Face it, you’ll never race in Formula 1, much less drive a Formula 1 car. And if you spend $120,000 on a hot performance car, you won’t really get a chance to drive it to its limits on public streets. So F1 and Red Bull Racing have a solution that will address both of those problems: you can spend that money on a high-end racing simulator, one that uses real F1 drivers. For the starting price of a brand new Porsche 911, you can buy Red Bull’s “Champions Edition” simulator, which aims to replicate the experience of driving the team’s RB18 car from the 2022 F1 season. You know, the car Max Verstappen won the championship in, the car that won 17 Grands Prix (Verstappen 15 of them, Sergio Perez the other two.) Actually, you don’t even need to spend $120,000. You can buy the rig without the front-wing assembly, aka the “Race Edition” model, and it’ll only cost $90,000. Since it will just be sitting in the gaming room of your mansion instead of catching actual air, that shouldn’t be a problem. Then again, why stingy? And although the simulator costs far more than many hot cars in the real-world, it replicates a type of vehicle that’s priceless. The simulator has no wheels or rear wing and therefore falls short as a visual simulacrum. But what matters is what you see from the cockpit, where there’s a curved display and a computer that serves you up a virtual race. You can also link up with other rig owners and run your own virtual F1 season campaign. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said: “We’re delighted to come up with a unique sim racing experience that puts drivers in the cockpit of the championship-winning RB18. Driving a Formula 1 car is something most of us can only dream of, but This simulator is as close to the real thing as it gets.” The simulator is in partnership with sports memorabilia outfit Memento Exclusives and will be “manufactured at Memento Exclusives’ HQ in Northamptonshire in the UK using the same process as the original F1 cars.” It can be ordered on the F1 Authentics site. All that said, while virtual driving should be pretty exciting, it would be great to see a $120,000 Porsche in your driveway. You can also buy a used race car (not of the F1 variety, admittedly) and take it to the track for that kind of money. But of course if you’re in the market for one of these, the purchase price is probably pocket change.
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