Checking Out The Sim-Lab Sim Floor And Colour Strips For My P1 Rig

[Paul Jeffrey]

I recently took delivery of a couple of new additions for my sim racing rig - the 'Sim Floor' and colour strips from Sim-Lab. Here's a short video to share my experiences with you all.

• New video looking at the Sim-Lab 'Sim Floor' and colour strips.
• First impressions from unboxing to install.
• Before and after installation.

I'm a bit of a fan of customising and tweaking my sim racing setup - from hardware changes to just rearranging my current configuration to better suit my own needs and requirements. Having a thing for neat cable management and a tidy looking rig, when I noticed Sim-Lab make a floor covering for the P1 range of 80/20 aluminium profile rigs, and colour strips to place within the groves of said aluminium, I couldn't help but press that order button... and here are the results of my latest labours from the man cave...

So, for those of you who are maybe not so familiar with 80/20 aluminium racing rigs, the Sim-Lab P1 is basically a tank of a setup - easily capable of withstanding the forces of a direct drive wheel and high pressure application pedals without even so much as an inch of flex within the framework.

As with all aluminium profile rigs, one can pretty much tailor the setup to suit however they wish for their sim racing cockpit to be configured, with a near endless amount of adjustability and expansions available to the end user. From an ergonomic point of view I'm pretty happy with my current layout, however I've recently started down the slippery slope of customisation to make the rig look a little bit different to the normal 80/20 profile solutions... and that's when I noticed both the Sim Floor, and the Sim-Labs colour strips.

In this video I unbox both the new floor and colour strips and show you a little bit about the build quality, and what it looks like both before and after I've installed them on my rig. From a tidiness point of view I'm really happy with the floor, and also practically speaking it adds a nice barrier to hide some of the cables under the cockpit, and gives a pleasant level of positioning for my feet when not using the pedals for racing.

I'm probably going to have another go at repositioning them further down the line (the blessing and curse of customisation), and I'm certainly not yet satisfied with the colour coding setup, but for now, I'm more than happy with my purchase(s).

You can find the Sim-Lab Sim Floor from the Sim-Lab website HERE.


Have you tried either the floor or colour strips? What are your experiences with customisation on the sim rig? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!

 

[Elaphe]

That's a good idea. When I designed my rig I was sure I wanted a floor for it. My plan was to place all the electric and electronic elements on it, especifically under the seat (power strip, USB hub, shakers amplifiers, different power supplies, cables, etc. What I did was to order a sheet of laminated plywood (1,9 cm thick) of the same size of the base of my rig. I screwed the wood to the profiles from underneath. I also added some sliders made of teflon to the wooden base.

 

[Fanapryde]

Ahah, I'm using the same alu diamond plates on both sides of my pedal tray. I had a floor plate too, but when I changed to the SimLab bucket seat it was rather difficult to get in and out the rig, so I removed it again.
I bought the strips in black, mainly to cover to top side of the profiles, to keep the dust out

 

[The_Grass]

Wow

 

[5-Card-Major]

I recently took delivery of a couple of new additions for my sim racing rig - the 'Sim Floor' and colour strips from Sim-Lab. Here's a short video to share my experiences with you all.

• New video looking at the Sim-Lab 'Sim Floor' and colour strips.
• First impressions from unboxing to install.
• Before and after installation.

I'm a bit of a fan of customising and tweaking my sim racing setup - from hardware changes to just rearranging my current configuration to better suit my own needs and requirements. Having a thing for neat cable management and a tidy looking rig, when I noticed Sim-Lab make a floor covering for the P1 range of 80/20 aluminium profile rigs, and colour strips to place within the groves of said aluminium, I couldn't help but press that order button... and here are the results of my latest labours from the man cave...

So, for those of you who are maybe not so familiar with 80/20 aluminium racing rigs, the Sim-Lab P1 is basically a tank of a setup - easily capable of withstanding the forces of a direct drive wheel and high pressure application pedals without even so much as an inch of flex within the framework.

As with all aluminium profile rigs, one can pretty much tailor the setup to suit however they wish for their sim racing cockpit to be configured, with a near endless amount of adjustability and expansions available to the end user. From an ergonomic point of view I'm pretty happy with my current layout, however I've recently started down the slippery slope of customisation to make the rig look a little bit different to the normal 80/20 profile solutions... and that's when I noticed both the Sim Floor, and the Sim-Labs colour strips.

View attachment 398573

In this video I unbox both the new floor and colour strips and show you a little bit about the build quality, and what it looks like both before and after I've installed them on my rig. From a tidiness point of view I'm really happy with the floor, and also practically speaking it adds a nice barrier to hide some of the cables under the cockpit, and gives a pleasant level of positioning for my feet when not using the pedals for racing.

I'm probably going to have another go at repositioning them further down the line (the blessing and curse of customisation), and I'm certainly not yet satisfied with the colour coding setup, but for now, I'm more than happy with my purchase(s).

You can find the Sim-Lab Sim Floor from the Sim-Lab website HERE.


Have you tried either the floor or colour strips? What are your experiences with customisation on the sim rig? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!

View attachment 398575

I hate you, man... Sweet setup.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

I was looking at it, is it steel or just aliminum plate, can it hold grown up few hundred pounds man stomping on it getting in and out of the rig?

 

[paracletus]

Great stuff. Solid, and most important easy to clean up any spilt beer.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I was looking at it, is it steel or just aliminum plate, can it hold grown up few hundred pounds man stomping on it getting in and out of the rig?

According to their website it's 4mm aluminum diamond plate.
The bend at the front and back should add some strength as well. Looks pretty nice to me although I would prefer it in silver. I think dirt will show pretty badly on the black, but that's a personal thing.

Sim Floor

An aluminium diamond 4 mm thick plate to use as a footrest to be mounted in between the P1-X base profiles or the new GT1-EVO 2020 model.

sim-lab.eu

I am a bit surprised that they've purged me from their user base. It's only been 18 months since I purchased my P1 and about 11 months since my last purchase from them.

 

[Davide Nativo]

Ahah, I'm using the same alu diamond plates on both sides of my pedal tray. I had a floor plate too, but when I changed to the SimLab bucket seat it was rather difficult to get in and out the rig, so I removed it again.
I bought the strips in black, mainly to cover to top side of the profiles, mainly to keep the dust out

View attachment 399101

A suggestion, turn the subwoofer 180 degrees, with the woofer pointing towards the wall. Make sure there are around 15-20cm of distance between the wall and the woofer for optimal results. It'll work much much better, with the bass waves hitting the wall and then spreading inside the room I've read this suggestion in an audiophiles forum some time ago and have been very happy with the results

 

[5-Card-Major]

A suggestion, turn the subwoofer 180 degrees, with the woofer pointing towards the wall. Make sure there are around 15-20cm of distance between the wall and the woofer for optimal results. It'll work much much better, with the bass waves hitting the wall and then spreading inside the room I read this suggestion in an audiophiles forum some time ago and I have been very happy with the results

What Davide Nativo said...

 

[RCHeliguy]

A suggestion, turn the subwoofer 180 degrees, with the woofer pointing towards the wall. Make sure there are around 15-20cm of distance between the wall and the woofer for optimal results. It'll work much much better, with the bass waves hitting the wall and then spreading inside the room I read this suggestion in an audiophiles forum some time ago and I have been very happy with the results

The rule of thumb is to put the subwoofer pointed forward where you sit and move around the floor in the room to see where it sounds best in the room and then put the subwoofer whereever that point is.

Pointing at a wall is questionable. If you are firing into concrete that might work, but the low frequencies go through sheet rock.

I have a 4,000W 16" SVC downfiring woofer shooting straight into my concrete basement floor and that works well.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Lovely living room with subwoofer in the middle.

 

[Davide Nativo]

Pointing at a wall is questionable. If you are firing into concrete that might work, but the low frequencies go through sheet rock.

Haven't thought about this but you're right. Here in Italy we build houses with concrete and bricks, so the walls are hard and sturdy. Sound waves get a good reflection on them. However in many other parts of the world they use sheet rock as you say or even wood to build walls, in which case my tip will most likely not work. In that case, the floor is your best option as Heliguy says.

 

[Fennario]

If you want to increase the bass then swap the locations of the subwoofer and computer (ie. subwoofer in corner w/ speaker facing out into the room). The wall junctions will amplify the bass response and you will get better airflow/thermals for the computer away from the corner of the room... downside is that the bass may become muddy/boomy. Personally think you have it in a good place for even response but you may be getting weird lower midrange through high frequency reflections off the wall to your right. Could always add a rug to the room, a bass trap in the corner, and a panel on the side wall to help knock them down.

With respect to your other speakers...(i) your bookshelf monitors and ambients are too close to the back wall; and (ii) their near field outputs are being distorted by your monitors. Would move the L and R monitors further to the sides and toe them in to provide a direct path from the drivers to your ears. The center channel can remain directly behind the center monitor for spatial purposes. Would also add a large 4" thick sound panel to that back wall and move the entire rig so the speakers are at least 2-3 feet away from the wall.

Sound Panels and Bass Traps: https://www.atsacoustics.com

 

[Fanapryde]

Re the subwoofer.
Thanks for thinking along but I did try different locations (including having it directed to the wall and even in the corner).
I ended up having it like in the picture and even then I need to keep the sub channel lower than all others.
My "raceroom" is only 12 square meters and also has a IR cabin and a wardrobe in it. Hence maybe why all other sub positions create too much 'feel'...
I'm lucky to have no adjacent neighbours

 

[motoliser]

My full size semi rigid mat is much better looking and less cold solution!! Plus it allows me to slide my rig (including the ultrawide monitor stand) across the room for easy cleansing!! Also its one less source of ghost noises, in fact it kind of absorvs vibrations that might upset more hear sensitive neighbours !!

 

[RCHeliguy]

Lovely living room with subwoofer in the middle.

OK. Joking or did you not understand what I wrote?

 

[Deleted member 197115]

OK. Joking or did you not understand what I wrote?

I did, imagine the situation when the best sounding position happens somewhere in the middle of the room.
Guess only practical for single guys.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I did, imagine the situation when the best sounding position happens somewhere in the middle of the room.
Guess only practical for single guys.

There are audiophiles with an entire room dedicated to just listening to their stereo. In those cases, the speakers are frequently 5 or more feet away from the back wall and the subwoofer is where ever it sounds best. Some of these guys are happily married, but typically when you spend 6 figures on a stereo system your home is fairly large.

However I was suggesting putting the sub where you sit and then "typically' crawling around near the front wall listening for the best sound and then putting the sub there.

I stuck my monster subwoofer behind the leg press section of my weight system because that's where it fits. Ideally I would have two subwoofers positioned on the front wall, but instead it is in the back corner. BTW two subs is pretty standard for higher end home theater systems and it isn't because you can tell the directionality of low bass frequencies. You can't. It's to create a more uniform presence so the bass sounds good for more people seated in different places. The peaks and nulls from two subs can help to cancel each other out and create a more uniform sound.

 

[Vince Moody]

I modified my P1x before they introduced their own version, went to Homebase, they have pre cut aluminium checker plate at the magic 500mm size, not very thick but when supported by two 500mm 40x40 profile works a treat, making it easier to get into and out of the rig, plus looks great