O-Rouge Cold Fusion C1 Seat
O-Rouge is a company that has been present in the sim racing world for years. The company is based in Genk (Belgium) and with a wide range of simulators and accessories, a level of spectacular realism is achieved. The man behind O-Rouge is Tom Castermans who has extensive experience in motorsport. Tom graduated as an engineer and has worked almost all his life in motorsport, including in the FIA-GT and Formula 1.
One of Tom’s inventions/developments is a sim racing seat with a ventilated back and seat zone. This seat, called Cold Fusion, dissipates your body heat through a special 3D mesh panel while racing. The plans to have the Cold Fusion seat reviewed by us have been around for quite some time. When we were present at the Sim Formula Europe in January we were informed by Tom that we would be able to start the review very soon. O-Rouge was working on a large version of their C1 model Cold Fusion seat. Since I (Roy) am a sturdy guy, I would be the ideal test person for this seat in addition to the review. That’s great and we definitely will!
The O-Rouge Cold Fusion seat has a starting price of € 749.99 and is available through the O-Rouge webshop. The Cold Fusion seat is made and delivered for customers to order, possibly with its own design. Since the price is starting from, customizing it will increase the price according to the customer’s requirements.
Packaging & Contents
We receive our seat two working days after it has been sent by O-Rouge through DHL. We receive a large brown box containing the O-Rouge Cold Fusion. This is covered with the necessary foam and plastic to protect the seat during shipping. Unfortunately, the shipping company probably handled the package a little too wildly and one of the fans was broken off in the packaging. We informed O-Rouge of this, which immediately took action. After we received a return label from O-Rouge the same day and packed the seat again, we returned it. Less than a week later, we receive a repaired seat . Very neatly and smoothly resolved by O-Rouge and we can start our review a little later than planned.
Engineering & Quality
The O-Rouge Cold Fusion seat is an air-cooled sim racing seat with a ventilated back and seat zone. The unit consists of a seat with four floating fans (three at the back and one at the bottom) to dissipate body heat during racing. These so-called floating fans are not screwed into the seat and can therefore move outwards when you sit down and/or your body moves. The fans are controlled by an electronic control unit to adjust the air volume.
The seat is made of 5mm thick fiberglass reinforced polyester and has a very high rigidity. Furthermore, the seat is largely covered with black velvet, which gives it a sporty look and offers sufficient comfort and support. In the back and seat zone there is a 3D mesh panel, developed by O-Rouge itself, which generates optimal airflow through the seat in order to dissipate body heat while driving. The 3D mesh panel is then finished with a foam layer for a comfortable fit.
Assembly & Use
We mount the O-Rouge Cold Fusion seat on our TREQ Ace simrig. Because the O-Rouge Cold Fusion seat has the same dimensions as our current seat , it is no more than unscrewing the old seat from the brackets and screwing the Cold Fusion into the brackets. After connecting the 12v adapter for the electronic control unit and neatly hiding the cable, we are ready to race.
Try and feel
As soon as we sit down, we notice that the seat is a bit harder than we are used to, but at the same time quite comfortable. In addition, we do not feel the fans through the upholstery at all. We sit firmly and the chair offers good support to the back and sides. We put the controller, which is mounted by O-Rouge at leg height on the side of the seat , on the first position and feel a little cooling in our back and in the seat. You hardly hear the fans and the cooling can be felt over the entire surface of the 3D mesh panel in the chair. It feels a bit awkward at first, but it’s not uncomfortable. Because the fans dissipate the heat to the outside (upwards) via the 3D mesh panel, you do not have a feeling of direct cooling on your back and your seat.
Even more trying and feeling
In addition to the off position, the controller has six settings for the intensity of the cooling. As we increase this intensity, the sound of the fans and the feeling of cooling in the back and seat increase. The sense of cooling in the back and your buttocks becomes more intense, but it is absolutely not an unpleasant sensation. The sound of the fans is there, but it is not very disturbing and the rest of the household does not hear it. To be honest, we think the sound of the fans (when we drive without headphones) does add something to the experience of sim racing.
The experience
After we have experienced all positions, we come to the conclusion that for this time of year, at the time of writing around 10 degrees outside, position one or position two on the controller is sufficient. We drove quite a few sessions in Assetto Corsa Competizione and always got out with a dry back. Our back normally always gets a little sticky during the longer sessions, but amazingly that wasn’t the case this time. Also the days after racing we had no feeling of stiffness or anything like that in the back and seating area. The hard feeling that we mentioned earlier has disappeared after a number of sessions and is part of the sitting in process of the seat.
Conclusion
As far as we are concerned, O-Rouge has certainly done something special with the Cold Fusion chair. The concept has been really well thought out and you can literally feel the engineering around you. The seat sits a bit hard in the beginning, but as soon as it has passed the sitting in process, that has disappeared. The seat is sturdy and offers you sufficient support in the back and sides.
The sensation of the cooling in our back and seating area is a bit uncomfortable at first, although that quickly turns into an added value. The fans are barely audible at the lowest setting and they don’t produce much noise at the highest setting either. The audible fans on the highest setting also certainly add to the experience.
As far as we are concerned, the functionality of the seat is well suited for the different seasons, whereby we can imagine that the cooling is higher in the summer than in the winter. In addition, the chair is very suitable for people who sweat a lot during racing, because with the Cold Fusion seat you step out of your simrig with a dry back during every sim racing session.
The seat is not cheap with the price tag attached to it. If you are purely looking for a comfortable seat for your simrig, we find this price difficult to justify. We cannot call it an absolute ‘must buy’ in that respect. However, if you are specifically looking for a pleasant and comfortable way to get active cooling during racing, without having to mess with external fans or air conditioners, then the O-Rouge Cold Fusion seat is definitely recommended. We will certainly put the O-Rouge Cold Fusion seat through its paces again this summer!
Did you get excited after reading our review about the O-Rouge Cold Fusion seat? The seat is available through the O-Rouge webshop and has a starting price of € 749.99. The Cold Fusion seat is then made and delivered to order, optionally with your own design.
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