Castrol is running a video viral campaign that pits top drivers to race ‘blindfolded’ in real cars on a virtual reality course, bring in Top Gear’s The Stig for its latest instalment. See why its our video viral of the week below…
This world first race saw racing and stunt driver Ben Collins (formerly Top Gear’s The Stig and currently the James Bond stunt driver) and renowned drifter Matt Powers go head-to-head against each other in real cars on a ground-breaking virtual track that pushed them both to the limits of their talent.
Driving blind in the real world, the pair raced for glory in real world 2015 V8 Ford Mustangs seeing only a virtual reality track through their Oculus Rift Kit 2 headsets.
British race driver Ben Collins, famous for his role as ‘The Stig’ on BBC’s Top Gear and his stunt driving in the latest Bond movies (including the recently released Spectre), had to pull on his extensive driving experience to tackle this unchartered territory.
Describing his experience behind the wheel, Ben Collins said: “I have taken on some extraordinary driving trials in my career, but this was certainly way up there. The hardest part was getting used to the VR world and truly letting myself go – putting my foot down and trusting my instinct over my rational brain. It’s hard when every bone in your body is telling you that what you can see isn’t real, but you know you’re still in control of a real car driving at speed. But with Castrol EDGE I knew the oil would be up to the job.”
Racing rival Matt Powers commented: “I loved putting on my Castrol EDGE headset again and it was mind-blowing to race driving legend Ben as if we were on the same otherworldly racetrack. I was devastated to lose first place in the last few seconds, I’d certainly be up for a rematch, that’s for sure.”
The complex virtual reality code used to power the challenge was devised and developed over the course of 3 months by LA based technologist duo, Adam Amaral and Glenn Snyder. The duo said:
“The really exciting thing about this project is that Castrol EDGE are using the same technology that the big automotive manufacturers are utilizing for autonomous cars but taking this is a new direction by fusing it with the virtual world to create something totally unique and ground – breaking, pushing the boundaries of both gaming and racing. One of the biggest challenges of developing this live racing technology was to overcome the problem of latency and ensure that there is no need for recalibration when it comes to the racers tracking. What we have achieved is the closest VR technology can currently get to full immersion”.