Friday the 23rd of December 2016, Italian motorsport equipment manufacturer Sparco have announced their intention to enter the sim racing market and will be introducing new Sparco sim racing products in 2017! According to a press release from Sparco, there will be several differing racing seats offered for simulators, a dedicated Sparco Gaming branded simulator, as well as a new wheel product.
The release states that Sparco is planning three main types of simulator seats, a dedicated simulator and wheel product for introduction in 2017. The seats will not only be aimed at the casual gamer but they will also be targeting experienced sim racers when the new products are released.
The mentioned wheel product is not really expanded upon, just what type of wheel product this may be is not immediately clear. It could be an after-market rim or a totally new product altogether. We can only speculate at this stage as to what it might be. This news certainly has piqued my interest.
The two main players in this new venture released separate statements containing their respective vision and ideas on just what this step means for the Italian company and their desire to break into the exploding sim racing eSports arena. Once we learn more about the new products or there are new images available, we will share them with you all here. Stay tuned, folks.
Davide Brivio, SPARCO® Gaming Program Manager:
Joining a degree in Mechanical Engineering and years of passion and experience in the Sim Racing and in FPS gaming is definitely a dream come true. The development of this first range, which will be released in 2017, aims straight to raising the quality of gaming equipment, to allow desktop players and Sim Racer to improve the gaming experience through products developed in Italy by the racing industry leaders that takes seriously the virtual universe, which now 100% of professional drivers face each day. The intentions for the coming years are definitely supporting the community that we want to create, and why not, the search for innovative solutions for both entry-level and for the most hard-core gamers.
Claudio Pastoris, SPARCO® CEO:
Once, racing champions were formed with karts, today more and more with simulators,” said , “things change quickly and you need to keep up with the times. eSports are not only the video game but real sport, considered as such, especially abroad. online competitions, championships and tournaments that gather “professionals” Team or Pro Player, and “amateur” whose rise, as for professional riders, is made up of many hours of training to get to high performance. The eSports, like a car race, is an experienced discipline.
Sparco’s description of their simulator seats and Evolve simulator:
GRIP: entry-level model, allows the user to adjust the seating position in height and inclination, while the back offers the ability to recline and micrometer lumbar adjustment. The product is saddled with the same synthetic leather used for after-market automotive products ensuring wear resistance, washability with a damp cloth and durability of the surface texture.
STINT: is dedicated to a discerning gamer, who in addition to the functional aspects of handling and tightens, look at the performance. The STINT chair is equipped with the innovative COLDFLOW system, developed in SPARCO®: this system sees mate, both in the cushion and in the central part of the backrest, a perforated fabric and a cushion composed of epoxy nature wires; this innovative bearing between human body and polyurethane padding allows a breathability 9 times higher than traditional upholstery synthetic fabric and significantly lengthens the time required for it to reach the condition of sweating, induced on traditional upholstery by the poor breathability. The COLDFLOW system also sees improving blood flow compared with traditional upholstery.
COMP: is the “luxury” model of SPARCO® range. This product was conceived in two variants C and V. The first, top of the range between the gaming seats, is equipped with a backrest consisting of the same composite material of carbon fiber used on Supercar staged by SPARCO®; the version V, instead, is equipped with a backrest in painted fiberglass matt black. Both chairs are derived in design and comfort from SPX SPARCO® seat.
Evolve simulator description:
The tip of the iceberg consists of the cockpit Evolve, which sees reconceived the driving seat for simulators thanks to a very compact layout, but that will thrill all virtual drivers thanks to anthropometric study done with Humanetics®, which will guarantee them the same driving position that SPARCO® studies for Rally and GT cars. The driving position has been conceived from measurements of 95 percentile, then even adults with generous dimensions will be able to obtain the perfect sporty driving position. The numerous adjustments present (sliding guides for the seat, the adjustment system for rotation, sliding and elevation of the wheel support and pedals support, space-saving folding) allow a wide range of users, the search for the correct position. Evolve has obviously been designed for optimum torsional stiffness, which make you feel all virtual drivers like in a real interior, despite its compact size that lead to portability to be reckoned with. To enrich the range, as well as various optional in the pipeline for Evolve cockpit, equipped as standard with a racing seat, there is also the driving devices and clothing.
