Oh Canada

Richard Broadhead

Flag & Com
Some of you may remember a few years ago when a group of racers out of Calgary were coming down for Spokane and Portland races with FC cars. They were lead by a guy name Blair Robertshaw. Well, they haven't been down in a while now but Blair is still very active in the racing community. :)

This looks like something The Ridge should consider installing in the club house as built by Blair and his new company. Called The Race Room:

http://driving.ca/auto-news/news/on-the-road-virtual-seat-time
 
umm we still come down every year to Spokane? Blair hasn't been down as often but he should be down again this year.
 
No doubt this a cool thing BUT .......

I have driven real race cars, computer race games, simulations with force feedback wheels, and even full hydraulic ram actuated three dimensional race car simulators and in my experience seems like only the full motion machines that cost over $50,000 with long fast acting rams give even a taste of the sensations one might feel in a real race car. Even then the ability to judge distances is still somewhat unrealistic which makes braking and turn in kind of weird. I was impressed with the simulator at the new Lemay museum in Tacoma - when going over the rise on the back straight at Lime Rock in an ALMS prototype the car got light and gave a wiggle when it reloaded if the wheel wasn't straight that felt remarkably realistic. That simulator run was the first time I have ever felt actually "fooled" by some of the sensations that a machine was providing and generated the kind of instantaneous unconscious reactions a racer should have like countersteering or breathing the throttle to balance the car. Of course, as a racer, I immediately was curious about what I would have to do to have one of these machines in my basement so I could spend the winters sharpening my craft but was disabused of the notion when investigation revealed the simulator cost $54,000 in basic form and quickly escalated to about $85,000 when optioned out. ( http://www.cxcsimulations.com/purchase/north_america/ )

Yes, I am definitely getting old and lazy but have to draw the line at doing my racing alone in the basement on a simulator that costs three times what my actual racecar did. I had better hope the price point doesn't come down too much though because it was pretty entertaining and with todays technology it is easily possible to have bacon delivered, get breast implants, and have an immersive racing experience in the basement - what would my motivation be to leave the house?

Sounds like Blair builds his own simulators - I wonder what the cost vs realism factor is on his systems?
 
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For Blair's system cost is $$$$ and realism is top notch (for simulators) pretty much as good as you are going to get. He uses same parts as the F1 teams do in their sims.
 
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