How To Download & Install iRacing Setups

iRacing car setups explained

iRacing is an extremely competitive sim racing platform. Drivers will often be battling to find extra tenths of a second. One of the best ways to find extra lap time is to use a custom iRacing car setup.

iRacing setups allow you to use custom car setups either created by yourself or other setup creators. When your setup is tuned just right, you can extract extra performance from your car resulting in faster lap times.

Fixed vs open series

You won’t be able to use custom car setups in every series in iRacing. There are two types of race series in iRacing, fixed and open. Open series allows you to use any car setup. You can spend time practising on track to tinker with and create your own car setup. Or you can use a downloaded car setup.

Fixed series don’t allow custom car setups. Instead, every racer will be forced into using the same baseline car setup. This means that performance in fixed series is entirely dictated by driver skill. This is a great place for you to compete against other drivers, and learn from others on track. These series present a completely even playing field.

Open series generally tend to be more competitive than fixed series. This is due to the fact that a lot of drivers will be using custom car setups. As I mentioned, if you set up your car right, you can find extra performance and feel more comfortable racing on track.

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Where to download iRacing setups

If you don’t fancy yourself as an engineer, you can download car setups from others. This is often one of the best ways of getting the fastest car setup available for your car. There is a wide range of iRacing setup creators, all of which offer car setups to download that have been extremely well optimised.

You can browse our iRacing setup library to find the best iRacing setups from around the web collated easily in one place.

In our iRacing setup library, we have collated a range of the best iRacing setups from different setup shops. You can browse setups by car to quickly and easily see a variety of car setups for your specific car. From there you can easily download the car setup using our direct links to the download page.

Premium vs free

Setup shops such as Premier Racing Setups and Coach Dave Academy offer premium car setups that have been created by iRacing professionals and real-world racing drivers. If you’re looking for the fastest outright car setup, these two services offer some of the best car setups available.

If you don’t fancy purchasing premium car setups for iRacing, there are websites that offer free setups. These setup libraries often include setups created by other iRacing drivers, and can be sorted by rating or lap time.

iRacing Setup Sync by Nick Thissen is one of the best setup libraries around. It includes hundreds of car setups that have been created by iRacing members around the world. You can scroll through the setup list and sort by car or track.

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How to install iRacing setups

No matter whether you download your iRacing setups from a premium or a free source, the process to install them remains the same. You can quickly and easily install any iRacing setup in just a few simple steps.

Step 1 – Find and download your car setup

The first step involves searching for and downloading your car setup. You can use our iRacing setups library to quickly and easily find your perfect car setup. Start by following this link to view all cars that have custom car setups.

Second, click on the car that you would like to view setups for. You will then be taken to a page that shows you all of the custom iRacing setups available for that car.

You can quickly see which track the car setup is for and whether it is a complete series bundle. The bundles contain individual car setups for every track within a specific series.

You’ll also be able to see the racing series that the setup was created specifically for. You’ll often see setups that have been changed for individual series. Some racing series in iRacing feature different race distances and track conditions.

Finally, you’ll be able to see the season that the setup was created for to ensure it is up to date. Then you can see the setup builder that created the setup.

Clicking on each individual setup will take you to the exact download page. This allows you to quickly browse setups from multiple car setup creators all in one place.

Step 2 – Copy your setup into your setup folder

Once you have a setup downloaded, the next step is to copy it into your iRacing setup folder. This step will allow your setup to be accessed in-game.

First of all, locate your downloaded setup in your downloads folder. Once you’ve found it, right-click on it and select copy.

Next, navigate over to your iRacing setups folder. You can find this by using this path structure;

• This PC -> Documents -> iRacing -> Setups

Within this setup folder, you’ll see individual folders for every car that you currently own in-game. If a car isn’t listed here, chances are you haven’t downloaded it yet in iRacing. If this is the case, open up the iRacing UI, and download the car. It should then show up in your documents folder.

Once you’ve located the car that the setup is for, simply open the folder and paste your setup file into it. You can do this by right-clicking in the folder, and selecting paste.

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How to use iRacing setups in-game

With that final step completed, your car setup is now ready to use in iRacing. The next step is to launch iRacing and start testing your new setup.

Step 1 – Launch iRacing

Simply launch iRacing like you normally would. Then load up any race or practice session using the car and track combination that you downloaded the setup for.

Step 2 – Open your setups

To load your new setup, click the garage button in the overlay. Click on “My Setups” in the right-hand navigation. You will then see a list of all setups that you have installed for that specific car. You will be able to see the new car setup that you have just downloaded.

Step 3 – Load your setup

Click on the new setup, and select “Open” in the pop-out module. Your new car setup will now be loaded and ready for you to race with.

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Are there any iRacing promo codes for new members?

iRacing often runs promotional codes giving reduced price memberships. These normally apply to new members only, but sometimes you can pick up a renewal code, so it’s always worth checking.

Read our iRacing promo code guide for a full list of working 2022 iRacing codes.

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