[Cecil Terwilliger]

I wasn't sure where to put this.

Anyone up for a $75,000 racing simulator, complete with oculus rift?

http://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/cx...ig-ive-tested/

Atop the base is the racing bucket seat. This seat is anchored from below, but can be moved about that anchor by a pair of massive hydraulic actuators that also serve as the seat's rear uprights. These strong arms are rated for industrial-grade duty cycles and should last for thousands of hours of racing. I, the driver, was held in place by a multipoint racing harness connected to the base. Interestingly, because of the way the belt ties into the base, you get a bit of belt tensioning, which helps with the feeling of inertia when virtually braking.

The seat has rumble motors built into it combine well with the powerful bass of the surround-sound system. The steering wheel uses a real racing quick-release -- enabling the owner to quickly swap between, say, a formula racing wheel and a street wheel -- also features a powerful force-feedback motor and paddle shifters. The pedals are genuine hydraulic units pulled from the parts bin of a road car and can be tuned and adjusted to mimic the pedal feel that the driver wants. And the entire setup is modular, so you can, for example, add or remove an h-pattern shifter or change the pedals, seat or pretty much any other part of the whole. A flight stick and helicopter controls are also on the menu for those who want to use the Motion Pro II for flight simulators.

Front and center is the the panoramic triple-screen setup, which delivers 6,220,800 pixels and a 180-degree field of view. (The system comes standard with just one screen; the three-head upgrade is an option.)

When in the heat of the race, wheel to open wheel with other digital formula race cars, I believed I was back at Willow Springs, Mazda Raceway or Sonoma. When I came in too hot on the last turn of Willow Springs and was nudged off track by an AI racer, I literally screamed. But at the same time, I knew well enough that the experience wasn't so real that I was freed to push the limits of my abilities just that bit harder than I would with the fear of death looming overhead. I didn't want to get out of the simulator at the end of my almost 3 hours of testing.

I was totally sold on this setup at the end of my testing session. The only reason I went home at the end of the day to my beat-up Miata seat and force feedback wheel was the high cost of entry. The base Motion Pro II simulator starts at $49,000 for the single-head Standard setup with an additional $1,650 to add Oculus Rift integration. And that's just the start because, as I stated, the whole thing is modular, so CXC will happily customize every part of the build for a price. Check every option box and a top-tier, three-head Pro system with Oculus will run $75,275. (For comparison, my janky home setup cost me about $600.)

I know what you're thinking, because I'm thinking the same. It's probably somewhere along the lines of, "If I had an extra 75 Gs lying around, I'd buy an actual Porsche Boxster S." The Motion Pro II isn't really the sort of plaything for a person who can afford a Porsche; it's the sort of toy for the person who already has a few Porsches.

Spoiler!