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Unfortunately, I have struggled with motion sickness my whole life and learned that I am highly effected by it when using a driving simulator, despite taking medicine for it beforehand. I decided to stop while I was somewhat ahead so that there would be a chance that I could drive again after recovering for a bit. Most people don’t experience these symptoms (and especially as severely), but CXC recommends taking Dramamine beforehand for clients over 30 years old. Although I’m under 30, I took them up on the recommendation due to my tendency for these symptoms.
The VIR was really neat, but I instantly felt intense vertigo once I started driving with it. I didn’t feel as motion sick while driving, however once I took the VIR off, I was instantly an 11 out of 10 for feeling and being motion sick- if you will.
The GT3 Cup car, by the way, was an incredible car to drive. It was easy to adapt to and handled exactly how I like it- great balance, excellent turn-in, stable mid corner, prone to a little oversteer bias, and fast. I feel like this is the type of car that the simulator does best with: something with a high limit, is stable with very crisp turning capability, and isn’t challenging to maintain decent momentum with.
The MX-5, however, wasn’t as good of a representation of the accuracy of the simulator. The brake pedal pressure and harshness of shifting feels the same no matter what car you choose to drive, which is too intense for a bone stock MX-5, in my opinion. Also, it is generally difficult to have a sense of depth perception with all simulators, so driving a momentum car can be difficult. Being able to feel a car’s characteristics is crucial for all types of cars, however it is essentially a “do or die” necessity when driving a momentum car at pace- even more so with stock or non-racing suspension where there is less balance.
The intensity of both the braking and shifting, however, is a great representation for high limit, full race cars, such as the GT3 Cup. With that said, I can’t imagine that the drivers and teams who buy these simulators would use them for anything less than the high limit race cars that they use them for practice with. So therefore, most people using this system will likely not even encounter this observation.
For example, in the above photo, I am entering the Laguna Seca track from the hot pit area. It’s a pretty tight turn, but I feel like the amount of steering input I had to have isn’t as much as I would have to have in real life in the GT3 Cup car. It felt a little closer to a 90’s front drive Honda steering input, rather than a cup car. Improving the steering feel could really make the simulator feel even more real than it already does.
