INTERVIEW PART 2

This second part of the interview is a transcript from the live chat session from Team Redline and BallRacing Developments Ltd.

TR: Ok thank you for joining us Ball Racing Developments

TR: my first question is an easy one!

TR: What made you decide to start the company?

BRD: I thought you said easy, let me think a second

TR: hehe

BRD: It started with Tim deciding he needed a steeing wheel to play his Amiga games and he came up with a couple of bent bits of metal and it went from there

TR: Many people think you are a large company but how many people actually work for you?

BRD: Well there are 6 full time plus a couple of people part time on contract.

TR: What makes you stand out from your competitors?

BRD: I think the main thing is that our interest was first in motorsport and that our approach to design comes from that angle. We have quite strong connections in the motorsport industry and they are getting stronger all the time.

BRD: We have invested extensively in state of the art technology through our partnerships with EDS and HP so that we operate CAD systems that are the same as used in F1. Additionally our electronics experts have decades of experience in the simulation industry both in automotive and aerospace.

TR: Would you see yourselves as a stepping stone between sim and real racing?

BRD:We have always seen that we are a link between the real and the virtual and the technologies are converging. We are uniquely positioned to be able to understand the needs of both the sim racer and the professional race driver as we produce equipment for both markets.

TR: How can you you bring real racing and sim racing closer together?

BRD: There are two areas. Firstly educating the motorsport industry of the benefits associated with simulation in the sense of driver training, since simulation in this industry as been associated with car design and development only. The second area is really to do with the cross fertilisation of technology. Bringing design and manufacturing techniques etc used in motorsport into the sim racing hardware development.

TR: Do you think its only a matter of time before real drivers get more involved with sim racing?

BRD: Yes. Already they are to some degree, but they need to understand that this goes beyond just gaming and initial familiarisation with tracks. There needs to be more work behind the scene to show them the other benefits available.

TR: Now a big question, where can you as a leading player between real and sim racing see sim racing in 5 years time?

BRD: We see sim racing becoming a recognised sport, with a proliferation of race centres, increased numbers of sim racers through much easier online access and the creation of established professional racing leagues. We would see a much more significant place for sim races being broadcast to a viewing audience. Lots really, but we need to think more about this.

TR: The Sim racing community seems vast yet there doesnt seem to be that much direction, what would you like to see change?

BRD: We see that Sim racing is going to have to undergo some big changes to allow it to be able to expand and attract new people. There has to be some standardisation introduced, for example in server hardware, positioning, bandwidth etc. This may be best achieved through a virtual governing organsation or a recognised group which will come up with a standardised set of rules. We would not want to see some thing restrictive introduced, but we would want something

TR: Can you describe some of the features on the new speed7 FF wheel? What sort of new technology does it feature, are there more buttons on it than previous BRD wheels, and any idea of a price?

BRD: We can't go into too much detail yet. Should be able to tell you more soon. In the meantime there will be more buttons and functions available on the wheel than you will be able to shake a large stick at! With regards to price, we are trying to work to a price some where between �1 and �100000.

TR: haha

TR: ok, I'll put the noble on hold :O)

BRD: Seriously, we are looking for around �300

TR: At the speed 7 launch, Andy Wilke was using a gated-shifter made by BRD but it was a prototype then.... Are there any plans to bring this into production?

BRD: We are producing a new shifter, which will be a combined H pattern and sequential shifter. We are aiming at the summer for this to be launched. It will be a predominantly metal affair and will have a very positive and realistic action.

Doug E: With the launch of the S7 Pedals - you mentioned (as on the website) that they would be flash updateable and so forth - do you have plans for something like that - or an application to manage setting on a profile basis much like MS and Logi use for their hardware?

BRD: Yes. We have a driver the 'BRD Analyser', in final development now. We will be releasing this to Redline shortly for testing. This is a very radical driver and will allow you to manipulate every aspect of the steering and pedal outputs and combination of most manufacturers controllers. The flash updateable aspects was in place at the outset. It has only so far been used by those customers who had the earliest versions of the pedals.

Doug E: Any plans to attend / organise any LAN type events - or similar events such as Goodwood '02

Doug E: (and any idea how much was raised at Goodwood?)

Doug E: I'll REALLY stir things up and tack on the end - any plans for a S7 Wheel Launch party?

BRD: We are planning a launch event for the new steering when it is ready. We are not sure we will have time to do much in the way of other events this year. We are holding a post stock take sale on 15th February at our office. We will have lots of our older controls at very low prices as well as some F1 wheels etc. We will post a news article shortly.

BRD: I do have a record of what was raised at Goodwood , I will look out the details, but Whizz Kids were overjoyed with the amount they raised.

TR: How will the Force be different from other wheels and will you have to run seperate software?

BRD: The forces will be realistic but this goes to the heart of the what is radical and so we can not disclose anything about this yet. You will not need separate software but I can't say more than that. I am sorry but come back to us in a couple of months.

Doug E: Will you offer a trade in scheme for wheels to upgrade to the S7 Wheel as was offered for the S7 Pedals.

BRD: We have not discussed this yet. I am sure there will be some arrangement for previous BRD customers but don't know what yet!

TR: Could in your eyes the speed7 pedals be improved in any way?

BRD: One area we have identified was to produce a range of varying strength pedal springs. Also we have been looking at some pressure sensors for the brake as opposed to potentiometers. As with everything it costs and takes time to do, if enough people say they want these things it makes things viable. We rely on people telling us what other things they think might want improving.

TR: One thing I would like to see and that is to see the brake feeling spongy when you start to get brake fade, is this possible?

BRD: That is something we had discussed, we did explore the use of some electro-mechanical variable dampers. These would be great and we did allow for these to be fitted in future. It does require software interface and forms part of our ideas for 'force feedback' effects in the pedals.

TR: So in effect a poll to see what people want would be a good idea?

BRD: This is something we should explore (questionnaire that is).

TR: Did you have any involvement with Papyrus and their latest NASCAR sim?

BRD: No comment

TR: Hehe, Well I would like to thank you for your time!