Clubsport Wheel Community Review

I went into this assignment with as un-bias an approach as I could. Having never used a Fanatec product all I could do was preface my expectation on the experiences of the people around me. Two of my sim racing friends had purchased the GT3 wheel and clubsport pedals simultaneously and one had no issue with it other than the pedals sliding on his bare floor. The other had months of headaches and everything from a completely shattered wheel arriving to loss of center detection during races to failing brake load cells culminating with a very public battle with Fanatec customer support to refund his money (which they did).

My FFB tutorials on various sites has also shed some light on Fanatec for me in that the settings I designed for my G27 rendered either inconsistent or just plain odd sounding results for seemingly all Fanatec users.

Having the opportunity to fully test a new wheel and set of pedals from Fanatec myself seemed like a great way to get my head around the issues with FFB feel and to actually determine if their reliability and customer service was dreadful or adequate or perfect.

See the Full Gallery
​

I will start this tale from the beginning.

After all the shipping info was given, all the testers received an email stating the wheel rims were delaying all shipments while their firmware was upgraded (a process that cannot be accomplished by the end user, only the base can be updated by the consumer). Two weeks after that email the items all shipped and arrived a week later well packaged and seemingly without issue.

Eager to begin testing I took some unboxing videos (Because everyone loves unboxing videos) and started with the setup. During the shipping time another email arrived stating that we would all need to upgrade the firmware of the base before testing it and the instructions were easy enough to follow.

The hardware, aside from some pitting on the base's top window, was in perfect physical condition. A fact not to be mirrored upon testing of the wheel. It seemed my base had an internal issue. Whenever I rotated the wheel to the far left the base would "lock up" in a manner consistent to shorting a USB device. Freezing the whole PC for a second until the wheel was rotated to the center or right. I was able to some testing by limiting the rotation of the wheel to 380° but turning past the FFB "stops" still resulted in a wheel response lockup. If I kept the wheel in the error zone for more then 5 seconds the wheel would stop responding altogether and a hard restart was needed on the wheel.

Videos I sent to Fanatec Describing the problem above and below. http://zeospantera.minus.com/mNUKRmIm1/1g

After several email's back and forth a new firmware was released to all candidates and upon it's installation my problem area moved from rotating to the far left to near dead center. Making the wheel unusable for any testing! I then waited two full weeks for a response from Fanatec as to what to do next. (Keep in mind our testing period is finite). In that time I had discovered that the base would register rotation fine as long as neither rim was attached. This didn't help me test as the FFB is disabled without a rim attached fully. I reported this new discovery and eventually correspondence commenced and Fanatec agreed to send me a second wheel base for testing.

The new base quickly arrived in even more secure packaging then the first base and worked flawlessly upon testing and throughout concurrent firmware updates.

We can now finally get to the ACTUAL testing and review.

The hardware LOOKS and FEELS wonderful. The materials are high end and other than the offset screw holes on the table clamp all the machining was perfect. If you or I tried to recreate the GT Rim on our own it would cost a whole lot more than the $250 retail price Fanatec is asking. The Analog left thumb joystick and 8 way + rotary encoder alone put this wheel in a completely different category for convenience. Add the full LED Rev meter, triple eight segment display, near a dozen quality push-buttons and the most adjustable paddle shifts imaginable and you will understand exactly what you are paying for right out of the box. I would even hazard a guess that this wheels features and build likely best that of most ACTUAL racing wheels except Formula1.

The F1 rim is more of the same but I had one gripe that the top plastic behind the screen was that shiny and cheap feeling black plastic instead of the rubberized satin finish the GT rim was touting all over.

I found the mounting of the wheel with the base a bit cumbersome as the actual hinge needed to be freed with small hex screws and knocked out with a punch in order to attach the wheel base. It is however the strongest table mount for anything I have ever seen. I took out my caliper to verify and it is entirely 3/16th (4mm) steel. The two screw down clamps can accommodate about a 4" thick desk but you must be mindful that if you have such a thick desk the screw-downs will stick out that much further. There were several times where those big Fanatec branded knobs came close to my gentleman's area and I am sure with a long enough period they would eventually meet with horrific consequences.

The pedals I wanted to test were not the newest and best Clubsport V2's.. I instead wanted to try out the Elite pedals with their inversion kit. I find this layout better represents an road car setup and some of the older race cars from the 60's thru 80's. After some testing it became obvious that these pedals have a design flaw. Even tough there were five pivot holes for pedal adjustment only three are usable. The very top hole is obstructed by the pedal mount itself and if you try and use the lowest hole (which should offer the least resistance and longest throw) you will find the rack pulls completely out of the pinion gear. I was able to remedy this issue with a small saw, some small threaded rods and some hot glue, but this is an issue that shouldn't exist in the first place. The pedals worked flawlessly during the testing and the inversion process was simple enough.

The FFB.. I am not going to go into per sim or mod specifics here. Instead I am going to say as someone who has always used a geared FFB system and not a belt drive unit it is now completely clear to me why the FFB is so different from one type of wheel to another.

With my G27 and it's power off I can spin it from one end of its 900° rotation to the other and it will only stop on the physical bump stops inside. The belt drive in this and presumably all Fanatec wheels is under so much tension that they have a fairly high amount of physical resistance preventing its rotation even with no power on. Trying to throw it from one end to the other is a complete joke. You get maybe 90° free-spin before the belts bring it to a halt.

So what does this mean and why am I telling you this? In a perfect sim you would have a steering column connected to a rack and pinion and then tie rod ends to a pair of yolks and then actual spinning wheels have various forces applied to them giving you the 100% real FFB you desire. Unfortunately we don't have that sort of hardware setup and sims are not built to give a 100% realistic emulation of wheel force in the hand compared to a real car. There are simply too many forces that you and I are missing sitting in our stationary chairs at our immobile desks. The bumps, slides and visual queues that we CAN'T experience needs to be translated into a combination of screen movement exaggerations and into the tactile ffb effects. On a good sim nothing will be too obviously fake but rest assured you are not feeling the same thing a race driver does. The subtlety found in a sim like rFactor2 or the better iRacing mods you can't even tell when this is happening. Like when you are in 4th through a nearly flat out wide right and you are holding against the FFB that is trying to center the wheel through caster geometry when all the sudden that force is 22% less. THAT is an indication that you are starting to loose the back end. However you probably would experience that slide though your ass in real life as the car isn't turning enough to lessen the centering force on the geometry in a real car.

The issue is the Fanatec(s) is the built in physical resistance comes into play all the time and that 22% drop may only feel like a 6% drop and therefore feel like no drop at all. This is why when I used the wheel I felt much more comfortable having my normal FFB forces all at +150%. Raising the common denominator so that 6% drop is now a 10% drop and therefore more apparent but this can become a tiring endeavor over a long race. In a more perfect FFB wheel the resistance would be near 0 until the sim told it to have resistance (See this Direct Drive wheel). The sim software should be completely responsible for all feelings and forces of the wheel and a belt system messes that up more then a gear system and you end up having to adjust your expectations to compensate for it. This is the reason people using my FFB tutorial said if felt "off". There is a lot of minute subtlety that you just can't get on a belt wheel unless you turn the overall FFB up to the mythical 11 so that all that subtlety is screaming past the resistance.

So what are you paying for and what would I change. You are paying for the nicest looking and feeling sim equipment available. However you must all realize that "Designed in Germany" and "Made in Germany" are not the same thing. Designed in Germany and Made in China is likely the reason my first wheel base failed. It is also likely why the table mount has offset screw holes and the pedals rack was too small. I understand that everyone wants their products to be cheap because consumers want to save money.. "Made in Germany" is only seen on the well displayed belts in the window of your near $500 wheel base.

Now a G27 is also made in China and Thrustmaster isn't Italian although it sports Ferrari badges, but you are not paying the premium German price for those two any longer. I would love to see Fanatec make this wheel in-house or at least test them all there. If someone is willing to spend $1,000 on a base, rims and pedals I bet they would line up to spend $1,400 on it and have every piece Made in Germany and inspected before delivery by someone who cares if the product functions.

So am I going to keep the Test unit..? no. I am going to sell it off either here on the isiforums or throw it out on ebay and try to get a good price from some lucky person.

Why you ask? It is not because of the FFB or because of the made in china stamps on the box. It is because at the end of the day it doesn't suit my sim/driving style. I got into sim racing for the hardware. Not to buy expensive hardware but to cheaply build and DIY everything. Doing it yourself and in a more custom way then any sim hardware manufacturer could possibly accomplish gives me a huge smile and sense of pride when I sit down to use my rig. However if you just want to throw some serious money one way and be delivered a modern racing experience there is no doubt this Fanatec setup will deliver that.

I was asked to check if the wheel base would allow for someone to put on a custom wheel. The answer is no it will not work without a Fanatec rim. If this were not the case I would have considered keeping the base, selling the rims and installed a polished wooden rim like I did on my G27. I like the classics. Clunky gearbox's and splinters is what I want in my sim. Without the ability to use the base on its own it seems useless to someone like me. I think Fanatec dropped a big ball in not making this sort of modification a possibility. If they sold 100% functioning bases and offered several real world wheel mounting adapter options people would buy them and just find the rim that suits their driving styles, comfort and cockpit look. All that they need do is add the controls from the wheel rims to the base or a button box.


If anyone here wants the base, rims and even the modified pedals PM me with an offer and I will look it over. There are benefits getting this from me vs ordering one from Fanatec.. You know the wheel is full tested, taken care of and is working and upgraded. You also don't have to deal with the terrible shipping and back-order issues that Fanatec is now known for. I would kind of like the keep the pedals now that I have fixed them since those work well with my style but if you want them..

Questions welcome.

ADDITION: I was just reminded of an instance where I had the F1 rim on and the force and speed were so great as I tested that it ripped from my hands and the left side of the rim came over top and smashed the top of my right hand. THIS WHEEL IS STRONG AND FAST.. and the F1 rim and it's shape can make it a hazard to use!

 

Well, I can't agree on the resistance. Sure, when the wheel is turned off, there is resistance. But when in game, and when you need all the speed, like catching a slide, the wheel is super quick, I don't feel any resistance, the impression I have is like I'm holding it in the air.

 

You said that you have freinds who brought the GT3 wheel... so how does the clubsport wheel compare to the GT3 (except obviously fo the amount of controls on the clubsport)... I mean is there much difference in the FFB / driving feeling between the two wheels?

 

Well one of the friends (the one with all the problems) was chosen as one of the testers of the CSW on another forums. He will be posting his review later this week so I won't steal his thunder. I will post a link when he has his up.

 

Did you measure it LesiU?

 

My only issue with saying jump in mid air and feel it is.. unless there is a physical brake that activates when no power is applied. What you experience when the wheel is given a "no resistance" input is it tracking the rotation and having the motors follow the movement so if feels like there is no real world resistance. So that is a fake effect that it pulls off wonderfully but it also means that the motors are responsible for taking that internal belt force away with motor force that should be busy doing other FFB tasks.

I don't deny it happens I just think it is a complex fix for a problem that shouldn't be there.

 

Hey Zeos,

Did you ever tried the t500rs and addon wheel to compare those with the fanatec rig?
I never tried a fanatec wheel but obviously its looking sort of more stylish and make use of better materials. But since every wheel is moddable it would be interesting to know the differences and maybe wich is "better".

Greets Modmate

 

Nope, Sorry modmate but couldn't find anyone willing to lend me their T500 for a direct comparison. Also with the layout of cash for the Fanatec wheel I couldn't "rent" one either. Really all modern wheels would need to be in the same place on the same sim/mod to really figure out what is what.