Sponsored: Making competitive sim racing easy with Coach Dave Academy’s Delta

Here’s the thing about Assetto Corsa Competizione and iRacing. Above the introductory levels, or simply racing against the AI, creating a tailored car set-up can be essential to being on the pace during online races.

You can be a relatively experienced driver, but as soon as you enter races through the likes of The SimGrid or Low Fuel Motorsports or events on iRacing with open setups, the ultimate pace can seem far away.

Using cunning and guile, you can make up positions in the race, but that lap time delta to the pacesetters can be sometimes mystifying.

A cursory glance at professional esports competitions shows that the best in the business use customised settings, and they do so for one simple reason – there’s time to be gained by optimising a car’s behaviour.

But, it can be complicated to create your own setup, sometimes you almost need a degree in mechanical engineering. Before you know it, you’ve headed in a direction that may not actually be quicker.

Enter, Coach Dave Academy, which offers tried and tested set-ups for both ACC and iRacing, created by a dedicated team of sim racing talent and real-world motorsport engineers. With 35 people working to find ideal settings on a full-time basis, they put the countless laps and menu visits so you don’t have to.

Coach Dave Academy setup advantages:

• Potential for quicker lap times
• Removes guess-work
• Saves time
• Can increase driver confidence

Delta automatically installs Coach Dave’s tried and tested setups

The thing is though, traditionally, you still have to search for a set-up, download the file, copy it to the right place and manually action this for every single possible variation such as different cars, tracks, sessions (qualifying or race) and weather (wet or dry).

So while purchasing a Coach Dave Academy setup, or subscribing, saves time and has the potential for improving your results, it could be even more straightforward.

Delta, a Windows app launched last year removes that faff, removing barriers to entry for competitive sim racing by automatically downloading and applying in-platform the most recent set-ups for Coach Dave Academy subscribers.

All you do, once registered and installed, is open Delta and then ACC. If you’re a Coach Dave subscriber, in the background it will install all of the latest set-ups and even set the all-important tyre temperatures to match the track condition.

Simply head to track, any session or car and track combination, and there will be the curated setups in ACC ready to select.

Job done – no more lost hours fiddling around within the mechanical grip tab…

Coach Dave Academy Delta advantages:

• Automatically downloads the latest ACC setups
• Runs the in the background, matches the setup to your session
•  Never have to adjust tyre pressures yourself again!

“The idea came about because we really want to make sim racing open to more people,” explains Coach Dave Academy founder and professional Ferrari GT driver David Perel.

“If you invest in the equipment to go sim racing and then you’re off the pace, it can be off-putting.

“So with a subscription to Coach Dave Academy’s latest setups and using the Delta app to automatically apply them, you have a solid platform to be competitive from the off. It becomes more rewarding and easier to get on the pace.”

Delta’s latest upgrade now includes iRacing

Up until now, while both ACC and iRacing set-ups are available from Coach Dave Academy, Delta has only been able to apply settings automatically to the official GT World Challenge title. That changes with a new update, launching today (2^nd August 2023).

For the first time, those who use Coach Dave Academy’s iRacing services will also be able to have the latest curated set-ups auto-install into the popular sim racing service – providing feature parity across the two platforms.

The changes to Delta don’t stop there. For over a year, the testing team has also been creating hot lap video content, and this will now be accessible directly within Delta.

So, not only will you be benefitting from the automatic installation of car settings, but there’s quick access to a relevant instructional video to get the best out of it.

If you use the likes of MoTeC or Popometer Data too for extra analysis, there are direct links to those too within the interface and for iRacing, access to ghost laps and replays.

 “Being able to bring the automatic installation of Coach Dave Academy setups to iRacing uses is tremendously exciting,” explains Chief Marketing Officer at Coach Dave Academy, Steve Worrell.

“This is another step towards accessible and competitive sim racing for all.

“By adding native features such as links to hot lap videos and data analysis services now means Delta is your central hub with everything you need to become quicker and more consistent.”

Delta’s latest features:

• Auto-install setups for iRacing, alongside existing ACC functionality
• Quick access to hot lap tutorial videos, MoTeC data, Popometer data, ghost laps and replays
• Redesigned user interface

Delta is a free download for all Coach Dave Academy ACC and iRacing setup subscribers. Subscriptions are available from $9.99/€9.99/£8.99 per month per platform, or $99.00/€99.00/£89.99 per year which is a 20 per cent saving.