Most of vehicles in the pack are Porsche streetcars, but there are some notable racing cars. The expansion pack includes GT and GTC class vehicles that raced in the American Le Mans Series.

The expansion pack is available for download right now via Xbox Live. The cost for the 30-vehicle expansion pack is 1600 Microsoft points.

[via Gamasutra]

A company called Motion Simulation has created a portable 180-degree spherical projection screen and race seat. The base model is called the TL1 and uses three projectors and computer to shoot the game or simulation onto the curved, seamless screen. The motion simulator can be fitted with optional transducers to allow the driver to feel bumps in the road. I would assume it also has force feedback steering.

The system uses a chair that has adjustable driving position and the simulator can be used for flight games as well. The computer can be any Windows XP or 7 desktop with the power to handle three displays, and a total 5760 x 1200 resolution. Sadly, the base model alone is over $18,500, and a fully-outfitted simulator with three projectors, moving cockpit floor, and a high-end PC ranges from $26,000 to $55,000, so it won’t be at my house anytime soon.

[via Engadget]

Angry Birds developer Rovio has teamed up with the Formula One team to advertise the game and some of the merchandise will be coming. The helmet the racer will wear at the season opener is painted up to look like the red Angry Bird complete with Heikki’s name written on the side in proper Angry Birds script. I’m not familiar with Heikki at all, but I will say that red helmet doesn’t go particularly well with his green driving suit.

I would like to see Rovio sign up whoever Heikki’s archrival is to wear a green pig helmet. I’d love to see some bird vs. pig action at 200 miles an hour on a racetrack. The marketing tie-in will also include some other items that will be released this spring and Angry Birds levels with a racing team will be coming later as well.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

You can get the SRW-S1 controller right now for $119.99(USD) from SteelSeries.

[via Kotaku]

The racing wheel is called the Ferrari 458 Italia Racing Wheel for Xbox 360 and it may be the perfect racing wheel for the coming Forza 4 game. The racing wheel is a replica of the one from inside an actual 458 Italia and has a bunch of buttons on it to control the racing action.

The wheel is 11-inches in diameter and has paddles for gear shifting. It uses an automatic centering system with bungee cords rather than motors and has a brake and gas pedal system as well. The racing wheel will launch this October for $89.99 (USD).

They look like a ton of fun and the detail is pretty amazing. The only drawback is that they come in Yoshi and Mario versions only, but maybe they will add other characters later if they sell a lot of cars. I for one would love to race Yoshi against Mario in real life.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

For the price of $119.99 (USD) over at ThinkGeek, you get the huge RC Mario or Yoshi car, remote control, an AC charging adapter, a 9.6V Ni-MH rechargeable battery, a 9V alkaline battery for the remote and the trusty old manual.

Sadly these don’t launch banana peels and turtle shells, but you can’t have everything.

But more than that, I was really impressed with how much racing games have evolved to more interactive games. For example, the seat moved with each turn I made, and the whole chair would vibrate or lurch forward whenever I crashed into something (which happened pretty often.)

However, the OutRun AR project is totally in a league of its own, because it’s basically a video game that has been brought into the real world. This project of Garnet Hertz’s first made waves in 2009, and after a couple of years, he’s finally done with it.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Hertz, an informatics researcher from the University of California Irvin, made OutRun IRL a reality by incorporating the classic driving game into an electric golf cart that has been fitted with cameras and custom software that can roughly render what’s actually in front of you in using retro-style arcade graphics.

For the future, Hertz and his fellow researchers hope that their technology could somehow be used to create AR-based wheelchairs to help the disable and maybe even develop some video game-based therapy and remedies for disabled gamers.

[via Nowhere Else (FR) via Engadget]

The game uses a dot-matrix receipt printer, hacked to continuously print out a road, while a player uses a controller to keep a light beam (representing the car) in the center of the course. One wrong move, and the printer stops. Of course if you run out of the 50-meter roll of paper, it’s Game Over too.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Joshua Noble, Martin Fuchs, and Philip Whitfield (aka “undef”) built the game as part of the CreativeApplications.Net workshop at Barcelona’s digital culture OFFF festival. There’s a web-based version of the game over at undef’s website, but it’s not nearly as cool as the printer-based version in the video above. Of course, the game does seem just a little wasteful, with all the paper and ink that it consumes. I wonder what other games could be reproduced this way – pretty much any top-down or side-scroller with obstacles could work

[via Nerdcore via Neatorama]

Forza Motorsport 4 is apparently going to be getting some cool head-tracking tech integrated that uses the Kinect sensor to allow the driver to smoothly look where they are going and have the view on the game change to match where the driver is looking. The impressive part for me from the video is just how smooth and responsive it is.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

As the driver moves their head, the view changes to precisely match where the driver is looking. This is very cool and will help people learn to drive faster in the game and practice might even help real world racers learn to drive better.

[via Kotaku]

This racing chair, created by David Gawthorpe, is actually made out of the front end of a black Mini Cooper of the classic variety. When you lift the hood, you find the black leather seat to plant your butt in with a pair of speakers and a Butt Kicker for extra bass.

It has an Xbox (360, we assume) inside along with a 500W amp, strobe lights, lasers, and stereo speakers. The back even has a fridge so you can store your Bawls for long nights of racing action. When you want to burn some rubber and leave rivals in a cloud of smoke, the chair has a remote control smoke machine.

You might be pumped right now, but this will kill your buzz. The one-of-a-kind chair will sell for approximately $13,000 (USD). Suddenly my racing set up looks sweet again.

[via Automotto via Born Rich]

The VRS-P1 Prosumer Racing Simulator is a custom-made racing simulator kit, which lets you sit down just like you’d be in the cramped confines of an F1 race car. Inside is an adjustable, fiberglass racing seat, and mounting locations for a wheel, pedal and gear shifter. Unfortunately, it looks way too much like a coffin to me. Handmade by Swedish craftsman and available in oak, beech, walnut, maple, cherry, or birch wood veneers (also like a coffin), it’s designed to produce a truly immersive gaming experience.

Selling for upwards of $4000 (USD), the VPS-P1 is truly designed for hardcore gamers. That price doesn’t even include the required Logitech G27 racing wheel, pedals, console or display. Given the fact that it actually costs more than even the nicest caskets out there, it better be nice enough to actually be buried in.

[via GameSniped]

The video is pretty funny because Mario even tosses banana peels at other cars and drivers. He also collects power-ups and at one point, he even stops at a grocery store to pick up some extra bananas.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

While you probably want to give this a try, it’s best that you don’t because Mario ends up meeting his match with some French motorcycle cops, who aren’t too pleased with his stunt. Flipping them off probably didn’t help matters!

[via DVice]

While it’s name is clever, as with many luxury items the Converttable’s dual-nature is more of an exaggeration than an actual value. When the gaming components are folded and hidden, it’s a table, yes, but only in the sense that it has a large flat surface, and not an attractive one at that. Race-Star has a CGI video of the Converttable, but I think it’s better to see the actual table in action:

Overall, I think the most flaunted aspect of the Converttable is also its weakest. Still, if you’re a racing enthusiast and you’ve got the dough, you might want to check this thing out. You can order the Converttable at Race-Star’s eBay page for €4,999 (approx. $6,560 (USD)). Check out the Converttable website for more info. I’m sure Ben Heck can whip up something better though.

[via Luxury Launches]

Lyshco is a member of the Overclockers in Australia forum and he just finished working on this racing ottoman. He placed a seat, gearstick, pedals, and a steering wheel inside an ottoman. The guy is about 6′ tall and this fits him pretty well. He used ¾” MDF to build it. The feet were sanded down to a very smooth finish, allowing the ottoman to slide over carpet easily.

The ottoman slides over and he just pops the hood to start racing. It takes a few minutes and he’s ready to go. He also mentions that there’s massive space to store stuff and the overall benefit is that it looks swanky in his pad.

[Overclockers AU via Make:]

From the looks of the video clip below, they rigged up some servos and hydraulics and tied them together to respond to the movements of the steering wheel.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The whole thing looks like an awful lot of fun, but I don’t understand why the thing pitches and rolls so much on such a flat course. It’s almost like the movements are tied to how fast or slow he’s driving. I think it might make me throw up.

I think it would play much better with a game like Crazy Taxi or maybe The Deadliest Catch.

[via Adafruit Industries]

These new GT5 TGS 2010 trailers let us see more details than ever before, including awesomely detailed vehicles, drivers, and a weather system which makes me cry because it looks so beautiful (or maybe it’s just been raining on my face.) So sit back and enjoy 2-minutes and 33-seconds of pure PS3 driving porn.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

And then enjoy another 1-minute and 18-seconds of weather and particle effects to make your eyeballs bleed tears of joy.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Expect Gran Turismo 5 to FINALLY ship on November 5th, 2010. If you haven’t already, you can pre-order a copy over at Amazon for $59.99 (USD).

[via gamefreaks]

Aside from simulating motion, the parts of the Atomic are also highly adjustable and customizable. If you have mad riches, you can even network multiple Atomics. Good for multiplayer matches and virtual roller coaster rides. Currently, the Atomic’s complementary “motion-link” software, SIMPHYNITY, claims support for over 60 games, with more en route. Some of the supported games are Burnout Paradise, Dirt 2, NFS Speed, Shift & Carbon, HAWX, and for virtual truckers, Big Mutha Truckers.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

I wish the video had an actual shot of someone using the Atomic. As awesome as it seems to be you really should wait until you see it in action or at least read a couple of reviews about it before you order one, because you’ll have to shell out £4,290 (approx. $6,600 USD) plus shipping for one unit. But if you think you’ve seen enough, just go to JoyRide Simulators’ website to order. As for me, I think I’ll stick to moving my body and making engine noises while playing racing games.

[via BornRich]

Well, I suppose that Donkey Products’ “My First Autobahn” Tape Kit doesn’t actually enforce that your cars’ wheels stay on the track, but it’s still a cool way to quickly make roads wherever you’d like. As an added bonus, the tape won’t damage floors, and can be easily removed from most surfaces.

The only design flaw with this stuff is that the only way you can make curves is to cut up a bunch of short segments and angle them to make corners. They really should sell 45 and 90-degree corner tape.

The $12.99 (USD) kit includes 108-feet of roadway tape, and they even include a little car to put on the track (looks better with your Matchbox or Hot Wheels collections, I can assure you.)

Race on over to Perpetual Kid if you want to grab a roll or two.

They also demo’ed a showroom-like feature, wherein you can view a car from different angles and even “step” inside, by actually moving around and craning your neck this way and that. Details about the car can also be accessed by selecting highlighted parts.

My problem with this game is that it’s not in real 3D, hence the features are more annoying than fulfilling. By real 3D I mean this: the day will come when our TVs are actually rooms, rooms that project holographic images, immersing us in real, legit threedee. If I’m still alive by then then I would gladly use controller-free motion controls, because that’s the best way to emulate the feel of, say driving a car: you sit inside a holographic car, you look around you and you see the car’s interior, the road in front of you etc. You sit down, hold your hands up to a holographic (or some other term yet to be invented) steering wheel and off you go. But this?

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Looking at a flat panel, standing while holding your hands up and moving your feet up and down, with no peripherals whatsoever? That looks tiring and makes no sense. If you ask me, the Wii-mote and the PlayStation Wii-mote Move are much less ridiculous ways of doing motion gaming, because they provide a tangible element which actually lends to the illusion of whatever act you’re supposed to be doing, while at the same time helping you act with more precision. And the showroom feature? If I’m staring at a flat image anyway, I’d rather sit on my couch and use the analog sticks to view the car, rather than move around tentatively. Seriously, what’s the benefit of doing that? Still, I’m sure the Kinect will have lots of fun games, and I hope there will be less games will be like this – tiring to play and awkward to navigate.

[via IGN's YouTube Channel]

As I got older, and racing games got better I started to use racing wheels for my driving game fetish. I typically play with a crazy expensive Logitech racing wheel with its own shifter, clutch, and force feedback and it’s fantastic. The problem is finding a place to attach the thing since the coffee table is too low and using the wheel in my lap is not good.

Thrustmaster has unveiled a new wireless racing rig called the Ferrari Wireless GT cockpit 430 Scuderia Edition. Basically, it’s a racing wheel on an articulating, weighted frame – with pedals in the base. You can adjust the fame for kids and adults to enjoy. The thing uses wireless connectivity for the PC and the PS3, which makes it extra handy. The wheel is modeled after the real wheel from the 430 Scuderia car.

The downside here are the lack of a gated shifter, clutch pedal, and force feedback. Man, if it had all those things it would be perfect. The cockpit will sell for about $270 (USD).