The RaceDepartment Podcast Interview with Bram Hengeveld

[Paul Jeffrey]

A special edition of the RD Podcast is available to download and listen now... featuring an in depth look at the history of RaceDepartment with its founder Bram Hengeveld!

For this very special edition of the RD Podcast, we talk to the founder and owner of RaceDepartment.com - Mr. Bram Hengeveld. We sat down with Bram to hear about how he got started in sim racing, what sort of changes the site has gone through over the years, the past, present and future of sim racing and this wonderful website, and a whole lot more besides! You can find the links to examples we discussed here.

So, what are you waiting for? Get yourself over to your podcast streaming service of choice, download, listen and subscribe and help us spread the word amongst the podcast listening racing community!

To help you access the various locations of this latest podcast, you can check out the useful list below of just some of the places you can listen to and download the new episode. Of course, if you missed out on the RD Podcast excitement last time out, you can still catch up with our first edition too...

Podcast Links:​

• Anchor​
• Apple Podcasts​
• Google Podcasts​
• Spotify​
• Breaker​
• Overcast​
• Pocket Cast​
• RadioPubli​
• Stitcher​

Do you have any special requests for future episodes? Do you want to share your thoughts, comments and feedback on what direction the show could take going forward? Please do let us know in the comments section, and at the RD Podcast sub forum location.

Like what we do at RaceDepartment? Follow us on Social Media!

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[Bram Hengeveld]

Some links we discussed in this episode

• Not mentioned in the podcast but the first racing game I played at and with a friend was Pole Position (1982) by Atari.
• My first self owned racing game on the MSX computer back in 1987, F1 Spirit by Konami. You can actually still play it here.
• Accolade Racing Game on the MS DOS - PC here. Music was strangely not annoying at all back in 1988
• Indy 500 by Papyrus on the Amiga from 1989 can be seen here. Epic eh?
• Microprose Grand Prix 1 made by God himself (my most played sim in history) from 1992 here.
• Microprose Grand Prix 2 again by Geoff Crammond here.
• Microprose Grand Prix 3 with the epic wet weather conditions here. Can't believe this is 19 years old already and how awesome it looked back then and honestly said still does today.
• DTM Race Driver 2 from 2004. See how awesome that still looks on a modern PC here.
• The intro theme of my beloved RACE - WTCC Game from 2006 that still gives me goosebumps today here.
• GTR 2 from 2006 here. Do I need to say more?
• RACE 07 from 2007 which made RaceDepartment what it is today here.
• Various Virtual World Touring Car Championship videos which were aired on Eurosport can be seen here. The birth of esports? The V-WTCC Final is still available here.

The history of RPM/RaceDepartment over the years in links (might take some time to load as it's deeply archived)

• Our first forum on a free crappy domain back in 2006 (unfortunately never indexed and lost for ever, boo!)
• Our first website on our RPM URL in early 2007: here.
• First version of RaceDepartment in 2008: here (style wasn't indexed properly)
• RaceDepartment in 2009: here
• RaceDepartment in 2012 here
• RaceDepartment in 2014 here
• etc

Did I miss anything?

PS: Thanks Paul and Paul for the laughs. Podcasts and such aren't really my thing but this was fun to do. I'll buy a better microphone for future episodes as my sound quality was horrendous.

 

[Alex72]

This im interested in. You did a great thing Bram! Also congrats on the success with the site, and a thanks to everyone working with the site. I hope to join the premium gang at some point (wanted it since day one but real life issues...).

 

[RaceWasGood]

Interesting stories, good laughs. Thanks to all involved and keep up the great work!

 

[Trebormoore84]

Really enjoyed listening to this as well as the previous ones.

Its nice to reflect on where this website came from, the sheer effort and passion involved, as well as what could be possible in the future given the size and potential power of the community we have here if people work together, its literally like an international Simracing HQ.

It also brought back some happy early memories that I had forgotten about, of playing Indy 500 on my dads Amstrad PC with purple CGA graphics, I must have been 7-8 years old and it was awesome, and then later his super expensive 486 33mhz PC which kick started my gaming addiction / passion. Also remember the first time I played Microprose F1 Grand Prix, remember being blown away by racing at Monaco and also remember playing Papyrus Indycar later on and... being rubbish at all of them.
Sadly I never followed through on sim racing, getting seduced by adventure games, space shooter / sim games and then FPS shooters and finally dropping gaming altogether after Uni when bike racing took over, wasn't until a couple of years ago that I rediscovered it all building a new PC, getting stuck back into it, and seems like gaming and especially simracing is where my heart is actually.

Glad I found this place of like minded people.

 

[Shovas]

So many interesting RD tidbits in this podcast!

 

[psynusoid]

An interesting listen to which I'm about half way through.
Makes the drive to and from work a whole load more interesting.

 

[Alex Townsend]

An interesting listen to which I'm about half way through.
Makes the drive to and from work a whole load more interesting.

Totally agree. I listened to half on the way in to work this morning, and will listen to the other half, whilst stuck in traffic on the way home in about 3.5 hours.
Love hearing the history of the site from the man himself. Truly is awe-inspiring to hear the humble beginnings and to see what has amassed since. RD, for the people that know, is the online hub for all motorsports virtual and real and I love it!

 

[Jonathan Young]

Went on a business trip this week, returned exhausted. What a pleasant surprise to get into my car at the airport and find a bonus episode of the RD podcast waiting for me on return! This was the soundtrack of my drive home. Really enjoyed it, great to reminisce about sims from yesteryear

 

[HabUK]

Really enjoyed it, brilliant conversations, only issues I had were addressed at the start regarding volumes. Keep up the good work guys!

 

[o Tiger Feet o]

Just listened to the first 30 minutes (mashing the volume button up and down )

I'd completely forgotten about Indy 500 - wow!

The first 'driving' game I can remember playing was Spy Hunter on my Spectrum ZX

 

[ColinMac]

Really enjoyed this Podcast edition - very interesting to hear how the RD community came about.. I was reminded of an outdoor chat somewhere near the Nurburgring

Lots of interesting topics covered..

More please !!

 

[Ramon van Rijn]

I can confirm the tagline "Blurring the line between real and virtual motorsports" was invented by Bram

Back in the day, some time after creating RD, some admins (like me) loved only the simracing part, but Bram kept on focussing on normal motorsport also. In the end it worked out and is now a good mixture for RD.

I think I lost focus on RD some years ago, when I was too busy with other stuff like other hobby's and the last 3 years mainly for study. I could not be bothered to come back into simracing for a while, but since Assetto Corsa C I am beginning to get this 'vibe' back like I had for years. I am not yet fully back into simracing, but if ACC is growing like it is doing now, count me back in

This reply is a bit late as I am just back at a regular interval on RD and learned about these podcasts. So at this time, still 2 upcoming for me to go
Great to hear about rigs. Here I have Oculus VR, cannot race without it. My wheel is the same as Bram's. Actually he invited me to try the first pre-pre-pre-alfa Assetto Corsa some years ago and try his new T500 wheel+pedals. I was amazed compared to the G27 and was an instant buy for me. I still use it although I am sometimes using the initial Fanatec CSP v1.
Racing games; yeah almost played them all. From C64/Amiga to PC. Only the last few years I skipped a lot of racing games.

Thanks for the podcast and keep it up. Nice to hear when I am in the car driving to and from my work

 

[jimortality]

Do I have to use one of the links you posted or is there anyway to listen through Deezer as it has podcasts..

 

[Paul Glover]

Do I have to use one of the links you posted or is there anyway to listen through Deezer as it has podcasts..

Jim, have a look. If it's not there, do let me know.

 

[jimortality]

Jim, have a look. If it's not there, do let me know.

No it's not there, I've looked through all the gaming stuff.

 

[Paul Glover]

No it's not there, I've looked through all the gaming stuff.

Did you search for RaceDepartment?

 

[jimortality]

Did you search for RaceDepartment?

Yes I have. It's just I use Deezer for my music because I have a family premium but I can use other platforms. To be honest, podcasts aren't normally my thing but I wouldn't mind listening to this one.

 

[Paul Glover]

Yes I have. It's just I use Deezer for my music because I have a family premium but I can use other platforms. To be honest, podcasts aren't normally my thing but I wouldn't mind listening to this one.

I'll have to get back to you on this Jim, leave it with me.

 

[Paul Glover]

@jimortality Submitted, no guarantee that they will accept it. Will keep you posted.