Last night we had the opportunity to fulfill a life long dream- driving at Le Mans. Yes, that Le Mans. Under the famous Dunlop Bridge, reaching speeds of nearly 2 hundred miles per hour on the Mulsane, through Indianapolis corner, the Porsche curves, feeling every bump and road irregularity- all in a race prepared Ferrari F430……FANTASTIC!  Then we drove back home to North Orange County and were in bed 40 minutes later. Huh???

Did we fail to mention that this was all done in what is perhaps the world’s finest driving simulator?

As we write this, just a few hours later, we must admit that we are just a bit sore…..it is THAT realistic!

This fantastic bit of kit is the same system used by Formula One teams to train their drivers, test car set-ups, tire compounds, suspension settings, wing angles, etc, etc. all without having to turn a wheel on a real car or race track. The system is so remarkably good that even road surface changes can be made to simulate wet weather conditions.

The simulator itself rides on hydraulic actuators about 5 feet above the floor. The driver feels everything that the car does….road imperfections, (the Le Mans circuit is run on mostly public roads) braking and acceleration G’s, cornering G’s…drive over an FIA curb and the car (simulator) feels and reacts the very same way….un-bloody-believable!

We could have driven this thing for hours and hours………and hours!

This is not a toy…..we’ll get back to that. This system is (in our opinion) an absolute “must have” for every professional race team in the world. If one were to add up the cost for a single test session: renting a track, transporting the car, all of the needed equipment, flying in the race team, hotel bills, tire costs, rental cars, etc. etc. etc. this system could save a team thousands and thousands of dollars in a single season and without the fear of damaging the car, engines, transmissions, add infinitum.

We could go on and on about how much more this system has to offer, but, we think you get the point; technical applications and data acquisition are nearly endless. In fact, so much so, that all of the testing performed by the Acura ALMS team to develop their new P1 car was done with this system; before the car ever physically turned a wheel.

We simply must take the time to thank all the great folks at Cruden America for inviting us to experience their fantastic product. Chuck Nelson and his whole group are an absolute class act. It was also great seeing Roberto Guerrero after some 20 years and meeting racing legend Jack McCormack for the first time. Cruden has some very serious credibility to go along with a very serious product.

Not a Toy….the simulator is not a toy, it is a fantastic tool. However, since you must be asking…….HOW MUCH? It all starts just south of $300,000.00….we are pretty sure that we are going to need a credit card with a much higher limit!!!  If however, one were “well healed” and had the space…..Story goes that one rather well off customer has custom ordered the simulator to have his very expensive and rare Ferrari mounted to it- affording him the opportunity to drive the car in anger for miles and miles, on the greatest race tracks in the world and never actually turning a wheel in the car itself…HOW COOL IS THAT?? !!!

Anybody have an extra $300 large lying around?