Screw NASCAR, This Is Cool

[aquaduct]

Our Finnish hosts took the group (about 18 people) that I'm with out tonight for a bit of simulated rally car driving.

A full-blown VW GTI in off-road gear on a hydraulic platform to simulate bumps and a big projection screen for the road. It takes you through a 4.1 km section of a real dirt road rally course here and you get 5 minutes or 2 wrecks max.

So we each got two turns behind the wheel and also two turns as somebody else's navigator. My first run I crashed once with a 20 second penalty and wound up about 4:40.

Then on my second run, I got the hang of braking with my left foot and staying on the gas (7000-9000 rpm) while turning and course correcting. Missed 2 shifts and finished at 3:14 (about 75 kph average speed and 160 kph top speed). Shiite, that is cool. Took me about 5 minutes to get my heart rate down.

I crewed another American on his second run and he turned 3:08, making me second overall (who said we Yanks can't drive?).

Then one of the guys that works there took a run. Same course, only this time in the snow. 2:18.

We are not worthy.

[TDR]

Presumably pretend driving burns less gas.

[aquaduct]

tdr said:

Presumably pretend driving burns less gas.

Doubtful. I'm guessing the electric bill more than makes up for it.

[Supertramp78]

2:18 in the snow??? Holy cow.

Dang that sounds like fun. Disney opened an indoor amusement park in Orlando called Disney Quest. It is about five stories of interactive video games and attractions. One of them is a virtual white water rafting experience. You get in a rubber boat on hydrolic lifts and you are handed oars with electric sensors in them. Then the big screen in front of you shows you a river and you paddle like hell to change the direction of your boat before you hit the rocks. By the time the ride is over you are beat to death and ehausted. The worst was Cyber Space Mountain. You go to a computer screen and design a roller coaster from hell. Loops, rolls, jumps, inversions, whatever. then you go to a 360 flight simulator pod and strap yourself inside. A screen in your pod shows you the ride as the pod dips, spins, flips and inverts to match what you are seeing on your screen. More than one person got out and had to sit down for 20 minutes or so until theiur stomach settled down. I know I did.

I have to admit that your car deal sounds a lot better. Much better than the driving simulators I had back in high school where you kept looking for that stupid kid to roll his ball into the street.

[aquaduct]

supertramp78 said:

2:18 in the snow??? Holy cow.

That's downright scary sitting on the couch and seeing it on the screen.

I think the guy hit 175 kph top speed and he did something that allowed him to powerslide through a right angle turn without shifting.

The cat was on friggin' fire.

[TDR]

I'm guessing the electric bill more than makes up for it.

I haven't seen the machine, maybe its an energy hog. But let's say a GTI has about 200 horses and one HP=745watts. That means this rig eats 149,000 watts.

That's as much as 1,490 one hundred watt light blubs. Really? Just to light up a screen and bump the car around a little? Or maybe the computer and servos are grossly inefficient?

Another way to reckon it is one gallon of gas is good for about 60 kilowatt hours. If you burn 2.35 gals in an hour (I'm giving you an mpg of 20 doing all that racing around at 9000 rpm)... your simulator would have to use 141 kwh of juice.

That's more in one hour than my house uses in two or three days. You think it uses that much?

[Supertramp78]

"powerslide through a right angle turn without shifting"

And the physics model build into this simulator allowed him to do that? That alone is pretty cool. I have driven on ice and snow before and all I can see myself doing in that situation is crashing into something. Multiple somethings probably.

[Village Idiot]

That sounds cool, Aquaduct. I'm wondering, though. Do they have simulations of driving down gravel at 25 mph, looking to the left and right at fields as you go by?

[TDR]

Maybe they have one for road hunters. You could drive down country roads in a 65 Jimmy with gun racks drinking beer and stick your 30-06 out the window and blast deer and stuff.

[Village Idiot]

In Iowa, the only thing you can use to blast deer from your truck when driving down country roads is a shotgun, and only if you have a physical disability.

[TDR]

Hereabouts shotguns are strickly for birds and liquor store holdups. And you can't shoot from or across the road legally no matter what your handicap.

But that don't stop the yahoos cruisin around in the back of the truck sitting in lawn chairs and feet up on the cooler.

Occurs to me that as long as we're simulating a fantasy hunt, why not be shooting saber tooth tigers and dinosaurs. You know, make a life size video game out of it.

[Village Idiot]

Exactly. The hunters that infuriate me are the ones who pile into the back of a pickup truck with big stupid tires, chasing down deer to the point of exhaustion, then jumping out and shooting them "legally". I believe this is the way Cornflake hunts.

[TDR]

Speaking of which.... wonder if he ever got his Blazer back.

Mr Flake, did the venerable K5 ever make its reappearance?

[Village Idiot]

It was found, and the culprit caught red-handed.

[TDR]

I spect Flakes daughter couldn't bear to tell him how embarassed she was to drive that thing, knowing how fond he was of it. So she arranged to have it disappeared. Hope they got the insurance.


And VI, that chick there looks like somebody fixin to come put the vice grip on her. If you know what I mean.

[aquaduct]

supertramp78 said:

"powerslide through a right angle turn without shifting"

And the physics model build into this simulator allowed him to do that? That alone is pretty cool. I have driven on ice and snow before and all I can see myself doing in that situation is crashing into something. Multiple somethings probably.

I don't know how the guy managed it. I thought I was doing pretty good, but I got hung up rounding that corner and then in another tight uphill twist. Too conservative, slowed and then lugged down.

He just blasted through with only a flicker of the brake lights. Just a screaming blur of white.

They had a little pamphlet of different moves and how to execute them properly, but it was in Finnish. Needless to say it didn't help.

[aquaduct]

villageidiot said:

That sounds cool, Aquaduct. I'm wondering, though. Do they have simulations of driving down gravel at 25 mph, looking to the left and right at fields as you go by?

I think I saw a POS Taurus wagon with Iowa plates in the back room.

Maybe they're working on it.

[aquaduct]

tdr said:

I'm guessing the electric bill more than makes up for it.

I haven't seen the machine, maybe its an energy hog. But let's say a GTI has about 200 horses and one HP=745watts. That means this rig eats 149,000 watts.

That's as much as 1,490 one hundred watt light blubs. Really? Just to light up a screen and bump the car around a little? Or maybe the computer and servos are grossly inefficient?

Another way to reckon it is one gallon of gas is good for about 60 kilowatt hours. If you burn 2.35 gals in an hour (I'm giving you an mpg of 20 doing all that racing around at 9000 rpm)... your simulator would have to use 141 kwh of juice.

That's more in one hour than my house uses in two or three days. You think it uses that much?

Well, let me see.

My 5 miles with a purpose built, high-efficiency race engine probably would cost about a quarter worth of fuel at $2/gallon.

I don't know for sure, of course, but I figure it probably costs more than that to run the building.

Heck, it probably cost more than that in beer consumption.

Did I mention that we got to drink and drive?