In-carActive Interactive Circuit Guide

Racing success stems from proper and thorough preparation,and the same goes for trackdays. If you turn up at the circuit late for the briefing (because you forgot your road atlas) and you have no idea where the next corner goes (because you haven't even looked at a circuit map) you are going to spend what's left of your day learning the track from the ground up. Hardly the most productive use of your day off and your hard earned cash, is it?

When visiting a track for the first time, this reviewer will always try to at least memorise the track layout from a track map, find photos on the Web, trawl the satellite channels and the video collection for in-car footage, and even jump on the Playstation in the hope that the track features in TOCA. CircuitDriver.com have just made life easier for me, and for any racer or trackday driver about to tackle Silverstone.

Circuit maps are all very well, but they only tell you which way the next corner goes and roughly how sharp it is. They don't show the circuit from the driver's perspective, complete with elevation changes, landmarks, kerbs, blind rises and so on.. The In-car Active DVD-ROM addresses that problem in a very professional manner.

Most new PCs come with a DVD player these days, so it is a fair bet that the majority of those reading this will have the necessary equipment to run this product (system requirements can be found at the bottom of the page). Installation onto one of our Windows XP machines was entirely fuss-free, and in less than five minutes we were watchng the introductory sequence. Despite the published minimum recommended 1gHz processor, we did install onto a 850mB machine running Windows 2000 and experienced no problems at all (having said that, we still suggest you take note of the minimum requirements).

CircuitDriver.com have obviously thrown plenty of cash at this, with three cameras attached to the car, one to the driver and one in the helicopter providing overhead shots. Your instructor is Mark Hales, whos driving credentials go before him. He has an easy and clear presenting style which will neither intimidate the newcomer nor patronise the experienced driver.

Once installed the software loads and starts after the minumum of delay. The introductory sequence looks good, but after a couple of runs you'll want to skip straight past it, something you can do with a mouse-click. You are presented with a simple menu. The first item in the menu takes you into the Silverstone section, and the others lead to more general but still relevant topics.

This Silverstone DVD has sections for the Grand Prix, International and National circuits. The On Board Footage section presents you with an in-car view in the main 'window', along with three other views in smaller windows. Clicking any of these smaller views swaps them into the main window. Below is a telemetry display, allowing you to select acceleration, revs, speed, rpm or a circuit map. Also present are a rev counter, accelerometers and a speed display. The 'VCR' control allows you to play, pause and rewind at will and, of course, all the displays are synchronised.

The In Car Instruction section seems to work as per the On Board Footage section, but is overlaid with a commentary describing a typical lap in much the same manner as an instructor. I particularly liked the Corner-by-Corner section. This allows you to select any corner on the track and, using a combination of overhead and in-car footage (at full speed and slow motion), describes the corner in great detail. The great advantage of this system over the simpler (and admittedly cheaper) 2-D track map is that you see the corner from the driver's perspective. When you arrive at the track for real you have a pretty good idea of what each corner will look like, thus maximising your productive time at the track.

Now that we've learned go get around the circuit we need to know how to get there, don't we? Luckily the makers have included a section on the practical aspects of the circuit - where it is, how to get there, where to stay, who to contact and so on. The last Silverstone-specific section is some entertaining footage from inside a Ferrari 250 GTO, with Mr. Hales hurling this £5 million car around in much the same way as your reviewer does with his £15,000 Legends racer!

The remaining sections are more general but equally put together, There are tips on driving technique and car preparation, along with information on the role of organisations such as ATDO, the MSA and ARDS.

You have probably gathered by now that I like this product. Put the £15.99 asking price in perspective with the total cost of your day at the track and it looks very good value.

We have three copies of this DVD-ROM to give away. Click here for further details.