Interview With GPLaps: The Thrill Of Historic Sim Racing

Without a shadow of a doubt, to me, Jake is the best sim racing content creator, the way he presents every single one of his videos is beyond amazing, as well as the amount of info and passion he pours into them.

GPLaps is one of my favorite YouTube channels. Great content, and very informative. If you like racing from before this century, then GPLaps is the best sim racing channel for that kind of content.

As an historic racing fan, both real life and simracing, I love what Jake does. Will watch the interview now

Very good narrator, only some of his videos contains so much YT commercials within his documentary, that I have stopped watching.

Jake is one of my favourite Youtubers.

Yannick, you’re the David Frost of simracing! More times than not, Jake’s retro-simracing exploits permit viewers with the opportunity to sense what earlier titles contributed to the simracing genre. I applaud his ability in 2024 to accept the older titles for what they were … I tried firing up NASCAR Legends last year, but the magic was gone for me. But I am a believer, as I still heard the V8 engine roar during the Sierra installation. Nice interview!

Simply enjoying listening and watching every video. It's just pure passion for what he is doing. Keep up with the work you do

Let's be honest here.

GPLaps needs content, so he plays racing Sims and purposefully ignores blatantly broken aspects of the game while portraying a fake experience for content. He did it when AMS2 released Daytona Oval and brushed over how broken the release was as cars literally slammed on their brakes down straights. He did it when showcasing VLN on rf1 where he told everyone how awesome it was, while HEAVILY editing the video, I surmise, to take out all the parts where cars rammed him repeatedly. I challenge him to live stream a 2 hour VLN session on rf1 and release it on YT unedited. He won't. He can't, because the cars ram you all over the place.

He showcases older mods and the tells us in order to get it to work better, he had to edit some ini files as is customary. Does he tell us what he exactly did? No. He hoards that information to protect his niche content and stifle competition.

He plays GTR2 and ignores that the reason he is catching up to all the cars is because the AI cars become extremely slow after a while because of the accumulation of incidental contact damage. He then tells us how awesome it is and perhaps the pinnacle of Endurance racing, a game that becomes more broken the longer you play it.

His whole channel is an illusion .... to put it bluntly ... a lie. He purposefully hides and misrepresents the reality of these Sims so he can create content.

He is no different than all the slimey YTers who lied about the severity of how bad Forza was pre release, which was mostly everyone. He is literally part of the problem ... as is all the people buying LMU on day one, and the lying YTers, and the excuse makers shilling for companies who are laughing at their stupidity.

Everything I said isn't personal towards him. But Its the truth. I don't know him, he is probably a nice guy, but let's be honest about what's going on here.

I don't live in clownworld. The truth is the truth.

Jake gets it. The simple joy of sim racing to appreciate what it was like to race back in the day. It doesn't take a $30K rig to accomplish this goal.

tpfitz said:

Let's be honest here.

GPLaps needs content, so he plays racing Sims and purposefully ignores blatantly broken aspects of the game while portraying a fake experience for content. He did it when AMS2 released Daytona Oval and brushed over how broken the release was as cars literally slammed on their brakes down straights. He did it when showcasing VLN on rf1 where he told everyone how awesome it was, while HEAVILY editing the video, I surmise, to take out all the parts where cars rammed him repeatedly. I challenge him to live stream a 2 hour VLN session on rf1 and release it on YT unedited. He won't. He can't, because the cars ram you all over the place.

He showcases older mods and the tells us in order to get it to work better, he had to edit some ini files as is customary. Does he tell us what he exactly did? No. He hoards that information to protect his niche content and stifle competition.

He plays GTR2 and ignores that the reason he is catching up to all the cars is because the AI cars become extremely slow after a while because of the accumulation of incidental contact damage. He then tells us how awesome it is and perhaps the pinnacle of Endurance racing, a game that becomes more broken the longer you play it.

His whole channel is an illusion .... to put it bluntly ... a lie. He purposefully hides and misrepresents the reality of these Sims so he can create content.

He is no different than all the slimey YTers who lied about the severity of how bad Forza was pre release, which was mostly everyone. He is literally part of the problem ... as is all the people buying LMU on day one, and the lying YTers, and the excuse makers shilling for companies who are laughing at their stupidity.

Everything I said isn't personal towards him. But Its the truth. I don't know him, he is probably a nice guy, but let's be honest about what's going on here.

I don't live in clownworld. The truth is the truth.

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Is it hard to walk with that stick up your Azz? The amount of hate in that single post...

tpfitz said:

Let's be honest here.
[sic]
I don't live in clownworld. The truth is the truth.

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Simracing--regardless of how simple or complex we make it--will always demand the suspension of disbelief. Some sims more than others. Practically every simracer here at RaceDepartment has been lying to himself for thousands of hours while playing Assetto Corsa, not to mention all the other sims out there. We're all clowns who inhabit a world of illusion, by your metric.

tpfitz said:

I don't live in clownworld. The truth is the truth.

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I would suggest you are the clown who wouldn't know the truth even if it came up and slapped you in the face.

Having had the pleasure of getting to know Jake over the last year or so, the guy does what he enjoys. He finds fun in most things he plays, regardless of the flaws that you or I are aware of. He works, he fiddles with files, he plays games, and enjoys sharing his fun with people. His glass is always half full, whereas yours seems permanently empty.

I think he dropped his glass, stepped on the shards, and then tried to stop the bleeding with fire.

tpfitz said:

Let's be honest here,,,,
I don't live in clownworld. The truth is the truth.

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So much anger.

1) Jake like any YT content creator obviously needs to create content - that's what they do.

2) There's no such thing as a perfect simracing title, so banging on about how Jake has chosen to focus on what positive aspects a title may have isn't necessarily a case of being deceptive, it's a good quality of a content creator who clearly wants to make positive content and seemingly doesn't want to get wrapped up in flaws. Jake has a really good and positive approach - something you could maybe try instead of speaking so negatively of him.

3) If you truly believe that Jake is still all that you claim, then although you may not live in "clownworld" (wherever that may be) you ain't exactly living in the real world either.

I'm not going to bother explaining anything else as you are clearly very convinced, which is your right to be, but it doesn't seem like you'll be receptive and open-minded to anything other than your beliefs anyway. If you don't like his content and / or him, then don't get involved with his content and / or him. There are better things to do in life than spend time complaining about something that isn't for you.

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Putting all that to one side, I've watched Jakes videos for many years, and I admire and respect his approach and style. He's clearly very passionate about the historical aspect of motorsport, and I particularly love the pre-race build-up he does in the majority of his videos when he reminisces on the era, cars, drivers, tracks etc. That passion is great to watch, as well as obviously being very informative, and adds a unique quality to Jakes videos by having all the context read out just before the racing action commences. It's a very good presentation style, and a major breath of fresh air from todays norm of rushed content that just gets to the action asap to meet algorithm requirements. I also watched a "rig tour" video of his recently and I just liked and respected his approach of him doing what pleases him, with the hopes of pleasing others, but all while not trying to pander to anyone at the same time. He does what does, enjoys and wants to share that, and that's it.

Jake's a great part of the simracing community, and I for one am very grateful and appreciative for his videos. So thanks Jake, and thanks also to RD for rightfully bringing him into the spotlight with this article.

There are a few YT channels on simracing that I enjoy, but Jake has the best one.

The intros are amazing. The final result is usually a perfect mix of documentary, simracing information, and gameplay.

tpfitz input vs. large style... I see realistic points of view in them both . But I'll go with the positive attitude with what large style portrays... as it just makes for a better day. Jakes vids always make me feel a bit of nostalgia. He has a natural knack for it. Nuff said.

Vintagedriver01 said:

Very good narrator, only some of his videos contains so much YT commercials within his documentary, that I have stopped watching.

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Adblocker.

Spinelli said:

Adblocker

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No adblocker works for commercials within the YT videos.
But I’m always trying to learn so tell me which will work mr @Spinelli @Johnny Speed and @Luciano Santos Filho. As the last two gentleman seems to confirm this.

edit btw THE adblockers that not give you a ban by YT. Because some are detected by YT and after a warning you get a ban.

Vintagedriver01 said:

No adblocker works for commercials within the YT videos.
But I’m always trying to learn so tell me which will work mr @Spinelli @Johnny Speed and @Luciano Santos Filho. As the last two gentleman seems to confirm this.

edit btw THE adblockers that not give you a ban by YT. Because some are detected by YT and after a warning you get a ban.

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Try Brave.

Stephen Bailey said:

I would suggest you are the clown who wouldn't know the truth even if it came up and slapped you in the face.

Having had the pleasure of getting to know Jake over the last year or so, the guy does what he enjoys. He finds fun in most things he plays, regardless of the flaws that you or I are aware of. He works, he fiddles with files, he plays games, and enjoys sharing his fun with people. His glass is always half full, whereas yours seems permanently empty.

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Exactly this. I'd rather live in clown world than your world. At least in clown world I get to have fun. I saw a meme on FB yesterday where some kids were having fun playing the Dune expansion on MS Flight sim and some old gnarly simmer came up and had a go at them for not having fun and moaned "its not a proper sim anymore ". That's what some of the people on here are like.

I've watched some GPLaps vids and found them very chilled out and entertaining, I love the older cars so his idea of fun is quite close to mine.