A friend works for VIPER on site at VIR. The place is an engineers wet dream.....a shock dyno, 8-post shaker rig (which I believe is the only one in the USA), and all kinds of other cool R&D equipment. The shaker is somewhat like a dyno for your chassis and suspension. Incredible piece of machinery. They do some engineering stuff with VT and ODU. Their website...... http://www.viperservice.com/

Anyways.......they just got a new driving simulator. It's intended purpose is for research......so unfortunately its not a 'toy', to be used like a video game .........but dammit son, that thing is awesome. I took a few pictures of it....and got a cell phone video just to show. Bryan was killing some particular road course with a F1 car......which is extremely difficult to drive, even on a simulator. Simulator manufacturer...http://www.cruden.com/

Video is in MOV format and MPEG.....

http://jonsmithphoto.com/darren/host/photog/vir/brysim.mov

http://jonsmithphoto.com/darren/host/photog/vir/brysim_mpeg4.mp4













Here is the shaker lift. Just an engineering masterpiece. I have yet to see it in action.....but I am hoping my buddy will let me know.

Basically a HUGE hydraulic ram attaches to 4 fixed chassis points. Then there are 4 more HUGE hydraulic rams that mount to the plates each tire of the car is mounted to. Pretty sick....

These are shots from 'below the deck'.











Petty Enterprises donated a Cup car to VIPER, and I believe now it sports a Cup motor/trans combo.







[Edited on April 27, 2009 at 9:34 PM. Reason : .]

4/27/2009 9:33:14 PM

haha, you guys ought to see the simulator for my jet. it's a fully functional cockpit (like, actual airplane components, from the gauges and switches to the the electronic gear to the windshield and fuselage parts surrounding you), mounted in the middle of a globe to where the visual effects surround you (up to probably 60 degrees up and around to a little behind you on the sides). All of this is mounted on a series of hydraulics similar to the way this racecar thing is set up.

The cockpit AND the visuals are night-vision compatible...the visuals are real-world mapped (accurate major buildings, roads, water features, terrain, etc...even down to, say lines painted on the ground at airports). The ground mapping RADAR has a terrain database, so it will generate an accurate RADAR picture for you (if you work it properly). The operator can give you all kinds of realistic emergencies, shoot SAMs at you, have enemy fighters try to intercept you, etc. You can practice aerial refueling, aircraft carrier launches and recoveries, etc.

[Edited on April 27, 2009 at 9:49 PM. Reason : not to diminish the racecar sim...it's pretty sweet]

4/27/2009 9:45:39 PM

I bet the flight simulator is pretty extravagant. I'd like to take a whirl at one of those.

4/27/2009 9:55:56 PM

^^you're also comparing two highly different budgets

I mean this driving simulator is more like Microsoft Flight Simulator with a yoke compared to your military training simulator

[Edited on April 27, 2009 at 10:14 PM. Reason : ,]

4/27/2009 10:13:55 PM

i hate to be a nagger, but ^ didnt even go to ncsu

4/27/2009 10:18:05 PM

^^ oh yeah, no doubt.

the DoD has some deep pockets, and I'm sure the simulators are built with almost no cost constraints. I mean, the better and more capable the simulator is, the more training you can use it for, which is much more cost effective than actually flying the jets (for things that the simulator is a viable alternative for).

4/27/2009 10:26:36 PM

HPJ Represent

I'd love to go there

4/27/2009 11:36:10 PM

That's bad ass.

4/28/2009 4:38:34 PM

^^^ have you known anyone to ever "break" the sim?

My dad is a pilot (flies an Embraer 170) and he's told me stories about the sims. He told me how a guy completely fucked up an engine failure during approach and the crash broke one of the hydraulics.

[Edited on April 28, 2009 at 4:58 PM. Reason : .]

4/28/2009 4:57:25 PM

Quote :

"I mean this driving simulator is more like Microsoft Flight Simulator with a yoke compared to your military training simulator"

In terms of technical accuracy, MS Flight Sim is equal to or better than a lot of military simulators (for declassified aircraft). What the military sims have is all the environment and activity systems (the radar, attack and mission scenarios). Hell, with xPlane (another software flight sim), your hours logged actually count toward FAA accreditation.

With almost every aircraft in FlightSim, you can literally build a 1:1 cockpit for the aircraft and it will function exactly the same way (and many, many people have done this).

------

Back on topic: the consumer version is here http://www.hexatechracing.com/

Hardware is the same, it's just not running the hardcore systems simulators. be interested to see what they charge, as similar setups run 20-30K from other companies. Not a bad investment for serious drivers.

[Edited on April 28, 2009 at 5:23 PM. Reason : moar]

4/28/2009 5:22:21 PM

Quote :

"have you known anyone to ever "break" the sim? My dad is a pilot (flies an Embraer 170) and he's told me stories about the sims. He told me how a guy completely fucked up an engine failure during approach and the crash broke one of the hydraulics. "

oh yeah, it breaks. motion was broken in one sim at the last base I was at for months. other components break. a friend of mine had a minor electrical fire in it one day.

...but it's not like doing all of the training in live airplanes would be any different!

4/28/2009 6:13:17 PM

Quote :

"i hate to be a nagger, but ^ didnt even go to ncsu"

uh... actually i did dumbass.

Quote :

"In terms of technical accuracy, MS Flight Sim is equal to or better than a lot of military simulators (for declassified aircraft). What the military sims have is all the environment and activity systems (the radar, attack and mission scenarios). Hell, with xPlane (another software flight sim), your hours logged actually count toward FAA accreditation. With almost every aircraft in FlightSim, you can literally build a 1:1 cockpit for the aircraft and it will function exactly the same way (and many, many people have done this)."

LOL I totally expected a response from you like this since I said MS Flight Sim. But obviously you missed the point. I was talking about the setup/hardware the military or even commercial airliners have not just the software.

[Edited on April 28, 2009 at 7:33 PM. Reason : .]

4/28/2009 7:30:28 PM

Quote :

"Hell, with xPlane (another software flight sim), your hours logged actually count toward FAA accreditation. "

5/1/2009 8:53:12 AM