Racing goes high-tech with NASCAR PC

As life goes on, it seems as if there are two constants these days: NASCAR and computers.

With the advent of the NASCAR PC from Cisnet, those two constants are melded together into one true "experience."

The NASCAR PC was designed and built with one idea in mind: getting the NASCAR fan closer to the sport they love, said James Bateman, Business Development Manager and one of the team members for the project at Cisnet.

"We created this for the NASCAR fan and it's about the NASCAR experience," Bateman said. "Pulse-pounding sound effects, graphics of the sport, elements that bring you in closer to the sport."

NASCAR PC •   Cisnet Web site

While the concept is simple: put a product in front of NASCAR fans that enhances their appreciation of the country's most popular form of motorsports -- the design of the computer itself is anything but.

"We said, 'Hey, what's it going to take to put a computer out there that's current technology' -- we don't want you buying something that's two or three years old, we wanted something current, that's going to last the four years that a current technology computer is expected to last and at a price point that you can afford but be all about a NASCAR experience," Bateman said. "The key word in everything we've done is experience.

"What's it going to take to appeal to a NASCAR fan and provide a vehicle to the NASCAR world -- pun intended -- that sets us apart from just a badged computer and will make the hardcore NASCAR fan as well as the computer consumer have something new?"

It started with the look. Custom-made graphics were painted onto the casing and covered with a clear-coat to make sure the paint stays where it's at. A Plexiglas cover aids that process.

The keyboard, mouse and speakers -- all of which come with the NASCAR PC and all made by Logitech -- have silk-screened graphics matching those on the case. Even the Enter key has crossed checkered flags, showing an attention to detail that is unusual in many theme-based PCs.

On the inside, the NASCAR PC performs like Tony Stewart at Daytona.

The processor is an AMD Athlon64 3200 Plus, and it's the equal of anything on the market now. A hefty 512 MB of memory monitors a 160-gigabyte hard drive, and the DVD rewriteable optical disk is the plus/minus variety, which means that there's no media it cannot write to or read.

A really cool feature of the NASCAR PC is the 9-in-1 memory card reader. Most NASCAR fans have gone digital, and the NASCAR PC will handle SD and Compact Flash cards with ease. The slots are on the front of the unit, which makes for easy downloads, too. That's the hardware. The software is just as unique in its appeal to the NASCAR fan.

The Cisnet PC team completely redesigned the graphical interface to reflect the passion of NASCAR fans.

"We approached a company called The Skin Factory, which is the number-one design house for theme-based PCs," he said. "We had everything redone, the graphics, the icons, everything. You won't see the My Computer icon that you see on a normal PC. The My Computer icon on the NASCAR PC is now a race car coming out of a monitor. We really went to town and made literally dozens of changes to the interface, so it looks like NASCAR.

"When you boot up, it doesn't play the typical Windows tones. It actually says, 'Gentlemen, start your engines!' It gives the sound of a stock car taking off. It's not overdone so it gets annoying -- it's eight seconds long."

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Windows Media Player has been reskinned with updated NASCAR-themed graphics, and instead of a slide bar for the volume control, there's a very life-like representation of a tachometer. Dragging on the tach moves the needle, too.

There are several trial and free offers packaged with the NASCAR PC, including 30-day free trials of NASCAR TrackPass and RaceDay Scanner, and a 10-percent discount at the NASCAR.COM Superstore. There's also a pretty nifty ISP offer from Earthlink that's ideal for NASCAR PC users.

What the NASCAR PC boils down to, according to Bateman, is a great way for NASCAR fans to enter the digital domain in an enthusiastic, cost-effective manner that also happens to increase their enjoyment of the sport they love.

Its price point is ideal for folks who want to get into the PC world without a major cash outlay, yet still have a machine that offers top-of-the-line technology and application.

The desktop NASCAR PC is available for $599, and it includes the keyboard, mouse and speakers. A 17-inch LCD monitor is available for $289, which brings the total cost for a race-ready NASCAR PC to $888.

There's also a notebook version of the NASCAR PC, which retails for around $1,000.

"The whole idea behind the NASCAR PC is that we want to bring the NASCAR fan a computer experience to match his NASCAR experience," Bateman said. "This machine is not a huge, overpowered game platform with 1,000 horsepower. It's a more than adequate, current-technology machine that enhances the experience."