Project Sim Racing — The Most Badass Rig in Cyprus

GitHub: N/A — this one's hardware and hubris

PRE — Idea · Setup · Build

Goal: Build the most immersive sim racing rig on the entire
island of Cyprus. No compromise. No budget restraint. Full send.

The rig evolved in stages, each one more unhinged than the last:

STAGE 1: THE FOUNDATION (October 2024)
  - Fanatec ClubSport DD+ wheel base (direct drive, 15Nm)
  - Fanatec ClubSport Wheel Rim + Universal Hub V2 + QR2
  - Fanatec CSL Elite Pedals V2 (load cell brake)
  - Fanatec ClubSport Shifter SQ (H-pattern + sequential)
  - Playseat Trophy cockpit (direct drive rated)
  Living room deployment. TV as display. Cats immediately
  claimed the seat as their bed.

STAGE 2: VR
  - PlayStation 5 + PSVR2 for Gran Turismo 7
  Nice, but GT7 is a console game. The REAL racing sims are
  on PC. And VR is difficult on the eyes long-term.

STAGE 3: THE PC
  - Intel i9-14900
  - 64GB RAM
  - NVIDIA RTX 4090
  The whole shebang. Built to push pixels.

STAGE 4: TRIPLE OLEDs
  VR hurts the eyes. The solution? 3x 55" OLED TVs.
  165 inches of OLED wrapping around the cockpit. Mounted on
  a Trak Racer triple monitor stand.
  This required a DEDICATED ROOM. Acoustic foam on walls and
  ceiling. AC unit on the wall (because three OLEDs + an RTX
  4090 in Cyprus = nuclear reactor).

STAGE 5: HAPTIC FEEDBACK
  Two large subwoofer transducers mounted front and back of
  the Playseat. The seat vibrates accurately with road surface,
  engine RPM, kerb strikes, and turbulence. Your body feels
  what the screen shows.

STAGE 6: THE HACKS
  - Software hack to use the Fanatec McLaren wheel and pedals
    as flight controls in Microsoft Flight Simulator. Flew
    across the world on 165 inches of OLED.
  - Gear lever extension for Euro Truck Simulator 2. Because
    if you're going to drive trucks across Europe, you need
    to feel like a real trucker.

Total investment: ~€10,000.

Screenshots — The Escalation

Tower of Fanatec boxes with cat — The delivery. Tower of Fanatec boxes. Cat for scale. October 17, 2024.

Playseat Trophy assembled with cat inspecting — Playseat Trophy assembled. Cat immediately claims the pedal box as a hangout spot.

Full setup in living room with ACC on screen — Stage 1 complete. Full Fanatec stack, Porsche GT3 in ACC, living room deployment.

PSVR2 on rig, cats claiming the seat — VR stage. PSVR2 perched on the wheel base. Cat has officially annexed the cockpit.

Dedicated sim room with triple 55 inch OLEDs — Final form. Dedicated sim room. 3x 55" OLEDs. Acoustic treatment. AC unit. Insanity.

POST — Learnings · Afterthoughts · Timeline

What happened:

Built the most insane sim racing rig on the island. Spent
€10,000. Discovered that what I actually wanted was not
competitive racing — it was peaceful European road trips in
Euro Truck Simulator 2 with haptic rumble and a gear lever
extension. And occasionally flying over the Alps in Microsoft
Flight Simulator on 165 inches of OLED.

Then it was done. The machine had served its purpose.

The €3,000 gaming PC (i9-14900, 64GB, RTX 4090) now lives
in the living room and serves as the build server for the FPGA
DAC project. The GPU that once rendered triple-OLED racing at
120fps now synthesizes Verilog. The three 55" OLEDs and the
Playseat are collecting dust. The cats have moved on to other
furniture.

The pattern is familiar: build the most extreme version of the
thing, discover what you actually wanted from it, extract that
insight, move on. The rig was never really about racing. It was
about immersion. About tricking the senses into believing you're
somewhere else. And once you've proven that's possible — well,
there's always another puzzle.

(See: Real-O-Tron — same obsession,
different approach.)

Learnings:
  - The thing you think you're building is rarely the thing you
    actually wanted. I built a racing rig. I wanted a meditation
    chamber with road noise and gear shifts.
  - Triple 55" OLEDs in a dark room with transducers is the most
    immersive non-VR experience possible. The peripheral vision
    coverage tricks your brain into thinking it's real. Another
    data point for the "reality is constructed" thesis.
  - Euro Truck Simulator 2 on a €10,000 rig is the most
    gloriously over-engineered relaxation device ever built.
    No regrets.
  - The RTX 4090 found its true purpose: FPGA synthesis. The GPU
    is happier now. I can tell.
  - Cats will claim any horizontal surface regardless of its
    intended purpose or monetary value.

Sims played:
  - Assetto Corsa Competizione (GT3 racing, the serious one)
  - Gran Turismo 7 (PS5 + PSVR2)
  - Euro Truck Simulator 2 (the soul of the rig)
  - Microsoft Flight Simulator (the Fanatec-as-yoke hack)

Timeline:
  - 2024-10-17: Fanatec delivery. Tower of boxes. Cat inspects.
  - 2024-10: Playseat Trophy assembled. Living room takeover.
  - 2024-11: PSVR2 + GT7. VR hurts the eyes. Need screens.
  - 2024-11: Gaming PC built. i9-14900, 64GB, RTX 4090.
  - 2024-12: Three 55" OLEDs acquired. Trak Racer stand. Sim
    room converted. Acoustic treatment installed.
  - 2024-12: Transducers mounted. The seat now vibrates.
  - 2025-01: Peak usage. ETS2 road trips. MSFS globe-trotting.
    ACC track days. The rig is fully operational.
  - 2025-03: Usage declining. Other projects calling.
  - 2025-Q2: The PC migrates to the living room. Becomes FPGA
    build server. OLEDs go dark. Dust begins.

Status: Retired. €10,000 of sim racing hardware serving as
  the world's most expensive cat furniture and an FPGA compile
  farm. No regrets.