Ricmotech RS1... Goes fast without moving...

[ae8zn6]

Hey guys, I just thought I would make a bit of a build thread for my sim racing rig.

Like most people who do some sim driving/drifting, I had always wanted one of those professionally made rigs that look awesome but cost like 5 or 6 hundred bucks.

I couldn't bring myself to part with that sort of cash, but the rickety old table and office chair I was using really sucked and was prolonging my recovery from a minor back injury and needed to go. I stumbled across Ricmotech one night whilst trawling the interwebz and decided that it might be the solution. It looked much more professional then any other home build design I had seen but was also cheap. This meant that I could afford it and yet the missus couldn't complain that it looked awful, win.

Anyway, So the other catalyst was that my SR20 build was taking forever and I didn't want to start taking my ZN6 out on the track, so I needed an outlet that I could get sorted in a few days rather than a few months.

Finally, being a wood based homebuild kit I could do whatever modifications I wanted to the design without it standing out and look weird. I had always wanted to rig up a joystick to act as a handbrake, but without a proper rig they would always be out of reach or just awkward to use so had never stuck to it.

So began the RS1 build.

The first thing I did was just build the basic rig, there are plenty of videos online of other people doing it if you want to watch the basic process: here is one example .

One problem I did encounter straight away is that Aussies can't go down to the hardware store and buy 2" x 4"... or any other size piece of timber specified in the plans as they are all imperial... IE these plans are made by Americans for Americans, the guy just happens to post the same plans anywhere in the world. Whilst you think, no big deal, just convert sizes to metric and Bob's your uncle, well... no. If Bob is your uncle he is an abusive horrible uncle that you don't like much. Basically timber isn't made in the same sizes over here, so you can't easily get 50mm by 100mm boards, you can get 90mm by 75mm though, so straight away you are having to make fairly significant adjustments to the plans to make things close enough to work.

I also have a feeling that building supplies must be cheaper in the States because my shopping bill for the raw materials was more than their total by a reasonable margin

As for a seat, I went down to a local wrecker and found that they happened to have an STi seat from a car where one seat had been damaged. As such I got a good deal and was pretty happy with myself.


Anyway, I put the basic package together and got this:




It made a MASSIVE difference! It was like going from a normal seat and seatbelt combo to a bucket race seat and harness. So far I was happy with the build despite the extra head scratching I had to do at the beginning.


Now for that handbrake! I went on eBay and found the cheapest USB joystick available at the time, happened to be a Logitech attack 3:


I pulled it apart, found the pieces I wanted and modified it to purpose, I then made up a base that it would sit on out of left over wood and finally went down to the pick-a-part and found an accord handbrake that would suit my purpose.



Attaching a decent spring gave the handbrake a reasonably accurate weight for feel.


Finally I made up a housing that would fit with the rest of the rig... I did originally plan to put in a cup holder in the top of it but decided that as the thing doesn't actually move around it wasn't necessary and might have gotten in the way of the handbrake motion.


I did all the testing to make sure that everything would be peachy once connected and then pulled the whole thing apart... Why? Well, as I said at the start it needed to look decent so that I got the tick of approval from the wife and to me that meant routing all the edges and filling the screw holes etc. I also decided to route a channel for the wiring so that it would sit flush with the boards.

Progress:



Then came a fair amount of dicking around making things neat and pretty. I also installed a powerboard and USB hub underneath it to minimise the number of cables that needed to go to and from it. I also installed casters because it is heavier than you would think

At some point I decided I was spending too much time trying to make it look better than was really necessary, time that I could have been spending on the real car, so I still ended up with a few average finishes... 80/20 rule is a bitch hey? Anyway, it still turned out pretty good (if I do say so myself) here is the final result, as completed tonight:




As I said, turned out alright and it certainly works a treat.

Now, having said that, would I do it again? Welllllllll, it depends, I would make a rough and ready version if I wanted a decent cheapish rig. IE put together and use, maybe a quick coat of export paint from supercheap...

But, as per the 80/20 rule, doing all the finishing touches, carpet, undercoat and top layer paint, putty and sandpaper extra time etc, and given that it still didn't turn out looking immaculate, I would probably have just bought a middle of the range professionally made rig instead.

Having said that, now that it is finished, I am happy with it.

And now more importantly I can get back to the build that actually matters

EDIT: 700th post, whoo!

[drift kid]

Wholy shit yea! that is sick, I love the handbrake addition, good work

[dove grey 64]

nice work, my uncle had a f1 simulator rig back in the early 90's, found a pic off google

exactly like that, unpainted etc. makes a massive difference to the experience. terrible to get in and out of.
his had a sub mounted against the back of the seat so you could feel the engine revs

[pt_y2k]

That is awesome, top job in effort! Here's mine, still unfinished, realized playing it was far more fun than finishing it..

[ae8zn6]

I spy with my little eye a dash beginning with Supra...

[pt_y2k]

Yo win! Ha! Yeah have a 12v power supply here so was gonna hook up all the dash lights and put a headunit back in there, but yeah I've kinda abandoned it and just play it..