Beautiful driving setup

[jimmy2x2x]

[EightBySix]

Just one improvement... The headlights should be projectors for big screen pleasure.

[Le Chuck]

^ Just stole my post.  What a halfassed mod as is 

Pure awesomeness 

[brad808]

Whoa that thing is sweet 

[Howard_Casto]

So all the stuff folds up in the hood?

Brilliant!

[hyiu]

nice !!!   

[Howard_Casto]

Anybody know where you can get a similar shell? 

That thing is so awesome I want to build one.  I could see expanding it a tad to make a loveseat/couch and then have the wheel and pedals roll out of the bottom.

[wp34]

Looks like it even has a cup holder.  Awesome.

[Nephasth]

Here's some classics: http://sweetsofas.com/finishedcouches.html

This sort of thing is not cheap by any means...

http://www.americanretrofurniture.com/Ford-Mustang-Cobra-Car-Couch.html

[SavannahLion]

OK. I'm going to go against the flow here.

First off...

That thing looks to be extremely well built. Lots of interesting technique and, apparently, some very skilled craftsmanship.

So... please don't take what I'm about to say the wrong way. I have enormous respect for the amount of skill it took to build this.

but...

I have to say the choice in subject matter is just well.... dumb.

Hey, I like sitting on my tailgate just as much as the next truck owner. I've taken a real shine to eventually owning a car with a true rumble seat (screw you Ralph Nader  ). I also have no qualms about a nice hot chick sitting on the hood of any car (or on me, but don't tell the wife that).

I just quite honestly don't see the appeal in having this, or anything remotely like this, in the man cave.

Here's some classics: http://sweetsofas.com/finishedcouches.html

This sort of thing is not cheap by any means...

http://www.americanretrofurniture.com/Ford-Mustang-Cobra-Car-Couch.html

Yeah, I wouldn't pay $4k+ for any one of those things. How in the world is that Cobra couch retro furniture? The only people who made furniture out of the butt of their car in the 50's were the same people who tried to grow Model T engines in their front yard.

[Yenome]

Is it just me or did it change from the second to the 3rd picture. the steering wheel looks diff the pedals are diff. and the around the head rest in the one picture there looks to be two red speakers but they seem missing from the other picture. tho i am jealous and dont know which is suppose to be hotter the chair or the guy in the picture. woot for man love.

[TopJimmyCooks]

Is it just me or did it change from the second to the 3rd picture. the steering wheel looks diff the pedals are diff.  . . .

He's made it upgradeable.  The wheel is clamped on to the tray, and the pedals are loose in the drawer- you can tell because they would stick out too far to fit behind the union jack license plate, they are slid back in the drawer before it's closed.  So he can use different controls as desired. 

Its a cool and well done project.  I would not invest so much time/effort/$ into a driving rig and end up without a dedicated shifter, but I understand why he kept the controls stock/simple.  Much better compatibility with a wide range of driving games. 

[drventure]

It's a very cool build, but I think if I'm going to go all in on a driving game cab, I'd want to be sitting being a dashboard, in an actual bucket seat, with a shifter and pedals in the right place.

Hmmm, A +whole+ mini wouldn't take of that much space in the man cave would it? 

[SavannahLion]

It's a very cool build, but I think if I'm going to go all in on a driving game cab, I'd want to be sitting being a dashboard, in an actual bucket seat, with a shifter and pedals in the right place.

Hmmm, A +whole+ mini wouldn't take of that much space in the man cave would it? 

Didn't someone start such a build by dragging home a wreck.... A Taxi I think? The suck part is he passed away before the project got very far. That thread is around here but I can't find it. I think his girlfriend (fiance?) announced his passing and sent Saint his copy of the Book.

[SavannahLion]

Found him: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=profile;u=7252

[Howard_Casto]

I don't think realism falls into the equation.  What I like about it is that is doesn't look like a giant erector set nightmare when not in use.

[drventure]

It doesn't look like a giant erector set nightmare when not in use.

+1 to that.

Though I don't think i'd mind a skeleton rig if it did this...

[Howard_Casto]

It doesn't look like a giant erector set nightmare when not in use.

+1 to that.

Though I don't think i'd mind a skeleton rig if it did this...

Thos types of rigs are really cool, but I'd be afraid the I would be to fat for it.  I weigh around 220, all the people I ever see in these homemade rigs weigh around 150 tops.  I know what would happen... I'd be driving up a steep hill, the rear piston would fail... I go flying to the floor and the whole rig falls on me.  So not only am I at the hospital, but I've just killed a $1000  tv and ruined my rig. 

I had an idea for a barrel racer back in the day.  Literally you just cut an old drum in half.  The pivot point would be in the dead center of the barrel for up/down tilt to avoid stress on the rams and the barrel half would roll left and righ on a half circle cradle.  Because the barrel is rounded, again, less stress on the rams/motors. 

But that's a lot of time and money I'm not willing to invest on something I don't really have room for anyway.

I would like to get one of those high quality arcade rigs one day (like a r360) and modify it for directx usage. 

[Yenome]

I been wanting to make a closed in machwarrior simulator. not as elaborate as his but a simple closed in boxed with a nice size monitor, maybe even a projector. with foot pedals throttle and a simple stick. Don't have the room for one ATM and i been waiting to see if mechwarrior 5 is gonna be released first or if ill be stuck with mechwarrior 4.

[Turvey]

I saw one of these on a 'Doing Up An Old House' type of programme and thought it was rather cool!!!

[kahlid74]

I been wanting to make a closed in machwarrior simulator. not as elaborate as his but a simple closed in boxed with a nice size monitor, maybe even a projector. with foot pedals throttle and a simple stick. Don't have the room for one ATM and i been waiting to see if mechwarrior 5 is gonna be released first or if ill be stuck with mechwarrior 4.

Just a side note, there is no Mechwarrior 5.  There is Mechwarrior Online, but no 5.  There will not be a 5 for at least a few years to boot.  Publishers didn't want to fork up the mondo bucks for it with no sustainable model.  Mechwarrior Online is going to be ridiculously awesome.  Trust me, those guys are working stuff you've only read about in Battletech lore (Like multiple reticules for arms/torso)

So in the 80's and 90's, if you were rocking during those times, you might have had a chance to go to one of the many FASA Virtual Reality centers.  And inside of those centers lived something WAY ahead of it's time.  It was 4-16 player Battletech Mech Free for all fought from inside 4*8 foot wooden structures we called PODs.  There were two designs of the PODs.  VR2.5 and 3.0.

Inside these monstrosities sat 4 Motherboards with CPU's and memory.  If I remember correctly two were used for nominal processes and two for graphics.

Back in 2006 I got a chance to visit Greenday out in Cali, the guy who owned the last 6 VR 3.0 pods in existence.  At the time all six were fully functional.  Boy was that a flashback to the early 90's for me.  I took 800+ pictures and made sketchup drawings of the entire cabinet.  Since then he's had to literally hack up four of the PODs just to keep the remaining two pods working.  A lot of shortcuts were made during the creation of said pods (Crappy power supplies, rusting solder joints, etc.)

Now days the latest and greatest pods are known as the Tesla II pods run by Nicolas "Propwash" who bought the rights and all of the jazz from FASA/Microsoft.

Watch the Project Announcements forum over the next week or two as I begin my build on a replica Battletech VR3.0 pod.

Here's a link about their history - http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/battletech.html

If you do a google search you'll see lots more info on them but the VR2.5/3.0 pods information is slowly drying out on the internet.  If you want to build one, start creating an archive of the available information before it becomes fully "lostech".

Marketing Picture of a VR 3.0 Pod


Another good picture allbeit small:


My pictures of the last working ones:
Greenday booting up the MAC system which ran the whole BNC networked POD getup:


Closeup of the front interface side of the POD:


Closeup of the seating area of the POD:


Picture of a Tesla II pod:

[Yenome]

Mechwarrior online is Mechwarrior 5 they just changed the name to online instead of 5. everyone who was on board for the game when they was calling it Mechwarrior 5 is still involved. they had some legal trouble over a few mech designs. seemed that slowed down work on the game. but yea i lived near Chicago in the early 90 and we had in our mall a battlestorm store with the pods and with  red planet. the Tesla II pods are still being built today. least last i checked the company who held the rights to em was still making them per order. been a while since i was on my Mechwarrior fad. last time i was on it Mechwarrior living legends(crysis mod) was still being worked on and had just gotten a beta release. I had heard the Chicago location was the last to shut down.

[kahlid74]

Mechwarrior online is Mechwarrior 5 they just changed the name to online instead of 5. everyone who was on board for the game when they was calling it Mechwarrior 5 is still involved. they had some legal trouble over a few mech designs. seemed that slowed down work on the game. but yea i lived near Chicago in the early 90 and we had in our mall a battlestorm store with the pods and with  red planet. the Tesla II pods are still being built today. least last i checked the company who held the rights to em was still making them per order. been a while since i was on my Mechwarrior fad. last time i was on it Mechwarrior living legends(crysis mod) was still being worked on and had just gotten a beta release. I had heard the Chicago location was the last to shut down.

So here's the thing, Mechwarrior Online is NOT Mechwarrior 5.  The engine is the same, the Mech combat is similar but that's where the similarities end.  Mechwarrior Online is a F2PMMO (Free to Play Massive Multiplayer Online Game).  There is no single player campaign.  There is no small scale Multiplayer Mech free for all.  Mechwarrior Online is like Rainbow Six with Mechwarrior.  Basically Battletech the way it always should have been where Scouts have a workable and useable purpose all the way up to assaults being lumbering walls of weapons with slow movement and turn radius/capability.  I'm sorry to say this but if you think this is Mechwarrior 5 you're going to be in for a very disappointing experience.  Mechwarrior Online has the capability for you to enter a 20 minute match, be killed in the first 2 minutes and not be able to do ANYTHING the remaining 18 while you wait for it to finish.  There won't be anymore alpha strikes period. No Missile boats that survive more than a round without reinforcements either.  MWO is Mech warfare the way it's described in the Battletech books/Lore and NOTHING like what you've experienced in Mechwarrior 3/4 besides the concept of Mechanized Warfare.   

Lets also be clear on what happened to Mechwarrior 5.  In 2009 when Jordan Wesiman and Piranha started pitching the idea, everyone was giddy but didn't like the price tag.  Fast forward through every publisher and they had no funding.  That's when Mechwarrior 5 died.  Piranha then decided they really wanted to make a battletech game so they decided on a Free to Play MMO which is what Mechwarrior Online is.  They re-licensed the rights for Mech combat on computer from Jordan W (Who had originally re-licensed it from Microsoft) and began to build MWO.

The legal troubles you're talking about deal with something known as "The Unseen" (See here - http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Unseen).  The "Unseen" refers to several Mech designs that were stolen in likeness from Macross back in the 80's.  The owners of the rights to Macross sued and won forcing an injunction on FASA to prevent them from ever using Unseen mechs in games/fiction/lore.  Mechs like the Rifleman and Maurauder.  When the current owners of Macross saw Mechwarrior 5's trailer  of a Rifleman fighting a Jenner and then an Atlas they IMMEDIATELY filed suit hoping for money.  They have always only been about the money so the second they thought they could get more money from FASA they hoped right on it.  To the credit of the original creators of Macross, the Lostech mechs are clearly a rip from their stuff.

[SavannahLion]

Jesus, I can't conceive of the volumes of information required to even think about recreating such cabs. I'll definitely be watching a project thread like that.

[Yenome]

yes except in an interview with the games maker he him self says the game they made to pitch the idea became the game. so 5 is online. far as i know there was no info released bout 5 save for that trailer and that could of also only been an opening fmv. tho i love the mechwarrior series and still think it would be fun to build a generic cockpit for it and possible some driving games. i played 4 online and unless you was on a non heat server you wasnt doing too many alpha strikes. most setups people used would shut a mech down from one. plus i played mechwarrior living legends which is more along the lines as MWO so i know what to expect.

[kahlid74]

yes except in an interview with the games maker he him self says the game they made to pitch the idea became the game. so 5 is online. far as i know there was no info released bout 5 save for that trailer and that could of also only been an opening fmv. tho i love the mechwarrior series and still think it would be fun to build a generic cockpit for it and possible some driving games. i played 4 online and unless you was on a non heat server you wasnt doing too many alpha strikes. most setups people used would shut a mech down from one. plus i played mechwarrior living legends which is more along the lines as MWO so i know what to expect.

Again, 5 is not MWO.  Just because "Mech Combat" is in both doesn't make them the same but alas, this thread is derailed into battletech talks.  At the end of the day MWO will rock and I will have my VR 3.0 pod to enjoy it in so it's all gravy.  MW4 online will be very dissimilar to MWO lol.  If you played a bit of it you'd know alpha's and missile boats owned the Mplayer experience.

[Yenome]

5 is online when the game maker him self says it is. now go make me my pod and be quick about it. and missles owned everyone they still do since it got released for free with the expected reboot of mechwarrior. plus alpha only owned on non heat management servers on real ones an alpha would shut you down. but yea too much mechwarrior talk.

[eramsabe]

I would love to build one of those, my wife would crap a house but still would be fun