Automotive

Advanced simulator lets you race like a pro without the expense

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Inside one of six pods at the Motion Simulation Room
Motion Simulation
One of many different race car setups inside a Motion Simulation pod
Motion Simulation
A view of the screen inside a Motion Simulation pod
Motion Simulation
Inside the Motion Simulation Room, where six pods providing an array of racing experiences
Motion Simulation
Inside one of six pods at the Motion Simulation Room
Motion Simulation
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Unless you can afford the expense of a racing school or track day, getting close to the experience of riding in a F1 or GT racecar is near impossible. Fortunately, the average race fan can now have something resembling that experience, with the opening of the Motion Simulation Room in England.

Built by Motion Simulation, a company that creates immersive devices used by professional racing teams around the world, the Motion Simulation Room features six different simulators or pods that give users the choice of "racing" a plethora of different F1, GT or Touring cars on well-known race tracks from around the world. That choice of cars also includes supercars, rally cross, trucks and historic racers, so there is no shortage of racing experience options.

What differentiates the Motion Simulation Room from other racing simulation experiences is the relatively compartmentalized form of the Motion Simulation TL3 pods, and the ability of the pods to generate up to 2Gs of acceleration and life-like movement across three different axes. So you can actually heave, pitch and roll while sitting behind what the company claims is the world's first 200-degree wrap-around spherical screen with a 6 million-pixel image.

A view of the screen inside a Motion Simulation pod
Motion Simulation

With multiple pods and courses available, users can race against the clock or each other with a lap time leader board indicating fastest times. The intent is to make this the most immersive racing experience possible short of actually being in a car on a track.

For £15 (about US$21) you'll get a driver briefing and training, then a 15-minute session in one of the six Motion Simulation Room's pods. There's no word on when or if a similar venue is being planned for elsewhere in the world, but we could see the possibility of a Motion Simulation TL3 popping up at fan experience zones at multiple races in the current and future race seasons.

If you don't feel like standing in the lines of race fans and speed junkies that will surely form to give the Motion Simulation pods a try, the company will sell you a TL3 for a mere £34,995 (about $50,000).

To see what it's like to take a Motion Simulation TL3 for a spin, check out the following video.

Source: Motion Simulation

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3 comments
guzmanchinky
Very cool, but I've always found that the lack of spatial depth makes it impossible to judge corner entry speeds correctly. I'd much rather spend the same $20 on some laps in an electric indoor kart track.
Stephen N Russell
Expand to planes, copters for Vid Games alone or other exotics to sample driving & import to the US & Canada.
Mark Salamon
Now if we can just convince our fellow humans to stop racing fossil fuel burning, emission-spewing, internal combustion powered cars that are driven around and around in pointless circles for hundreds of miles on racetracks blighting the landscape everywhere...