Although nowhere near as commercially successful as its sequel, we examine the merits of Automobilista 10 years on from its release, featuring input from physics lead Niels Heusinkveld. It’s been 10 years since the release of Reiza Studios’ Automobilista (AMS), a racing sim that offers a diverse range of cars and tracks, and tactile handling dynamics. The Brazilian developer started off making mods for the likes of rFactor, leading to commercial projects like Formula Armaroli, an ’80s Formula 1 car designed in collaboration with simulator manufacturer Armaroli Design (a car that looked suspiciously like Ayrton Senna’s McLaren MP4/4, no less). Buoyed by this critical success, Reiza, headed by Renato Simioni, produced its first game in 2011. Game Stock Car may not have had the most inspiring title, but it showed enormous potential. It also brought Brazilian motorsport to a new audience thanks to its Stock Car Brasil licence, featuring faithful renditions of several South American circuits. Subsequent releases, Formula Truck (2013), Game Stock Car Extreme (2014) and the freeware Copa Petrobras de Marcas (2014), cemented Reiza’s position as a studio on the up, with Automobilista arriving in 2016 after a successful crowdfunding campaign and Early Access phase. Despite the release of Automobilista 2 in 2020, many still view its predecessor as the zenith of the studio’s output. Find out why below. Origins Like most of Reiza’s output, AMS was built on Image Space Incorporated’s gMotor2 game engine, sharing a basis with rFactor and a glut of SimBin’s noughties output, including GTR 2, GT Legends and Race 07. gMotor2 made complete sense as a starting point for Reiza, considering Simioni’s experience working on SimBin’s Race On, STCC: The Game and GTR Evolution offshoots. However, AMS went beyond these previous titles, offering dynamic track evolution and several audio and visual tweaks to