By Bryan Redeker

I am up first to try the simulator, while Brandon stayed in the control room to watch my progress. I got into the Taurus-X, buckled my seat belt, and waited for the instructions to start. Sitting in the car, the only thing that is different is the gauge cluster, which is digital instead of analog. Otherwise, this thing is real. The screen lights up, and I am sitting on the highway next to some fields. I put the car into drive and start to accelerate up to 70mph. I mash the gas, and the simulator pitches up and vibrates just as it would if I was really driving. Once at speed, I test out the lane detection systems. I drift to the left, and an audible beep is heard to let me know I am drifting. This is the system from the Volvo line-up, and it works very well. I drift again, and this time it is not a noise, but a vibration to alert me. There were a number of different things I tried out to see my reactions to them.

Next task was to read a set of numbers near the console. First attempt I got 5 out of 6, next attempt I got all 6. More driving follows and I practice switching lanes, which moves the simulator a full lane width over. You really get a great sense of driving from this simulator. I get to do another task that distracts me from the road, and I find a semi-truck has cut me off. Do I slam on the brakes to avoid crashing? Do I dump the car into the ditch and miss the truck? Nope, I do the typical Bryan thing which is to check my mirror, turn the wheel, and hit the gas to drive around the obstacle. My brain calculated there was not enough room to stop, and the ditch would suck. I picked the best route to safety. My next move wasn’t so safe, but lots of fun. I made an attempt to do a 4 wheel drift down the highway at 80mph. The end result was a lot of laughing and a loud crash. Oops, I figured I could recover the spin, but I exceeded the allowable g-force and the simulator shut down.

Brandon jumped in the simulator next, and tried out the lane departure warning systems. We both had about the same thoughts on which ones were are favorite, and which we did not like. Brandon decided not to crash the simulator as I did, which I guess was a good idea. Instead of the number reading while driving, he used Ford’s Sync system. Since Brandon knew what was going to happen with the semi-truck, they turned the motion off on him without warning to see his reactions. It was strange that you feel more motion sick with the motion turned off than with it on. Neither of got sick, but driving with no motion was very odd feeling. After he was done driving, we got a chance to see the simulator’s mechanics up close. Everything is top notch, and the quality of the machining would make any engineer drool.