Motor oil outfit Castrol put pro driver Matt Powers in a 2015 Ford Mustang, he rips around the pavement. The twist: Powers is blind to the real world, driving in a video game with a VR helmet on. While he’s also ass-hauling in the real car. Which, again, he can’t see.
The YouTube clip above gives you a pretty good idea of what’s happening, but you can play around with it (move the camera) on Castrol’s Titanium Strong Virtual Drift 360º site right here.
The stunt’s pulled off by syncing an Oculus Rift headset strapped to a Sparco helmet with the car’s controls and mapping a digital world that could be “driven in.” With the Mustang effectively turned into a video game controller, Formula Drift driver Powers was able to go nuts in a crazy oil-lava sci-fi world at the same speed he was experiencing in real life.
Here’s a little more background on how the operation was executed:
Obviously, the most important thing you need to pull this off without dying is a big old empty parking lot.
Matching this level of physical sensation with the kind of crazy otherworldly immersion Oculus Rift is capable of must have been a pretty intense experience for Powers. It sure blows the doors off slapping a computer monitor on the windshield of Jason’s old Beetle! Nah, just kiddin’, that’s the only way to game.
Not totally sure how this is supposed to sell motor oil (oh right, it got me to write Castrol two three times) but it’s pretty darn neat.
Contact the author at andrew@jalopnik.com.