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I'm struggling to think who would buy this. Home simracers would buy their own wheel, pedals, shifter and VR headset, and pull a real seat from a junk car, for

I'm struggling to think who would buy this. Home simracers would buy their own wheel, pedals, shifter and VR headset, and pull a real seat from a junk car, for a total cost of a couple thousand (including PC). Professionals would probably build custom rigs.

bri3d 6y ago
There's a (very) limited market already for contracted sim racing builds, much like there's a (very) limited market already for contracted real-life racing setups. Think Ferrari/Porsche Cup type teams which straddle the middle ground between amateur motorsport (i.e. I built a track Miata) and professionals who are sponsored or pay for a full team seat (who would be getting bespoke rigs). The target audience is probably the same too: wealthy individuals looking to dabble without the commitment of a full-motion room or actually needing to build something on one's own.
newsclues 6y ago
Wealthy car enthusiasts with a barn for their cars.
notatoad 6y ago
Saudi oil barons, movie stars, football players... people who have more money than they know what to do with and think it would be cool. at the price they're asking, they probably only need to sell a couple of units to make it worthwhile. i'm guessing this operation is just one guy building them, and the materials and shipping cost is 3-4 grand. depending on the aston martin licensing fee, two units a year could be a decent business.
- dharmab 6y ago
  Maybe they move you up the waiting list for one of the higher end cars if you buy this?
rypskar 6y ago
Not sure how popular VR is with simracers. Earlier this summer there where a rallycross series where some of the top racers did race against simracers and almost none did use VR. Also when you see from professional real life racers practice using games they use rigs with several screens and a seat that moves, not VR.
- mhh__ 6y ago
  For immersion people love VR, for lap time it's basically personally preference. Some people can't race in VR for long periods of time, but I do league races in my vive and I find it helps with situational awareness quite a lot.
ponker 6y ago
Imagine a suburban dad who wants a cool thing for his man cave and doesn’t want to get too fiddly with anything, and makes $2m a year as a Director at Google or investment banker in Greenwich. They’ve thought about buying one of these online but don’t know what’s good quality and what isn’t - the Aston Martin brand gives them some confidence in purchasing it.

bri3d 6y ago

There's a (very) limited market already for contracted sim racing builds, much like there's a (very) limited market already for contracted real-life racing setups. Think Ferrari/Porsche Cup type teams which straddle the middle ground between amateur motorsport (i.e. I built a track Miata) and professionals who are sponsored or pay for a full team seat (who would be getting bespoke rigs). The target audience is probably the same too: wealthy individuals looking to dabble without the commitment of a full-motion room or actually needing to build something on one's own.

newsclues 6y ago

Wealthy car enthusiasts with a barn for their cars.

notatoad 6y ago

Saudi oil barons, movie stars, football players... people who have more money than they know what to do with and think it would be cool. at the price they're asking, they probably only need to sell a couple of units to make it worthwhile. i'm guessing this operation is just one guy building them, and the materials and shipping cost is 3-4 grand. depending on the aston martin licensing fee, two units a year could be a decent business.

dharmab 6y ago
Maybe they move you up the waiting list for one of the higher end cars if you buy this?

rypskar 6y ago

Not sure how popular VR is with simracers. Earlier this summer there where a rallycross series where some of the top racers did race against simracers and almost none did use VR. Also when you see from professional real life racers practice using games they use rigs with several screens and a seat that moves, not VR.

mhh__ 6y ago
For immersion people love VR, for lap time it's basically personally preference. Some people can't race in VR for long periods of time, but I do league races in my vive and I find it helps with situational awareness quite a lot.

ponker 6y ago

Imagine a suburban dad who wants a cool thing for his man cave and doesn’t want to get too fiddly with anything, and makes $2m a year as a Director at Google or investment banker in Greenwich. They’ve thought about buying one of these online but don’t know what’s good quality and what isn’t - the Aston Martin brand gives them some confidence in purchasing it.