The Chicane Podcast
Welcome to the Chicane Podcast, keeping you up to date on everything sim racing. As we venture into this dynamic realm of esports and virtual racing, we'll be exploring a variety of topics, from the cutting-edge gear that's transforming the way we race to the newest games, hardware and software that are pushing the boundaries of what's possible in this virtual sport. We'll also be giving you an inside look into the lives of some of the top virtual racers in the world, through in-depth interviews that will give you a unique perspective on what it's like to compete at the highest level in this rapidly evolving eSport. So, buckle up and get ready for an unforgettable ride as we take you right into the cockpit of this exciting digital racing world.
The Chicane Podcast
2024 Sim Racing Recap with Legends
Discover the transformative power of sim racing as we sit down with industry experts Jeff Smart, Daniel Newman, Constantinos, and Mike from the Sim Racing Den. We explore the incredible journey of our community, which has grown significantly since our podcast inception in 2024. With insights into the creation of the revolutionary Lovely plugin and strategic partnerships like the one with Asher Racing, you'll learn how passion and dedication propel innovation in this ever-evolving landscape.
Join us for an engaging discussion on the latest trends and technological advancements in sim racing from 2024, featuring products like the cutting-edge Simucube Active Pedal and the Bavarian Simtech Alpha wheel. Each guest shares their personal experiences, from navigating the challenges of product development to the thrill of working with renowned brands like McLaren. We highlight the crucial role of AI in refining sim racing tools, all while maintaining the authentic thrill of the race.
As we look ahead to 2025, we express our gratitude for the sim racing community's support and the impact of our podcast content on personal lives. With a festive toast, we wish everyone a joyful holiday season and anticipate new projects and innovations in the coming year. Our dedication to enhancing the sim racing experience unites us, and we celebrate the camaraderie and shared passion that fuel this incredible hobby.
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https://youtube.com/@danielnewmanracing?si=Sgz_rhM6IgN5M9-_
https://youtube.com/@lovelysimracing?si=xgq57S4K0cgr22f1
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Intro/Outro Rights below:
Song: Low Mileage - Hold You [NCS Release]
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The Hello and welcome to the Chicane Podcast, where we discuss all things in this embracing world. I'm your host, Jason Rivera, and I'm joined here by a plethora of individuals and professionals on this stream and legendary folks as well Jeff Smart, Mr Daniel Newman from Daniel Newman Racing, Constantinos from the lovely Sim Racing or lovely dashboard, the pit wall, all his other products. And Mike from the Sim Racing Den. How is everybody doing, Mike?
Jeff:Barrett 06.00. Yo, Jason Jason Wong 06.00. Fantastic Mike Barrett 06.00. When we started this thing, did you ever think we would have three of the most iconic people in the sim racing world in our podcast? Jason Wong 06.00.
Jason:This is the hardest introduction I've ever had in my life.
Jeff:My, my legs are shaking dude, never thought, never thought we'd be here. It's awesome to have you gentlemen, here.
Michael Pagliaro:You said, you said professional I don't know about professional, but you kind of I knew someone would say something.
Jason:I knew I was waiting for it. I was like I was also.
Constantinos:Just think about it this way. I never thought I'd be here in the first place. So you know, humbling yeah same.
Jason:So welcome back to the show, guys. There's been a lot of changes happening. Uh, in 2024 has been a great year for sim racing. We started the podcast in 2024. I got to meet all three of these um, you know these gentlemen here on the stream and it's been an absolute pleasure and honor. And, uh, you know these gentlemen here on the stream and it's been an absolute pleasure and honor and, you know, fun. It's been fun having this connection with the community and that's what this show is all about. This show is about bringing all the sim racing love together and sharing and having all kinds of you know, conversations and hanging out.
Jason:So I'm going to start off with some announcements, which is not really an announcement. It's more of a question for Mr Daniel Newman, who just recently revamped his entire ecosystem. Now he's got it's got a plugin. That plugin saw a massive revision and it's very clean. It's so clean it doesn't even look like it's part of SimHub. It looks like it's its own app. So I'm going to hand the mic over to Mr Daniel Newman to give us a little brief synopsis on what's going on over at the DNR studio.
Daniel Newman:Thank you Like last time. Firstly, thank you very much for having me again today. It is humbling I think two of you just said it to be kind of in a room with you guys Konstantinos, who in the last podcast I mentioned, is kind of what kicked DNR all off, and obviously Mike as well. Jeff we didn't get a chance to talk last time, it was just Eric and Jason, so it's great to have you today, or to be able to talk to you today and Jason, it's obviously always a pleasure. So thank you very much for having me. It's good to be here. Yeah, dnr, it's a lot at the moment. It's like having a newborn baby all over again and I've got to do things.
Jeff:Is that a good?
Jason:thing or bad. You can't sleep, bro. It's like what is sleep? It's overrated sleep.
Daniel Newman:Um, it's sleep right now is treacherous. It doesn't exist. Um, I'm so glad it's the holidays. I've been so stressed and I should. I mean, this should be fun, right, and it is fun, I love it and I'm so grateful for it.
Daniel Newman:But at the same same time, so many days recently, I've got up and thought here we go, it's got to happen, and I keep setting myself deadlines. And so the two guys that work on DNR with me, thomas and Nico, have worked so incredibly hard and I can't you know I can't overstate that enough how hard they've worked. And we give a date to each other and we say, right, this day this is going to happen. And we get to the day or two days before it and we're like we're working so much but we still just aren't quite there. Um, and it's stressful because we're putting pressure on ourselves and we think about it and think you know why are you pressuring yourself? Because at the end of the day, if it doesn't get released on this day, what happens? Nothing. The product exists in its old form and it works so, right, who cares? But the problem is, we care and we knew what was coming and we were so keen to get it out before christmas to make sure that everyone that goes off for the holidays that's racing and playing can can use it. And and yeah, so we, we thought we were 100% there last week and we, we released, um, the brand new plugin, which was huge in terms of completely redevelopment. Um, thomas has worked insanely hard on that. I think he deserves most of the credit for this, if not all the credit. Yeah, the ui in that is just phenomenal. Um, I even got a message from from nicholas at simhub to say I've seen it and it looks really good. Um, and I don't talk to nicholas that often, but I had to give that to thomas straight away because I thought this is a big tick. Um, so that that made me feel really good and made thomas feel good, and nico too, on the profiles has been absolutely banging workout left, right and center, but we thought we were there and we worked really, really hard.
Daniel Newman:We had some gremlins and it's frustrating because I'm one of these people where someone says to you this doesn't work and I can't sleep now until I've fixed it. I'm annoyed and I have to get it squared away, and there was a few of these, so it's kind of like you've already had all these nights where you're working till and Constantine knows all about this you're working till silly hours of the morning, you thinking I've got to do it, I've got to do it, you don't have to do it. But in your own head you've just, you've decided you have. So we're doing this. And my wife is like you need to take a break and I'm like I don't, I've got to do it.
Daniel Newman:And, um, we had more gremlins and and we introduced new behaviors which, ironically, are correct and they work as intended. But it turns out some of these behaviors aren't desirable for people and we had to change some kind of red line stuff and introduce new behaviors, which meant a whole new release. Today, and my heart sunk and I mean through the floor this afternoon when nico said the new release is ready. Dan, can you go and prepare it, zip it, upload it to the website. And I was like oh wow, it's gonna be hours of my afternoon now that I wasn't prepared for, so it's amazing that we got it done. But I'm so, so glad that it's finished and you guys are now using it and we can relax for christmas finally, finally relax I think it's phenomenal, dude, amazing, yeah, I will say this you're never really done.
Jason:It's kind of like building our rigs, right. There is no done with this type of stuff. Now there is priorities, right that you want your release, you want your products to work the way you designed them to work, but there is no done. Just remember that it's just like work. You know, I go to work and I do my tasks that are leading up to their due dates, but if I can push a little more, I can. But try not to burn yourself out, because that's how that happens.
Daniel Newman:Yeah, always yeah, because that's how that happens.
Jason:I mean, yeah, but I know how you feel when it's yours and this is your thing and it has your signature on it. You kind of like no man, my stuff needs to be immaculate, needs to be perfect, it needs to work. I don't care, I'm going to fix it. And I want to fix it now. I want it done right right now.
Jason:And then but later on you know, sleep is overrated. We always say that jokingly, but we all need. We all need a break sometimes, especially this time of year. It's the holidays, it's the time to spend with our families and and and remember where we all came from, right Cause that's how this is our hobby, this right here is our hobby is our fun zone, this is our happy zone.
Jeff:Jason, you know I used the term professional earlier and everybody kind of laughed like which one of us is the professional in the group. And I think what you just said is goes across the board. For you know everybody on here that that's the level of detail that you guys partake in your product that you put out there and you very much are professionals and put a lot of work into this. So you know you laugh at it, but you guys do put a lot of work out there and a lot of time. I think we just kind of overlook it as the end user, the level of detail. But it's great to see a little bit behind the scenes that it does take a lot of work to make these things look as good as you guys make them look. And you know from the end user. Thank you very much. Thanks, jeff same.
Jason:We're all users. I'm a, I'm a happy, I'm a user of all three. I follow mike, the sim racing. Then constantinos, man, it's been, it's from day one, man you already know. And daniel newman as well, man, uh, I appreciate your work because without without, without three, we would be kind of lost, right. I mean, we'd have random dashboards that may or may not work or may or may not be accurate. So the things that you guys are paying attention to the most, the level of detail that you're looking at the most, it might be overlooked by by a regular user. You know what I mean. You have to also realize that too, you know. But then having the because not everybody perceives things the same way, so but having a complete package ensures that. So that's my take on it. So I want to say thank you all for all that you do for this community, because it's because of you that we have such nice things like behind me and things working and something being so modern.
Jason:2024 has been a crazy year, and that's what this show is about, this, what this episode is about. What's happened in 2024, because 2024 is huge for sim racing, huge, but, uh, just one more time. Thanks to danny newman, constantinos, mike and jeff too. Jeff is jeff is my buddy down the street. You know, if we need something from each other, uh, we're just across the way and you guys have been supportive, even across the ocean, you know, at different time zones. We appreciate all of that. It's it's well. We all need a break sometimes. So thank you, dan, and over to jeff, for any uh announcements that you may have yeah, just a quick one.
Jeff:Um, you know, constantinos you last time you were on, just a quick one. You know, constantinos you last time you were on. You kind of laid out you know kind of the intermediate future for the lovely dashboard and lovely ecosystem. Just want to kind of give you a second to you know kind of lay out any where you see the future or anything you want to share with the audience here on the future of the lovely ecosystem.
Constantinos:Yeah, so first I just want to track back on something. Daniel, I think it was, we had a conversation maybe this was like months ago, I think it was before you even started the DNR thing and you had asked me so you create a dashboard and what's next? And I responded I will continue developing it and evolving it. And you're like but sometime, sometime, at one point, it will be complete. And like it will never be complete, never. And now and now I'm 100 confident you know exactly why it will never be complete. I know your work, my work and anyone that actually loves what he does. It will just never be complete.
Constantinos:You always want to fix something, add something, tweak something, get more feedback, realize a mistake, fix a mistake, fix a bug, introduce new bugs because make changes. So it never, ever ends. And to that extent, I always like to create some sort of year-end review, not always. I've only created one, because Lovely Sim Racing is not that old, but I will create one again for this year. And, as Jason, you said that 2024 was an amazing year for sim racing. It was an absolute epic year for the lovely um dashboard and ecosystem and everything regarding lovely um, lovely sim racing in 2024. We went. Well, I went, we went. The community went from 350 members to just over 2700 wow oh, wow.
Constantinos:So and the 2700. If you guys recall, in september I think it was when I said we reached the 2000, the 2k mark, yeah you can realize how fast it's going from then.
Constantinos:Um, but this didn't happen overnight, obviously, um, this didn't happen randomly, and what I'm my idea about 2024 is everything happened because it was not a plan, it was more like a strategy. Like this is what we need to do. We need to make this thing a more robust system. We need to make this thing more of a product, because so far it was just like you know, it was just a dashboard on SimHub. You download it and whatnot. But once we created the plug, the plugin for the lovely dashboard, it suddenly became a product. It felt like a product and that actually kicked everything up.
Constantinos:Memberships are now more integrated with features when you are a member, and this was always a goal. I've always said this, like at first, when we first started in 2024. In the beginning, it was like if you are a member, you get more often updates, but that's not really what a product is. A product should give you more right and that's what kind of switched with the Lovely plugin, and that was my intention all along. Like if you are a paying member and you need to become a paying member because I need to live off of this, because this is what I do now for a living. So it's got to be a balance. But I wanted to give more. I wanted to give more value to any paying member, so the plugin allows me to do that.
Constantinos:And for me, 2024 was all about creating, getting to a point of releasing the plugin At the very beginning of the year. I always talked about the plugin. I'm not a programmer myself, so I needed to seek help. And in 2024, I made partnerships with Asher Racing they're my title partners and they helped me create the lovely plugin through their resources, basically. And once it was launched the plugin, it took off. So it was like a year of preparation, a year of design, a year of discussion and strategy and what you want to do, and suddenly, when you release it, everything falls into place and it felt so good. Honestly, it was like I'm like holy shit. This is like one of the first times in my life where I planned something and it actually worked the way I intended it to, and not just on my end, on the user's end as well.
Constantinos:The feedback it's mostly positive, which is kind of odd. I expect to hear negative and positive, but it's mostly positive. There's one negative now and then, but it's mostly positive, so that just fuels me one negative, you know, now and then, but it's mostly positive. So that just fuels me and it just kicks me in a button and just shoves me in the right direction to continue working on that. So for me, 2024 was. It was amazing Like the way the entire community grew. Discord went from like 4.5K to above 9K, so it doubled basically.
Constantinos:Lovely plugin was released and it helped me create that whole product ecosystem. Now, um partnerships with a lot of companies, um, uh, I got to visit the adac and meet a lot of well, you know, a lot of mike was there, so I met him in person and, hopefully, next year we'll meet more people.
Constantinos:Um, there was also one more thing Like in 2024, I also finally updated the website with the store and everything, and that also helped me better market and describe the product, because before it was something on GitHub, discord it was like a link tree with links in there, but now there's a website and everything is in there, so you can download, you can do everything.
Constantinos:The only thing you can't do's a website and everything is in there, so you can download, you can do everything. The only thing you can't do in a website right now is sign up for memberships, and that's the segue to 2025. So what everyone can expect for 2025, and this is for me, this is like if the Lovely Plugin was the first strategic move on creating a proper product 2025, we'll see the next major strategic move, which is moving all of the memberships, everything onto the website. So the idea is that you can download, you can learn more stuff, you can do everything on the website, but you can also will be able to sign up for a plan, subscribe, pay, update, um, downgrade, upgrade your membership, cancel your membership everything through the site. So going, moving away from from the whole ko-fi, patreon style membership multiple things, yeah yeah.
Constantinos:So going into that um, it's going to happen in q1. So everything's been set up, everything done. It's just a lot of testing now to make sure that everything works. But for me, that will be like the next major upgrade to how the memberships work and the community, so that will improve everyone's life. We will get rid of the like nine out of 10 support questions. Discord isn't connected. I can't connect my plugin. Like all that will be done for hopefully and for me, that was one of the biggest things that will happen in 2025. Of course, we have new features that are coming very early in 2025. Things that have been requested a lot, like the quick view in the dashboard. Just hit a button and it just shows up, it just changes the MFMs and it shows you a few things.
Jason:I already have a button mapped for it. Man, I'm ready.
Constantinos:There you go. Yeah, no, no, these are things like. There's going to be a dashboard manager. So, from now on, another big quality of life improvement for the lovely dashboard is you will download one file from the website, just one thing. It will be an installer which will take care of moving the plugin into SimHub and restarting SimHub and doing all that stuff, and then, within the plugin, you will just select the dashboards you want. It will auto install them from the plugin itself, so you won't have to download. You know a dashboard here there, install it. It'll be just one installer, Nice, and within the dashboard, you can install, update and remove dashboards. So that's going to be quality of life improvement. Again, coming in Q1 2025, there will be a change in partnerships. So the way I work with companies, manufacturers, it's either going to be like steering wheel, DDUs, rigs, software companies. So I'm working a lot on that. I can't say too much on that because it's still in, you know it's a work in progress, ndas.
Constantinos:There are a few NDAs, but what I'm talking about is like on my end, not on what they like. I have a few NDAs with companies which I can't talk about at all, but this is something that I don't want to talk about yet because I want to put it in place and see if everyone and how everyone responds to it. But the idea is that try and get the lovely ecosystem in as many places as possible and make it more accessible. So all like, if you notice, like all these changes that I'm planning, they're all quality of life improvements. We will have new features, we will have new, you know, like the animated idle screen for members. So all these things are coming, but for me these are like small bits. The greater strategy is to make everything work better and get it in more hands as possible. You know, Right? And I guess the final thing, I can't talk about it. I can't talk about it. No, come on, bro. But one of the big things.
Jeff:I can't, I can't. Well, let him talk about it. No, one of the big things I, I can't, I can't I've teased it.
Constantinos:I've teased it a lot, um, but one of the things that I want to do in 2025 hopefully we'll be able to actually do it is a new product hardware, not software and it is installed on my rig right at this moment, but you cannot see it oh man, that is that is a couple.
Jason:That is a dream right now that we can turn this camera yeah, you can't.
Constantinos:I bet you it's a steering wheel?
Jason:I bet you no, it's not. I'm.
Constantinos:I have my guesses, I have my point is the point is that I'm trying to spill it mike to to make things that make our life better.
Constantinos:All right, so yeah, I can't divulge in any other details, I won't you know you're going to kill me with anything but, 2020, 2025, honestly, I think will be Epic on every front, but, most importantly, making a sim racers lives better, not just the love dashboard and I'm talking about like other stuff as well so hopefully, hopefully, it'll work out. I'm talking about other stuff as well, so hopefully it'll work out. And, for those that were interested, cube control stickers are also in the works. So I know a lot of people are saying where are they? Where are they? I'm like it's not that easy to make them, but they're coming. So, yeah, it's been an extremely busy year 2024. 2025 seems to be even more busy and hopefully more successful. And to bridge those two years, I'm taking five days off.
Michael Pagliaro:Win, you deserve it.
Jason:Don't splurge, you get five days off. Man.
Constantinos:Not the weekend, I think. So okay, this is past all the 2024 and 2025 things. Just a discussion that kind of hits me really weird Because right now, this is all I'm doing. So I wake up in the morning, I do all the stuff you know, like take my daughter to school, run some errands, go to the post office, ship stuff, go to the gym, come back home and I start working on lovely ecosystem. Either do it, you know, admin stuff, admin stuff, either store stuff or actually working on the product.
Constantinos:And this one morning he was like, it went like we were running a bit late with my wife and it was like 10 30 and I'm like I have to get back. I have to get back to work. You know I'm late. And she turns and she's like why? Like, because I have to. But she's like you are your own boss, yeah, but I mean I have to.
Constantinos:And at that point they just you are your own boss, yeah, but I mean I have to. And at that point they just hit me like shit, I'm doing something that I love and I'm so, so preoccupied of like doing, producing these things, that I'm putting pressure on myself where, honestly, I could have just said screw it, I won't work today. I don't need to work today. Like I can do it tomorrow, it's perfectly fine, absolutely. I didn't have to release anything or anything, but it was like I have to get back, I have to work, and that that just hit me so hard like I love what I do that I actually put pressure on myself as if, like I'm my own boss forcing me to work.
Constantinos:But I enjoy it which is great that's professionals.
Jeff:I use the word comes up again, you know, just as a level of the professionals that you guys are that we all feel, whether it's for someone or for yourself.
Jason:You can't escape it, but I'm excited for all these changes, man. That's what's up.
Constantinos:I think 2025 will be, honestly, the way everything. Just one example of how much work goes into a few things I won't say and Daniel knows this absolutely true coding-wise and development-wise for the dashboard, how much work goes into that practical part. You want to do something. You have to spend three days testing and tuning and fixing and it's three days where it might not work out at the end. What I want to point out is things like the memberships on the website, which should be trivial in 2024. And it's not. You won't imagine.
Constantinos:I've spent nearly three months every single day talking to either developers or app because my shop is on Shopify, right Talking to Shopify developers, trying to find what I want for the best experience for the users. And it's been around three months in and out of calls, meetings, talking to companies negotiating prices because they're insane on Shopify Like I heard, like prices like 5K per month. I'm like guys, you're crazy, damn. Wow, go to Amazon, not me. And all of these things add up at the end and you're kind of like you wouldn't expect it to be so hard and it is. And I finally found a company that does exactly what I want and they've been very responsive and they're very professional and they made changes to accommodate my needs, which is amazing and I appreciate that.
Constantinos:And then we started, we signed and sealed the deal, we're working together. But I look back I'm like this isn't something that happened today. It's been three months of me going back and forth and trying to find it. So it's what people don't really realize how much work actually goes into, not just the practical stuff but running this thing, making everything work better. And that's why I personally appreciate a lot of the stuff that Daniel does, because I'm like I could not do that. And then I realized but the stuff that I do also, some person might think I would never do that. So it's kind of like you know, the whole thing goes in circles, basically, and there's a lot of time going into things you would never imagine you'd have to spend time on.
Daniel Newman:I'm glad you said this.
Jason:Yeah, I mean, I've always said it we need to protect both of these ecosystems because they're vital to me. I need them, I need them, I need them and I need them to work and I'm always trying to whatever I can do right to support. And it's not a money thing. It was never a money thing. This is a development thing. I want things to get better. We got 2025 coming in a few days and that means AC Evil, which I can't wait for, ac Evil. But, yeah, I'm really really thankful for all three of you as well. All three of you. Mike. Mike's always Mike's like a mentor to me. He's a mentor. I hit him up, it'll be whatever time of day it is, and a few hours later he respond. I got you. I I understand. We're in a different size of the planet and speaking of mike. So what's next for you, mike? I?
Michael Pagliaro:want to.
Jason:I want to touch on on on your, on on your you know channel and your, you know, your. You have your own group. I think we have the biggest sim racing group ever. I know it's on Facebook, but what's the numbers now?
Michael Pagliaro:I think it's like 128, 127. Could be wrong Around there? 1,000 people, yeah, 128,000 members.
Jason:That are all sim racers. Yeah, sim racing setups. It's crazy, man. Yeah, so what are your plans for for 25 man?
Michael Pagliaro:because I, if you want to reveal those, yeah, I mean I don't have anything top secret, but I mean these are tough facts to follow. I just want to say congrats to the constantinos and daniel. I've I've been sort of, you know, I've been watching them progress and grow and their products and their ecosystems. It's just incredible and, um, I, I, I get it in a different way. This, this sort of wanting things to be perfect in the work and the time and the energy, because it's the same for me, right, I have to push myself to, to you know, work on that review. Uh, I mean, this year was incredible. Um, the channel now is 81,000 subscribers. So much has happened in one year. I've reviewed over maybe 40 different products this year, which is a lot. Yeah, it is.
Jeff:Jeez, I didn't know it was that many.
Michael Pagliaro:I kind of made a personal goal to myself to try to get a review out at least once every week or every two weeks, which I think I've done for the most part. But it's tough because this isn't my full-time gig, um, it's something that I do was a hobby and something I do part-time still. So it's my entire evenings and weekends put to testing and reviewing and filming and editing, and up to the late hours of night editing. I mean, I was. I did that last night to get the uh Sim Lab pedal review out before the holidays, cause I want to take a break too. Actually, I want to take a couple of days Cause it's funny I feel I feel guilty when I give myself free, free time like to not work on a review. I even sometimes feel guilty when I just jump in the rig and go for a race and just drive without the camera on.
Michael Pagliaro:Um because I feel like, oh, I should be filming this because I could film a review, but I have to tell myself too, it's it's, it's OK if I wait a day or if the review gets out in a certain time frame. You know, I try to respect embargoes and release dates and things like that to you know. You know, foster those relationships of manufacturers because I know the reviews are important to them, but I have to do what makes sense, right? So, yeah, just want to say congrats to you guys. It's amazing to see that those services grow. For me, 2025 is just going to be, you know, really doing the same. I've got a constant queue of products still for review I bet you do, brother Going into the new year, and I'm excited to what the new year is going to bring as far as new products I mean 2024,.
Michael Pagliaro:We saw a plethora of products come in. There's no shortage of steering wheels to review. So I know we're going to have tons of more steering wheels next year to review and, potentially, some new products. We have new wheelbases. Sim Lab has new wheelbases on the way next year. So, yeah, it's going to be another crazy year for sim racing, but for me, this was a a really incredible year for a number of reasons. Um, one, the, the huge growth of the channel, which is, which is fantastic to see um the community growing. The growth of our uh, the, the facebook group that I started, which um is not necessarily related to the channel but was created to be a place for the community and I just love watching that grow. I had to add moderators to the group. So, to shout out to all the moderators, we've added some new ones Colin just. Colin Vernon just came on as a moderator. Jason pops in once in a while I put him to work in there, so my pleasure man to support.
Michael Pagliaro:Yeah, I got the opportunity to go to the ADAC Sim Expo in Germany with my father, which was an incredible experience.
Constantinos:I got to meet Constantinos, got to meet… Amazing guy Is the second rig you're preparing for your dad.
Michael Pagliaro:I have a third rig that. I'm working on.
Jason:You're going to run out of space, bro, let's go.
Michael Pagliaro:My dad is getting some of my hand-me-downs. I call them right.
Jason:Those are not bad hand-me-downs, no he's getting a good rig.
Michael Pagliaro:I'm working on that as part of a sort of late Christmas present for him. But, yeah, the experience of going to the expo and meeting, you know, people that have only been chat bubbles, and meeting them in person and getting to see all the products in one place and just just being there was a pinch, pinch myself moment. Um, really, because I've only been on YouTube for I don't know, maybe two, three years, so, you know, I just kind of dove into this and and it's just really and and then meeting people like you guys, like that's the thing is, the friendships that I've made this year has been incredible. Never would I have. If someone had told me I'd be talking to all of us from all around the globe right now, like in four or five different time zones, I wouldn't have believed you, honestly. So this hobby has created so many friendships, so much joy and fun in my life.
Michael Pagliaro:Yes, it is work, and anyone that is a YouTube creator knows that. It is fun if it's, especially if it's something you enjoy, like the hardware and looking and racing and doing all these things. That's fun for me. But there, it is work, it is time consuming and it is tough and there is pressure that you feel and most of its pressure on myself. But yeah, just an incredible year and I'm looking forward to next year and and trying to do some different things with content in the channel. But just continue to provide reviews and better my content as I go forward.
Jason:I love your videos, man, especially that cinematic intro. You can't beat those, man.
Michael Pagliaro:I'll never stop doing that, that's for sure. I love doing that.
Jason:Yeah, that's kind of your signature. So, I want to see daniel newman at the adac next year, if anybody who do I need? A who do I need a call no one, I was um I was looking at them.
Daniel Newman:If I have to hotel flights um I need to get you over there, bro, I think I wrote on my discord um several hours ago tonight, someone from your a hotel, I need to book it. I spoke to Constantine a few weeks ago saying where should I stay, and then I got so busy I forgot about it. And then I was scrolling Facebook tonight and I saw it and thought I haven't booked a hotel book the damn hotel, bro.
Jason:What you waiting for?
Daniel Newman:I won't miss 2025 if I have to go. Does that mean you're making the big swim? Are you coming the double?
Jeff:swim.
Jason:I have to swim, get off and then swim again.
Daniel Newman:Do what you've got to do. Are you going to be there? I would Damn, I would love to man.
Jason:We'll talk, We'll talk that would be so awesome. That is. My dream is to meet all of us together and hang out and just talk about hardware, you know, and just just be guys you know what I mean.
Constantinos:So, jason, it's simple grow your channel, grow the podcast, grow it to a point where you'll just create the the chicane sim racing expo.
Michael Pagliaro:You won't need to leave is it going to be in your?
Jason:island everyone will just come to you oh yeah the chicane summit it's 80 degrees outside fahrenheit right now. It's perfect outside. You know well, you got a few in the US to go to this Celsius. I have no idea. I know we do have some options out there. We're considering Well.
Michael Pagliaro:I'll be in Chicago, so I'm going to, provided everything goes through. I'm going to the Sim Gaming Expo in Chicago. It's early days in terms of it being organized, but, yeah, I'm all in to go to that. I think it will be incredible.
Jeff:I think United's got a direct from Honolulu Chicago.
Jason:Jeff, we going to what man? What's up? Twist my arm, buddy.
Jeff:Twist my arm with a road trip.
Jason:All right guys, so let's get into the main discussion. Thank you all again for being here. It's exciting End of year. It's always great. Daniel newman is is is wearing the part.
Jason:I see you with the with the christmas hat on there, you go, love it so the the first question, rather simple kind of we we talked around it and it's a simple question what was your favorite piece of gear released in 2024? And? And whoever speaks up first goes first. I don't know, there's a bunch of windows around here, so for me I'll go first.
Constantinos:For me, it is this thing over here. Oh yeah, that's a good choice. And there are reasons I have to agree, sentimental reasons as well, not just because it is an amazing product. And there are reasons I have to agree, sentimental reasons as well.
Constantinos:Yeah, that's fair, not just because it is an amazing product, but this product also was the first major partnership, hardware partnership with a lovely dashboard, the integration, and it's going further. So for me, this product was you know, it is an amazing steering wheel hands down. I consider this. I've seen many, especially at the Expo. I have a few more here, but this is probably on the top of my list and many, many, many lists. But this also marked a lot of, you know, differences in how the lovely dashboard worked as well, and changes are coming in 2025 as well. So for me, 2024 is it's this product. The asher racing wheel not necessarily the ultimate, like honestly sport, perfect, but the asher in general, the wheels, for me was, it was a highlight. Okay, I, I won't go down the simucube active pedal stuff I'm pretty sure someone else will say that, but for me personally, you you already know, man, oh I know, I know, I saw the pictures.
Michael Pagliaro:Was that this year? Yeah, it was this year. Right, active Pedal was this year.
Constantinos:You know, mike, everything you think happened 10 years ago. It was all in 2024.
Michael Pagliaro:That's exactly right.
Constantinos:Just think about it Like everything, everything major was in 2024.
Michael Pagliaro:I was going back and looking at all my reviews from the beginning of the year, because I was kind of leading up to this to kind of maybe discuss some things, and I was like, oh my God, like all these products from this year.
Jeff:You don't realize it's crazy.
Michael Pagliaro:I'm like some of these must have been 2023, right Magic, nope, no.
Constantinos:Everything, everything happened in 2024. Anyway, for me, best product of the year. For me, personally, I don't have the active pedals, so I don't know. Was the Astrowheel?
Jason:Okay.
Michael Pagliaro:Who's up next, jeff?
Jason:I'll go Okay, all right, he beat you to it, jeff.
Michael Pagliaro:That's fine. Yeah, I'm going to let someone else talk about the active pedals, because I know who's going to talk about them.
Daniel Newman:No one wants to touch those.
Jason:Bro, no talk about, no one wants to touch those bro.
Michael Pagliaro:No, you can. If, if that was your favorite, we can have two favorites, bro. It's hard to go, daniel, it's hard, it's hard to have cheers, it's hard to have favorites. Um, look, I yeah, I'd be lying if I didn't say the active pedals, but I'm gonna give you two answers, because I can.
Jeff:Um, of course, um yes, the, I love this the active pedals were exciting.
Michael Pagliaro:Uh, an exciting product because this was a a new sim racing product. This is the force first force feedback pedal like this is. You know, there's years where you have a lot of sort of development of things, but then you have years where there's new, actual something new, and that was a new product, right, um, and it's been, I think, an incredible game changer and I think it will shape the future of sim racing pedals. Um, I think we talked about this jason on, or maybe on another episode or at some point that you know sort of you're going to see more iterations of force feedback pedals and that will start to become, I think, a bit of a standard, uh, even, and start making its way into a mid-range price, maybe, uh, as the technology changes. That's just a prediction, um, but yeah, obviously a really exciting product and a blast. Those pedals are a blast to use the ability to make changes to profiles if that's something that you enjoy doing, to not have to get down with an allen key and make adjustments, um dude my knees, bro.
Michael Pagliaro:Yeah, I mean, I think most people, most people would want to adjust their pedals, um, but, but just won't right. Yeah, and and then, and that makes sense, but when?
Jeff:you see, man, when you have a lot of those guys.
Michael Pagliaro:Yeah, like I, I mean I won't do it with traditional pedals, um, but you know, to be able to to click a button and change profiles and have different pedal fields and experiment and play with that is is extraordinary. Um, yeah, it's certainly expensive product, I. I wish, I wish everyone could experience them and use them, for sure, but it's just look I've been trying to get jeff over here yeah, certain things are gonna ducking and dodging.
Jason:I'm telling you bro.
Jeff:Saving my bank account by not going over there.
Michael Pagliaro:Yeah, but as far as wheels go, one of my favorite wheels this year that. I reviewed was the Bavarian Simtech Alpha. Okay, look at.
Jason:Daniel's face. Look at Daniel it was.
Michael Pagliaro:I think for me it just checked a lot of boxes for me as a sim racer and you know, on the channel I give my honest opinion from what I, yes, look for as a sim racer.
Jason:That's why, yes, that's why you're sitting here, bro. We don't.
Michael Pagliaro:We're straight, no chaser, and we want I've not tried every sim racing wheel out there, though I've tried a lot um, and I've reviewed many of them, and they're. Here's the truth. They're're all very, very good.
Jason:There's sim racing wheels at the level of an.
Michael Pagliaro:Asher Artura or a Bavarian or a Solpec. Once you get to a wheel at that price point, they're all very good in their own right and they're going to appeal to different people for specific reasons, whether it be design or grips or functionality. They better have DNR profile support and and that they better have it.
Jason:I think it's more of a preference, mike. I think at this, at this stage, diminishing returns right. You know, like how much better can you actually get?
Michael Pagliaro:But I was just really impressed by the Bavarian because I think for me, um, the grips are incredible, um, and in talking with um the owners, it's a family run business. Um, yeah, a lot of thought was went into those, into those grips, in terms of ergonomics, and it is felt when you put your hands on it, and it was a very hard thing for me to describe in a review, um, but then as I watched people's comments in the discord when they actually got wheel, they're like, oh, I get it now, like these grips are incredible, um, so, yeah, just an all around, uh, very, very nice wheel, very well-made product. I think it's an exciting company and I think it's amazing the products that are coming out of a small company and and, um, yeah, that for me, that was my favorite wheel of of the year, but it's so hard to pick because they're all fantastic wheels yeah, all fantastic they're.
Michael Pagliaro:We're getting so many fantastic products in the sim racing market. But yeah, you made me pick one so I'm gonna pick two. Bro, I did, I did pick two.
Daniel Newman:That was two, so all right, the marshmallow of that sandwich, because I was kind of middle of the road in both them comments and I think it just sorry, jeff, to jump you, but it probably go for buddy, bang here to do this when you ask the question. Both of those wheels were on my tongue and I and I almost couldn't decide which to answer, so I'm going to give you, um, the dnr diplomatic answer to this.
Constantinos:Oh, our diplomatic answer to this Diplomatic human race.
Daniel Newman:I don't have to give a diplomatic answer. So, in part, like Konstantinos' answer, I'm going to say 50% the Artura, I think the GT four wheel. Now 50% I say the Artura because of McLaren and because of Martin Asher. So Martin Asher was one of the first people in sim racing, I would say, other than Konstantinos, that gave me a chance and bought into my ideology and what I was trying to sell, if you like. And he bought the idea and said I like it. And he was making suggestions and we were saying you know, we get it, we hear you, we're doing these things, they'll come. But he was one of these people that he took a lot of time to have meetings, phone calls with me. He was not was.
Daniel Newman:He is incredibly polite and friendly and he's just one of these people that I think he enriches the sim racing hobby because he's very clever and intelligent, he does a very, very good job. But he gave me a chance and when I struggled with other manufacturers to say this is what we're trying to do and I think we could do well, martin didn't need convincing. You knowin was a quick conversation and he was like you know, I get it, um, let's do it. And it's been an incredible opportunity for me. Um, working on anything that's got a mclaren logo on it is immediately a big buzz for me. Um, I'm a massive mclaren fan. I I'm sorry. Oh, hey, mr russell over. That's not good.
Michael Pagliaro:I know, weren't they the world?
Constantinos:champions. No, I'm kind of thinking, let's not go there man.
Daniel Newman:Is it?
Constantinos:something that's bad in becoming a world champion here we go.
Daniel Newman:What's apparent for me is I've been to the MTC twice. I've been to the MTC twice and I don't mean in a sort of a. This sounds a bit braggish to say it, but I had a couple of conversations this year with Zach Brown and he sent me some signed gifts from Lando.
Jeff:What, what hold on where have you been hiding these? Tell us a little about that?
Michael Pagliaro:are you going to show us what? Where have you been hiding these? Tell us a little about that. Are you going to show us?
Daniel Newman:What this came in a box.
Jason:This is the biggest flex on the podcast by far Huge flex.
Constantinos:And this is really hard here.
Daniel Newman:It hits home, bro. I went to MTC twice for a tour and the love I have for that place and for mclaren as a team, um, like most of us, I spend way too much time every year. I'm glued to a tv on a weekend, watching the practice sessions.
Daniel Newman:On a friday the qualifying let's go sunday, let's go, um, but mclaren, just, there's just something there. I think the Artura having the McLaren logo on it for me encapsulated a lot of this stuff and that, in part, was why I felt like saying the Artura. The second part of me and this is the diplomatic bit is the Bavarian Simtec Alpha. It's so difficult not to talk about that when you talk about good things and, like Mike, I've been really really fortunate this year in working with a lot of manufacturers and a lot of different steering wheels have passed in front of me and I am very lucky to have done that. And one of the fortunate wheels I've had the chance to use is the Bavarian Simtec Alpha and I like it for so many reasons. Mike touched on it the family business. I really like the sort of the personal aspect of the fact that it's a small, family run company and it means a lot to them because it's their family business. It's important they hand make these wheels in Bavaria and I think that's quite special for them and for me as a consumer, and this is something I try to always.
Daniel Newman:Drive the point home, particularly with DNR profiles. I am a user. I don't get huge amounts of time to drive, but I love driving and when I'm driving I like using this stuff. So having things that I like and feel good are important and so, as a company, you know a lot of their values and ethos, kind of um, align with my own personal values and beliefs and I think a lot about that. But then, secondly, it just is a really nice product. It feels great to use. Um, I am a sucker for nice boxes and packaging and stuff and they've got all of that yeah, they're boxes, bro.
Michael Pagliaro:Their boxes are some of the nicest like. I just got the control center here and just yeah, it's like. It's like the apple. I think it's better than apple, there's five.
Daniel Newman:You know, I think, when you open a product and it doesn't matter what it is, be an iphone, a new tv, a steering wheel for sim when a company's put effort into, the box, the manual it just makes you.
Daniel Newman:You feel that if the effort has gone in here, it's gone in everywhere and there are small details that aren't forgotten and exactly agree 100 and there's a lot across that entire product that when you use it you think this, this just speaks um, you know the strength of the rotaries, the feel of the, the buttons, the, the gears. I mean this. Every wheel has got different generally, feeling of, of shifting, and there's a lot of nice shifters, a lot of shifters. I think it's subjective, you know, some people love a quiet shifter, that's soft, and some love a loud shift, a good click to it. So there isn't a right and a wrong here, because what's right for one is not right for somebody else, depending on the space you use it.
Daniel Newman:But for me, bavarian sim tech kind of nailed the. The middle ground there of this is this is what suits me and the wheel just feels nice to drive. And I often think, when I've got to test something, um, I almost always revert to putting that on the rig to test with, just because I like how it feels and I I don't get lots of time to drive. Um, we've just launched an esports team and they said to me are you going to drive? And not, unless you want to be on the bottom, come on yeah, don't put me on your esports team.
Michael Pagliaro:Yeah, don't put me on your esports team either. Don't put me on your esports.
Daniel Newman:You can't have a dnr team and dn is not in it. Just you can um. So the little time I do get the right or I say race, drive spiritedly we'll call it because racing is not really probably the right word bst is the wheel I would use because it just feels good. So my favorite products this year I'm going to throw a nod to the archera, simply because the mclaren, martin, asher and his team, they're just genuinely an absolute pleasure to work with. Um, and then the bst, just because I think the thought and effort that's gone into it is worthy of of a mention. Um, both great products. There's a lot of great steering wheels. It almost feels you know bad to neglect some others people that have done good stuff and there's a lot of them, but those two have to be standouts for me all right, jeff, you're up next, brother, I already know the answer to this yeah, I think everybody else does too, so I'll just get out, get on with it.
Jeff:Yeah, my, my wheel. I did look at the asher wheel when I was looking at a bunch of different ones, um, but kind of what you guys alluded to is, you know, you, just as you're looking around, there's just that one that you kind of keep going back to. Um, and I have hard putting in words why the soul pack just was the one. Um, it just for me, just looking at it, was like that's, I feel like I could be fast. You know, when it's sitting in my rig, I look at it and I'm just like, oh, I just want to get in there and use it, I want to fire it up, I want to see, you know, the lovely dashboard and the and the dnr go and I just want to get in there and race.
Jeff:When I see it sitting in my rig, um, and that is, it's just it. It just uh, it just completes kind of the, the feel of my rig when I get in there, and so it's, it's the, it's my soul pack wheel is my favorite product that I've put in in 24. Um, I've been saying this for quite some time now. Will you get a wheel to DNR so they can put a profile in there.
Jason:Thank you. Who do I need to forward this to?
Jeff:Let me know, daniel, I don't even know how many countless hours in there setting up some half-assed janky light system on it. Just give it to the professional to do his job, okay.
Jason:I need to butt in. Listen. It's a lot cheaper to send daniel a wheel than to hire a whole development team to freaking work on your own stuff you know what I mean.
Michael Pagliaro:Here's my stance on this. You can do both, um, I get that I get I get why sim racing, sim, they want to.
Michael Pagliaro:they want to have their own thing just in case, right, they don't want to rely completely on another service. I totally get that. But there is no harm in giving the user more options. That is going to sell more wheels, and they send multiple wheels to reviewers at no cost, taking a chance on that, it being a bad review or a good review. Sending one to DNR is is nothing, unless you're a small manufacturer look, I get it. But to send one to be able to have this, that's a good point added service, added to your wheel, it's, it's a no-brainer.
Michael Pagliaro:I mean, that's just my opinion on it. I do get the stance of certain manufacturers on this. But yeah, I mean, daniel, not to go into it, but I I get the I I can. I kind of get frustrated sometimes when I see that not happening, but I think that will change.
Jason:That makes sense, though, yeah.
Constantinos:I think what you touched on is very important. You can see Solpec, you can see Asetek and what other. There are more that create their own ecosystem, basically. You know, Simagic has their own stuff as well, but they're also supporting SimHub. Asiatech has their own stuff, but it includes SimHub.
Michael Pagliaro:Yeah, I was happy to see that they included that actually with the Invector Wheel.
Constantinos:Solpec is going a different route. They don't have their own software, but they're creating their own dashboards and everything in-house because they want to control it. So you see that, and I don't think that's wrong. I think it's really smart on their companies.
Michael Pagliaro:Yeah, for sure.
Constantinos:I had some. So, jeff, just so you know and this is not a secret, but it is, I guess, more official now I can say it there will be a lovely dashboard made tailored for the Solpec.
Jason:Woo. Look at that, merry.
Constantinos:Christmas. Jeff, you know how you have on the Solpec all the options and dials and everything that work with their dashboard. Well, I'm working with them to bring all those options to the lovely dashboard as well, which is wild.
Michael Pagliaro:You also have the Solpec but I've chatted with them a few times and integration with the Azure. You'll also have the Solpec.
Constantinos:But I've chatted with them a few times and it's the same. They're not going to stop creating their own stuff. It's a company, it's their mentality, it's a strategy Same thing with Aspect.
Michael Pagliaro:I don't think anyone should yeah.
Constantinos:They won't stop and I think it's not a bad thing. It's a good thing, Having worked just a bit with Moza and their own dash editor. It's very primitive. It's got like maybe one out of the thousand features you can do on SimHub, but they're trying. I don't know if it's going to be good or bad or whatever, but you can see a lot of companies are trying to get into that space. Some will fail, some will succeed. The ones that will succeed will drive SimHub to a better place. They'll drive themselves to a better place, and everyone else as well. So the competition will just make everything better. So I don't see this being like you know why are you building your own stuff? They should build their own stuff. Like when Solpec made the dashboards and everything, the first thing I did was look at them, Like what are they doing? And I noticed that they're basically doing the same thing martin and I were doing with yashar. It's not different. This is basically the same thing. They just have different options.
Constantinos:Um, so for me it's, it's, always it's, you know, evolving everything that we're doing in the better, taking it into a better place.
Daniel Newman:So I'm all for it's good I think this is important and I think the important thing is let consumers choose. I think right, I'm not saying dnr is the answer, but I think a lot of um, a lot of companies and I won't name any in you know particularly but a lot of companies make really really good software of their own and their own developments need to be applauded. In fact, I will name one and I will say soulpeck. They make really really good things. Their, their plugin is great, their, their, their dashboards. They've done a really good job of it. You can see they've invested a lot of time and effort and it shows I like it. I think it's great. I think anyone using it is going to have a good experience because you can clearly see they've invested the time and effort into doing it.
Daniel Newman:I think what's great moving away from Solpec is when manufacturers allow people the choice to have, you know, various options to work in, with the likes of Constantinos to say, okay, you know, we recognize that we could do this for you in our own method, but actually you might prefer to use you know, the lovely dashboard and therefore we recognize that, if perhaps we don't help you and him achieve that, that other companies might and we'll just add it to our long list of compatibility, because, as a consumer, you can then say right, I've got five options, which is my favorite, and you can ask five people and get five different answers, and I think that that helps make it exciting.
Daniel Newman:Yeah, for for dnr those people that haven't worked with us yet we will keep trying. You know as much as we reasonably can do, but I will say in 2025, um, for those that haven't had any success yet, um, we will do other things to try and ensure that you are happy. So, jeff, I fully get you aren't yet because you can't use it, but we will make things happen in 2025. So that, one way or another it's been massive in topic with me, thomas and Nico, of the last few weeks we will, we will make things happen to ensure that that people like you and many others that have got unsupported devices can have have support, whether that's officially or unofficially. Um, but it's important to us and and we recognize that people like you exist that want it and um, we will try our very best to make it happen look at that two things before.
Jeff:I, you know kind of we move on to the you know kind of like the next question. Uh, another, the soul pack was nice because I did reach out to them and said, hey, is that you're advertising eight to ten days turnaround time? Is that, is that accurate? And they're like yep, uh, you know, we, once you spec it, we build it. And I thought that was cool that I put an order in and then they built it for me. You know, it wasn't sitting in a warehouse, um, and I just got the next one that was at the top of the box, like they built it and they tested it in. In the previous episodes I did talk about this a little bit but you know I said, hey, I don't want the stickers on. Okay, no stickers, you, you can do all that stuff. So it was really cool, um, that they, they, they did kind of build it and they were super quick turnaround. So, um, you know, I do tip my hat to that, to them and their, their customer service and stuff for that stuff. Um, but, yeah, uh, daniel, I had thought about, uh, I did go home for uh, back to the east coast for thanksgiving.
Jeff:I was like man, I wonder if I could ship my wheel off to them and they they build it while I was gone and they had it would be back here by the time I got back to you guys so you could do your testing, because I know you need hands-on to put the wheel, the, the profile etc. Together. So I thought about it, buddy. I just didn't think I could get it back in time and my life was in shambles just with having two little ones and bringing them across the world on an airplane and stuff Just didn't get around to it. But anyway, I appreciate you and the team there trying to find a way to get things done for, obviously, the end user. So thank you.
Jason:Yeah, no-transcript product of this year is installed on my rig right now and it's that active pedal, the pro version, and I'll keep it nice and sweet. It's surprise, surprise. I'll keep it nice and short and sweet. You don't know until you try it so you have to. You're gonna have to plunge this money and give it a go I'm with jeff on this.
Constantinos:Don't try it if you don't want to buy it yeah, it's the only reason I was warning people in the lineup at the expo.
Constantinos:I'm like you don't want to spend the money you should probably get a line yeah I this sorry, sorry, jason, I was just uh following up on mike at the expo. They were coming up because I was in the asher booth. Um, they were coming up and saying like is this wheel like worth it? You know, the asher wheel and this was nothing to do with the uh lovely dashboard or anything. And I'm like, do you guys want to spend money? And the answer was well, we're here, we want to look around and see if we're going to buy. Well, if you want to spend money, go try it. If you don't want to spend money, do not try it. Do not try it. Two people actually drove it and purchased it on the spot. Oh, I believe you.
Constantinos:It's a fantastic deal they just step out of the rig and like holy shit, how do I order it? It was as simple as that. That, and like if you don't want to spend money, do not try it. If you tried, you'll probably want to buy it. Yes, you know just something with active pedals. I'm not going in down that route. I just can't.
Jason:Right now it's not bro, that pedal is easily seven different pedals packaged into one pedal seven, only I'd say infinite.
Constantinos:They can do anything you want with it, right? Yeah, I mean, you're on your right.
Jason:So far what I've programmed it to do, but I'll keep it short and sweet. I've talked about this a lot on the show. I'm pretty sure our followers you know they already know that that was going to be my pick, but it's that one. It's like Jeff. It's kind of like I'm piggybacking off Jeff. It's like when you jump in the rig and you put your foot on it you're like oh yeah, you know what I mean. It's kind of that, that rewarding thing. I don't know. I know it's an expensive product, I get that. But you know this, this hobby is can be very expensive if you're not careful.
Constantinos:So what is the definition of a hobby?
Jason:so, oh wow, a definition of a hobby. Hmm, you put me on the spot here something you love to do something you enjoy it could have, it can have.
Constantinos:Yeah, obviously something you love to do, but it could be many things. But a hobby is something you can put your money into and not expect a return on your investment other than satisfaction, mental health, everything Like for me, for me sim racing started within COVID and it was just a way to get away from everything else.
Constantinos:So it was actually mental health. So spending money on a hobby doesn't mean you're going to get that money back. You're going to get it back in some other form which will keep you healthy. So it's not bad spending a lot of money on your hobby if you can afford it. Obviously don't go bankrupt. But it's not like don't ever think I spent like photography. I spent like two grand on a lens and now it's like it's a hobby like you, you can do that if you can afford it, you can do
Michael Pagliaro:that actually I don't have to spend money on sim racing as much anymore, but I spend more now on camera gear so I just all I did is trade one expense for the other, you just move, you just move in move in this. I am fortunate to get things sent to me. I'm not gonna lie, but like now, I just I trust me.
Constantinos:I spend the money on other stuff because I have it now but that's because you have hobbies, yeah, and you can have these hobbies, which is good, it's healthy yeah, just find some cheaper hobbies though.
Jeff:Well, what would?
Jason:you guys make the hobbies a lot better, dnr and lovely you. You keep us in tune, bro, you keep us engaged, so that's there's sim.
Michael Pagliaro:Racing is something special, man. Honestly it really is, it is, it's a there's sim racing is something special, man, Honestly it really is. It is, it's a, it's a special thing, especially if you love motor sports and cars and technology. It's that's why I mean that's how I ended up here. It's the perfect harmony of all the things that just make my blood. You know oil, not boil, but like you know what. Not boil, but like you know what I mean yeah, yeah, get your blood going.
Jeff:100% understand what you mean you?
Constantinos:you look, you take a look at the rig and you get excited, right, is it? Or is it just yeah?
Michael Pagliaro:yeah, yes, I do a look back, so I just built. I built this second rig here, uh, courtesy of advanced sim racing uh, who were kind of uh, I do. I get excited working more with and yeah, I just I get out of it and look back.
Jason:You know, like man, I can't believe this is here, this is crazy yeah, yeah, and the way things kind of like evolve, like how the hell did this happen? You know what I mean. Like how did it happen?
Michael Pagliaro:that's how I felt. Today. I posted a picture on instagram because I was cleaning up the den. Like I after I finished review, I usually clean up in here a little bit. I was cleaning up for you guys. Like, after I finished review, I usually clean up in here a little bit, I was cleaning up for you guys, so everything's like. No, there's not crap everywhere. I just like said like man this thing Well thanks.
Michael Pagliaro:Mike yeah, I clean up. I was like this just so escalated Like, look at this room right now. I'm like I'm outgrowing this den now.
Jason:Like it, it's incredible. All right well, that covers the top. Uh, you know our top choices for 2024.
Jeff:Over to jeff for the next question. So here's this interesting one what are? What's one, some product that came out in 2024 that um didn't get, the whether there be the press, or we could just call it. What is one of the most underrated products that came out in 2024 or that you just added to your rig in 2024? Um that you thought should get maybe more press or not as popular as you, as you think should be out there? Um?
Daniel Newman:if anybody wants to jump in go ahead, daniel I'm not saying this because of present company, I mean I'm sincerely saying it lovely pit wall lovely, yeah the pit wall, the pit wall. Interesting. I remember asking constantinos to implement something like this again and again, and again, and now realizing how busy he probably was doing everything else because I, I feel it and, um, I was like I've got this. I always have these crazy ideas and anybody that works with me in any capacity will tell you. Um, I'm sure nico and thomas have ptsd when they see my name flash across their phone screens.
Daniel Newman:They see my name and turn their phone off. And I'm sure this was no different. And I asked him so many times please can you make this, this bigger dashboard that that gives me more data? And in a different way. I don't want a dashboard. Okay, I've got got a dashboard. What I've got is a screen above my rig, like lots of people, and, um, I run a dashboard on it, but I run it on a different screen, like I run the, the leaderboard or the map or something, but that's, it's not enough. So I I think this was after my very first visit, maybe, to mclaren's mtc, and I went in mclaren's mission control and I walked in the room and I was like shit and and I've been to, um, I'm, I am very lucky. So I've been to mercedes at brackley, I've been to this guy is killing me today, man soft flex.
Daniel Newman:So much you're doing just fine, brother killed it their, their, um, their mission, control of all the teams that I've seen just blew me away. It was just like, if you, if you like and I wouldn't even like data generally but, um, you just see it and you just think, wow, wow. So when I was driving in my rig and um, you know, you have friends come over and I'm I'm relatively protective over it, so I don't let anybody come in and drive because it's expensive. It's my hobby if you break it, and not only that. I think a lot of people come in and they expect a playstation game and you see them with one hand on the wheel and you're like, yeah, this is a simicube, this has got 25 nanometers of force, you're gonna break your wrist break your damn hands off hold the wheel and they drive around like two fingers on the wheel and so I'm quite protective of who drives.
Daniel Newman:But when you get somebody driving and you step back, I found myself looking at the fourth monitor and I'm thinking, you know I I can't see the kind of things I was thinking of of. I wanted to see, and um, so I pestered and pestered Constantine and said please make this, this, this new dash, um, and eventually he probably had the similar PTSD of it's that that's that man's name again, um, I'm just gonna make it and he'll go away, and he knows that the feeling is coming back. And, um, and he made lovely pit wall and um, I think it's one of the most understated products because, unlike all of the manufacturer wheels and you know, hardware that gets that gets banded around it's, it's and you see a lot that people will talk about hardware because it's physical and you can see it, but people don't often talk about software or the digital packages that that are on on offer. Um, and for me pit wall is sensational. Um, the room that I'm sat in now is is, I call it the dnr studio, and I spent catastrophic amounts of money late summer this year to build this room and when I built it, literally one of the most important visions I had in my head was lovely pit wall on a wall and all I could think about was I have to have lovely pit wall in here.
Daniel Newman:And one day, um, the, the delivery company, arrived with a tv and um. Houses in the uk are not massive, so space is more of a premium than they perhaps are in in the states. Tvs aren't generally as big as they are over there. So in my living room I've got a 50 inch tv, which my room is like three by four meters or something crazy, so a 50 inch tv is quite big in that room. This tv arrived and it was 65 inches and it was like the length of my hallway. My wife is like what the is this and where is that?
Daniel Newman:and that's a 65 in there at all she's like what it's lovely, put all it's going in the studio and she just didn't go in the studio bro, and I remember when I, when I set this room up, I had the tv on the wall and I was so impatient to see lovely pit wall on the wall in this room. I reached out on the dnr discord and I said can somebody, can somebody please drive with pit wall on their on their pc and record pit wall in obs, upload it to youtube on a loop and then send me the link?
Michael Pagliaro:and they did. You had it in. You had that up before the sim rig was in there in the studio.
Daniel Newman:I'm pretty sure I had it on the wall behind me and I had two phone calls two different companies, two different companies, um really big sim racing companies and um I had pit wall on the wall behind me and one company were like what's that? And I felt like a giddy child, like, oh, this is here we go.
Jason:Um how would you like to know? How did you explain?
Michael Pagliaro:I want to know how you explain this to the guy.
Daniel Newman:I can't remember.
Michael Pagliaro:He probably looked at you with the blankest face ever after I put so much effort.
Daniel Newman:Yeah, he went catatonic on you, bro, I put so much effort into getting this thing on the wall in here, of all the things this room is meant to be, and ironically it's not on now. There's a big screen behind me, but I love coming in this room and going on the rig and I had another company visited me recently and they came in here to drive and a lovely pit wall was on the wall behind me again, and it's one of these things where whenever somebody's in this room, you know the rig is cool, fine. Um, there's wheels everywhere, they're fine.
Daniel Newman:You will always look at the tv screen and I'm like what's this? And I honestly feel like it. It should have more exposure and it should have more press, because it's one of these things you talk about, the look back it's. I kind of feel like this with lovely pitbull. Sometimes I look at it and I think, oh, I just learned so good. So for me sorry Konstantinos, but this year's underrated and should get more press is the Lovely Pit Wall, because it's just very, very good so much work to do so much work.
Michael Pagliaro:I know so is you, Daniel. You're the reason, eh.
Constantinos:The.
Jason:Pit Wall, I know, I will confirm I will confirm daniel's story.
Constantinos:Um, so the pit wall was something. I I mean it. I don't. I don't recall if it's, if it's daniel's word that got me into it, but it definitely is daniel that made me finish it. You know ptsd, but the thing is the pit wall is so hard to develop not design develop Because it is so data intensive and SimHum is not an app that does rendering the way it should. So getting it to a point where it is today, for instance, I mean, daniel, you will remember this where I released the version of the pit wall and almost like two days later, I released a brand new version of it because it was so bad, it did not work.
Constantinos:And it wasn't because I didn't test it, it's because there were so many edge cases and users everywhere around the world that were actually using it that they're like, oh, it's not working anymore. I'm like, why isn't it working? It's working for me. And then I realized the reason why it wasn't working and I had to rewrite everything. So every time I like, the reason why the PitWall doesn't get as often updates is because every time I change a single thing, I need to test it and test it, and test it and make sure that it will work until something.
Constantinos:You know, maybe something changes, but it is. It is a very heavy dashboard for SimHub to handle. It's on the limits of SimHub, basically.
Michael Pagliaro:Well, you've got so many pieces of information. Is that the challenge? It's just that so many pieces of data and information in one place, and SimHub doesn't really render like an app.
Constantinos:It's basically a browser. So everything you see is being drawn at that point, even the letters. So it is very intensive. But what's going to happen and this is something I've already said what's going to happen with the pit wall? It's going to become more of a control center, so you will have the screen where everything is present. But that screen, the data, will also break into separate screens. So if, for instance, you were an engineer and trying to look at what your driver is doing, you can put three different screens on three different monitors. So you'd have, like, the map on one, the leaderboard on the other and telemetry on the third one. That would reduce the strain on the actual dashboard on the pit wall.
Constantinos:Because every screen wouldn't have to render everything.
Daniel Newman:Each screen would render one.
Michael Pagliaro:Well, I still want to copy, Daniel, Like I have a. I used to have a TV on the test rig. Now I switched it to a triple. I'm like well, I have an extra TV now. Probably should put up lovely pit wall somewhere in the den.
Jason:There you go there, you go, man yeah it is.
Constantinos:It is one of. I mean, I really feel good about the pit wall and I have Daniel to thank to push me to actually deliver it, but I also have Daniel to hate for actually pushing me to deliver it.
Jeff:Great work, man. You got it. It's a love-hate relationship.
Constantinos:Obviously, I'm kidding, but it's the fact that the pit wall is not easy.
Jason:Oh yeah, I got you. Cheers brother, that the pit wall is not easy.
Constantinos:Oh yeah, I got you the pit wall is not easy to develop. That's the only thing like it. Really it's not. It's not designing it. Designing it is easy and putting things in there it's easy. But you put one thing that's wrong. There's like an error in sim hub that throws off a script for 30 seconds. Everything just trickles down and everything comes to a halt at some point so I remember the nurburg ring, remember uh, uh the nurburg ring yeah, the nerve, the nerve, what is it called?
Jason:nordschleife, nordschleife that killed the, the, the pit wall killed.
Constantinos:it's like everything was working perfectly fine and suddenly acc comes out with the nordschleife and I'm getting feedback saying it's not working. Well, i'm'm like I didn't change anything. What are you talking about? Then I realized that there's a script inside the pit wall that did, and this doesn't exist in the pit wall anymore, Now it's in the plug-in. That's why the plug-in is you know optimizing performance.
Constantinos:It's way better now, bro, way better. But the thing is that there and giving you the average over two laps, but given that a normal track, an average would be like a minute 30, a minute 40 seconds per lap and you gather two laps of data. Do that over the Nordschleife for two laps. It basically just saved so much data that it couldn't process it. And with Nordschleife everyone realized that there's a problem and I obviously had to release and fix and everything. I had to first find the problem and then fix it. Yeah, I mean, those are the things that make the pit wall so hard to develop okay, still, I'm a huge fan of the pit wall.
Jason:I think jeff is too. That's like mandatory yeah, yeah you told me.
Michael Pagliaro:I got a fourth monitor just for the, just for the pit wall. Yeah, that was the only reason why I put a fourth monitor on the other rig.
Jeff:Same was like literally for that, just because I remember, just cool I was I was thinking about I was thinking about adding the fourth monitor and I was like, jason, how usable is that fourth monitor? And you were like I can't imagine driving without one. And I'm like you are so full of it, like you're just trying to get me to get a new monitor, a fourth, and I was like all right.
Jason:Everybody thinks I'm trying to make them spend money.
Michael Pagliaro:It's useful for things like pit wall, but also having like other things up there.
Jeff:Desktop, whatever you know. Streaming too, like pit wall, but also having like other things up there desktop, whatever you know, streaming too, and the monitor up there doesn't have to be a super nice one so you can get them fairly cheap. But I did it and now I'm like god he won lion. Like I can't imagine getting in and not how it would just. It would just be like something's wrong, something's off. Yeah, yeah, man we're spoiled with that thing, Constantino.
Constantinos:There's well. I keep on saying like things are being developed, but there's one more thing that we're working on, a POC with my developer that will change the way you use the pit wall. So that's coming to in 2025, hopefully.
Michael Pagliaro:Constantino's just dropping bombs.
Constantinos:You guys can't imagine, I have posts In sight bro 25?
Jason:Dude, that's a long time. That's 365 days bro.
Michael Pagliaro:Give us a quarter.
Jason:Q1, Q2.
Constantinos:No, no, no, Not for this, not for this. If anything, I would say Q4, end of Q4.
Jason:End of Q4.
Michael Pagliaro:It's going to be big. It's going to be big, it's going to be. He's going to say buy Q4. Buy Q4.
Constantinos:Yeah, I have Post-its. I organize my thoughts and processes and everything on Post-it notes because they're simple and when you're done with something you just throw it out or you can just, you know, swap it out and move it, positions, whatever. On my desk downstairs where I do all the admin work and I do designing and all that, my desk is just full of Post-it notes and more than half of those are projects that are in progress. Some of them more, some of them less, but most of them are going to happen in 2025. So I can't talk about all of them, but the stuff that I can talk about and I'm I'm not dropping bombs. I mean, they're not bombs, are they?
Jason:there's a lot of classified information in constantino's house. It's not classified. You need to go you need to know.
Constantinos:There are stuff, let me get, let me catch a flight over there, man, I don't know.
Michael Pagliaro:The thing is, jason, are in the office taking pictures of the uh okay, we're so we're in.
Constantinos:Constantino's house right now. With a flashlight, yeah, the thing is, there are projects that are under NDA which I haven't even mentioned, because I cannot even mention them Understandable.
Constantinos:But there are other projects, like the one that I just said. That's not an NDA, it's my project, but I can't say more because we're still in the POC proof of concept. We're trying to figure out if this can happen. So there's not much to talk about. But if we deliver a POC within Q1, then by the end of the year we'll actually have a product. This is brand new, so there's not much to talk about. Honestly, there's not much to talk about. So if I have a proof of concept that I actually can do it, I will talk about it. But, like, if I have a proof of concept that I actually can do it, I will talk about it, but right now it's just there's no point.
Jason:Okay, all right, fair enough, we won't, we won't, we won't, uh, harass you anymore, you know we just, we just we're just trying today yeah mike, what do you have for an underrated product?
Michael Pagliaro:yeah, mike, what you got, I mean you, sorry, it's not, it's not lovely pit wall, but I do love lovely pit wall. It's. My favorite is the dno, that's not underrated not underrated it's not underrated?
Michael Pagliaro:um, actually it's funny that you asked me this question because the last review I just did I uploaded it this morning uh is the sim lab xp1 pedals. Now I maybe they're not underrated, but I feel like they weren't talked about as much amen as some other pedals uh in the market. And look, I was kind of late to the review because it was sort of sim lab offered them up, I don't know, maybe a month or two ago to me, um, for review and and a lot of reviews had already. Sort of Sim Lab offered them up, I don't know, maybe a month or two ago to me for review and a lot of reviews had already sort of been out there and I was like, ok, yeah, I know, I want to do the review, I want to try them. I think everything's worth trying.
Michael Pagliaro:And I was really pleasantly surprised. Not that I was like surprised that they weren't going to be good, it's just that I hadn't heard a lot about them uh, through through conversations with people firsthand. Um, I think they're, for the price in that mid-range pedal market, fantastic pedal, they look great, they feel great. Um, they just do everything right. That a, that a, that a 500 to 600 pedal set should do um and yeah, that is kind of my maybe underrated product for the year. They're going to live on the test rig right now until I have another pedal set to review, honestly, because I think they're really great. They're kind of in that sprint, or maybe La Forte or Forte, sort of pedal, price La Prima or Forte.
Michael Pagliaro:Well, no're, they're a little bit step up from the la prima, I think, like a mid. Like a mid, you'd say they're definitely a mid-range pedal set, but for 499 us for a break and throttle, um, I think you're really getting a lot of value from them. I think they're fantastic and and a lot of tool list adjustments. So most of the. So you know you might have to bend down, but if you want to just adjust your, maybe your pedal throw or your throttle throw, or you want to adjust the preload a little bit, you don't have to bring out an Allen cure anything. So it's actually really easy to do. Um, yeah, fantastic pedal set. I think they're. They're really cool. I'm excited. You know sim lab the only missing piece for them to have a full sim racing setup is the wheelbase, which, um, from what I understand, they're coming out with next year. So I'm really excited to. I did get to try it at the expo, but in a very sort of limited time, so I'm looking forward to hopefully reviewing that next year it's funny, it's interesting.
Jeff:You said that because when I was looking at upgrading pedals, jace and I were having discussions and it really was the PE1000s and those sets.
Michael Pagliaro:What do you have now, jeff? I have the PE1000s. Yeah, okay, those are nice pedals.
Jeff:Really, the big reason I didn't go with them is I just couldn't find any media, any reviews. I'm talking Reddit, youtube, facebook. There was very little feedback from the community on on those pedals so I mean I just had to go to the um. I didn't have to go. I'm very happy with the p1000s and the haptics etc.
Michael Pagliaro:Um, but yeah, interesting yeah, no, they're, they're nice, was really impressed with them actually they're very clean looking pedals too I like the look yeah I, I care a lot about looks not everyone does and it's not very important, but you know, pretty not pretty pretty yeah, they look really good. The only thing I had to do is I had to change the color, so it's funny that. So sim lab, everything is blue, right, but it just totally doesn't go in here so it doesn't belong in my tent so they sent me.
Michael Pagliaro:I knew they were sending me the review unit and I didn't even read, bro, I didn't even know, I didn't well, I didn't even ask for it, but I just went and I ordered the black conversion kit like immediately, because I'm like nothing blue detail is gonna be in the den, so I like them with the black and the silver and then the gold accent of the load cell sensor. I just think it's a really smart looking pedal pedal set okay all right.
Jason:So, jeff, you have anything for underrated? I don't really have anything. I think the soul peck is underrated, you know, because we don't see a lot of reviews on on this wheel and I'm pretty sure you feel the same way, because pretty sure you feel the same way we. We spoke about it and you're like, hey, what do you think about this wheel? It looks cool and everything. And then what does the end user do? Like us, we're the end user. You go on youtube that is the automatic thing you do to see it in action, and we couldn't find any videos, so we kind of only sent a few.
Jason:They only sent a few out yeah yeah, I think that's a good I mean, whoever's watching this that's a good indicator. Man, you have to get things out there so that people know what they are and know what and know what their options are too.
Jeff:You know you can't just yeah, you can't expect people to spend that much money on something without seeing some type of product in use or whatever.
Jason:Right, yeah, yeah. So you know that's a big problem with this hobby is these things cost a lot of money and it's a lot of money to gamble, right.
Michael Pagliaro:With something it's tough for certain companies to. I totally get it for smaller, smaller companies to send these things out free of charge, right, because it's shipping and it can be tough to do that, for sure, but yeah.
Jeff:It's the best marketing they can do, though, to be honest with you, no, it is.
Michael Pagliaro:I think it costs less than other forms of marketing, but there's always a risk with sending something out for sure, or you can also have them.
Jason:you know, I know there's options like they'll send you the wheel and you review it and then you send it back to them, or whatever.
Michael Pagliaro:You know, I don't not sure I've had to do that with some higher end wheels Like Sim Lab. Wouldn't let me keep the Mercedes AMG.
Michael Pagliaro:What I wonder why you know and and I had the privilege of reviewing the VPG Mustang GT3 wheel right Very expensive. It's literally a real race car wheel. Like it's not. Manny kept correcting me because I kept saying you know it's a replica. And he's like Mike, it's not a replica, it's the real wheel is what I just sent you. That is the same wheel that's in the mustang gt3. The only difference is the electronics inside, um, and unfortunately, which is kind of cool, right that's it's.
Michael Pagliaro:Well, it's super cool. Look, it's super cool when you like you, you're driving with it and you're looking at the mustang gt3 and I racing or something and you're like I'm using the same wheel, it's in this car, yeah, like, how, how cool is that? Right, I mean it's, yeah, it's, it's. It's super expensive. Unfortunately, not everyone is going to be able to experience it, but for those that do get to experience things like that, it it's incredibly cool. Um, but yeah, with wheels like that, they, they, they. You know that's a big cost for them to send out, you know, and, um, I gotta send it back, unfortunately. But there's been cases where people have sent me products and then said you know, if you want to keep it, you can buy it and I have um at a discount or like full price sometimes yeah, sometimes there's a discount, which is kind of a fair thing.
Michael Pagliaro:But I I try to just sort I don't agree to anything. I said, look, send it for review, let me do my review unbiased, and then if I decide that it's something that I very much want to use as a sim racer, then sure I will accept the discount or I'll pay full price or whatever it's like. Um, I didn't get to keep an archura wheel and I reviewed all three of them sport ultimate pro and I loved it so much I went and bought myself a pro. Wow, I love volumes.
Daniel Newman:There's a reviewer that doesn't it. When, when I won't buy a product unless a, unless I can watch reviews on it. And this is not specific to sim racing. If I go and get a new tv, I will watch videos and work out which tv I want to buy and why I want to buy it. If I get a new iphone, is it worth upgrading? I watched videos and sim racing for me is no different.
Daniel Newman:So when a new product is released and somebody says and this wheel has come out immediately, sim racing, then perhaps boosted media, yeah, maybe the reviewers. I go straight to the channels have they got a review? If they have, great, it helps. If they don't, I'm very skeptical. And when a reviewer then says you know, I've reviewed this product as you have you, you were sent a wheel for free and you send it back and then you buy the wheel your own hard-earned money. You say, no, this is, this is good, I'm buying it. You don't get better endorsement when than when a reviewer is given a product. They've already had the chance to play with it, but they liked it so much they sent it back and they bought.
Michael Pagliaro:There's only two wheels this year, daniel, that I spent my own money on um. One was the archer pro and two was the bavarian, which I was offered a 50 creator discount wow, that's great. 50 because yeah, what you know, and I said I'm going to be transparent about that, um, and I said, like things like that don't sway me.
Jeff:I mean I don't I know, but with all the wheels that I have even spending 50 percent.
Michael Pagliaro:I really it has to be something that I'm going to use and I want to have in the den or I just I've used and now I cannot, like I don't want to send it back. And like I remember, like it was like I think I'd had the, the alpha for like hours and I was like already emailing him. I'm going, um, yeah, I'm going to take up on that offer, um, because I was, I was, I was that impressed earlier on and and then, and then did the review and and was completely transparent on that deal. Um, but with the Artura was, you know, didn't, didn't get to keep that, but it was like I had.
Michael Pagliaro:I was like I like daniel, I'm a fan of mclaren as well and and the history and I just I really wanted a mclaren archura wheel and it was just such a fantastic wheel and I wanted something from that lineup. I wanted something to keep and hold. Um, because I had a lot of wheels with displays already. Of course, I would have got the ultimate, but it just I wanted to have the uh, the pro to use with like the seven, 20 S or something.
Michael Pagliaro:It just kind of felt at home in those cars without the screen, you know.
Jason:Okay, all right. So moving on to the next question. Um, so we're like looking ahead into 25, right, we covered enough on 24. 24 has been a great year. I mean, it's been the best year to get into this hobby. Honestly, there's no better time. And looking ahead into 25, you know, we have all this AI technology kind of emerging and integrating in everything. Now it's in our phones. Where do you guys, where do you see this headed in the sim racing community? You know, like not just the community, but like in products or software, like where do you guys see this taking off or how do you see it?
Jason:Anyone I think, Okay, daniel, you got the buzzer, bro, I think that AI is an incredibly powerful tool.
Daniel Newman:I think everybody knows this. As you said, apple recently implemented ChatGPT into their iOS software and everything else and it speaks volumes. When you've got companies of that magnitude saying even we buy into this In terms of sim racing, I think as an end user, will you benefit from it. I'm not sure entirely In the middle will developers, software developers, developers, hardware manufacturers that's where I see it used. So today, um, you know, I will hold my hands up and say I will use ai to assist with dnr.
Daniel Newman:There are things that come up and I think what or how, and I think you know ai can't, can't write what we do. There's still lots of manual. You know work involved here, but occasionally you come across a, a problem and you just can't find a solution and you could spend days and and sometimes I forget it exists um and um and then I think I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask ai and then ai gives me an answer, and it isn't always perfect, but if it's enough to put you on the right path, you then think I might not have got here without using this and one of my biggest problems is generally in life. Communication for me is just difficult. Period. I've got my own difficulties that mean that's hard, difficult period. I've got my own difficulties that mean that's hard. And one of the things that's very difficult to portray to various people is when I'm trying to explain a setting or a function or a feature. I write something and I might read it back, or someone else reads it back and they say what does that really mean? What does it really do? If you were to read my chat, gtp history, gpt history excuse me, my history basically says, um, rewrite and shorten or rephrase or something, and I've written a statement in and all I want it to do is to explain what I'm trying to tell you in in a way that you will understand it, because I've written it in some jargon way and people will be like you know what's he getting at. And that's particularly useful across other languages too. I think sim racing is diverse and we have people in all four corners of the globe that are sim racing and there are lots and lots of languages that are across. You know sim racing I see it in all the discords.
Daniel Newman:People will talk in various languages and, while some are easier, perhaps you can use, you know, translate services to talk back. Sometimes actually using AI can be more beneficial because you can have you know translate services to talk back. Sometimes actually using ai can be more beneficial because you can have a more coherent conversation and you can help people more. So, as an end user, will you use ai and, if you will, to what complexity? I'm not really sure? In the middle, for developers and manufacturers, I think they can help or they can use it as a as a tool and aid, help to refine, improve products, customer services, experience.
Daniel Newman:Um, I use it to kind of bounce ideas off. So occasionally, if I'm thinking of things, it sounds a bit sadistic and weird to have a conversation almost with ai. But when you're, when you're thinking of things and there's nobody else that's of the same mindset of you trying to do the same thing, you know you can kind of say I'm trying to do this but I can't. Why can't I do it or how can I achieve this, and AI, in like one second, has come out with this 500 word answer as to why you can or can't or should or shouldn't. So I think for developers like me, particularly really powerful tool.
Daniel Newman:It's got the potential you could use it wrong as well. I think you could use it and you could rely on it, and that can be dangerous, um, or you could make too many mistakes because it isn't correct. It might have the gist but it hasn't got. You know the the full picture, um, so yeah, for me, ai is a tool, fantastic. I do think it will be used more and more and more. I think it will become more powerful, um, but I think it's primarily a tool for um, the middle of the of the pack down the line, maybe 27, 28 drivers might start using ai to help, perhaps, analyze data and work out where they have mistakes, and and companies set up.
Daniel Newman:Companies perhaps might start using ai to refine them services, but for now I think it's perhaps I was.
Constantinos:I was about to piggyback off of uh daniel's statement. Um, yes, in between layers, ai definitely, I think. Iracing also announced they'll be using AI to develop and improve the software. That's going to happen for everyone. I don't think anyone's going to skip it, especially in the development part.
Constantinos:You can see every six months things change in sim racing, but at the end of the day, we are already fake racing, so having AI help us race is just not going to improve our experience. Because we want to race, we want it to become more real. So less AI while we're driving, less digital help or whatever, will make our experience better. Where I think, for the end user, like everything else that Daniel said, yes, absolutely AI will help, but for the end user, I think it will be to help us become better drivers virtual and eventually, real life drivers. You can see the connection between sim racing and real life racing. It's growing, like every month you hear more sim racers become real racers. So I think AI will step in there and the tools that we will have at our disposal, like we do a lap, and it will literally tell us exactly where we need to improve, not theoretically, not a predefined script Like this is the racing line. You are off two meters. That doesn't mean anything Like AI will tell us exactly what to do to improve.
Constantinos:Like. That's where I think, for the end user, it won't be the actual driving, because I think, as sim racers, we want to have that real sensation. So it's not going to improve, it's not going to help us drive better, practically speaking right sensation, so it's not going to improve. It's not going to help us drive better, practically speaking right. But I think the training tools will improve so much in 2025 as well. I can see things happening with David Perel at Coach Dave. I can see them in Track Titan. They're doing it.
Constantinos:Everyone is trying to implement AI, not just to make you better, but also find where you're not good. It's very important. Only an actual race car driver. You can do a lap of any track and they'll say you broke a bit too late, you broke too early, you broke too long, you turned in too early or you were late, but that's a trained person that knows and has done this track, has experienced, and tells you exactly what you've done wrong. That's where I think AI will come in and help a lot for us daily, just couch drivers and stuff.
Jason:So I think that's where it will help.
Constantinos:Couch drivers, yeah, I mean, yeah, what are doing? Like you say, this is a rig and it's a real car. It's a couch right, this is a really comfortable couch, an expensive one, but that's where I think we'll step in for the end user Training and if someone wants to become an actual, real race car driver but doesn't have the funds, having a rig is a really small investment for your dreams and if you can have, like, ai, help you become a better driver, I think you have everything at your disposal to become a real car driver.
Jason:There you go, there you go. Any more, takes, mike, jeff, what we got.
Michael Pagliaro:I don't know what else I can add to that.
Jason:I know right, they covered everything.
Michael Pagliaro:I agree with all of it. I think, yes, on the development side, for people developing sims, um, I would love to see, you know, dynamic circuits that change in real time with over. You know the circuits are updated in real time, so, like when I go on to a circuit, it's exactly how it would be right now in this day in terms of the conditions. Like, I don't, I don't know if that takes ai, I'm sure it does, but, yeah, just seeing more um, seeing better ai in the games themselves. You know people that don't want to race online or they want to train smarter ai.
Michael Pagliaro:I think these new ai tools are going to create better versions of of opponents to race and ultimately make you a better driver. Um, I mean, I can speak to it a bit on the creator side. I mean, um, I'm very cautious in terms of where to use AI. I think where it helps me is formulating thoughts and helping me sort of speed up certain tasks, um, so there's, there's advantages there, um, but yeah, no, I, I mean I just I agree with these guys on, on, on all the points. I think it's going to be incredible to see as developers get their hands on this we're going to have, I think who.
Constantinos:I forget names, so please don't don't get thrown. Who's the guy that? Is it Marco? The guy in on Azera Corsa, who knows? Is it?
Michael Pagliaro:Marco, massimo, massimo, massimo, massimo it was.
Constantinos:Massimo. He did mention that the AI will be far more improved in Evo and it will have far smarter drivers. So it was on. I think it was an overtake. I think there was an interview.
Michael Pagliaro:Yes, I remember seeing that, yes.
Constantinos:And he literally said that you won't feel as if it's an AI, like they will make mistakes, they will improve during a race and they will get tired during a race. So the AI in Evo will be far more improved than what we already know.
Michael Pagliaro:So that's like. The other thing I wanted to just sort of, I was just sort of thinking about, is something like Crew Chief. Okay, could Crew Chief get to a crew chief is a fantastic application, by the way it is, I love crew chief man could it get to a point where it remembers and knows me and my driving style. So let's say I'm at a track and it goes, mike mike, you always mess up this corner, please can.
Jason:can you please make sure Really, mike? Again, that's what he would say. You know what?
Michael Pagliaro:you need to do here. We need to hug the curb and then break early and then go.
Jeff:Like I said, third gear.
Michael Pagliaro:Yeah, yeah I mean, but, like you're right, I've seen some of these tools similar to Coach Dave and Track Titan just the name but I've seen other ones that give you. I think I saw one at the Expo and unfortunately I can't remember the name, but it's giving you real-time driver coaching. And it's giving you real-time driver coaching with context of your history and your practice laps and what your history has been in terms of driving, and that will be something that will maybe make its way into motorsports mike um, is it trophy?
Jason:ai?
Michael Pagliaro:I think it's called maybe that's what it's called. Yeah, there's some new ai tech, yeah come in, I mean, and gran turismo did it early on with sophie. Ai right, you can, oh yeah you can go into gt.
Jason:I still play gt they were still ridiculously hard if you turned that on, though they were impossible.
Michael Pagliaro:Yeah, yeah, they're pretty hard.
Jason:They were impossible bro.
Michael Pagliaro:Yeah, so yeah, it's going to be interesting to see. I think that's how it will affect sim racing for sure.
Jeff:Okay, I'll just be real quick, jason, with mine. I think we've got a little tongue in cheek, but I think we better be careful how much AI we put into the AI driving, because if it learns from history, we're still going to have first turn, first lap pileups with all AI and we're still going to have AI dive bombing us, so we have to put a little bit of restrictions on how much AI we keep putting into the AI driving, if you will, when you're not racing other people Keep it real, man Keep it real.
Constantinos:There you go Bombs at turn one no dive bombs, it's fake.
Jeff:A clean first lap.
Jason:No way it's got to be fake. That's what they're going to say in the chat. Calculate it.
Michael Pagliaro:All right gentlemen, Everybody calculate it. All right, gentlemen, uh, everybody, uh rounds complete here.
Jason:I got another question I agree with the gents round of drinks or a round of questions both, I know right, I need to get my drink going on hold. On, it's the holidays, this is, you know. Cheers everybody. Merry christmas.
Constantinos:This is this make sure no one jumps in their rigs and drives after drinking or don't leave your house if you're.
Michael Pagliaro:I think with uh motion I might get nobody's in their house. I hope that no, I gotta leave, I gotta go somewhere tonight. But I told my wife already that you're, you're probably driving she's the dd bro because the dd, because I'm, I'm on with my, with my guys here, so I don't know, there might be a few consumed.
Constantinos:The only place I'm going after this is it's bed, it's bed time, bed time.
Michael Pagliaro:Gunsteel is going to crash.
Jason:Bro, it's only like.
Michael Pagliaro:Lunchtime. Well, it's lunchtime for us in Hawaii. Yeah, you say that.
Constantinos:You say that Okay.
Michael Pagliaro:They're going to be napping.
Daniel Newman:We're in the past bro.
Jason:It's still freaking something. The future is bright trust me what you got next, Jeff. What's up?
Jeff:Yeah, so this one is. I'm super interested to hear what you gentlemen have to say about this. Okay, so here we are, right at the beginning, end of 24, beginning of 25. What do you see for products that are going to come out in 25? What do you see the innovations and the new pacing for sim racing in 25?
Daniel Newman:I. Yeah absolutely, that's a good one.
Jason:Speak up Dan what's up.
Daniel Newman:I think we've seen a lot of steering wheels in 2024. Oh yeah, we continue to see that, and manufacturers love steering wheels.
Jason:Look at Mike's wall, bro.
Michael Pagliaro:This is just the steering wheel king, I'm running out of room. No more steering wheels.
Daniel Newman:Pedals, too. You've got pedals at budget mid. You've got active pedals at top end. I think pedals are covered. How do you beat these? How do you beat some of the wheels that are there today? There's redesigns and and stuff, but generally speaking, I think these things are being done enough and we have enough to keep us going and enjoy. The one thing that I feel that my rig lacks and I think this will become evident when ac evo comes is shifters. There is so much I think, that companies could do for shifting, to make shifting better.
Daniel Newman:You've got interesting you think when you drive?
Jason:an h pattern, dan, that's what you mean.
Daniel Newman:You know when you drive ac evo or you know any sim that's got a multitude of vehicles in it and you've got H pattern cars.
Daniel Newman:There are cars out there that you race where you are sat in your car and your steering wheel will have some vibration just from engine RPMs. You change gears and you get a thud because the car you're driving, the gearbox is clunky and there's this haptic feedback in your gear stick and I think shifting first and foremost there's this haptic feedback in your gear stick and I think shifting that and first and foremost, there could be that we could have some form of um haptics going on. I think you probably could do it now in a diy or roundabout way there is one shifter that does that.
Michael Pagliaro:There was one that came out. I don't think it's like you can buy it yet, but there was something like that I saw.
Daniel Newman:I would like to see more of it, and then I think it's cool.
Michael Pagliaro:I can't remember the name now, but I'm gonna send you the link later uh, it was yeah and and um. Syrian, like race beyond matter, had a early release or early version of it, I think oh, is it ale logs or something like that no, no, it's not a logs, it's like um another company bazooka.
Jason:I know the bazooka is like a crazy.
Michael Pagliaro:It's like a uh like, yeah, diy sort of version, but what he's talking about and I know exactly what dan was talking about is is having uh, like you can, it will lock out gears.
Daniel Newman:So I was gonna say that next as as yes, oh, that would be sick bro.
Michael Pagliaro:So this thing this thing does it if I would be sick bro my memory is terrible, but it does exist. But it's like, yeah, like you said, like we, I would love to see more shifter. You know, let this sort like that's sort of where that makes so much sense.
Jeff:Man, some development in from everyone more love, more love towards the shifters, I'll send you this thing.
Michael Pagliaro:When I find the name of it, it'd'd be, great, but it does exist. It does exist, it's good. More mainstream, though.
Daniel Newman:Magic and Moza should jump on this, because it's companies like that that make it accessible to everybody. And then it drives, I think, the bigger companies to say you know this concept exists and we're going to do more with it. And I think in everything in sim racing right now. You know motion, it's hard to beat. You know cubic d box you've got all the wheels out there from lots of good manufacturers. You know the gsis, the ashes, bavarians there's a lot of them, you know, without skipping many, um, even button boxes. Now there is every style of button box you can imagine that mimic a real life everyday car ones that are covered in rgb lights and they're kind of a bit more, you know, fictional if you like. So there's so much sim hardware on a rig now, um, even including haptics with butt kickers and similar. But the one thing that I genuinely feel like doesn't get covered enough and we don't have enough of is shifters. There's a lot of people in the market that still use, like the fanatec, 1.5 shifter because it's accessible and it's affordable.
Daniel Newman:Beyond that there's, you know, a mixture of years old too, man, yeah and people looking at you know you've got sequentials and there are people using things like jinx or sg because they come out of a real life car. There's people using things like bdh that do a mixture of the two, but there just seems to be so much untapped potential in shifting where, yeah, locking out gears, haptics I want to feel, particularly when ac evo comes along and I can get in a h pattern. You know my force feedback is amazing, my pedals are amazing, everything else in the rig is locked, but the shifting. All of a sudden you go from being really immersed to using a shifter that feels nothing like a real car.
Constantinos:Um, man that needs you need a bdh maybe, yeah this is I tested the bdh at the expo that you just open, like your god, your eye opening like that makes sense, dude, that makes so much sense that shifter was I. Yeah, I sat at their stand just shifting first, second, third, and the guy's like you like it?
Michael Pagliaro:I'm like yeah, yeah I can't put that in my house, though I like it
Constantinos:people sleep at that hour I think something like this is gonna come, it's clunky oh yeah somebody's gonna do this it's amazing, though, like the feeling you get off the bdh is like, honestly, I don't think there's any shifter out there that has the same feeling hold on, man see you guys are costing me money now bdh shifter, huh don't do it, jason I think for um, at least my, my take on 2025. We will see. I'm pretty confident we will. We've already seen a few of these at the expo, but I think it'll be far more extensive Getting all that top tier stuff and lowering it down. So active pedals.
Constantinos:we will definitely see active pedals in 2025. We already saw Simagic producing their version and there will be more. So we'll see the active pedals be going from a very expensive accessory, because you can have pedals but you're going to have the very expensive active pedal. I think we'll see the active pedals coming down in price from other companies as well, so they will become a bit more accessible to everyone and I think that's going to happen in 2025. I'm pretty sure it's going to happen in 2025.
Constantinos:I don't know what the cost is for the Simagic stuff or what other companies coming out, but I said it from the very first moment I saw the active pedals. I'm like this is going to trickle down and become mainstream because the hardware, the technology it's not hard to copy. In fact, the Simucube ones are very bulky. I'm pretty sure someone's going to come up with a smarter idea and smaller it's the software. So who's got good software? We do know Simagic has good software and they already showed us their version of the active pedal. So there it is. That's one of them. So there's going to be more.
Constantinos:I'm confident that in 2025, we're going to see a lot more affordable active pedals from far more companies because it is, as Daniel said, for the shifters. It might take a bit more time than 2025 to see active shifters, but pedals were there. We have the proof of concept. Simucube has proven that this thing actually makes a difference. So everyone's going to get on that market right now and everyone's going to use it. And I think the second thing which might not be in 2025 because it's more, it's a, it's like a niche within a niche, like sim racing is already a niche market, expanding to kind of like explode outside of the niche. You know definition, but it's still a niche. But within sim racing there's one more niche, that is I think we'll start becoming more mainstream and that's motion, like motion. For me it's like super expensive and not accessible for most it is.
Constantinos:It is like I can afford an active, an active pedal, but motion, if you want to do it right, it's still way too expensive. So I think motion will become more accessible. We've seen a few companies coming out with versions that just have like one actuator and it kind of balances the rig, which is. It's a poor experience, but you can see that more companies and I think it might be in 2025 that we will see a bit more accessible motion, because motion is essentially what although, like real race car drivers don't really prefer motion Like they don't, I don't think they see it as an added value to the rig, but it helps us that we're not real race car drivers to feel better in it. So I think motion will probably be not maybe not in 2025, but it's going to become more accessible, definitely Because right now it's just super expensive and it is an immersive element of the rig.
Jason:Yes, because we can't simulate Gs. That's the closest thing we're going to get to simulating a.
Constantinos:G is motion I was um at the expo. I was talking to tim heinemann, who's a dtm driver, and he's building a replica of the porsche car he drives at his house in his house. If you follow him on instagram you can see like all the build and everything he's building progress, literally a replica. He has the same exact seat in his Porsche, he has the exact measurements and everything. Everything is is dialed into the real car so he can practice at home.
Constantinos:And I asked him do you have motion? And he's like no, motion doesn't help a real race car driver perform better in the rig. Motion has like milliseconds of delay in the rig, yeah, and that throws him off. It doesn't help him become better. So he removes that element from his rig. He doesn't want it in his rig because it it kind of throws him off. But for us for you know the couch drivers it is immersive and that's why I think it's going to become a bit more mainstream at some point right and I know a lot of the top, you know sim sim racers that are, you know the streamers, the fastest ones.
Jason:um, they don't run motion platform because motion platforms, you know it hurts their lap times or consistency, whatever. Um, so that's kind of cool that you said that, because a lot of people always have the same question. I'm sure you guys, I'm sure Mike, you've had the same question Do you need motion, is it worth it?
Michael Pagliaro:You know, all the time yeah, I can kind of build on that. I mean, I agree with a lot of Constantino's points as well as Daniel's. So it's kind of timely because I just I have a motion system now in the den for the first time.
Michael Pagliaro:So in previous like, motion for me has always been that thing that I try for a few laps at an expo or at an event or at a sim racing center. So now I've had a chance to really like. Have it at home is a different experience than just trying it. You have some time to digest and play with it and and um, spend more of an extended period of time without looking behind you going, and do I have to get out of? Let the next person in line go, you know right. So, um, it's I. I am very convinced now it's extremely fun and extremely immersive.
Michael Pagliaro:But, yes, the problem is is the price is just, it's not like you said. You could save, pinch and save for a whole year and maybe grab an active pedal, but for a decent, a decent motion system, the one that I'm sitting in right now is probably close to 8,000, maybe $9,000. Some of these systems go as high as $10,000. Um, that's just not attainable for the average person. Um, and they're also a bit complicated and take some time to set up and like for me to navigate my way around. It is fine because I'm I'm comfortable with this type of hardware. Um, so I would like to see two more uh, approachable motion systems.
Michael Pagliaro:One thing that's been teased in the recent days or weeks or so cubic systems is teasing sort of like a seat mover, and they've sort of been releasing different photos every day and I kind of figured that's what they were doing. I didn't have any information on it, but I could tell that that's where they were going Um, so I think, better seat movers versus, um full motion systems like a d-box where you have four you know uh, corners we'll start to see more of. Maybe those get better, um, maybe better integrated haptic systems, um, at better price points, um, perhaps even chassis that have built-in haptics so you buy a chassis. This is something I would like to see, or I think I don't know if we'll see it in 2025.
Jason:That's a good idea.
Michael Pagliaro:Something that I've thought of is can I, can I just buy a chassis that has some built-in haptics, that literally I just take the power plug? Or take the usb, yeah, and and plug it in. And I don't have to install something onto my rig and check if it's compatible, because adding the d-box system to this rig was was hard, like I was jacking up my rig, like I was I was gonna ask you that building a car here um.
Michael Pagliaro:It's probably heavy as hell, you know there's a, there's a way to do it, but, like I said, it's. This is not for everybody, it's for the pure enthusiasts.
Constantinos:I think that is a great point. A little deviation here. I got myself a 3D printer for the first time and the reason I got a 3D printer is because I want to do some prototyping and products and stuff like that. But the reason I got the specific one you can see it's right there is because it's fully automatic. You plug it in, you connect it to Wi-Fi and then you just send something to it to print and it does everything on its own.
Constantinos:Up until now when I was looking at 3D printers, it was always you have to level the bed, you have to make sure this, the temperatures, this just does it on its own. Like you send the print and it auto bed levels. It does everything on its own. So for me it's plug and play and that's what motion needs. I don't have motion, but I hear the same thing, like setting it up is a pain, installing it is a pain, everything Motion can definitely become something plug and play where it's easy to install, and then you just turn it on and it auto levels. It discovers, like what the motion is. It has to be, it has to become if for it to become what it should be yeah, so some
Michael Pagliaro:of them are like that, like this d-box system, like, like I would say, the physical setup is a bit intensive for the, let's say, the average person. Um, but the software, once you sort of turn it on and plug it in, you literally just load like an iRacing plug-in profile and I did a couple laps and I'm like I don't need to change anything. This feels fantastic yeah, no, I was really.
Michael Pagliaro:That's actually what surprised me the most about having a motion system at home because, like, when I go to these expos, like I'm I'm not setting it up, someone's turning it on and okay, go, mike, have fun. So it was kind of cool to go through this setup process because I hadn't really done that before, and I was very pleasantly surprised how far it's come like, how easy I found it, like it was literally install a couple things, load an iRacing profile. I think I changed the. The engine vibration was a little bit too intense for me. I turned that down and then, other than that, I I left it and it the thing ran amazing. But like, yeah, I totally agree with you, the more plug and play we can get things, the more people that are going to be less intimidated by this hobby.
Michael Pagliaro:One of the other things that I hear often is like not knowing what to buy and understanding compatibility. The reason I partnered with with a startup called Ready Set Sim is because I was really impressed with the. It's a recommendation software that helps you sort of build your sim raising setup. It's in its early phases, but I saw so much potential in something like that because the question I get all the time is will this work with this, or should I get this, or should I get that? And how do they go together? I would like to see more companies come out with sort of um turnkey setups that are affordable right, yeah sure you can hire.
Michael Pagliaro:You can hire advanced sim racing. Come to your house and do a turnkey and they're they're the best in the game, but that is not for everybody. Um, in terms of cost, it would be cool to see you be able to go on and configure a racing setup and get everything you need shipped to your house in a box and with easy instructions to set up.
Constantinos:I think it, I think sim lab and track racer on that kind of route they're starting to do that, right, yeah yeah, track racer also has. They're showing off.
Michael Pagliaro:They even showed off like their own monitors and wheels and bases and rigs everything in one and sim lab is also doing the same thing, so yeah, but I think I mean part part of the fun of sim racing is is is configuring and building your setup I was gonna say man, you know, like figuring it out like you got a different.
Michael Pagliaro:You paint, it's like you know it's same as the computer building world, right? Everybody kind of builds their computer in a personal way and like, oh, I want rgb and I want this part and I want that. I still think we need to keep that aspect of it. I think it's cool, but it would. I would love to see some more approachable um entryways for for people that are curious about this but maybe feeling a bit overwhelmed by it. Yeah, and then I agree with all the same Active pedals. We know that's coming Guarantee. We're going to see the Moza one. We're going to see some magic kind of how to proof of concept sort of at the expo. It's just going to be a matter of time before every company is going to have an active pedal.
Michael Pagliaro:It's going to become mainstream, yeah, yeah, mainstream battle, yeah, that's 100, that's a no-brainer most definitely, I agree, yeah, yeah, but I'm excited about software and new sims, the development of that ac evo, obviously ac.
Jason:Evo, let's go watching ira, daniel, we're gonna be ready right day one for leds right for evil, let the man sleep.
Michael Pagliaro:Let him sleep another nugget of information.
Constantinos:Another nugget of information during the uh, during the overtake interview with uh massimo, I asked a question in the chat and I. My question was will we have telemetry on day one? Obviously I asked that question. You would, yes, and it was not good, so we won't. And Massimo basically replied that he would like to have it on day one but, as in ACC and AC, they had a third-party company develop the whole telemetry stuff. This is his words. I can go watch it. It's still online somewhere there's another company that does. And he basically said that his dream is to have the real life telemetry of real cars coming through ac evo into your software or whatever. That's cool. So his response was it will come eventually, um, but from what I understood, it won't be on day one. So yeah, I assumed it would be there on day one because they're already doing the AC and ACC.
Michael Pagliaro:So it might have something, but it might not be perfect well, you would think, because with ACC you can still get run your rev lights and things like basic, things like so as long as we have that, at least for now I think, I think it was covering and things like basic things like so, as long as we have that at least for now I think we can
Constantinos:I think it was covering I was I think it was covering more bases than anything just saying that, yeah, we want to do it right. We want to do it right, so I don't know, but I think it will be there. I look they have ac and acc which have really like acc has really good telemetry. I don't see why they wouldn't put it in Evo as well.
Michael Pagliaro:They will. They will, it's just a matter of time. Yeah, I think. Yeah, everyone just needs to be patient.
Constantinos:But it was very vague on that. So officially we don't know.
Daniel Newman:Okay. The good news is, though, that I say good news Is that good news RPMs are possible without telemetry. They're painful, I mean, it hurts I. I changed my throttle pedal recently, and the reason I changed my throttle pedal is because I sit there with my foot on the throttle at tiny, gingerly revs on every single car, watching the light in the car come on and reading the value of the RPM to match RPMs. That's how we do it. It's manual. So you drive a car every single gear, put your foot on throttle very gently until you watch the light in the game change to green and you write the number down. That was at 4,322 revolutions per minute and that's where AI comes to play.
Daniel Newman:And we need it for this. So, on day one. For Evo. I say day one. You won't have it day one because obviously that takes time. But stuff like RPMs would be possible because it's just a case of looking at the dash in game and copying. The downside in AC Evo is AC Evo has got a wide range of cars and they're no longer gt cars or xyz, so you could be driving, you know yeah I'm guessing here, but let's say a ford focus and there is no ddu in ford focus.
Daniel Newman:You've got a regular speedometer that's not giving you a digital readout, so matching an rpm to that is difficult, because yeah, there's no point.
Michael Pagliaro:Yeah, yeah, and for immersion sake, I probably wouldn't use a ddu if I was driving for me but that's you know, that's just me, and I wouldn't be using a wheel that has rev lights on it.
Jason:Me too, around right, yeah so it's round wheel, yeah which makes sense.
Michael Pagliaro:Yeah, there's always going to be a few people that are I know there's always going to be the percentage people are going to complain of daniel you already know, and I'm pretty sure you're gearing up for that uh, I've got a box of tissues ready and he's
Daniel Newman:ready um therapy is booked for for early february time yeah so.
Jason:So for the final question here, and I think we have to mention SimHub SimHub has been the key to success for both, especially DNR and you know the lovely ecosystem that is the key to everything, because without sim hub, we wouldn't be able to do any of the the things that that we're doing or planning, or have the dream. He's, he's the one, he's the creator, he's the one that makes that dream possible, or give you the option to make it possible, at least for us normal people, that thing, and that enables you both right to either update features or add features or fix things or whatever it is that came within that package. So, you know, on behalf of the Chicane podcast if you're watching Nicola, I just want to say thank you, because without you we would not be here. Without you, none of these things would be happening. And he just added motion, right, he had motion lights, haptics, all kinds of stuff.
Constantinos:So the question is yeah.
Jason:Nicolai, thank you. Thank you so much on behalf of the show, if you're watching. I hope you're watching. I've been trying to get you onto the show, man, so I would love to hear your side of the story. So let me know when you're ready. But my question is what do you guys think is next for SimHub? As the final question on this episode here, what do you guys think? Where do you think things are going with Sim Hub in 25?
Constantinos:That's a hard one I can't like. Sorry, I need to take some time and just mention and say how thankful I am for Nicola for many reasons, but there are times where I'm like this guy isn't real. Honestly, this is AI.
Michael Pagliaro:I saw him in person at the expo. He does exist. He does exist.
Constantinos:I have pictures with him, but you never know. You know really. Do you know? Like maybe it was just an avatar? Anyway, most recent update that I have on my local version because I'm developing it the quick view stuff that we mentioned.
Constantinos:I didn't need a function, but the idea is that you pull on a button and while the button is on it does something and when you release it it goes back into another, different state. That concept does not exist in SimHub, right? So in SimHub, you pull on something and it toggles it to true. Pull on it, it toggles it to false. It doesn't have the concept of the state of the actual input at any point in time. So I developed everything inside the plugin in the dashboard, where I kind of faked it and I had it working. So it works like that, but it wasn't native.
Constantinos:And I messaged Nicola I'm like you know I did this. I don't feel very comfortable, but am I doing something wrong? I don't think that there were like 10 minutes that passed after my question and he's like okay, I'm 90% on it. I'm creating a new method for you to include in the Delphi dashboard and the plugin. I'm like he didn't have like it worked, but it's not. I was like no, no, it's okay, it'll be this. He showed me the method and when I release it 9.6.3, the version that came out actually has it in there, so it's built into it now and there's a new method for you know, for for plugin development, where it understands if any button press is on or off. And I literally messaged him. I'm like I love you, man, like this.
Constantinos:You're not real, honestly, so there's not enough I can talk about Nikola and tell you how amazing he is and how much he's supporting everything that we do. And, honestly, I told him you don't have to do that. I figured it out. It's just not. It's not the best experience, but it will work. People will understand. It's how it is, and he actually included. He released it as well. So I don't know what's what is in the future for sim hub. Um, we do talk a lot with nicola. I don't know what he is going to plan. I know there's a lot of stuff for motion and stuff like that is he's doing, but we already know that. I just hope he's well. Yeah, he's healthy, yeah, and you can continue developing we were.
Jason:We were worried about that. What if you know? God forbid. You know what I'm saying there's a bus factor there is he's a one?
Constantinos:heard about the bus factor the bus factor. He's like einstein bro like what do we do?
Jason:you know, like you got. I just don't want to think like that. You know what I mean.
Jeff:But no, that's all I'm saying.
Jason:He's a special, special guy, the most valued, definitely bip sim racing. It's because of him is is definitely.
Daniel Newman:Yeah, I was talking to him this morning and and this is you know value to to nicolai it's sunday today recording this. I'm sorry for this if you watch this on a monday or a tuesday, but it is for us it's sunday. Um, the, the, the hours he puts in and and the love he puts in is is phenomenal because he, he works at crazy times a day. He's so receptive, responsive. Every time you ask for something, he makes it happen. I've never asked for anything and it hasn't been delivered anything, and there's a lot of features that we couldn't do without something happening in SimHub. First and every time, it's never too much. And it's not only never too much he always does it in a friendly way. He's always, as I said, receptive, he's kind, he's just.
Daniel Newman:You know you meet people in all walks of life where you just think, yeah, you're cool, and the people you think you know you are genuinely a treasure to your, you know your community, your people. He's one of those people. He, he does go above and beyond he, um, and I. I thanked him in a similar way to constantino I've in the messages yesterday and today and said that the things that you have done have literally changed my life. My life is different because of you. I have an opportunity with DNR that didn't exist. All my lights are turned off. All it's saying is it's gone.
Jason:Is that your?
Daniel Newman:way of saying come to house, my lights will turn off. That's how late in the day it is here. I should be in bed this is getting featured.
Daniel Newman:By the way, I was saying to him, you've literally changed, you know not, lots of people's lives. You know you've you've allowed this to happen for dn people's lives. You know you've you've allowed this to happen for dnr in a way that I would have never seen possible. And without simhub, um I, I couldn't do certain things that I can do now, and it's because of you, um nico and thomas that help work with dnr. You know they, they are part of the support that the dnr provides and they are um financially reimbursed for their, their level of support. They don't work here for free. So not only is is nicolai changing my life, he's changing thomas and nico's and and many others like constantinos, and this all comes from one person. Now, one person has has literally changed the livelihoods of of many people and it felt was down from us into our families and our friends and um and he's so humble as well in what he does.
Daniel Newman:I think the future is SimHub. I understand lots of manufacturers want their own independent hardware and that's sensible, because they've got we'll call it a safety net. They've got their own solutions. But I do think SimHub is the future and I do think anybody hub is the future and, I do think, anybody involved in sim racing. If you are at your rig at any point over the next few days and you do not have a sim hub license, you purchase one because, um, you shouldn't use sim hub without it. It is a miraculous piece of software and if you're set there at any point across the holidays and you think you know you, you feel a sense of of giving and thanks and you, you want to show your appreciation.
Daniel Newman:The one person in the sim racing community that helps make everything spin and tick is nicolai. Even if you already own a sim hub license, go and buy another one. You might not gift it to somebody or just keep it, but you, buying that license, as you donate in, in effect, some money to nicolai to say I recognize that you have gone above and beyond and you've changed my sim racing experience. Um, I do think without him we would be in a very different position. Our hobby wouldn't look as it does today. You would not have, um, lots of the things you have today, the connection, that's just so much. He just is genuinely one of these people. That, um, I don't think probably gets you know and we take it for granted, I think, is the thing he's one of the few right he exists in our, in our, in our lifetime he is um when it comes to this hobby, like he's.
Constantinos:He's the one like yeah, he's like you won't find many people like him. You will not find many people like him I guarantee you, I agree, you will find a lot of people that do a lot of things, but not many that do it like he does. I wouldn't be here, we wouldn't be talking, none of us. I definitely wouldn't be here. But he's not just receptive to you guys.
Jason:I've hit him up a few times and he's receptive to everybody. It's not just because you kind of you know, collaborate with you know not well, not collaborate, but you kind of work with him on on some features and stuff. But as an end user I can message him and he'll actually like respond to me. You know, I'm even before the podcast, before the chicane podcast, just straight user. He would respond. So I mean that you know it's. I don't know. I'm just I'm happy to have that level of support it at no cost. What a license I mean, dude, come on no, he's um.
Constantinos:He's one of the few, if not the only.
Jason:Yeah, yeah he's the one though. Yeah, so we got to give it up for sim hub for real. Um, he's the reason, yeah he's the reason. You guys, you know, damn, you guys have things going on.
Michael Pagliaro:It's because of him yeah, and there's going to be future people like lovely racing and Danny Newman that will develop something new for SimHub. And it's because SimHub exists that it creates these opportunities for other people to create and even create their own business, which is amazing, you know. Yeah, it's very cool. You see a lot of different hobbies and games and things like that that have these certain people that really go out of their way to create something and make it better. And, yeah, it's really cool to see.
Jason:Yeah, man. So that's going to conclude the discussion portion of this episode. This episode was created to encapsulate 2024 and look ahead into 2025. And I think we're in a great place and I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you, guys, for being here, like not just on the show but offline. You know, danny Newman, we speak like every day.
Constantinos:Constantinos, we hit each other up with a random picture sometimes, or I always. I always find a message on my phone like 7 am. When I get up, it's like 9 pm your time. I'm just woken up, I'm having my coffee, yeah, and you're like, I'm not even in bed yet.
Jason:So yeah, it's funny yeah, man and mike, you're always there. You're always there for me, so you're like a mentor to me. You're like you're like an older brother or or a cousin or some shit um, and it's a pleasure to be part of your um sim racing setups. It's like I have an extra set of friends. You know that are there for me when I need them and. I'm there for them when you guys need me.
Michael Pagliaro:So I love bringing more people together and I think it's, it's awesome, and I'm so glad that I reached out to you, to you guys, a while back and uh, creating these new friendships. So it's uh, yeah, love it, man.
Jason:Yeah, I love it too, man, and and Daniel we. The longer I speak to daniel bro, the longer I find out that we have a lot of. We have a lot more in common than that we thought right so the person, really we are like the same person.
Daniel Newman:The only thing is I'm puerto rican. That's the only thing father from a different mother there you go, bro.
Jason:I will go up there with my Manchester United jersey, though Don't hate me though man, mother f***er there it is, there it is.
Jason:Alright, guys, so we're at the round table. I don't want this to end, I just want to hang out with you guys, but I just want to say thank you all for being here again. Merry Christmas, happy New Year I can't believe it's that time of the year. So, cheers. We are here on stream having a few drinks. Cheers, cheers, cheers. There you go, there it is. There it is. Cheers to sim racing, cheers to friendships. And let's not forget, the most important thing is that we all got here with the hobby sim racing, so don't forget to take the time to get on track. Constantinos, come on, bro, I'm waiting for that next live stream where they ruin your race. I mean, I was always there with you, man. You know, I was always there with you, man. You know, I was always there with you.
Constantinos:I was oh yeah, it's gonna happen. I gotta put that on my list.
Michael Pagliaro:2025 more driving more driving me too, me too yes, mike, you got.
Jason:You got the hardware, bro, come on, I'm driving.
Michael Pagliaro:I just I don't do a lot of racing like competing online, that's the thing there is one more thing I forgot to say there will be more driving.
Constantinos:There will be more driving. I will announce that sometime.
Jason:Yes, we want to see you because you know what, aside from the dashboard and all your products, it's the persona behind it, and I've always been a huge fan, daniel, I knowiel's getting his stuff set up. I can't wait, daniel. Let me know, bro, when that stuff goes down. Any of you guys I'm here to support so round table and we'll start with mike because you're on my top left all right I don't know how.
Jason:You're on my top left, but you're on my top left, and then constantinos, and then there's jeff, and then there's daniel.
Michael Pagliaro:So anything you want to add before we close, this one out well, I want to say thank you to you guys for putting together this episode. Um, I think the podcast is fantastic and I've really enjoyed watching and uh and listening to you guys. I listened to you guys on my commute on monday morning. I actually look forward to it. Thank you, um, and I hope more people discover your show and I always try to do my best to to uh to get it out there. Um, but yeah, thank you guys for all making the time to to sit down and do this. It was tough. We're all like crazy time zone. Yes, I'm surprised.
Michael Pagliaro:We even like. I remember, jason, you talked about the idea of doing this to me and I was like it's amazing, but it might be impossible. And the fact that I'm sitting here in my rig, looking at the screen and seeing all you guys just blows my mind, it's surreal, isn't it?
Michael Pagliaro:it's crazy, it is so I want to thank you kind of for for bringing us together and, um, yeah, anyone that listening that, that that watches my channel or subscribes, I want to thank you for that. If you, if you haven't checked out the sim racing den or checked out my reviews, uh, I would very much appreciate and love if you did. Um, and hope you enjoy it. If you are into sim racing whether you don't have a setup and looking to build one, or you want to share your setup and get some advice and interact with the community, as always, join sim racing setups on Facebook. We would love to have you there and we do.
Michael Pagliaro:We try our very best to keep it a very positive and enjoyable atmosphere though it's, it's very difficult on the internet challenges there, but but if you, if you go in there with a positive attitude, looking for positive relationships, you'll probably find them and just ignore all the crap that's on there. We'll try to do our best to take care of that. But yeah and again, a huge congrats and amazing work from both Constantinos and Daniel. I've enjoyed very much watching your ecosystems grow and looking forward to what's coming in 2025 from you guys from sim racing. I can't wait.
Michael Pagliaro:I can't wait, it's gonna be another crazy year. So and uh yeah, merry christmas and happy new year everyone. Happy holidays to everyone. Hell yeah, regardless of what you're celebrating, just do something fun and enjoy it with your family and friends. Yes, yes, loved ones, yep.
Jason:All right, constantinos, the legend, the myth or I said that backwards, but you know what I mean, don't do. The myth, the legend, Come on man. Yeah, okay, so.
Constantinos:I think I definitely want to thank everyone that's been supporting me in one way or another. It's been a wild ride from 2022, when it was literally no support, then it went to some sort of you know, buy me a coffee thing and in 2024, it became a product with membership. So we've gone past the phase where you know if you like something. I would just like to thank everyone that has supported me in the past and is supporting me in this way and appreciates the product enough to give me his hard-earned money for a membership.
Constantinos:I think for 2025, I will do double of what I did before. I will double down because in 2025, I will be fully focused on this product. I will try and return as much value as I can. So, for me, I would just like to thank every single member and every single person that has been using, supporting, sharing, talking about the lovely dashboard and the lovely ecosystem. On my end, I can only promise that I will continue working on it as intensely and fiercely as I have and, as I've said, there's so many things that will be coming in 2025, new stuff, either because feedback from people gave me the idea, the incentive, or my own needs. So all I can say is that stay tuned, there's a lot of stuff coming in 2025. And I'm so happy to be a part of this hobby because it ain't a hobby anymore.
Michael Pagliaro:Yeah, it's a bit of a business a little bit.
Constantinos:I'm just so happy to be within this community within, like talking to you guys within this community within, like talking to you guys happy to see podcasts, content creators, all of these things evolving in a way where it used to be super niche and now it is niche.
Constantinos:It still is niche, but it's not like you talk to someone and they're not like oh, what is sim racing? Everyone knows what sim racing is. It's at a point where it's going to break through. So I'm really happy to be a part of this. You cannot, honestly, you cannot imagine how humbled I am and how grateful I am to be in this space at this specific time, not 10 years ago, not 20 years ago, not five years in the future. Right now, I am so appreciative of everything that's happening and you guys talking to you guys Daniel, mike, jason, jeff, eric, nicola there's like so many people, so many people to thank and just say that on my end, I feel I don't know how much like, how, in what words I can put it, but I am humbled and I will just put as much effort as I can in delivering the best, because this is my livelihood now.
Jason:You do, bro, you do.
Constantinos:I'm so happy to be here. I'm so happy. It's not a job. I love doing this, it's a passion. It's a passion, yeah. So that's I love doing this it's a passion. It's a passion, yeah, so that's all I can say Like 2025 for me. I'm just looking so forward to getting over my holidays the five days of holidays I'm taking and get back to working, which is crazy, it's crazy but it's true, it's true.
Jason:That's a good thing, though, like yeah, yeah, all right. So thank you, constantinos for that. Appreciate you always, brother. Uh, next up is jeff. What you got, jeff?
Jeff:yeah, you know, I just jason. We started this. I don't know this is our what 30 something. Almost 40th, episode 35th never thought we'd be. You know I said this earlier. You know, have you know three of the most iconic people in the industry, uh, in our podcast, and, um, I just want to kind of put this perspective for you guys. I think you guys uh find the grind of what you do, um, a little, potentially, probably sometime monotonous when you're jumping in to do you know, all of the things that you guys do to make products and things. And you know, uh, mike, I watch your videos, like before I go to bed, just as you know, the last thing I do today to relax.
Jeff:And you hear my voice before you go to bed. Romantic, isn't it, you know. But I get in the rig.
Michael Pagliaro:Thank you, I appreciate it.
Jeff:Yeah, what I'm trying to say you know is you guys are providing our hobby. But after I get out of the rig, I'm a more present for my wife you know, better husband. I'm more present for my kids because I had a little bit of me time, uh, and I'm just, you know, recharged and ready to get back into being a dad, being a husband. Um, just not, it gives us an escape.
Jeff:The, the sim racing gives us an escape from reality to just kind of be ourselves, recharge a little bit and be a better husband, a better dad. So, yeah, you provide, you know, products, if you will, and services, but at the end of the day, you're contributing to something bigger than just sim racing, and it's I'm not trying to be cheesy here, but like I got out of the ring that he has like just felt recharge, recharge and rejuvenate, you know, to, you know, get on the floor and wrestle with the kids and things like that. So, um, just want to say thank you for what you do. You don't just provide sim racing products, you know, you provide something more than that.
Michael Pagliaro:So, thank you that's awesome, man, that's cool well thanks, jeff. Yeah, it's when I hear stuff like that, that people enjoy the videos and get something out of it. That's what. That's what actually really keeps me going. Yeah, so it it means a lot. It really does. It makes it fun it's.
Constantinos:It's that bit that not many people can understand, yeah, but when I see my membership growing, I don't feel like, oh, it's success. I feel the pressure that I need to be better, but also the fact that, oh god, I have to. You know, I have to deliver. I feel like an obligation but a fun, because I this is fun for me, right, so it's not a problem. But the fact that I know that there are people, it's growing and everything it just, it just makes me feel so good that I'm doing it and and I'm on the right track, you know yeah, it's a really weird feeling.
Constantinos:It's it's nothing to do with um revenue and it's got nothing to do with uh, now, I made it and it honestly it's nothing to do with um revenue and it's got nothing to do with uh, now, I made it and it honestly it has nothing to do with that. It is just the mere fact that I know that people are enjoying it and spending time in the discord and spending their money and and appreciating it like that. That just drives me. It drives me like crazy. It's, it's. It's a simple thing that not many can understand. I I say that with all honesty, like I don't think many people understand um but it is.
Michael Pagliaro:It is what drives me. I get it, yep 100 all right, mr newman how do you follow this one up the legend? I know that's my second legend that's.
Jason:This is how do you?
Daniel Newman:how do you top that, bro? You can't, so I'm just your Santa.
Constantinos:I can do anything you want, I know right oh, oh, oh oh you came prepared for this.
Daniel Newman:I have waited two hours 29 minutes and 49 seconds to push that button and my time oh, there it is um, perfect, yeah, firstly, thank you um, all of you in this room, each and every one of you.
Daniel Newman:Um, I'll go around the table too. Um, jason and jeff, like mike said um mondays, um, I don't have the commute because I work in my studio. Um, yeah, I still make it almost a religious experience um to listen to your podcast. If I'm out on the road, I listen to it and then I watch it when I get home because I haven't watched it. So many of your episodes, if I have to travel out for various reasons, actually get viewed twice because I listen to it so much.
Daniel Newman:And then I watch it too and it makes me laugh when I see YouTube videos and somebody comments and they write first and I think, think, who gives a shit? But I watch your video and I'm like it's just come out like three minutes ago and I'm like, yes, I'm here, um thank you um, I think more people need to be subscribed to your content.
Daniel Newman:I think your podcast needs to explode in 2025. I really enjoy watching it. I love the people that you get on the show talking. I think the format is amazing. I think you are just both genuinely really really nice, personable people, um, of all the content that you know that I could watch. I watch a lot of mike, too. I always find myself coming back to watch your podcasts because you are just people that are easy to like and enjoy the content. So thank you for everything you do for people in sim racing, um, you've done a lot of thanking other people tonight, but I think you probably don't appreciate the impact you have on other people with with things like your podcast as well. So please keep doing it in 2025. Um, don't change anything. Do do what you've been doing. It's it's really really good and I thoroughly enjoy it. And, like I said, you want my monday morning fix, um, and sometimes monday afternoon when I watch you for a second time around too. So, um, thank you guys.
Jason:Thank you so much eric of course he's not here.
Daniel Newman:Um, eric is is another really important part of your show. So, um, all three of you. Thank you, mike. Um, you know it's the same. There's not a video. I've watched half half of your Sim Lab video already before I came out here tonight, so I've already started and I will finish. There's not a video goes by that I don't watch.
Daniel Newman:And, konstantinos, you probably see me in your Discord nearly every day because, again, it's a place that I have to frequent and you're all people that I value very highly in this hobby for lots of different reasons. So thank you so much for having us in this hobby, um, for for lots of different reasons. So thank you so much for for having us, you know, in this room together tonight. Um, it's quite humbling to be, you know, in the presence of of you guys, um, when I think how far dnr has come this year to be sat here talking to to mike from sim racing, den and constantina's and this incredible new podcast is just like you know, why would they ask me so? So thank you. Away from that, all of everybody involved at DNR.
Daniel Newman:So it goes without saying. First of all, nico and Thomas, who work sensationally hard at DNR. People tag me sometimes and say thank you for doing this, and it's amazing and I'm really humbled and grateful when you thank me. But I want to make sure that it's, you know, are really clear. Nico and thomas work incredibly hard on this. When I started dnr had no idea that it would become as big as it's it's got. I also had no idea that nico would be a thing or that thomas would become a thing. It happened accidentally with, you know, no real intent, um, but it's amazing. They're both sensational people who I value massively. Um, they aren't just people that work at dnr, you know, they are my friends and, um, I value them in in many ways and I think that's what's really special about sim racing is it brings people together, um, in a hobby in a different way, and I've made friends within sim racing, including in this room, kind of, you know, special friends for life, um. So so for Nico and Thomas.
Daniel Newman:They, they really do get a heartfelt um thank you from me and then all of the DNR users. Um, I can't say thank you enough times and and it means you know enough sincerity to express my gratitude to you. Every day, like Konstantinos does, I feel the need to be better and to keep delivering. Um, you know, people that that are watching this now, that have been in the discord lately, will understand and know a bug comes out and I have to fix it. Now. People like go to bed, go and get some rest. I I feel the pressure to help you now. Um, that doesn't benefit me, you know. People say you know financially it doesn't.
Daniel Newman:You're already a member, but the the drive is that you've paid good money to be here and you want something that's good and it works, and for me, I want to deliver that and I want to give you the best experience so that you leave feeling fulfilled and happy. Um, so, every day, I'm driven to make sure that you get the next, latest and greatest or the features that we've promised you. You get in the way that we've promised and if we don't deliver them for various reasons, that we work really bloody hard to there it is I love it.
Jason:I love it, bro, let's go to dnr users.
Daniel Newman:Just you know message. Love the word bloody because it's, I love the blood.
Jason:You know the british, the british, just sorry man massively, massively grateful these episodes are explicit.
Daniel Newman:I love the word bloody because it's British. I love the British. I'm sorry man, Massively, massively grateful.
Jason:These episodes are explicit, by the way. I hope you know.
Daniel Newman:It's a polite word, though, just a hint of explicit. Yeah, thank you all for your incredible support in 2024. I had no idea that this would become what it is. It's absolutely mind-boggling to think we've grown to where we've grown to today and we've got massive plans for 2025 as well. So there you go, man. Yes, all you five. To everyone else watching, to nico thomas. You know my family, my wife, who also is incredibly supportive of the ventures and things. The crazy thank you.
Daniel Newman:I appreciate, we appreciate that, thank you thank you all and um merry and Merry Christmas. Have a fantastic holiday with your families and life is good to you across the holiday season and a very happy new year too.
Jason:Wow. Thank you so much, daniel. I appreciate the kind words. So I'll close with this.
Jason:Mike from the Sim Racing Den, you know, I just, I think I just I thank God every day that you hit me up on that email, because if it wasn't for that email, you know, I would have never known that you were a follower. Or because Jeff, eric and I do this podcast and we do it out of the goodness of our heart. We don't really expect much coming from it. Goodness of our heart, we don't really expect much coming from it. We're just trying to bridge the gap in the community and say, hey, we're here to express our feelings and different perspectives, different sizes, aspects that we have as sim racers. So just knowing you guys and having the chance to actually interview you is a massive you don't understand it's a massive pleasure to have that, you know, to have you guys here live on the show.
Jason:Want to say thank you. Yeah, like I said, you're like a bigger brother to me. I was on vacation in japan and I have mike from the sim run uh, sim racing 10 hit me up and saying, yo, how you doing where you're at. So it's kind of like not just a what do you call this? It's more of a friendship than anything. Yeah, you know what I mean. Yeah, I've enjoyed it. I've enjoyed it, man, I've enjoyed it.
Jason:You know my heart beats, man, for that. Straight up, constantinos day one, dude, day one. I've been following your stuff and you know I've always told you, man, it doesn't matter if you release an update this week or next week or you know I'm here to support, you know I'm here to support, and that's what people need to understand, that things don't have to come in every single week for you to be happy. You know what I mean. It's more of a quality when you release an update. It's quality and that's that's, that's the most important thing. It's not just a rush product. So, continue what you're doing, my man. I'm a huge fan, I'm a huge supporter and whatever I can do for you, um, just let me know, man, jeff. Thanks, man, my neighbor, my friend you need to come over bro, what's up?
Jeff:I got some time off, we'll make it happen that's been a great friend.
Jason:Um, he's our he's, he's, he's the newest one into the, into the sim racing, and I'm always bugging him, I'm telling him hey, man, you need to support this guy, you need to support that, you need to install this, you need to install that. And you've come a long way, man. So I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart and Eric, you're not here. I want to thank you, too, for being part of the show and all the contributions that you do for the Chicane podcast. It doesn't go unnoticed. So thank you whenever you tune in.
Jason:And Daniel, daniel Newman Racing, daniel and I have been man such great friends. I recently got into guitars. He's been helping me through that, which is totally separate and that's what I mean. Like I've actually met friends, personas that actually outside of the hobby you know what I mean, it's not just a hobby. So I just want to thank you, dan. I've seen your product start, grow and what it is today, and that is massive For 24, for you, it must have been massive straight up. So just thank you so much. And yeah to all. Merry Christmas, happy New Year. I wish you the best. Health, wealth and happiness are the three things here. It's not just sim racing. So with that, guys cheers, I just want to hold my drink up.
Michael Pagliaro:Salute. Cheers and this is to 2025.
Jason:Cheers, cheers, brother, and to all you viewers and listeners out there, have a great start of your week. Oh, that burns and a great start of 2025. We'll all be here. Thank you so much happy holidays happy holidays, happy christmas, okay, happy, happy. Wait a minute, it's Merry Christmas, bro.
Daniel Newman:I was just going to.
Jason:We're British. I love it, I love it. Okay, all right guys. Thank you so much.
