Christmas is coming up, and if you’re like us, you might be hoping to find some fresh gaming gear under the tree. If you’ve got some very deep-pocketed relatives, then perhaps you might find yourself the owner of this new sim rig that replicates the cockpit of Aston Martin’s 2024 F1 car, although we think it might struggle to fit beneath even the mightiest town-square spec Christmas trees.
It’s been unveiled by speciality sports memorabilia company Memento Exclusives in partnership with the Aston F1 team and features a recreation of the cockpit and nose section of the AMR24 F1 car.
In addition to a 49-inch curved gaming monitor, you’re getting a rather nice suite of sim racing hardware, including a proper carbon fibre F1-style wheel from Rexing and a set of adjustable Heusinkveld Ultimate+S pedals.
Obviously, you could just sit in it while it’s switched off, making F1 car noises with your mouth and throwing your head from side to side, but that would rather defeat the purpose. Instead, it has a premium sound system and, optionally, a D-Box haptic motion system.
Apparently, it perfectly replicates the real deal F1 car, so you’ll have to be rather lithe to actually slip into it. Once you’re in, though, you’ll be able to pretend to be your favourite Aston F1 driver or, for that matter, Lance Stroll. To that end, you can get either Alonso’s number 14 or Stroll’s number 18 on the nose section.
That’s not the only personalisation choice. The base rig costs a healthy £70,000, but you can complete the look with a nosecone and front wing for an extra £20,000 (no, really). This, we’re reliably informed, won’t make any difference to your downforce in the game. The motion actuation, meanwhile, is an extra £10,000, so with all the bells and whistles (or rather, all the nosecones and motion actuators), this is a £100k sim rig.
Still, if you are in fact spectacularly wealthy – and apparently, some people are – this would look rather good in the vast living room of your mansion. If nothing else, it would make for a really weird Euro Truck Simulator session.