Introduction:

After playing Need for Speed - Shift on the PS3 using a steering wheel attached to a TV tray and foot pedals moving about underneath, it became apparent that this is not the optimal arrangement for playing a racing game.

There are quite a few flavors of gaming seats for racing games, but many were meant for two foot driving like in a go-cart, had too much movement in the steering wheel mount, not very moveable/compact or were way too expensive.

The TerraSpeed racing simulator was designed to be easily disassembled, compact, easy to adjust for different drivers and solidly built. The target was to spend ~$100.00 to build the unit. This included the metal, racing seat, controllers and paint. The cost didn't include our time for labor or disposable materials. A bass shaker was added to the project, but I didn't include it in the $100.00 target price since many racing simulator seats have it as an option and not included. You are welcome to link to the article and pictures, but please do not use copies of pictures without referencing Terracode.com..

Materials

• Steel tubing
• Sheet Metal
• Racing Seat (Jegs)
• Seat Cover (eBay)
• Logitech Driving Force EX Steering wheel and pedals for PS2 and PS3(Amazon.com)
• Nut and Bolts

Optional Materials

• Aura Pro Bass Shaker (Parts Express)
• Plate Subwoofer Amp (eBay)

Equipment

• MIG Welder
• Metal Cut-off Saw
• Angle Grinder
• Grinder Wheel
• Drill Press
• Misc tools

Getting the Parts

We visited a metal supply shop and were able to find good quality scrap metal that fit our needs of the project. The cost came out to be ~$45.00 for all the metal after returning one steel tube that wasn't needed.

The racing seat was a standard drag racing seat. It is inject molded plastic with standard bolts embedded into the bottom. A seat cover was purchased off eBay which made the seat considerably more comfortable.

The layout for the seat height and position were fashioned after the seating position in a BMW Z4 coupe. This allowed us to better target the average seat height to steering wheel location. The seat mount height will not adjustable, just the steering wheel height and pedal distance.

Seat Mount Fabrication

The seat mount steel tubes were cut and welded. After welding, the joints were grinded down to allow better contact for the side members.

After the welding was completed, the seat mount was tested to see if it can support a person standing on it. It held up well with no signs of stress. The seat mount will also have the main slider support mounted on the side. The main slider beam will be easily adjusted to increase the foot-pedal and steering support slider distance from the seat..

Steering Slider and Foot-Pedal Mount Fabrication

The steering support slider was tricky to fabricate. It has two pieces, the support arm that will slide on the main slider bar and a slider arm that will have the steering wheel tray mounted. We measured the greatest height for a tall person. This allowed us to better gauge the structure.

Page 2 - Completing Fabrication