Seat Time In This Racing Simulator Costs $12,000 Per Day

In 2012, Dallara set up an engineering and manufacturing hub in Speedway, Indiana, steps from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Inside the 100,000-square-foot facility, Dallara conducts research and development for its monocoque IndyCar chassis, manufacturers all the components, and tests its designs.

While the bulk of the space is dedicated to IndyCar, a small portion is reserved for government work, demarcated by a “top secret”-esque sign affixed to a massive steel door. (A tour guide wouldn’t reveal what was behind it, though it has to do with Dallara’s budding aerospace contracts, in particular its work with Raytheon to build a better decoy missile body for the U.S. Air Force.)

But that’s not the only secret hidden within the facility. Behind a door marked “Restricted Area” lies a multi-million driving simulator, one of the best in the world. Seat time costs a whopping $12,000 per day, and it’s only available to professional race teams and their drivers. Tracks from all over the world are can be replicated on it; you can drive Silverstone, Spa, Monaco, Barcelona, Suzuka, even the Nurburgring. American teams can summon Mid-Ohio, the Indy Oval, Sebring, Sonoma, or Long Beach circuits with a few keystrokes in the control booth. And those tracks are beyond precise: The actual circuits are laser-scanned, meaning every crack, bump, and undulation on the real surface can be replicated in Indianapolis.