If you race
Braking, turn-in, kerbs and the rear stepping out live in the first instant of each event. That instant is given by moving, and it is where speed counts.
More travel or faster motion Travel has to
come back.
Buyers ask for more travel, so the rig with the most looks like the one to buy. Every rig has to come back to centre before the next move, and the further it goes, the longer the trip home. Bigger rigs are slow, and they drag you back to centre. Below, each maker's own travel, speed and force sit side by side.
Side by side
Stroke, speed and force, from each maker.
Surge is the axis that carries braking and throttle.
| Platform | Surge travel | Latency | Acceleration | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ARK PDK | 158.23 mm, single axis | under 1 ms, game telemetry to actuator motion | 3 g at up to 250 kg | from $4,899.99 |
| Qubic System QS-S25 | 255 mm | under 8 ms, telemetry input to physical motion | 1 G surge and sway, 0.5 G heave | €29,500 basic set, list, net, ex-works |
| Dynisma DMG-1 | 1,300 mm | under 5 ms, points not stated by the maker | Not stated by the maker | Not published by the maker |
| MOZA HMA150 | No surge axis: pitch, roll and heave | — | more than 1 g and 300 mm/s at 250 kg | $2,999 |
The other rows are read from each manufacturer's published material, named and dated below. Manufacturers revise specifications: if one here is out of date, tell us and it gets corrected.
Why travel costs time
Every rig has to
come back to centre.
A platform gives you the start of a movement by moving. Then it has to return to the middle, ready for the next one, and the return is called washout. Bigger rigs are slow, and they drag you back to centre: the car has moved on and the seat is still on its way home.
Pilots pay for it. In a TU Delft study of simulator motion, washout degraded pilots' tracking and control activity more than scaling the motion down did (Pool, 2012). A certified helicopter flight training device may let its motion lag up to 150 ms behind the pilot's control input (FAA, 14 CFR Part 60).
The PDK answers the game in under 1 ms and brings you back below what your inner ear can detect, so all you feel is the car. It does it with 3 g at up to 250 kg, on 1.00 × 1.00 m of floor and a domestic socket.
Why bigger rigs drag you back ›Latency, against the yardsticks ›
In plain terms
What you feel is decided in the first instant.
If you fly
No platform reproduces sustained acceleration, full-flight simulators included: tilt carries the sustain on every one. The onset is what moving gives you.
If you have a room
1.00 × 1.00 m of floor, domestic mains from 100 to 290 V, and 3 g at up to 250 kg. No hall, no crane, no three-phase supply.
Sources: Qubic System — QS-S25, qubicsystem.com, and Motion Systems — QS-S25, motionsystems.eu, retrieved September 2026; Dynisma — DMG-1 Automotive, dynisma.com, retrieved 25 September 2026; MOZA Racing — HMA150, us.mozaracing.com, retrieved 9 October 2026; D. M. Pool, Objective Evaluation of Flight Simulator Motion Cueing Fidelity Through a Cybernetic Approach, TU Delft, 2012; 14 CFR Part 60, ecfr.gov.
Keep reading
Motion cueing
Onset, tilt and the return to centre, and why bigger rigs drag you back.
Qubic QS-S25
The closest like-for-like, row by row.
Every price, one table
Motion simulator prices: 18 platforms, each from the maker's own page.
Every build starts with this platform. The PDK + ARK Ecosystem finishes it — racing chassis, wheelbase, wheel, load-cell pedals and button box, $8,499.99.
Order the PDK + ARK EcosystemAll four builds ›
Made to order · Batch One: ready to ship an estimated 3–6 months from order confirmation