Re: Track Safety (more)

[Justin Hughes <ka1ult@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Simulators on a PC don't need much more maintenance than Scan Disk and
DeFrag.
>Simulators on a PC don't need liability insurance.
>Simulators on a PC don't need a tow vehicle.  And so on and so on.
>
>The technology is there or computer based simulators.  The hardware is
>cheap enough now.  All that is needed is software designed specifically to
>address these situations. No video games.... only track incidents.

That's an excellent thought, but I question how effective it would be.
Aircraft simulators are a complete recreation of a cockpit, along with all
the sights and sounds and feel of a real plane.  With a PC simulation, with
modern technology, you could model a pretty accurate simulation of an M3,
or any car you want.  Grand Turismo, a Playstation game, is one of the best
driving simulations I've ever played (too bad there are no BMWs, though!)
Add one of those steering wheel and pedal setups to a PC, and you'll have a
great machine for driving.  But there are two major drawbacks:

1. Your field of vision will be, at best, probably a 21" screen.  In real
life you have a full field of vision.  Though you shouldn't rely on
peripheral vision to keep you out of trouble, it's a useful early warning
system, and paying attention to movement out of the corner of my eye has
saved me from countless accidents in my daily driving.  Even a 21" monitor
can't provide that.

2. NONE of the feel will be there.  As a friend (on this list) was telling
me the other day, you get to a point where you know how to drive the car
simply by feel.  A tach is nice, but you can feel when you need to shift.
You feel the tires approaching their adhesion limits.  You get that "oh
s***" feeling when you enter a corner too fast.  Without a simulator with
capabilities like an aircraft simulator, you're not going to get any of
that.  It doesn't seem as real, which makes it easy to separate the
computer from reality, which is something you DON'T want in this case.  For
the cost of it, you're better off using the $1000 beater previously mentioned.

	- Justin

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