Formula One for the masses

There is plenty to do among the shopping and residential towers in Melbourne’s Dockland precinct, including wining and dining at one of the many fine restaurants, shopping til you drop at Costco, a fling at the ice skating rink or even the time-honoured hobby of watching the Melbourne Star observation wheel being rebuilt.

Now, however, budding Formula One enthusiasts have another reason to brave the Docklands winds: the new Motionators F1 simulator dubbed Motion Simulator Entertainment.

Punters will find three full F1 motion simulator platforms at Motionators. Drivers sit inside a cockpit with the feel of a real F1 car and gaze across the car’s fuselage into a 180-degree curved screen.

Three high-definition HDMI-connected projectors beam a blended image onto the screen connected to the physical fuselage. A Bose sound system pumps the whine of the engine into the driver’s ears and an authentic detachable force-feedback Roso racing ‘wheel’ rounds out the aesthetics of the F1 experience.

And then the fun begins. The platform rides freely on hydraulic servos with a number of settings available depending on stomach strength.  Even on the ‘half’ setting available at last night’s launch event, those that tested the system came away describing the feel of the track and the faux g-forces inflicted on them as a fabulously realistic experience.

Each simulator is running an off-the-shelf edition of the PC-based rFactor racing simulator software; we spoke to Motionators co-founder Amir Masinovic about this choice:  “rFactor is the only consumer software that provides the telemetry we need,” Masinovic said.

All the digitised racing information is pumped into Motionators’ Australian-built proprietary ‘black-box’ and turned into physical reality in the simulator.

“We wanted to create a simulator based on the one that the Red-Bull F1 team are using” said Masinovic of creating a simulator-simulator, if you will.

At the launch event, Australian 1980 F1 world champ Alan Jones was on hand to check out the Motionators simulator first hand.

“I didn’t know what to expect, but I was blown away by these machines,” Jones told us.

Having recently sampled the new F1 2013 video game, Jones said it was the typical static seat set-up with pedals and a force-feedback wheel that he was expecting. What he witnessed at the event, however, was “real close” to the simulators used by the F1 teams today. 

“I don’t think there is anything like this in Australia,” said Jones “I would love to take this franchise to the Gold Coast.”

The team opening the inaugural Motionators at the Melbourne Docklands do indeed have plans to expand, both internally and externally in a franchise model.

The plan for the current site is to cater to the high-end gift market, with a 75-minute experience setting you back $185. The space is also available for up to 120 people with a price per head plus $350 per hour.

There are other packages available at cheaper rates, such as race-a-mate linked racing packages and cheaper-still arrive-and-drive options starting at $10. 

Our advice, however, is that Motionators would be a great place for a corporate party, or for those exclusively into F1. For the rest of us, there is incentive to start saving for the new features to come.

Masinovic made mention of both V8 Supercar and World Rally Championship-based simulators being developed ahead of their release in 2014. From there, he and his team plan to add flight and space experiences to the list. 

Motionators has had The Great Ocean Road laser-mapped to incorporate it into a rally/drift simulator currently being developed as a two-person experience for driver and navigator. The plan is to have other ‘fantasy’ tracks created and added to the stable of choice.

As an ambitious local entertainment undertaking costing six figures each, the Motionator simulators look and feel like the real deal and should capture the intended market. Certainly, there were smiles on the faces of everyone that stepped out of the cockpits at the launch, despite the wide range of abilities present.

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