What Makes a Wheel Worth Buying?

Racing endurance events demands a completely different mindset than sprint races—something Eric Kelly discovered firsthand during his inaugural hour-long race at Spa. While sharing his experience streaming his first GT7 endurance race, Eric revealed the unexpected mental fatigue that comes not from driving itself, but from the inability to break concentration for even a moment. "It's different when you can't get up, can't take a sip, can't look at the chat," he explains, highlighting how focus inevitably wanes in those final crucial minutes.

This leads perfectly into our deep dive on what makes the perfect "trophy wheel"—that crown jewel of your sim racing setup that makes you proud every time you glance at your rig. Beyond technical specs, we explore the emotional connection racers develop with their equipment. "You have to love the wheel," Jeff emphasizes, explaining how aesthetics often trump functionality in these high-end purchases. We break down compatibility considerations with SimHub, appropriate sizing for different racing disciplines, and why wireless options might not be ideal for serious endurance racing.

The SimGaming Expo dominates our discussion as we approach September's landmark event in Chicago—the first major sim racing expo in the United States. We emphasize its importance not just for individual racers, but for the entire American sim racing ecosystem. With manufacturers showing unprecedented interest, this event could spark better distribution, warehousing, and shipping options for hardware that's traditionally been difficult to source domestically.

Ready to join us at the expo? Looking to upgrade your rig with components you can actually touch before buying? Want to experience the unique challenges of endurance racing? This episode covers it all with practical advice from three passionate sim racers who've learned through experience. Use code CHICANE10 for a discount on your expo tickets and come say hello in September!

Check out Erick's Stream at: https://www.youtube.com/@techgentgaming

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 3:01 Announcements
• 17:23 Main Discussion
• 1:16:02 Closing Remarks

Transcript

Jason: 0:00

This episode is brought to you by Trophy AI, the ultimate performance coach tool for sim racers. Hello and welcome to the Chicane Podcast, where 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: 0:45

Doing good, man. I might need some ice for my knees, and it has nothing to do with me being old, but I'll talk about that later, man.

Jeff: 0:53

Dude, what a lot of stuff going on this week. Just chatting with you gentlemen before this started, and dude, we have been busy. Maybe not just racing, but like on the peripheral about sim racing and rigs, et cetera. So we had a lot of stuff to cover today, but yeah, I'm ready to get into it.

Jason: 1:08

Oh yeah, 100%. That's good to hear, man. How was your weeks, man? How is life treating you guys in Hawaii and the East Coast?

Erick: 1:20

I can tell you in the East Coast, man, no storms.

Jason: 1:23

Just... No tsunamis, huh? No tsunamis. No tsunamis,

Erick: 1:28

yeah. I can't complain. The temp dropped below 90 outside, so I'm living good, man.

Jason: 1:37

All right. And Jeff, we just heard from you that it's been a busy, crazy week. I mean, same right back at you. Been trying to figure out the plan for this expo because we are in range of... It's already here. You know how it is, man. Once you get down to weeks and there's no more months, it's already weeks. And I'm seeing a lot of posts on social media. I saw the SimRacingDen post a video and shout us out. So shout out to him. Right back at you, brother. And a lot of other content creators putting out the good word. And it's the truth, man. Nobody is making any sort of monetization over the SimGamingExpo's It's not even an affiliate. We can't call it an affiliate because there's no money, you know, to call it that. All it is is, you know, a code that he made special for us and for Michael and for, you know, the many content creators to share out. So that way you can get, you know, a little discount, you know, for... being a follower or just being part of the community, right? Not just being someone that showed up and say, oh, what is this Sim Gaming Expo? Even though we welcome those, I mean, they can come, of course. If you're curious,

Erick: 2:56

you know, that's the place

Jason: 2:58

to be. Yeah, man. So

Erick: 3:01

that's... And I wanted to say, if you don't mind, I wanted to say two, kind of two important reasons why we keep pushing the Sim Gaming Expo. Obviously, It's about something that's near and dear to our hearts, but also for this being the first event of its kind in the U.S., it's important because I don't know what type of superhuman Red Bull George has been taking, but he's been getting so many sponsors and manufacturers to support the event that they need to see that in the U.S. we are serious about sim racing and just sim in general. So important for us to come out and support and and just show that there is an audience here so we can get some people maybe manufacturing here, some warehousing, some better shipping, you know, just sky's the limit.

Jeff: 3:47

Amen. Bro, you bring up a great point about more manufacturers and, you know, distributors here in the CONUS.

Jason: 3:54

Yeah,

Jeff: 3:55

we need it, man.

Jason: 3:57

Well, yeah, I mean, it's okay. So my stance on this is we are the biggest spenders in the world. It's the honest fact. I've mentioned this before. We have the biggest car show in the world is in Vegas. The biggest tech show in the world, CES, is in Las Vegas, Nevada. I know this event is in Schaumburg, Chicago or Illinois, but the location was strategic enough to be closer to the East. Not the East. Well, I guess, yeah, the European side of the world so that they could travel and it's not that far. You know, it's not all the way. For us, it don't matter. In Hawaii.

Jeff: 4:42

We're traveling.

Jason: 4:44

We're doomed no matter what, dude. It doesn't matter unless you come in here. Yeah, you guys come here all day and get some liquid aloha. But anyways. Um, some announcements. I mean, that's really all I have for announcements. I have this industry news update, but I'll let you guys go ahead and, and, and update us on anything, anything going on, um, announcement wise that you would like to put out.

Jeff: 5:11

Eric, you got anything?

Erick: 5:12

Yeah. Um, so I mentioned earlier, my knees are hurting. It's because I did my, my first, I guess, um, Legitimate endurance race. It was an hour. Shout out to Signal 13. And also, I want to make sure I get the other league's name correct because... It

Jason: 5:34

was two leagues? And why?

Erick: 5:37

It was two leagues that came together and they put on an endurance race. They had qualifying within the leagues. And then I think they took the top seven from each league and they had a... They called it a celebrity racer spot. And they invited me to come out and fill that spot, which I was very honored to. Oh,

Jason: 5:55

hell yeah.

Erick: 5:57

Yeah, honored to participate.

Jason: 5:59

I had you up on the tube, and I think Jeff did too. Yeah,

Erick: 6:02

we got in there. Yeah, man, I appreciate y'all coming on.

Jason: 6:06

Stream quality looked really good. I mean, little sound thingies, but I mean, we worked them out, right? We worked them out, I think.

Erick: 6:14

Yeah, for the most part. I got a couple things that got to work out, but I think for a first stream, I kind of looked back at it. And I was nervous while I was doing it, but it was nice. It was fun. It's something I'm keeping doing. And the second league name is Hairpin Racing.

Jason: 6:32

Hairpin Racing. Okay. Yeah.

Erick: 6:34

So those two leagues came together and did a kind of interleague race, which was kind of cool. I never heard of something like that. But yeah, I had fun.

Jason: 6:43

So you're part of which league? Not Hairpin. You're part of the other one?

Erick: 6:49

So... Really, it was a Facebook group, a GT7 Facebook group, and the leagues are both in there. And one of the guys from one of the leagues reached out to me and we had talked in the past and he let me know that they might be doing something a couple months back and just kind of kept following up with me. He also is the guy that did the livery for the car. His name is Tim. He's in Signal 13 in their race. Yeah, but it was pretty cool. Great group of guys. He's also from Alabama as well. So that was cool too. He's down in Birmingham about an hour and a half south of me. Ah,

Jason: 7:28

man, you need to meet up with this guy.

Erick: 7:30

It's a little track down there that I got to go see as well. Might have heard of it. Yeah. A couple cars.

Jason: 7:39

Take a camera with you, bro. Take a camera. Or take two. I'm going to need a couple

Erick: 7:44

down there.

Jason: 7:45

You need a couple cameras. That's what's up, man. Yeah. Endurance racing, you know, you already know is a different beast. And that's good. That's good that you're able to, that's the, how do you say this? The top level racing, right? Where you use everything to, to get you through the race. You know, it's not a sprint. It's not like you take a break. It's the car's wearing down as you go and you need to figure out its behaviors as you, as you navigate the track, you know? Which is awesome. I'm happy. I'm waiting on Jeff and I want to see a stream of Jeff. I will pay for his cameras and install them myself.

Jeff: 8:31

First order of business is finding a league that supports the time zone and the times that I need here living in Hawaii, working a full-time job, etc. I need to find one of those.

Erick: 8:45

Those

Jason: 8:45

hours.

Erick: 8:46

Yeah.

Jason: 8:46

Send an email to the show, please, guys. We are in minus 10 GMT.

Jeff: 8:53

East Coast United States racing at like midnight would be perfect. Oh, yeah. There's tons of those. Oh,

Jason: 9:00

yeah. That'd be legit, actually.

Jeff: 9:01

Hey, gents. So I got two quick tidbits for my announcements this week. I shared with everybody that thanks to Eric. I had a moment of weakness and ordered some new base shakers. I got the Dayton ones and installed them. Now, I wanted to mount them on the side of my seats. I think the seat I have just isn't going to be conducive. I want to be able to feel the rumble strips, really, and the road texture that the tires are feeling on each side. So I wanted to mount them on the right and left side of my rig. So I mounted them like this. Right under my butt, really, on the seat on the rig. But mounting them there, I found out that I couldn't feel the difference between right and left because they were really so close to each other when it came to the back. It was right on the back corners. So what I did is I moved them almost all the way up to my feet. Um, and that's where I started to be able to feel the difference when I hit rumble strips, taking a right-hand corner and going over the apex, I could feel it on my right. And then, you know, obviously vice versa, I would feel it on my left. Um, so that's how I have it hooked up. I can understand how people want for, um, it just provides probably a little bit more fidelity. Um, but I am learning that less is more with them as obviously with the butt kicker. Um, But I know we had a long discussion a couple episodes ago about base shakers versus butt kickers. And I will say– the only caveat I have to this is I have the 50-watt base shakers. I think they make a– I forget the next size up, the next wattage. But I have the 50-watt and it is not connected or mounted directly to my seat. So those are the only caveats. Excuse me. A butt kicker is not mounted direct– or it is directly mounted to my seat and the base shakers are not. The base, the, the butt kicker, hands down, stronger, hands down, stronger. And I think that's twofold is first. I don't know what the ant puts out, but it's a hell of a lot bigger than the, um, than the base shaker one that I, yeah. I mean, it's like an eighth of the size.

Jason: 11:13

Just looking at the size. Yeah.

Jeff: 11:14

Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't necessarily know. Um, but. on the other hand, the base shaker, you get two channels. So you, it gives you the feedback, the right and left. So I just wanted to give everybody kind of an update on, Oh, that's what I think is each is different and they do different things better than the other one. You know, price wise, you get two channels with the bait, with the base shakers, but kicker stronger, single month, single point. So that was my only point. And, uh, so I, I ran. And then for a second topic here, I ran across a video this morning, um, F4 in Imola, uh, Um, I was watching it and no kidding, gentlemen, I thought I was watching like idiots of the week and I racing, like there was a race and I was like, I don't think F4 was an Imola this week on I racing, but I'm going to share it with you gentlemen. And I promise you, I promise you that this is real life F4 drivers. So next time you're in a, uh, like a, an F4 race and you have a crummy starting a taken out. It happens in the real world. So I'm going to let it play here and let everybody, all our listeners, watch the disaster that's about to start here. And it doesn't take long. First of all, how many cars do they have on the line in these F4 races? That's crazy. It just gets worse.

Jason: 12:34

But do they not see that something's going on in front of them? Look at all the yellow flags.

Jeff: 12:40

What is this guy? They don't

Erick: 12:43

have brake pedals in F4?

Jeff: 12:45

They don't have a bunch of eyes either. Dude, he's lucky this person didn't get

Jason: 12:51

killed.

Jeff: 12:51

He almost made the whole thing. I'm going to

Jason: 12:53

have to start watching these races, bro.

Jeff: 12:55

Dude, check all the people on the left looking at the waving their flags and people are like, what flags?

Jason: 13:03

Yeah, we didn't see any flags. What flags? What flags? Yeah.

Erick: 13:08

Oh, my gosh, bro. No tires.

Jeff: 13:12

Anyways, next time you're in a, you know, like a D-class race first corner, these guys didn't even get to the first corner. And it happens. And they're legitimately F4 drivers. So, anyways.

Jason: 13:24

Well, you know, the track, Imola, it usually happens way down to the first turn. At that first,

Jeff: 13:31

the first

Jason: 13:32

tight turn. Yeah, they didn't even get it to the...

Jeff: 13:34

Yeah.

Jason: 13:35

I did want to bend.

Jeff: 13:36

Yeah. I did want to try to get into the full length, um, w 13 race at the Hungarian ring. I think I'm pronouncing that right. 70 laps there. Yeah. And I just didn't get the condition, the consistency down in that car is a handful. Um, so I'm going to jump in and try to get a bunch of them. I think the next one is Zanzidorf is, uh, is they're going to race there. So I'm going to jump in. That gives me two weeks to get practice.

Erick: 14:00

Um,

Jeff: 14:01

And it's really hard to find a race because they're all during the day here. Work sucks, man. It's really starting to affect my racing or my sim

Jason: 14:09

racing. Your experience. Yeah. Well, let me know. I might join you on that because I love that W13. She's a beaut. She's

Jeff: 14:19

painful.

Jason: 14:20

Yeah, but you get used to her real fast. I mean, I tell you what, this might sound controversial, but to me, I think the SF23... is harder to control than the W13 because of the torque, the amount of

Jeff: 14:33

torque. They're both handfuls. They both keep your attention.

Jason: 14:37

I know. Everybody, I guess, you know, I feel like the Porsche, what is it? The cup car is the hardest car I've ever tried to drive. I think those

Jeff: 14:46

two cars are the hardest

Jason: 14:47

cars in iRacing. Two, that freaking cup car. Yeah. Well, anyway, let me know. Let me know. I'm being serious, though. Let me know because I might stream it and, you know, I'll put you in the chat room and we'll have some fun. The only advice I

Jeff: 15:00

got was just- We're

Jason: 15:02

not doing that, though. We're not doing what we just saw, though. No.

Jeff: 15:05

I'd be so mad if you were looking to do 70 laughs, not like a one that's like 15 minutes every 15 minutes. Yeah. I

Jason: 15:12

know. And you walk out and your wife is like,

Jeff: 15:14

what? I thought you were going to be gone

Jason: 15:16

for

Jeff: 15:17

two hours. Never mind. I

Jason: 15:19

don't want to

Jeff: 15:19

talk about it. I thought I was going to be gone for two hours, too.

Jason: 15:22

Straight up lie. It got canceled.

Jeff: 15:24

It got canceled, yeah. It's in like six hours.

Jason: 15:27

Yeah.

Jeff: 15:29

For the next one. Yeah. Right. I wasn't going to tell that portion of it, but yeah. Yeah.

Jason: 15:34

All right. Hey, that's what's up, man. I, I, I like, I like these types of, uh, you know, not saying that people need to be crashing like that, but it's cool to see, you know, it's cool to see and share with everybody. I need to, I need to find a way to watch these races instead of just formula. Um, I watched

Jeff: 15:50

the formula was though.

Jason: 15:52

Oh yeah. Yeah. And, and Hamilton, uh, Yeah, Hamilton is Hamilton, bro.

Jeff: 15:59

Who?

Jason: 16:00

Yeah, Hamilton.

Jeff: 16:02

People are going to kill me for that one.

Jason: 16:05

Hamilton, I don't know if you've seen that, but Eric, or I don't know if you follow F1 like that closely, but bro, Hamilton, damn near crying. Damn near crying. He called

Jeff: 16:18

himself useless.

Jason: 16:19

Useless, and I straight up don't belong here that it's not the car you need to find the driver. I was like,

Jeff: 16:25

Well, when you can't get out of Q2 and the car next to you, your other car

Erick: 16:31

takes

Jeff: 16:32

pole.

Erick: 16:34

And

Jeff: 16:35

they sold him half the company of Ferrari to race for them.

Jason: 16:40

I will say this, and we'll move on with the show, but they're saying that Ferrari is kind of like a stigma. There's a stigma to it because three world champions moved over to Ferrari and Ever since they moved to Hawaii, their careers kind of went downhill. Moved to Ferrari.

Erick: 16:58

Yeah. He wants to move to Hawaii real bad.

Jason: 17:01

Ferrari. So I think it was Kimi Alonso, which Alonso is right in my heart.

Jeff: 17:08

Bro, he crushed it this week.

Jason: 17:10

You know, and Vettel as well. Those three kind of ended up kind of after Ferrari. Not Hawaii, Ferrari. Anyways, we have a short sim industry news update today. We're going to go over Automobilista 2, which is AMS 2, which is a great sim, a great alternative to LMU. And the comments weren't that bad, guys. I mean, I was waiting for some boxing matches. I was staying up late seeing, but I guess we can all share our opinions, I guess. And that's cool. It makes me feel good because that means my audience, there's a bunch of adults in here that we can have a discussion like that. You know what I mean? And not be all upset. I

Jeff: 17:58

don't

Jason: 18:00

know. They might shank me at the

Jeff: 18:02

same time. That is true. But I thought some of the comments I was reading this morning were pretty well thought out. It wasn't emotion as much as it was, this is why I like it. This is why I don't like it. And here's the reasons. It wasn't just like,

Jason: 18:15

you're an idiot.

Jeff: 18:17

It was constructive. Constructive. There you go. Thank you.

Jason: 18:20

Yeah. It was informal and constructive and most of them were positive. I mean, I didn't really get any ones that, I mean, usually, I mean, if somebody comes out of respect on the comments, Jay and I straight up ignore you. They come out of respect. You know, because, you know, you're not. Yeah, exactly. So, well, let me move on with this AMS

Jeff: 18:45

2

Jason: 18:46

1.66 update. It released, right? It released at the time of this recording. We're a little behind, but July 30th brings a mix of exciting new content and meaningful gameplay, improvements, continuing Ryza, which is Ryza Studios, which is the developer, commitment to refining the racing simulator, headlining the update is the Endurance Pack Part 3 DLC, which adds fresh vehicles and and racing experiences to growing endurance racing roster. However, the update goes far beyond just adding new content. As mentioned in the 2020, the 2025 July developer update they had, the studio is also focused heavily on multiplayer improvements. The backend and structural enhancements are intended to lay the foundation for further progress in online racing. likely leading to a more stable and more enjoyable multiplayer experience. So they were trying to make the multiplayer better. So that's pretty much it. They had some significant changes to the AI behavior. They reworked the AI pit stop strategy logic because apparently they were doing some crazy things, the AI, when they were pulling into the pits. So yeah, they make more... And word for word, they make more sensible decisions regarding fuel loads and tire wear. This means AI drivers are likely to overfuel or make unnecessary pit stops. So they were overfueling and making pit stops just to make one, you know, because they were just simulating, I guess. I don't know. Leading to more competitive and more realistic race scenarios. Additionally, changes to the tire wear logic ensure that AI won't continue racing on overly worn tires when a pit stop would result in faster overall lap times. So, guys, there's a full change log. I'll leave the links in the description below. But that's kind of what we're looking at with a title that's way over eight years old, I want to say. And it's still getting updated and it's still being cared for. And... Again, a lot of these simulators, I give them a hard time, but a lot of these simulators have years of development behind their backs. So it makes it easier for them to build on something that already works. I respect a developer that builds on a game and doesn't give up on it. EA, again, giving up on games and just renaming it, rehashing it. We're going to have an F-150 25 years from now. This is going to be an F-150.

Jeff: 21:33

Hopefully, Nim and crew can take over

Jason: 21:37

that. Hopefully, Nim puts out the good word and they come to an agreement. Make them an offer you can't refuse. You know what I mean? But yeah, that's about it for today's sim industry update. And what do you guys think? What do you guys think of AMS2 and their... Since you started sim racing, what do you think... I know for me it's been awesome. They've had many changes and it's been through many

Jeff: 22:09

revisions since. Dude, for how old it is and the number of cars, the number of tracks is– do they have like go-karts in there? I know. They have Formula. They have GT. They got trucks. They have tons of stuff. They have go-kart tracks. They got trucks. like my, I love getting, my kid loves jumping in and, you know, driving the go-karts just a little bit more sporty and stuff, but it's got so much stuff. And it's, it's cool. Like you can put new, like why I drive, I get in there and drive every now and again, the, the F1 cars with the livery on them and, and stuff like that. Cause it's, I'm about to say something like you can put the, um, the liveries, the new liveries on the F1 cars and drive a track. It's on the track. That's on the, the, um, the circuit. And it's, I'm going to say something. It's better than F1 20, 20, 25, 24, 23. And it's how many, eight years old?

Jason: 23:05

Oh, hands down, bro.

Jeff: 23:06

Yeah. You can't, now you can't race other people, but nonetheless, it's still good racing. It's, it's, it's, it's a pretty, I think it's a great, if I had to play one sim for the rest or one, you know, simulated for the rest of my life, it'd be AMS. If you couldn't switch back and forth, because it just covers so much stuff.

Jason: 23:24

I want to say one thing, and this is very, very unique about AMS2. And it's the ability to relive the past. Like, you can go back and race the 1970 version of Imola. You can race the 1980 version. You know, yeah, you can go back and race those configurations. And, you know, there's tragic accidents that have happened. We've

Jeff: 23:53

covered them,

Jason: 23:55

yeah. Yeah, we've covered a lot of them. You can go back and kind of relive those, not in a dark way, but, like, kind of see what the picture looked like, you know, for them at the time, you know,

Jeff: 24:06

unfortunately. What's appropriate. cars of that era.

Jason: 24:09

Exactly. That's what makes it... That game will never be uninstalled. It's kind of like AC. AC will never be uninstalled. And

Jeff: 24:17

it's got VR support.

Jason: 24:18

Oh, yeah. One of the best VR experience, period, on PC right now. Wow.

Erick: 24:25

Didn't they get a new Norse Lifer track?

Jason: 24:31

I don't know. I got to go see what these packs are. Cannot confirm or deny. I

Erick: 24:36

know how to release like, uh, it was, it was weird because they already had the noise life in the game, but then they re-released a new scan of it. So they're like two, I think it was MS2. They, their new pack, they have like a new updated version. They kind of like rebuilt the track from the ground up. So there's like the old version and then the new one. Um, so I meant to hop in there and try it out, but, um, That

Jason: 25:01

track, too, has a lot of configs. You got the tourist version. You got the GP. You got the 24-hour version, which is my favorite. That's my favorite one, the full track.

Erick: 25:17

Yeah, I like that, too. The 24? Hell yeah. I feel kind of shorted because they'll have it on a daily on GT7, and I'll look, and it's like, got the little short GP track, man.

Jason: 25:30

I know it's not, it don't hit the same, right? It doesn't hit the same. It's

Erick: 25:35

not special. That 24, that 24 is special, man.

Jason: 25:39

The 24 hours, I think now that you got your feet wet into endurance racing and you got some, hey, if you like GT7, then there's got to be somewhere for a long team racing over there. I got to see if, does GT7 have driver swap? Does it let you do that for... I

Erick: 26:02

don't know. I don't think so. I'm pretty...

Jason: 26:04

Yeah. We need to... If anybody knows the answer to this, this is impromptu. This is a straight up conversation. We need to look into this. But if anybody knows, that would be great because we're just... I'm just saying, you know, North's Life is a great track and it would be nice to see you do like, I don't know, maybe a 12 hour and have like... you know, four-man squad, you know, five-man squad that you can split the hours in between so it's not that much.

Erick: 26:35

That'd be cool. I can hop on and kind of build a server and see what it'll let me do.

Jason: 26:41

Okay. I can give

Erick: 26:43

us an update.

Jason: 26:44

That'd be great. I'll probably do the same thing. All right, Eric, what you got for us this week, man? I see we need to discuss this, man. We've been biting around the bush. And I'm going to let you have the stage, bro. I'm going to let you have it, bro.

Erick: 27:01

Yeah, I've been rubbing my knees here. And we kind of were discussing it a little bit before off air. And in my mind, you mentioned the GRL races and the time frame. I've been in the rig and I've raced for hours at a time. But I've not done a single race that has lasted an hour or more. And that was, in my mind, it was like, oh, I've raced for hours. I've sat in the rig for hours. This will be not necessarily walking the park. It'll be different, but it won't be that bad. So what I found out was it's different when you can't get up. You can't stop and take a sip. You can't look at the chat. You have to be on. for an entire hour straight, especially on spot. Cause you know, one- Welcome to my life. One turn, one wrong look and you know, you're in the wall. And even just near the end of that hour, I was kind of not zoning out, but like my focus was waning and, you know, I was kind of making more mistakes and it was like a struggle, especially when you're trying to, you know, trying to manage your fuel, trying to manage the tires near the end, and they're getting shaky and sketchy and stuff. So it was really interesting, but I wanted to show you guys a couple of clips, not clips, but photos just from the race. Once again, shout out to Tim. He sent me these on Messenger. Made me feel real good. I won't say specifically what place I came in. It wasn't a hot number, and...

Jason: 28:50

That's okay. It's your first race. It's your first long race. You know?

Erick: 28:56

Yeah. And I didn't really get to practice because the streaming aspect of it is a total... That's a whole

Jason: 29:04

different... Oh, dude. I'm sorry. I was trying to help you troubleshoot live. And I know how stressful that... Isn't that stressful, bro? When you just... You should be practicing, but you're not practicing. You having to troubleshoot... Like all kinds of stuff and it's not working out. Sometimes it makes me just want to just straight up cancel everything. You know, I get that. I'm telling you, man.

Erick: 29:28

So I'll say that was kind of the thing that I wanted to kind of push through because I knew I wasn't the fastest because those guys, like several of them were like A drivers. And so I knew that, you know, they had more pace than me and all that stuff. And so I wasn't really concerned about being fast. too fast. I was more concerned about just kind of keeping my head throughout the whole thing, not ruining anybody else's race, and kind of being able to have a decent effort, which I did. But the streaming piece, not letting that go to my head as far as everything not being the way that I wanted it to be. I was kind of proud because I didn't have any real technical issues. There was just, I didn't have, I didn't have the, all the equipment. So I found that I needed a chat link cable, which I never needed before because once again, in GT seven, I've talked about it in the past. I'm usually, I'm usually racing by myself. So I've never been in a chat with other racers while I was racing in GT seven. So I've never needed a chat link cable. But in order to have that to where you guys can hear the chat through the stream and you can hear the audio. And, you know, so that was just kind of one thing, just like a little learning lesson. But looking back at the stream, I kind of was proud of it.

Jason: 30:52

Yeah, it doesn't matter. The racing was there. The car was there. The sound was there.

Jeff: 30:56

Yeah.

Jason: 30:56

And we got to hear you. And that's really all that should matter. The little things, you fix them. You know, you find ways to make it better the next time. Nice.

Erick: 31:08

Yeah. So it was at Spa. Yeah. And like I say,

Jason: 31:11

the graphics on GT7. Yeah,

Erick: 31:13

this is, I

Jason: 31:15

can't, I can't front, you know,

Erick: 31:17

the pictures are dope. Yeah.

Jeff: 31:18

Oh, that's a killer shot.

Erick: 31:20

Yes, sir. Who made that? Look at that. Yeah, man. Shout out to Tim, man. This is my favorite one right here, man. You got me looking good. Now, if you notice, I'm not anywhere near the rest of the pack.

Jason: 31:36

It's just like golf, bro. If you look good, you play good. That's it. That's the name of the game. I feel good, man. They sent me these

Erick: 31:43

pictures. I got reinvigorated. I'm like, man, I need to get back out there, man. That looks nice. But it was fun, man. Like I say, shout out to those guys. They got a nice group of guys going. And once again, I talk about the community all the time, but I had a blast. I did want to mention, like I said before, the streaming aspect. If you stream while you're racing, I tip my hat to you. Getting to a point where you can race and stream and pay attention to the chat, that's a learned thing. Jason, your setup is spectacular, man.

Jason: 32:16

Thank you, bro. It's not easy, man. Yeah, it's not easy. And

Erick: 32:22

like you said, the mental piece, when you start the string, you say you're going to start at a certain time and something goes wrong, something not right. It gets to

Jason: 32:29

you, bro.

Erick: 32:30

Yeah, but you still manage to be fast, still manage to perform and not let it get to your head. That's it,

Jason: 32:36

man. The best thing you can do is what you did. The best thing you can do is be in the chat room and talk to people because sitting there by yourself, the chat doesn't have a voice. You know what I mean? It's just text. So when you're reading this text, you have to kind of, when you read it, you kind of play audio in your head, like if someone was talking to you. But it's cool having like a group of people that are chatting and then they might have a question on the stream and you include them into that chat. That's what I found works the best to keep the balance and to keep focus is to have someone to talk to. Because if you, bro... At two or three in the morning when I was doing my stint, that was a long night, bro. And Neil was up, man, drinking coffee and he was talking to me about all kinds of stuff. It's important. It's important. You need it. It's like a spotter, man. You go to the gym, you need someone to spot you. You know what I mean? Even though you know what you're doing, you might be an athlete or a bodybuilder. You still need a spotter. You know what I mean? You need somebody there to keep you pumped up and motivated. And then you do the same thing for them, you know, when it's their stint.

Jeff: 33:52

So I thought it was a pretty sharp looking product though. I logged in and saw you and some of the graphics and the, the overlays and stuff, dude, I thought it was, I thought it was pretty solid product, especially first one, first time around.

Erick: 34:04

Yeah. I was, like I said, looking back at it, I was happy with the sound, happy with how it looked.

Jason: 34:11

Quality was there. Tell you right now.

Erick: 34:13

Yeah. You know, so I was, I was happy about that. Um, I did, there were some things that I, for the first time I realized like, Oh, I need that. I don't have doing that race. One of them was a, uh, a DDU on my wheelbase or my.

Jason: 34:30

Now you see the, now you see the oomph of why we need this much data. At first, when you start sim racing, right? You're like, what do you need all this? Why do you need to know all this stuff? Or this chunk of data on the top screen. And there's a lot of things that can help you figure out what's going on. Especially when you're driver swapping. When you're driver swapping, that DDU or fourth monitor is gonna come in handy big time because you get to see the data that your driver can see. And then instead of the driver having to look down or swipe a page and look for something, you're like, no man, this is where you're at. This is how much fuel you got. This is where your tires are. Kind of like a race engineer almost.

Erick: 35:17

I'll say the thing that kind of stuck out to me the most was I had all the information I was looking for available, but it was all over the screen. So having a lot of that stuff in a DDU would have helped a lot by being able to see lap times. In one's place. Yeah. Correct. Yeah, even at a certain point, because I was using the UI in the car, and I'm like, oh, I can see my mile per hour, I can see my gears, but having a dedicated DDU would have been a lot better than being kind of stuck looking at that little display in the car in the game, because I missed a couple shifts. I didn't downshift enough going around that first turn, that first hairpin. Scrolling through. Yeah. So it was like, I needed something, I needed more information. So now I see why guys might have like, you know, led boxes with the gear you're in, like different places around their rig and just, just more, more information to help you kind of. No, this is good data. Situational

Jason: 36:17

awareness. This is excellent because it's, it's not about the flash. It's not, you're not spending this kind of money to, to be flashy or, or to make it look cool. It's actual things, the tools there for you to make it easy. Right. Yeah. I think GT7 is very limited with the UI. You can't move it. You can't adjust it. You can't change it. If you want to see brake balance, you got to press a button like two or three times before you can get to it. It'd be nice to have a DDU that tells you, this is where your brake balance is right now. This is where your fuel is. This is where your TC is. Because when tires start to... When tires start to... You say degrade on me? I change that brake balance as the race is going on. I start with a very aggressive BB to the rear, depending on the car. And then as the race is going on, I may adjust it up again because the tires are wearing.

Jeff: 37:21

We should cover something like that over in race adjustments too. Yeah. Because I've been slowly, not to change topics, but to in-race changes to the car with brake balance, et cetera.

Jason: 37:33

Brake balance. And then on formula cars, you have the MGU, right? All the modes, the attack mode, the regen mode. And learning how to use that makes you faster because you're in control of what you want the car to do and when you want it to use the battery in the case of an F1 car. Or for a GT car, or you have your... How do you say this? LMP cars use the ARB, right? So front and rear ARB. That messes with the balance of the car too. So the settings are not there. They're there for you to use them. It's just that when you first start racing, you rely on the stock setup, and then you figure out what the car needs. Does it need more wing? Does it need more, you know, et cetera, et cetera. You know, so I think that's cool. I think that's good data. And trust me, I would love to help you shop for a DDU. I would love

Jeff: 38:32

to. Etsy's got some reasonable ones. I got the one I got from Etsy was, I have no grapes over it. It was, I don't do it. I don't use it anymore, but, um, They did what I needed to do. I just tried to do the, you know, the

Jason: 38:47

formula. You got that Salt Peck that has like a five inch fucking screen. You don't really need a DDU with a screen that size. But it is nice to have a screen at eye level instead of it being here where your hands are. Because now you have to do this a little bit. But then, you know, on a straight, if you're, it depends on the track, right? Depends on the track. You might not have time for a straightaway. It might be, what, a small track. that's always turning and bending and you're like, I can't change it. I can't even look at the chat right now.

Jeff: 39:21

It's the same where your RPMs are. That's

Jason: 39:24

what I do. I straight up tell the chat, listen, I hear you guys pinging messages because I have a little noise. It depends on how crazy the chat is. If it's getting out of control, then I mute it. If it's a slow night and there's one or two guys in there, then I'll turn it on. I'm like, hey, I hear the message. You know, when I get to the straightaway, I'll look at it.

Erick: 39:46

I'll look up.

Jason: 39:48

There's only one. There's the only way. You know, I've lost many races. Oh, and one thing I'll tell you, Eric, one thing. Never, ever, ever listen to a suggestion that you are not comfortable with. That goes without saying. But one time it was raining and I was racing. And the track started to dry up. And I asked the chat, I said, what do you guys think? Do you think we're dry enough for the slicks? And they're like, hell yeah. Put the slicks on,

Jeff: 40:19

boom. Rob Markman 20 minutes on the spin cycle, please. Rob

Jason: 40:24

Markman Maybe about 30 F-bombs while the headset was muted.

Erick: 40:30

Rob Markman Immediately, stage lift. Rob

Jason: 40:32

Markman Then I had to depart. I was like, hey guys, thank you for tuning in. It's been cool. You remember that one?

Erick: 40:40

Yeah.

Jason: 40:41

And I'll never do that again. So God bless you, whoever did that to me. So anyways.

Jeff: 40:47

Peer pressure is a powerful drug.

Jason: 40:51

Want to have a live coach available on demand? With Trophy AI, you'll be able to practice with Mansell 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... That's what's up. So closing this, right? Yeah. What are your overall thoughts of endurance racing for your first race, Eric? Like, for

Erick: 41:29

real. Overall thoughts, it's, you know, we talked about it before, but it's definitely like, in my mind, the pinnacle of racing, right? It requires everything that you have, everything you know. all the different functions of the car. You gotta be familiar with them if you wanna be fast. Like you said, talked about setups. If you kinda just use a stock setup, you'll kinda be at the mercy of the conditions. I'm familiar with brake balance for the most part, but after the race, there were guys talking about, yeah, I was changing my fuel, I was changing my brake balance as my tires wore down. I was, you know, doing different things, short shifting the save on tire wear. Like, there's a lot of other aspects that come into play when you're racing for that. Coasting. Yeah. So, yeah, it's the pinnacle.

Jason: 42:22

Yeah, man. You find strategies throughout, and I think it's throughout the race, depending on the condition and what happens during, you know, because it can rain. That changes your whole entire plan, right? Just out the window. Oh, I was praying for rain,

Jeff: 42:40

man. Dude did do first endurance and first streaming. So there is something to be said about, you know. Hell yeah. If you're going to jump in, you might as well jump in the deep end. Oh yeah, got to rip that bandaid off, man. Tip my hat to you, buddy, for doing that one.

Jason: 42:53

Links in the description, guys. The replay is actually on Eric's YouTube. And I will post that in here. Of course, if you guys want to check it out and... And check out some streaming from Mr. Kelly. That'd be awesome. All right. So we'll move on to the next topic. And Jeff has something cool. You always have something cool to bring to

Jeff: 43:18

the group here. I like it. Yeah, Jed. So this topic is kind of, you know, after everybody gets their setup, kind of the way that they want to, you know, if you're going to go VR, if you're going to go triples. But once you get everything to where you're kind of in it, And now you're like, I think I want to start upgrading. I've got everything. There's nothing I'm missing per se. But now you want to– like we say, it's never finished. But a lot of people jump in and they want to go what we refer to as the trophy wheel, the wheel that you are proud to put on the wall, on your rig, show off to people. Right there. I think it makes you faster. But anyway, so I want to cover some things. When you are looking for– That trophy wheel. What you got there, Jason?

Jason: 44:11

Oh, yeah.

Jeff: 44:13

We're about to have a discussion. What are you using it for? Are you a NASCAR guy? Are you a formula guy? Are you a cup car or a stock car, GT3, whatever? And I understand that people drive a variety of things, but you have to pick one that you're going to focus the wheel around or you're going to have to start looking at wheels that do a lot of things decent. But it's like a trade-off. If you think of your triangle of Formula, Stock Car, GT3, you're going to have to start giving some of those angles up to get in the other ones. But what I think, this is the first and foremost, the thing that you need to do when looking for a new wheel is you have to love the wheel. And that's unquantifiable, but you have to, when you look at your wheel, be like, Damn, that is a sexy looking wheel right there. And when I see mine in my rig, I'm like, God, that like, I just want to get in there and drive. Like I, you gotta be in love with the wheel that you're looking at. If, if, if you're looking at a wheel that it checks all the other blocks, but you don't love the way it looks. find the other wheel that you're really loving. A, because you're spending so much money on this thing that you're, you want it, you want to love it. Right. So, and you also need to start looking at some of the other functions, but first and foremost, like I walk past the rig and I see the wheel in there, especially when I got, you know, The wallpaper on there and the heart beating of the LEDs. Look at him. Jason's hugging his wheel. You have to look at it and be like, God, that's a cool looking wheel. I can't believe I have this in my house. Number one, you have to love how the wheel looks. Some other things, and these aren't in very specific order because, again, it's going to depend on what you want to use it for. But these are data points that you should be looking at when you start speccing out a wheel. So after we talk about the look, you got to love the way it looks. The next one is the size of the wheel. And that kind of goes to what you're looking to do with it. If you're driving a formula car, majority of it, you're going to drive a smaller millimeter. We show the wheels again. You're going to drive a tighter, smaller wheel if you're

Jason: 47:12

driving a Formula car, right? With millimeters, right? With millimeters, it's a good point. The thing is, I'm sorry for interrupting. No,

Jeff: 47:25

please do.

Jason: 47:26

300, I find to be the most compatible with this triangle that you're talking about because 300 could work for GT and It can work for formula. It's not the best for formula, but it can work for formula. And then it also can work for P1 cars, right? So this is already a wheel that can do three classes, in my opinion. That's why I love this wheel. And these controls have controls for exit, mid, and I was talking about ARB, right? ARB, rear, front. I was talking about down here. It says deploy down here on that sticker. Let me see if you see it right there. There it is. It says deploy, map, ABS, TC1 and 2, or yeah, TC2, TC, bias. So the blue here represents formula, and the green here represents... In this wheel's case, these are stickers from lovely dashboards. Shout out to Constantinos for making these for this wheel. But yeah, and I love this wheel. But Jeff, please go ahead.

Jeff: 48:41

No, absolutely. You

Jason: 48:43

get me excited.

Jeff: 48:44

That's fine. So if you're a stock car dude, you're going to want a bigger wheel and probably more of a round wheel than your normal formula wheel that's not a complete... uh, wheel. So, um, and those are go up. Those are, I mean, Jason, you know how much like millimeters of those guys, they're probably measured inches. They're so big. Um, so yeah. Yeah. So anyways, bigger, the bill, um, gentle,

Jason: 49:12

precise movements, right? NASCAR is very precise. If you have something this small, they're not

Jeff: 49:18

crossing their arms, right? You know, They're just little tiny

Jason: 49:22

inputs. You literally need like that much on this wheel, maybe that much to get it to turn. But on a round wheel, you have more play because it's bigger. There's more range. You know what I mean with it? This is just straight up twitch. You do this, you're in

Jeff: 49:39

the

Jason: 49:40

wall. Yeah. In our NASCAR?

Jeff: 49:42

Yeah. Yeah. So after you look at the size of kind of fitting in a range of compatibility with what you're looking for, like that triangle we were talking about with Formula, Stock, GT3, or whatever your combination of racing that you do is, then you start to look at some of the features that Jason had started to allude to. So a lot of the more common ones are your rotaries. Most of them now come with the rotaries. This one's kind of cool. The Solpec is. It's got a rotary, but then if you push in... clicks. Now you have another rotary. Push it in. It goes back to the first one. Most wheels now come with rotaries. You're going to want some with the funky switches. So it's a round, up, down, seven-way. And then every wheel should have a number of these ones, more or less, just a scroller. Jason, yours is different where it can... I think they have a setting in SimHub where you can use one one, one click, and then you can change like a volume or ABS, right? Get back. Yep. Um, so you're going to want to look at to those, uh, obviously paddles, but then they have, you know, some have clutches on the back. Um, You're gonna want to minimize the amount of plastic and it's in the wheel and obviously the higher-end wheels are gonna have a little less plastic So that's just something to look into and then one of the last things I want to talk about is compatibility with your direct drive so bought this one and I thought it was compatible with the smaller hub on the sim or the the sim magic Alpha it wasn't I was like, how come these bolts aren't lining up? Um, turns. So just, just things that need to be in your cross check. If you're looking for a new wheel, like I had to sit and not use it on the counter for like three days until I got a, you know, these, the NRG, which it looks freaking bad-ass by the way. I mean like, look at that. That goes

Jason: 51:30

on. NRG is a real, that's a real quick release. That is a real car, car

Jeff: 51:34

quickly. But like, When Max and, you know, George Russell and Lando get out of their car and they put their wheel on the car. I'm like, yeah, mine looks like that too. You know, like, look, look at that. That goes on a computer. It's really, you know, and it makes that nice little.

Jason: 51:52

Oh yeah. So

Jeff: 51:54

you need to look at the, some of the compatibility. Cause I had that problem. I had the wheel and couldn't use it. So, uh, energy makes a pretty good, um, Quick, quick, attach, quick, detach. I don't know what the right word, quick release. There you go. Thank you. The last thing that, and this is probably just as important, like looks and loving your wheel. This is like a half inch below that is it. In my opinion, it has to be SimHub compatible.

Jason: 52:23

Oh, thank God. Your wheel

Jeff: 52:25

is not SimHub compatible. How you doing? Keep it moving. You're

Jason: 52:32

severely limiting yourself to one thing. I'm going

Jeff: 52:35

to call one out here. So the Simagic FX Pro, I think the name of it is. If Simagic made that wheel SimHub compatible, that wheel would be the most popular wheel on the market hands down. Hands down. Because at that price point, you have a screen, the LEDs, the formula look, but it's not SimHub compatible. You are just limiting yourself... significantly with the capabilities of your wheel. I would never recommend anybody at any price point get a wheel that wasn't SibHub compatible. Jason, Eric, what are your thoughts on that?

Jason: 53:13

I have nothing to say, bro. Jeff, you hit the nail straight on the head and you did the karate kid, you know, where he nails it in in one shot. You know what I mean? It's like, it's not, you went, and it went right away. I'm telling you, I mean, these guys, and this is why you all need to go to the damn Sim Gaming Expo so you can put your hands on this before you spend that kind of money. I bought this with a blindfolded. Jeff was like, I love this wheel. It looks dope. I love what it does. Until you get to it. I don't know, right? You

Jeff: 53:54

open that box, you're like, dear, please God, let me like it, love it. You open it up, you're like, oh

Jason: 53:59

yeah. And you'll know the moment you do this, the moment you put your fingers around the crips and you actually take the car out for a ride, that's when you know. And I can't return this. This isn't a product that you can just buy and return. This ain't Amazon.

Jeff: 54:15

Yeah.

Jason: 54:16

Or Best Buy or anything. So I'd say, Jeff, I think I have nothing to say. Honestly, I would, in my personal opinion, I would stay away from wireless wheels because the more things that can fail, the worse. You know what I mean? You ever seen a luxury car that has way too much stuff in it? It's like, damn, if this thing fails, then I don't know. How do you say this? Too many gremlins can happen with power or wireless signals messing with the connection, and you don't want to have that happen in a 24-hour race.

Jeff: 54:57

It's hard. The

Jason: 54:59

first 15 hours is good, but now it's not good.

Jeff: 55:02

If you're going to do that, then you're kind of stuck with that DDU and wheel. Not much works interchangeable across companies. I will say one more is how your wheel connects to your PC. Mine and Jason's Probably the same exact cord. I forget

Jason: 55:22

the name of the cord. I'll get you the name of this cord, but it's a weird name.

Jeff: 55:25

Yeah, you just screw it in, and then it's got a big corally crew. Honestly, it's kind of a pain in the ass, but that's pretty much what the industry is left with.

Jason: 55:32

There you go. It's like screw it in. Like way in there.

Jeff: 55:37

It'll come out of the other end of the USB than it will before that one. You just wind it around. It's kind of a pain in the ass. I wish we had a better way to do it. I don't have a better idea to do it, but that's what we have more or less. That's pretty much the industry standard for connecting your wheel to your PC. I can't think of another company that has a better way to do it.

Jason: 55:58

So there is an option, I will say. Dan Suzuki developed a powered... I don't know what you would call it, but it's a powered hub. It's basically a board soldered, and it has a cable... And you connect this cable to USB and you use a quick release similar to this. If you look inside your quick release, it has like terminals in there, right? It's like white. I removed mine because I like the look of it just being just naked. There, there you go. Yeah, Jeff's got it up. So it'll look similar to that. And I think it costs like a few, it's not a lot of money. Um, and you can get like PCB, um, pcpboards.com. I forget that. I'll get all that information and put it below. I promise. This is like straight up from memory. Um, I think you pay him like $5 on this patron and he gives you the plans to it and the bomb, which is the bill of materials. And then you just load that bill of materials into that website and it spits out all the stuff you need. Long story short, you hook up the wheel to the base and it gets power. I don't know how he's... I don't know. It's awesome, too, because you can add...

Jeff: 57:18

It's that PFM. Yes. Pure freaking magic.

Jason: 57:21

Pure freaking magic. Straight up. And you can do this to all your other wheels that need power, and then you could just have one quick release and power them all that way. I haven't taken the plunge because I had a scare with this wheel, with a version of this wheel, and I'm... I really wanted to give it the time to see what it would be like. It's almost been a year since I bought this wheel, I want to say, or about six or seven months. Getting close, right? I

Erick: 57:55

think we're getting close, yeah.

Jason: 57:57

Yeah, it was like somewhere December timeframe, I think I picked up an Asher. Fall. Yeah, something like that. And I wanted to really test it out stock and not do anything to it. And it's been great. It's been really awesome since. But yeah, those are really good points, man. Eric, what are your thoughts? I mean, I didn't hear from you much, but I know you got a SimMagic wheel and it's connected over there and it's all looking pretty over there. You don't feel like removing her?

Erick: 58:32

No, that's not the reason why. I can show you why that SimMagic wheel is over there and my trophy wheel isn't there. Because this is my trophy wheel. The

Jason: 58:46

RSR, that's the one I want, bro.

Jeff: 58:52

We need to have a discussion someday over does officially licensed product justify the price?

Erick: 59:01

Eventually

Jason: 59:02

we need to have a conversation. Well, it's like clothes, Jeff, right? There's Louis Vuitton. You buy something from Louis and it's like $2,000 book bag. It's

Erick: 59:12

the brand, you know? Brand and quality. So my thoughts on that, the price is you can't tell me something is overpriced or underpriced unless you can show me something else that's the exact same thing for a lower price. So if you showed me somebody else making this wheel for less money, They got the one that you make your

Jason: 59:34

own. You guys hear Eric, man? He will switch it up on you. When in his favorite bro, he's like... Eric, I'm watching you, bro. I used to

Erick: 59:46

go through this, man. I used to go through this. I used to sell cars and people would come in and they would tell me what they feel like stuff should cost. And I'm like, okay, where do you get that number from? They do it with buying a car and they were even worse with selling their car. Whatever price you told them, their car is worth more than that. I'm like, sir, your car doesn't go in reverse. It's barely a real car. Okay. And so looking at this wheel, I can't say it doesn't cost that because I don't want to build one. So now I'm stuck with buying one. You show me another wheel that looks just like this. That's not that price. I will probably get it right now. Okay.

Jason: 1:00:30

I hate

Jeff: 1:00:32

when you use logic.

Jason: 1:00:34

I know. See, I'm going to give you the real. If I wanted, I mean, I would love this wheel, first of all. This is an excellent choice. It is really magnificent. Just because I'm a big Porsche guy now, a huge Porsche fan. But if a wheel came out like this and it didn't say Porsche on the front, and it didn't have the official logo on it, I will not buy it. Really? Yeah, because I know that the original OG one exists. And if it exists, then it makes me look like I'm straight up biting off the Porsche wheel.

Jeff: 1:01:14

But you got a thousand bucks in

Erick: 1:01:15

your pocket, a G. You're a G close to the motion. But when I see you on stream, I'm going to be like, hey, that's that dude with that fake Porsche wheel.

Jason: 1:01:23

I'll 3D print you a logo out and send it to you. That's like buying a Chrysler 300 and calling it a Phantom. It's not a Phantom. Bro, that's so funny. It's not a Phantom. I hope none of... I don't think anybody's driving a 300 these days. That was back in the early 2000s.

Jeff: 1:01:41

But when it came out, dude, that was... That

Jason: 1:01:44

was the funniest shit. Oh, it's a Phantom. It's the same thing. It is not the same thing. Look, that line where they were

Erick: 1:01:52

like, it looks like a Phantom until the real Phantom pulls up. And I saw a Phantom in Houston one time. When I tell you that car is humongous. When they said that, and you've seen a real Phantom, and you've seen a Chrysler 300, it hits you deep. You're like, they are not the same. It don't even look the same anymore. It's not even

Jeff: 1:02:16

close. Here's something that's going to trigger some people. This right here is like the real world Ferrari and Lamborghini. You take the Porsche logo and the Porsche name off it. It's the new Corvette ZR1 C8. Oh, really? It

Jason: 1:02:32

looks

Jeff: 1:02:32

like that? That's the equivalent. They're both like one is actually, it's the same car. It's the same, same. Actually, I'd even argue that the Corvette's better and it's a third of the price.

Erick: 1:02:42

Yeah. Performance wise. Yeah. And Lamborghini is Volkswagen.

Jason: 1:02:46

I usually... He said it. He said it. You know, vets have a special place in my heart, to be honest.

Jeff: 1:02:53

Those C8s, dude.

Jason: 1:02:54

Vets are a class of their own. They're not... You can't call them muscle cars. Those are... They're different. To me, they're different. You know? Mid-engine. Hey, we got a $20 discount. Come on, man. Oh, it's only $2,300. You see? You got a discount. I'm on

Jeff: 1:03:12

my way. I'm on my way. Hey, if somebody wants this top tier stuff.

Jason: 1:03:17

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I think, um, I think Sim Lab, I think Sim Lab took over grid. I think you might

Jeff: 1:03:26

be

Jason: 1:03:26

right. And that's how come they're making pedals now and they're making a wheelbase and they're making, um,

Jeff: 1:03:32

Oh, somebody actually, uh, uh, made a comment, uh, on one of the videos that Sim Lab has a new, uh, Mercedes, uh, model that they're pushing out with Mercedes badging on the 8020 rig.

Jason: 1:03:47

What about the old one?

Jeff: 1:03:49

Are

Jason: 1:03:49

they going to discount the old one?

Jeff: 1:03:51

No, the actual 8020, the rig has

Jason: 1:03:54

the Mercedes logo. Oh, we were looking at it.

Jeff: 1:03:55

We saw that, yeah.

Jason: 1:03:56

We were looking at it. Eric and I, we were looking at it. Yo, open that up, man. It's right

Jeff: 1:04:01

there. Yeah, right there.

Jason: 1:04:02

Look at the, oh, just zoom in. No, no, no. Click on the picture. If Jeff seen this, he will buy it just because it says AMG Patronus on the side. 100,000%. Even if it was the same rig for a thousand off, Jeff, you would buy this one. You know? What hat do you have on right now? What hat is this? Because I can get a similar hat that has the same... That's like Payless and Foot Locker, bro. Listen, bro. Again, I hate

Jeff: 1:04:38

it when you guys use logic. But in all seriousness, the

Jason: 1:04:42

P1X. That is a sexy ass freaking chassis, bro. Look at that. Yeah, but they're top

Jeff: 1:04:47

tier. They're P1X. I think it's the P1. What's their top? I forget their top. Their... P1X Ultimate.

Jason: 1:04:54

That's what I have. It's a P1X.

Jeff: 1:04:56

Yeah, Ultimate. Isn't even that much. And you could argue that the rig that, Jason, you have is a nicer one than that, structural-wise.

Jason: 1:05:03

Well, no, no. Take off the integrated Vario. Yeah.

Erick: 1:05:08

Add a little bit on there. Damn, it went

Jason: 1:05:10

up. So I paid $800 for mine. But things are going up, you know, guys, with the way things are going on in the world.

Jeff: 1:05:16

It's the metal, yeah.

Jason: 1:05:17

Yeah,

Jeff: 1:05:19

man. I know. Yeah, that's more of a rig than the other one. Shut up, Eric. It's cheaper.

Erick: 1:05:23

I'm not here in these streets, man. I'm

Jeff: 1:05:27

not here in the streets. That one's a little more... It don't come with those foot mounts, though. I think those are extra.

Jason: 1:05:36

It used to be extra. I think they're including them now.

Jeff: 1:05:40

Are they? I have the rubber mounts.

Jason: 1:05:42

Listen, I'll tell you what. I've been happy with mine. This is five years old, and that thing... Not a peep. Not a squeak. Not nothing. I

Jeff: 1:05:50

just got the Evo and it's killer for me. I think they're coming to the expo. I think I saw something.

Jason: 1:05:58

Sim Lab's coming to the expo.

Jeff: 1:06:00

Yeah. Look at the price tag of this thing. Same thing. Can't

Jason: 1:06:04

tell. All right. Listen, I would love... They did say... I ain't saying nothing. No matter what I

Jeff: 1:06:09

say, I wouldn't be guilty as charged.

Jason: 1:06:11

We're having way too much fun. Listen, let's wrap it up here.

Erick: 1:06:16

Okay. Okay. Bring it back. We're going to bring it

Jason: 1:06:18

back. We have dreams. We can all have dreams, right? So unfortunately, we're not going to have time for a track of the week because we were having way too much fun on the show. And that's sometimes... That's what it's all about, right? It's hanging out with the fellas. Sometimes... Discussing sim racing doesn't have to be so serious, right? I do want to cover three questions we got in the mail. I'm going to call it the fax machine or something. I got to think of a name to call it. Something weird, like a beeper or a pager or something that we got on the pager. You've got mail. Right, man. I'll tell you. This is my favorite part of... One of my favorite parts... of the podcast is engaging with the community. And this is, this means the world to me. So let me see who's got the first one. I mean, I think I put them down here. Um, honestly, whoever wants to go first, I'm ready to

Jeff: 1:07:14

go. Okay. All right. All right. So this is from Philip K. So I'm going to read this real quick. So, Hey, thanks Philip for, uh, send an email here. And, uh, he goes on to say how, how I mounted my shakers with the extra track racers screen mounts.

Erick: 1:07:30

And,

Jeff: 1:07:30

Amp is floating with a bungee cord strapped to a vest-mounted plate. I don't know if he means VESA, but anyways, a vest-mounted plate. Could have mounted to the seat rail exclusions, but really didn't feel like banging my ankles on them every time I got in and out. I know what you mean, dude. And let me make this bigger, so to speak. And

Jason: 1:07:55

share how he does it. Oh, he gave us pictures.

Jeff: 1:07:57

Okay. So interesting that he puts the shakers mounted inside. That's

Jason: 1:08:04

what I was telling you. Remember the same room?

Jeff: 1:08:07

Yeah, but my problem is I mounted mine way further, almost the way like my heels would be in the front because that was just where it felt better for me. I could feel the difference as it kind of– they were, I don't know, separated from– sides more uh but interesting how he mounted them they're much cleaner you know if you were looking at from the outside you wouldn't notice them where me i have these ugly you never spiked hockey pucks sitting on the side of my rig yeah yeah that's a clean mount there here i think there's one more here one

Erick: 1:08:36

more i think it gives your your chassis a little class you have those floating out there like so this is him

Jeff: 1:08:41

installing them

Jason: 1:08:44

i feel your pain man Because removing a seat and all that.

Jeff: 1:08:47

Oh, bro. That's a last resort. But you have to do what you have to do sometimes.

Erick: 1:08:53

Yeah.

Jeff: 1:08:54

That plate

Erick: 1:08:54

that he's got.

Jason: 1:08:55

I see he got the cat or dog bag next to him. That's what's up. Dude, a lot of our

Jeff: 1:09:02

companions love to just hang out with us as we're driving. Yeah. All

Jason: 1:09:07

right. Well, that's what's up, man.

Jeff: 1:09:09

Yeah. Thanks for reaching out there, Phillip. Appreciate it, man. Thanks for listening.

Jason: 1:09:13

It seems like we're getting a lot of feedback from the bass shakers lately. I do have one, a cool message I would like to cover. And this one came from Roy Wheeler. And Roy, I want to give you a huge shout out.

Jeff: 1:09:30

Yeah, man.

Jason: 1:09:31

This man was with us almost the entire 24 hours. And then he goes to bed and he's like, I'm going to be up in five hours or six hours. I'm coming back. I'm setting an alarm to get up to witness the crossing the line. So I felt the pressure. I was like, bro, if Roy gets up and we don't freaking cross the line, what's he going to do, man? I don't know. Roy says, I didn't think I would be able to go, but plans changed. Just booked flight, hotel, and purchased expo tickets of, of course, with the Chicane Podcast affiliate code. Thank you so much. It is not an affiliate. Just letting you know. But thank you so much for using that. Be ready. I will be coming with bearing gifts. Can't wait to meet you guys finally, Roy Wheeler. So the gift alone is just meeting you and hanging out with you and just... I don't know. Seeing everybody in person is going to be surreal to me. I mean, thank you so much, Roy, for this. I really appreciate

Jeff: 1:10:37

it. Royce, one of the first probably, maybe the first guy to send us an email.

Jason: 1:10:42

I think so. He's one of the, I think so. He is an OG.

Jeff: 1:10:46

OG for

Jason: 1:10:46

sure.

Jeff: 1:10:46

And it's cool to just be a part, you know, like people listen to us as they're driving to work and stuff. So, you know, he's been doing it for a minute now. So thanks, Roy. Yeah, we appreciate it, man.

Jason: 1:10:57

Thank you so much, Roy. I really appreciate the support and can't wait to meet you. Can't wait to see you at Schaumburg and at the City Gaming Expo. So guys, if you want to meet Roy, Chicane

Erick: 1:11:08

10.

Jason: 1:11:10

Get him today. It's

Erick: 1:11:12

going to be a

Jason: 1:11:12

party. It's going to be a party. That's it. So we got one more. Eric, what we got?

Erick: 1:11:18

Yeah, we got one from Mr. Nicholas Patterson. So he says, hi guys, love listening to your podcast early each week while I'm driving to and from work. They really get me pumped up to get back into the sim to practice and train for endurance racing on the weekend. You guys do a great job. Keep up the great work. Nicholas, we appreciate it, man. And I have a new respect for endurance racing. For real. He says, I'm excited to be going to the sim game in next September. Yay. Let's go. Looking forward to

Jason: 1:11:46

it. Dude, how many people? We're going to have a posse, bro. Is there

Jeff: 1:11:49

a fire limit to this thing?

Erick: 1:11:51

No.

Jeff: 1:11:52

George, you might want to look at that, whatever that number is. I'm telling you, man, you got to keep track of that.

Jason: 1:11:57

You better crank that AC down. It's going to be hot as hell in there.

Erick: 1:12:00

Oh, yeah. I'm telling you, man. So he says, plan on going all three days. I want to stop by and say hi. I'm hoping my fast lap on Daytona will get me into round two of qualifying for the race at the Expo. Hey, we rooting for you, man. Sorry to make the cut, okay? Yeah, he says, I missed out on the opportunity to get the deal on the room at the convention hotel when I bought my expo tickets. I like to stay at the Renaissance Schomburg Convention Center Hotel due to the expo being held there and not wanting to miss out on any of the fun. My question to you guys is, do you know of anywhere to get deals or discounts for hotel stays? Most of my traveling consists of staying in a camper or the cheapest motel for the night. I can only imagine I'm going to be spending money at the convention center itself. So if there is any way to get a deal on a room, it leaves more money to spend at the expo. I appreciate your time and efforts for the podcast and the SIM community. You guys do a great job. Keep up the amazing work. Hope you all have a wonderful week and good luck in the SIM. Thank you, Nicholas Patterson. Nick, can't wait to see you, man. Can't wait to see everybody, man. It's going to be crazy. I feel like we're going to have the deepest, the deepest

Jason: 1:13:10

right now. So, I mean, okay. So I'll give you guys a sneak peek on the show. Um, we're supposed to have, we're going to have, um, George Anzaldo, which is the CEO and the founder of this expo. Come on the show again before, um, Just, I want to say two weeks before the event. I want to say like, you know, if it lines up with the airing. But for this question, I will reach out to him and see if there's anything else in the area. I think that he wanted to fill up the convention hotel because I believe he had some sort of deal with for content creators or for people that were attending the expo to get a special price for it. That's how come we push that so much for you to, for you guys to purchase those. And I understand, you know, that it was probably so far, far out that you may not, you know, you may not know if you can make it or whatever, but I'm being told there's options and I'll, I'll reach out to him the soonest and get back to you.

Jeff: 1:14:17

Yeah, just do what works for me is, you know, either Travelocity has some pretty good cheap stuff. But then also what I do when I get stuck in the positions like this is obviously book something now. But as it gets closer every day, call the hotel or the convention center because people can, you know, without doubt, somebody's going to cancel.

Jason: 1:14:39

Ah, that's a good

Jeff: 1:14:40

point. So every day, maybe even twice a day, just call and ask. And don't do it on the internet. Just call and get in touch with a human to see if they have any availability with people canceling.

Jason: 1:14:53

There you go. That's a good point. That's a good idea. Or if they have a list that they may have, ask them to see if they have a cancellation list that may call you back to see if, hey, this guy canceled and they call you. A lot of people offer that because when you start calling every single day and they know you invited for an

Jeff: 1:15:12

event. You got to do what you got to do. You got to do what you got to do. Or you just don't tell them the same person. Hey, I just figured I'd give you a random call.

Jason: 1:15:19

Just have the wife do it. Just offset. Yeah, there you go. Next day, your cousin or friend or get one of those voice changers, bro. And just do it that way. Do you guys have a room? Anyways,

Jeff: 1:15:35

can't wait to see you.

Jason: 1:15:37

Oh, yeah. I can't wait to see everybody. Chicane 10, guys. Thank you so much for the emails. Keep them coming. Stay tuned for George Anzaldos' return to the Chicane podcast. He's going to come over to update us all on all the wonderful things that have changed since our first interview with him. So if you haven't seen that episode, go back and watch it or listen to it. And that way you're caught up on because our episode is going to be like a part two, almost like a, so what are we, you know, so where are we now? And, you know, basically go over all the changes that are coming to the event. So, all right, with that, guys, thank you so much. I don't really have any round tables. I'm seeing nodding here or not nodding.

Jeff: 1:16:27

Just to drive fast and break late, gentlemen.

Jason: 1:16:30

Drive fast, break late, staple of the show. Just give us a pardon on the track of the week. It's track of the week. We have something special for track of the week. The thing is... that we need time to put that through so but we started talking about cool things and the clock just the clock's going it just goes so with that guys thank you so much eric jeff appreciate it check out um smart living tech 808 and also check out tech check gaming which he just again mentioned again he did his first endurance race check him out support him drop a like subscribe everything and with that guys have a great Start of your week. Thank you.