I was at the Mall of America over the weekend and checked out the Nascar
Silicon Speedway. For now they have one track up and running,C***te
with Richmond and more on the way. For those of you not familiar this is
a computer type simulator for Nascar. Don Wilshe posted a note about the
grand opening a couple of weeks ago.
You actually sit in a fully painted scaled down Nascar with a tach,
seatbelt,clutch pedal,and four on the floor. Overall a very realistic
***pit. You are virtually surrounded by three video screens. There is a
monitor imbedded in the dash which gives you a view of your behind and
another monitor on the passenger side which you can toggle between
a number of different views, other cars etc. The car has hydraulics which
simulate car movement eg car tilts to the left when entering the banked
turns.Great sound too. There are 12 cars in a U shape configuration and
these constitute the guys your racing against along with I believe 8
computers cars but don't quote me on that. The wheel has force feedback
which was really neat.
As an avid user of ICR2, N2 and a little GP2 I would say that this
blows all of your home computer sims out of the water. The graphics and
the close-up view with the wide screens is just awesome.
They charge $ 7.50 for a ten lap race with no qualifying but have
already started league racing which is a 50 lap event. It was pretty much
a demolition derby in the pickup races but still was a blast.I was there
on the weekend and they were absolutely jammed.
The good news is that the second one is scheduled to open somewhere
in the Chicago area around Christmas which is near where I live. This
would be the ultimate racing league situation as they do allow setup
modifications etc. So if your in the area go check it out,you'll love it.
Steve Paradise
Nors2 '97 series
NWSICT ICR2 series