Ex-Rimac Engineer’s Homemade Motion Rig Makes Sim Racing As Realistic As Possible

Although one of the major appeals of sim racing is its much lower cost compared to real racing, the temptation to spend more and more on improving the experience is hard to suppress. If you’re a former Rimac engineer, you may not have to suppress that desire.

Misha Charoudin, a YouTuber famed for his content at the Nurburgring, traded in the real cars for the sim rig in his latest video covering Tino Šturlić’s “Hypersim” rig. Custom built by the former Rimac engineer, it seeks to simulate as much of the physical experience of driving as possible.

Although rigs that simulate motion are by no means unique, there are limitations to what actuators can do, and Charoudin complains that many overcompensate for that by creating motions that are too harsh.

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Šturlić’s sim attempts to correct that in a number of ways. First of all, the motion is toned down to more accurately recreate what it can. It also places actuators low in the seat which has a rumble function made out of speakers designed to simulate the feeling of the road under the wheels and the feeling of the engine expressing its power.

“The first impression is absolutely phenomenal,” says Charoudin of Sturlic’s rig. “The way that it transcends the movements, especially in the back, towards the seat, through all the curbstones, through all the small bumps, this is completely what makes it different, what makes it worth to have a motion rig.”

Specifically, the rig helps alert the driver to the grip available on the road. The surface of the road varies in many places and, especially those that are RWD, offer different amounts of grip, which you simply can’t know without physical cues. It’s enough to convince Charoudin on the concept of sims.

“I’m not a sim racer and I, for many years, I was really against sims,” he says. “I just didn’t like the way they felt because there was too much of a difference between the real-life and the sim racing. But this is now a completely different experience.”