> I will someday buy a personal set for my driving (I currently personally own
> a TM Nascar Pro and still Love it), but I can tell you now it won't be a
> Thomas Enterprises. And that is based on fact and past experience and not
> opinion.
shop with various faults. The time before last I got a Digital Edge F1 Sim
because I was fed up with the thing going wrong all the time, but the DEF1 gave
such a horrible drive that I went back to the Thrustmaster. I still own a
Thrustmaster GP1 as well which is on loan to a friend and because I earnt such a
huge loyality bonus from my EB purchases, I cashed that in for a Thrustmaster
TM2 so that I could have three way races on my LAN. My brother in law has a DEF1
sim compact, my son has a Mad Catz Playstation wheel and my godson has an
Interact V3. Before they were bought out Byte has a vast range of steering wheel
on demo and I tried them all out. PC World had Microsoft's FF wheel (I forget
it's name) on demo the other day and I tried that one out as well. At various
other times I have tried other wheels and, in terms of mass production wheels, I
am a bit of an expert. I think of major wheel makes the only ones I haven't
tried are the ActLabs products, the ECCI products and the Hyperstimulator.
Last summer, I got tired of these wheels breaking down all the time and splashed
out on a TSW Sport - not the cheapest Thomas wheel, but not the most expensive
either. Now I can't stand using any of the other wheels - they are so light and
the springs or cogs so imprecise or weak. The TSW Sport has study thick metal
springs on both the wheel and pedal units and a the wheel has a very clean turn
on its shaft. The pedal unit is heavy and can be simply rested on the floor
without needing to be chocked against anything. The pedal action is smooth and
precise and you can brake or accelerate just exactly as much as you want. The
shifting paddles are sprung to exactly the right amount and are positioned in
just the right place. The comfort feel is excellent and you can ignore the wheel
as you attempt to negotiate the GPL beasts around those infernal corners. The
wheel had obviously been extensively tested on the virtual racetrack. This is
not so with any other wheel I have tried, where the wheels flaws have to be paid
attention to constantly, detracting from your lap times. The wheel does have a
handmade look and construction, but that gives it extra charm in my book. The
wheel is easy to maintain and alter - this is very important - if you drive sims
often you WILL need to maintain the wheel - any wheel - and the TSW Sport is
easy to look after. Alteration are a doodle - independant brakes/throttle for
example. The wheel is also very tough and the parts slung on a very study welded
iron frame. It just doesn't break. On the down side the TSW Sport is expensive
and I had to change the pots to 50K and get a highspeed game port to get rid of
the bounce on the pots - when you split the brake/accelerator this goes anyway.
Overall, if you are going to get a wheel pedal, you will not be disappointed
with this. Shame is that you have excluded yourself from this choice - I
wouldn't take such an attitude if I were you.
Thomas Enterprises are a small family company and I can imagine how much effort
they have to put in to keep the thing going. When your excellant product, of
which you are rightly proud, get slated, especially in a forum like this and
especially by someone who has never owned your wheel, I can imagine that you
will get very offended. I think Trevor has every right to express affrontery.
The ECCI and the Hyperstimulator both look like excellant driving systems as
well - because of the price I expect that few people own any two of these three
driving systems, so for most of us comparison as not available. If I were to buy
another wheel, it would be the ECCI model, just because I'd like to compare the
Rolls Royce of wheels with the Mercedes. Dedicated sim racers should be grateful
that these companies exist. It is a niche market and we are lucky that there are
as many as three players in it. Which of these wheels is in fact the best is
probably not something absolute anyway, but a matter of preference.
My only beef with Thomas Enterprises is that when I sent them Colin McRae Rally,
they acknowledged receipt but omitted to thank me - I expect this was an
oversight on their part.
Cheers,
Paul