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SINGAPORE: Want to know what it’s like to be Kimi Raikkonen or Lewis Hamilton behind the wheels of a racing car zooming at 300kmh? Well, if you’ve got a couple of hundreds of thousands lying around, big boys’ toys don’t come any cooler than this.
As Singapore gears up for its historic Formula 1 SingTel Grand Prix in September, hi-tech simulators are increasingly popping up across the Republic in places like malls, bars, football clubs and even schools.
It’s not quite as cool as the actual car (and it won’t score you as many chicks) but these simulators virtually recreate the thrills and spills – from the breathtaking visuals on giant plasma screens to the sound of accelerating engines roaring out of state-of-the-art surround sound speakers – of driving a real racing car.
And you won’t get booked for drink driving.
SPEED RACER
One of the people peddling these simulators is Ken Knapp, whose Singapore-based Movies With Motion sells and hires out the fun machines. “You could take an Xbox or a PlayStation and set it up somewhere with a steering wheel and call it a simulator,” said the 52-year-old American from Peoria, Illinois, differentiating his machines from the more simple game consoles. “But this is a big boy’s toy. It’s serious. You don’t get the wind in your face but you get a sense of what it feels like to come into a turn at 300kmh.”
And it doesn’t get any more real than the SingTel Ultimate Race simulator, which was unveiled last month to unanimous acclaim. Housed inside a special marquee adjoining the telco’s Comcentre headquarters at Exeter Road, this exact replica of an F1 car is even made out of the same polycarbonate plastic as the real thing. It allows you to do “laps” around the Singapore night street circuit like Raikkonen and Hamilton will come September, and it even has gears and foot pedals for breaking and acceleration.
A second simulator, Nova, will tour the island – making stops in town and heartland malls – from June 12.
Made by BallRacing Developments, a top UK-based firm which designs constructs high-quality motorsport simulators to train professional-drivers, the SingTel machine is mounted on a motion-enabled platform to make the experience as real as possible.
In other words, kick the pedal to the metal and you’ll feel the G-force pinning you to the seat or get slammed inside the cockpit as you crash into a barrier while making a sharp turn. In fact, it’s so realistic you have to sign an indemnity waiver before jumping into the darn thing.
“The response has been very good, with the public being keen to experience the ... closest thing most people will get to driving a Formula One car,” said Tricia Lee, a spokesperson for SingTel. The company declined to reveal the cost of the simulator but experts estimate it to be in the range of a few hundred thousand dollars. - TODAY/sh
Racing fans can sign up for a free, 15-minute session on the simulator at the company’s website race
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