Dear GGR Members,
There are a lot of interesting ways to enjoy our Porsches, just look at all the various activities our region puts on every year. However recently three of us had a lot of fun driving Porsches in a Virtual Reality (VR) Racing Simulator.
Eddie Pettis is a very enthusiastic member and is one of our newest Track Instructors. He also happened to have a really nice VR system running the game Assetto Corsa at his house. So one evening, Kurt Eckhardt and I (also Track Instructors) went to Eddie’s house to check it out.
Photo: Eddie Pettis, the driving is virtual but the beer is real.
The Buttonwillow HPDE and Club Race was coming up in a couple weeks, so we wanted to practice the counterclockwise direction of the track, as Buttonwillow is more typically run clockwise. Assetto Corsa is nice because you can download nearly any track in the world. We were even able to drive an unofficial version of the new Circuit course at Buttonwillow that is currently under construction!
Photo: Kurt Eckhardt in his fancy white racing socks.
In addition to the tracks, Eddie had bought the “Porsche Pack”, which allows you to download and drive all the various Porsche models, which also includes some really special cars like the 917K, 918 Spyder, and RSR 3.0. Eddie configures his virtual car identically to his actual 2020 Carrera S in Miami Blue, so he can “practice” anytime while at home.
I know quite a few GGR members have nice VR rigs at home. Porsches are not cheap, but neither are these systems. You can get a starter system for a modest budget, but the nicer ones (like the system we are using) easily get into the five digit price tags. During the depths of the pandemic, virtual racing series sprung up all around the world and the competition got really intense. So it was interesting to experience this newer aspect of our automotive hobby. Our cars will remain to run, but I have a feeling the VR experience is only going to get more and more common.
Photo: Yours truly, probably spinning out based on the angle of the wheel.
Sincerely,
Howard Yao
president@pca-ggr.org