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.
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