OT: Wheel Upgrade: What Should I Get? (Also a Brief History of My Sim Racing)

Well, my G25 is starting to enter its geriatric phase. 5 Years of hard driving, ranging from NASCAR Sim Racing, rFactor, iRacing, RBR, GT5, and a multitude of other sims have taken its toll on my dear wheel.

I started racing in January of 2007, with a Logitech NASCAR wheel, and then I got a black MOMO 2 months later. 6 months later, I bought a PS3, with a couple racing games. I realized the MOMO wasn't really compatible with the PS3, so I got the DFGT for the PS3. Then, for some inexplicable reason, both sets of the pedals died out. Fortunately, I bought the warranty plan with Best Buy. I went to Customer Support, and I asked them if I could pool the two wheels' values together towards the G25, and they were okay with it. I got the G25 back in October of 2008, where the main two simulators I drove were NASCAR Sim Racing and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. I used to have it mounted to a white desk for PC racing, and one of the cheapo folding tray tables for PS3 gaming. The big downside of the tray table? It was horribly imbalanced weight wise, and one nudge (which sometimes my sister gave her fair share of) would send it falling over. The table falling over actually caused some cosmetic damage to the wheel, but fortunately the internals seemed okay.

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For Black Friday of 2011, my mother helped me get my first major upgrade in 3 years, a Fanatec Rennsport Stand, and Clubsport Pedals V1. That completely changed the experience for me, and I felt more in control.

Spring of this year, I built my first computer from scratch, after selling my Go-Kart I essentially got "conned" into buying, and I just also decided that soon, I would need to upgrade my setup again, because my wheel was starting to act up.

Last month, I decided that before I would upgrade my wheel, I would need to move up from a wheel stand. I was intrigued by the "Deathmobile" that InsideSimRacing made, so I designed my own version of it. I invested about $100 into building a rig, and I'm quite pleased with the results!



My wheel however is I feel barely hanging on now. I had a dead left wheel button (that was repaired by one of my friends), the shifter was having issues (which I was able to fix myself), but the calibration is starting to go ("Dead Center" is now being perceived as about 10 degrees to the right). iRacing and rF2 have calibration utilities that allow the simulator to compensate, but I think that will only last for so long.

With Black Friday being a little over a month away, I've decided to explore my options to upgrade. For an early Christmas gift, my mother said she will help match me dollar for dollar that I raise (so far I've raised $200). What I'm torn between is the T500RS and the Clubsport Wheel. I've heard mixed things about both. The thing is, I really like the CSW rims much more than the T500 rims, and since I already have CSP, that cuts about $200 off the total cost for Fanatec. I have had good customer service from Fanatec, on some issues with the pedals that I inflicted, so I feel like if an issue comes up, I feel like Fanatec will be responsive.

However, the T500RS is the wheel I've truly tested. However, I was left a little wanting. Wasn't really a fan of the static shifters, couldn't really get the hang of them, and I just felt like the wheel was a little "gamey" in the feel and look of it. The guy who let me test it also said his fan runs for a half hour after doing a race and is quite loud. Honestly the thing I liked most that he has wasn't the T500, but the Sparco wheel he used to use with his FREX (which was having some issues, and that's why he is using a T500 now). That thing wheel felt really nice, had a good feel to it, and it had a nice heft to it, like what I imagine the BMW wheel would have.


I am just wondering what you guys are using, and your experiences with the wheels, and what you would recommend. Thank you for your time

 

you should definetly go with the clubsport if you have the money.
I race cars myself and can tell you there comes nothing as close as the clubsport in that price range

 

Really? I found there was nothing to get used to regarding the static paddles, they are so big that whenever I flicked the paddle as if I had moveable paddles I always contacted the static ones anyways essentially making no difference. Plus it's also how road cars and rally drivers have the paddles setup (static so that no matter how much the wheel has spun the paddles are always there where you know they are). However to each his own, but id still get the T500 RS.

I've never used the Clibsport but I've heard people say it feels more vague than the t500, I also heard reports of it feeling slow compared to the t500. Now slow can mean different things, top speed, acceleration, torque/power, direction change, etc so I don't know exactly what they meant. Also heard reports that using the BMW GT rim makes the problem even worse due to it's high weight.

None of this is first hand experience, as some people say it's a dream to drive and people always comment on it's super smoothness.

I also heard it needs to recalibrate when you switch wheels with the quick disconnect due to the different wheel weights (recalibrate being when the wheel turns all the way left than right), if this is true then it deems the quick disconnect almost pointless in my opinion because you would have to quit the sim and re-launch it once the hardware does any sort of reset (try disconnecting/reconnecting your wheel in-game, the ffb won't work properly until u re-launch the game).

These are issues I've heard of, however I dont know for sure how accurate they are, but I would atleast research them first.

 

Had the same decision to make, and I went for the T500RS. Very happy about it, so I got myself the F1 addon and a TH8RS shifter
Man, that shifter is absolutely amazing! Pure pleasure.

 

CSW if you have the $$$$$$$

 

Newegg currently has T500 in stock.

 

agree I also have the V2s & a DSD GT shifter just love it with rF2 it really comes alive

 

T500RS is very good for it's price and yes it looks toy like and not very smart designed but it feels good. I'm using a open base without a box and fan atm. The fan was a toy and died very young.

 

I've owned a G27, Fanatec 911 Turbo S, CSR Elite, and now CSW with GT2 rim...

Honnestly, the CSR-E had the best "sensations". More power than necessary, no dead zone at all, and a fidelity that the CSW can't match (the GT2 wheel is crazy heavy)
I do prefer my CSW for the solidness and feel of the materials, however switching back to the elite always puts a smile on my face...
i'd say get the Elite, and some shimano bicycle grip tape to wrap the wheel.
My opinion...

 

T500 RS all the way. Best FFB, Thrustmaster is known to have great tech support and you get used to the static paddles after a week or so. I love them now and won't go back (major reason I won't go to the Ferrari F458 rim).

Support is something you should consider in your purchase. Fanatec has a very reputation for customer support (I had a very bad experience myself with a bad set of pedals they would not replace after 6 tech support issues). I have had to contact TM for 3 issues and they have gotten back to me promptly and taken care of the issues with minimal delay and no BS. My paddles were double shfting so they replaced them. I had the fan bug and they replaced the fan. I also had a prob with a HEART sensor and they replaced that too.

 

I can't speak for the driving experience of the Fanatec wheel range since i never owned one but i faced the same decision as the OP, going from G25 to another wheel and opted for the T500, which at the time cost 1/2 the price of the CSW. The Thrustmaster has been reliable, was a big step up from the G25 in terms of feel and driving precision and i have the pleasure of owning all 3 rims for it which is great for driving different types of car. The TH8 RS shifter is rock solid and a great addition to the set.

From what i have read the Fanatec wheel pips the T500 in overall dynamic feel and looks but they also experience a higher rate of failure and customer support is not as good as Thrustmaster, although neither are perfect! If i were in the position to buy again, upgrading from the G25 i know i would go T500 again, mainly because of the difference in price between the wheels exceeding the difference in driving experience. I think the T500 is the happy medium between cost and performance - there are better around but are you willing to pay the cost and deal with the fickle nature of the product?

 

Actually, you can unplug your wheel ingame now and plug it back in, works just fine now, really nice feature

 

i have a csr-e. I bought a year old second hand one off ebay and the motor wore out after 4-5 months. Even though it was second hand, it was covered under warranty without issue and they sent me replacement motors. Then the sensor failed on it and they sent me a replacement for that too. These replacement were received about 1-2 days after requesting them.

The issue biggest issue i find with the csr-e is no consistency in the drivers for a game. I've tried many of the previous drivers and found each one has quite different characteristics. I found the older 737 firmware (over a year old) to have the best ffb strength and detail for rf2 and although not a big problem for someone like me who doesn't mind tinkering it is still a pain in the arse that you must manually find the firmware that feels subjectively best to you instead of being given something that is objectively most accurate right out of the box. Perhaps i'm asking too much...perhaps choice is better than possibly being stuck with a feeling that is in fact sub-optimal out of the box.

 

Tried that a few builds back whilst in a race on the long straight at silverstone to fix the ffb loss (wasn't amendable by ffb reset in-game)....word of advice, just finish the race without ffb if this happens to you unless you like suddenly and violently steering towards the barriers.

 

I too was a bit skeptical of Fanatec considering the price and no real U.S outlets at the time of my purchase.
It didn't help matters when inside my Clubsport pedal box I found the return invoice from a previous purchaser. Needless to say I was a bit miffed.
I contacted them by e-mail and it did take a bit of time for them to get back to me.
After about six e-mails back and forth, I finally got hold of a guy and requested they either extend the warranty or sent me a new load cell.
They ended up sending me a new load cell, a tuning kit and a color kit for the inconvenience.
My only complaint was the time it took to get to the right guy. Hopefully that's fixed now.

 

What happened to the CSR Elite? I just went to the Fanatec website and they don't list it as a choice. Is the club sport wheelbase the same as an Elite?

 

The CSR Elite has some minor differences from the CSW:

-The CSRE uses a 2 ribbed belt for it's belt drive system, while the CSW uses a 3 ribbed belt
-The CSRE has Xbox 360 compatibility while the CSW only has PC and PS2
-The CSRE uses a wheel swapping system similar to the T500RS, while the CSW uses a quick release
-The CSRE arguably has worse quality rims (the Formula Rim [which is the same price as the CSW counterpart] has faux leather grip as opposed to the CSW's Alcantara), however the "GT Rim" on the CSRE is lighter than the BMW GT2 wheel
-The CSRE apparently will have no more rims made for it, while the CSW apparently has more rims in development.
-The CSW has some advanced features over the CSRE, such as a 7-way rotary encoder, and a joystick (the CSRE Formula rim has 2 joysticks though)
-The CSW has some "advanced tuning options" that their other rims do not have
-The CSW allows two shifters to be run at the same time

I think to sum it up, Fanatec's intention on the CSW is to attempt to "futureproof" their product, while the CSRE is already beginning to enter a phase of forced obsolescence, by Fanatec (no more rims for the wheel) and by Microsoft (Xbox 360 wheels not being supported for the XBOne)

I really think I'm going to go the T500RS approach, because I feel that may be actually more future proof than the CSW, with the expanding modding community behind it. I'm tempted by the G27 with it being about half the price of the T500RS, but how viable are the gear driven wheels now?

 

Very interesting, I wonder what the difference between the 3 ribbed belt and 2 ribbed is.

Has anyone compared the weight of the formula wheels to eachother?

 

Hi William, I am not sure I understand that logic. Is this base on the t500 being out on the shelf for a long time? The CSR elite wasn't going to have a shelf life past next gen consoles if that is part of the appeal.

I have a fanatec gt3rs v2 and have done for a few years now, replaced the PCB twice with no trouble at very low cost (shifter buttons aren't that strong, just micro switches) but had help from fanatec every time.

I wouldn't touch a Logitech with a barge pole maybe a t500 if I was disappointed with my fanatec, but I am not. So will be getting a CSW / one of the new shifters

Fairly certain there are plenty of modders behind fanatec as well? Just my two cents.


Sent from my GT-P3110 using Tapatalk

 

I've had csw since it came out and race league races most weds with a lot of practise inbetween and I had never had a problem, the pedals usually need a little tlc every now and again.
When I was looking I was also considering t500 but for me it seems to much plastic and need for the other wheel to get rid of static shifters even then I believe the Ferrari rim for t500 is 2 molds of plastic screwed together and overall huge size of the t500 base put me off for fitting to my rig.
If you want a solid wheel your never going to have issue with and possible wheel upgrades in future id say get csw with formula rim and never look back.
It feels really good in other sims to but with rf2 feels great.