Nigel Mansell Tries Sim Racing – Video

Back in April, FgearTV captured some really interesting footage of Nigel Mansell giving virtual racing a try.

Filmed at the Docklands Motor Expo in London, the 1992 F1 world champion can be seen driving Simbin’s Formula RaceRoom car around Brands Hatch.

While we`ve seen all kinds of real race car drivers, from young hopefuls to world champions, seen sim racing before, it’s something special to see a real legend like the Briton give virtual racing a try. Needless to say, he did it in style because most of us probably don’t suit up before driving!

GTOmegaRacing.com

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Steve-Ford/100001922734704 Steve Ford

    No moustache?!!!   I am disappoint.  

  • http://www.facebook.com/bjorn.gaardbo Bjørn Christian Gaardbo

    He nails it :P Brilliant man

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Patrick-McTie/100000332312915 Patrick McTie

    He picked up on it quickly.

  • http://racingrenders.com/ F1Racer

    Heh, that was so cool.  Dunno what aids were on but I’m guessing this was his first time and he did extremely well.  He passed some cars nicely and very close :)  
    But did he jump the start or what ?!!  hehe.  Naughty Nige.    Still, you could see from the trackmap he was pulling away all the time.

    Good for him, great to see he was up for it.  

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Justin-Schmidt/100001406158677 Justin Schmidt

    epic jump-start

  • http://www.entropyxel.com/ Tuttle

    auto-shift…cmoooon!!! :)

  • Anonymous

    LOL at yt comment 
    “I like how the man explained the purpose of qualifying to him. Just in case a Formula 1 world champion with 32 Formula one pole positions and 11 Indy Car poles didn’t know.” 

    Cool vid though :)

  • Anonymous

    MR logitech not enough ffb better listen to the man. ? what you gunna do about it?

  • http://twitter.com/HM1988 Henry M

    that was amazing if it was his first time, and most of the time equipments for this kind of events are poorly setup… his reactions are great just kept the car going

  • Nathan Robinson

    I wish it would have been on a better simulator. That just looks horrible compared to some of the better sims. Once he was crashing through stuff in the beginning and still carrying on, I couldnt take it seriously. Very cool to see a legend behind the virtual wheel for a bit though :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/lasse.j.ougaard Lasse Jakobi Ougaard

    I hate how these sims at events are always poorly setup, and this is even in the better end. But it seems that there’s been paid little attention to things like POV, calculated FOV, forcefb, driving position and things like that. That is REALLY a shame because if our hobby is going to be accepted as just somewhat true to reality, as we indeed claim it is, the real racers like him have to be shown the full poential of what simracing is capable of! An awfull lot of that is not just the sim/game, the sim is pretty decent in this case actually, but some much of the feel and immersion comes down the simrig and the setup of the interaction between hardware and software. 

    He did seem to adapt quite quickly to it though, which impressed me. Even though, there does seem to be a lot of assists turned on.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1711429307 Chris Wright

    Indeed

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1711429307 Chris Wright

    Clearly not the full-on “no driving aids” sim experience for Our Nige, but the talent is there for all to see. His comments were most interesting too. As far as things have progressed, we’re still way off simulating with any true degree of authenticity.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1711429307 Chris Wright

    I do agree with you Lasse, but is there really a sim out there that is truly authentic? I’ve pretty well raced them all down the years and I have to say that rFactor2 shows the greatest promise in the physics department. iRacing is good, but you can still see and feel the NR2003 lineage behind it all. Game Stock Car I have just gotten into and the Formula Classic feels exceptionally good and quite convincing. 

  • Anonymous

    Well but that doesn’t really matter – just because we can’t do 100% right thing A doesn’t mean we should give up on thing B, if both A and B should be done right. No sim will ever be 100% realistic physics, not this year and not even in 2023. 
    The more things are done right from developers and in shows like that, the more seriously it can be taken by more people… FOV is a very good example of what is done wrong so often, even many simracers who consider themselves “serious” use totally absurdly high values.. although I’m not one of those who say you should always use calculated FOV only, seeing somebody drive on 75deg FOV almost makes me sad. Because it makes any sim look like need for speed, by that stupid sense of speed on straights and no sense of speed in corners. 

  • http://www.devotid.com/ devotid

    That was like watching Michelangelo use finger paints…….

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Karol-Gronowski/100001185339304 Karol Gronowski

    Im curious what he would say if he got chance to try Niels stuff (i mean servo motor wheel) :D 

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=720446041 Nazirull Safry Paijo

    Nigel just being a sport. Even with a rig like that, its 10000000000000 million times faarrrr from the real thing.

  • http://twitter.com/WazzaX Wazza

    Filmed in 2011…OLD NEWS!!!!!

  • http://twitter.com/WazzaX Wazza

    Filmed in 2011…OLD NEWS!!!!

  • Paul Mullins

    Good on you Wazza..  a few are in awe of you and your ‘finger on the pulse’ nature..

    The rest of us really enjoyed the video and think you are a tosser.

  • Mark Silcock

    Isn’t that the same operator that was on the VVV feature (which seems to have disappeared) running Racing Aces with the Lotus F1 prize? Does he set these companies up each year or have a few with different names?

    Love the look of concentration on Nigel and the true elation of winning! 

  • sargentjack86

    What a poor representation of sim racing. People who set up rigs for events like that have absolutely no clue whatsoever……..they would be better off using Gran Turismo or something like that if they are going to just throw it together.

    What a shame.

  • Anonymous

    Yes it was the same company ( i think ), they were running rfactor pro.
    It was posted here http://www.bsimracing.com/2012/06/racing-aces-motor-expo-london-team-vvv/
    But the video seems to have been set to private.

  • http://www.facebook.com/GuyboMoulton Guy Moulton

    LOL notice how he goes straight for HOOD VIEW!  using auto, no damage and running over everyone else.  WOW, he drives like he’s in an arcade pubby room.

  • http://twitter.com/MosportMike MosportMike

    Im impressed at how fast he became acclimated with the “sim.”   Then again, he is Nigel Mansell!   

  • http://racingrenders.com/ F1Racer

     F1 cars don’t have a ‘hood’.  The driving aids would likely have been set the same for everyone sat in that place by default and how many of those cars he hit were unavoidable from drivers who either wrecked or made stupid moves.

  • Eric Zehnder

    I have a feeling that the area where we are still a long way off is not necessarily physics (and certainly not graphics or sound) but in FFB. You’ll find that any real F1 driver will always comment on how the steering gives you the right information but in the wrong way; like it’s the wrong language.

    But hey, we’ve come a long way. 20 years ago you got sprites and joystick with a single button, 10 years ago you got blocky wheels and a gamepad, 5 years ago you got the hint of realism with a beginner wheel — these days we get simulators, wheels that are actual reproductions of real F1 wheels, belt-driven FFB, buttkickers, motion rigs, triple screens, etc!

    Looking forward to the next 20! Come on real-time computational fluid dynamics!!!

  • Anonymous

    I agree with the first part about what a huge leap we have already seen in sems, however I don’t get the part about fluid dynamics… current sim engines and computers are already good enough to produce 99% realistic physics, but the biggest limitation is the human factor. How realistic or not depends mostly on what numbers people put in those engines. And this will be exactly the same 20years from now, I’m afraid. 

  • Big Ron

     You are not able to produce 99% realistic physics, not with a home PC-rig. Too many factors are left out or simplified to run on today´s PCs. We are still imitating realism.

  • sargentjack86

    We will never, ever achieve 100% realsim because then we would actually be in the car driving the damn thing. :-)

    To mimic realism, as you put it, is enough for me. That is afterall the definition of a simulation. ;-)

    If I want 100% realism I can just go for a drive in my actual car. lol

  • Anonymous

    Yes they are simplified but I do not think its because we would have so slow computers. Its simply because it would cost more money to implement it all and even more work when modding individual cars.
    Think about this: if you load any current any sim in a blank, empty track, you get hundreds, if not thousands fps. What does that mean? That 90% hardware requirements of our sims are due to graphics, NOT physics. The physics engine is surprisingly undemanding, there are huge reserves. 
    Or look at GPL. That thing simulates at least 50% of all rfactor physics, and it can run on 200MHz pentium (with ugly looking cars and tracks of course) with 128MB RAM (of which only several megabytes are for car physics).

  • jswarthoff

     lame, i wanted to see nigel drive his old williams in the rfactor mod.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Hans-Honsel/100003632676698 Hans Honsel

    lol so lame ….. every beginner drives so!!!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kevin-Brigden/1130115739 Kevin Brigden

    The striving for realism has always and will always be limited by the lack of motion inputs to the driver. The only thing simulators can strive to do is improve the visual, auditory and to a small and incredibly vague degree: tactile sensory inputs a driver (via ffb). 

    And without the extremely delicate yet massively important motion inputs ffb can only ever offer half the story while our own imagination attempts to fill in the gaps. I have never tried a motion simulator (I would love to try one) but I doubt even they get the experience close to 60% of the real thing. 

    To Nigel, it’s a game. To us, it’s the closest we’ll ever get. THAT’S the real shame. 

  • Anonymous

    Hail the Lion!

    1992 was one of my favorite F1 seasons.

  • Eric Zehnder

    That’s because the physics code isn’t designed to take any and all CPU cycles to ‘improve physics’. It’s also because not everything in the way of aerodynamics is simulated. The main simulation comes from the tire physics. I can tell you that Project CARS devs are currently trying to lock down a physics frequency that works for most machines.

    At 600Hz it was working for high-end machines but failing for mid-level and below, for example. Besides, true computational fluid dynamics are necessary for aerodynamics to be simulated based purely on the environment and the aerodynamic elements of a model. These are generally done by automakers and F1 teams on super computers.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=720446041 Nazirull Safry Paijo

    in reality i think he dont give a fuss abt it. He just wanna make them happy.
    Its funny how the guys asked him ‘hows the pedals and the wheels feel?’. r u kidding me? compared to what he felt back then doing f1 v12??? and plus ask him if he wants to buy one? HAHAHAHAHA. pls …. 

  • Remco Hitman

    This is actually a good representation of simracing because this is exactly how 90% of ‘simracers’ drive, both in terms of setup and in terms of skill.

    But seriously, people who set up these expo rigs need to get a clue because this is a disgrace. Who’s going to take simracing even remotely serious if this is the experience provided to them? I wouldn’t.

    Perhaps I ought to take my simulator down there and park it alongside these ‘professionals’.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t think it matters how “serious” people take sim racing I mean in the end its still prity obsurd people sitting behind massive calculators with a clothes washer moter attached to a replica car wheel. 

    However It certainly is a misrepresentation of Sim racing and its a simple fact that if these rigs are set up better the person playing the game or sim will have a better exsperance regardless of the fidelity of the simulation. 

    I would  treat “sim racing ” as a separate entity to real world racing and a separate entity to general gaming although it shares aspects with both.  That is nether a good or bad thing it is what it is and there is allot of enjoyment to be had from that

  • Anonymous

    Yah I think its unlikely a driving sim will ever come close to what the real exsperance as a whole provides. Not without some sort of neural interface and VR played from within the mind of the user in an almost dreem state.   

    But we are definitely at a point where a simulator works fine as a training tool , in some ways the lack of depth and lack of  complexity to the tire models in real time simulator makes it an even better training tool , as it forces drivers to be much smoother and aware of the inputs they make. 

    Then when they go back to the real world and they have all the additional sense of speed , additional tire grip and tire communication they can then perform better.  

    “To Nigel, it’s a game. To us, it’s the closest we’ll ever get. THAT’S the real shame. “ 

    I know allot of sim racers are using the Simulators as a substitute for reality due to cost but its a simple fact its not at all like the real thing.

    So we should just stop the denile and enjoy sim racing for its own merits and not worry so much about real driving. 

    Unlike real driving sure sim racing lacks certain depth but it also introduces equality to competition , the ablity to race straght away , the ablity to be on any layout in the world within 2 minutes , the ablity to go from driving something slow and heavy to something light and nimble , the ablity to compete with people from all over the world , the ability to change car setup in a cuple of minutes or instantly and then test the effects imideatly and the ablity to mess up without losing your life but still developing allot of the core skills that make “driving” enjoyable.

  • Swordand Keyboard

    no one there even knew who he was. hey cool it’s jackie stewart.

  • Remco Hitman

    ‘Yah I think its unlikely a driving sim will ever come close to what the
    real exsperance as a whole provides. Not without some sort
    of neural interface and VR played from within the mind of the user in an
    almost dreem state’

    This is further removed from reality than any ‘conventional’ form of simracing with ‘prity obsurd people sitting behind massive calculators with a clothes washer moter attached to a replica car wheel’. Please stop confusing reality with realism, the latter of which is the pursuit of reality without ever being allowed to achieve it.

    ‘I know allot of sim racers are using the Simulators as a substitute for
    reality due to cost but its a simple fact its not at all like the real
    thing. So we should just stop the denile and enjoy sim racing for its own merits and not worry so much about real driving.’

    I think some of us should stop trying to be ‘deep’ by stating the obvious.

  • http://www.devotid.com/ devotid

    the more i think of it……… Nigel is pretty used to “computer aided” cars……..

    he should have felt right at home.

    ok im done….lol

  • Anonymous

    Well yeah, in early nineties there were far many electronic aids than these days, thats no joke..

  • http://racingrenders.com/ F1Racer

     Ouch! :)

  • Big Ron

    Great video. At first I thought: man, the handling looks horrible. He must be ashamed. But then he got into it and did a pretty nice job. And you can see how he was sucked in and pretty entrained.I think it´s difficult to play a sim in a rig without any custom configs for your like.

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