We've always envied those awesome home-stitched arcade racing consoles. It's not that we aren't handy enough to screw a few pieces of plywood together, it's just that there isn't enough space in either the living room or the garage for that kind of craft project, and our significant others don't generally go for that sort of thing anyhow. The kids from Karjak CarLab have us officially reconsidering that stance, though.

Instead of raiding the local home-supply store for materials, the crew managed to talk a brand-new 2010 Volkswagen Scirocco into pretending that it's a video game controller by hooking up the OBD port to a computer. As the nut in the driver's seat wrenches on the steering wheel and operates the pedals, the system translates the maneuvers into ones and zeros. Throw in a projector good enough to cover your garage door, add a decent sound system, and you've officially got the most awesome driving simulator on the block – no shaking or baking required. We would suggest this would be the only way to play automotive racing games from now on.

"A PC communicates with the car's CANbus using OBD-II connector so the car has not been modified in any way, if you don't count the addition of better sound system. The software written for the PC translates incoming data from the car to virtual joystick port so it is possible to use any driving game that the PC is capable of running."


http://www.kajak.fi/atj/In_English/CarLab.iw3
Click the title for the source