Josep Vilà

Josep Vilà is an industrial engineer and MBA, and the founder and CEO of Simufy, a distributor of racing and flight simulation hardware for Spain and Europe. Above all, he is passionate about anything with petrol and wheels.

He actively competes in autocross with a car cross, and that is what lets him compare what you feel in a real car with what a simulator gives back. When he writes that a wheelbase conveys loss of traction well or that a set of pedals communicates lock-up, he speaks from both sides.

He started sim racing in 2001, with Gran Turismo 3 on PlayStation 2 and a controller, playing every driving title as it came out. His first step up was a Thrustmaster with a folding Playseat that he set up and took down in his parents' dining room every time he wanted to race. Everything else grew from there.

Today he runs Simufy from its facilities in Orpí, Barcelona, with its own warehouse, workshop and showroom. He has tested the vast majority of products on the market and has his own view on each one, and he also knows the manufacturers personally and has visited their factories. That direct access is what lets him explain why a product is built the way it is, not just what numbers it delivers.

He writes about professional installations, customer cases, driver interviews and the relationship with manufacturers: how the equipment behaves beyond the spec sheet, what goes wrong in a multi-rig installation and what professional clients ask before signing off on a project.