Prodrive, an engineering firm best known for its exploits in motorsports, has teamed up with design firm CALLUM to create what it calls “the world’s most beautiful motorsport simulator.”
“Most racing simulators on the market today are very functional but not particularly attractive,” said David Richards, Prodrive chairperson. “What I wanted was something that was more like a piece of modern art; something you would be proud to have on display in your home like a grand piano or sculpture, indeed something that would not look out of place in a gallery of contemporary art.”
Richards, therefore, turned to famed automotive designer Ian Callum’s design company, CALLUM, with which it had worked closely on the Prodrive Dakar project, to create a simulator that would look good enough to be a welcome addition to any sim racer’s home.
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The sim rig combines natural materials and carbon composites to make it a beautiful piece of furniture, rather than the functional piece rigging that is so often relegated to the part of the house where it will be the most inconspicuous, or folded up and hidden in a closet like mine.
“Designing the simulator was a great opportunity to create something technically stimulating as well as visually abstract,” said Ian Callum.
The company will reveal more details, such as specs, about the racing simulator in the coming weeks. The first simulators will be manufactured at Prodrive‘s headquarters in Banbury, U.K., and will be available to (presumably well-heeled) consumers this summer.
Although there’s no shortage of sim racing rigs that place functionality over aesthetics, Prodrive’s won’t be the only one with a flair for the visual. Other rigs from companies such as Pininfarina have also attempted to appeal to the chic sim racer.
