What is the KZ karting world champion capable of at the wheel of a professional driving simulator? The answer comes on an October afternoon at the Autodromo di Monza, where Birel ART drivers Marijn Kremers (the new KZ world champion), Riccardo Longhi (runner-up) and five-time world champion Gianluca Beggio got to put themselves to test at the wheel of the AVEHIL Simulator by Skydrive, in its GT configuration.

The facility, located inside the central grandstand of the main straight of the Monza circuit, hosts a real technological center dedicated to driving simulation, thanks to two simulators: a GT and a single-seater. The AVEHIL concept (for those wishing to learn more, see the AVEHIL website in the dedicated section) is truly unique: thanks to its dynamic platform that faithfully replicates the movements of real cars, it eliminates the classic side effects (nausea ...) that occur while training with simulators. But there's more: the AVEHIL simulators, both Single Seater and GT, share the fact that all the instrumentation (steering wheel, pedals, etc. etc.), but also the car bodywork and chassis, are absolutely real, not replicas. So as to guarantee riders a proper driving feeling, in every detail.

The Birel Art drivers, for their test, challenged each other in what is the AVEHIL Ranking environment, on the Spielberg's Red Bull Ring at the wheel of a Porsche Carrera Cup.
A few warmup laps and the skills of the kart drivers immediately manifested. For Marijn, in particular, a few laps were enough to clock a lap time just over a second slower than the one recorded by Alessio Rovera, a professional driver racing in the Italian GT Championship, Porsche Carrera Cup Italy Champion and also involved in the development of the platform. The lap times of Riccardo Longhi and Giancluca Beggio were just slightly slower, with the two being able to push hard too after only a couple of laps (despite some problems to get out of the pits for Gianluca ...)

The satisfaction was unanimous, both for the drivers, intrigued and captured by the realistic sensations transmitted by the simulator, and for Cristiano Giardina, the creator of AVEHIL, who was able to verify with his own eyes (and with the telemetry) the results of this meeting between kart and automobile, noting the ability of the two karting drivers and the 5-time world champion Beggio to adapt without any hesitation to a driving style different from the one they are used to.

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