How would you like to have a go at racing a car around an adrenaline rushing track ?

I could not afford Scalextric when I was growing up, I only got to play with it when visiting friends houses, but I made up for it when I started earning and built up quite a collection. When my partner and I discovered we were going to be parents several years ago we put a lot of stuff away to make space for the new generation. Now the kids are walking and talking I have been pondering getting my collected mass of Scalextric out from storage in the loft. It has been a while since I have had a good track setup – it is fun stuff when you have four or even six lanes running. I have yet to have a go on the Scalextric digital but I have a feeling that once I get bitten by the bug again – it won’t be long before I head down the shops (with the kids of course!).

 

It was with anticipation, and a little bit of envy, I heard the people at Volkswagen have gotten hold of an aircraft hangar and constructed a huge Scalextric track. This is a bit of a celebration for them as Volkswagen are launching the new Golf GTI on May 22, 2009. Now, I have a lot of track and probably more than my fair share of cars but nothing like the team of 60 modellers have come up with which includes hundreds of scale models of buildings – all in a 750 square foot space. We are not talking big here, nor mega-big, we are talking an epic scale.

I only wish I could see it in action. Guess what, we can get the next best thing.

What is even more thrilling is we can actually get to have a go on this adrenaline rushing track setup from the comfort of our own computer, and as part of the celebration, the car of course will be a 1:43 scale model of the Golf GTI. We are not talking endless figure of eight loops here we mean hairpin bends and tight bridges which need skill and careful timing to navigate. If you do well you may even be entered into the prize draw.

The ‘GTI Project’, as it has been dubbed, is an online game with a huge difference as you will be in control of the action itself – achieved through quite a bit of technology wizardry – just the sort of thing I love to write about as it combines my passion of technology with one of my fun, soon to be resurrected, hobbies.

I headed on over to the site to take a look for myself – the picture above shows a camera eye of the track view from the car-cam attached to the front of the car. Once on the site, click on the hanging white coat to get a door entry badge then head through the metal doors. You need to enter a nickname to be known by then you are off. Controls are quite straightforward using either the mouse button or the space bar to accelerate – releasing either will decelerate. You have three crash avoiding attempts to run three laps around the track so make sure you keep calm and under control. To help you navigate you get both a top down view of the current area around your car and a view of the track immediately ahead – what are you waiting for?

I have to say I really I really like this game, it can be quite addictive going round the track testing your speed at precarious moments because one false move and you are off the track. I am not sure how long this event is going to last but if you want to join in the experience head on over to the GTI Project and rev up your engine.