![]() ![]() Main image courtesy of Motorsport Images. It’s a lot more engaging and fun than racing via a controller and once you’ve tried it, you won’t ever want to go back. The basic premise is whatever your budget, there’s a way into sim racing. It’s fairly common to see Sparco seats bolted onto these cockpits to provide the ultimate real life experience, too. It is popular to use aluminium extrusion (also called 80/20) to build extremely customisable, lightweight and rigid cockpits. At this level people are generally creating their own rigs to match their specific needs. With all of this power and resistance, you need to up the cockpit/rig as well. Again Fanatec offers a nice all in one package, but other companies like Heusinkveld make bespoke sim pedals, offering resistances up to 110kg on the brake pedal, the same as an F1 car… For a direct drive base and a couple of different steering wheels, say one for F1 and another for sportscar, you’re looking at around £2,000. It’s quite fun to head to their ‘build your own bundle’ feature on their website and enjoy racking up the price. Fanatec, with their Podium series, is the first major manufacturer to offer a direct drive wheel that is plug-and-play and will also work on some consoles. There are a number of indy options for direct drive wheels, all of which require a bit of fiddling to get working and all of which require a PC. You’d be able to feel the painted lines of a track through your fingertips. Because there is no intermediary, the force feedback is lightning fast and because the power output is so high, the fidelity of the force feedback is incredible. This is a large electric motor which the wheel mounts directly too. This is where it all starts getting a bit crazy and you get equipment that compares to that of real life racing cars.Īs far as wheels go, the king of the castle is a direct drive wheel. It’s not as moveable as a smaller wheel stand, but it offers unrivalled rigidity and comfort for long sessions in the chair. This is an all in one solution that provides the seat, wheel deck and pedal board. At this level, many people will get one with a racing seat incorporated, like the Next Level Racing GT Cockpit. At this level you start to see things like interchangeable steering wheels and load cell pedals, which simulate the progressive, hydraulic feel of actual car pedals.Īs the wheel’s power output grows, a more robust wheel stand is required. Wheels in this category vary in price dramatically from the Thrustmaster TMX Pro at £240 to the top of the range Fanatec ClubSport V2.5, which starts at £850. This enable faster and smoother force feedback with more torque (power). Whilst the Logitech G29 above is a geared wheel, belt driven wheels use a rubber belt as an intermediary between the wheel and a motor. Looking to go up a level or have a bit more cash to splash? You can start looking at belt driven wheels. ![]()
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