Strap in and grab your virtual steering wheel, as this inaugural Chicane Podcast episode sees your hosts, Jason Rivera and Eric Kelly, shift gears into the electrifying universe of sim racing. Remember those late nights of gaming that turned into lifelong friendships? That's how Eric and I began our journey, and today we're taking you from nostalgic PlayStation memories to the adrenaline-pumping evolution of sim racing setups. Revel in Eric's tale of leveling up from the arcades to a top-notch sim racing rig, a story that's sure to resonate with veterans and rookies alike.
Ever wonder how a pile of metal and wires transforms into a sim racer's dream? I lay down the track on upgrading from modest beginnings with a Logitech G29 to the powerhouse of Simagic equipment. Steer through the twists and turns of DIY rig reinforcement, the pursuit of rigidity for that perfect force feedback, and the ultimate climb up to the pinnacle of sim racing hardware. Listeners, take note—navigating the reviews and making savvy choices for your own setup is akin to finding the ideal racing line: challenging but rewarding.
As we wave the checkered flag on our first episode, we pay homage to the sim racing artisans who craft their battle stations with the precision of a pit crew. Their dedication fuels our passion and drives us to connect with you, our Chicane Podcast family. Remember, whether you're here to trim down those lap times or simply share in the camaraderie of fellow enthusiasts, Eric and I are eager to welcome your questions and stories. So, rev those engines, and let's keep the conversation racing until the next session on the virtual tracks. Peace and deuces, racers!
Intro Rights below: Song: Low Mileage - Hold You [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: http://ncs.io/holdyou Watch: http://ncs.lnk.to/holdyouAT/youtube
Strap in and grab your virtual steering wheel, as this inaugural Chicane Podcast episode sees your hosts, Jason Rivera and Eric Kelly, shift gears into the electrifying universe of sim racing. Remember those late nights of gaming that turned into lifelong friendships? That's how Eric and I began our journey, and today we're taking you from nostalgic PlayStation memories to the adrenaline-pumping evolution of sim racing setups. Revel in Eric's tale of leveling up from the arcades to a top-notch sim racing rig, a story that's sure to resonate with veterans and rookies alike.
Ever wonder how a pile of metal and wires transforms into a sim racer's dream? I lay down the track on upgrading from modest beginnings with a Logitech G29 to the powerhouse of Simagic equipment. Steer through the twists and turns of DIY rig reinforcement, the pursuit of rigidity for that perfect force feedback, and the ultimate climb up to the pinnacle of sim racing hardware. Listeners, take note—navigating the reviews and making savvy choices for your own setup is akin to finding the ideal racing line: challenging but rewarding.
As we wave the checkered flag on our first episode, we pay homage to the sim racing artisans who craft their battle stations with the precision of a pit crew. Their dedication fuels our passion and drives us to connect with you, our Chicane Podcast family. Remember, whether you're here to trim down those lap times or simply share in the camaraderie of fellow enthusiasts, Eric and I are eager to welcome your questions and stories. So, rev those engines, and let's keep the conversation racing until the next session on the virtual tracks. Peace and deuces, racers!
Intro Rights below: Song: Low Mileage - Hold You [NCS Release] Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream: http://ncs.io/holdyou Watch: http://ncs.lnk.to/holdyouAT/youtube
Jason:
Hello and welcome to the first ever Chicane Podcast, where we discuss all things in the sim racing world. I'm your host, jason rivera, and I'm joined here by eric kelly. How you doing today, eric?
Erick:
I'm doing good man, just trying to stay dry. This weather is crazy outside. Uh, what's going on on your end, man?
Jason:
oh man, over here it's on and off, man, the weather here is is unpredictable. You know how it is, yeah, so, yeah, man. So this is the first episode of the chicane podcast, right, as you heard? Um, so this podcast covers everything sim racing, it covers all the major sim racing, you know, games like acero corsa, acero corsa, competizione, eawrc. We're also covering F1 and many others, right? So this podcast we're trying to do discussion-based and news-based, and also we'll cover certain topics in certain episodes, but for our first one, I'm so excited I want to get this going. So, eric, why are you here? That is my first question to you. Why are you here?
Erick:
First question on the podcast. So for me, I'm here first and foremost to support my homie. We've known each other for a long time. You're a great guy, but that's why I'm here first and foremost. But also just so happens that I'm starting out on my SIM journey and you're like my SIM sensei. You know you've been doing it for a while.
Jason:
The SIM sensei. I love it.
Erick:
Yeah, giving me a lot of good advice. So that's why I'm here to talk SIM and support my homie.
Jason:
Well, I highly appreciate those words, mr Eric Kelly. Eric Kelly, let me break this down a little bit. So Eric has two YouTube channels. He has his TechGent YouTube channel. That covers everything tech, by the way, and then he also has a live streaming pretty soon YouTube I know I threw that out there. Uh, live streaming tech gent gaming because he's he's getting into he's always been in the hobby and we'll touch on that here in a second, you know, but he's getting a little more serious. I'd say, um, based on previous, uh, yeah, little more serious.
Erick:
I'd say um based on previous uh yeah, yeah, spending more late nights on there.
Jason:
Yeah, man, yeah, it's getting good to me, I'm gonna cover the history between me and eric. Uh, or eric and I should say uh. I met mr eric kelly, which used to go by blue suave. Yeah, and we met on the PS3 days, I think. Playstation 3 days, yeah man, it's been a minute huh. I think it was Call of Duty. World at War is where we met man. That was the surprise I had for you, man.
Erick:
Man, I forgot about that. That was the surprise I had for you, man. Man, I forgot about that.
Jason:
So, yeah me, yeah. So Eric and I we have been. We actually never seen each other in human life. We've always seen each other on cameras, on social media, on the phone, but we never had a chance to hang out. And we need to make that happen, eric at some point.
Erick:
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, that sounds like a good podcast right there in person oh, yeah, the in the in-person.
Jason:
Uh, a piece, if you may. Yeah, yeah, so, and and the, and that's kind of what I want to touch on next is the whole reason we're doing this podcast is to support the community, is to talk to each other and and figure out, you know, basically discuss our opinions and our different perspectives, because everybody has a different perspective when it comes to hobbies, and it doesn't matter what it is. It could could be something totally unrelated, like golf or cooking or cycling. Yeah, so diverse. The human brain is different. It's different in each and every one of us, right? So, eric, I want to ask you about your journey and how it started and where you are today.
Erick:
Yeah so. So for me, my journey started back on the OG PlayStation with Gran Turismo and Ridge Racer, so I've always liked racing games. But as far as you know, going over to the sim side of things, that didn't start until more recently. Up until then I was more of a need for speed Midnight Club Shout out to those guys that know about that but those were kind of my jam before I really started kind of getting into the sim side of things. So I started getting more serious, probably about 2017. Whenever GT Sport came out, Gran Turismo Sport came out, I thought it was a beautiful game and I love cars in real life, so it was very, you know, I was very appreciative of the game and the respect they paid to the cars and the recreation of them Got me a G29, a Logitech G29 from a place called Second and Charles I's where most of us start, man.
Jason:
Most of us start there.
Erick:
Yep. So I picked it up for a nice little discount because it was secondhand, but I mean it was in pristine condition, Still had the box, the original package and all that stuff. It was a steal. Got that clamped it on my desk and I didn't necessarily shoot off just because the second I started looking at how to improve my experience. I needed space and I needed money and I was limited on both at the time. So I just rocked out with that and fast forward to was like a month ago, One conversation with Jason. That's why you got to, you got to watch him, man, he could sell you dirt in the desert. One conversation with him. I messed around and I told him some of my issues.
Jason:
I didn't do it, man, I didn't do it.
Erick:
I told him my issues. I was like the Fanatec stuff is just don't sit right, it's kind of locked in. And he was like, well, you know, SimMagic is an option. I'm like, okay, I looked into SimMagic. They have this thing called the Sigma Cortex Converter. I looked it up, looked up a couple of videos of people using it. No complications at all, you just plug it up and it works for the most part and I was sold. I looked at SimMagic's ecosystem. They have some great hardware, great build quality, good reviews, and so now I'm sitting, upgraded from my G29, which is about two to three newton meters of force Plastic. You know pedals. You know very similar I mean very, very simple setup to now. I have an alpha 15 newton meter wheelbase, I have the GTS leather round rim 300 millimeter and have the p1000 pedals with a lot of setup. That is a massive jump.
Jason:
That is a leap. You know what I mean?
Erick:
that's that that is not a leap.
Jason:
That is a, that is a matt, one of those. You know what do you call those? Those big jumps that they show on the olympics, that they jump across the damn field.
Erick:
That that's that's what that is. Look, I just that's, you know, uh like star trek or something where they uh work to another solar system. That's where I'm at now, oh, man, and, and let me tell you, guys eric has has.
Jason:
Eric has upgraded his arsenal, his equipment arsenal, but he's he's he's yet to untap it fully because right now he's currently on a playstation 5 and there's nothing wrong with that. To all you playstation or xbox users, yeah, get into the hobby, you know. But eventually the path always leads down to more fidelity, more options, more open, basically combining things together to get that experience tailored to you as the driver, and it's just like real life. It's the same thing. You watch any sport and the mechanic is always asking the driver how does the car feel? How pedals being one of the best pedals on the market, but you might try them and they may not be for you. You know what I mean. They may not sing to you, if you may. You know what I mean.
Erick:
Yeah, it won't resonate with you, right, or just you know it's kind of what you're looking for in that feeling.
Jason:
So you went from a controller to a plastic steering wheel, to a wheel that can potentially snap your wrists off, basically.
Erick:
And it's tried a couple times already and the man.
Jason:
We're living in different times, as I'm telling you, the uh, the support that we have now on discord and the community is just huge.
Erick:
Man, it's huge, you know yeah, and even going to your point about consoles like gt7 is probably the most popular sim style racing game without doubt.
Erick:
I mean, if you want to join a community, like I'm in a gt7 community, I'm in a gt7 on ps5 community. I'm on a gt7, psvr2 only community because I use psvr2. I'm in a community of people on ps5 playing dt7 with sim, magic gear, like however you want to like. Whatever group of people you're looking for, the support is out there. The forums are there. So it's never. Don't never feel like nobody is playing what you're playing or nobody's right right right.
Erick:
I thrust this into the stratosphere Like sim racing is. I mean. I see all kinds of people sim racing Right that I never would have seen in the past, so it's a great time to get into it.
Jason:
Right and it could be a challenge to get into because of the expense. You know, to get into the hobby you got to put up some money for it and you may not be sure if this is for you or not. You know what I mean. So, going through the way you went through, basically you're still on your journey, but the way you started your journey is about 99% of us, because no one's going to go out and spend thousands of dollars on something that they don't know you know how it works or how, if, if that's for them. You know what I mean. It's kind of like it's. It's kind of like stepping into, uh, any any hobby and going just straight. You know in. You know what.
Erick:
You know what I mean yeah and and I'll say that's definitely not recommended, because I was gonna ask you, would you recommend a path to just exploring, right, uh, sim racing? But I've been in forums, man, where guys go from like, yeah, I was using the controller yesterday and my kid just got here and they got a freaking trx alpine pro sim rig. That's a you know fifteen hundred dollars. They got a full sim magic setup.
Erick:
They got triples they're going to track racer zero track racer and they go, they're going from zero to a thousand and I'm like, bro, your brain isn't gonna comprehend right what you're about to get into like I mean several steps controller to like full sim rig.
Jason:
I'm like right man, it's the hype, you know. It's the hype of a new product and something that looks flashy and it looks expensive and it looks, you know, industrial, because that's what those rigs look like. They look like something. They're heavy as hell too. I'll tell you so yeah, that's what yeah I mean, that's, that's, um, that's, that's basically where eric is in his journey. He's he's actually using a wooden rig that he built himself. Man, tell me about that yeah, so I definitely.
Erick:
You know the g29. It was perfect for it, built a lot of two by fours following some plans I found on youtube. And when I got my upgraded sim uh, sim magic gear, jason's like bro that that wheel's gonna rip that thing apart. It didn't rip it apart, but I could definitely feel all of the the weakness in the rig. So I went, I had to go to lowe's and I bought, like some, a bunch of metal brackets and stuff and kind of just reinforced it pretty much on every angle so it handles it better. But as far as like, adjustability is very limited because it's wood right. So I can't, you know, move anything the wheel base or the pedals backwards and forwards, up and down. They're kind of bolted to it where they are. Uh, the only saving grace is I have a seat, my seat's out of like a 19, no, like a 2003 it's a real car seat yes, a real car seat.
Erick:
The guy was selling it on facebook marketplaceplace for like 20 bucks, went and picked it up, had the bracket on the bottom and I literally built kind of built my rig around that seat. So it's a box frame at the bottom and the frame is like the seat's just bolted to the frame on the bracket so I can slide that back and forth.
Jason:
But yeah, I'm definitely itching to go ahead and grab me a, a real you know, a real rig yes, because you know the the amount of force that you're putting on your wheel currently is being dampened by those flex, by those you know, by those movements. If anything moves on the rig then the energy transfers. Part of that energy is transferring itself to the rig.
Jason:
It's not going into your hands it may not seem like that, but when you have something that's a rock solid and it has nowhere and that energy has nowhere to go, it goes onto your hands. So that's why people, that's why flex and we'll cover flex, trust me, in detail on a different episode. Um, because there's a lot. There's a lot to that as well on another topic. So I'm gonna tell you guys, I'm going to share all of you how I got here and my story. My story is a little more complicated. I mean, I wish I had a friend like myself to kind of guide me, because I didn't really have help.
Jason:
And I'm pretty sure a lot of you are going through the same thing and it's like well, where do I start? And then you go on YouTube, right, that's the first thing. You go on YouTube and you have all these reviews. But who can you really trust, right? And most of these content creators are just they're looking to make, you know, money. It's a business, right? So I mean, their main stuff is hidden in the back. You don't really see what they're really using on a daily basis. And that's what I've. That's my opinion, that's my view on that, and a lot of it is sponsored. So you got to be careful with sponsored stuff, you know, because even if they, even when they tell you this video is sponsored and it's, you know, all my thoughts are honest I still, I just you know, I still get the feeling like you could be honest man, but you can also omit things from me, right?
Jason:
there's nothing stopping you from hiding things from me.
Erick:
Yeah, you can say whatever you want, yeah so biased right, exactly so.
Jason:
I started with a same wheel, the g29. I'm gonna try to make this as short as I can good luck, I know, right, I started with a G29, went with a foldable beach chair. That was supposedly a rig by Next Level Racing.
Erick:
Yeah.
Jason:
Yep, next Level Racing and I bought the wheel to play Formula One and to play a game called Snow Runner. And Snow Runner is a trucking game, you's. You know you get stuck in the mud and you got to pull the trucks out and I was like, dude, I really want to play this on a steering wheel. It's got to be awesome. I lasted about a month and then I bought everything Fanatec. I purchased a CSL DD. I purchased a CSL DD. I purchased a Formula wheel Upgraded to a next level racing rig that had a built in not a built in, but it came with a leather seat and it had like a tray and it was pretty good.
Jason:
It was good for the eight Newtons, it was fine. And it was pretty good, it was good for the 8 Newtons, it was fine. From there, I built a PC and was running two 55-inch TVs. I had a 55-inch on a desk and another 50-inch on top was an LG and I used that for media. Excuse me, it was a 50 inch on top was an LG and I use that for media.
Jason:
From there, I upgraded to an Fanatec DD2, purchased a Sim Lab P1X Pro and purchased a triple monitor setup. I went with the Samsung G7, 32-inch, 240 hertz, 1440p monitors. From there yeah, I know I can keep going, man, from there. I'm summarizing this, but from there I went to a oh, I didn't tell you about the pedals I went from. I had fanatec v3 pedals sold. Those went with the husenvold ultimates, and then I purchased, got rid of the fanatec dd2 and purchased a semi-cube sc2 pro, yeah, and a plethora of wheels after that.
Jason:
So I mean, I will cover this is this could be a whole thing about my setup. So I'm just trying to keep it as you know, keep it summarized, because there's no way you know what I mean and the lesson, the lesson that I've learned from this, is to do the research and buy, purchase what you really want, because if you buy something and it's to save money in quotations, because you can't see me you're saving money, yes, at the moment, but then later down the road you end up, you're still. You still have that itch, that man. I really wanted this, though, and I didn't get this because you know I wanted to save on the cost, and I get it. I understand, I know it's a big investment, but sometimes it's better to you know to cry one time. You know what I mean.
Erick:
That's my opinion. I'm going to use that. Cry once man, Cry one time. You know what I mean. That's, that's, that's my opinion. I'm going to use that. Cry once, man yeah.
Jason:
Cry once because I lost a lot of money. You know, reselling, rebuilding, reconfiguring, changing mounts, all kinds of stuff. Man, I went into that all kinds of stuff.
Erick:
Man, I went into that. So let me and not to draw this out too much but what? Because some of the equipment you mentioned, I think a lot of people say, well, that's good kit, you know, especially once you got to the, you know fintech dd and then over it to the you said the dd pro yeah, I went from.
Erick:
Uh, yeah, the dd, dd2, dd2 yeah and so if, uh, I think the important thing is understanding what you the type of experience you want to have, right, and so, if you are like for me, I'm on gt7 and I was.
Erick:
I was going to say this and I know exactly what Jason's going to say. But they just came out with the Noise Life 24-hour on a set of Corsa on PS5. I drove that track. I didn't drive the whole track, I drove a little bit of it on the controller. The amount of feedback and input there are. People like, as soon as that track dropped, everybody's looking for new settings for their wheels, because they change and force feedback.
Erick:
When they drop that track, it is everybody have to turn down their force feedback. They've increased it even more as far as the detail and just the well, that's what you're getting back. So as far as like, if you're looking at for realism, you know there's a certain point or if you're just looking for you know faster times like those are two different paths going from the G29 to you know the kid I have now for me I'll say the biggest improvement was just realism right.
Erick:
Feeling the car and being able to catch myself when I, when I mess up. Am I faster? Uh, if you count being able to finish a lap, whereas before I would just spin out. Sure, but not. But now I'm to a point where the kit I have is good enough, to where I can start working on skills. So I've been working on trail breaking, that's a good point, that's a good point.
Erick:
Yeah, trying to learn that. So, depending on the type of games you like to play, if you like to play WRC or some of the more arcade-y style games Simcades, yeah, sim Cades Then that's going to be a different path and there'll be different pieces of kit that are more important for that experience. But I think that's like I said I'm lucky because I have a Jason when I'm starting out on my journey.
Jason:
I appreciate that.
Erick:
Yeah, he took the lumps so that we can learn. He took the lumps. Let me let me, so that we can learn from him, right?
Jason:
Let me, let me touch on that. That is a very good point you just brought up and I want to make this basically a disclaimer here. Expensive equipment doesn't mean faster lap times. It's a myth, it's a lie. Okay, no-transcript controlling it, it's just going to spit out more information. And if you're not ready for all this info, that's how come it's better to start small, learn, learn the basics, learn how to, how to drive the car, how to enter corners.
Jason:
Every sim has different braking styles. I know ACC loves to the braking in. Acc loves to be at 100% at the initial start of the brake and then you gradually lift off. Lift off, but if you're using spring pedals, for example, you're using more muscle memory than actual information. You know what I'm saying. So we want to reduce that and we want to actually feel the car and actually grow with the car and apply those habits to that particular car in that particular sim. But that's getting into. That's a deep dive because, listening, you don't have to spend thousands of dollars to get a good experience or to be faster. You know, the reason why I jumped from hardware to hardware was because I was seeking more information.
Erick:
That's why I did it. Yeah, that's a good point. And there are people that you know that's going. I did it. Yeah, that's a that's a good point. And there are people that you know that's going to be important to them. You know, they want to improve, they want to build, you know, and it's, it's a rabbit hole. Man, I'm not going to lie. Just the capabilities. Oh, even still being on ps5, like I could, you know, hook up fans, you can see it. You can see the potential, I can see it.
Jason:
There's an app called SimPro 2. Oh the.
Erick:
SimMagic software. Well, there's the SimMagic. Is it SimPro or SimHub?
Jason:
Talk about SimHub, yeah.
Erick:
Yeah.
Jason:
Oh, we're going to have a whole episode. Yeah, that's a whole. So, oh, we're going to have a whole episode. Yeah, that's a whole series.
Erick:
Oh, yeah, that's the, that's the opening to the railroad. Yeah, that's how you get in there. So, but, yeah, but.
Jason:
And it's a basic program. If you look at it and install it. You can install it on anything. You can install it on A laptop, can install it on a laptop, you can install it anywhere and when you run, exactly exactly. It's really light too. On systems it's not really that heavy. So if you have a older system it's not that heavy. But we will definitely be touching on uh sim hub in detail.
Jason:
And if you and if you're not, if you're not a complete you know new new to this hobby, I highly recommend go out and support the developer it. I think it's $10 for the premium version and it's a one-time purchase, it's a lifetime license. So so, yeah, that's part of my journey. I'm still on a journey. Our journey never ends is what I want everyone to know. There is no done in sim racing. I promise you there is no done as well that we're going to have a third guest on this show. He's currently away with his family on vacation and he's at a different stage of his sim racing journey. Right, he's at a stage where he has a rig and he has a lower Newton motor and he's looking to upgrade to the same motor that eric has, which is the 15 newton, sim magic, uh, 15 newton. Uh, excuse me, the, uh, the alpha right, that's what it's called. Yeah, yep, and let me tell you something for the price you just, it just can't be beaten, and we'll go over that too.
Erick:
Yeah, the price, the flexibility I could. Flexibility, I could strap a boot to this thing and steer with that. I didn't even care. That was the thing that got me.
Jason:
When this third guest comes on the show and I don't want to mention his name I want to give him the opportunity right To present him to you and introduce him to you live and explain his own story and how he got there, how he got to where he is now. Of course, this is the first episode. The format is planned 30 to 35 minutes Weekly episodes is what we're trying to make and promote here, and we're also open for questions or comments or any type of feedback or any topic that needs to be covered. We'll consider that. We'll put that into consideration as well. I also want to mention our social media platforms.
Jason:
So I am streaming every Tuesday and Thursday at around, I want to say, 1600, which is four o'clock Hawaii standard time. On Twitch there will be. My handle is track ghost. There'll be some links in the description to get to all of these. I also have a YouTube channel TGS Sim Racing is the brand and Twitter and Instagram. I'll add all those links. Mr Eric Kelly is also a big tech person and he has his own gaming side of his own platform, so I'll let him go ahead and, yeah, and touch on those yeah, so, uh, my main kind of effort has been on the tech gentleman.
Erick:
That's my youtube channel. Uh also have instagram, facebook, tiktok, twitter threads, all that stuff. Uh, everything except for twitter is the tech gentleman. Twitter is the underscore tech gent. Um, just been making videos about tech, mostly mobile stuff, phones, headphones, uh things like that. But also I have a tech gen gaming, which is where I plan to start back streaming and kind of documenting my uh sim racing journey definitely you guys need to check that out.
Jason:
Mr Eric Kelly here he's been helping me with my YouTube setup and how to get lighting right, and he's been giving me. You know, he's been in the game a lot longer than me when it comes to digital media, to digital media, so I mean, he's, he's a guru, he's, he, he, he may not he may not put that out there like that, but tech gen is a is a very smart individual and he, um, he knows how to break things down to the very simplest and easy. You should check out his channels and socials and let us know what you think. So I think that, with that said, I think this is going to wrap up the first episode. Is there anything else you want to add here, eric, before we depart?
Erick:
No, man, I appreciate you having me on and appreciate you know.
Jason:
Thanks for being here with us, yeah.
Erick:
I appreciate you and I'm happy for you. Man, I know you're going to do great things and if y'all do nothing else, when this, go to go to Twitch, subscribe to his Twitch so you can see his rig. If you are remotely interested in rigs, make sure you check it out. He's done some great work getting it set up. He's modest about it but I've seen a lot of people they haven't put in half the effort he's put into making sure he's providing a great experience when he's racing. He's really meticulous, cares about his craft and the experience he's delivering. Make sure you check it out, but that's the info.
Jason:
Highly appreciated, highly appreciated. Well, with that said, this is going to be it for the Chicane Podcast this week. I appreciate everyone. I appreciate everyone in the stream and everyone out there. I want you guys to take care of yourselves and until the next one, peace Deuces yourselves. And until the next one, peace deuces.