Trying to understand pc racing wheels

Hi, I am trying to understand what makes people choose one wheel over another for their pc's. If you could please tell me what qualities (power, prestige, refined...) you associate with a good racing wheel it would help me out a lot. Thanks, Doug

> Hi, > I am trying to understand what makes people choose one wheel over another > for their pc's. If you could please tell me what qualities (power, prestige, > refined...) you associate with a good racing wheel it would help me out a > lot. This is about the most difficult Q I've tried to answer, but here goes... A simulation is about the suspense of disbelief (or something :-), in other words, it needs to trigger something in your imagination that makes you look past the fact that you are sitting in front of a computer, and the wheel helps you do that much more than a joystick, THAT is a fact, that is, if we are talking about a sim based on cars, flightsims is a different matter I guess :-), yes, I know some people choose to drive with a joystick, maybe combined with a pedal as this gives them more control That means they have a different "level" where they say, this is good enough for me, from here on I take what gives me the best performance, for me that goes with a good solid wheel and pedals, and I use what this gives me to give me the best performance, ie, I left foot brake in every sim, including those where I really ought to use my right foot, like GPL, but that's MY level of reality before I wander of on a tangent to get performance over reality, other's go all the way with a***pit, FF and whatever (I've even seen pictures of a guy strapped into a race seat with 6 point harness, driving suit, helmet and some other stuff, including a heater/blower to simulate the heat inside a stockcar, he claimed he raced like that), each to his own So what you need is to find out what "level" you are at, and get a wheel that fill those needs, for me it's this; It needs to be sturdy and durable, I race a LOT, at most I practiced/raced 3-4 hours a day, and I tend to get a bit e***d at times, so a wheel that feels a lot like the wheel in my roadcar is what I want, a sturdy wheel also give you the added benefit of accuracy, if there's no sloppiness in the shaft assembly, a certain amount of lock on the wheel gives you the same amount of lock on the front wheel every time, not 5 degrees, I used to have a TM Nascar PRO (F1 in Europe), that was a nice enough wheel really, but the shaft assembly was too sloppy after a while and I needed to do something, so when a friend said he was arranging to have some copies of the TSW made up, I asked him to have one made for me as well That wheel construction is incredibly sturdy and will probably never wear out, except the odd pot meter, but even the wear on that goes down when the shaft assembly don't move around, I still haven't replaced the pot in my steering unit after one year of serious use, standard TM replacement pot for the T2 was used here, this is the basic of what I DEMAND from the steering unit, of course, there are a few things I'd like to try that I've heard about, like the fluid dampening on the ECCI units, one of the guys in the online racing team I belong to have one of those, and he really loves it, he had a TSW before and won't go there again after the ECCI, but I'm very happy with the TSW construction that we basically copied, using springs instead of the bungee chord found in cheep wheels Ok, pedals, totally different thing really, since most of us don't sit in a racing seat 2" from the floor, compromises are already in order and the angle of the pedals are very important or you will get really tired, they also need to very accurate, just like the wheel as in the more sophisticated sims like GPL you control the car just as much with the throttle as with your steering wheel, and the brake pedal should really have some progression to it's resistance as it's much easier to modulate the brake pressure rather than just brake pedal position, Nigel Nichol's RRC unit ([link lost in import] is just fantastic this way and is also one of only 2 makers (I think) of top hinged pedals, giving that little extra touch in the realism department So, I've basically chosen a TSW with RRC pedals, although I'm sure that if I could have afforded it, I would have owned an ECCI wheel, still with RRC pedals though :-) So you see, not easy to put that "feel" into words really, and I haven't even ventured into the FF stuff yet, and with my limited experience of FF, I'm not the person to talk about that either, I'm sitting that one out for now... Hope this helps Beers and cheers (uncle) Goy

I built my own custom wheel that was very durable with high quality parts and it works great, however after trying a Force Feedback wheel I will only drive with FF. It gives a lot more realistic feel to driving with the top sim games (GPL,N3). I bought the LWFF because it does not noticeably slow frame rate with USB, has good quick responding FF, and I like the style. I will use my custom pedals though. Lutrell

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>Hi, >I am trying to understand what makes people choose one wheel over another >for their pc's. If you could please tell me what qualities (power, prestige, >refined...) you associate with a good racing wheel it would help me out a >lot. >Thanks, >Doug

Doug, When I decided to purchase a FF wheel, I 1st read every single review and or article I could find. Then I asked in both this newsgroup, & GSB/VROC chat room for their personal opinions on the two wheels I had narrowed my choice down to. Knowing just who was giving you this information was just as important as to what they were saying. The last but equally important issue for me,was being able to purchase the wheel locally. Joel Willstein