The Chicane Podcast

Simagic EVO Wheelbases Worth it?

• Track Ghost Sim Racing • Episode 53

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What started as a casual check-in quickly evolves into a deep dive through the latest sim racing developments, from groundbreaking DIY innovations to concerning industry shifts. Trophy AI joins as our first sponsor just ahead of our one-year anniversary, perfectly timing their arrival with our growing discussions on performance improvement and racing technique.

The conversation takes a fascinating turn when we explore SimMagic's new Alpha Evo wheelbase lineup. We dissect the 21-bit encoder upgrade, questionable design choices, and whether the improvements justify the price – especially that somewhat perplexing LED ring that nobody seems to have asked for. Is this truly an evolution or just marketing hype? Meanwhile, EA's announcement about pausing WRC development sends ripples through the rally simulation community, leaving fans wondering about the future of virtual rally racing.

Perhaps the most impressive revelation comes from the world of 3D printing, where a relative newcomer has created an entire Porsche Cup Car cockpit from scratch after just 30 days with a printer. The level of detail and functionality achieved raises exciting possibilities for home sim rigs, though it does come with some limitations. We also explore Fuji Speedway's fascinating but tragic history for our Track of the Week, tracing its evolution from a planned NASCAR-style oval to a world-class circuit plagued by weather challenges and safety concerns.

Throughout it all, the spectre of motion simulators looms large as we count down to the Chicago Sim Gaming Expo, where we'll finally get hands-on with platforms that could transform our racing experiences. Will they live up to the hype or leave us disappointed? And is the injury one host is nursing a warning about the physical toll of improper sim racing setups? Listen in to find out where the bleeding edge of virtual motorsport is heading.

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3D printed Porsche Dash: https://youtu.be/P78M6RpDaJ4

Please e-mail the show for any questions, comments or stories/experiences at thechicanepodcast@gmail.com

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Intro/Outro Rights below:
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Jason:

This episode is brought to you by Trophyai. We discuss all things in the sim racing world. I'm your host, jason Rivera, and I'm joined here by Mr Eric Kelly and Jeff Smart. How's everybody doing this week?

Erick:

Hey, doing good this week, man, the Cheetahs won again.

Jason:

The Cheetahs.

Erick:

Yeah, if you're not following my youngest, he's playing soccer for the first time. They won the second game, so they're doing good Nursing a Sim. My first ever Sim racing injury, you know for people that say that Sim racing isn't real.

Jeff:

let's pretend you got to be careful, all right I'm doing good, jason and eric, good seeing you guys again. Uh highlight of the week here. So uh ready to get into another nice little discussion here yeah, man, it's been an excellent week.

Jason:

I I love hearing about the cheetahs. Uh, we're going to need to see a leaderboard soon, eric, so you need to get that over here and see what the Just imagine.

Erick:

one there at the top, and it's everybody else.

Jason:

That must be a great feeling to see your daughter, and she's winning, she's coming home. Just man, I hope the trend continues. You know how that goes, you know.

Erick:

Yeah, we've had to teach her about sportsmanship. Last time she was on the field and they scored the third time. The whole team hadn't scored. She ran off yelling like we scored and they haven't scored any points. Chill out, don't make the kids cry. Now it's all fun and games, they all have a good time. They get snacks afterwards, so it makes up for everything.

Jason:

There you go, there you go. That's awesome. Well, just a couple announcements here. We did our first. Michael from the Sim Racing then joined me on Sunday last Sunday and I had to get up at 350 in the morning because somebody decided to make the race at a very early Eastern time and I felt the pain that Eric goes through every week with us and you know. It just came back after me, man, so I had to get up. We had a wonderful race, it was cool, it was a three-hour race and we got a nice after me, man, so I had to get up. We had a wonderful race, it was cool, it was a three-hour race and we got a nice cool livery, had a good time and it was actually a very smooth experience switching drivers and everything, because I've never done it before. How?

Speaker 4:

does that work?

Jason:

So what you do is you sign up for a team in iRacing and then you invite whoever wants to be part of the team and then I guess the organizer takes it, puts you not by name but by the team, so both of you are in, and then in the skin application that we use what is it called Trading paint there's a button down there that you can assign a team skin for. Um, it kind of syncs up. It takes like a few hours to show up. So we made a team called the Sim Racing Coalition. So it's the, the, the unison of, of, of two brands coming together and and and joining forces. So, um, src was the name of the team and it took like four hours for that little button box to show up. And then we just uploaded the skins to shout out to my boy, neil stayed up till 5, 30 in the morning, a total of 12 hours working on a skin just for us. Yes, and it is For us, yes.

Jeff:

Big said I'm top shot right.

Jason:

Bro yes sir.

Jason:

We made a Rexy replica and turned it into a Raptor and I'll post pictures on here so you guys can see. But it came out really nice and shout out to Big the top shot. We need to support him. I keep telling him to open up the gallery and start and make and get this going, but he's a little shy so maybe this episode will give him that extra push. So it was fun.

Jason:

I say that it was very easy, jeff. So you know how in iRacing right, you pull into the pits and then you can literally get out the car to go to the garage or the settings. Whenever you do that, the next person, it'll turn green and it'll say practice or go race or qualify. So while we were practicing he would drive the car for five laps. Come in, do the driver swap. It takes 30 seconds though, but it's a virtual 30 seconds, it's literally instant. But the game it's not a penalty, but it's kind of like part of the rules, like if you drive a swap in a race you're sitting there and with a timer coming down, because it's like simulating the guy getting out the car?

Jeff:

Rob Markman.

Jason:

Yeah, people getting in and out. Sure, rob Markman. Yeah, you know those meme videos where the guy's?

Erick:

like ass out like drag his ass out of the car. Rob Markman, that's exactly what I was thinking about, man that was me, bro, freaking five o'clock in the morning.

Jason:

I was like man. I was. You know how it'd be in the morning it's cold in the house, it's cold in here, man, now it goes, but very, very smooth, very interesting. Um, I think it was awesome. It's a very cool experience. I was basically his spotter while he was racing. I was telling him how far behind what the weather forecast strategies we had some USB problems on his end. That was scary and the replay is on there. It's about four and a half hours and it's actually playing in the background, which I had just hit play on. So that's us racing it. But anywho, lots of fun. I'm hoping we can do a 24 hour and include both of you into this and do a six man. That way Jeff gets out of work and he comes home, hangs out with the family for a little bit, and at eight o'clock at night he said I got the car and then he goes out for a run. Then Eric is waking up on the other side of the world and he gets the car.

Erick:

That's got to be Rob.

Jason:

Markman, that would be dope. That would be dope bro Imagine that way everybody can do their normal day job or whatever, and then come in and put some time in the car. Rob Markman car.

Erick:

I'll tell you this If I know y'all on track, I'm not sleeping a wink. I already know I'm going to be like a kid at Christmas. I'm going to be nervous, I'm going to be excited. All that stuff. Wait on my turn.

Jason:

It was relatively a smooth experience. It's just I was nervous at the last stint when Mike was like take the car, I'm running out of gas and the tires only had like 15, 12 laps in them, rob Markman, literally or figuratively running out of gas. Rob Markman. Yeah, like the virtual car, Rob Markman.

Jeff:

Oh, the virtual car, I didn't know Mike was running out of gas.

Jason:

Rob Markman no, no no, the virtual car was one of the few. He was a car. Yeah, that's a long time. I was watching Mike was locked in.

Erick:

Yeah, yeah, mike.

Jason:

Mikey was focused, he was in the game, he was helping me and it was great. And then he's like I'm not. I wouldn't take tires. I only had 12 laps. So that was the only thing I would say is like you're not used to just picking it up and driving it right away while it's worn. You're used to the tire being brand new and you ease it in. That was the only time. But, honestly, I took the car, I was nervous, I took it easy for the first half lap and then I was like the car feels fine. You hear me say it the car feels great. Actually, it feels perfect. So, yeah, that was great.

Jason:

We had a little briefing thing between us. We looked at places where we could pass because we had BMWs on track, we had MX-5s on track. So the thing is we need to bump the participation numbers up a little bit with the GRL. So, guys, stay tuned for the next special event. These don't happen often and when they do, um, we're looking for part uh, max participation, if you can make it. Sorry, cause everybody, weekends are kind of, you know, but at five o'clock in the morning I was okay with that. It's just the? Um, it was kind of painful, but they ain't nothing going on over here.

Erick:

I know.

Jason:

Jeff, jeff, you, jeff is he'll wake up at three o'clock in the morning just to prepare his boat and do his thing too.

Erick:

So nothing new, that's cool man Get that quiet time in.

Jason:

Yeah, that too, or F1. Is that another reason you wake up, super yeah?

Jeff:

that's another reason to get up 100%.

Erick:

Yep A thousand percent yes.

Jason:

And a bit of exciting news for the Chicane podcast we are reaching. This is the next episode will be our year anniversary and just before our year anniversary we have our first sponsor for the show. Trophy AI is sponsoring the Chicane podcast as of this episode. Let's go. And it's a hell of a tool. And it's a tool that Eric Kelly first mentioned here on the show and used it, reviewed it, showed it to us, we checked it out. So it kind of made sense when they reached out to us and I said, oh yeah, this is a tool that we use regularly, you know, and we actually covered it in the past. So just check it out. Uh, check out the description. Um, it's probably gonna be all over the screen somewhere um, as it should, yeah yeah, it doesn't change your price.

Jason:

It just gives us a little, a little kickback on the on the membership side of things. But give it a try. I would say um, and we started what?

Speaker 4:

what you think?

Jeff:

you know Eric gave the you know gave his unbiased review well before you know the connection being made. So go back to that episode on you know, on Sanita, or you know straight no chaser review, yeah that is correct and that is the AI racing One of them.

Jason:

It was. It was literally like a month, two months ago maybe. I want to say so that's exciting news, that's good support for the show and it it helps um, it helps keep the podcast alive and everything, and we're all excited to go over to the expo. Uh, we're in may. I don't know about you guys or what part of the world you're in, but May is technically summer. Summer has begun in Hawaii. Jeff could tell you it's been toast.

Jeff:

The whales are gone, the surf is down, that's it.

Jason:

North Shore is wide open. You can dive there, you can surf there, you do whatever.

Jeff:

You won't drown.

Jason:

I hope not. Please be safe out there regardless. Anywho, those are some of the announcements for this week. Really excited. A lot of exciting things happening too, um, especially with a particular brand called sim magic. But before we get into that, we actually had some rather unfortunate news. Right, I know I'm all over the place, but EA, wrc, which is dear to my heart, even though they're EA and you already know how I feel about EA and we also had their subjective anti-cheat being kernel level permissions on your computers. But I digress, you know, I kind of accepted, just accepted it and kept playing it.

Jason:

It seems that there's going to be a pause in development or a stop. I'm going to read this article for you. In a statement to players, the publisher said every great journey eventually finds its finish line, and today we announced that we've reached the end of the road working on WRC and confirmed it's recently released Hard Changes DLC will be its last. So hard chargers excuse me, for now we are pausing development plans on future rally titles. So not only is the game over, but it doesn't look like they are going to work on this or rally games in the future. They also saying to rest to, you know, to EAWC will continue to be available for existing and new players. I would hope so. Right, you guys put money towards and I would hope that you'll be able to race the game and use it, you know whatever.

Jason:

But just to give you some history with this WRC was a Codemasters game, I believe. If I'm not mistaken, it was Codemasters, or no, excuse me. Dirt 2 and Dirt series was a Codemaster, and then Codemaster partnered up with EA Games to create this new WRC game that they call EA WRC. So I'm hoping it's only on the EA side and Codemasters can either scoop it up or do something with it, because it's a great rally game and we'll keep you updated. This is what we know as of today. So if you guys know any updated news, you can leave those in the comments below. No worries, we'll make those changes accordingly. And that's just a little bit of the news tidbit from WRC. And then there's another sim. There's a new sim racing game out, which I'll hand this over to Eric. He's excited to to go over that one.

Erick:

Yeah, you know sim racing, the more competition we have, the more options, the better for us. That's just always great. This was interesting because it's PC, Xbox Series X and PS5. It's PC, xbox Series X and PS5. It's called Project Motor Racing. It's published by Giants Studio, developed by Straightforward Studios. Seems like it's going to be pretty interesting. They kind of seem to be covering the gamut as far as features and functionality. They have four class races that are possible. There's scanning tracks. Going to have 70 cars just seems like a, because it's gonna be an interesting game, um, especially with it being on pc and a console, especially with the multi-class stuff. I don't know of another game on console that'll let you do that, so that'll be be interesting. It's not out yet. I think supposed to come out um later this year. So keep an eye on that, of course you. You got Evo in the back.

Jason:

Oh, that's the sleeping giant is what I'm calling AC Evo. It's been really quiet with them, but when you jump in every time I've jumped in it's just good, it's smooth, the graphics look good, the driving's good, good. So that's the sleeping monster that's waiting to, just waiting to happen very soon.

Erick:

Yeah, I think it's an open wheel right. Oh yeah, open wheel for real sorry, back to you, have the open wheel.

Jason:

No, you're, you're right though, bring the damn, bring it over now. This, this new, this new sim racing game that Eric's talking about. The only concern I have with what do you call this cross-platform is I hope they find a way to separate the ones that are using a controller, because they could be dangerous on track.

Erick:

Yes, Even on console they're dangerous yeah.

Jason:

I don't know, gt. That's a good question for you, eric. Does gt7?

Erick:

no, okay, he's shaking his head you can tell who's using the controller oh no, you can tell when the tire goes like this they're kind of he's flicking the stick. Yeah, like flicking the stick, or you know they got the gyro thing, but the window is so small that you're having to kind of always make small adjustments so you can tell who's on a stick.

Jason:

But if you did that on iRacing and you flicked the stick, the car is just going to go. Oh dead, dead.

Erick:

Yeah, I was looking and I wasn't sure about cross-play because I don't know there's a lot Like racing against a guy in a full rig. I guess you can kind of do that on GT7, but I don't know That'd be intimidating racing against PC guys on a console.

Jason:

Well, at least in GT7, people are using pedals, most of them. Serious people are in pedals and steering wheel.

Erick:

Some of the fastest guys are on controller, though, which?

Jeff:

is mind-blowing Wild.

Erick:

So the interesting thing is the reason why I'm excited about that game. The new one is, they mentioned it's on console so we have to cater to controller, but it is designed for wheel and pedals.

Jason:

Okay, where.

Erick:

GT7 is designed for controller for the most part.

Jason:

I would say it's equal right, because they had a partnership with Fanatec and they had their own GT wheel. I think they're equally biased with it. That didn't make sense, but you know what I mean. Their focus is on both. Like hey, if you want to use a steering wheel, it's optimized. Because I think support was day one for that Fanatec setup on GT7. When it came out, they even had their own wheelbase for the design for that game, which is huge, right, rob?

Erick:

Markman Jr. Actually, they had two.

Jason:

Rob Markman Jr. Oh, they had two right, rob Markman.

Erick:

Jr. Yeah, that Diddy Extreme bundle they came out with the 15 Newton meter one they got a new GT wheel that goes with that.

Jason:

Rob Markman Jr. Oh snap, gt wheel that goes with that. Rob Markman oh snap. Okay, that's crazy. Well, at least they have. Yeah, I mean, it's an option. It's an option which is kind of cool and the VR experience is great. But yeah, I guess that's a little bit of news for this week, and then we have some more news, which is the the bigger news, and I'll hand this over back to eric to cover one of his favorite, um, or should I say his favorite, uh, one of his favorite brands on in the community. He got a smile on his face and everything.

Erick:

Yeah. So I don't know if you've heard, but SimMagic has come out with a couple of new products. They've been peppering us up until this big release here, right.

Jason:

Teasing.

Erick:

Yeah, teasing. And so they finally dropped their new line of wheelbases. They're the Alpha Evo line, name it aside, which I think might be a little confusing going forward, I'm gonna share my screen or kind of like a breakout of the new products, and then we'll kind of go over how they compare to the current lineup here. So here we go, and so, as you can see, here they've got three wheels. Get this out the way I'll shop later.

Jason:

Eric, what are you doing, bro? You got this stuff in your cart, bro. What's up?

Erick:

I got a system. It keeps popping up it's like hey man buy me. I gotta make sure their checkout process works.

Jason:

I don't think you can get rid of that, bro, anytime you scroll down.

Jeff:

Yes. That just makes me frustrated and not want to buy from them Damn. I have some magic, so it's hard to complain.

Erick:

Yeah, I hate that. I guess they got to get their money in some kind of way. But yeah, so these are the three wheelbases. They obviously have the Sport, they have the Evo and they have the Evo Pro and the biggest differences are really going to be in the power output and the Evo Sport and Evo they're very similar even in the weights. If you look at that, they weigh the exact same thing as far as power strength 9 newton meters on the Sport and 12 newton meters on the Evo.

Erick:

But as far as technology, they are all supporting this new 21-bit encoder. The previous Alpha line was an 18-bit encoder, so you're getting some more fidelity there. They mentioned a new processor. They also mentioned support for a cool new QR that'll give you wireless essentially wireless mag link so you won't have to run the cable in the future. But that's still I think they said it's still kind of in testing.

Erick:

Then you have the big boy right here which weighs a little bit more and also has 18 nanometers of force. But everything else is pretty much the same Same 21-bit encoder, same processor, same response rate and the other. We'll go up to the top of the site here kind of go over some of the other features they've got. They put a lot of time on this website, so they are very proud of the zero clogging tech which I wanted to get y'all's opinion on. I never noticed because I don't have anything to compare it to, but apparently a test of clogging is when the base is powered off and you turn the spindle, how notchy it feels when there's no power to it, right, apparently, jason, you probably can attest to this the.

Jason:

Simucube bass is perfectly smooth the Simucube does I mean? I've never felt cogging on that thing, but when I had a Fanatec DD2, I did, and what it is, it's like a notch. It feels like a notch. You turn the wheel and it stops here, and then you turn it again and it stops there. Rob Markman, it's the magnets. Yeah, rob Markman. Yeah, it's almost like a ball bearing, like a ball bearing where it's going around and it stops at each one, kind of like a gear, but you can't hear it. It didn't really. Even with the Phantatech I didn't have a problem with cogging. That's so meticulous, like very, very meticulous with that.

Erick:

So I will put this in the hype category. Then, as far as the features, I like to do this on my tech reviews, rob Markman.

Jason:

Well, I would expect them to have a zero-cocking tech in 2025. That's 100%. The Fanatec DD2 is years old, pre-covid old, you know what I mean, and I think, if I'm not mistaken, but Fanatec was the first direct drive base to ever exist, at least commercially, for us, at least in the United States. I mean just correct me if I'm wrong.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Jason:

So that one I'll put that in the hype category, right okay, something that if, unless somebody told you, essentially, you would never notice you yeah, why are you spinning the wheel with the thing, with the, with the base off? What are you doing?

Erick:

it's not a toy yeah of course, I had to watch a couple videos and that was they're like. You know, I don't feel the caulking is better than the alpha and it's like I would never buy a wheelbase based on how it worked, with no power, that's.

Jeff:

Right, those are true words Now. So the.

Jason:

You remember when the DD came out, the CSL DD, yep, so the CSL DD was the first Fanatec base to not have the cogging and you did notice a smoother action on it when it was on and everything.

Jeff:

Oh, okay, but you're comparing it from a Fanatec that had that heavy cog where you can.

Jason:

That came out like seven years ago.

Erick:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jason:

Ancient, ancient, ancient history. So moving on.

Erick:

All right, yeah, so a couple of the changes they made. Obviously you can see they incorporated a little LED ring around the front of the base and also a while back they mentioned their plus up kind of magnetic swappable ecosystem, and this is the first base to natively support that. I think they'll have a picture of it here somewhere.

Jeff:

Eric, I wish that I could turn my green light off.

Erick:

Oh, so Phantasex I mean not Phantasex SimMagic apparently has heard your cries and was like you want to turn off that little small LED. Yeah, we'll give you an entire ring of LED, I know right, but you can control them, right, you can?

Jason:

There's also turn them off.

Jeff:

Electrical tape. Electrical tape. Yeah, we got options out here, and it's still bright as shit, it's blue. Oh my god. Like I wish I could get an LED on my wheel that bright, oh yeah, so they give you a whole, even when it's off.

Speaker 4:

So, we're just Spin the wheel and turn it into something. Since we mentioned, that I'm sorry.

Jason:

Go ahead, eric, my bad.

Erick:

Oh no, I was just saying, even when it's off, you turn the wheel and it's lighting up still.

Jason:

We don't need a freaking LED inside. We don't need it there.

Jeff:

I don't ever remember getting a Porsche and seeing that around the wheel face.

Erick:

You didn't know that RGBs make you go faster, Jeff.

Jason:

Bro two tenths of a lap. So the active pedal has RGBs Is it controllable?

Jeff:

Yes, there you go you turn them off.

Erick:

Yeah, these are controllable as well. What a novel idea.

Jason:

But it's great to have right, because when you're you know the pedal's like down in there. If you want to troubleshoot it with an error code, then you turn the brightness up and you can see the status of the pedal. You know that way, yeah, but then, when you don't need that, when everything is okay I've never had a single issue with them you turn it all the way down and you forget about them. It's pure darkness down there.

Erick:

Now I will say I did see something interesting. Somebody was showing how, if you sync it up with your flags, the kind of effect you end up having is, once your wheel is on the base, you don't really see the ring, but just the color comes out behind your wheel, and so you can have a wheel, I guess, possibly where you don't have LEDs on or something like that, and you can see flag colors coming from those.

Jason:

It depends on the wheel, because if you got an Asher wheel like mine, it'll cover that entire ring wheel, because if you got an asher wheel like mine, it'll cover that entire ring. And then your hands are back here, but there's a thing called danny newman racing and he'll shine up the entire room.

Jeff:

Yeah, it's like a it's another like jason do you do you guys turn your bases off at night when you're done, right? Yes, you do. Okay. Yeah, I mean I try to remember, but-.

Jason:

Sometimes I forget yeah.

Jeff:

You know, yeah, I've left mine on, especially when I'm trucking.

Jason:

You know I've not been known to. Yeah, you already know what that means.

Erick:

That's code word, but I try to you know because that's fair, I've gotten in the habit of making sure I turn it off Since I rewired my rig and the power switch is a little bit more accessible now.

Jeff:

It just sucks. That's the only thing that I have. Now that's on its own switch. I can turn everything off with a press of my button on the stream deck. Now I got to press the button. I have it mounted, but it's just like the nice way to no, yeah, you're trying to make it one button press.

Jason:

That way it feels like like a car, you know, like yeah, all right yeah it just is yeah, I, I feel.

Jeff:

Anyways, that's neither here nor there.

Jason:

Sorry, eric, I digress go ahead yeah, man, but it's good to have a discussion like that just to see the different opinions.

Erick:

So that was actually one of the. Once we go down a little further, that's actually one of the changes. So apparently the new wheelbase has a power switch on the back of it, so you don't have to, you're not forced to, but it's on the back, it's on the back of it. I'm going to lose all my front teeth just by reaching out. Eric, why didn't?

Jeff:

you design it with it on the front. This is not a shot to send magic.

Jason:

We love you.

Jeff:

We love you, but we'll just switch somewhere easy.

Erick:

We'll just let you know next time you all design a wheelbase. You got your guys right here.

Jason:

Okay, there you go.

Erick:

You give me everything you need to know, because there's some other questionable decisions that have been made before you even get to the performance. And it continues it continues. One of those decisions is I don't know if you can see how they have this guy mounted right Like in this picture right here.

Jason:

Yes, I do not like that at all deal breaker no front mount capabilities. Huh, the thing is the flex that can flex really hard if you pull it down.

Erick:

So you you have front mount capabilities but they sell a separate bracket that goes here but it has the mounting points on up on the side of it.

Jeff:

It's a weird looking bracket, but yeah, but I want to buy, like I have, an apex, whatever it is.

Jason:

That's not compatible with that thing yeah, let me screw inside to the damn standard thing, that everybody's freaking. What is it? A die cast, what is it iron?

Jeff:

yeah yeah, that shit is solid bro, let me that's a deal breaker for me.

Erick:

Yeah, man, so that's another design decision. Yeah, and they're kind of catering to like well, we got the LED, we got the magnetic DDU that we want you to be able to attach to the front so we can't let you front mount normally. You need to be able to access this stuff.

Jeff:

But it costs like nothing to add that. Yeah, it was on the old one I have one on mine and I have a front mount on mine on. Uh, what do I have? What do we have, eric, I don't even remember the app the alpha, alpha, alpha, yeah alpha.

Jason:

Yeah, yeah, this is the new one, or is it? Yes, it's, I know it is what I mentioned.

Erick:

Yeah, that's what I mentioned before the, the naming. So if you have a, just so, is it worth it? Which is the question eric.

Jason:

Is it, is it worth? Is it worth it? I want to hear from you both, so you have so in my opinion.

Erick:

Um, I want to ask you about the encoder, because to me, that's really the only, the the most noticeable improvement, possibly, okay, the difference between an 18-bit encoder and a 21-bit encoder. In my research 21-bit encoders I can't remember if they said the semi-cubes they have like a 21-bit or higher-bit encoder, which just gives you significantly more information to the wheel that it can process per revolution. So everybody was kind of raving about the force, feedback, detail, how you felt so much more detail, felt more the road.

Jason:

To new product, though, is what I'll say yeah, yeah, it's new technology.

Erick:

Honeymoon phase.

Jason:

I don't know.

Erick:

I don't know if that's expected, and so for me, know if that's expected, and and so for me. That kind of perks my ears up because I go between two platforms where there's a significant difference in the same wheelbase, like when I go from gt7 to iRacing. Like I can feel the road in iRacing and gt7, if I'm on a straight it's pretty numb, no matter what you do, the sim is just not giving you that information. It's not a capability issue, but I think the overall effect is the same, where in iRacing I feel everything in the car, even though I'm still using the same wheelbase.

Erick:

The forces aren't higher, it's just more information. And so, in my mind, going from 18 bit to 21 bit, if I have a sim that supports that, then I will get that much more information, that much more detail but how much more right compared to 18.

Jeff:

Eric, how much is the 18 Newton meter? I think it was at 18? You got prices somewhere, because that's going to dictate a lot of this, right. I mean, everybody's choices come down to money eventually.

Jason:

But wait before we do that, jeff.

Jeff:

what do you? I guess you want to look at the price before you say your Because honestly, I'm Like for me, so I got prices. I was All right, bring the prices up, and then I'll go on my rant On the rant.

Speaker 4:

I guess I'll go one-on-one.

Erick:

So the I guess the Evo Sport, which is their new nine-newton-meter wheelbase, is 400 volts.

Jason:

He said nine-millimeter.

Erick:

Bro, the old who we out to get, the old who we have to get hey man, hey it might. Might be, uh, you know, might be some magic, depending on the way they act. No, no questionable we're kidding. We're kidding but uh, but um but. So the old Mini, which was 10 newton meters, is currently on sale for $400. Originally it was $540.

Jeff:

How does it go on? Sale when it just comes out.

Speaker 4:

No, no, no, the old one, oh the.

Jeff:

Alpha All right, you're not talking about, you're talking about the Alpha Evo or the the Mini's on sale. Oh, the Mini I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Erick:

Yeah, the Mini. So comparing the price to the, you know they got the 3 in their lineup. Yeah, they're the same price For the Alpha, basically the mid-range one, the old Alpha and the new Alpha Evo, which I say the naming convention is kind of confusing. The old Alpha right now is $650. It used to be $770, but it's on sale for $650. The new Alpha Evo mid-tier is $550.

Jeff:

So, $550. So $200 or $100 cheaper.

Erick:

Yep and the top of the line. The old top of the line used to be $1,000. It's on sale for $900. The new top of the line, alpha, to be a thousand. It's on sale for 900. The new top of the line, alpha evo pro, is 700, and so at a certain point, so 700?

Jason:

how much is the mount to front mount it?

Erick:

uh, that's a good question.

Jeff:

Let's see if they have that on here accessories maybe yeah, if you got a picture, it would be great too, because that's like yeah, do we have like a graphic? Let me see if I oh there, it is right there. Yeah, 50 bucks. I don't see how it still mounts it, though. Right, there was no drill or taps no, it goes on the side.

Erick:

You, you, yeah, you mount it to the side and then it kind of wraps around the front of it. What are those?

Jeff:

mounts on the front though.

Jason:

They don't even have a picture of what it.

Jeff:

Of it mounted. See what do those four screws go into? Yeah, it's.

Erick:

On the front. So these are actual. So these are actual bolts.

Jeff:

No, no, no, the ones that are facing the driver.

Jason:

Those four, eric you see them?

Jeff:

Oh, the holes there yeah. That's where you front mount it.

Jason:

Front mount it.

Jeff:

I didn't see any front mounts on the actual direct drive unit.

Jason:

No, that's what this is, though, you hook this up to the side of the motor and now you have a mounting point. Oh, okay, yeah, because it goes in front, which would block part of the LED. It kind of make the LED irrelevant at that point.

Jeff:

Oh, then sign me up. I'm all for that one.

Erick:

Well, so the way it's shaped, it actually the LED still-.

Jason:

It comes through, it goes through.

Erick:

Yeah, because it's round. But why is it so?

Jason:

important to have a freaking LED come through. Nobody wants this LED, please. Comments. Shout out.

Jeff:

Yeah, let us know.

Jason:

Do you want LEDs on your freaking?

Jeff:

wheelbase, Because sometimes LEDs are cool, but on this one give me the option to turn it off.

Erick:

Yeah, I think they'll let you do that because you have full control over it Of the LED.

Jeff:

Yeah, but I would just like the option.

Speaker 4:

Can I make the LED black?

Erick:

Off the led? Yeah, but I would just like option, can I make it also so off? Yeah, off off, or just I'll put black or dim it down or something like that.

Jeff:

So you're gonna be able to like mount a face plate, if you will, onto that. Yeah, is that the diameter of? You? Know, like jason, you and I have the same mounting plate. You know that front plate that's got a starter switch. It should, because it's universal.

Jason:

The mounting point comes at an angle like an X, like that, so that way you can use multiple motors. It's not just for because we have the same mount and semi-cube and it's a standard right or whatever it is. Yeah, okay, yeah, hopefully, or you could have just put it's a standard right or whatever. It is Okay, yeah, hopefully. Or you could have just put Don't crucify us if it isn't, we don't know about this thing, or you could have just put taps into the freaking motor mount, so Magic might have a whole different measuring.

Jason:

I don't know. I don't know.

Erick:

Yeah, we'll see.

Jason:

There'll be some pain for somebody to Imperial and Honestly, I'm pretty sure they got it figured out, because your bases are front-mounted right now, right, so yeah.

Erick:

Yeah, but yeah.

Jason:

I mean you don't, it's a preference thing, Eric Right.

Jeff:

And that you took the words out of my mouth. Right, that's something that you and I like.

Jason:

Yeah, that's not necessarily the way, or?

Jeff:

the right way. A lot of people with bigger than 32-inch screens with their own triples put the DDU in front of the screens right, so they don't care.

Jason:

Exactly.

Erick:

I plan on front mounting and kind of tucking it behind my screen. Okay, that's why, for me, this bass is kind of eh, we're talking about basses behind my screen. Okay, that's why for me, this bass is kind of eh.

Jason:

We're talking about basses and we like the front mount. Yeah, but I might be switching allegiance to the regular mount because I want to use the SimCore one that grabs the wheelbase by the side, and then that SimCore one allows you to take the motor and just go up and down and have like a cant to it. Right, Like built in. Because when we go to this expo and we try out motion simulators, it's going to get really serious.

Speaker 4:

You took the words out of my mouth.

Jason:

So I'm already doing the research about mounts and what do I need to do? And I have a measuring tape and I'm looking at this. It's going to get very, very. It's going to be colorful, that sim racing expo. It's going to be colorful.

Jeff:

There's a couple of companies that I hope don't show, just so I don't get tempted.

Jason:

Oh, they keep adding people, I know I keep seeing that. Since we did the episode, they've added like maybe six partners and guest speakers and stuff like that.

Jeff:

Yeah, I'm like, oh, it's getting out of control.

Jason:

It's going to be crazy. It's kind of cool it's kind of cool.

Erick:

Yeah, yeah, yep, but uh, but the last part, that, um, one of the changes sorry, definitely is the io on here. So this is the back of the wheel bases. They still have their standard, you know, power plug. They have a type c port in the back. They have some usb a's in the back, usb b, which you don't see a lot of very secure though USB D's yeah so is that like a power?

Jason:

hub.

Erick:

Almost it is a hub that's pretty rad, still kind of up in the air, so we don't know if these are going to be future accessories or what. But the wheelbase does have pass through USB. So to my understanding, but the wheel base does have pass-through USB, so to my understanding, you can have something plugged into the wheel base for your wheel and it's plugged into the base. The base is like a hub almost.

Jason:

Well, it makes sense right, Because the wheel has its own power supply. So that means that the power is not coming from the computer.

Jeff:

That's a good point.

Jason:

So you can theoretically plug a high powered wheel into that steering wheel, into the base. The only question I would have is do the USBs stay hot when you turn off the motor? Because if they do, that's a deal breaker. If they don't, that's awesome, because you can plug in a steering wheel like Jeff's Soul Peck, and it has a screen on it, big old screen and lights. And instead of having to create another, does your wheel have a power switch? Uh, jeff, I know. Uh, I put one on it, okay, yeah, so that's what I mean.

Jeff:

Imagine plugging that behind the wheel base I don't need it, but I have it when you're done racing. Oh yes, I, I gave you that, I think yeah, I got a couple of certain things that I have yeah which you can.

Jason:

You can solve, you know, with a $5 adapter. But we're talking about just the little conveniences right To make it seem like it's worth the price. And I just want to know if you could turn that wheel off, if it will cut the power to the wheel, because if it would, that would be a winner. That would be awesome, because then you can have a DDU. You can have your DDU and your steering wheel on one single, basically on a separate line of power, which is these things have a big power supply. I'm pretty sure they can handle that power output.

Erick:

Definitely. Oh yeah yeah, the power supplies are huge and I would. That's a good question, because on ours it's a hard power cutoff, right, the power switch is in line with the power cable before you get to the base, so you flip that switch on the Alpha. It's killing power to the base. They have a yeah, they mentioned like an emergency stop or something.

Jason:

Yeah.

Erick:

That it comes with. I don't know if that's built in or in line with the power or what, but I think that if you are flipping that on and off, then you're killing power to the base 100%.

Jeff:

So I can speak I don't think anybody recommends doing that though.

Jason:

I can speak for Sim-.

Jeff:

Unless you have to.

Jason:

I can speak for Simicube and Fanatec. Those were the two bases that had that accessory. It's really nice because you can mount it in a different part of the rig and that's your power button so you can move it around. And sometimes back in the early days of sim racing, you know these sims weren't really optimized for direct drives having that much power. So if the wheel starts acting funny and going crazy and breaking all your screens and smacking your face with the wheels shaking and you can't stop it, you can't If the switch is behind the motor, I'm going to get smacked dead in the face with that motor. It's going to hit me right in the forehead. So the emergency stop you're supposed to be able to touch it and it cuts the feedback, though not the power, I believe. Oh, okay, oh, I didn't know that. I believe Semi-Q cuts the feedback but the bass stays on and whenever you turn the dial to reset the button, the bass resets the force feedback on the fly, so you don't have to go and turn it back.

Jason:

On the Fanatec. I believe if you hit that power it's acting like a power switch. But if you press it back in it'll bring power back. It's kind of like, but that's ancient, right, the Fanatec one I'm talking about, like the newer style ones. So you know what I do, guys. If you guys want to know a nice optimal place to put that thing, nice optimal place to put that thing, so in your rig you're sitting down and I use my right knee right, my right right leg is my gas right, like all of us. So I have it on just right next to my knee. So if I, if I want to smack it with my knee, I can just swing my knee open and hit it instead of trying to find it and press the button. So if I have something crazy happen, I can just go like that and kind of kick it with my knee and hit it, and yeah. So just an idea, you can do what you want.

Erick:

I like that as a recent sufferer of a sim racing injury.

Jason:

Where we haven't heard about this injury. What happened, bro? Let's finish up this research we're doing on sim magic. Yeah, so we'll hear about that injury.

Erick:

I found one other. This is the last. Last you know new thing. Uh, they added a new filter algorithm and you actually have a setting in the SimPro software to adjust this filter. Some people have kind of said it's similar to the. What's the new? True Force? I can't think of the new.

Erick:

Yeah, like True Force, full Force, like that type of technology where it gives you like enhanced force feedback. Like that type of technology where it gives you like enhanced, uh, force feedback. Yeah, um, they say it feels it, it feels significantly better with it on, just like the force feedback. Yeah, with it on, um, they say you can feel like all the pebbles in the road, like it. It kind of elevates the quality of the force feedback. Um, they are kind of complaining about the actual strength which obviously these wheels at the different levels are weaker than the previous generation of Alfa wheels. Right, there are some people that, specifically with the Pro, the Sport, which is the entry-level wheel, it having nine newton meters, some people are saying I don't know if that's, I don't know if they're even saying nine holding, they're thinking they're saying nine peak, which means that you're getting even less than that, which means you hit, nine, you clip basically, yeah, there's still some questions around that, but as these wheels basically hit more people, we'll get more feedback on them.

Erick:

But yeah, that's the new lineup from SimMagic. I'm holding what I got.

Jeff:

Honestly you know 100%.

Jason:

Yeah, I've heard this about Invicta wheels. They're saying Invicta is a great wheel and it's a great base and everything. And just the other day we were talking about that and I was like, yeah, I guess, but how much better is it really right? And then this other gentleman joined the stream and we were talking and he's like you should use the Marvin app. Remember, I mentioned that last episode and I did that on a live stream with him and it just completely killed my wheel. I couldn't feel anything. I was like what the hell.

Jason:

So I say this If you have a 15 plus Newton like you guys, or even 12 Newton, you're good. You don't really have to run out and get this stuff honestly. That's why we got the expo. You go to the expo, you try these things out, you put your hands on it, then you can be the judge of it. Right, like motion, like motion, like motion.

Erick:

So we were all meant to move around. I like where you're going with that Motion is healthy.

Jason:

Want to have a live coach available on demand. With Trophy AI, you'll be able to practice with Manso AI at your convenience A real-time coach in your headphones to navigate and guide you through the track, helping you achieve race pace. This tool is awesome as it provides full brake throttle and steering telemetry on screen, with a live review getting you ready for your next big race. Check links to trophy ai in the description and also use chicane 12 in all caps for a 12% discount. Tell me about this injury, though, before we move on.

Erick:

Oh yeah, so the injury isn't new. My realization that it's because of my rig is new. Basically, whenever I lift my arm like above, kind of like shoulder height, I have just like a pain in my shoulder and I realized, the way that I was driving, like whenever I would turn to the right, that that's when it would start hurting. Oh, and so now I'm looking at like my seating position, my wheel position. That's why I was saying I'm thinking about going to the front mount, I see, and what you were saying about-.

Jason:

To give you that option angle to wheel up.

Erick:

Yeah, so yeah, if you aren't set up properly, you can hurt yourself. That's a real thing.

Jeff:

You're in my thoughts and prayers as you're going through this tough time through sim racing. Yes, same, yeah, I'll bless you. You're gonna have a moment of silence on the show. I appreciate it.

Jason:

We'll break it, we just broke it. But, dude, I'm telling you-.

Jeff:

Work through it, buddy.

Jason:

Five years in the sim racing for your boy and just two weeks ago I was making adjustments to my seat to find the right. It's really hard to find that right thing, dude, but having the hardware to help you do it, it's a good step in the right direction. If you can hold off to September, because if I decide to buy a motion I might donate something to you for the front mount. Just saying.

Erick:

Rob Markman. Hey, so I got a little bit of adjustability on mine, so I'm gonna max that out and see and check it out why would you have to go to a different?

Jeff:

get rid of the front mount if you want motion because if you want your, if you want to mount your rig, let's say with motion screens get close right to to the, to the shaft of the ddd or the dd, excuse me right, but I don't want anything in the way.

Jason:

I just want that one single motor and a line of profile so that I can mount stuff, so they can go in front of the screen with a, with a, with a front mount. Our style now is to put the monitor as low as possible to create this Seamless. This dash looking thing Like the road is here but then you have a dash just behind it like that you know what I'm trying to say Like an overlap, but with motion. If you're going to put the motor in front of the screen now, you have this big metal piece going like that in front of it.

Jeff:

I see you see what I'm saying, the minimal amount of stuff in front of the screen.

Jason:

Don't ruin the immersion, gotcha. Just the steering wheel. Makes sense and that's all in front of you and then you can add your dashes and stuff to go and populate, but no big giant piece of metal going like that. That's kind of what we did for now. Right, that's what we did, for no Motion and to have a stable platform, plebs and common folk with no Motion. I almost feel bad, because I'm the one that kind of motivated you to get the front mount.

Jeff:

Dude, I love no, no, no, no, no, no. I was going there the whole time. I even Dude. I asked her right. No, that's all me, I love it. I wouldn't go back even if I had the choice, except for motion. I think it looks. It's freaking awesome, except for motion. We're going to have to make some changes, so we're going to have some front mounts. I hope motion's terrible.

Jason:

On the TGSR store. We'll put them up for sale. Oh, you hope he hate it bro I hope I I hate it. Hey, that would be the best thing because I can stop worrying about that too. I know I want to be there to record his reaction.

Erick:

We're going to record each other's reactions. Oh yeah, for sure, for sure, yeah, that's going to be great, that's going to be-.

Jason:

The clock is ticking, jeff, I hope man.

Jeff:

I'm going to have to make a few phone calls, man with some banks to see what I can do, like, hey, bring a brand new credit card.

Jason:

Put something on this man. Come on, they gave it to me. Well, I guess you know eric. Um, you know, daniel morehead had a nice video. Uh, shout out to daniel morehead.

Jason:

Pro gt, gt3 pushing out some good content lately. Yes, he's been active and yes, sir, he did a video about ergonomics and I recommend everybody view that, because I can't pretend to give you the right answer right now because there's so many different configs, but I guess you can hear it from a real-life driver on how you should be positioned and that's what helped me with the seat. To be honest, to be fair, and ever since I made that change, uh, breakings, um, my break-ins improved because I'm not moving no more. Before I was doing a little bit of this. Now it's just a steady, just like, just pressure essentially. But yeah, I'll leave a link in the description Shout out to Daniel Moore and the GOAT.

Jeff:

Daytona 24s. Two times Double row. Next up, he is One for each wrist. There you go.

Jason:

Yes, sir, alrighty, over to Jeff for his topic of the week.

Jeff:

Gentlemen, we have been hot and heavy with the 3D printing as of late. I think everybody would agree we have communitively the whole 3D Bamboo Lab covered. So, with that said, I found a page on YouTube. This gentleman you guys that I'm sharing here, that you can see now shout out Third Wheel Exclusive. This gentleman claims Wait.

Jason:

Third Wheel. That just don't sound right.

Jeff:

Yeah, we're just going to let that one, jason, we're just going to let that one go, okay.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Jeff:

All right, don't let that one go, okay, yeah, so all right. So this dude, um, has been claimed he's been 3d printing for 30 days and I'm going to show you this is like I. I say that tongue-in-cheek because, like, what he's about to show you is incredibly impressive for a 3d printing for 30 days. It makes me look like you know elementary school dude with a 3d printer, but anyways, so this is his. He's got, you know, a pretty decent YouTube channel, um, if you haven't seen him, check him out. He pushes out some really cool stuff, but, uh, he talks about what he's about to do.

Speaker 4:

And I'm going to skip around.

Jeff:

I'm going to skip around here because I really want to show some certain points. Um, in here we're going to talk about I'm gonna let it play and we're going to talk about I'm gonna let it play and we're going to talk about it real quick. So this portion here is his design in some cad software. I am not a cad software pro. I got my kid on like tinker cad and he's crushing. He's up there every night with, uh, tinker cad tinker cad is kind of cool man.

Jeff:

That's dude, he loves it. We're like this weekend. He's like no, I'm ready to print, dad, so we're gonna try to do that that's impressive.

Jason:

Yeah, no, I'm ready to print, dad, so we're going to try to print off TinkerCad. Dude, I've used TinkerCad. That's impressive.

Jeff:

Oh dude, it's impressive. That's for another day altogether. So this dude designed this thing. I'm going to let it play it's on my streaming computers.

Speaker 4:

I don't know how long that's going to hold up to me zooming out too much, but you can kind of get the idea.

Jeff:

So what you're looking at is the I don't know I've never been inside one but a Porsche cup car dash. He designed it by, like looking at pictures on the internet. You know, probably had some measurements here or there, but he designed this by himself in this CAD software and you can, if you look closely, you can kind of see the breaks in where it is. So it prints in certain pieces and I'm going to jump ahead here to the next one. Next one here is so this is his first go to Buttonbox and he gives a couple different goes.

Speaker 4:

I've had it on the range for quite a while.

Jeff:

If you guys have seen the videos from before, you'll this is pretty damn good for a first go at a button box. It's way better than I could produce. So, he's got a couple of different. I'm just going to skip through here to show his some of his progression from button boxes that he's going to put you know, obviously in the in the center console ish area.

Speaker 4:

This is what an actual Porsche 991 button box looks like. To some degree it's got a little bit different button layout. I took a few liberties of changing some things up. I wanted to get some leds on a few of the buttons. I've got led rings in some of them yeah, I mean first go to button box yeah, that's pretty solid, pretty damn solid, bro.

Jeff:

That looks like it came out of a store yeah, I mean, there's people that pay a couple hundred bucks for that thing off ety or wherever right, yeah, so I'm going to jump ahead here so you can see as he's putting together the dash. So shout out. This is something I do. I wrap a lot. Jason knows I wrap a lot of things in carbon fiber for my rig.

Jason:

Hell yeah, he does. You do a good job too.

Jeff:

Thank you. This is him piecing together the dash.

Speaker 4:

Together to some degree for me, like I started to understand some things in printing and it just started to click a little bit to where I could start to get something that looked more realistic. One of the tricks of printing this has been with anything on the dash thing bracket.

Jeff:

So this is the backside of it. You can see how he connects the pieces.

Speaker 4:

Basically, this was the max size I could do for the back plate on my print bed and I wanted I didn't want the seams in this back mound here or in the shroud to be in the same spot as these plates.

Jeff:

So basically, so obviously this dude did a lot of thinking before he, you know, went for final print. Um, oh yeah. But you know like you can see him starting to piece these things together and start building this out. So I'm gonna jump ahead here, as he's starting to piece this thing um into his rig and you can cart to see like he's got a wind sim that's integrated into it.

Speaker 4:

Um, that I've created to slide in right over here and to finish filling in the rest of the day I'm gonna skip through as he slowly pieces this thing together here started. So I'm not trying to find that it slips right over the hub connection, but it all clips in, just has a very snug, nice fit right over the wheel shaft and I was very fortunate that, like, even though I've had to make a few adjustments.

Jeff:

This guy should sell it perfect.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, because it can't really move much, because of that wheel shaft all right, so that locked in, really nice.

Jeff:

The wheel shaft or the shaft turns I mean, you look at it, you start to see the dash integrating with the screens and stuff, right it, it's just starting to come together here. I'll jump further ahead here. It looks cool man. So this is him putting in the center console over his Fanatec shifter.

Speaker 4:

Some decent alignment. The one thing I will say I'm fairly impressed with is it's actually pretty sturdy, not even bolting it in now one thing I do really like about this design.

Jeff:

So this dude spent a lot of time measuring and planning, right, because I mean this stuff takes a long time to produce. And I got one more of kind of him driving the car and you can kind of see the final, the final product here. So he's got an actual wheel that kind of fits along with what it's supposed to go with.

Speaker 4:

But uh, I'm just gonna let this go for a couple minutes. A lot of work to get to this point, a lot of trial and error and I have to say it looks pretty good overall. Um, I would say the net probably needs to be moved over. I do have plans, like I said, to get that where it needs to be Definitely a little thrown off Left side.

Jason:

This is. Vr no.

Jeff:

This is his rig. This is his rig Like no VR, no pass this is like GoPro or something right yeah, it's GoPro.

Speaker 4:

He's probably going to a gopro on his forehead or chest or something, kind of just cutting down right here on his forehead. I think that would really help a lot with that view.

Jeff:

Yeah, I mean. So you get the point right, um yeah here. I'll cancel this out. That's awesome, you know, and this is the second one that I've seen like this. The first one was the dude had I think it was a Huracan that he bought the plans for and printed, but this is the first one that the dude showed him piecing together. He did himself too. Like this dude did it from scratch, and I'm like, bro, like you could sell those plans and probably make some money.

Jason:

That's pretty cool Right.

Jeff:

The only downfall I see here is that you're kind of married to the cup car, yes, but if that's your thing, jason, how much other stuff are you driving lately?

Jason:

Lately Dude, just the BMW and the cup, but they're both carbon fiber interiors, so it'll make sense.

Erick:

Yeah, right, yeah, the second he drives something that's not a Porsche cup car. It's going to be real weird.

Jason:

Yeah.

Erick:

But when he's in it, he's in it.

Jason:

It looks the steering wheel.

Erick:

So I looked up their steering wheel. That's like a $1,500 steering wheel. Oh is it really yeah, Like leather Porsche. That ain't no rinky-dink steering wheel.

Jeff:

Oh, I thought it was like a wrap you put on like a Fanatec or something. The opposite's on the spectrum.

Erick:

Hey, if he wrapped the wheel and made that, it'd look great, because it's a carbon copy of the actual Porsche wheel you can get. Is it really? They get cheap, yeah.

Jeff:

So I mean, this dude's been 3D printing for 30 days and he put that together. That's impressive by itself. Days and he put that together, that's impressive by itself. And then like but then like the immersion factor of driving this thing, it, I'm gonna give credit where credit's due.

Jeff:

I think that's hell yeah right, that's what this is all about is, you know you got something and you just try to make it better, make it better, make it better. And you know the dude taught himself probably a shit ton about cad software and 3D printing. And you know like dude shout out, you know, third wheel, exclusive or whatever he is Like, sell that stuff, dude. You could probably make a pretty good. At least recoup some of the money for the 3D printer.

Erick:

Yeah, at a minimum he could just sell the plans. Yeah, just the plans, just the plans, yeah, yeah.

Jeff:

And you know, a weekend later you got a interior for a cup car or a p car you know.

Jason:

That's exciting, though, because it's it's like something that you just, you just don't believe it that you have the machine here and that's all you need is the machine, the filament so do you think that?

Jeff:

you know I we brought it up a little bit a while ago about the mixed reality, because obviously we like the immersion of the VR, but this kind of almost gets rid of that because you have it, there's no pass-through, like you're there, yeah Well, it's an option. Right, it's an option. It's just do you see more of this coming along where somebody puts a BMW together? You see this being in six, eight months? There's kind of like 10 models out there. Do you see more of this coming along where somebody puts a BMW together? You see this being in six, eight months?

Erick:

There's kind of like 10 models out there, so I could see it, but I think it's still going to be niche, mostly because, like I said, as long as you're driving that specific Porsche car, the immersion is amazing Right.

Jason:

Yeah.

Erick:

The second you try to drive anything else it's going to be weird, it's going to be wonky, sure.

Jason:

Yeah, it's going to and I noticed that on the corners it covered part of the screen. I couldn't help but notice that she was playing Iris in the loop. But I mean again, I've been racing the Porsche a lot and I've been racing a lot so much that I almost don't want to race the BMW no more. I want to race in the Porsche now and dedicate more time, because I barely have time to practice, and every time I'm done with a race I got three days to practice for the next and get used to holding another set of car. You know.

Erick:

Yeah.

Jason:

So, I think, jeffff, honestly, bro, go ahead. You um, I meant to text you, but that guy you were following, he finally posted the instructions you were looking for. Oh, I watched it, oh yeah oh, yeah, yeah I'm a little disappointed. Was it full of it? It was full of it. I told you it was the same thing. We gathered.

Jeff:

What we gathered here, jeff and I, it's funny, we did it on the same night too.

Jason:

We were trying to figure this out and I pushed Jeff a little bit. I was like, come on, man, you haven't figured this out yet. And then I said, watch, I'm going to do this.

Jeff:

I was like it's so not good that I was like this can't be how he did it.

Jason:

There's got to be a different way and sure you need to shine light, yeah, on top of a wheel, like external light, and then everything else has to be pitch black, bro, for you to, for that to be able to work, the problem is that my steering wheel has a screen, so now you're introducing glare on top of the screen.

Jeff:

It's just yeah, you're probably gonna turn down of the screen, it's just. Yeah, you're probably going to have to turn down some.

Jason:

We're not ready yet. We're not ready yet for that.

Jeff:

I was watching some flight sim dudes that have passed through and they use a program Kneeboard. Okay. So, like you know, normally in a pilot, you know a real pilot I say you know puts his you know Kneeboard notebook on there and he has, like you know, radio frequencies, call signs etc. And they put a pass through that you can look down to your leg, um, and I think there's a handful of guys out there that you and you can draw the pattern of your. So a lot of like the flight sim guys are very cockpit aircraft specific, you know. So they have different outlines and shapes that go through there. Yeah, that they're looking through and they can draw specific cockpits and put them in their files so as they switch from aircraft to aircraft in their flight sim they can go for a different pass-through oh, I want to get in there and try and draw mine.

Jeff:

You know it's a simple program that you.

Jason:

You bought flights in have you?

Jeff:

no, no, no, but I'm going to try Kneeboard. You should try Flight Sim. Bro, use Kneeboard and see if I can let it just pass through, you should try Flight Sim, bro.

Jason:

I think that's the next step for you.

Jeff:

Don't do it.

Jason:

Dude.

Jeff:

I want to. So bad I used to do it bro.

Jason:

I was on a commercial flight from Hawaii to Japan, and I went to Japan, of course.

Jeff:

And.

Jason:

I went to sleep and I left the freaking plane on autopilot flying and I went to bed in real life Over China.

Jeff:

It's cool, bro. The last thing I need is another rig over there next to it with an.

Jason:

F-16. No, no, no, you don't need another rig.

Jeff:

No, you do yeah because you can't do both. You can't do both.

Jason:

You can emulate your clutch pedal and your gas pedal. Turn those into rudders. Bro, where's your stick? Your stick?

Erick:

bro Okay. Yeah, you can buy that new little deal where you can use the one, you can buy the ones that come out like this you got that new. What was it? The active shifter? Oh yeah, the.

Jason:

Moza thing Moza yeah.

Erick:

Yeah, you got the all-in-one deal. Man, Go from H-pattern to sequential to flight stick.

Jeff:

That's it bro, I don't know man. I think. Vr is the way to go for that. But the moment you do a roll, you're either going to get sick because you're not rolling, bro, you're not flying an F-16, bro.

Jason:

That's the only reason I do flight stick. It's a commercial plane. It team, bro.

Jeff:

That's what that's the only reason it's a commercial plane. It's not gonna roll like that shit. No, I'm doing, you're gonna snap the wings.

Jason:

He's like you. Better be damn, I'm getting. Uh, he's like this and the plane is like abort, pull again.

Jeff:

No, it's free, they said. They said that they were. Uh, I think uh they're at this. They're gonna have some flight sims right they're gonna have. I don't want no cessna, I don't want to airbus 770, I want an f-16, a10, f-18, whatever bro hey you're talking about serious money.

Jason:

If you want to build one of those, you're gonna come back. I made up my mind.

Jeff:

There's some guys that have unbelievable setups in flight sims. Unbelievable setups.

Jason:

They have iPads, too, that talk to the Airbus and they use real life map data from Navigraph.

Jeff:

I had subscriptions, the sun sets on as their flight plans, they got like all the actual buttons and switches and they all work on the yeah.

Speaker 4:

Woo.

Jeff:

Yeah, there's YouTube on there.

Jason:

Oh yeah, we're going to be all over that, man, and this is another reason man, check out that Sim Gaming Expo man. Stop sleeping on it, chicane. 10. Get that 10% off, I'm telling you, and come hang out with the crew and it costs them. F125? F125? You don't need it, bro, you don't need it.

Jeff:

It looks just like 23, or 24. It looks like 23. Can?

Jason:

they please let go of F1 and not WRC, right, didn't I say that? Let go of freaking something, let go of the F1 title man, stop playing. Anyway, I guess they heard you.

Jeff:

We digress you weren't specific enough how we feel about.

Jason:

F1. But it's that time.

Jeff:

What time?

Jason:

It's that time of the week For Track of the Week, and I messed up my own segment. It's that time for Track of the Week. We're back with Track of the Week and today it is yours truly and I have chosen the Fuji Speedway is what I have next.

Erick:

Okay.

Jason:

Another favorite of mine. I've been wanting to cover this.

Jeff:

Let her rip Tater Chip.

Jason:

All right, gentlemen. So let me pull up the notes, Talk them onto yourselves while I get that Just real quick. It shouldn't be quick. It shouldn't be that. It'll be there in a second. I thought I had it up and I guess I didn't. Hey, man.

Erick:

It happens, man, You're getting older man.

Jeff:

Oh, wow You're wearing that McLaren shirt. If you put on a Mercedes shirt, it'd probably happen a lot faster.

Jason:

It's a Piastri on my back, so you know Piastri's a good dude.

Jeff:

It's hard to hate on the dude.

Jason:

He's just Yep, piastri is doing amazing things and I think he should be the number one driver.

Jeff:

He goes home and probably plays Minecraft or something.

Jason:

Probably.

Jeff:

Or Roblox.

Jason:

What is that Roblox?

Jeff:

Yeah, Everybody's all partying. Damn bro, he's out there like I just built the coolest farm.

Jason:

All right, is this in shot? I believe it is.

Erick:

Yes, sir.

Jason:

Let me bring up my notes and we will go over the Fuji Speedway, which looks like what does this look like to?

Jeff:

you, it looks like an AK.

Jason:

It looks like a Tommy gun, bro. I was about to say Like a.

Speaker 4:

Tommy gun.

Jason:

That's it, yeah, like a Tommy gun. Okay, all right, let's go back to what it looked like back in the whoa.

Erick:

What is this? Did you see this? What is this? It actually looked pretty cool.

Jason:

Okay, yeah, we're gonna have to read into what happened here, um, but let me get right into it guys. Track of the week. Fuji speedway here we go. Located near mount fuji in japan, has unique, has a unique and storied history that began in the early 1960s with ambitious plans to build a NASCAR-style oval. That's how it started Then they got smart yeah.

Jeff:

I shouldn't say that to our NASCAR listeners.

Jason:

It's all right, man, you be yourself, bro, straight, no chaser. Exactly Inspired by Daytona Speedway, the circuit was initially designed with two long straights. You guys have that up on screen right the two long straights. You guys have that up on screen right the two long straights. I count one, or maybe let me just continue reading, yeah, go ahead Two long straights connected by high bank corners.

Jason:

However yeah, I had to finish reading. After financial struggles and safety concerns, voiced notably by sterling moss, the oval plan was abandoned midway through construction. The circuit was completed as a high-speed road course and, although the nascar partnership was dropped, the speedway name remained. So that's so, that's how. That's why it's called fu Speedway, because it was supposed to be an oval track. Mitsubishi acquired the track in 1965, shortly after it opened. Despite the change in layout, fuji remained extremely fast and dangerous. The long main straight fed into a banked high right-hand turn with minimal safety features, leading to several severe crashes. Here we go again with the crashes. The circuit opened up officially in 1965, with racing beginning the following year. International interest grew quickly, with appearances from stars like Jimim clark, jackie stewart and bobby unser. Um, usac indycar and the can-am series visited the. In the late 60s, however, safety concerns mounted uh, culminating in the tragic 1974 crash, which is probably why the year after it changed right, we had a change here.

Erick:

Yeah.

Jason:

It was a tragic 1974 crash that killed two drivers. This led to the removal of the banking from active use, replaced by a safer layout with a new hairpin. So let's take a look at that. They basically just it happened here and they just cut it, just shorten it down, like they basically cut it off, I guess. Anywho, fuji gained international prominence in 1976 by hosting Japan's first, first formula one grand prix.

Jason:

so look at that, jeff, we used to race the og for japan's f1 yeah the race became legendary as james hunt secured a championship in dramatic conditions after nikki lauda with Jew. Due to heavy rain and poor visibility, however, tragedy struck again in 1977 on a crash involving Gillis Villanueva, resulted in the deaths of two trackside personnel. People on the trackside, damn. This ended Fuji's initial run as an F1 venue.

Jeff:

Oh man, Is this the one where they started. And that dude stalled it and the mechanic ran out there and got hit from behind.

Jason:

Yeah.

Jeff:

Yeah.

Jason:

Yeah, it was pretty bad too, he got hit.

Jeff:

There's video of it. It's like-.

Jason:

Man, there's warnings on that video too.

Jeff:

This is kind of there's like warnings on that video too.

Jason:

It should be. It's terrible. So then it says throughout the 80s and 1990s, fuji remained focused on national events, with occasional international races such as World Endurance Championship. Safety improvements were made over the years, including the addition of multiple chicanes, updated barriers and gravel traps. However, incidents continue to occur, most notably in 1998. So let's go and skip to 98, which is this layout. So I guess let me just go do a rundown here and make sure Something crazy happens. Little minor changes right here. You see this. Right here, this little corner kind of kind of tighten it up yeah, a little chicane, a couple chicanes in the right here.

Jeff:

Yeah, yeah, that'll happen. Yeah, I got a question for you gentlemen. What's that? See where how it says 100r and 300r. Yeah, I think, think the other track in Japan's I can't think of it right now Suzuka, suzuka has a turn in there, something R2. What is? Do you know what that was? Whatever number, and the R means.

Jason:

So that is a good, is it, hey? Comments below Email the Chicane Podcast if you know the answer to this.

Jeff:

I wonder if it's the same thing to do with the R that's after the curve monitors. Yeah, I think it is.

Erick:

Maybe I think the smaller the number, the tighter the turn.

Jason:

We'll come back to this and update you on that, because I honestly don't know, bro know, bro, um, so anyway, there was a, there was a good, good, uh, good note there, jeff um, because there is a 300r, I believe, in suzuka, which is that long, you know, that long band, high speed, yeah, yeah. So this incident that occurred in 98 uh, when driver tetsuya ota suffered severe burns in a fiery crash, exposing serious shortcomings in emergency responsive marshalling, and then in the year 2000, which we'll go over to 2000 now, which is the same, that's the layout 98-2000, toyota brought the circuit and initiated a major overhaul, hiring designer Herman Tauch I probably butchered that to redesign the track to modern Formula One standards. The newly updated facility reopened in 2005. Is that still accurate here? It is so. That's to date, when it opened up. It is so, that's to date, when it opened up. So the newly uh where was I? 2005 would improve infrastructure and reprofiled layout, retaining much of its original course but removing the dangerous final corner.

Jason:

F1 returned in 2007 and 2008, but heavy rain, poor crowd logistics and controversy over Toyota's handling of the event led to a fan backlash after alternating with Suzuka in 2009. So that's how they used to do it. They used to do. I guess they alternated it when in 07 there were an F1 and then 09 they did a Suzuka In 2009, they did Suzuka. The global recession prompted Toyota to exit F1, and the Grand Prix did not return to Fuji.

Jason:

Since then, fuji Speedway has returned to hosting primarily national-level events. It remained a key stop for the World Endurance Championship, though even that has been plagued by the region's unpredictable weather. I mean, it makes sense. This is this is a track at fuji. There's a lot of rain up there. I mean, it's bad weather up there all the time, such as 2013 race, which was red flagged after only 16 laps on their safety car. Uniquely among major circuits, fuji embraces drifting Hell yeah, hosting the one Grand Prix events and offering dedicated drift and short tracks for public and amateur use. It also hosts major fan festivals, including nismo and toyota motorsport festivals, and remains accessible to the public for track days that's cool yeah, so they're trying to use it.

Jason:

You know what I mean. Fuji story is, uh, you know it's crazy how technically this track should have been an oval and now then it should have been part of the f1 calendar, but it's just had bad luck ever since, you know, ever since they opened it.

Jason:

So yeah it's still owned by toyota and the the last redesign was in 2005. The trend length is 2.8 miles or 4.5 kilometers. Uh, main straight is uh 1.5 kilometers long, like almost a mile long. Uh, one of the longest in motorsport. Uh, fia grade is one suitable for formula, so it has the grade uh yeah, that looks like a badass track for f1 yeah, yeah so weather put it this way yeah you're probably right, eric well the world. The World Endurance Championship race is there. Those are P1 cars, bro.

Jeff:

Oh really.

Jason:

They're pretty damn fast.

Jason:

They're just as fast as an F1 car. Yeah, that's true, and now you got people drifting around the track. I mean that's pretty dangerous too. But anyways, some notable things about it. 1976 Japanese Grand Prix title deciding F1 race is an extreme rain. That was the, the, and then, a year later, it was the fatal accident. And then in 2013, as I mentioned before, but that's Fuji for you, hopefully, maybe 26,. We have hopes with F1, uh, changing a bunch of things and maybe they can check out Fuji, but with the weather being the way it is up there, I can see that being a concern.

Jeff:

Yeah, 100%.

Jason:

Yeah, so that's track of the week in the bag Once again. I figured I owed the honors to it to Fuji, and it's unfortunate man, it's just unfortunate. You know that those things happen and yeah it's always when they open track, someone dies, or someone that's trying to watch the event have a good time, they die. You know, it's kind of kind of been the trend with track of the week lately, but you know it makes you think, because when you were talking about that, I was thinking of the Isle of TT.

Jeff:

How? Many people get killed there and they're like we don't care, we're running it again next year, oh yeah.

Speaker 4:

Isle of man bro.

Jeff:

That's the island in Scotland bro I don't know how those riders get on the motorcycle with stones that big.

Jason:

Bro, that is a. That's not even a track, that's a small town that they racing through. Yeah, yeah, it's a death my driveway is wider than that road. I don't have a driveway, that's that fast I've seen them doing wheelies and turning the bike at the same time. The front end is coming up. Yeah, go ahead, eric. Now I'm just gonna say that's on two wheels, man, that's you know open wheel is one thing but two wheelies and turning the bike.

Erick:

At the same time the front end is coming up. Go ahead, eric. That's on two wheels, man. Open wheel is one thing, but two wheels that's.

Jason:

That's a different animal.

Erick:

all together it's wild, you might as well be flying. Yeah, I think they.

Jason:

You might as well. That's crazy.

Jeff:

That'd be cool to go see in person too, someone's going to.

Jason:

maybe we can do a special on that track man, I don't know. Let us know if you guys want to us to cover some history on the TT. It's not sim racing, but it's some. Some sort of racing could be fun. Anyways, uh, that's going to be it for today. I um going to be it for today. I'm excited to have Track of the Week back, excited for our new sponsor, trophy AI, and just counting down the weeks, man. So round table everybody. What we got, what did we miss? We'll start with Eric Kelly.

Erick:

Nothing man, Just ready for the Sim Gaming Expo.

Jason:

Already, there you go.

Erick:

All right man.

Jason:

I'm ready for Monaco Gaming Expo Already. Here we go Already. All right, man, I'm ready for Monaco too. I want that Monaco track coming back around the calendar year. Yes, sir and Jeff, what about you, man, what you got for? Save round alibis.

Jeff:

I got a couple save rounds that I did not spill during the announcements that I probably should have. Yeah, the listeners have probably heard me complain, or you know, talking about this said wind simulator. I have pulled the trigger. Oh you did. It got delivered today. Oh snap, I will be installing it tonight and we'll give it a go. I also what's that I said?

Jason:

good luck with that, bro. Give me a call if you need help. It could be disgusting, you might need an extra pair of hands to hold stuff up. Good luck with that, bro. Give me a call if you need help. It could be disgusting, you might need an extra pair of hands to hold stuff up.

Jeff:

I know my rig's not really in the best places people can see. Like anything on this side of the rig is incredibly difficult to access.

Jason:

It's just straight up, no access.

Jeff:

It's just, yeah, that's more or less what it is. Everything goes on the other side, so that I have been you probably have been talking about I do almost solely formula racing, so I've kind of designed a fuselage. If you will, then all the parts that I've been trying to build that I need here are here. I've slowly started to put together if you can see around it, it's a mess as I'm kind of putting it together this weekend, so hopefully next week it'll be ready to go. We'll see. You know, there's always oh, I missed that, I forgot to get that, or you know, or oh you know. Something didn't come up. I need to get it.

Jason:

Something didn't fit right or whatever.

Jeff:

Right, absolutely. So there's probably something like that that'll come here in the next couple of days. Um, yeah, other than that, that's about it, you know that's a big changes.

Jeff:

I'm pumped to try to get the whim simulator. I did not go the hurricane route, um, and I'll kind of give a quick rundown why I didn't. Cause you know, everybody was like, oh, the hurricane's the best, um, and then I watched this YouTube review of I forget what it is. It's like the sim racing garage. Older gentlemen oh yeah, has garage. Older gentleman oh yeah, has this. Uh, that's a super nice racing. Yeah, super nice rig in his garage. Older gentleman long hair um, has like a little skinny mic out in front of him great quality videos together, long videos too like videos, right, if you want to know that like he takes apart the thing, uh.

Jeff:

So he took apart the hurricane, uh wind sim and he broke down the to the component level and when I saw that it was like a 35 dollar you know pc fan and then arduino's and a power supply, I was like I just don't know if I can justify that much when, like, if something breaks, I feel like I could fix it, either buy a new arduino's because I had debated about building my own, because I've watched a shit ton of videos over the arduino soldering and stuff like that and then program it didn't seem rocket surgery, if you will. Um. So I bought, went off a reputable uh etsy dude that was in the united, it was in the states. Um, I just didn't want to wait on you know the jason it takes forever to get shipping from europe here in hawaii. So a reputable dude on Etsy, I don't know it off the top of my head and I went that way.

Jeff:

It's like if the fan burns out, I'll buy another fan off Amazon, if the Arduinos fails or whatever, I will buy an $18, $30 Arduinos chip, put it in there. I just wasn't ready to do it myself, I guess. So anyways, long story short, I went that route. We'll give it a go. I'll give you guys my feedback and take it for what it's worth. But yeah, it'll be a busy next couple of days for me as I get some work done on the sim.

Jason:

And we can't guarantee that Jeff will give us words next week on the show because, again, like he said, things might go wrong or you know. So hopefully we can. I'll do my best, but no problem.

Jeff:

Yeah, eventually you'll get feedback.

Jason:

Yeah, so our next episode is actually a very special one. So we'll be going over the story of the Chicane podcast and its origins and its first year where we are and what we're dreams of, and right now it's motion. That's kind of the Chicane podcast and its origins and its first year where we are and what we're dreams of Right now. It's motion. That's kind of the dream right now. And the gaming expo and some Chicago pizza, bro, because they're known for the pizza out there, even though I can debate that.

Speaker 4:

I know Jeff is probably like that's thick pasta.

Jason:

Yeah, some deep dish pizza and just.

Jeff:

I'll try it, I'm just going to dunk.

Jason:

I'm just going to.

Erick:

You want to hear something funny, send it. A guy at work. He's from Chicago and he was telling us about Chicago-style pizza. And we're like, oh yeah, now that pizza sucks, it's pie, basically like pizza pie. Nobody wants that. And he's like what are you talking about? He's like what are y'all talking about? We're like what are you talking about? You're talking about Chicago style pizza. That's the deep like super thick. He's like no, chicago style. Chicago pizza is thin crust pizza.

Erick:

And we were like you don't know Chicago pizza, because Chicago pizza is the deep dish and we googled it and thin crust pizza originated from Chicago. They called it old tavern style or some style pizza. But he's like yeah, like everybody, my whole family all we eat is thin crust because it came from Chicago. I was like the more you know, I learned something today.

Jason:

We got to test this theory out and see how the pizza tastes down there. I know, Vlad knows some spots. Yeah, one bite. You know the rules, I was hoping somebody would do what I was talking about. Yep, I love that guy. That guy is awesome boston stuff right there, but yeah, all he does is go around eating pizza all day bar that's his job yeah, hell of a day pornoid all right, g.

Jason:

Thank you so much, everybody. Love to see the smiles, love to see you guys and, yeah, this is the final, final, final episode before the our start of the year. Right.

Speaker 4:

You're going to be our new fiscal year, I guess.

Jason:

And with that, have a great start of your week. Thank you.

People on this episode

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Jason Rivera

Host
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Erick Kelly

Co-host
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Jeff Smart

Co-host