A video game inspired go-karting experience is set to open in London this summer, in the latest sign that the capital is bouncing back after the pandemic.
Created by the team behind the Crystal Maze experience in London’s West End, Chaos Karts is set to open in Brick Lane in August 2021, combining go-karting with augmented reality. Players will race an electric go-kart around a virtual track beamed onto the floor of its 20,000 square foot home – meaning there are potentially infinite tracks to race on and infinite challenges to conquer.
Much like popular video karting games, drivers can collect “power-ups” and “weapons” to use against their competitors in a bid to win the race, and the state-of-the-art karts will recreate the real-life sensations of driving, vibrating when driven over certain projected surfaces, just as a controller does in a game. With all obstacles on the track digitally projected, organisers claim the experience is safer than traditional karting. The karts also boast anti-collision technology, meaning the power cuts out before drivers smash into each other.
Londoner Tom Lionetti-Maguire, the founder of Chaos Karts, said the idea for the experience was born during the Covid pandemic and added that securing a “six figure investment” was proof of confidence in consumer demand.
He said: “Creating a real-life version of a videogame has been an obsession for some time and we are delighted to have cracked it. We got it to the proof-of-concept stage at the end of last year and we were offered the money straight away. It is a video game turned into real life – there really is nothing else like it.
“This makes normal go karting look like the Flintstones. Every time you play it, the adrenaline, the pure elation of it… it still surprises me every time.”
He continued: “As it is played in small groups, it is Covid compliant. So it is perfect to open in these conditions. I think of it as the phoenix from the ashes. It is proof that going out is coming back to London.
“I think Londoners are desperate to go out and do something totally different. And opening in time for a summer of fun that we so desperately deserve, is frankly a dream come true.”
Tickets for Chaos Karts start at £30 per person. They go on sale today, May 18.
