During the 2022 Gamescom conference in Cologne, Germany, Next Level Racing unveiled a newly branded option for its GTElite cockpit and their ES1 seat. The GTElite Ford GT Edition and ES1 Ford GT Edition Seat are those products and they’ll be available later this year in October.
The GTElite is the same cockpit we’ve reviewed in the past, just this one comes in an incredible metallic blue colour, often representative of the Ford and Team Fordzilla branding. It includes official Ford GT branding, with the laser-etched white stripes and official logos reminiscent of the famous supercar.
As for the seat, it’s the same bucket-style seat it’s already been selling, but with Ford GT features as well.
We were on hand in person at the reveal, and under the exhibition show lighting, the bright blue colours pop in comparison to the usually subdued sim racing cockpit colours.
“This is something a bit unique,” said Kam Khadem, Head of Brand at Next Level Racing to Traxion.GG.
“We have the carbon grey already and this is another colour that we’re introducing to our range.
“To do laser etching like that, it took some research and development. But we’re excited about it because we really think it makes the cockpit that much more premium and true to the Ford brand.”
These products are being sold separately as of the announcement. There doesn’t look to be a bundle of these products at this time. Of course, they look stunning together. The cockpit is priced at $799 USD / $1099 AUD / £749 GBP / €849 EU and the seat retails for $499 USD / $699 AUD / £449 GBP / €549 EU.
“Ford is a global brand with years of expertise in motorsports, and for them to trust us to take on this project and really push its esports and sim racing side of things forward, it’s awesome,” explained Khadem.
On both the aluminium frame and the bucket seat, plus all of the accessories included like the belts and anti-slip mat, you’ll find the Ford GT and Team Fordzilla branding prevalent.
Next Level Racing and Team Fordzilla have been partnered up for some time, so expanding on that and releasing an officially licensed Ford product just makes sense.
The new licenced products are on the Ford and Team Fordzilla stand at Gamescom, where visitors can test out the new equipment paired with Fanatec Gran Turismo DD Pro wheel bases on Gran Turismo 7 or DiRT Rally 2.0.
