The Generation Game

The Lamborghini Reventon didn’t stand a chance. The Ferrari F40 had already spooled both turbochargers and its driver had already selected the right gear. Exiting the opening left hander, the Maranello supercar cut inside – a pay off of going deeper into the turn. With more exit speed, the F40 rocketed into first place, its V8 screaming and willing its pilot to slot home another gear.

Two corners later, the Ferrari was just a speck on the horizon, the Lamborghini bogged down by its weight, unevocative four-wheel drive system and the inexperienced driver behind the wheel. 

You can have moments like these every time you turn on an Xbox 360 console and place Forza Motorsport 4 onto the disc tray. On this occasion, I was in the Fezza and my girlfriend’s 11-year old brother was in the Reventon – him wooed by the Lambo’s matte grey paint and jet fighter styling, me taken by the F40’s unsanitised get-up-and-go, fizzing Italian bellow and carbon fibre body shell. 

In all likelihood, I’ll never see an F40 on track alongside a Reventon, let alone drive one of the things. But the beauty of computer gaming is that, on any of the multiple tracks Forza has at its disposal, you can – and do. Such indulgence of racing fantasies on computer consoles has been the guilty pleasure of petrolheads for years. And that got me thinking. 

After I’d zipped past the Lambo and proceeded to take the chequered flag, it dawned on me that I’d just beaten an 11-year old boy at his own game, so to speak. I’d played these things before, sure. Hell, I own an Xbox 360 and Forza 3.

But whereas I taught my dad a thing or two about lift off oversteer on 1990s arcade classic, Ridge Racer, and told him when to brake for the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca on Gran Turismo 4. Maybe this generation of budding fathers will, for the first time in history, soon be showing their offspring a thing or two on racing games. And I can’t see the balance ever swinging back the other way. 

Playing computer games is much more accepted in society now than it was 10 or 20 years ago, and is an entirely more accepted activity among middle aged blokes. Experience counts for a lot in the digital world, and the way I see it, us current crop of dads - and soon to be dads - have more than any other generation to walk the Earth. You just can’t compete with that, kids.