While there are many points of intersection between cars and popular culture, few are as direct as the cross-over in enthusiast devotion of car culture and video games. Car racing games have been a staple genre of gaming pretty much since the dawn of video games, and the fast-paced evolution of the technology has pushed it into unprecedented realms of realism.
That’s why it makes perfect sense that the country manager of Logitech New Zealand - one of the leading suppliers of both pro and consumer-level sim racing equipment - is an absolute car nut.
Outside of his day job leading the local arm of the company that gives us such gear as the popular G923 wheel for PC, Xbox and PlayStation, the pro-grade Pro Racing Wheel, as well as the new - and thoroughly fantastic - RS50 wheel, Jamie Hall is a car guy through and through. And he has the garage history to prove it, not least of which is his current daily driver; a Subaru Levorg wagon that blurs the line between a practical family car and a true showpiece.
If you first see Hall’s Levorg behind a low wall, you could be forgiven for thinking it is nothing special, giving off all the presence of a bog-standard white Levorg. However, cop an eyeful of it in full, with its aggressively low stance and bodywork almost scraping on the ground, and you quickly realize it is anything but standard.
Inspired by the rather awesome American mini-truck scene that burst onto the scene in the late 80s/early 90s, Hall’s Levorg is a fully-airbagged lowrider that somehow manages to perfectly blend showy sensationalism and genuine family practicality.
“I made my mind up on the airbags first and then was like, ‘What's the car to put them in?’,” said Hall.
“I was looking at Mazda6 wagons, but there were heaps of them around and a friend of mine said, "Why don't you look at the Subaru Levorg?", after all it’s basically a WRX, but unfortunately, the automatic CVT gearbox is the one thing that lets it down, but otherwise it's been an amazing car.
“I put airbags in it straight away - I think I drove it for about a week before it went to the shop. I did the prep work in it, so we took all the interior of the boot out and we prepped all the interior.”
Much like the exterior (minus that wild ride height) the interior of the Levorg also looks remarkably standard, but lift the floor of the boot and that all changes as well.
“I got a shop to put [the air compressor and air tank] in properly so that I can still get the floor in,” said Hall. “I can just lift the floor out and it's all there to show off - put it all back in and I can put all my gear in. I've got kids' stuff everywhere…
“For me, it was about trying to create the unicorn of a practical car and an everyday car. You could pull up to a Cars and Coffee and still show it off. It always gets attention!”
Aside from being an attention-grabber, the Levorg also does duty as a family car, with the airbag suspension setup also paying genuine dividends in that regard as well.
“I'll do camping trips with the family, we'll chuck a cage trailer on the back, fill it up with all our junk and go camping, and I can just pop the air up in the rear a bit more and I can control exactly the heights that I need it to be at.”
But the inherent show-off in all true car guys won't be repressed by family matters, and Hall admits that he is guilty of this, revealing his wife occasionally gets frustrated with his need to air out the suspension whenever there is the opportunity.
“We go to the gas station, or anywhere, and I'm like, ‘Okay, I've got to air it out’, and she's like, ‘Please don't, it's embarrassing.’ And I'm like, ‘Well, I didn't spend all this money to not, so I'm going to use it!’,he laughs.
“It is really just a boring wagon with some suspension - and that's what makes it interesting!”
Hall’s love for eclectic and modified vehicles has been a lifelong theme, and his automotive history includes everything from a Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo, a 2017 Mustang, classic four-wheel-drive Hiluxes, and even a Mazda 626 with a full rotary bridge port conversion.
“For me, it's not necessarily about a particular car or brand, it's about the experience that links to it. And they all bring different things.”
This passion for performance and precision also extends from the street to the virtual world. A dedicated sim racer, he has spent "thousands of hours" racing online, specifically in the legendary Gran Turismo series.
“I've got a whole lot of friends that are in the Gran Turismo community, and a lot of my sim racing has actually been in that space, but it's got very competitive. I'm in a weekly league that's very serious, and other social racing leagues as well.”
Of course, being the head of Logitech means he has access to some of the best sim racing gear on the market, but even before he took the Logitech gig, Hall was a firm proponent of the steering wheel set up.
“Probably the last three Gran Turismos have all been on a wheel, never a controller. If you asked me to race with a controller, I'd be terrible. It started as more of a fun thing and is now far more serious and competitive.”
As far as the future of sim racing goes, Hall confirms the emergence of an obvious and significant trend: the convergence of casual gaming and professional-grade equipment.
“There's been a blurring of the kind of casual gamer... through to the pro gear, it's almost come together," he said. "People are buying the best gear, they're buying direct drive stuff because it's accessible, it's at a price point now that is now more palatable for the average person.”
He predicts this trend will be driven by increased modularity, allowing users to build a custom setup without replacing the entire system. "You might get your direct drive base but then you want to swap out to a different wheel because you know you're going to do rallying... maybe you want to do some F1... they just slot straight on," he explained. "So you're customising your experience but you're not having to re-buy your whole setup every time."
“I think you're going to see a lot more modular gear, but it's not just to support the pros. It's the whole spectrum, and the same gear the pros are using, the casual racer can use too.”
