Ex-army officer turned investor, 65-year old, Mr Tommy Goh indulges in fast cars and motorbikes – including a $3 million Pagani Zonda F Roadster. Now he has a new toy to play with. Costing more than $500,000, it does not require a COE paper despite the ability to reach speeds of 350km/h.

The first BRD Formula One simulator in Asia - akin to the systems used by top drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button has landed into a refurbished room of Mr Tommy Goh’s Ridley Park bungalow.

The refurbished room accommodates not only his new toy but includes industrial electrical supply, wall-to-wall TVs for guests to watch the simulated racing action, and a high-wattage sound system that amplifies the simulator's realistic F1 sounds. And he revealed to The Straits Times he is getting another to place in an adjacent room so that he can race with someone.

The simulator is manufactured by British outfit - BallRacing Developments (BRD) and like Xbox Live or PSN allows the user to link up to 29 other ‘racers’ in the world via the internet. According to BRD Chief Executive, Tim Ball, the machine acquired by Tommy Goh is the latest and most advanced model – featuring a full-scale, carbon-fibre replica of a Ferrari F1 racer that took five months to install, commission and test it. The paint job alone took seven hours.

The simulator works much like the real thing, including the adrenaline inducing hard accelerations and braking with some seat-slapping G-forces experienced by a driver. The system is programmed to include all the F1 tracks in the world – with some painstakingly rendered through laser-scans for a genuine experience.

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