We Paid Two Grand To Get Choked (on purpose) So You Don’t Have To

A week of chaos in F4 lobbies, a slow news cycle, and a big stack of gear talk turned into a surprisingly honest look at what really upgrades a sim rig. We start with the VR landscape—Bigscreen Beyond 2’s micro‑OLED clarity and eye tracking, the hidden cost of base stations, and the DisplayPort tax—then pivot to Pimax’s more complete, modular approach with integrated tracking and ultra‑wide FOV options. If you’re weighing spec sheets against setup friction, we walk through the tradeoffs that actually matter at the desk: cables, ports, stability, and whether you’ll fight Windows more than you race.

From there, we strap into the Cubic Systems QS‑BT1 and talk immersion with no gloss. Out of the box, it’s hilariously strong; tuned properly with a 5‑ or 6‑point harness and the right shoulder height, it turns into a different animal. Braking loads press the chest, lateral forces hug the outside shoulder, and subtle road harshness layers over your butt kicker to close the feedback loop around your body. It won’t shave seconds off your lap by itself, but it will help you catch the car earlier, stabilize stints, and make the rig feel “strapped to you” instead of the other way around. We cover setup pitfalls, smart safety habits, a “less is more” effects philosophy, and why the “entry‑level motion” label is clumsy but directionally true.

We round it out with practical buying advice for Techtober and Black Friday: when Bigscreen’s featherweight makes sense, when Pimax’s all‑in package wins, and why Quest 3 still punches above its weight for daily use. If your cockpit, wheelbase, and pedals are solid, the QS‑BT1 is the rare upgrade that might cure your motion itch entirely. If not, fix the foundation first—your future self will thank you. Enjoy the ride, share it with a friend who’s rig‑shopping, and if this helped, hit follow, drop a review, and tell us: what’s your next upgrade and why?

Watch the Full Review of Cubic's QS-BT1 Belt Tensioner: https://youtu.be/kk6x1g_fyX8?si=-RUqVnhDkEAtugDi

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:40 Announcements
• 7:34 VR Buying Mindset for Techtober
• 38:40 Cubic Belt Tensioner
• 1:00:10 Is It Worth $2K?

Transcript

Jason: 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Chicane Podcast where we discuss all things in the simracing world. I'm your host, Jason Rivera, and I'm joined here by Mr. Jeff Smart. How's it going, Jeff?

Jeff: 0:10

Dude, it's going. It's going, man. I I got in the rig a lot this week. Um, it was, you know, way more than normal. But uh, how about you? Do you drive at all?

Jason: 0:20

I have done zero driving. I've been slaving away, rowing away, if you may, on the computers and getting everything ready. Um, just a small update. I started putting out videos recently. I have a new guide for the SimHub control mapper. And I also have my first video review on the belt tensioners, which, speaking of, we're gonna give you an actual live deep dive here on the show, which was a part of the plans here is to kind of follow up here and see how you're doing with it. You know what I'm saying? Because Jeff and I we're pretty much on the same playing field uh when it comes to rigs. There's only subtle differences uh from our machines, but I think it'll be good, man. What about you? Uh did a lot of racing. I heard some F3 or F4 shenanigans happen uh this week.

Jeff: 1:12

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I it's you know, if you listen to the last episode, um I took uh made some poor life decisions and made a uh kind of did some I got into practices but didn't do qualifying. So I eventually came in last for a lot of races and lost a lot of I rating before I realized that should be on something you don't do. Um so I had to get into an F4 class that was like very bad strength of field, and it was like pile up in turn one. So um it was like survival of the fittest. I was like, just just finish the race, build some eye racing so I can get out of the get out of these races. But uh it's still fun. It's still fun.

Jason: 1:52

That's what I was about to say. You took it out of my mouth. Like, did but did you have fun though? That's the most important thing.

Jeff: 1:57

Like I was like more nervous in that race than I bitted at a lot of other ones because you're like just you don't know what's heck gonna happen out of every car, like cars sliding off, and it was like wet. They were had like you know, the it wasn't raining, but they had like standing water on the track, so it just added to a race that probably didn't need to be as interesting as well.

Jason: 2:17

Um I see some subtle upgrades over there. You look a little sharper. Um, I am noticing it a lot here on the on the show, and usually on the show, the the preview windows are not the greatest. Sometimes, yeah, sometimes we have problems with that, but yeah, some upgrades over there. Highly appreciate that. Um, trying to make the show look a little better. Um, I do have a few more announcements. Um on the 18th of this of this month, obviously. Um, we're planning on doing a 10-hour race on the Nords, or excuse me, a four-hour race on the Nords. So if you want to watch that, um, yeah, tune in on Saturday morning for me. And I was just thinking, wait, is the episode going to be live by the time that they see this and hear this?

Jeff: 3:08

But yes, I believe it should be. Yes.

Jason: 3:10

We're trying to get better at announcing things, and it'll coincide with your schedule. Now, this one will not. At the time of this recording, the SimeCube 3 has been unveiled. Um and people know what it is. We don't know what it is right now in this time and and and in day and presence, but we will update you ASAP on what went down and what's coming out. So just gonna roll right into. Yeah, go ahead, Jeff.

Jeff: 3:41

You guys no, I was about to say, I can't wait to. I mean, um, you know, uh would love to see start seeing some of the Simicube 2s uh you know on the open market as people get generated up. I hope so.

Jason: 3:53

Honestly, I I would still I would still wait, man, because next month is Black Friday.

Jeff: 4:01

Oh, 100%.

Jason: 4:02

I highly doubt Simicube is going to run out of stock that fast. I highly doubt it. You know what I mean? Maybe they have a deal or maybe they don't. Um, but it in my opinion, the price needs to come down, right? If there is a successor, um, unless they're trying to keep this one at the price point and increase the price even further, which I honestly I hope not. Um, I I really hope not, because that's gonna hurt. So you we're tapping in on the on the motion funds here.

Jeff: 4:35

So anyway, I think I think we got the uh the expos here starting momentarily too, any day now, right?

Jason: 4:41

The the expo starts on the 17th.

Jeff: 4:44

I don't know why I thought it was the ninth.

Jason: 4:47

We keep thinking it's a ninth because that's probably my fault. Uh and this is a correction on the show. I I think I mentioned last episode or the previous one, can't remember, um, that the show was starting on the ninth, and it's because I speculated that Simicube was gonna unveil the base at the expo, but that's not the case. They're unveiling it on just a private event, and then they're gonna bring it to the to Germany for people to try it out, which kind of it's kind of a kick in the in the left foot here because I wish they did that for the uh US expo, but we got the pedal. We got to try the pedal, so it's gonna be the same type of deal over there. Um their their new um passive pedal. But anyway, for today's Sindustry news update, a game called Forza Horizon, and now Forza Horizon 6 has been confirmed to be in Japan and Japan, excuse me. And there's not much info on it. Um again, we're still in the midst of waiting for the expo to drop and news to come out. So this week is a little slow on the on the news updates, you know what I mean? So I'll make sure to keep you everyone updated here on as the time goes on, on what the details on is, you know, basically everyone's speculating where it's gonna be at or what kind of terrain. Because, you know, they did Forza Horizon 5. Uh, the last one was in Mexico, but there's no possible way that they can, you know, build an entire Mexican map. It's massive. So they choose like different locations and kind of tie it together. Uh, what we do know is that there's a picture of Mount Fuji, and a lot of people are happy. See if we could do some Tokyo drifting on the on the Mount Fuji up there, and uh it'll be fun. Some shenanigans up there. Yeah, yeah, it would be. It's not really a sim racing title, but it is a fun title, is what I mean. It's a it's a nice title for you to kick back, relax, pick up a controller. Some people drift on there with wheels, but again, the five versions of it, you know, and it's not really optimized for wheel controls. I'm sure someone in the comments is gonna say, well, I have a wheel and it works perfectly fine. That's a very small group of people. I mean, I've tried. I I would love to run it on on my setup, but it's just something with the uh the steering degrees is not adding up, not matching up, you know. It it's just it's just weird looking. But anyway, that's that's a news update for this week. And I guess I'll roll right into my topic today.

Jeff: 7:38

Let's get into it, bro. We got two killer topics today.

Jason: 7:41

Hell yeah, we do. So today I want to talk about because we keep mentioning Black Friday, we keep mentioning the holiday. Um, October is Techtober. And I just want to get you guys prepared. If you're in the market for a VR headset, we did make a VR headset guide that's still relevant as of today, you know, still still good to go. And I don't see the need to bring it all the headsets in all over again, right? You guys can go back and watch that podcast that we did. I think it's guide to VR. And I just want to add two additional headsets that recently uh released on the streets, and then there's others that are releasing in December. So let's go ahead and take a look at those. I'm gonna share my screen.

Jeff: 8:35

There's some there's some uh really nice headsets that are coming out here. Oh yeah. So this one included, this one's already out there, but uh go ahead.

Jason: 8:46

Look, they're already asking for my email. I just got here, man. Calm down. So here's the big screen Beyond 2. It, you know, big screen started out with they basically made an application. They weren't really in the market of making uh headsets, and they made a V1 and now they have a V2. And I'll just go ahead and read the description here. It says the Beyond 2 redefines immersion with next gen optics delivering stunning edge-to-edge clarity and a wide 116 diagonal field of view. It's packed with micro OLED, so let that word sink in. Micro OLED displays here, displays and new capabilities like adjustable IPD for ease of sharing and eye tracking. Now even lighter at just 107 grams. But I mean, they say 107 grams with just the bare headset. That's with no audio, that's with no uh, I don't any any other attachment that you can get with it. So this is just a bear thing. Uh you can, you know, you can customize your Beyond 2 with new colors that they got. We'll look at those. And choose a custom fit cushion made from the shape of your face or a universal fit, which is a first. I'm I think it's a first. I haven't seen that before, but usually the the first one, you would have to have an iPhone, because it was an iPhone only thing, and then you would have to scan your face, send that data in, and they would make you a mold right here. See, around the plastic here. This little rubber gasket thing. So now we're gonna go over some of the options here. Eye tracking to me is a must in 2025 because eye tracking allows for more performance for basically the same hardware. You know, when you introduce phobiatic rendering, it you know, it's it's super important to consider having this because you can get away with sometimes double the frame rate with the same hardware that you already have in your computers. So this price here is very attractive. I'm not sure if uh well, not that it's attractive, excuse me. Wrong choice of words. It's a must, in my opinion. So now our total cost is going up just that much more, right?

Jeff: 11:20

So when we come I don't know if I could jump in, I have a question really. Eye tracking. So you can control and click on things with you know the you with your eye. What's eye tracking doing? Why is it why is it worth 200 bucks?

Jason: 11:32

So on the on the PlayStation, on the the PS, on the PlayStation PSBR2, whatever, um I'm not sure if you can click on things because I don't have one. Can't lie to you guys here, but I know that it will track your eyes, your iris, and whenever wherever your iris looks, it will make that image look in full fidelity. You know what I mean? So right now I'm staring at this camera lens, looking at you all, and you're looking at your lens too, Jeff. Can you see crystal clear from here on out of your peripheral view? That's basically what phobiatic rendering is. So this space around your face, uh, for those listening, you know, if you if you look at yourself in the in the car, don't crash the car. First of all, bad example. But just imagine, like, you're looking straight ahead, you're looking at the road, you can see your doors, but they're not in full view. You would have to physically move your face, move your face and eyes to kind of focus in on that. And that's basically what phobietic rendering is. So you don't have to like, let's say you wanted to game in 4K or VR in 4K. You don't have to have the full fidelity on the sides, you know, on the all the way on the bottom or whatever underneath you. Things that you're not really looking at can be blurred out. But it must be done in a way that you don't notice that they're blurred out in a sense, right? It has to be, it has to be um, how do you say, copacetic. It needs to work with each other. It can't be like just the bottom portion of your screen just looks like terrible or whatever. It has to have some sort of scaling, which basically and it's gonna be quick too, right? It's gotta be fast, yes. It's gotta be real fast, it's gotta be faster than as fast as you can look at something with your eye, you know, which is pretty damn fast. We could change direction very quickly. So that's basically what eye tracking is, and I think it's a must-have in 2025. I mean, uh, especially with iRacing now, if if you're an iRacer, they just added support for this, and I'm hearing great things across the internet about it. So, yeah, this is the funky color selections you you guys can pick from.

Jeff: 14:04

Dude, these ones remind me of that dude on Star Trek. I forget his name. You know what I'm talking about? I think so. I don't somebody'll come up with the name of whoever it is.

Jason: 14:14

I'm not a that was a while ago, bro. Yeah, it was Star Trek, or aging art. We're kind of putting in the the age there.

Jeff: 14:21

So this one got me because I went all the way to like about to hit the button. That's just for the headset. If you don't have they hit they require, I'm gonna butcher the name stations, room stations, ground stations, whatever.

Jason: 14:36

They're like these base stations that you have to buy, and they're like retarding yeah, and they're like 200 a pop.

Jeff: 14:43

Yeah, you know, so whatever it is, now you're adding 400 bucks to this thing. So that started off reasonable, and now you're it's not so reasonable anymore at that point. That's that was my only gripe, and I have heard nothing but good things about big screen um and their products, but it's also hard to it's a tough pill to swallow, dude. Because you know, there's just so many, there's also so many reviews out there of people getting them from the manufacturer to give reviews, and it I have to trust the person first and know them personally before I'm gonna take that, you know, straight no chaser as being, you know, I don't know a lot of people that would call a spade a spade if they got a product review, but for real.

Jason: 15:28

So I mean, think about it. You you start off with a base price here, and then you start adding, you know, the cushion, which you gotta have a cushion, bro. I mean, come on, it it's gonna break your damn face off.

Jeff: 15:43

So well, you don't want you know light creeping through, and that, yeah, that too, yeah.

Jason: 15:49

Or or it like scarring your face up, you know.

Jeff: 15:53

Fair.

Jason: 15:54

So if you look at these headsets that have a single band, I mean, these guys are light enough for it not to be so bad, but think about it, it's only a single band that's squeezing the headset onto your head, that's what's holding it there. So a headband, uh a band that goes in the middle of it, would be a lot better sustainable. So that way you don't have to tighten it as much because you have something that's being hung on on top of your head. That again, personal opinion. I'm pretty sure someone says that if they have one of these and they've used it for 38 hours and it's all good to go. Uh so let me go through. FOV is 116 degrees. This one's a hard thing to explain here. It's just FOV is basically how much field of view, how much to the sides and the center you can see, and 116 is pretty damn great. Let's just say that. That's pretty damn great. So dual micro OLED displays. So this thing has 13.1 million pixels, you know, is packed into two one-inch OLED displays. That is insane for it to be this tiny and basically have a similar quality to what we're looking at back here. And I'm pretty sure Jeff uh Jeff came over the other day and he was like, dude, these screens very, very nice, very nice, very nice. So let's let's just run through the specs here. This is a resolution, uh, 5120 by 2560. The contrast ratio, 500,000 to one. Jesus. Um this is an update one here. Yeah, 90 hertz. So good enough. That is great. 90 hertz is the industry standard. That is this is the this is the bread and butter for VR. You don't really need anything higher than 90. Even 72, you would just get by with 72, and I think that's the minimum nowadays. And then there's this the peak pixels per degree, right? The 32 pixels per degree. This is the steam tracking device that Jeff was talking about. These are the little stations. So now this device, and we're not grilling it, I'm just comparing. We're just comparing to the other the other headset that I'm gonna talk about. Um, it's not included, and you have to go shopping for this thing, and sometimes they're sold out, sometimes you had to buy them used, and it could be messy, you know. So here's the track, the eye tracking. Um, it's using advanced AI and computer vision research uh to get you that, and it works on both. Um, it's got an interface running on AMD and NVIDIA graphics, so that got you covered. Then the adjustable IPD. Dave Cam did an excellent video showing off this headset. And shout out to him. I'll leave a link because I did watch that video and I found it very interesting. And when he started pointing out some of the things that I'm sharing here, this is how I got the idea to throw in the other headset and compare it to it. You know what I'm saying? So, minimum, this is the specs. I mean, obviously, a 2070, which I would not call that minimum. I I would call that barely scraping like everything on low, like you don't even see shadows.

Jeff: 19:33

What's the point of buying? If you're gonna buy this headset, you're not you're not running a uh a 2070. That's a great point, Jeff.

Jason: 19:40

Like, yeah, because you're buying an OLED display, right, on your face, and you're gonna have to turn down the graphics, you might as well just sim race with a single monitor, you'll be better off, you know what I mean?

Jeff: 19:55

Honestly, or take the 1200 you're gonna put by on this thing, buy a better graphics card, and then just rock a quest three for the meantime. That's it, you know, because you're you're just not gonna be utilizing this thing nearly as good as you could.

Jason: 20:11

And the thing about technology is you know, that's a good point. Because the thing about technology is it's there's always something new coming out. There's always something new like on the horizon.

Jeff: 20:22

I got one more one more point here that I think is is for me is important is this is this connects via um display port. I'm out of display ports. You know, so interesting. That it's it's right there, buddy. Um display port 1.4. Um, this is the uh or is um these are the tech specs. No, below it. Oh, below. Nope. Anyways, if they I believe this connects. I think this is close VR VR wide is.

Jason: 20:59

Oh, so it's calling for a display port. Interesting.

Jeff: 21:02

You know, so I run a quest three and I'm drive 50-50 VR versus triples, and I can get away with a quest three because it's uh USB-C.

Jason: 21:13

Right.

Jeff: 21:14

I I don't have another display port. I'm you know dead in the water. I can't even take off the top monitor because that's just HDMI. So that's an absolute goes in the agonculator when I'm looking for another headset.

Jason: 21:28

So I I will say that you can purchase third-party splitters, you can have them switch back and forth if you don't mind pressing a button, but then that's another cost, you know, that just keep that just keeps building up on the cost, right? One of those switchers, if you want a fancy one with a remote controller, yeah, you're looking about 50 to 60 dollars, you know.

Jeff: 21:53

And then NVIDIA surrounds, I'm sure, is gonna shit itself if you try to use that.

Jason: 21:57

NVIDIA surrounds is gonna have a heart attack, though. It's gonna have a freaking aneurysm. Like it isn't, you're gonna have to shut the whole thing down. Even without NVIDIA, just Windows itself, the the um display management is atrocious. I mean, with my triple 42s back here, I plugged in a VR headset and I used virtual display just testing things out. And as soon as I came out of it, one of them was off, then the other one would turn on, change resolution, then this one would come on, the right one would the left one would come on and turn on and off. And it was like testing each monitor, and it was driving me insane. It it took like 10 minutes. I just straight shut down and I was like, uh, okay.

Jeff: 22:43

We'll start start this from scratch. I just bring that up as a data point for people to make sure that they're thinking about that type of stuff if they're gonna order a headset that requires a uh display port. All right, so this is coming out in December, and then there's other options that I think if you order it now, you get them in December because when I was looking at it, it was deliveries were November. So I think they're kicking out batches, at least for the big screen.

Jason: 23:09

Oh, really? Interesting.

Jeff: 23:12

Yeah, unless they push the whole thing back. But I was I'm really looking in these with how much I've been driving uh in VR.

Jason: 23:20

Yeah, so they have a new um a new air model, I think it was. No, excuse me, I'm confusing. So this is big screen. Sorry about that, guys. This is big screen. So now what I want to share now is the competitor. And the competitor is PyMax, and Pi Max wants to chat, of course. Everybody wants to they want me to sign up for emails. So they also have the Dream Air, which is an AK resolution, and it's the world's smallest full featured VR headset. So I mean this.

Jeff: 24:02

What's full feature?

Jason: 24:03

Well, let's go and find out, shall we?

Jeff: 24:05

I mean, it's just like world first by a standard that we're gonna make up, you know. Come on, just just tell me. You don't have to tell me that you're you know okay.

Jason: 24:14

So it's micro OLED, lenses by a Sony, pancake optics.

Jeff: 24:19

I'm done with it.

Jason: 24:20

I know you bro. You're kind of a Red Bull fan, man.

Jeff: 24:26

I'm slowly turning into one.

Jason: 24:28

I know. We can't be friends after that.

Jeff: 24:29

So I'm sorry, not F1 friends for sure.

Jason: 24:33

So pancake optics, you know, from the future says here, but in a quest three, that's the kind of optics that you're using, is pancake um optics. Inside out tracking. So tracking is our way to make your VR journey smoother. The headset tracks your head, your eyes, your controllers, and even your hands if you wish. I don't see anything about a need for adding any third-party nothing.

Jeff: 25:02

Um so yeah, this one have passed through. That's a good question. If it's tracking hands, I imagine that it's gonna have. I don't see any cameras on there, but that doesn't mean that they don't.

Jason: 25:16

Behind the lenses, probably. I mean, yeah, for them to see all this, it has to have something. Maybe they do have something. You know, again, guys, this is all Shakeane Podcast is straight up like live. We don't plan this stuff.

Jeff: 25:30

And I don't yeah, and to kind of have a further discussion here is uh I don't believe pass-through is there for sim racing. We Jason and I, what is this, like maybe six months ago, we put some effort into maximizing the options that are that enable pass-through where you could see um your VR, but you see your screen, your your wheel hands and cockpit more or less.

Jason: 25:55

Oh, yeah.

Jeff: 25:56

We just couldn't crack it where it was like it looked good enough. It was just it did both shitty, you know?

Jason: 26:03

Yeah, because it it requires a super dark pitch black room, and I mean darker than dark, bro. Like they want you to be in a room that's darker than like being outside on a boat in the middle of the ocean.

Jeff: 26:21

That's the kind of dark they want to be, and I'm pretty sure it's and then a spotlight on the object that you want lit up on the room. And then you want a light on the object. All right, we're just not there yet. I hope we uh, you know, that would be great, but Pastor is not on my list of requirements for VR at the moment.

Jason: 26:38

So I can't find the spec, so we'll we'll just move on. I mean, the I do want to talk about this headset, which is the Crystal Super Micro OLED, which again they have the craziest names for this thing. Crystal super golden bundle, the Christors, the crystal, like Jesus, the the Q-LED version.

Jeff: 26:59

It's hard to keep them straight, to be honest with this company. There's just too good.

Jason: 27:04

Yeah, these guys, these guys are pumping out products like like there's no tomorrow, like for real. So, in my like in my personal opinion, if I had to choose between those two, I would go this route. And the reason is it's it's it's heavy, it's a heavier headset, it is a lot larger. But then the thing is the pound for dollar, right? What are you getting in return? So you get a look, I mean, look at the resolution on this thing. Look at the same FOV, right? 116. Let me see if we can integrated everything. It has it all, it's got audio, it's got the tracking, it's got controllers. You don't need to work, you buy this thing, you put it on, and you go. And the beauty is that this cable right here, um, the display port has a built-in splitter, right, ready to go. And these guys, they're heavy, but they're comfortable. You see all this padding, padding, padding, some forehead padding here. I mean, you're gonna look like somebody coming out of like an alien movie or something with this thing on, you know, like it's gonna be, but I mean, come on, it has integrated space. Let me see if there's a and I heard really good things about their software. Pi Max, if you're listening, I would love to try one. Jeff would definitely love to try one. Send send one to him.

Jeff: 28:32

Dude, the the quest software is garbage. The connectivity for that thing, and I know that's just like a thing out on you know, a lot of people are having problems with the meta quest software. It's just it takes me like five tries to get it to hook up to the computer. Yeah, you know, once it connects, it's good, but god, like sometimes you gotta restart your PC, sometimes you gotta restart your head. You know, it's just like just work. I paid a lot of money for this thing, just work, right?

Jason: 28:59

Yeah, just let me. It's 2025. I mean, we shouldn't be dealing with these shenanigans anyway. Yeah, you know, they know what you're gonna do with it, they know they market it as a feature, so make it easier on people. Why are you making it so difficult? I want to point out right here that you guys are seeing on the screen is exactly what I was explaining earlier. This is how phobietic rendering works. And it and it's got a cockpit, Jeff. You're not you're getting into that flight thing.

Jeff: 29:27

I know I have dude. VR, flight sims in a VR, Jason, are unbelievable.

Jason: 29:33

Oh, I bet.

Jeff: 29:34

Unbelievable.

Jason: 29:35

I have no doubt about that.

Jeff: 29:36

But this is not a flight sim podcast.

Jason: 29:38

This is a yeah, it's not a flight sim podcast, but again, we have rigs.

Jeff: 29:42

But if you if you have it, it's fairly, you know, you can get a uh a hotel stick and throttle, and it's fairly cheap and have an unbelievable experience.

Jason: 29:52

Hell yeah, bro. So you have 53 pixels per inch versus the I can't remember the number at the Moment, I think it was 30. Um, look at the resolution, dude. Nice, same 90 uh 90 hertz and 116, right? Same thing, and then you can go up for even super wide, ultra wide, 140 horizontal, which is insane, bro. Like that's insane. So, this is the thing about this headset, these things are modular. You can buy the module. Let's say you wanted the ultra-wide module, you can take this module off. Look, I'm I've been talking, I was just mentioning that. You can take this off and put something ultra wide, say if you want to play DCS, where you don't care too much about the the the you you care about the instruments on the on the aircraft, of course, but you would love to see more to the sides because the more to the sides you can see and above um the to the sides, because above is you're gonna have to pull up to see them. But the more to the sides you can see, the better it is at spotting uh aircraft, in my opinion. Yeah, I mean what do you think, Jeff? You you 100%.

Jeff: 31:08

I mean, you are moving around in the cockpit, like, especially you know, if you're just flying, but if you're like, you know, you're trying to shoot something down or being shot down. I mean, like you're you know, moving all around. You look like an idiot, but you're all around the rig, looking behind you and stuff. So that would be super helpful.

Jason: 31:26

Yeah, so I in in retrospect, guys. I mean, let me just close it here. Um, this is just a quick discussion between buddies right now that we just happen to do on the show that's kind of showcasing how we would shop for something in the eyes of a consumer, right? Because if you're a buyer, you're a consumer, and you're looking to see, well, where's my money going? Right? I didn't even see that, I didn't even check the price. I think the price is like I should have checked the price, bro.

Jeff: 32:03

Um, I think that you know it's I think the first one starts around the same price that the uh beyond two, the big screen two does, and then it gets exponentially more expensive from there.

Jason: 32:16

I I will redeem myself here right now because I don't want to leave you guys leaving in the dirt like that. So these are the prices in my eyes, this guy right here is unbeatable. It's because if you looked at this is unbeatable, because if I was to pre-order this, I'm I'm afraid to click it because it's gonna want my email, my social security, all kinds of stuff. So let me just hold on. If you were to add everything you need to achieve what this guy can do, you would be playing, you'd be paying roughly the same price. And you're you know, and those base stations, like Dave Cam said, I'll quoting Dave Cam. I really enjoyed that video. You need at least two of them. You know, one of them is not enough. That's already that's like 400 bucks right there.

Jeff: 33:11

And it's bushly, you gotta buy them used. I'm sorry, like that's the part that it drives like you gotta buy them on eBay or something.

Jason: 33:16

Yeah, and they're hard to find. Yeah. Um, and especially when these guys start to drop, when the other headsets are gonna drop, good luck buying one of those.

Jeff: 33:25

You know, have you heard? I'm sorry, Jason. I didn't mean to cut you off.

Jason: 33:29

No, you're good. Uh, I just wanted to hold that thought, Jeff. Let me just finish up here. I like that they have this option here with an upfront payment. They don't make you pay the full price of this. I think I got the wrong headset. Um, I think it's the 50. Anyway, let's pretend, right? They all do this, they all do this from the from the crystal super up. You don't pay the full price, you pay an upfront cost, and then they bill you the rest later. It's kind of weird. Right. And I asked um a good buddy of mine, so shout out to EW Sim Racing, and I asked him about this, and I was like, wait a minute. So they sent you the headset and you pay the upfront cost. Do you have to run a credit check, right? Because you just gave me a $2,000 headset. Now I'm running for the Hills, Jeff. Canceling the credit card. He got disappeared. You know, I'm I'm not condoning that at all. Or, you know, I don't support that. But I'm just saying, um, it is an option because this is a very expensive piece of equipment. It is, you know, it is, but this is we're comparing the two top dogs in the VR space. But anyway, I'll leave links to everything. Jeff, what what would what did you want to mention?

Jeff: 34:56

I have you heard anything about Pimax not or just blowing their, you know, hey, we're gonna get these pro this product shipped out, and they're late to shipping those out. I thought I heard something about that.

Jason: 35:07

Um in the early days they did, and in the early days there was some reliability issues that we cannot pretend like they didn't happen. So I'll tell you that right now. Um, but I've heard because again, I don't have one. I wish I did. I've heard that their customer service has improved and that they are trying to, you know, they just signed a deal with LMU. You know, they they're officially partnered with L with Le Mans Ultimate. So I mean I think if you buy one of these headsets, they give you the game for free. I mean, I mean, you just spend two grand 30 bucks. Well, if you give me the game, are you giving me the full game? I don't want to burn out LMU too much. You're gonna give me the game and then I'm gonna have to go and spend money again, or do I get the full thing, or how does this work?

Jeff: 35:58

Fair point.

Jason: 35:59

Fair point.

Jeff: 36:00

I'd love to try one out if they want to send one.

Jason: 36:03

That'd be awesome. So if they're listening, maybe I'll forward this show to them and see if we can give you guys better feedback. But again, just remember, this is live. We don't script this, and we're just looking at things as we see them in this current market because a lot of what I'm noticing is that these websites they do a terrible job at telling me the specs. They give me big pictures that I don't that I don't care about because the picture is not that's not what that's gonna look like when I get the thing. I want to see uh more details about the product. So they make you go through like they make you click all kinds of stuff, like if you were gonna buy it, and then you get the specs, you know. So minor criticism. Um, or it could just be me that that doesn't know how to navigate a website. I mean, that could be it. I mean, I accept that one. That one's easy. So I think that's gonna be it. Yeah, I think I think I think that'll wrap that up. It's just a quick discussion on the some VR headsets that are coming out um, you know, for the holidays.

Jeff: 37:07

I'd love to you know step up for my quest three. It the quest three for uh I I feel like we owe it to at least speak to it because the dollar to quality ratio for a quest three is hard to compete. Um it's not top of the line, but it's not top of the line price, not by any stretch of the imagination. So um it's a fairly solid headset for what 300 bucks now?

Jason: 37:32

No, there's still 500.

Jeff: 37:34

I mean, you can get used ones, no problem for 300, but yeah, a new one.

Jason: 37:37

Yeah, 350 is yeah, around there. I mean, uh and and to close and to really see here's the thing with the quest, and I'll and I'll stop. I am a Quest fan because I love that the Quest does more than just sim racing and flying and and being on the PC. You can take this thing with you, you can put it in a bag, you can go on travel with it, you can play golf in your hotel room if you're weird like that.

Jeff: 38:05

Uh you can watch a hundred inch T screen and on the flight to wherever you're going.

Jason: 38:11

And it looks it looks crisp. Yep. I mean, and it has pass-through. You can walk around the house with this thing and not hit nobody, you know, fully wireless. So, I mean, we gotta give it some it's a pretty incredible piece of tech for what it is and for how much it costs, honestly. Um, but yeah, that's that's kind of my topic for today, and I'll pass it over to you for for the uh main event, I guess. The main event.

Jeff: 38:39

Yeah, all right. So I don't think it's been should be a surprise to anybody that Jason and I have both got the uh belt tensioner by cubic systems.

Jason: 38:52

Correct, cubic systems QSBT1. Yeah, it's I know because I said that a thousand times for your review. Sorry.

Jeff: 38:59

If you haven't seen Jason's review um that he just put out, give it a watch. It is super high quality, a lot of information. You can see it in action. Um, but, anyways, so we both got it. A little bit of inside baseball is I've been looking at one of these for quite a while. I think I've watched damn near every YouTube review um about them. And I went to the expo with my heart set on getting to try one of them and to see what they were all about. Um, and quite frankly, blew me away. I mean, the first thing you get into a rig with one of them is the first thing you kind of notice. Even a motion rig is just like, whoa, like I'm I'm attached, I feel like I'm attached part of the car. Um, so I Jason, I thought we'd have a kind of a discussion over. I I got some discussion points here, um, and we could give people some feedback. So this is uh, you know, it could be in that you know, we can give some more info to those that are maybe on the fence because they're not a cheap piece of gear. So um I I wanted one my first was to just to help the immersion, the level of immersion, make you feel like you're in a car. And I I'll go first here and then pass it to you, what your thoughts are. And like it blows that out of the water. Like the immersion level of one of these things. When you um my analogy here is uh it uh in the Air Force they talk about when you get into a jet, you strap the jet onto you. You don't get in the jet, you strap the jet onto you, and you you know, you you go into combat with the jet strapped onto you. That's how I feel when I get in the car. I'm not the rig, I'm not getting into the rig. You get in and you strap the rig onto you, and you're getting into this car. And the level of feedback that you get, and now, you know, Jason, you you kind of brought me on to the the what is it, the road harshness setting that you can add to it.

Jason: 40:52

Yeah.

Jeff: 40:53

Um incredible level of immersion. Um, sometimes it's like, man, I'm like, I know half the a lot of these people aren't either on motion or have one of these, and I'm like bouncing around down the road, you know. Yes.

Jason: 41:06

Uh especially on the streets.

Jeff: 41:08

Yeah, it's just super immersive street. Uh and F, you know, in a formula car when I'm going around high speed turn using down force, you know, it's grabbing your outside shoulder and squeezing it as in like you're going, your body obviously wants to go to the outside, and it puts that pressure on you, and it fools your mind that you are actually going around and that having that sustained g force, if you will. So I think it has added incredible levels of immersion to to my rig and my sim racing experience. So, Jason, talk to me what your thoughts are on when it comes to immersion.

Jason: 41:46

So, immersive immersion, right? It and I went over this under on the review, but I'll go more into it because honestly, I didn't feel that way when I first started using it. What I felt was pure pain and agony because I bolted this thing. I went onto a freaking live stream and I was being yanked to death. And then I chose a 50-minute race that was an endurance race, and I was like, dude, I just want out of this thing. And then it didn't have a button to turn it off. At the time, I didn't have uh uh, you know, I at you know, I since bought smart plugs, but now when I first got it, I I just I just bought it and then I put it on. There was no way to turn this thing off.

Jeff: 42:33

Jason's let me just tell a little bit of story here because it's world class. So Jason's telling me, he's like, it just got delivered, I got it. My my my race starts in like an hour and a half, and I'm like, bro, that's gonna be close. Whether you get this thing installed, buttoned up, and what and he's coming down to like the wire. And I'm like, if you don't change the settings, you're gonna kill yourself. Because it out the box, this has way more power than anything coming out the box strap on to yourself that like potentially hurt yourself. It's way stronger, but anyway, so I what did you do? You jumped in the rig for a 50-minute race with an odd at the power that it comes with.

Jason: 43:15

Michael told me, you told me. I said, How bad can it be? Yeah, right, bro. That thing was yanking on my chest. It was it was after a while I got used to the pain, but then I was like afraid to hit on the brakes, you know, like because I didn't want to feel that pain. I was like avoiding it. I was like, I don't want to feel this, this is not cool right now. And then I started doing the fine-tuning, and I started getting the belts to the correct tension and getting them uh and getting them to how do you say uh I'm just thinking, I'm sorry, I'm pausing. There's a lot of there's a lot of settings that it go that you there's a reason why in the video I said to use a cell phone because I was I was getting up out of the rig, make an adjustment, sit back down, get up out of the rig. I I did that like 10 times and I was like, this is ridiculous. It's I need I need somebody to help me, and there's no one here. And I'm not gonna ask my wife, she don't know exactly what I'm trying to do or what or what she's looking for. I wouldn't I wouldn't trouble her with that either. I was just I just took a cell phone, bro, and I started recording to see how far up I needed to go. Um once I did that, I put the belts, I I put the belts on, they fit great, but then they were still hurting. So then I ordered some pads and that fixed everything. Everything else was gone. So I mean, I know that that that's we're not answering the question here. How is it more immersive? It feels like you're in a car, it really does. And you know, when you have base shakers, base shakers are usually the low to the rig, right? They're always mounted low. If it's either under the seat or it's either on the sides of the rig, but now I'm getting feedback on top of my body, in addition to the butt kicker, which kind of completes the sphere, if you may, like a like a sphere around you of feedback. So you really feel like you're part of something. Like it it sounds cheesy as hell, bro. But when you jump in the rig and you actually have to strap up and you actually have to get them adjusted right, it it you know, it's that next step, right? It's that that final step before adding a motion platform. It is cool, it really is.

Jeff: 45:46

All right. Next one is I think we should be we should let people know that this isn't something that you can just buy and hook up to your rig. You need to have your rig needs to be prepped for it. And what I mean by that is you need to have a molded seat, um, as well as a seat that has the uh the holes installed from that you can see over Jason's left shoulder there, um, that the seat belts can pass through it. So um you need to make sure that your rig is set up for that. Um, and I will also say here that um while it will work with a four-point harness, I will not recommend a four-point harness. Uh, you know, um Mikey at the same racing den told get I told you know at the expo, I was like, hey, say it, these things. Say it, bro.

Jason: 46:34

Okay, I'm giving I'm giving the go ahead. Okay, I'm giving the five.

Jeff: 46:38

And he's like, don't use a four, get a five. And I'm like, yeah, bullshit. It'll be fine. It'll be fine.

Jason: 46:43

Um that's what I said when I installed the thing.

Jeff: 46:46

And I got the four, and it's like just pulling the whole rig up. And I was like, God damn, Mikey was right. So went out, ordered another uh five-point harness, and let me tell you, that little last dick strap, if you will, the strap that comes through the comes through the center makes all the difference in the world. So this is a little inside joke that Jason and I have that uh that little uh that little last strap um makes all the difference in the world. You're gonna want a five, even a six. Um, I'm not sure if there's a difference, whether it makes it better or worse with a five or a six. That's user preference at that point, but you need to have that one that keeps your lap belt down so it pulls on your shoulders and not just pulls everything up on you. So would you agree to that, Jason?

Jason: 47:37

Uh a hundred percent. The the only thing I will say, and I left out of my video because I want you to make that choice, you the user. Um, it depends on your body type. For me, a six-point is comfortable, it's way more comfortable because it hugs the insides of your legs. Uh, a five-point is just going right down the middle. It's just one belt going right down the middle. So it could it depends who, what kind of body, what kind of how do you say, um, yeah, there's no other way to say it. What kind of what kind of physical shape you are, and how do you fit in this rig? Because some people like to have the belts over the seat. And for me, I like to have the belts go down in through the hole from the seat. And with our aka mod that we made to mount the how do you say this? The butt kicker. To mount the butt kicker. Yeah, all I did was run the belts in there and made a tiny gap for the belts to just pass through because the the buckle sits on the top, and then I just screwed in the uh you know the mounts on the bottom. And you can buy the you don't have to buy these mounts, uh, these these these uh little what do you call those, those loop mounts? Yeah, little eyelets.

Jeff: 49:00

I mean if you just go to local hardware store, you can figure it out for the colour.

Jason: 49:04

I went to Amazon and bought like 10 of them for like 15 bucks. Yeah and then make sure that they're um make sure that they'll fit a T-nut, you know, depending on the T-nut size that you choose to use. And as long as you do that and they're not too make sure they're not too long so that way just take a measuring, just take some measurements of how deep the the profile is and make sure that it doesn't like because you don't want metal to metal, right? You don't want the screw to be so long that it'll touch the actual rig and scratch it up, you know what I mean. I I don't know. I we we paid a lot of money for these things, and you know, Jeff is one of those guys that he will get it to work when he wants it to work, and he was like, Oh, we bought these little small little keyboards, and I was like, bro, none of this part of this rig separate topic here is magnetic. He's like, just scrape the bare metal. I didn't say anything to you, Jeff, that day, and I'm telling you now.

Jeff: 50:04

Mount a little piece of metal, like oh, okay.

Jason: 50:06

I thought you meant scrape off some bare metal, like bro. I am not doing that.

Jeff: 50:11

It's aluminum, too, right? I don't think aluminum works, a magnet works on aluminum, it's aluminium for something. Yeah, for for the for those over the other side of the pond. Yeah, fair.

Jason: 50:21

I keep, I'm telling you, I can't figure out English. I've been in the country for so long, I still can't figure it out. So it just depends who you are. You know what I mean? But uh yeah, I think pretty much you pretty much agree with with all the four will work.

Jeff: 50:37

You're gonna get way more satisfaction out of a five or a six-point harness. Okay, all right. So I was a little surprised. Next topic here is uh I was a little surprised that it does more than just breaking uh the feel for breaking. So, like when you're gonna obviously you go into a corner and you hit the brakes, it pulls on your chest, but then it also has Jason. How many settings do you think that the software has? I think it's probably wow. I mean, it's probably 20-ish. Probably and I'll just I'll just go real quick off the top of my head on some of them. You got obviously braking, uh centrifugal motion. Um there is the gear shifting up, gear shifting down. There is there's even RPMs. You can feel like you're like you can feel the car, you know, uh but it's not a single slider, you can adjust the sharpness there.

Jason: 51:29

You know, perfect. Thank you. The the duration too, how long you want the feedback to feel. I usually trust cubic to have those settings right, and all I've been touching so far is just the gain.

Jeff: 51:41

Yes, 100%.

Jason: 51:43

The gain, the the strength.

Jeff: 51:44

Usually it's turning it way down because the thing I'm shocked at how strong this thing is.

Jason: 51:49

Yeah, because it'll do engine vibration. You can change the entire way this thing vibrates over the course of an entire red line. You could you could tell it at 100 RPMs, I want you to do this. It's insane what you can do to this thing because that's what surprised me. Is it's not just a thing that you buy that just is going to pull whenever you stop, whenever you slam on the brakes, or whenever you hit the gas, or whatever it is, or whenever you crash. That's the difference between buying something that's third party and buying something that's that has you know a plethora of settings and effects that you can easily tune. You know what I mean? Because they make it really easy for you to do that, in my opinion. At first, it looks like a whole world of holy crap. This is a lot of this is a lot of shit. And then you start to understand, you start to play with the settings, and you could do these on the fly. That's they're really yeah, you can you don't have to turn it off, or whenever you go to the pits, it's really smart. Um, whenever you go to the pits, it deactivates because there's no engine turned on and it knows that the engine's not turned on. It's really smart that way. Really smart.

Jeff: 53:07

Awesome. Yeah. Uh, and another thing, uh, my feet, my personal feedback is you know, kind of less is more with these things. Pick three, maybe four things that you like um and let it be after that. Um, it just becomes noise. That's my pain. That's my opinion. I'm sure every some other people turn a bunch more than that on, but that's what I found is my sweet spot.

Jason: 53:28

I just think that if you guys if you guys really if you go, if you go and purchase this thing, regardless of where you purchase it from, you know what I mean? Turn down the brakes, because that was the hardest thing that I found that was really just choke like taking the oxygen away from my lungs.

Jeff: 53:52

It's way stronger than it needs to be. It's like and stronger than I even thought it was remotely that strong.

Jason: 53:59

It is crazy, bro. It's crazy strong. And the gear shifting too can be a little just you know, like going like this to your body, like making your body jerk whenever you hit the gear. It's cool and it'll bring a smile to your face. But I mean, after a while, it's kind of like all right, yeah, that was fun, but I I want to use this for like I want some information and some immersion, like a little bit of both, like a combination of both. So that's really how I I tuned it. But honestly, I would not touch my my my ultimate advice here is to get it tuned the right way. And I mean when I mean tune, fine-tune, like the adjustments, make sure those belts are like pillows over your shoulders and make sure that you got the right height for these guys.

Jeff: 54:56

That's a great point, too. So I'll bring the if you I'll bring it. Go ahead, Jason. You can finish up your point. I'll add on.

Jason: 55:01

No, just just before we move on, make sure you got the right height and then go into the software and start messing around. Because the last thing you want to do is go in there, mess with the settings, then you adjust the belts. Now it's all messed up again, even though you can just go back to default. But just trust me, get them right. You'll know when they're right. You'll know right away when they feel right. Whenever you feel that force, the force should should come um evenly across the chest. It should not pull you down, it should not lift you up. If it's doing that, something's wrong, and it says it in the manual, too. It's got like this cool little mannequin that shows them getting choked out.

Jeff: 55:44

Yeah, I mean, ideally, you want the holes of your seat right at your shoulder. Unfortunately, I'm a taller, I have a longer torso, I'm a taller dude, and mine are a little bit lower. So I do have to, I had to buy off Etsy. A dude makes these 3D printed did those come in? Things they did, yeah. They help a lot. It basically lifts up the seatbelt like an inch, inch and a half. Um, I don't think you see them behind me, but yeah, they help a lot. I would I still wish it was higher, but it's a lot better, and that helps pull back and not squeeze me down.

Jason: 56:15

Email the show at the Shicane Podcast if you have a tensioner. Um, Jeff, share a link. We'll share a link with you so you can go and buy that.

Jeff: 56:25

Yeah, absolutely. Um yeah, man.

Jason: 56:29

That I didn't know. I know you got back from travel. We were talking about this. Is the thing Jeff is on vacation, and we're talking about tensioners every day. Dude, I well, I got it like five days before I left. Nah, bro, it was longer than that.

Jeff: 56:44

It wasn't that much longer.

Jason: 56:45

It was bro, you think it was five days because you were like, I can't I can't sleep right now. I want to go. It was way longer. It was like a week.

Jeff: 56:53

It's definitely that you want to get in the rig.

Jason: 56:55

You had them, you literally ordered this thing while we were at this. You're right. I didn't that that's that's bro. That was over a month and a wow, month, almost a month and a half now. Yeah, okay.

Jeff: 57:07

So I'll we'll give a quick story here on how this happened is uh and give a shout out to a company because you know, a lot of times you only hear companies when you know stuff goes bad, right? Or they screw up shipping, whatever. So uh I had a discussion with uh and I'm gonna butcher the name. Uh so Jason, help me out here. Uh a PV. App. Yes. Uh sim Sim, I think Appy V Sim. App Sim. Uh had a discussion with them, and you know, super cool company. Um, and I was like, hey, I'd like to buy one of these, but nobody in the United States has got them in stock. And he was like, Oh, we do. And I was like, hey, dude, like I hate to say it, but as a customer, it says out of stock uh or sold out on your website. And he's like, I know we got some in the warehouse.

Jason: 57:58

Appy V simulator, yes. There you go. That's what it's called. And we even butchered that when we interviewed the the owner, which seems like super good dude, super nice guy. Hooked up, he hooked me up with the affiliate for the video too. So, I mean, right now they're sold out.

Jeff: 58:17

And they've got a bunch of batches in since the expo. So it just goes to show you that um it's a sweet piece of gear.

Jason: 58:25

People people were picking them up because people were noticing there were there was many rigs that were using them. Their own cubics, of course, right? And then I had I tried custom ones from other motion platforms, and they were not nearly as good. I would say the only one that rivaled that's probably better, but you it's not something that you can buy, it's custom made. It's from uh Driven Dynamics, the $175,000 rig, which remember those belts were amazing, those belts were like self-adjusting. That was cool. You know how you just pull them down?

Jeff: 59:05

Yeah, it was like I was like messing around.

Jason: 59:07

He's like, oh no, you don't have to do anything to them. They know they just go and they adjust.

Jeff: 59:11

So maybe, maybe in the future. Yeah, those are also like three twice as big, too, and they sit up by your shoulders behind your seat. So, but yeah, those were cool too.

Jason: 59:22

Yeah, they take like a massive, and it's not again, it's not a consumer product. Can't buy them, yeah. Can't buy them.

Jeff: 59:28

So um, I'm gonna keep move keep it moving here, Jason. Uh, I also want everybody to know I had a concern that I think I've I've kind of hit this a bunch of times, that it it wasn't gonna be strong enough to it. Let me tell you, this thing's plenty strong enough. I think I have it on maybe if you had to put percent to the gain slider, Jason. I think I have it at like maybe 20% for for for breaking.

Jason: 59:53

For breaking, I use 40.

Jeff: 59:55

Yeah.

Jason: 59:56

I found that 40.

Jeff: 59:58

You could kill yourself. If you mess up the case, you can get hurt. It's almost like, oh, maybe I should put an emergency stop on this thing. It's that strong. Like if there was a short in there and you could hurt yourself.

Jason: 1:00:11

The thing is smart though. It has like safety features built in to prevent certain things from happening. Like if telemetry goes wild or something, it's not gonna like, but it's still 90 pounds of force onto your chest. That's a lot that can break your collarbone. It could break your ribs. It could snap something. I can promise you, with enough force, a subtle movement, you know, it it's it could be dangerous, especially, especially if you have kids and you had the idea of putting kids in the rig and strapping them in.

Jeff: 1:00:56

That's a very good point.

Jason: 1:00:59

You gotta be careful because it's not a toy.

Jeff: 1:01:01

It's a very good idea.

Jason: 1:01:01

Honestly, I wouldn't I wouldn't even do that. I would just disable it. And that's the cool thing. You can just turn it off, take the belts out the way, and let them race, let them have fun on the rig, because their bones are still young and developing. That's the last thing you want for your kids. I mean, that goes without saying. Same thing with a direct drive, right? You got these 25, you know, 20 newtons, even your 16 newton meters can really break his fingers if he's not careful, you know, if the settings are dialed too high. Sure. So have a kid profile, is what I would recommend. That way you load up, you load up your son's profile.

Jeff: 1:01:40

It's one way to get him to leave your rig alone. There you go. All right, I got two more, uh, and we'll kind of round this topic out. Do you think it makes you faster? Okay. Um, to make you faster, but it's a data point worth talking about.

Jason: 1:02:02

I will say it makes me catch the car from doing things that I don't want it to do. But that doesn't make me faster.

Jeff: 1:02:13

That's because all very interesting point. Fair.

Jason: 1:02:15

Because all all I did was stop stop me from doing something.

Jeff: 1:02:20

Like losing the back end or something.

Jason: 1:02:22

But the line is still the same, the braking points are still the same. I didn't, I didn't I learned the limit of the car, but that means that I'm crossing the line somewhere. So I I might have messed up somewhere and I have to correct it. So it doesn't make you, in my opinion, it does not. It does not make you faster. There's nothing, nothing replaces brakes and uh a steering um uh wheelbase, you know. But I don't want to lie here and say that it makes you faster. It does it make you understand what the car is doing? Yes, 100%. Yes, and it makes you feel it's this is one of those cases. Remember when we mentioned motion? This is an 80-20 situation, yet again, it's mainly an immersive piece of gear. Now, if you was if you were training for like a race coming up, then it can show you where the limits of the car are quicker, but that doesn't make me faster, it just teaches me where the limits are. Does that make sense?

Jeff: 1:03:26

No, I think you have a great point there that says, no, I don't think it makes you faster, but I don't lose the car as often because I have more feedback of what the car is doing. Yeah, I have that extra thing. Okay.

Jason: 1:03:38

Yeah. I have the brakes, I have the steering wheel, the butt kicker, and now I have another thing telling me, hey, because you start to feel it on one side. If it's left or right, you start to feel like some tingly sensation going on over here. I don't know what that thing is, but I know that I know that something's loose. But the thing is that a belt's belts are there's only two belts. There's there's not forward them. You know what I mean? So all I know is left and right. I don't know if it's rear, I don't know if it's forward, you know. So that that's where butt kickers and shakers will tell you where it is. You you see what I mean? Or motion platforms. Motion platforms will definitely tell you where exactly where you're about to die.

Jeff: 1:04:27

I basically speak speaking of this, so the box comes in, and Jason has a big old heartburn with the box because it says entry level motion. And this brings me to my last point here is Jason was like, entry level, entry. I just dropped two G's on entry. Yeah, this ain't entry.

Jason: 1:04:47

I don't like the fact that it says entry level. You know, because in cubic size, you know, that's kind of like okay, before I get into it.

Jeff: 1:04:56

It was just funny. Like, uh I don't want to think I just bought some entry-level stuff.

Jason: 1:05:00

It was that's like you go into a Porsche dealer and they have uh whatever the I I don't know all the models, but let's say they have a lower bottle, right? Like a box, and then you have yeah, a boxster or could good one or seven or seven one eight Cayman or uh or the the SUV, right? You can't compare that to a GT3 RS, bro. There's no comparison. There, that's two different machines. So then imagine you walk into Porsche and they said, Oh, yeah, that that's our entry-level model.

Jeff: 1:05:36

You're gonna feel like bro, I just bought the entry level, bro.

Jason: 1:05:39

That's like a hundred thousand dollar car still.

Jeff: 1:05:41

That's my dream car. You calling that the entry level?

Jason: 1:05:44

Yeah, exactly. It was got turbo and everything, but in cubic size, I believe that they believe that the belts, and I'm not necessarily the defending them all the way, but I kind of see what the idea was with it. It's kind of like this is your entry into motion. That's how they should have put it because that's what I believe the belts are. The belts are the closest thing before you go to motion, honestly. And for some, it's enough to keep them away from motion, you know.

Jeff: 1:06:17

I think you hit, and I was gonna bring up this point is um when we were at the expo, I was like, oh, motion to be so nice, it's expensive. Can I justify it? You know, and I got the bell tensioner, and that itch gone for me, gone for now. That fair, but it's gone. I I mean, I am so happy with my rig right now. I have no drive looking at any motion for now.

Jason: 1:06:45

Yeah, you know, this is legit. This is legit, guys. Jeff is not overhyping. I've noticed that he has been on his rig almost every night when it used to be some nights on the weekend, that night that he does some sim racing. Now he's like, bro, uh texts me uh results of a race or shows me a big pile of car crash from the from the atrocity, atrocities, excuse me, of the formula grids. It's kind of dangerous out there. It's a little, you know, school of the hard knocks over there. So I I will say this Jeff is he's talking truth here because this man, he's got a wheel, you know, the wheelbase, he's got the flights in him, he's got the VR stuff. I think this is the first product that really hit you hard. Like, damn, that was worth it. Or damn, if if something happened to them today, I'm a hundred percent sure you're gonna find a way to get this thing fixed or replaced. I'm pretty sure. I mean, you'll cry, we'll we'll we'll we'll you know, we'll complain about it. We'll we'll both cry.

Jeff: 1:07:59

I'd have to work with cubic, but I would not find a way. It's like a butt kicker. I could I wouldn't get in the rig without, you know, like you just now that I've driven with it, it's like I could never get in there and not have it.

Jason: 1:08:11

And they work together, like the butt kicker feedback works really well with the belts. Because, you know, I I've tried I've tried haptics, I've tried turning them off and turning the butt kicker off and just the belts, and then turning the the uh butt kicker without the belts, and it is once you get used to something, man, just be careful because once you get used to something, it's kind of over. You know what I mean? It's kind of like this. Remember in the early 2000s when we're when we were blown away by LCDs that were 55-inch LCDs. Now we're looking at OLED TVs, and you would never go back now. It's like your eyes already saw something and got used to it, it's over. 4K resolution on movies, mandatory 4K. If it's in 1080p, you're gonna complain. You know, you're gonna complain.

Jeff: 1:09:07

You it's like Vaseline or something on the TV screen. You know, I can't see it. Looks something wrong with that.

Jason: 1:09:13

Yeah, something's wrong with it. But back when 1080p dropped, when Blu-rays were coming out with um 1080p, I think Blu-ray, I I forget. Yeah, Blu-ray was 1080p, I think, in the in the in the early stages that looked mint, it looked crisp.

Jeff: 1:09:28

Yeah, that's funny.

Jason: 1:09:29

Because before that, we had DVD, which was 480p. And when DVD came out, DVD was the best thing. Bro, that was the shit. We were going over to my friend's house, he had a $600 DVD player. Now you can buy a DVD player for like 12 bucks.

Jeff: 1:09:45

Yeah, I was like, could you even buy them anymore? All right.

Jason: 1:09:50

So what's up? You had a question?

Jeff: 1:09:51

Last question.

Jason: 1:09:52

Okay.

Jeff: 1:09:53

I think out the door shipped. We're taught you're looking at just under $2K. Is it worth it?

Jason: 1:10:01

It is.

Jeff: 1:10:02

And we didn't, we these are this is Jason and Jeff's money here. This is not a nickel that was given or discounted for us because of what we do.

Jason: 1:10:11

No, it was not. Um, and it wasn't my plan to have an affiliate with them. I just the we met them there. Appy V was really cool. If you go and watch the tour video that we have, you can see who they are right away at the start of the video. And they were showing off cubic motion rigs, which is what they do. They turnkey, um, they do turnkey setups for them. And to me, I would say it is worth it just as long as you have everything else. And we say this a lot, and I know a lot of people get excited and they want to jump the gun, but nothing replaces a decent set of pedals, a decent steering wheel, and a decent wheelbase. If you have those three, oh, and the cockpit, because you need the cockpit. You need the cockpit, yeah. The cockpit is like the motherboard. The cockpit is home base, you know. Think of it like this. If you were to buy a house, the first thing you look at the house when you're buying it is, well, how big is the house? You know what I mean? What features does this house have? So then once you buy the house and you move in, then you start adding stuff to it. That's what a that's what a rigged cockpit is. That's how you gotta look at cockpits. Do not skimp on them. And the seat, and I will bring it up here. I mean, Jeff and I had a discussion that he wasn't too happy with his seat the way it is, and he's trying to fix it with adding the the risers and trying to get it just right. There's a reason why I believe in the buy once and cry once, Jeff. That's another good solid um reason why spend that money, spend it right. And if you can't spend it, save up for it. Nothing, you don't have to honestly, you don't have to buy things right away just because your friend has it, or just because your neighbor down the street has it, or because if you saw a YouTube video of somebody using something, this this is raw honesty right here. Just because they're showing it off doesn't mean that you have to sell an arm and a leg to get something, you know, but it's something that you could build on. And I believe that with a budget, you could save up the same way I saved up, same way Jeff saves up for hardware. We're not like paid to do any of this stuff, you know. So that's those are my thoughts on it. Is it worth it? If you have everything and you have the funds, a hundred percent. It is worth it. I would buy it again today, I would buy it again tomorrow. If something happened to it, I'm gonna fall into a deep depression.

Jeff: 1:13:02

And fair point.

Jason: 1:13:05

Okay. I I figured I hit you with that because I I I kind of go off the wall with emotion. So I wanted to answer your question. What about you? Uh, same question, just right back at you.

Jeff: 1:13:16

I think you said it perfectly. I if I had to answer with one word, yes, 100%. Okay. I'd be I would be miserable if it broke and I didn't have it.

Jason: 1:13:28

Yeah, because you knew you knew what it was. It's it's I I think you know what it was.

Jeff: 1:13:32

I thought I was gonna get something and be here and happy with it. And where I am today, I'm definitely above. It has exceeded my expectations on the product and how good it is. I've exceeded the amount of enjoyment and immersion that I thought I was gonna get.

Jason: 1:13:48

And I'm gonna bring up another point because the Sim Gaming Expo is happening again next year. It's actually being planned already by George. He's already George is already in all that's being in the works right now. And I don't want you guys to get confused with what I just said because I realize I'm thinking about it and I'm like, listen, if you try belt tensioners, you're gonna want them. If you try an active pedal, you're gonna want them. If you try a motion rig, you're gonna want the motion rig. But again, you have to think about the long term of things, right? My advice to anybody that's building and is considering hardware is if you have the funds to spare and get it and not go bankrupt or not be late on any bills, then go right ahead. I recommend it 100%. You know, there's tons of reviews. I just put out mine, I'm late to the party, but there's tons of reviews. Um, Michael from the Sim Racing Den, Race Beyond Matter, Boosted Media, Dan Suzuki just did a recent follow-up on the Bell Tensioner.

Jeff: 1:14:58

Um Race Beyond Matter.

Jason: 1:15:00

Yeah, Base Beyond Matter, and they're all positive. There's all positive. And I'm I'm we're trying to tell you again that it's it's it's pretty damn good. It's really good. Yeah. But then don't let that deter you from going to a sim, uh, uh a sim racing expo and trying these things because those things will give you an idea on where do you want to focus your priority, just like Jeff did. Jeff is like, do I go motion or do I just get a belt tensioner? Jeff tries motion, many different motion rigs we stepped into, and he left the floor with in love with the belt tensioner. So that's that's the path he chose, and there's nothing wrong with that. You know, that's the whole reason we went there. Well, not just the belt tensioner, but that was a big part of the reason was to see what's happening in 2025. What is the new stuff that we don't have access to? And it, I'm telling you, it was worth every penny to go out there and try these things. In my opinion, it was. That was, you know, it was a great time we had out there. So, in short, if you if you can, yes, if you could buy it, buy it. If you can't, save up for it. Because guess what? It's a v1, and I'm pretty sure a v2 will come out one day, right? Maybe we'll have a v2 with those self-adjusting things, Jeff. Imagine. You know, I don't know. You're like, you're like, you're thinking like, man, I just hope I hope they don't drop a V2.

Jeff: 1:16:34

Yeah, like I just dropped a shiny nickel for this thing.

Jason: 1:16:37

Two or three years, man. Chill. So I think that's about it. And yet again, we're having too much fun on the show. I I promise track of the week next week. That's it. That's it, bro. Track of the week, the users, the the users, the the crowds getting our followers. I don't know. Hey, let's take a vote here, guys. If you want to see track of the week at all costs, put it down in the comments below. Let us know.

Jeff: 1:17:13

Yeah, fair enough. Yeah.

Jason: 1:17:14

I want to see it. It's not going anywhere because track of the week, I think is it's one of my favorite parts, especially. You know which one was my favorite, bro? It wasn't even the track, it was the cannonball run story. That was so freaking dope. We gotta follow up and see what they're doing. When does that go down again?

Jeff: 1:17:33

Just so it the cannonball, the cannonball, you know, from uh New York to California is you just run it when you want to.

Jason: 1:17:40

Oh, every all year?

Jeff: 1:17:41

Yeah, you have to go, I think you know, improve proof of life in time at Red Ball Garage in New York, I forget where in New York, and then you have you know, in Rihondo Beach, California, some hotel.

Jason: 1:17:55

Redondo?

Jeff: 1:17:56

Yeah, you want to leave in California when you or uh leave New York so you're not stuck in traffic, and then plan your routes, and it's whenever time of year, whenever time of season, whenever time of the day to avoid all this stuff.

Jason: 1:18:09

And so so Jeff just go for it, dude.

Jeff: 1:18:12

Yeah, it's a cool story.

Jason: 1:18:13

So Jeff's retiring. Jeff, when you retire, are we are we gonna run the make a run at it? You down, you down to do a run? I'll do it with you, bro.

Jeff: 1:18:22

People take out like back seats and put like another hundred-gallon fuel tank in there so they don't have to stop for fuel. They have like like military-grade radar detectors and stuff.

Jason: 1:18:33

You know what they should do, bro, is bring MREs so they can freaking make the meals on the go and bring one of those loses so they don't have rooms.

Jeff: 1:18:42

Yeah. Paint it in like radar absorbent material. So even if you do get caught with radar, you know what I would do, bro?

Jason: 1:18:51

I would I would eat the MREs, I would turn the heat up in the car and sweat my the entire way all the way to California and just hydrate. That way I don't have to do a number two. All I gotta do is number one and just keep it going. I bet you anything we could we could probably don't it kids don't try this at home.

Jeff: 1:19:11

There's awesome, dude. The win the the Vin Wiki YouTube page has a number of these stories, they're fantastic, especially if you're just driving somewhere to listen to them.

Jason: 1:19:20

But yeah, this was Jeff calling me uh on the way home from work um from his job, and he's like, I got an idea for track of the week, but it's not a track. And he was like, Are you cool with this? And I'm like, Hell yeah, I'm cool with that, bro. That sounds crazy. I I never knew about that. That was my favorite.

Jeff: 1:19:39

That was my favorite track of the week, and it's not even a track, it was kind of like we used it as a placeholder, if you may people using airplanes as their spotters for cops and stuff.

Jason: 1:19:50

Yeah, they got like six GoPros and shit, like watching like radar and all kinds of stuff, radios. That's kind of cool. But anyway, uh I think that's time's up for now. Um, very good episode. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you so much, man.

Jeff: 1:20:08

Always love chatting with you.

Jason: 1:20:10

Yeah, man, it's always a good time. Um, and hey, for you viewers and uh listeners out there, check out the track goes sim racing YouTube. I have my thoughts on the uh QSB T1 video. If you want to see it in in my first ever video review, so go and check that out. Um, if you have any questions though, Jeff and I are still here to follow up on the things that we're using, right? On our rigs, and we'll let you know. So if you have any, if you any, if you have any specific questions that we didn't go over or that you didn't find in the video or in any other video, um, I'm more than happy to accommodate an answer and and put that up on the show. So, with that, guys, Jeff, thank you so much. And to all you viewers and listeners out there, thank you so much and have a great start of your week. And