Sara Choi has been a car enthusiast for as long as she can remember. Her first job was in a tuning shop and from there her passion began. Choi is now enjoying life in the fast lane, drifting cars and streaming with her advanced driving simulator setup that allows her to bring her love of adrenaline to the screen. The game not only helped Choi improve her life skills, but also connected her to the racing-loving community.
Gaming allows Choi to hone her driving skills by teaming up with others who share her love of cars, driving, and Pokémon Go when the pressure of racing comes up. Choi discusses how gaming intersects with her hobbies and lifestyle and introduces us to her gameplay and five things she can’t live without.
SK: I’ve just set up the game and the driving simulation settings, so I’m really excited. My sim rig setup is a triple monitor. I have an MSI PC, three MSI monitors, a Fanotech DD Pro universal hub, Fanotech switches and Fanotech pedals. I have a full custom Position Advance simulation set up to hold everything. All my friends say my install is legal so I can’t wait to sit down. While driving and drifting in real life, I’ve heard that my setup is actually very similar to this one, minus the g-forces. Many drivers tell me that you can practice a lot without crashing and fixing it all like a car. So I am very happy to train.
SC: Well, I have people on Mario Kart because you have to drift in this game. But when you talk about Pro Sim games like Assetto Corsa or all those racing games, it translates well because I know how to drift, what turns and all the throttle controls. It helps the game a lot because it’s very similar, and tracks are tracks, controls are controls. The situation is the same without overloads in real life.
SK: What inspires me as a driver and why driving attracts me in the first place is because it gives me all the adrenaline. I think since I was a teenager, I’ve been quite rebellious and I’ve enjoyed risky things. I like to step outside my comfort zone. I like orgasms. I have been living alone since I was 15. Many friends my age were car friends. I got my first job at a tuning shop, bought my first car and gave the money. And from there, with my own car and all the street racing I was in, I got hooked.
Also, since the industry is male-dominated, there are many stereotypes that women can’t do these things, but we can. I also love to challenge my psychology. Especially in drifting, I sort of switched to autopilot. Let’s say I’m about to crash into a wall, usually a regular driver, you’ll have a nervous breakdown, but with drifting you’ll go faster and crash at the last second. So it’s a lot of mental training, mental challenge, and it’s emotional all over the place.
You break a lot of patterns and social norms, which is very inspiring for women. Can you say more?
SC: As for drifting, I hope that girls who are interested and passionate about cars will go and not be intimidated by the whole culture and the industry itself because it is male dominated.
SC: So after rafting, because it’s an adrenaline-pumping activity and you get nervous, I like to relax and play Pokémon Go when I’m on break. I will play Pokemon more on Switch, Xbox or PC. We play games when my friends come. Then at night, before going to bed, I usually play. When all my stressors and nerves are at their peak, focusing on games can really be therapeutic.
So does the game help your love of driving? What is the connection between your love of cars and your love of games?
SC: What I like about both of them is that they are both the same, practice makes them perfect. Practice guarantees perfect driving. You also need a lot of time to sit and practice the game. You don’t just automatically become a pro. So it’s very difficult. I love challenges and when I leave the world of drifting it’s a completely different game and challenge scene and I push myself in other ways.
SC: Every Pokemon game, especially Pokémon Go, because now you can reach level 50, it takes millions of years and hard work. The length of how long you can play the game definitely makes me lean towards Pokémon Go.
SK: If I could play any playable character, I would play Neon in Valorant because she is very fast, but to be honest, I think I would still beat her. So it’s not fair. Let me pick one more. It should be an even match. Well, actually, she can only move that fast for a certain amount of time. So it’s still neon. When she died, then I went on and then I beat her. So it’s still unfair, but I win.
SK: I can only think of a character drifting in Mario Kart. So I will go in that direction. And Yoshi because I’m faithful. So yes, Yoshi went all the way.
SK: Now I play steering wheel games. I wish the wheels made my life easier before I used the controller. Of course, this is more realistic than the controller.
SC: My favorite racing game is Maximum Tune. You go to the mall and get into a real 4 seater car. This is an old school racing game made in Japan with all the JDM cars we all love. It’s just very classic.
SK: I love streaming. I streamed a lot during Covid; I played Valorant and it didn’t work for me. I finally have an analog setup and I’m about to start playing it. I am very happy that everything worked and I started streaming again. I’m also excited to start streaming sim racing because there’s actually a huge community of sims doing all sorts of styles of racing. It’s like a party. I look forward to investing in something that I really enjoy.
SC: Luckily I can stream a lot of racing games on a platform supported by Facebook Gaming; I also love being able to easily connect with other streamers in my space.
SK: Streaming helps me connect with my supportive audience while I get precious time on the raft! This makes the process more fun and positive.
SC: First my pepper spray because, you know, it’s a scary place right now. My second project is a racing simulator, I just received it, but I understand that I cannot live without it. The third is my Sparco helmet. I need it for rafting, for safety.Finally, my dog Kopi. He is my angel. He saved me. He is my child. I don’t know what to do without it.
Post time: Nov-09-2022
