Well the title may not be strictly true, but it is the start of the F1 season so it was rather good timing that this weeks Cool Stuff Collective was my Big Gadget Adventure to PureTech racing near Gatwick.
If you get to see the footage I think it is very obvious just how violent (and exhilarating) the whole experience is.
The show features a celebrity take over by Lucy Versamy, so when we have the usual chants of “Ian” Lucy walks in instead and introduces my VT, just in case anyone was as confused as when we moved TV time slots and we all turned into Hannah Montana.
The place is amazing in having 10 high spec simulators that throw you around with incredible force and precision at up to 1.5g. The steering wheels are force feedback and the track is a composite of some great corners from around the world.
In doing my TV style intro I had to say “most advanced formula racing simulators in the world” and it was so hard not to turn into Jeremy Clarkson at that point.

I really enjoyed hurtling around this track and I was getting some decent times and seeing where to improve. It was tiring but I could have done that all day, tuning and adjusting to get it just right. The middle part of the track (as I shouted in the VT is “Top Gear!!!!” and flat out (if you line up right) through some amazing corner combinations.

The other cool anecdote about todays show was that the Gadget of the Week in Monkey’s gold box was a magic wand controller from the Wand Company. (You may have caught this on Dragon’s Den). The reason it was on the show was because @bowlsey tweeted me as a representative of the wand and asked what I thought of them. The tweet started a cascade of communication and next thing you know it was on the roster as the Gadget of the Week as Matt thought they were cool too 🙂
It is amazing to think that on wednesday we shoot the last 3 of series 2 of The Cool Stuff Collective and how far it has all come and how it just keeps getting better IMHO. There are still 5 shows to air out of the 14 but its a body of work everyone is really proud of, and has enjoyed for the most part 🙂