Aston Martin's £57,500 sit-in driving simulator

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/09/23/aston-martins-57500-sit-in-driving-simulator.html

If it keeps even one aspiring Aston Martin driver off the road…

5 Likes

tumblr_n5d5u6t6g31t0kzg5o2_250

3 Likes

A £1500 PC with a £56000 chair bolted to it.

This should have a Doctorow Guillotine Watch shoop attached.

6 Likes

I hope it has some conveniences in the simulation, like a way to fast-forward through each week it’s in the shop.

1 Like

As a sim lover (mostly flying, occasionally racing), stuff like this is… way, way over priced. I get the appeal of a chair and steering wheel setup, having used them, but mine only costs about $200 total (price of the wheel/pedals and cost of a simple frame… over stuffed lounge chair for sitting in is part of other home furnishings and serves multiple purposes, so not included here).

Ah, capitalism. Ensuring a price point for everyone, despite the fact it won’t actually play any better for 7400 times the cost.

2 Likes

Well, as long as its more reliable than an actual Aston Martin…

1 Like

I don’t think this thing even has motion for tilting etc. I played with pretty fun setup at a tradeshow that used D-BOX actuators and it felt super real and fun. Way less than 56K (but also not cheap). Also for 56K, I would want VR.

(Not me)

Finding this video I realized that there is a huge world of DIY simulators, and I’m kind of fascinated.

1 Like

Hell I’m still rockin a Playstation 3!

The first time I saw an Out Run cabinet in Worthing, England’s New Amusements pier arcade in 1986, I was shocked that it cost 50p a game. 50p! But that’s nothing on Aston Martin’s latest driving game cabinet, the £57,500 (~$74k) AMR-C01.

You…do know that 50p was not the purchase price of that Out Run cab, right?

Assetto Corsa already supports VR so you can have that for a few grand in PC and VR headset costs. Just need to write a little VR program that simulates stepping into this Aston Martin rig prior to running the AC sim and the experience will be complete.

I built my rig for free out of metal bedframes and a Volvo seat scrounged on CL-Zip. I even picked up LCD monitors for free the same way. I bought the PC used from a failed startup for under a grand and it has better specs than the box in the Aston Martin setup.

But we who like to do things on the cheap are not the market for the 150 units that Aston Martin is flogging. The same people who have collections of expensive sports cars are the ones who will buy this. There are certainly more than 150 of those guys globally.

Well at that price point, and for full realism for the rich kids, it should skid off the road uncontrollably on first drive into a pylon and burst into flames. Everyone has a good sneering chuckle and waits for the next toy.

1 Like

You could get a used Aston Martin for fifty grand.

1 Like

You could1) get a new Aston Martin for £30,000:

1) As in “once upon a time”.

2 Likes

But where does the oil leak go?

1 Like

I could buy the X-Wing equivalent for under $7k. Hard pass.

2 Likes

That’d be ~$2.5k in early 1980ies $$$ - I do not dare to guesstimate how close I came to that feeding coins into those over the years.

1 Like

Now I understand why I got banned from the local arcade.

3 Likes

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.