YouTuber and sim racer Marty McDrive has shocked the sim racing world with his latest creation aimed at bridging the gap between the real world and the virtual one.

McDrive has made a name for himself by reviewing cars in racing sims, competing in bronze classes in iRacing, and for his exuberant attempts at chasing realism. With over $78,000 invested into the project, he hopes to soon experience the same level of intense stress and physical exhaustion as a real F1 driver.

“It’s all about being as realistic as possible. It’s an art form unique to people like us. We want the most realistic simulation of driving a race car. Realtards (people who race irl) don’t take us seriously, so I’m here to show the world just how real sim racers are”, he told us.

Marty has been working on the latest additions to his newest sim setup, which we have been asked to call “his cockpit”. He currently has a static set up built around a used 1995 Swift Formula Ford rolling chassis that he scammed a man on RacingJunk.com out of. He has a Mad Cat wheel base with a McLaren GT3 wheel, Logitech pedals, and a custom shifter and hydraulic handbrake made out of parts a subscriber donated after wrecking their s2000 drift car. Six monitors surround the chassis as well.

Marty also incorporated motors to tighten his belts under braking, as well as motors to simulate vibrations through the used Sparco seat he rigged into the chassis. In his chase of maximum realism, he has bought himself a full set of racing gear. On stream, Marty uses the built in com port of this helmet to talk to his viewers, while data from his races are sent to an ex-driver coach from the Skip Barber Racing School to analyze on a licensed copy of Motec i2.

Some people are not as convinced:

“When we heard at how much Mr. McDrive spent, we told him he could’ve just bought a working Formula Vee. McDrive doesn’t talk me anymore”, Garrett, McDrive’s former roommate.

His most recent addition has been to address the unrealistic thermal properties of the air-conditioned room his “cockpit” was built in.

“Like, it’s not realistic to be driving in a temperature controlled environment right? They don’t have AC in formula 1. However my roommates have been bitching to me about how much electricity I’m already wasting and don’t let me turn up the heater. So, I’ve devised a master plan”, Marty told us.

His master plan, so he continued to call it, involved creating a cooling loop starting from his water cooled PC and connecting it to his monitors, wheel base, and seat motors. These are then fed to a heat exchanger with a fan that blows the air through one of several ducts to simulate being in an open cockpit or fully enclosed car.

He hopes to finish testing out this new setup soon so he can start using it in competition.

Marty also visited GM Performance’s dynamic Driver In Loop (DIL) simulator to see how he can improve his home setup in a series of cross-promoted videos.

“He looked at the LMP2 tub we use for our GTP car and was amazed when we told him that it was in fact, real carbon. He also did not understand why we removed the windshield, stating ‘how will the drivers be able to drive in real air?’… I hope we never have to let him back in here”, one GM race engineer told us.

They also mentioned that Marty’s lap times were so slow compared to the development drivers, that all involved have been contractually obligated not to release them under threat of a defamation charge. We, however, have not signed any such legal documents.

As for Marty McDrive’s next antics, he plans to take his VR setup to the next level, by gluing his headset to a Stilo ST6 Carbon Zero-54 8860 helmet to further enhance the realism of his rig. We at MSIMA wish him the best of luck showing all those in ““real Motorsport”” that he hasn’t embarked on a pointless exercise.