Further Topics At 330 kilometers per hour to Vision Zero?
Unrestricted acceleration on German highways, for some the feeling of total freedom. The fastest ten percent of all measured passenger cars reach an average speed of 185 km/h.
Germany is the only European country that does not have a general speed limit on highways. Discussions concerning speed limits on German highways are emotional - but adrenaline and driving fun are not only found on the road, but also in the digital racing experience, as the report on our colleague Stieve Piray shows.
Stieve Piray, team leader in production for toll technology at VITRONIC, loves speed, precision and fast cars. However, he never puts anyone in danger with his passion. Together with his racing partner Pierre Statler, they race virtual cars as a team.
Pierre and Stieve met in 2014 through the online game Gran Turismo on the PS3 and have since competed as a racing duo in various leagues. In 2018 came the switch from the gaming console to the PC andiRacing, where the two discovered their passion forNascarracing (oval racing). Every week, Stieve and Pierre meet for so-called digitalgentlemen's evenings. They sit in racks with a driver's seat and steering wheel, almost like in real racing cars.
You can really feel the vibration of the engine and the centrifugal forces.
A victory at the Daytona 500 in February 2021 shows just how successful the two are at this. The two trained intensively for two weeks for the upcoming race. It paid off. After Pierre wrecked his car, Stieve was able to avoid the accident. He reached a top speed of 330 kilometers per hour with his car and was in the lead for 97 laps. After just over three hours, the race was over: Stieve Piray had won by a few hundredths of a second over the runner-up.
The extremely well simulated virtual Daytona race is based on the real car race. Stieve not only knows this series digitally, but was even live on site at the Daytona 500 race in Florida / USA last year and was thus able to experience the atmosphere up close.
Virtual racing experience - technology that inspires!
What sounds like maximum speed isactually precisionwork. Virtual car racing is like a strategic chess game, says Stieve. Drivershave tomake sure that the engine doesn't overheat, that they take advantage of the slipstream, and that they make a pit stop at the right time.
In both worlds, VITRONIC and digital racing, I'm fascinated by the precision of the technology, the combination of hardware and software.
Even though speed fascinates - driving too fast remains the number one cause of fatal accidents. There are good arguments for adjusting the maximum speed. Better to accelerate in virtual races than in road traffic #VisionZero.