At last years Midnight Rev Up Edmonton show, RA Motorsports unveiled their brand new sim rig to the public which turned out to be a hit, with people lined up all day to try their hand at a few laps of Tsukuba Circuit TC2000. Back then the sim rig was finished pretty much just in time for the show, but since then the team over at RA have been busy continuing to refine the design and get it ready for release. Now that it’s finally ready and available to order, let’s take a closer look at the RA Motorsports RA86, a new sim rig chassis designed for racers by racers, right here in Canada.

As the name suggests, we’ve modeled the seating position of the RA86 off of the Toyota 86/Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ platform, positioning all the controls right where you’d want them for maximum comfort and optimized ergonomics.

The mounting plates for both the wheel base and pedals are both angle adjustable and slotted, allowing for ample adjustability to fine-tune everything to both your needs and setup.

As an added bonus, the wheel mounting plate also features two cup holders, ensuring that you stay hydrated during those long online endurance races (and yes they will fit bubble tea cups).

The chassis itself is CNC laser cut and formed out of aluminum and steel (depending on the location of the part) to ensure precision fitment and strength between all the pieces, and is finished off with a durable black powder coat. When not in use, everything has also been designed to store away relatively flat, freeing up plenty of space in your home if ever needed.

Stainless steel flanged hardware is included to bolt everything up together, all of which are also button head style to help prevent anything snagging along the surface.

To help maintain a clean installation of all your racing gear, cable management points are integrated along the chassis, making sure all your wiring doesn’t look like a 1990’s JDM special (just to note, I wasn’t utilizing any of the cable management points in these photos since I was still adjusting my setup).

Everything is designed to be modular as well, with an optional swing-out keyboard tray (made to fit a Logitech K400) and handbrake and shifter mount available for those who need it, both of which are capable of being mounted on either side of the chassis for a left-hand or right-hand drive configuration.

To further improve adjustability, both the handbrake and shifter mount are height adjustable independently of each other. Designed for maximum strength and stability, the shifter mount can also be mounted by itself without the handbrake plate if needed.

If you’re not using a wall or shelf mounted setup, a VESA monitor mount is available and bolts to the chassis, placing the action right in front of you and is compatible with both 100×100 and 75×75 VESA patterns.

Seat sliders are available to help attach a bottom-mount seat and offers seven inches of front-to-back adjustability. You can also use them in conjunction with the available side-mount brackets to mount any fixed bucket seat as well.

Lastly, the whole setup has been designed to be compatible with multiple brands of products; I’ve been using my own RA86 with a mix of MOZA and VNM Simulation gear (all of which are available from RA Motorsports by the way!), but it can also accommodate Simagic, Fanatec, Logitech, Simtrecs, along with many more.

As someone who was able to have a lot of input, testing, and feedback into the RA86, I am not only extremely happy with the end product, but also proud to be able to offer this to all of you at home. This is something that myself and the RA Motorsports team have been wanting to do for quite some time now, and we’ve been able to utilize our years of combined motorsports experience to bring you a product that will not only allow you to practice real driving techniques, but also last for many years to come (hopefully forever!).

Although I have been involved in motorsports for over a decade now, there have definitely been times where I’ve taken a backseat from driving to focus on other aspects of both racing and life. With the RA86 however, I can now continue to practice and sharpen my skills behind the wheel on a daily basis from the comfort of my own home; after all, practice makes perfect.

For 2024, RA Motorsports will be displaying the RA86 at both the RevUp Edmonton and Calgary shows in varying configurations, so make sure to swing by, see what it’s all about, and give it a test drive.

Thanks for reading!

-brandon.

Order your own RA86 from RA Motorsports here.

Test drive the RA86 at one of the upcoming Rev Up shows.

Want to get on track yourself? See a full list of local tracks and track day providers here provided by DMS Timing.