Track Days without the Track

Once you get your car on the track, you're kind of addicted for what I presume to be the rest of your life. Not a week goes by when I don't think about lines around the track, what it feels like to get that super smooth trail brake rotation at the perfect moment, or how to eek out another couple of milliseconds off a lap time.

Given I can't be on the track every day (or week, or even month), something has to fill the void. A few drives in the mountains, and the occasional early morning heel-toe downshift coming in to work help, as does video games. Not just any video games, but car racing games. And this year looks like it's gonna be an epic.

There's two main franchises in the racing world that go more for the realistic approach to driving (than a pure arcade, blast around having fun approach) - Forza and Gran Turismo. Forza 3 and Gran Turismo 5 are both coming out this year, and with this weeks E3 conference, a couple of trailers were released. Check them out below, and see which one you fancy.....

Oh, and my name is Aaron, and I'm a car loving geek.....

Sega Rally is Back

Well, not quite yet, but it's looking good for when it does make it. Not only does it take advantage of the new consoles (PS3 and XBOX360) to bring lots of realistic pretty pictures, the developers have somehow built into the physics the effect of driving cars on the track. Not really surprising you might say - all the good racing games vary the grip with the type of track and/or weather - dry concrete is less slippy than snow covered mud for example. However, Sega has taken it a step further, so that the car actually has an effect on the track - that ridge you left in the mud on lap one is there to throw you off course on lap 2 if you're not paying attention. What this means is that there are unlikely to be 2 laps the same, ever. Anyway, the guy from Sega explains and demos it a lot better than I do, so listen to him...