GT5 Racing Cockpit Built from an Opel Astra

Andrew Evans · · 128 Comments

For many GT players a driving wheel is a must but, no matter what wheel you choose, you need a sturdy place to mount it. While there remains plenty of choice in the commercial driving rig market from such names as rSeat, Wheel Stand Pro and VisionRacer, many gamers also enjoy creating their own, often cheaper, and there are many threads in our Sim Racing Hardware forum of such builds.

Youtube user NBJAG, however, has taken the homebuild cockpit to unusual levels by constructing his own race seat using the cabin of a real Opel Astra.

You can watch the construction process of this incredible driving environment in the above video, while further videos show you more details. He’s even taken the trouble of wiring up the instrument lights!

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Comments (128)

  1. Craztheking

    Why wasn’t he wearing a seatbelt? Hahasick put up some forest wallpaper up around you it would be insane

  2. Tao

    If you notice the wife came in early in the video.This is what she said.
    “Honey,I’ve asked you if you could start on the baby’s room 2 mounth ago.Why are you starting on this,this THING?”
    He said,
    ” This is the baby’s room” XD

    I’m actually using my passanger side seat from my nissan altima for my setup but an interior set up is brilliant.Nice work.

  3. Payton Westlake

    You know what’d be funny, if he really went to the extremes to put a working airbag in there. Then when friends come over, “Yeah you prolly don’t want to wreck too much.” “Why’s that?” *love tap followed by whiplash. Of course in a real race you’d disable the airbag, but it’d be a good lesson for those that drive less than clean.

  5. Fencedugout

    All that hard work put into making a truly amazing setup and ends up making it out of a vauxhall ashtray pahahaha

  6. slidinsidewayz

    i onder how much he would want for the whole set up… i got something similar but no where near as good :-/ just dont have the time for all the lil details… i love his setup though

  7. mobiletone

    Nice work, and there was me thinking i was teh smarts for bungee cording my Logitech wireless to an Ikea foot stool :)

    1. raoul1138

      Umm, I doubt someone would rip the interior out of a perfectly good Ferrari just to make a racing simulator. And I doubt even more that there would be a wrecked Ferrari just sitting around, available for gutting.

    1. Dazmeister22

      My guess is the guy probably had an old wreck of an Astra available to him and decided to take the interior to make this rig. He’s hardly gonna go out and buy the complete interior from a Lamborghini or whatever kind of car you were thinking of, is he? It’s a cost thing dude, we’re in the middle of a global recession.

  13. Foxiol

    “The best premium cockpit that i have ever seen in my life…PD are Gods!” (from a Forza not brainwashed fan)
    “…and now we need 800 premium cockpits like that…” (from a GT series fan…average)
    lol

    2. TokoTurismo

      Imagin if the 800 standard cars cockpit comes in the “spec 3.0” update. :D That’ll so rock.

      Wonderful job of building the fantastic cockpit of yours, look awesome. :)

  17. adeadsnipermatt

    Am I the only one who think he should have inverted the pedals? I mean if I spent the time making only of these I would want the pedals to resemble a real car also. Overall the is a very nice cockpit wish I had one.

    1. Famine

      NBJAG says “This is my real GT5 PS3 Cockpit taken from an Opel Astra.”. I’d imagine he knows best – and it rather looks like an Astra F interior to me.

  21. Blood*Specter

    Absolutely off the chain. And your significant other can ride along and nag you about how fast you’re going too. Love how he extended the steering wheel shaft to maintain the force feed back for the Thrustmaster wheel. He must have awesome driving feel.

    And I had not seen the shifter for the Thrustmaster. Looks like an old school Ferrari shifter only with more gears.

    Some body at one of the other wheel or seat manufacturers has to be brain storming about this. And I am sure custom game room (MAN CAVE) installers have been all over something like this for a while. If I could, I would in a New York minute.
    Looks like you could pull it off with a number of dash boards. The McLaren F1 dash board will end the debate about which side is the “right” side to drive on. LOL.

  23. mc959

    Wow, he found a solution for the black cockpits from standard cars.

    I need to do the same for my Pagani Zonda 7.3S ; )

  27. ChazFarote

    At about 3:05 the wife comes in, “WTF! When are you going to give this up?!?!?” lol

    This is so sweet! Congrats.

  28. Veritech

    All that’s left is to mount the entire thing on to a hydraulics system (like the virtual thrill rides like Indiana Jones in Disneyland) so that he can feel every acceleration, braking, and those rare moments where you just want to drive into oncoming traffic on the Indy and feel the OOMPH that comes with it.

    On that thought maybe there should be a reusable airbag attached to it too.

  29. Conza

    I have to admit, this is a work of art, it doesn’t matter if you don’t like Astras or are a RHD driver, this is a testiment, I just hope that it is kept and upgraded when GT6 comes out, ect. – BRAVO

  36. tazj_7

    That is amazing, if I had the money and the space I think I would try to do something similar. DIY rigs can just be so much better than commercial rigs

  39. McKiernan

    I really love this! I would so love to have the time space & money to do something similar. This guy’s obviously passionate about his driving & this set up clearly brings more enjoyment for him. I’m so jealous, one day I’ll have one, but it’ll probably be on GT10 on the PS8

    3. Audi90

      “Today about 66.1% of the world’s people live in right-hand traffic. Typically, the placement of the steering wheel is opposite to the rule of the road. LHT countries use RHD vehicles, and RHT countries use LHD vehicles.”

    4. Conza

      While almost 2/3s of world drive on the right side, using left hand drive, the origins of horse and cart were to control from the right side and be on the left side of the road. Therefore, it is fair enough to say that the left side of the car is the ‘wrong side’. But seriously who cares? You can’t change everyone to all drive on one side, it’d be too hard, so let it be.

  48. ROFFATI

    Awsome !!!
    I think this cockpit works best with the cockpitview from the standard cars.
    Because in the bumperview you sit in the middle. And whats with righthand drive?

    1. Duck

      Sometimes, I look for it in my Playseat. Sometimes I feel strange without it. The Astra cockpit is awesome. Great job, dude.

  51. blksentra2

    So now when my wife says I’m insane for having a PlaySeat and wheel/pedal set-up, I just show her this video and say: “I could be much worse!”

  52. sorarox10

    You know what would have been REALLY cool, is if the rev counter and the speedo actually went in tune with the game… That would have been sweet!

    3. kartracer2442

      yea you can do stuff like that for pc sims like iracing.. I’ve seen fully fuctional setups with revs, speed, temps, etc..

  53. carfanatic45

    I predict it will be sold on the market in about 3 years and will be priced at around 12,000 for a Mustang brand cockpit. A Ferrari brand will cost at around 15,000 and a Lamborghini brand will be at 15,500. Plus shipping and handeling: 1,000 dollars. Construction time is about 3-4 weeks. WARINIG: This product contains small parts and should not be used by children under the age of 3!!

  57. Richard_3rd

    If you watch it on YouTube the notes say the heating dial controls the brightness of the surround lighting. Amazing. So amazing the only thing anyone can criticise is the line he took round Le Mans ;)

    5. xGuNzABLaZiNx

      I could do that if I wanted, I just don’t think its necessary for a “video game”. Some people just take this crap WAYYY to far.. I have a real car I could waste that much time on. lol..

    6. TokoTurismo

      ^Have you ever heard of an word called, “imagination”? You should look it up sometime. I guess you love spending your money on gas 24/7 then. Tisk tisk… Some people just love to compare…

    7. xGuNzABLaZiNx

      I guess you love pretending you know me. I didn’t say it wasn’t cool did I?? All I said was it’s a waste of money, and time. Oh btw, I would much rather spend my money on gas lol.. My car is fun to drive, of course I’ll spend money on gas to drive it lol.. Your insults need a bit of work my friend, because I was not insulted what so ever. haha..

  62. WJHMH

    [Xzibit voice] “Yo dawg, we heard you like playin’ GT5 so we put a cockpit view in your cockpit view.”[/Xzibit voice]

  63. ROYALEFATALE

    looks like it might be hard to see over the instrument cluster, this setup would be awesome with some kind of projector literally displaying the image over the entire windscreen

  66. Izain

    That is, without a doubt, the coolest an Opel Astra coud ever aspire to being.

    I shudder to think what it would look like if I attempted anything like that.

  68. bombe32

    This as badass!

    Fantastic build, but really, why wouldn’t he want to have some kind of practical table instead of the second seat? That’s the only thing I would have made different and I guess it’s just a matter of preference. I just like to have a Pepsi and a snack at my side and not a wife giving me directions ;)

  73. Overdrive003

    I want that..i have a huge room in my house that isn’t being used..I could make one, though I’d make it out of my now dead mercedes

  79. CarBastard

    @ 3:00: -“Karl, I’m filling for divorce if you don’t drop leave tools and stop spending money and time on that stupid toy!!!” -“It…is…NOT…A…TOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

    1. King Something

      Factor in the size and price before you begin production and you can still turn a big profit selling these, so long as the price people are willing to pay is higher that the price it’d cost to make it and deliver it.

      See also most high-price items like Ferraris and Lambos, as well as less expensive stuff that is sold at a higher price than their non-premium counterparts like “100% organic” grocery items.

      “Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it.”

  84. TokoTurismo

    I remember seeing this on youtube one time. :) This is just badass in all it’s right. I’m happy it’s GT5. ;)

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