How SimXPro reinvented the sim racing seat

A quick glance at SimXPro’s Torq GP sim racing seat and you’d be forgiven for thinking it was straight out of a contemporary sports car.

This latest model stands apart in a sometimes sedate marketplace, with staid, sensible designs.

Its OIix GP is even bolder – if a hypercar manufacturer made simulation equipment, then it could end up looking like this.

Lowslung, smooth, making clever use of negative space.

Both are the vision of Johan Akkerman, a sim racing industry veteran and real-world motorsport competitor. The brand had a strong presence at the SimRacing Expo earlier this year, as if out of nowhere, making a big splash.

But, of course, it wasn’t an overnight success story…

Revolutionary sim engineering

While the Torq GP and Olix GP look slick, a design by Akkerman in CAD and partly inspired by vacuum-packed sofas, there’s clever engineering that proves their appeal is more than skin-deep.

Firstly, they are made in two pieces – the bottom and the top. This primarily allows them to be packaged compactly, saving on store space and shipping. A saving that is then passed on to the sim racer, helping deliver a competitively priced seat given its ‘hypercar’ styling and strength.

It also has some long-term benefits, as each seat shares the same base. In the future, there is scope to sell different cushions and the top half separately, allowing the owner to switch up their setup at a later date.

A split design isn’t necessarily unique in the market. According to SimXPro’s Akkerman, however, one that is sturdy and seamless is:

“It needed to have two pieces, but I didn’t want to have a design, as I see with other brands, where you can clearly see a line or holes.

“I wanted to make sure it looks like a furniture piece – a one-piece seat.

“Secondly, I wanted to make it as strong as any other seat on the market that you can buy for racing.

“So we figured out a very clever way to combine the two pieces, which is patented, that allows up to 300kgs on the headrest without it being broken. So if you’re sitting in it, it’s 100% flex free.

“It’s so strong, we are considering achieving an FIA approval for real-world race cars, which could help reduce motorsport costs.

“If you compare that with the standard fibreglass seats that are out there, you see a very clear difference in strength.”

But, how exactly is it so sturdy and yet in two pieces? It must be witchcraft, right? Well, Akkerman claims it’s due to a uniquely formulated composite:

“We created a composite formula. Like a race car, you always take the best compromise for a setup.

“It includes recycled plastic elements alongside carbon fibre flakes and strings. This is then blended with epoxy and additional elements to make the composite seat.”

While SimXPro won’t reveal the full ‘secret sauce’, it’s clear that the clean sheet approach is not just to the design, but the manufacturing process too.

Ideal partners

They sit as current range flagships, alongside the existing range of seats, cockpits, monitor stands and accessories. Such as the GT RS cockpit made from premium-grade aluminium profile, or the heavy-duty reinforced XT120.

“It doesn’t make sense for us to do 50kgs of aluminium profiles while we can do it with 40kgs and offer the same strength,” explains Akkerman.

“So we take material away from the profiles where you don’t need it, and we add a little bit to the key points where you do need it.

“It makes for a very rigid and strong aluminium profile rig that looks almost the same as any other brand, but if you compare, they’re likely the same weight, but ours is stronger.

“We also apply a different coating compared to the other aluminium profiles on the market.

“If you grab your keys and scratch one of our profiles, you can then rub your thumb over it, and the scratch is gone. If you do that with any other aluminium profile on the market, you’ll see that the scratch is there to last.”

Pedals, wheels, wheel bases and motion platforms from the likes of Simucube, Novus and Heusinkveld are also available from SimXPro’s website.

“We’re selling products that we care about and where the company behind it is actually having quality as a priority,” explains Akkerman.

“We don’t want to be a one-stop shop; we want to help people buy the right products that match ours.”

These initial two offerings (Torq GP and Olix GP) are teased as just the start of an expanded range, with the initial plan to display at the SimFormula Europe event in Maastricht, January 2026, before deliveries in February.

Drive your dream with SimXPro’s range of sim racing equipment today.