COMMENTARY
Right on track: Stunning detail sets iRacing apart
Steven Cole Smith
AUTOMOTIVE
December 15, 2007
The last video game I mastered was Pong, which should give you an idea of
how sophisticated and cutting-edge I am when it comes to that world. That
said, there was an exhibit at the Performance Racing Industry trade show,
held last weekend at the Orange County Convention Center, that may require
some personal investment.
First, to set the stage: The Performance Racing Industry show is open only
to the trade, drawing 45,000 attendees from around the world. As you would
suspect, the vast majority of equipment on display was for hard-core
racers -- engines, tires, wheels, suspension components, bodies . You could
easily have built a complete race car by touring the show with a very large
shopping cart.
One smallish exhibit seemed to be drawing more than its share of attention,
and it featured software, not hardware. The company is called iRacing, and
it develops stunningly realistic electronic re-creations of racetracks. The
company was founded by Dave Kaemmer, co-founder of Papyrus Design Group,
developers of NASCAR Racing computer games, and John Henry, principal owner
of the Boston Red Sox and a major investor in the Roush NASCAR teams.
Many of you know far better than I that lots of online racing games already
exist, allowing gamers to either "race" by themselves on their own computer,
or race in real time against others online. Where iRacing is different is in
the startling detail that goes into its simulations of racetracks, mapped
out by lasers at an expense of some $100,000 per track.
The idea is not so much that this is a computer game, but more of a
professional flight simulator for race car drivers -- it will allow them to
show up at an unfamiliar racetrack having already experienced it to a degree
existing racing simulators can't match. "If there's a bump coming out of
turn four," says Steve Potter, iRacing director of communications, "you'll
feel it, and the car will react to it." And iRacing will update the tracks
regularly -- should a bump appear on a track a year later, it will be added.
See, iRacing software is delivered online each time you race, not on a CD,
or stored in your computer's hard drive.
They had a couple of simulators set up, so I took a "drive" around USA
International Speedway in Lakeland, one of 60 racetracks the company has
mapped. I drove a V-8-powered late model -- you can choose a variety of race
cars. And you can customize those cars with a huge number of variables,
including stiffness of the shock absorbers, tire pressure, weight balance,
you name it. Add a couple of pounds of air in the right-side tires, and the
iRacing program will show you how the car should react.
Indeed, the realism is remarkable, from the slightly darker "groove" around
the asphalt track, to the accurate billboards in the turns. During the
weekend, a number of professional race drivers stopped by the booth and
tried it out: I went immediately after Eric Curran, who drives a Chevrolet
Corvette in the Speed World Challenge GT series. He said the realism is
"amazing. This would definitely help before visiting a new track."
Not yet, though, as iRacing remains in the testing stage, with a probable
spring debut. The price has not been set, but expect an online subscription
to cost less than $500 a year. Of course, you can spend anywhere from $300
to $30,000 on the simulator itself -- some are enclosed in realistic race
car***pits, and the seat moves as you tear around the track.
While I was testing the system, I had another thought: How valuable
something this sensitive, accurate and realistic -- not to mention fun --
would be in teaching driver education.
Yeah, I may have to join the 20th century. Or whatever century this is. Pong
has lost its appeal.
Sentinel Automotive Editor Steven Cole Smith can be reached at
Copyright ? 2007, Orlando Sentinel
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