Need a great gift for the racing fan on your list? How about giving them the closest thing to driving a Formula One car, short of buying time in a grand prix team's simulator?

That gift can now be delivered after iRacing.com and the Williams team combined forces to create the most sophisticated and realistic F1 car to appear in a gaming experience.

On top of that, racing fans around the planet have Canadian Eric Hudec to thank for the privilege of driving the Williams-Toyota FW31. To get things right, Hudec travelled to the Grove, U.K. Williams factory where the team opened its design books and let him pore over almost every detail of the car.

And just like the real Williams, the iRacing version of the FW31 is an engineering marvel.

"At this time, it far surpasses any other game that's out there - nobody else has had access like I have. You can't get any closer," said Hudec, who hails from Cumberland, Ont., just east of Ottawa.

"I had access to almost everything for that 2009 car: aerodynamic data, suspension data, weights and measures - everything that defined the car, except for the very most secret things. There were some things they wouldn't share and would give me direction, but they wouldn't give me things that were a competitive advantage to them."

For obvious reasons Williams would not reveal its 2010 car's specifications for iRacing during the F1 season, so the game features the 2009 challenger. The model that Hudec developed for the Williams car gets fed into the iRacing.com computational brain which crunches the numbers and translates it into a realistic driving experience.

The result is a car that acts and reacts just like the real Williams, complete with set-up changes that alter the way it behaves on track.

"All the magic is beyond the actual specifications on paper, it's the equations of motion interacting with our graphics and all the other stuff is what brings it all together," Hudec explained.

"It was essentially just filling in the blanks and then making small tweaks and optimizing it to make it handle the way it should and then getting feedback from testers and Williams."

Add the interactive racing bit, and an F1 fan can find himself behind the wheel of the FW31 screaming through Copse corner at the end of Silverstone's start-finish straight doing 290 kilometres per hour, battling tooth-and-nail with players from around the world in identical equipment.

In addition to the Williams F1 car, iRacing offers several other models to satisfy almost any type of racing enthusiast, including both NASCAR Cup and Nationwide racers, IndyCars, an Australian V8 Supercar, and the 1979 Lotus driven to the F1 world championship by Mario Andretti, which Hudec also designed.

"I actually got input from Mario Andretti. We spent quite a bit of time on the phone going back and forth about how the car should handle and feel and getting good feedback from him," Hudec said. "It's amazing how much he could remember after 30 years. It was unbelievable."

Canadians wanting to play F1 driver can't try Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve yet. While the F1 Canadian Grand Prix's home isn't one of the tracks included so far, Canuck racers can check out the Williams' performance around the Mosport International Raceway, which hosted F1 eight times between 1967 and 1977. Or they can try to emulate Mississauga, Ont.'s, Ron Fellows' success on the Bowmanville, Ont., track in the Corvette C6.R that the veteran Canadian drove to championships in the American Le Mans Series.

Along the way, iRacing drivers might just come up against some actual racers who regularly try their hand at the online version, including NASCAR stars Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, and IndyCar standouts Will Power and Justin Wilson.

And it may also be the gift that keeps on giving since two online racers each won $10,000 earlier this year for taking the iRacing world championship and the NASCAR iRacing championship for 2010.

All that's needed to join the 20,000 online racers is a steering wheel hooked up to a Windows-based computer and an Internet connection. iRacing basic membership packages cost $7.46 to $12 (U.S.) per month and include the five cars (Mazda MX-5, Pontiac Solstice, SpecRacer Ford and Legends Ford) and eight tracks (Charlotte, Laguna Seca, Summit Point, Lime Rock, South Boston, Oxford Plains, Thompson and Lanier) needed for rookie season.

For those not inclined to go racing online, F1 commentator and journalist James Allen has released a second book based on his popular blog, this year focusing on the five-driver fight for the F1 world championship.

2010: Five rivals, One Champion again turns his F1 blog into a print edition but also incorporates new content, as Allen offers further insight into the season through his expert analysis and anecdotes that add more depth to the original writing. It's a formula that worked well in the first edition last year and the fact that Allen has added even more post season content just makes the second offering better than the 2009 collection.

Allen's book can be ordered from his website,http://shop.jamesallenonf1.com/Info/Book.html, where you'll get the added bonus of a personally signed copy.

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iRacing lists of cars and tracks:

Cars

• Williams-Toyota FW31
• IndyCar Dallara
• Lotus 79
• Chevrolet Impala Class A (NASCAR Sprint Cup Series)
• Chevrolet Impala Class B (NASCAR Nationwide Series)
• Chevrolet Silverado (NASCAR Camping World Truck (Series)
• Chevrolet Monte Carlo (NASCAR Late Model)
• SK/Tour Modified
• Ford Falcon FG (Australian V8 Supercar)
• Corvette C6.R (ALMS GT1)
• Riley MkXX (GRAND-AM Daytona Prototype)
• Radical SR8
• Star Mazda
• Skip Barber F2000
• Silver Crown (USAC)
• Mustang FR500S (Mustang Challenge)
• VW Jetta TDI (VW Jetta TDI Cup)
• Mazda MX-5 (Mazda MX-5 Cup)
• SpecRacer Ford
• Pontiac Solstice

Tracks

• Major U.S. speedways (including road course configurations):
• Indianapolis Motor Speedway
• Daytona International Speedway
• Charlotte Motor Speedway
• Texas Motor Speedway
• Las Vegas Motor Speedway
• Atlanta Motor Speedway
• Homestead-Miami Speedway
• Pocono Raceway
• New Hampshire Motor Speedway
• Phoenix International Raceway
• Talladega Superspeedway
• International road courses:
• Silverstone Grand Prix
• Brands Hatch
• Mosport International Raceway
• Circuit Park Zandvoort
• Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit
• Spa-Francorchamps (set to be released12/21/10)

U.S. road courses

• Watkins Glen International
• Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
• Sebring International Raceway
• Road America
• Road Atlanta
• Lime Rock Park
• Infineon Raceway
• Barber Motorsports Park
• Summit Point Raceway
• Virginia International Raceway

Other major U.S. ovals

• Richmond International Raceway
• The Milwaukee Mile
• Bristol Motor Speedway
• Michigan International Speedway
• Darlington Raceway
• Martinsville Speedway
• Dover International Speedway
• Chicagoland Speedway

U.S. "short tracks"

• Thompson International Speedway
• Stafford Motor Speedway
• Concord Speedway
• South Boston Speedway
• Oxford Plains Speedway
• Lanier National Speedway
• USA International Speedway
• Toyota Speedway at Irwindale
• Scheduled for future release:
• Oulton Park
• Oran Park
• New Jersey Motorsports Park
• Circuit Zolder
• Suzuka
• Okayama International Circuit

With room for Corgis or groupies, this top-of-the-line luxury car has it all, says Peter Cheney