Have been wanting to give the simulators at Axon a try for over a year now but it was hard to find time given my work schedule and inability to coordinate with friends to go down to their Beckwith location. We were trying to figure out what to do after lunchtime and I remembered that Axon was now open in Aberdeen Centre so we stopped by (reservations recommended).
I have a Logitech/Playseat rig at home that's collected dust for the better part of 2 years but used to be more active with driving sims and racing games so I'm familiar with those systems and Assetto Corsa but it's my first time with something that simulates G-force. The friends that I came with have never really tried simulators at any level before so it was interesting to see how they fared.
We all found the simulators to be quite intuitive, they gave us an orientation on a Porsche Boxster which was easy to learn on and did exactly what we thought it would. We tried two more cars and tracks and left very impressed with the quality of the simulators. I really liked the social aspect of it and being able to talk smack on the provided headsets.
For those who have only ever driven on the street and in traffic, you don't ever really get to feel the sensation of a car that's about to lose control. This is a safe way to feel the sensation of steering getting light, understeer, and weight transfer when the car is upset. The best part was that all 4 of us left feeling like better drivers and were significantly more confident with limit handling.
All of the equipment is considerably more expensive and state of the art compared to the arcade racing games we grew up playing so don't expect to be paying $1 for 5 minutes of Daytona USA. I think the era of those low quality arcade racing games is over as your average smartphone racing game is already way beyond that level of entertainment. Pricing-wise I feel that it's geared towards your more serious driving enthusiast rather than your casual gamer. I liken it to just having a treadmill and some dumbbells at home to actually investing in a personal trainer. There is value to your investment but understandably not all can justify the commitment. I think more options for drop-in/casual participants will help expand Axon's niche market as a $65-120 monthly commitment is a considerable expense (certainly more than my rarely used gym membership :P ).
The simulators here are a lot more sophisticated and actually valuable for more serious driver training. As someone who's participated in a lot of track days at various race tracks, I left Axon feeling like I still had a lot to learn. There is an element of fear that you simply can't overcome in a real car which will always hold you back from reaching their actual limit, but high quality simulators like these give you a risk-free way of experiencing that limit (and beyond as indicated by the number of spin outs I had in the short time I was at Axon). read more