Can’t Afford a Classic Pininfarina? Well, Its Racing Simulator Isn’t Much Cheaper
Expected to fetch between $130,000 and $162,500 at auction, the gorgeous gaming rig is designed as beautifully as the cars.
A high-dollar racing simulator isn't always worth every penny. It's especially true when a simulator is only expensive because of superfluous frills like a margarita blender, an ejector seat, or, in the case of Pininfarina's pretty but pricey Leggenda sim, a nearly useless social media component.
Let's start by acknowledging that while expensive, Pininfarina's sim racing cockpit actually sounds like a pleasant place for a sim race. Underneath a handmade body inspired by the 1946 Cisitalia 202 are motion actuators from Switzerland's Racing Unleashed, which shake the cockpit around in reaction to input from Assetto Corsa, according to B Sim Racing.
Its controls consist of a wooden Nardi steering wheel, a manual shifter, and a trio of pedals, while the sim itself can be displayed on either a 46-inch wraparound screen or a virtual reality headset. Purchase of the cockpit notably includes a full 3-D scan and recreation of one vehicle of the buyer's choice in-game, should they have something like a Volkswagen SP2 they want to race.
Seemingly a bigger selling point to Pininfarina, however, is an included three-year membership to something called The eClassic Club, a social media app for owners of these rigs. This service is described as an "online community for collector car enthusiasts within which training sessions, races, or informal group drives [...] in addition to driving coaching in the Academy."
It won't ever be the liveliest of communities, though, as Pininfarina plans to sell just nine of its Leggenda rigs, while Zagato—which is producing a run of its own—will presumably build a similar number.
The first of these nine will be auctioned at no reserve on Sept. 17 in Switzerland by RM Sotheby's, which predicts it'll sell for the equivalent of $130,000 to $162,500. Just so we're clear, $130,000 is pro motorsport-grade simulator money, and if you're serious enough about sim racing to drop six figs on a rig, you're probably in the market for something more competitive than whimsical.
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