“There are two kinds of force feedback motor bases: direct and belt-driven,” says Rosenqvist. In the sim realm, all you get is the feedback from the wheel, so choosing the right one is vital. You can tell if you’re approaching the car’s mechanical grip by feeling the car rotate, slide, or shudder. In a real car on track, you’d feel how the car was responding to inputs by sensations going through the wheel, pedals, seat, and your body itself. “The wheel is the heart of the sim,” Rosenqvist says, “because it’s where you get the most important feedback.” You want a force-feedback motor mount, which means that your wheel is connected to a base that has a motor that can provide force along the axis of rotation. It’s a small touch, but Next Level includes a back bolster pillow that goes a long way, especially when you’re learning a new track in a new car and realize that five hours have elapsed since you first climbed in. “Comfort is key since you’ll be spending a lot of time in this position,” says Rosenqvist. There’s a dedicated place for a monitor stand, and the Next Level wheel and pedal mounting plates have pre-drilled holes to accommodate major component brands without any modifications, and all have height multiple positions to allow for a widely-customizable cockpit. Optional caster wheels beneath the steel frame make moving it around your house a snap, locking in place when you’re driving. The seat isn’t a bucket, like Rosenqvist’s, but it sits on adjustable rails, great for accommodating drivers of any height, and the back is adjustable, too. I chose one of those, a Next Level Racing F-GT cockpit ($499). Other chassis options bundle a seat along with the frame, for less money. Rosenqvist has a 90-pound aluminum chassis frame, the SimLab PX-1 ($703), and bolted a Sparco QRT race seat ($1,375) on top. You’ll want something beyond rigid, since it has to support you and also all the forces you’ll be imparting upon it as you jam on the pedals and torque your wheel. The foundation of any sim is the rig upon which the various components - seat, wheel, pedals, gear shifter (if applicable), even a monitor - can be affixed. (And, while substantially more affordable than fielding an actual car at an actual race, a decent simulator isn’t what you’d describe as cheap.) The Chassis Rosenqvist, the 2019 Ind圜ar Rookie of the Year, built his own home sim from scratch earlier this year when lockdown started and he ran us through chief considerations for sourcing all your sim components and about the limits of these kinds of systems. From time to time, you can think you’re in a real car.” “If you haven’t pushed a car to the limits, it’s hard to explain, but you can get close. “There’s always something missing in a home sim,” says Felix Rosenqvist, a 28-year-old Ind圜ar driver for Chip Ganassi Racing. Naturally, you have to pare way back for a home setup. It’s the nearest thing you’ll find to a real race car, per your butt-dyno. Professional drivers and teams use hydraulic platform rigs capable of generating up to 2 Gs, like the multi-million dollar Dallara units in Indianapolis and Italy (to the tune of $12,000 per daily rental). The goal with any racing sim is realism and the hardest thing to simulate is the sensation of torque and G-forces. Those opportunities are few and far between now, so the closest analog is a simulator setup. I skirted the lack of means, for a while working as an automotive journalist in the Before Times afforded ample seat time in often unobtainable cars at iconic race tracks around the world. While racing is arguably the only sport in which an abundance of the former can help overcome the lack of the latter - many race series require amateur “gentleman” drivers with endless coffers willing to bankroll a season - an imminent financial windfall is unlikely. Despite my deep passion and ambition, two things preclude me from becoming a race car driver: a pile of money and innate talent.
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