vary.