The Sideways Driving Club in Hong Kong has been allowing racing aficionados to simulate real experiences on real tracks for 15 years.peter Nowak
I’ve never raced cars before but I’m evidently not bad at it, if my fourth-place finish out of 10 competitors at Connecticut’s Lime Rock Park is any indication.
My result would have been even better were it not for an unfortunate oversteer into a corner on the sixth lap, which took me out of the lead for the final few circuits.
Of course, it also likely would have been a lot worse had I been driving my Renault Mégane without a host of computerized assists enabled, such as steering-compensation and automatic gear-shifting. But hey, when a simulation gives you the option to cheat a little, only a fool doesn’t do it, right?
The Sideways Driving Club in Hong Kong has been letting racing aficionados simulate real experiences on real tracks – and bend the rules – for 15 years now, establishing itself as a destination for professionals, amateurs and travellers alike.
Pro drivers such as Hong Kong’s own Darryl O’Young and Matt Solomon, as well as Australia’s Garnet Patterson and Holland’s Carlo van Dam, have trained here alongside the regular clientele, which includes kids’ birthday parties and corporate team-building exercises.
The draw for the pros are the simulated cars and tracks, which the club licenses from third-party software vendors. The 200-plus tracks are realistic representations of real-world locations, including Formula 1 mainstays such as Indianapolis, Laguna Seca in California and even Montreal. In many cases, they’re the only way that drivers can test out paths and approaches in advance of races.
Canada-born O’Young, for example, has used the simulators here – which are comprised of computer screens housed in mock cars – to practise routes for Hong Kong’s annual Formula E race, which has been held on the city’s harbour front since 2016. “He comes here to learn the track first,” says Jason Chan, an instructor at Sideways.
Amateurs, meanwhile, come to advance their virtual driving skills and blow off steam. The 1,200-square-foot space has a full bar and can order in catering. As the sign on the door says, it’s the only place in Hong Kong where you can legally drink and drive.
The club features a full bar, advertising itself as the only place in Hong Kong where you can drink and drive.peter Nowak/The Globe and Mail
“We love to let the customers release all their stresses from work,” Chan says. “We let them scream and shout and sometimes I’ll let them use foul language, because that means they’re really enjoying it.”
Chan starts newcomers like myself off slowly, usually in touring and Formula 4 cars that are easier to drive. He’ll turn off assists and move them into more challenging vehicles as their skills improve. “We make sure you don’t get bored or frustrated,” he says.
Up to 15 participants can race at once, with individual performances viewable by spectators on central TV monitors. Races can get pretty competitive, with results tracked and viewable online through monthly rankings. My Lime Rock lap time of 57.1 seconds, for example, placed me at a respectable 55th out of 125 for the month of April.
The experience isn’t too dissimilar to playing console video games such as Forza and Gran Turismo, which might explain my quasi-proficiency, although Chan points out a few differences.
The simulators have tighter reaction times and are generally at least a tenth of a second faster than typical video games, which makes a big difference in real racing terms. When all of the assists are turned off, it’s as genuine an experience as can be found. “The car is much closer to real racing cars,” Chan says.
Sixty-minute sessions at the club, located in the SoHo neighbourhood of the central business district, start at about $50 (Canadian) on weekdays, up to about $65 on weekends and evenings. Three-hour sessions start at around $90.
Many of the visitors to Sideways are travellers who have heard of the place through word of mouth, as locals are still warming up to racing. Many still associate it with the illegal street racing that has been prevalent in the city for years, Chan says, a phenomenon that received further profile from local films such as Full Throttle and The Legend of Speed.
“Racing kind of has a bad image,” he says. “I can’t say it’s very popular in Hong Kong, but it’s changing.”
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