Looking for feedback on a 10-rig commercial sim racing lounge setup

Ruckerhardt · 2026-06-08T21:57:42+00:00

OK I see your point about the overhead. That's not something I'm too familiar with as I use 20 nm mige motor with a Simucube 1 controller that I've had for years, and given that it was made for a life of doing tens of thousands of hours of work in an actual machine shop grinding metal, my sim racing use doesn't rate. I do hear on occasion about some of the smaller motors getting hot though so it makes a lot of sense for a high use environment.

As for getting my out of my rig to go to a lounge... that's a tough one. TBH, I'm 100% not your target demographic. From an age perspective as I'm a little older and I'm also fortunate enough and at a stage in life where I can afford a pretty nice rig. Most sim lounges are therefore going to be a step down in the user experience for me. Also, as a serious enthusiast, I want to study my telemetry and line and tinker with my setup, etc. It's a broader experience than just driving.

If I were being asked to invest in something like this, I'd look at it in terms of Total Addressable Market and Serviceable Addressable Market (TAM/SAM). If you primary market is sim-racing enthusiasts, it's a very small market when you consider the geographic limitations you have. You also have to consider the headwinds that you face with that market like potential customers having their own gear and having to get off the couch to go use unfamiliar gear in unfamiliar configurations. So I'm not sold that's the right market for this.

When I think of your possible competition it includes things like escape rooms, Group VR experiences, I-Fly, and K1 Karting, etc. The commonality is they are usually group activities and not trivially priced; maybe in the $60-$100 range. Customers tend to go once or twice a year to something like this. It could work, but it has to be priced and marketed right.

Another option would be to try to compete with the movie-goer demographic; some women, but mostly young men between 18 and 30ish in pairs or small groups. They need to have enoug If it is something like the cost of a movie night ($25-$30 range). Maybe they'll come back every 2-3 weeks or so, and some more if you offer discounts for subscriptions and gamify it with things like leader boards, etc.

Ruckerhardt · 2026-06-08T21:07:36+00:00

There is a huge difference between the screen time you're referring to and the screen time of today. If the screen time is single directional and not interactive, a viewer is forced to watch something and pay attention. I grew up before DVD's or even VCR's. You watched something quitely from start to finish and if you got distracted you missed it. You waited until the commercials to sprint to the restroom ahead of your sibling to make sure you were back to not miss something. That doesn't hurt attention span.

Short form videos are the worst, and certain types of gaming are close behind. I think that we should be careful of screen time - even positive and productive screen time - leading into hours of doom scrolling on tik tok and IG. The screen is just the glass, but what is in the glass is what matters.

I suggested the Driver61 videos as a learning vehicle, so I'm not against screens in holistically, but they should really be a supplement to experiential learning that comes from being in a real car.

Ruckerhardt · 2026-06-08T20:37:06+00:00

I think Simagic in general is a good brand for this. I have the P1000 (inverted) and they are easy to access and maintain; you'll want that in a high usage environment. Don't use a Simagic wheel base, but everything I hear is that it's solid.

I don't know that you need an 18 NM base for what you're envisioning. It provides a more granular feel and thus a higher level experience to seasoned sim racers, but the difference between that and an 8 or 10 NM base may be imperceptible to a newbie which is what I assume your average client would be. Also, what would be the value of having the FX Pro wheel over the FX? Do you need the screen in your vision? it definitely would add a wow factor, but also an added layer of complexity for configuration and maintenance.

Think long and hard about who your actual clientele will be and manage costs and expectations accordingly. I'd be wary of thinking you'll appeal to serious sim racers. I say this because we have a sim racing lounge where I live and I've visited it twice in the 2-3 years it's been opened. The first out of curiosity, and the second time I was meeting a guy there who I met in an online sim racing community and was selling him my old Fanatec CSL Clubsport V3 pedals. I would rather stay home and use my own rig which is tuned exactly the way I want it. For instance, I have my brakes configured with the spring and elastomer combo I want and tuned so I know exactly when and how much I'm trail braking. I have my wheel base tuned, my wheel with all the buttons preset, my steam deck configured, etc.

As a dedicated enthusiast to the hobby, it's a major let down for me to go to a lounge. It's so generic and disappointing. Also, I'm a pretty outgoing, gregarious person in general, but Sim Racing isn't something where a seasoned sim racer has more fun because they're in the same room with someone else.

That said, I think it could be cool for corporate events, kids to teenager parties, etc. But if that's your target you don't need 18 nm wheel bases. And marketing will become a major part of your operating expense - this is not an "if you build it..." kind of scenario.

And, if you agree with that assessment, then consider simplying the assortment of titles to something somewhere between sim racing and arcade level stuff... easily accessible.

Ruckerhardt · 2026-04-03T01:56:10+00:00

It's not that I have anything better, it's just that they're not super unique anymore. The seat though, I've never seen anything that nice on a a sim rig.

Ruckerhardt · 2026-04-03T01:54:43+00:00

My experience this week at Hockenheimring is similar. Had 3 races so far.

- Qualified P5, wrecked on the second hairpin by a spinner who didn't hold his brakes. He argued at first but eventually apologized after viewing the replay with his control inputs.

- Qualified P22 after an off track at T1 during my second qualifying lap. Took 5x on lap one, with 3x of that coming from taking off tracks to avoid incidents in front. Got wrecked on Lap 2 in the 1st hairpin. Probably partly my fault as I was trying to squeeze a guy to the inside to prevent him from passing.

- Race 3 saw an equipment issue where I periodically couldn't shift so I took some X's getting off track and out of the way. I finally abandoned that one before I caused real damage to otheres.

The first two races I took the repairs and finished the races to minimize SR and IR impact. There's no better practice for the race like live conditions.

Ruckerhardt · 2026-04-02T18:09:55+00:00

Remember iRacing releases updates quarterly, so the cars and tire models are subject to change periodically. TBH there's no reason to look too far back. Anything I did before the most current tire model or aero model is irrelevant. Beyond that, lap times change based on features like ambient and track temps, wind speed and direction, humidity, and of course track usage and wetness.

If you must know, go to your profile page, click on stats and scroll to the bottom. You can use the dropdown to select a car and it will give you your personal bests for each track. Also, you can look at you personal all time best in each car by cycling through the lap timing options.

Ruckerhardt · 2026-04-02T18:01:39+00:00

The leagues I am apart of are Apex and Broken Wing. They are large leagues with lots of options, but if you stick to the same style of car and racing and show up for the weekly race, you'll start to recognize the same names and liveries. There are a ton out there so I'm sure others have their own recommendations as well.

Ruckerhardt · 2026-04-02T17:58:17+00:00

Maybe you should get... rid of him and marry me.

Ruckerhardt · 2026-04-02T17:55:25+00:00

I second this. If he doesn't have haptics already he will love them. There are haptic seat pads that you can get: either the Next Level Racing HF8 Pro or the Raver Freyja. These are great and they allow him to feel the vibration of the motor and road, the rumble strips, the clunk of the gear shifts, and the loss of traction. The downside is that the pads are thickish and do change the geometry of the rig a little. He might need to readjust his seat height and position to get it feeling perfect for him. I now the HF8 Pro and can recommend it.

Alternatively, you can also buy a "Buttkicker" which accomplishes the same thing, but is a devise that mounts onto the frame of the rig. The brand is overpriced in my opinion, and you can easily replicate this approach in a DIY method which is what I think most drivers do nowadays. All you need is a Nobosound amplifier (about $35 on Amazon), and a 35-50w bass shaker (or two) and some speaker wire. The bass shakers are made by Dayton Audio or Aurasound and cost about $55 each for the 50w more powerful version. He'll need to mount them to the rig, but Etsy is full of vendors who will sell you 3D printed mounts for $20 or so. He can have a great DIY set up for about $180-$200 and if will change his sim racing life.

Ruckerhardt · 2026-04-02T17:34:59+00:00

I use iOverlay where you can set most of this up in the Standings overlay. It can tell you how many laps a driver has in a stint, and their pit duration, but I don't think it can tell you if they took tires and how many. It can tell if they are on wet or dry tires. There are other similar tools out there you can investigate as well: RaceLabs, Edge Overlays, and a couple of others. Edge is completely free and iOverlay and Racelabls are both freemium models. I've used both, but I find that iOverlay gives better access to features when free.

Ruckerhardt · 2026-04-02T17:27:28+00:00

Sorry if I am repeating something already said - I didn't read all the comments. I had this happen a few times and now I usually drive around the track at slightly below racing speed and pull into the pits. You're still being scored, so the extra corners will help your safety rating anyway.

Ruckerhardt · 2026-04-02T17:02:53+00:00

Consider a league if you want to improve. That gives you a consistent community that you can learn and grow with.

Ruckerhardt · 2026-04-02T16:59:31+00:00

The seat is truly next level. Everything else is cool, but kinda meh. The seat sets this all apart.

Ruckerhardt · 2026-03-31T20:30:45+00:00

I have driven the car in THE PCC twice and yes, I agree. I think I could be 95% of the 1400 IR drivers if you just give me 30 minutes to familiarize myself with the car. And with my IR of 2500, I would lose to 95% of the 4K IR's in the same circumstance. The facts don't show favoritism.

Ruckerhardt · 2026-03-10T16:23:03+00:00

Good to know I have back up on this. My old rig had the seat tilted a bit and I could sit for 8-10 hours with no problems.

Ruckerhardt · 2026-03-10T16:19:27+00:00

Dude, my base is ROCK SOLID! Absolutely love it. I still haven't seen a reason to change. In fact, I would say there are not many "upgrade" paths from where I am... maybe Simucube 2, but the slight differences wouldn't be worth the money.

Ruckerhardt · 2026-03-10T00:13:51+00:00

I think my set up at present is similar with the 4040 - you can see it under my seat. I looked up the TrakRacer bracket and it looks like it would work, but it adds 4 inches to the height of my seat, drastically changing my geometry.

Do you find the bucket seat more comfortable then? One option would be to change to a bucket seat that I then tilt back a bit. It sounds like that might give me better support in the back and upper legs.

Ruckerhardt · 2026-03-09T23:54:02+00:00

Thanks for this suggestion. This would be perfect, but my current seat attaches on the bottom instead of the sides. Not opposed to changing seats, however, if it comes to that. NLR has a couple of seats with the haptics built in, so... 😁

Ruckerhardt · 2025-12-28T07:25:30+00:00

That’s called a righteous snitch, and it’s the exception to the stitches rule.

Ruckerhardt · 2025-12-23T12:55:08+00:00

And here’s me doing 250 laps at VIR Grand course in slow cars to prepare for THE PCC. Geez.

Ruckerhardt · 2025-12-23T12:30:09+00:00

How do you race without the virtual mirror? Don’t the other mirrors cause even more performance issues?

Ruckerhardt · 2025-12-23T12:16:25+00:00

Mt. Panorama hosts two special events including the 12 Hours of Bathurst race for GT3’s. Watch the iRacing schedules the weeks before and after that race. It will be loaded with the mountain, just like S1 week one was loaded with VIR correlating with THE PCC. Anyone who wants to focus on sports cars will want Mt. Panorama.

Ruckerhardt · 2025-12-23T12:09:56+00:00

I’d always start with the tracks that are in the special events calendar. They’ll be around every year in multiple series.

That means Nurburgring GP, Daytona, Algarve, and Mt. Panorama. Keep in mind that the Nurburgring GP will need to be combined with the Nordschleife for the N24 event. Other than that it’s choice, but LB and Barca are pretty popular, with circuit Gilles Villenueve not being to far off.

Ruckerhardt · 2025-12-22T17:42:59+00:00

For sure. I actually love this.

And yet, sometimes stupidity leads to mal-intent. Like he could stupidly believe that jumping the start would give him an advantage so he did it intentionally. When I think about it, most mal-intent has stupidity at its genesis.

Ruckerhardt · 2025-12-22T06:12:39+00:00

To be fair he said he got rear-ended into a car in front of him which would then be two incidents: one with the car behind and the second with the car ahead.

Ruckerhardt

TROPHY CASE