The closest most of us will ever get to racing a Ferrari is by firing up a video games console or maybe by building a racing sim setup in our spare bedroom. But if that bedroom is freakishly large you could take your sim to the next level with this rig that’s made out of a real 458.
It was built from a genuine 458 shell by Chartwell, an approved Ferrari bodyshop located in Derbyshire in the UK, and at first glance it looks exactly like a genuine, fully drivable car. The wheels, the glass, the badges, the shields on the front fenders – even the two exhaust tailpipes located at the center of the rear bumper – are all there. But the only roads you’ll be hitting in it once you’ve climbed inside are made from pixels.
A closer look reveals that the brake discs are dummies, apparently printed onto bits of card. And the naturally aspirated V8 visible through the rear screen also seems to be made of paper, not aluminum. This car’s real ‘engine’ is located in that bay, though. The auction ad on Collecting Cars says it consists of a pair of Sporting MSI X470 Gaming Plus motherboards, two 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX memory GeForce RTX 2080 graphics cards and AMD 7 2700X processors.
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That lot runs iRacing software, which drivers experience through a pair of VR headsets, while the cabin features a pair of Sparco buckets on Next Level Racing Motion Platform V3 bases to mimic the g-forces and vibrations felt in a real car. There are also two sets of Fanatec Clubsport pedal boxes (and they each has three pedals, something Ferrari never offered on a 458), and two Thrustmaster TS-PC Ferrari racing steering wheels so you and a buddy can race against each other from inside the same car. You can check out the full auction listing here.
