My Racing Seat

[bombsquad83]

I've had this thing for a couple years, and finally got up the motivation to go ahead and post it here.

Here are the pictures and description of my home made racing seat for Gran Turismo. It goes great with my 100" 720p LCD projector setup in my basement. Here is the list of features:
[*]

• 
  8-way power seat from a Chrysler LHS (got it from a junk yard, cleaned it up and used a leather dye to make it black)
• Power seat is powered with an AC to DC converter mounted behind the seat
• Height Adjustable steering wheel (steering column from a Dodge Neon)
• Steering wheel is a Driving Force GT with pedals
• Steering wheel mount was cut and welded up from scrap square tube steel from a table, and painted gloss black.
• Stereo Bass Shakers powered through low-pass filters from a 100W amp. It gets stereo signal from the RCA output from the PS3.
• Base is plywood and 2x4s on 4 large caster wheels with a black rubber bumper mold, aluminum laminate, and wood trim painted black, and aluminum threshold as kick-plates.
• The base is upholstered with black trunk liner material. As you might be able to tell from the pictures, it sucks up dog hair and won't let it go. Other than that, it's a great material.
• My father-in-law custom upholstered the headrest with the GT logo on the front and back with a blue carbon fiber look fabric inlay.

These two pictures show how the steering wheel height adjustment works. You just push down the lever and you are free to move it up and down through about 2 in of adjustment.

Video of the power seat in action. I forgot to show the reclining adjustment, but it works too.


And a couple pics of my buddy racing on it. It was a while ago before it was completely done with all the trimmings, but you get the idea. Helmet and gloves optional.

 

[RReed43]

Great looking rig and I would love to have a seat that is comfortable and adjustable like yours. Well done!

 

[Mayaman]

I wanna drive that thing to get groceries!

 

[Mac K]

I like it, especially the logo!

 

[Bye Ya]

Looks great man. Nice job. 👍

 

[Dragon_Dude]

Great job, love the wheels! Going mobile 👍

 

[CJDA9]

Nice idea with the adjustable wheel deck! 👍

 

[MSTER232]

Good setup, but I think that you should have done the GT logo in the classic GT colours and not just all blue. Speaking of which, it seemed that someone (specifically speaking, me) had the same idea as you...

 

[BJBEOSmitty]

Very nice! The helmet is amusing...

 

[MSTER232]

Very nice! The helmet is amusing...

It's probably just to hide his identity or something along the lines of that.

 

[bombsquad83]

Good setup, but I think that you should have done the GT logo in the classic GT colours and not just all blue. Speaking of which, it seemed that someone (specifically speaking, me) had the same idea as you...

It was done with remnants of material that my father in law had available. I didn't want to wait to order either the silver or red to go along with the blue. It's also more subdued with the blue, which I like. I didn't see yours done similarly before I did mine. Have you posted it here? Love to see it. As far as the helmet, it was just for fun. Although, some say...fill in British humor here.

Thanks for all the positive feedback. I really was going for the cool factor along with a lot of form and function with this seat. I think it succeeded on a budget with the help of my friend and father in law. I really love playing in this thing, and it's comfy enough to play for hours. Now if I only had that kind of time!

 

[gordie44]

How effective are the TT units (bass shakers)?

I ask because they are mounted underneath the platform, instead of directly on the seat as has been recommended on GTP.

Is the vibration strong enough for you? Can you clearly distinguish between left and right?

Really nice setup by the way, one of the nicest I've seen using 2x4s. The carpet is a great touch, I have some on mine and it makes it that much more 'realistic'.

I like the headrest too!

 

[bombsquad83]

Honestly the bass could be stronger. The low pass filters helped eliminate the upper range output, but also took some of the power in some ranges you can feel away. I would have just left it, but there is a slight delay in the RCA signal vs the optical that goes to the surround sound in the room. I have wanted to build an active filter to replace the passive ones. That would filter on the input side and allow the full power of the amp to drive the shakers. It would also allow cheaper component changes to change the frequency response of the filter and dial it in.

I did experiment with different shaker positions. Unfortunately the size of the shakers and the movement of the seat makes it very difficult to mount them directly to the seat without major modification. You can vaguely tell the difference between left and right, but it could be better.

 

[gordie44]

Honestly the bass could be stronger. The low pass filters helped eliminate the upper range output, but also took some of the power in some ranges you can feel away. I would have just left it, but there is a slight delay in the RCA signal vs the optical that goes to the surround sound in the room. I have wanted to build an active filter to replace the passive ones. That would filter on the input side and allow the full power of the amp to drive the shakers. It would also allow cheaper component changes to change the frequency response of the filter and dial it in.

I did experiment with different shaker positions. Unfortunately the size of the shakers and the movement of the seat makes it very difficult to mount them directly to the seat without major modification. You can vaguely tell the difference between left and right, but it could be better.

Thanks for the feedback! Will help in the future for planning

 

[Dragon_Dude]

There is a lot you could do better to improve your tactile experience, check out the thread "Buttkicker options experience needed" as one example.

 

[bombsquad83]

I'm open to suggestions with my current setup, but I'm not interested in spending more money on a more expensive/bulky/heavy setup. If there is something specific you would like to share along that vein, please let me know. There seems to be an assumption from some people here that unless you have done everything the "right" way with the "right" expensive equipment, you obviously are not going to enjoy your gaming experience. I'll be ignoring these types of posts.

I posted this to get constructive criticism and help people's creative process by showing how I went about accomplishing things. I'm very open to talking about the experience with my seat; positives, negatives, and the details around its construction. Please put your comments through that filter before you post here, or at least post links to suggestions that are relevant so other people can benefit.

 

[left888]

Great job bombsquad, I love seeing home made rigs like this. Well thought out and executed.

 

[Mars Attacks]

Nice rig bombsquad (and good looking)!