rec.autos.simulators

  The way I set up my racing wheel on the PC, it takes a few minutes, and I
end up having to move the keyboard out of the way, put it next to my monitor
on the side.  In order to press the keys, it's sort of ackward and a d-pad
would be useful.  Also, having a button on the face of the wheel mapped to
enter and escape would be great.

  I know in Colin McRae 2 you can use the wheel to navigate the menus, but
it's clunky.

Some do, but they aren't quite so useful in alot of racing sims so I guess
the demand just isn't there. Can you assign a button to act as 'shift' to
let you put more controls on your wheel? The Logitech software allows that.

Malc.

Act Labs Force RS has a d-pad dead center on the hub.
This wheel can also be used with some consoles through a cartridge system.

http://www.act-labs.com/Products/forcers.htm

"Three cartridge versions are presently available: DOS/Windows PC, Sony
PlayStation, Dreamcast and Nintendo 64."

  I have a Logitech Momo... I haven't really used the programming software
much.

Not sure I could get all that done and stay on the track, but perhaps if you
assigned in-car functions (clutch, handbrake etc) to the non-shift ones, and
only used the shift functions in the menu it might work okay.

Malc.

Marc