AndrzejRembowski Pixabay
Ever wanted to try out a Formula 1 racing car but were a bit daunted by driving a car worth hundreds of thousands of pounds around a real racing circuit? Fear not, there’s a safer and cheaper alternative – the racing simulator. This is actually used by many genuine racing drivers looking to practise off the track and improve their reaction time.
My husband found a video about it on YouTube and booked us a family slot at Teamworks go karting centre in Letchworth in Hertfordshire, where they rent out racing simulators by the hour. It looked a lot of fun. You could also play laser tag there and a lot of lucky kids were racing go karts for someone’s birthday treat.
We sat down in the chairs and a staff member ran us through what to do. It seemed simple enough and we set about adjusting our chairs and watching the ‘how to’ video. My six year-old couldn’t wait to get started.
It was amazingly realistic and the car literally felt like it was going 100 miles an hour. In fact, it was so realistic that after just five minutes of racing/mainly driving my car into a wall, I had to bow out as I felt so car sick…
Oh God, I felt rough… So I spent the rest of the hour’s session sitting on a chair and drinking a bottle of water the staff member kindly brought me, and trying not to look at my hubby’s screen because it also made me feel sick… In fact, writing this now, it makes me feel a bit queasy just thinking about it…
The staff member told me not to feel bad because it actually happens quite a lot. Still, at least my son and my husband enjoyed their sessions, although they both found it very tricky navigating their simulator cars around the track.
I probably won’t be trying this out for real – nobody wants to see me barf over a hundred thousand pound McLaren, least of all me…
