Racing Wheel Recommendations

AMDPower · 6 Jun 2011 at 07:46

Hi all

I wanted to get advice on buying a racing wheel for pc mainly ( and if it work for ps3 great but not requirement) I have personally narrowed it down to G27 and have a limit of £250-£300. Would be willing to spend a little more if this will get me something much much better but otherwise would prefer to stay in budget.

I have quick question,

Does the clutch and gearbox work like on a normal manual car? Ie do you have to find the bitting point on the clutch before shifting gears, do you get this feedback through a vibration in the clutch or is it a simple down and up to change gear?

is there any good racing games and driving simulations I should look out for(both in the fun and realism category)?

thanks all

barmyllama · 6 Jun 2011 at 07:53

G27 is the best you can get without jumping to the next level of wheels were you spend silly money. It works perfectly with a PS3 and Logitech's customer service is excellent.

Best games to play with it. For sims, then iRacing, Race 07 and its expansions. Arcade style games, then that's Dirt 2 and 3. Gran Turismo 5 on PS3 is very good if you can stick the loading times, crap AI and jagged edges.

anuraj · 6 Jun 2011 at 07:58

G27 is the best you will get for the price I think they should work like a normal cars clutch and gearbox if you set it in game.

andyuk1 · 6 Jun 2011 at 08:07

i got a g27 about 2 months ago.Just make sure u have the room for it.I made the mistake because the rest of the family use my pc so i have to keep taking it off.I have only used it 4 times and would say its the best wheel i have used.But for me it was a waste of money.Thinking of selling it soon.

JoeFX · 6 Jun 2011 at 09:23

Most will advise on a G27 (got one myself), but you should check-out Fanatec as well, especailly for the ClubSport pedals which are way better (you can also buy them seperately and run them with a G25/G27 wheel if you want)...

www.fanatec.de

Pitty OCUK don't stock the Fanatec gear.

Daniel C · 6 Jun 2011 at 10:17

AMDPower said:
Does the clutch and gearbox work like on a normal manual car? Ie do you have to find the bitting point on the clutch before shifting gears, do you get this feedback through a vibration in the clutch or is it a simple down and up to change gear?

No there is no biting point. Its on or off. Also the pedals do not vibrate on the G27. Its an awesome wheel for the money though.

Sims I would get would be GTR2, Race 07 + addons, rFactor, Richard Burns Rally and you could try a month at iRacing.

SE-Lain · 6 Jun 2011 at 12:07

A few reviews actually found that the G25 was better than the G27 in a few respects so it might be worthwhile seeing if you can find a second hand one.

SKILL · 6 Jun 2011 at 12:49

AMDPower said:
Hi all

I wanted to get advice on buying a racing wheel for pc mainly ( and if it work for ps3 great but not requirement) I have personally narrowed it down to G27 and have a limit of £250-£300. Would be willing to spend a little more if this will get me something much much better but otherwise would prefer to stay in budget.

I have quick question,

Does the clutch and gearbox work like on a normal manual car? Ie do you have to find the bitting point on the clutch before shifting gears, do you get this feedback through a vibration in the clutch or is it a simple down and up to change gear?

is there any good racing games and driving simulations I should look out for(both in the fun and realism category)?

thanks all

The G27 is a great wheel, dunno if it would be worth going for a lower-end wheel to start with as it appears you don't have any games yet, I'm just worried about recommending a G27 only for the guy to find out he doesn't get much use out of it and he would've been better off with a cheaper wheel...

Gearbox is a H-Shift I believe on the G27 (the G25 I've got was a switch-able H-Shift and Sequential, personally I'm lazy and just use the paddles though

), clutch is there but as mentioned although it's an axis so you can in theory find the biting point but there's no feedback so it's not exactly easy, tried a few times when launching cars in iRacing but generally don't bother

As said on the sim side the current 'king', albeit pricey, is iRacing, but there is also Live For Speed (LFS), rFactor (rFactor 2 is 'coming soon'), Race '07 and a variety of other GTR-based games etc.

Arcade side: F1 2010 (actually works quite well with the wheel), NFS Shift/Shift 2, Dirt 2/3 etc etc

JoeFX said:
Most will advise on a G27 (got one myself), but you should check-out Fanatec as well, especailly for the ClubSport pedals which are way better (you can also buy them seperately and run them with a G25/G27 wheel if you want)...

www.fanatec.de

Pitty OCUK don't stock the Fanatec gear.

Just to show the other side of the story, there appear to be a fairly large number of complaints about the customer support and potentially quality of the Fanatec products, I've never used them so I don't know but from an outside point of view it appears that if a Fanatec product works then it's great, if it doesn't then you're in for 'fun' time getting it replaced/refunded etc, they also have a habit of 'loose' delivery dates after ordering (eg take your money and you'll get the product 'soon')

But as said, no personal experience, just from what I've seen on forums, note that on the other hand Logitech customer support is generally exemplary (again, no personal experience as after 3 years heavy use my G25 is still alive and kicking)

bramski · 6 Jun 2011 at 23:32

The drivig force GT also got a good review over at SRT so that might be worth a look if you're on a budget or are unsure if you will use it much.

johny dolan · 7 Jun 2011 at 04:28

Hutch-Sco · 7 Jun 2011 at 14:29

Daniel C said:
No there is no biting point. Its on or off. Also the pedals do not vibrate on the G27. Its an awesome wheel for the money though.

Sims I would get would be GTR2, Race 07 + addons, rFactor, Richard Burns Rally and you could try a month at iRacing.

Of course there is a biting point, in most of the sims you mention it works, its not an on off switch.

AMDPower · 8 Jun 2011 at 20:57

Thank everyone for all the help and input.

Don't have any games yet, so i will be ordering two games to start with. I will get a g27 as i don't want to spend on anything more extravagant right now anyway.

Only problem i have is that the desk i will attach it to is also my study desk and removing the g27 and installing it everyday is going to be a pain in the backside.

will update the thread with my impression of the racing wheel when it arrives.

thanks

anuraj · 8 Jun 2011 at 21:12

Good luck.

Hutch-Sco · 9 Jun 2011 at 09:48

You usualy get a copy of rfactor with your G27.

Its not just a case of plug and play with them you will need to set it up to suit the games your are playing.

disco Stu · 9 Jun 2011 at 22:16

My mates got the 911 Fanatec wheel which is very smooth, but the standard pedals are pants(he had two faulty sets). Ended up getting a set for clubsports for £99 because of his problems, they are awesome.