Virtual GT Personal Racing Simulator
It was with much trepidation that I accepted the assignment to test the Virtual GT personal racing simulator. After all, I am old enough to have driven to Riverside International Raceway in my own Sunbeam Alpine to watch the Times Grand Prix. My personal feelings about video driving games are that they are flat and boring, with little feel and none of the ambience of an actual racing car. This is especially apparent when you have a real racer or two at your beck and call.

As you can see from the photo, the self-contained Virtual GT appears to be more like an actual car than a pedal and steering wheel attached to the family PlayStation. The hefty, force feedback steering wheel is a Momo—stolen from a Formula car—and the racing seat is a Sparco with adjustable lumbar support.

All told, it ensures a comfortable, custom-fitted cockpit replicating the control relationships of an actual racecar. The driver’s visual clues are delivered via a large monitor, with excellent resolution, and if you prefer multicar racing, two or more Virtual GT simulators can be connected for a more competitive environment.

Now all this would be plenty for most video game enthusiasts, but not for Paul Stary, the designer of the Virtual GT. Stary is a sound engineer and a racer. “What was missing from most racing games and arcade simulators was the sound and feel of the racing car,” he explains. The Virtual GT has 400 watts of digital 9-channel sound, complete with multiple vibration transducers for a realistic feel. “The simulator has suspension, so that the vibration is not lost due to solid floor contact.” Stary also mentioned something about aesthetic suspension, a subject I would soon become familiar with.

With 150 different cars available, from 45 hp delivery vans to 1,000+ hp sports racers and Formula cars, it was easy to pick something interesting for my test-drive.

I drove several cars but found two favorites. One was a Subaru STi and the other, a Renault Clio Sport V6, constructed to my specifications, with an extra 200 horsepower added, along with a proper racing suspension.

Not having a video gamer’s familiarity with digital steering and two-dimensional visual cues, I found the familiar Laguna Seca track to be quite a challenge. Gradually, I became more accustomed to driving my car and keeping it on the pavement. The surprise was that I was not frustrated through the learning process. The ambience was that of a racecar, and I was trying to master its ultra-quick steering and great abundance of horsepower.

It actually felt like I was driving it.

Unlike other video games that I have experienced, the sensations of this simulator are not at all like a video game’s. Corner offline too wide and grip is lost, the steering goes dead, and understeer takes the car into the gravel. Drive back onto the track, and rocks and bits of rubber bounce off the bottom of the car as the whole chassis vibrates from gravel stuck to the tires. These are familiar sensations to any racer. Knock down some cones, scatter them across the track, and they will still be there—right where they landed—on the next lap.


Practice works here just as it does in an actual racecar. I finally cut that perfect apex, clipping the curb to a firm bump from the suspension and a kick in the steering wheel, feeling the alligators vibrate the chassis and the steering on the exit, the car rocketing to the next corner, and a fast lap time. All to the digital stereo sound of thumps, growls, and vibrations of a slick-tired, open exhaust racecar. All of the sensory input told me that I was literally driving on a racetrack.

The Virtual GT differs from actual racing in one key area. Crashing is accompanied by a sound, but no damage. Just drive back onto the track and continue. Try that at your next Porsche club event. 

The Subaru was driven on a closed-circuit dirt course, not unlike those “super stages” run at some WRC events. Here, the steering and the feel were authentic, with the car acting in a predictable manner as I practiced my “Scandinavian Flick” and full-power, opposite-lock, left-foot-braking, cornering technique. The steering feedback indicated the potholes and ruts made by other cars, and I could hear the ricochet of rocks and dirt clods off the bottom of the car.

Then I noticed that four hours had passed. OK, just one more lap…

Ah, yes. Aesthetic suspension. Now I get it.

Virtual-E Corp.
www.virtual-e-usa.com
www.virtual-gt.com