A Race Car Simulator That Costs Almost as Much as a Race Car

— -- If, like me, you’ve always dreamed of driving a race car really, really fast, but have been deterred by minor worries like the possibility of smashing headlong into a wall at 175 mph, you’ll drool over the Simcraft Apex SC830.

This simulator is a sort of cage built like a race car cockpit, complete with steering wheel and pedals, that’s suspended a few feet above the ground. Above the steering wheel are three monitors showing a race track and, potentially, your virtual opponents.

Turn into a hard curve and the cage heels over just like a Ferrari would. Slam on the brakes and the Apex will send you lurching toward the monitors in front of you. You can use the Apex to play lots of off-the-shelf racing games, like iracing.com and Live for Speed.

There’s another Simcraft unit that approximates flying a plane and works with eight flight simulation programs.

Unfortunately, Simcrafts now cost about $40,000 and are the province of the Department of Defense, professional race car drivers and really rich guys. Simcraft officials, though, hope to push the cost down to about $3,000 in two years. Start saving!

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