Having wrapped up 2025 and Sim Formula Europe 2026, a new blog entry is way overdue! In the previous blog a year ago, we briefly mentioned some things that were coming in 2025. In July we were featured in a two-part article at Overtake.gg that featured an interview and a user Q&A.
As the year came to an end, it’s a good time to look at what has been done, and what’s coming in the rest of 2026.
MIT R&D Project with Heusinkveld and Donkervoort
In the MIT R&D project we’re doing with Heusinkveld and Donkervoort, the biggest news is probably the announcement of the new car, along with the details about its design, which happened on January 24th. The car is called the P24 RS. Donkervoort always names their cars using a family-inspired naming tradition. The current F22 was named after Denis Donkervoort’s first child Filippa, who was born in 2022. The P24 RS is named after Phébe, born in 2024.
Project wise, we are currently hard at work to wrap up a digital twin for the F22, which will serve as a reference and a base for the P24 RS. Meanwhile work is also underway to design the hardware parts of the project, a high end rig with some new, innovative features, being designed by Heusinkveld and Donkervoort.
Racing Simulation Core
The Racing Simulation Core has had a few overhauls as well, with a lot of smaller and bigger refactorings to take in the lessons learned from building a series of vehicles and tracks. Since the core is used in different projects, featuring different teams, a lot of care has been taken to facilitate all that concurrent development.
In terms of physics, a couple of subsystems were improved. We’ve added in-car brake bias adjustments, traction control, anti-lock brakes and an advanced semi-automatic gearbox. We’ve also added handbrake support that is crucial for rally driving. The differentials have been overhauled to be much more configurable, so we can mimic more different types of differentials and further fine tune their use.
The collision detection, an important aspect of the physics engine, has been made more flexible, allowing us to setup objects with material properties that behave differently on impact. These are now also easier to author and place on tracks.
A lot of work has gone into the development of a dynamic terrain. The use of the word terrain instead of track here is deliberate as the system extends beyond the boundaries of the asphalt. The goal here is to have a system that keeps track of buildup of rubber and marbles, but also the terrain temperature, the build up of water, snow and ice as well as dust. It interacts with the vehicles, but also with the environment and weather system. So it ended up as quite an ambitious project which will be phased in step by step, adding more details in the years to come.
Another great bit of news is the first public releases of the brand new Simucube API. Those who’ve read about or even tried the “brake fade demo” at Sim Formula Europe 2025 will know that I’ve been working with Simucube to showcase their technology and this is the next phase: to integrate this into the core engine.
What this allows is direct control over pedal movements, vibrations, and changing all of those things at runtime based on actual physics data. And that is just one thing, as the API allows a lot more going forward.
Sim Formula Europe 2026
This is also a good time to look back. We’ve just wrapped up the event. This year we had not one but two finals on-site.
The format last year, to race with a car and on a track that nobody could practice on beforehand was a great success so it was continued this year. We surprised everybody with a track on ice, allowing many different lines, more drifting and it turned out to provide a proper challenge! It also gave people a sneak peek of the kind of driving experiences to expect in MonoSim, but more on that later! The final was held at Circuit Zolder, using the Donkervoort F22, and the latter was featured by Overtake shortly before the event.
To add to that, the Esports Racing League had their finals in Maastricht. Teams competed in no less than six different racing simulations to determine who is the fastest overall. The final 4 fastest teams were competing on the racing simulation. Apart from the brand new Vcarus Aech car, there was also a new track that everybody needed to learn, quickly!
Partnership with Motorsport in Motion
My partnership with Motorsport in Motion has led to something unique, the first rally simulator for driver and navigator. For now this is a bespoke hardware and software project for a customer, but it’s a good basis for more!
A brand new session type was added that allows us to run rally stages from start to finish. An additional feature is that such stages can include loops that have to be driven a number of times before you can continue, with as many timed checkpoints along the route as you want to.
Simultaneously we are working with them on another big project for the Dutch army that is scheduled to last for a little over two years, building on the racing simulation core and leveraging the modular approach to simulate some big and interesting trucks. This is a great way to both battle-test the flexibility of the engine and to widen its collection of available modules.
MonoSim
Together with FlatOutSimulations we are working hard on “MonoSim”, a racing simulation that will be all about driving the BAC Mono. In earlier blogs, and at the most recent two editions of SFE, you’ve already seen the car at Anglesey and the ice track at Korte. But that is only two of the driving experiences that will be featured.
Those experiences also bring several technical challenges. We’re researching different ways to handle large terrains, with stretches of road well over 20 km long, looking at ways to model all the elements of such a terrain, but also how to process LIDAR data for it. It also requires a dynamic level of detail system so the terrain that brings out little details up close, transitioning to lower detail for far away mountains. Expect more on that later in the new year!
Final Words
2025 has definitely been a great year for The Last Garage. Systems have evolved and matured, and we’re involved in some great projects that push the limits of the engine. With MonoSim we are on our way to release the first modest but exciting consumer title and we enjoyed meeting many simracers in Maastricht earlier this month!