2016-10-14, 19:32
Hi folks,
I've had a bunch of people ask me about my setup recently and instead of continuing to give people the same information time and time again I figured I'd put it all in a thread.
Wheel: Thrustmaster T300 599XX EVO Alcantara Edition (Product Page)
Pedals: Fanatec CSR Elite (No longer sold)
Shifter: Thrustmaster TH8A (Product page]
I've had plenty of sim racing hardware over the years, probably too much, but I can safely say that I think I've found the sweet-spot between a realistic feeling setup and the ability to still be competitive whilst racing. What I mean is, you can pay a lot of money for a good setup that feels like you might actually be using parts that came straight out of a racing car, but there are way too many effects and forces that do not make you any faster. In my opinion there are only 2 things that your sim racing hardware needs in order to hit this sweet-spot:
A load-cell brake.
A load-cell is an electrical component (transducer) that outputs a signal which is directly proportional to the magnitude of the pressure that's being applied. In simple terms, regular pedal sets (such as all of those sold by logitech), send out signals based on the position of your pedal. 50% compressed = 50% braking pressure. That's not actually realistic and it's very, very difficult to actually get effective braking 100% of the time with brakes that work like this. Because load cells output signals based on the force you're using, braking becomes part of your muscle memory, the harder you push, the more brake force is applied. Learning new tracks is much easier when braking is done with muscle memory rather than by trial and error. It might seem like a very subtle change but for me, after about a month of getting used to my load-cell brake, I was already at least a few tenths faster every lap on average than before. It's because braking is now a part of my muscle memory and not guess work. Good pedals are more important than a good wheel and funnily enough, printed on the box of my Fanatec pedals are these words: "A good wheel feels nice. Good pedals make you faster". It's so true.
No dead-zone force feedback
The second part of the sweet-spot for me is the wheel's ability to give you force feedback wherever the wheel is facing. Unlike logitech wheels, the T300 base is powered by brushless servo motors and a belt so the force is applied at every possible angle of rotation. This means that even when driving straight, a kerb or a bump in the road will be detected. Before I upgraded to my T300, I had no idea that the kerbs on the SO1 home straight yanked the steering so much. All this time I had no idea about some of the subtle bumps in the road on Fern Bay, all because my old logitech wheel had a massive force-feedback deadzone. Now that we have Rockingham, a laser-scanned track, the advantage of having no deadzone is quite clear, there are so many little bumps and crests that without my wheel, I would probably spin or roll over a lot more often.
In my opinion that's all you need for a great setup. So why do I have a shifter? For fun! H-shifting is great for cruising but not great for racing unless you're a God. The TH8A has a sequential face plate that I use when I race with sequential cars. I use paddles on the wheel for single seaters.
Here's a relatively old image of my setup
Here's a video I recorded earlier (it's portrait because I hoped to capture some pedal action but it was a bit too bright in my room for the camera to pick up anything going on under there.)
I hope this is insightful for some of you and shows that there is actually a reason why you might want to spend a bit more to get the most out of your sim racing experience.
I've had a bunch of people ask me about my setup recently and instead of continuing to give people the same information time and time again I figured I'd put it all in a thread.
Wheel: Thrustmaster T300 599XX EVO Alcantara Edition (Product Page)
Pedals: Fanatec CSR Elite (No longer sold)
Shifter: Thrustmaster TH8A (Product page]
I've had plenty of sim racing hardware over the years, probably too much, but I can safely say that I think I've found the sweet-spot between a realistic feeling setup and the ability to still be competitive whilst racing. What I mean is, you can pay a lot of money for a good setup that feels like you might actually be using parts that came straight out of a racing car, but there are way too many effects and forces that do not make you any faster. In my opinion there are only 2 things that your sim racing hardware needs in order to hit this sweet-spot:
A load-cell brake.
A load-cell is an electrical component (transducer) that outputs a signal which is directly proportional to the magnitude of the pressure that's being applied. In simple terms, regular pedal sets (such as all of those sold by logitech), send out signals based on the position of your pedal. 50% compressed = 50% braking pressure. That's not actually realistic and it's very, very difficult to actually get effective braking 100% of the time with brakes that work like this. Because load cells output signals based on the force you're using, braking becomes part of your muscle memory, the harder you push, the more brake force is applied. Learning new tracks is much easier when braking is done with muscle memory rather than by trial and error. It might seem like a very subtle change but for me, after about a month of getting used to my load-cell brake, I was already at least a few tenths faster every lap on average than before. It's because braking is now a part of my muscle memory and not guess work. Good pedals are more important than a good wheel and funnily enough, printed on the box of my Fanatec pedals are these words: "A good wheel feels nice. Good pedals make you faster". It's so true.
No dead-zone force feedback
The second part of the sweet-spot for me is the wheel's ability to give you force feedback wherever the wheel is facing. Unlike logitech wheels, the T300 base is powered by brushless servo motors and a belt so the force is applied at every possible angle of rotation. This means that even when driving straight, a kerb or a bump in the road will be detected. Before I upgraded to my T300, I had no idea that the kerbs on the SO1 home straight yanked the steering so much. All this time I had no idea about some of the subtle bumps in the road on Fern Bay, all because my old logitech wheel had a massive force-feedback deadzone. Now that we have Rockingham, a laser-scanned track, the advantage of having no deadzone is quite clear, there are so many little bumps and crests that without my wheel, I would probably spin or roll over a lot more often.
In my opinion that's all you need for a great setup. So why do I have a shifter? For fun! H-shifting is great for cruising but not great for racing unless you're a God. The TH8A has a sequential face plate that I use when I race with sequential cars. I use paddles on the wheel for single seaters.
Here's a relatively old image of my setup
Here's a video I recorded earlier (it's portrait because I hoped to capture some pedal action but it was a bit too bright in my room for the camera to pick up anything going on under there.)
I hope this is insightful for some of you and shows that there is actually a reason why you might want to spend a bit more to get the most out of your sim racing experience.
)
#ThrustmasterForLyfe