Seriously – who wouldn’t want to get behind the wheel of a Viper and tear around the GTR track in Barcelona? I’m down. But the trick is, I want to be able to do it on demand – I don’t want to have to sit through an 8-hour flight and then work around some silly track schedule. So what’s an instant-gratification junkie to do?

Answer: Get your own virtual race car and race anytime you like. Meet the VirtualGT pro driving simulator. Calling this a “video game system” is like calling the space shuttle a 
“kite”. This is a system that pros like the ’08 Indy 500 champion Scott Dixon are using to fine-tune their abilities. The guys at Virtual-E Corp faithfully reconstruct the cockpit of a GTR race car, complete with full suspension, custom racing seat, 4-point racing harness, three headsets with boom mikes (so you can communicate with your pit crew), and your choice of a heavy-duty sequential shifter or gated H-pattern shifter console (or both, if you like). Displays of up to 82 inches with LCD, Plasma, HD plasma, and HD LCD projection options put you right on the race track. But the piece de resistance is their custom audio system: 500 watts of power delivered through four satellite speakers, one subwoofer, and four vibration transducers output 100+ decibels of sound and vibrations as real as if you were truly behind the wheel in a race situation. They assure us that the sense of speed and energy will raise your heart rate and even make you sweat.

The software includes the entire FIA GTR series including the tracks in Spa, Monza, Nurburgring, and Barcelona (third-party mods are already popping up with tracks in the US). Cars include the Ferrari 360, 550, 575, Porsche GT2 and GT3, Corvette C5R, Viper, Lister Storm, Mosler and Saleen S7. And if all this isn’t enough (and really, when is enough truly enough?), just have a chat with their software team and they’ll create custom tracks and cars for you. Just in case your current house isn’t up to snuff, they’ve partnered with interior design firms in 7 major US cities to help create the ideal racing lounge (their example concepts include a racing lounges, pit crew corner, and club area as part of one installation).

So suit up and get in the cockpit. If anyone gives you any flak, tell them you’re in training.

This post is tagged car racing, driving simulator, formula one, in luxury living, indy 500, nascar, race car, video game