Cube Controls GT-X Wheel Review

Final thoughts on the GT-X custom wheel kit from the guys at Cube Controls. This is their flagship custom Sim Racing wheel. My version came maxed out with the 6 paddle option. Right out of the box you can see that Cube Controls put a lot of effort into producing this wheel. I like the suede leather covered grips on their new rim. One of the most ergonomic to me, I have felt in a while. Of course that is subjective so others may not agree. Overall finish on the wheel met my expectations for something at this price point. With obvious attention to detail everywhere I looked. The buttons a lit by LEDs and have a nice crisp click to them when actioned. All the encoders had a consistent feel to them. With minimal shaft movement and solid feeling well spaced detents. The 7 way joystick also has nicely defined detents, but more closely spaced than the larger encoders. One odd thing I noticed was that the 7 way clicked when pushed in 2 directions instead of all four. This did not affect performance but needs to be noted here. I would like to see the button shield around the 7 way lowered as I found it to be a tight fit for my fingers when using it. Those with larger fingers will have some difficulty here. Around the back we find 6 paddles. The shifters felt very good, with nice tactile clicks when actioned. They have a trick looking bearing solution on their pivot points and are contactless HAL effect units. As are the 2 extra levers on top and the clutches. The dual clutch function was easy to set up, and I was able to dial in a good bite point with little effort. The 4.3″ Ultimate Game Tech display is a treat to use. A nice crispy clear panel with a generous amount of available features. The internals of the GT-X are just as well done as everything else on this wheel. With a custom circuit board designed specifically to integrate with the UGT display electronics. The back aluminum cover is a very solid piece of kit with proper reinforcement in all the right places. I also found the fitment
tolerances of the back cover to be very close with a nice tight friction fit with the front panel assembly. Of course the litmus test for any custom wheel is how if performs in game. Here the GT-X comes
together to present the driver with a serious tool for not only obtaining constant lap times, but also situation awareness of a races progress. Which can be a big help in getting a top finish. I found the new wheel rim to be comfortable for longer stints and stiff enough to allow my Direct Drive wheelbase to transmit a detailed stream of Force Feedback queues. Which allowed me to react in good time to save some me during some pretty dodgy situations. Being comfortable with the wheel you have in hand makes the job of turning consistent lap times a much easier task.

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RealGear GTPro3 Xtreme Pedal Set Review

Final thoughts on the RealGear GTPro3 Xtreme pedal set. This pedal set is based on a 600 series Tilton racing pedal set. Which not only looks good in your cockpit, but gives you the feel of a real set of racing pedals under foot. There are enough physical adjustments on this set to allow most people to dial in comfortable feel when in use. Being a hydraulic pedal set, they use what I would consider a good pressure sensor in the SSI Technologies units. The throttle pedal uses a hall sensor setup to detect pedal position. The clutch pedal is set up to work in a pneumatic fashion with its own SSI pressure sensor. The pedals come with a set of stiff bushings for Autofab, installed on the slave cylinder. If you find them to be too stiff for you driving style Ricmotech also sells a brake tuning kit with softer bumpers. Once you have the bumpers you like installed you can still fine tune the brake pedals feel and throw with because of the way they have set up Tilton brake bias bar functionality. The cables coming from the hall sensor and the two pressure sensors are nicely done with aviation style screw on looking collars. The GTPro3 kit also comes with a long list of possible configuration options that can be implemented via their proprietary controller box which contains a custom circuit board with an ECU daughter board. When I was using the switched base interface on the box, I found it to be a bit clunky and inconsistent in its operation. But you can get the optional settings registered by exercising some patience and studying the instruction manual. This interface is the only section of this pedal kit that I was left wanting for a more user friendly and graceful solution. The price point of the GTPro3 sets a very high level of expectation as far as performance and usability is concerned. In my opinion they could have come up with a better way to allow the user to make use of the available tuning options here. Overall I did like using this pedal set. It makes you feel a little closer to driving an actual race car.

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DNLS 2020 Finale Review

CoRe Takes SP10 Championship With A Dramatic SP3T Finale!

The final round of the Digital Nürburgring Langstrecken Series took place last Tuesday in October for its’ ending race around the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife. While CoRe’s GT4 squad Carl Jansson and Sindre Setsaas already secured the SP10 category championship a race before, the TCR team of Marius Golombeck and Kimmo Suominen gave it all to finish ahead SimRC to get a double champ’ victory for CoRe.

Starting from pole position in the SP10 GT4 field, Carl and Sindre did not hesitate to show their solid performance once again in their Cayman and pulled off quickly from the rest of the field. The CoRe TCR machine took off the grid from second position immediately initiating the fight against championship contender SimRC. An exciting chase through the green hell for another breathtaking finale had begun.

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SRM Fantatec APM Carbon Paddle Upgrade Kit

Final thoughts on the Fanatec APM carbon paddle upgrade kit from Sim Racing machines. This kit give you the ability to get some good carbon paddles mounted to your APM units. My kit was the complete kit that has all the paddles for GT and F1 modes of the APM’s. They are a solid 3mm thick with not counter sunk holes. Of course most already know that the original APM paddles that Fanatec shipped were only 2mm thick and had counter sunk screw holes which removed even more material from the already, in my opinion too thin paddle design. I stated this in my review of the
Fanatec APM modules a few months back. Now the newest APM units shipping from Fanatec have 3mm thick paddles. But that doesn’t help people who have the older 2mm paddles. SRM now give us an upgrade path that will give your APM shifters a new found solid tactile feel that you can’t get from the original 2mm paddles. When driving with the new SRM paddles attached. The difference
is immediately noticed. Gone is the soft flexy feel of the original paddles. In its stead is now a much more solid feeling shifter. With also gives the driver better tactile feedback when shifting or actioning the other paddles available on the APM units. Now the analog paddles also feel different from the original aluminum paddles, but they felt very solid. So only the texture of those paddles have changed.
If you have the older version of the APM units from Fanatec, this new 3mm carbon paddle kit from Sim Racing Machines would be on the top of my list of ways to improve the overall feel of the original
Advanced Paddle Modules from Fanatec.

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Scorpion Actuators From PT Actuator Review

Final thoughts on the new Scorpion actuator from the guys at PT Actuator. It’s always good to see a manufacturer making efforts to improve on their products. Especially when it’s easy to see that a
product could be improved upon. But I always considered the Monster actuator from PT Actuator to be a solid, well performing unit. So, what needed improving? Apparently a few things. We now have a larger TBI ball screw unit in the Scorpion. Moving from a 1605 unit found in the Monster, to a beefier 2005 unit. This should give the Scorpion a longer life cycle for this part of the actuators construct.
Along with a new anti-twist solution using a 6 tooth gear and 6 grooves machined into the piston housing unit. This will spread the twisting load on the piston across a larger area. Instead of the single machined grove in the piston shaft used before. Another change here is the new bronze support bushing being used inside the piston to support the end of the screw element in the ball screw unit. Where there was no support before, now we have support for the screws end along the entire stroke of the pistons travel. All these changes come together to create a more robust way to construct their actuators. And is the reason the new Scorpions have increase their weight capacity to 200 kg from the Monsters previous weight capacity of 150 kg. I was also able to convince the guys at PT Actuator to send me a sample actuator so that I could tear it down and do a direct comparison on the differences between the Monster and the Scorpion. This also allowed me to do a build video for those who would like to perform their own maintenance on the new Scorpions. Something I will be doing every two years or so. Overall I am pleased to see PT Actuator was able to improve upon their Monster design without effecting the already great performance I was getting from the Monsters. Now when I’m running the Scorpions I get a good feeling about just how long these units should last.

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Simagic M10 GT1 DD FFB Wheel Kit Review

Final thoughts on the Simagic M10 wheelbase and GT1 Wheel DD FFB kit. This kit does make a good first impression when you take it out of the box. Everywhere you look the finish is nicely done. The M10 wheelbase has a peak torque rating of 10nm. While I personally prefer a bit more power out of Direct Drive wheel, I think for most, especially those moving up from a gear or belt driven
FFB wheelbase it will be plenty. Simagic has implemented some good features here. It has a wireless button plate solution that is the best one I have seen in the SRG to date. With two 2.4ghz transceivers located on the front of the wheelbase case and the other located on the button plate where it is directly facing the wheelbase transceiver. Insuring a strong wireless connection. This a very common sense solution compared to other DD wheelbase manufacturers mounting wireless solutions on the back of their wheelbases. Another notable feature is how the M10 uses an
inductive coupling solution to provide power to the wheels button plate. With this contactless design the user should get a long life cycle from this connection. The rest of the wheelbase has a professional well executed electronics layout. Which continues on to the GT1 wheel and button plate solution. I found this GT1 wheel to be a well build unit with a nice stiff feel to it. The included quick release system had no detectable play. My wheel has the smooth leather grip. I found this to be a bit slippery when I used my gloves. Less so when driving with bare hands, but still I would rather have had one with suede or alcantara. But that is subjective based on the individual racers needs. The button plate layout is good enough to suit most drivers I think. And is has some interesting on wheel tuning options available. The Race Manager tuning software is easy to use, and I was able to sort out a good setup that suited my preferences. I drove this system in a few different cars and scenarios while testing other hardware for reviews. I found it did an overall good job and was able to adapt to these different situations. It has plenty of speed and no noticeable latency. Which is a must to be able to keep your car under control when pushing the limits of grip. Overall, I think Simagic has come up with a professional level DD FFB solution here. Although a stepper motor is not my preferred solution when it comes to driving, This M10 solution is the best overall stepper solution I have tested to date.

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R Racing RS5 Wheel Review

Final thoughts on the RS5 Steering Wheel from R Racing. With a 305mm diameter, the RS5 one of those wheels that can pull double duty. It can cover all the GT and prototype cars as well as open wheel cars. The front wheel plate is made of 4mm carbon fiber. It is a very stiff plate. I could find no defects in the carbon weave. The front plate is populated with 10 APEM push button switches.
With 2 more on the back 3D printed plate. I found easy to reach all of them from the grip position. They have good spring pressure with minimal play. There are also 2 CTS rotory encoders on the bottom middle of the front plate. These are good quality encoders with nice detentes and very little play on the shafts. The RS5 uses a 3D printed knob on the encoders. They feel solid in hand with
no flex detected. I do like the shape of the grips on the RS5. They have a firm feel to them without being too hard. The fabric on this RS5 is a similar to Alcantara. But can be ordered with other material
like suede leather. The material did have some wrinkles in it but did not effect the driving experience. I would like to see R Racing do a better job in applying the grip material. The electronics on this
wheel have very professional look to them. With a well thought out custom circuit board. And an industry proven Leo Bodnar USB conversion board. Just a very tidy solution here. The shifters on the wheel are magnetic units. They are small magnets so very little effort is required to make a shift. I would like to see larger magnets here to increase the shifting effort. The carbon paddles are 4mm thick providing a very solid feel when actioning them. I did find the reach to be just a bit short for my small hands. I Would like to see an extension solution added in the RS5 kit to allow one to adjust the reach. Driving with the RS5 was a pleasure. It has a stiffness that will surprise you considering the back housing is made from 3D printed material. Overall I think this is a good wheel for sim
racing. And I don’t want to forget to mention here that R Racing offers custom options for the grip material and the sticker layout.

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PESC & PESPC Finale Review

Setsaas Secures P13 in PESC 2020 Season | Gibson & Mangan End PESPC Season P6 & P8!

It has been an insanely tough but exciting season for the CoRe SimRacing drivers Carl Jansson, Sindre Setsaas, Thomas Gibson, Oscar Mangan and Samuel Libeert – the iRacing Porsche Esports Super Cup as well as the Sprint Challenge had come to an end. Sprint Challenge duo Gibson and Mangan were able to secure valuable points in the last Monza finale race which made them end up in the Top-10 in the overall standings : a very promising 6th and 8th position. Setsaas showed great performance in the last race, too.

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SRM Fanatec Wheel Emulator Review

I have been waiting for someone to produce a hub that sim racers can attach to their Fanatec wheelbases and use any custom wheel we want to. Without the bulk and expense of Fanatecs own offerings. The thickness of the SRM hub is about half of Fanatecs Podium hub. This unit has a nice professional finish on the CNC machined aluminum bits. It has a 70mm or 50.8mm bolt pattern
so you won’t have any issues mounting your wheel, or quick release system of your choice. The circuit board that SRM has designed is compact, yet has some features that I did not expect to find. There are pins on the PCB that will allow you to connect buttons directly to the PCB. Good for those who want to make their own button plate. Or use SRM’s own button plate to build a custom wheel.
My unit came with a Fanatec 13 pin plug interface already mounted to the adapter. Which plugs into the PCB. But you can get just the hub assembly and use your own parts taken from a Fanatec wheel. I used the quick release from my F1 2020 wheel to complete the assembly. All mounting hardware is included with the kit you order. Once I had everything bolted together it was easy to get the
emulator up and running. I have to say that it was nice to use my Turn Racing R20 with my Podium wheelbase. I was never motivated to attach it to the Podium Hub as it added more reach than when using my usual driving solution. Overall I think Simon has done a great job with this emulator. It does exactly what you want it to without adding a bunch of things that you don’t need. And it comes in at
a reasonable price I think.

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iRacing Development Update – Dirt, Le Mans, VR and more

iRacing Development Update – Dirt, Le Mans, VR and more

June 28th, 2016 by
Steve Myers 45 Comments

We Are Building Dragons

I have spent a LOT of time in the car and on planes lately traveling to meetings and events for some very exciting developments for iRacing.  I can’t really get into the specifics yet on what these trips are for but during these long drives and flights I have had a lot time to reflect on iRacing.  Some thoughts that popped into my head on my travels….

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