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"  In October 2011, Matthew Boyer had a vision: racing cars on video games not just with a handheld controller, but with a full DIY racing cockpit designed to mimic one of those racing shells you used to see in the arcade. Boyer created the initial design in Google (now Trimble) Sketchup, planning out where the steering wheel would sit and how the foot pedals and clutch would connect. After seven months of research and design, he built the shell in about three weeks for $1650. (His wife is not a gamer, but she still thinks it&amp;#039;s a cool idea.) Design Up until about a year ago, Boyer says, he was a sometimes-gamer and enjoyed most genres. But he stopped by a friend&amp;#039;s house one night and noticed a Logitech Driving Force GT racing wheel. Boyer bought his own and was hooked, but he wanted to take his new love of racing sims and build something unique. The first thing Boyer decided when he dreamed up his DIY cockpit: He wanted one that was fully enclosed. Companies like Playseat and Openwheeler will sell you seats connected to wheels and pedals, but Boyer wanted something more immersive. That meant a design that did not show any wires or controller cables, that was completely enclosed, and offered a more realistic sensation of being in a racer. He started with eight sheets of 8 x 4\u2013foot plywood purchased for $240, and bought a real racing seat (the kind you would use in a physical kart-racer) for about $100. That brought his total to $340\u2014not much more than you&amp;#039;d pay for one of those premade seats. Then he set to work designing the cockpit and its electrical and wiring components on Sketchup, a free 3D design program. Fortunately, Boyer was already familiar with CAD in his day job as a draftsman at a stone company, where he works on large-scale projects for government, liturgical, residential, and commercial buildings. &amp;quot;I figured if I was going to build something this ridiculous, I wanted to do it right,&amp;quot; Boyer says. &amp;quot;I made four or five different designs, and one seemed to work the best. I also used Sketchup to lay out the pieces on the 8 x 4\u2013foot sheets of wood, so I can see where they will fit the best.&amp;quot; The cockpit design included LED lights to illuminate the shell, 5.1 surround sound with a center speaker located right in front of the driver, a 32-inch flat-screen TV, the racing wheel, pedals, a stick shifter, and the plywood enclosure.  Planning the Components Boyer used the Fanatec CSR Elite Wheel and the Fanatec CSR Elite Pedals because they work with both PS3 and Xbox 360 games, and the Fanatec CSR Shifter Set. Boyer&amp;#039;s cockpit actually includes two shifters. There&amp;#039;s the traditional &amp;quot;H-pattern&amp;quot; you might find in any production car, which allows you to put the car in any gear you like. The set also includes a sequential shifter, like you&amp;#039;d have in a real race car, where you shift by pushing up or down. Boyer wanted the option to use either in his cockpit. So, he bought a PS/2 Manual Switch Box, something you can buy at any video game store, and connected both shifters to the switch box, and then connected that box to the racing wheel. Boyer wanted the whole shell to mimic a real race car, so he measured his own car (a 2004 Mazda 6) to get the right position for the steering wheel, the shifters, and the pedals. He adjusted his design for the seat position a bit so he could get in and out of the cockpit easily. He also designed the seat so that it can slide forward and back.  To mimic the rumble of an actual race car, Boyer installed an Aura AST-2B-4 Pro Bass Shaker directly below the seat. Boyer says the woofer is great for his cockpit because it produces enough bass to shake the seat a little without annoying everyone else in the house. &amp;quot;People who also play racing-simulation games also enjoy them because the woofers shake the seat based on the engine noise and sound effects in the game,&amp;quot; Boyer says. &amp;quot;You connect the Bass Shaker to an amp so it becomes a powered subwoofer, and then connect it to your receiver as a subwoofer.&amp;quot; Building the Shell Boyer used a jigsaw to carefully cut the panels and holes for each component. He says it took several weeks to build the enclosure because he had to sand each piece and make sure everything fit perfectly. Once he had all the pieces cut and sanded, he fit them together and started installing the components.  The LED lights are recessed into the ceiling, and there are two panels that can be opened to access the television hookups and the pedals. (There&amp;#039;s also a small fan installed by the pedals for air movement inside the shell.) There is also a panel on the top for accessing the LED lights and center speaker, and a cabinet that holds his Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.  The final build supports all of the major racing games: Forza 4, Gran Turismo 5, Dirt 3, and several others. Boyer says he is looking forward to testing Forza Horizon, which is coming this fall, because that game takes place on the roads of Colorado and not only on racetracks, which matches up with his arcade design. &amp;quot;Racing on the N\u00FCrburgring in a Ferrari 458 Italia at over 200 mph in the game, while using a wheel, is more fun and realistic to me than any other &amp;#039;simulation&amp;#039; experience on the Wii or Kinect,&amp;quot; he says.  Performance Since building the cockpit Boyer has been almost exclusively into racing games\u2014though he has to pull back some. He says his arms will get tired from gripping the wheel so tight around corners. The racing wheel has a force feedback effect, so the faster you take turns the more you get a pushback. &amp;quot;I usually have to tell myself to stop because I&amp;#039;ll end up playing for way too long if I don&amp;#039;t,&amp;quot; he says. The cockpit is ultrarealistic, he says. The wheel rumbles differently depending on the surface, and the sense of immersion inside the shell makes the experience even more lifelike. The pressure-sensitive pedals also help because when you really open up on a straightaway, the pedal will be harder to push as you go faster.  Although Boyer doesn&amp;#039;t have any aspirations for real race car driving, he says the cockpit has made him more of a racing fan. One unexpected perk: The wood absorbs the sound and vibrations from the wheels, shaking slightly while you speed around corners. For a followup, Boyer says he&amp;#039;s considering a two-seater, where opponents could sit side-by-side and compete. That might even help with the feeling of being in a cave, he says.  Parts List Fanatec CSR Elite Wheel: $540 Fanatec CSR Elite Pedals: $150 Fanatec CSR Shifter Set: $60 32-inch LG LED television $300 Insignia 5.1 surround-sound speakers: $40 APC Super Race Seat: $100 Aura Bass Shaker: $30 Dayton Audio SA70 amp $70 Lasko mini fan: $30 Six-light LED set with dimmer: $40 HD15 VGA w/PS/2 manual switch box: $20 Playstation 3: $250 (already owned) XBOX 360: $200 (already owned) Technics 5.1 surround-sound amp: $200+/- (already owned) (8) 8 x 4\u2013foot sheets of plywood: $240 Screws, hinges, knobs/pulls: $30+/- "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/gaming/a8060/the-insane-diy-video-game-racing-cockpit-11976064/>