New reality or virtual insanity?
The most unsettling moment of the Cupra Exponential Experience comes when you first step into the Urban Rebel.
It’s a familiar racing car environment, with a minimal dash, a purposeful roll-cage and tight bucket seats into which a helpful Cupra mechanic implants you by yanking on a six-point harness seatbelt. But then the mechanic straps a set of VR goggles to your head. At first, the goggles allow you to see the real world – in this case, an empty long-stay car park at Girona airport.
But imposed on it is a virtual gate that marks the start of the course. Trying to drive towards it while adjusting to the Urban Rebel’s stiff competition throttle and brakes is truly disconcerting.
Then you reach the gate, and suddenly reality fades from view and all you can see is Cupra’s virtual world: in this case, a tight street circuit laid out on a stylised virtual version of Barcelona. It’s like something straight out of Mario Kart Tour.
Weirdly, it’s so consuming that even though I’m driving a real car, I quickly forget that I can’t see where I’m driving it in the real world.
On my two warm-up laps, Jordi Gené, strapped into the passenger seat to act as both guide and emergency brake, suggests I slow down to take in some of the views, such as a virtual Sagrada Familia. It’s unclear whether he’s just keen to show off the hard work of Cupra’s development team or if this is a conceit to keep my speeds down.