Everyone of our members started at the same point as you and most of them are racing/computer guru's now
Club Communication
The club has it’s own forum. Check it out here.
The forum is split into two sections.
The first section is open to everyone. Interested parties can post questions regarding the club in this forum.
The second section is for club members only. The members only forum is the primary form of communication for all club members. It is a prerequisite that all club members join the forum. Check out the joining AoR section for more info.
The club can support various voice communication packages. The most popular is Ventrillo. You will need to supply your own headphones and microphone. Ventrillo is available from the AoR forums.
A great aspect to racing in AoR is the race time chat. On most nights, before, during and after league races, drivers get together in Ventrillo and talk about the night’s race. There is plenty of banter and its the best way to get help and advice from some of Australia’s fastest sim racers.
Racing Hardware
With your computer, the most important thing to consider is frame rates. Try and keep them as high as possible by reducing your detail levels. You’ll appreciate the extra frames when your running nose to tail going into a turn at 180 mph!!!
A basic starting point for your computer specs would be:
Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD equivalent
2G Ram
Direct-X 9 capable video card with minimum of 256MB memory
OCAU Wiki has an up to date list of current hardware covering Gaming or Dream Machine configurations.
A wheel is essential to this hobby of ours. In fact, it is a pre-requisite to join the club. The control that a wheel and pedals give you is vital to enjoying the racing. There are many wheels available on the market. Most have force feedback but this isn’t essential. Again, shoot off a couple of questions on our forum and our members will “steer” you in the right direction.
Some wheels to check out are:
Logitech G25 - popular, accurate and cheap
Advantage1 - sturdy construction, Australian Made
Frex - Great Equipment at a price most can't afford
Hyperstimulator - Great cockpit, Australian Made
Last but certainly not least is your Internet connection.
You don’t need the fastest connection, you just need to have a good stable connection. ADSL, ADSL2 and Cable are ideal. If your connection suffers quality issues, your racing will suffer. Other cars will start warping on the track and racing can become impossible. If you are having Internet problems, please post on our forums as a number of our members have resolved their own Internet connection issues by using the experience and knowledge that other members have acquired.
Our server hosts, Netspace have kindly put together a package for our members, so if your in the market for a new connection, or considering switching, join up to AoR before making your application to Netspace. More info available in the forums
Supported Simulations
Grand Prix Legends (GPL) is a computer racing simulator developed by Papyrus Design Group and published in 1998. It simulated the 1967 Formula One season and is considered by many people one of the most realistic racing games ever released. To this day it maintains a reputation as a very realistic race car simulator. Its strong points are fairly accurate car physics, reasonably attractive graphics, impressive engine sound effects, good online racing and solid Internet support from its user community. GPL was truly the beginning of the online sim racing.
Papy’s NASCAR 2003 series took a big step forward from the release of NASCAR 4 back in 2001. Utilizing an updated GPL physics engine, NASCAR 2003 included one vital ingredient that was missing from GPL, an advanced tyre model. NASCAR 2003 was the last NASCAR sim available from Papyrus. Still surviving today in small communities, this great sim still lives on.
Simbin released GTR in 2004, which became a massive hit with circuit racers the world over. Simulating the 2003 FIA GT championship, featuring over 70 race cars, including the Porsche 911, Viper GTS-R, BMW Z3 M and Ferrari 550 Maranello, Dynamic weather changes during the race and Live Track Technology, a revolutionary technology that alters the course conditions as the race progresses. The physics were a massive step forward but ultimately, Its multi player functionality, or lack of, became too much to bear.
Simbin released 3 new sims:
GT Legends, GTR2 and Race07. GT Legends simulates period touring cars throughout the 60's and 70's. GTR2 is the successor to the original GTR but has so far failed to capitalize on its original popularity. Seemingly arcadish physics have alienated the sim community. Race07, released in 2007 simulates the WTCC series, another great feeling sim but struggled to gain a foothold within the sim racing community.
Live for speed, Richard Burns Rally and Netkar Pro are all supported on demand, in fact if the sim supports dedicated hosting technology we will, can and usually do, support it.
rFactor is the clubs most popular sim, released by ISI in 2005, this community orientated sim has been developed in such a way the developers are actively encouraging the creation of "mods" and tracks to extend the game far 
beyond what any other sim could possibly offer.
Mods such as V8factor, Renault Megane, Porsche Carrera Cup and F1 1979 simulate their respective series to a level of, and some, notably better than dedicated sims.
rFactor features what is arguably the best net code seen in a sim to date allowing 35+ drivers to race comfortably side by side and a collision model never seen before allowing minor contact to be not only possible, but, a feature in its own right.
for help getting started see our rfactor getting started page.