This wheel is one of two that are being offered by 3DRap from their “Vintage” line. Where they build their own replicas of F1 wheels used in not only the 98T F1 Lotus but also the MP4-4 F1 wheel in the
1988 McLaren car. Both driven by the legendary Aryton Senna. I did some research and found that the 98T wheel did look just like the one used in the real car, as did the MP4 wheel. The 98T I reviewed here is rather small coming in at 260mm in diameter. With the grips diameter measuring in at 100mm. But it is supposed to be the same size as the real one. The grip does feel good to me. Made from polyurethane and a cushy rubber material covered by what 3DRap calls eco leather. This wheel is hand stitched, and is not perfect when it comes to the stitching spacing as you follow the seam around
the wheel. But I could find no defects as far as loose threads and such. This is a rather hefty wheel for its size. Coming in at just over one kilo. Something to consider when buying it. When I asked
the guys at 3DRap about it they told me that a lighter solution is on the way via a new formula for the polyurethane mix that forms the rim. The knitter buttons on the wheel and the paddle shifter add on work well with no dramas. The paddle shifters also did a good job with no missed shifts. They are also rather quite which could be a plus for those who want that. When driving the wheel I started to remember how fast the steering is when using one this small. It also lends itself well to catching over-steer events quickly. I did enjoy this when driving both the 79 lotus and the Ferrari 488. There was good reason the F1 cars of the day were using this small round wheel. Overall I came away with a positive feeling about this wheel. It is minimalistic when it comes to the available button functions, but I guess
Senna didn’t need a lot of buttons to go fast back in the day.
Bappa di boopy
‘Twas the race before Christmas, when all through Vedano Al Lambro not a creature was stirring, not a bappa di or boopy; Except for one Autodromo…
Qualifying was close with Graham, Kevin, and Leif only separated by two tenths. Kevin narrowly getting the pole by a couple hundreds over Graham. The race to turn one was going to be a good one…buy why wait for turn one?
The green flag was out, let the classic Italian GP mayhem start! Ed misjudged the stack up into turn one and sent Bob Kern on a rollercoaster ride down the front straight.
New York Showdown!
Going into the final race of season 25, Vance was only Five points behind Leif for the Championship. Kevin being eighteen points back from the championship hoped they both decided to to skip the race and go to the Corning Museum of Glass instead… but they showed up.
The race was held on iRacing’s week 13 due to Turkey day in the US last Thursday. This meant a lot of new faces showed up to play with the rumblestrippers. This had some nervous being the final race of the season.
Okayama! Where The Wind Comes Whipping Down The Plain!
Ok, real talk here boys. I wasn’t there. I wasn’t feeling well and took a NyQuil induced coma instead of staring at a glowing screen. So now that I am finally reviewing the 4th race I will be attempting to cover it using the results page and the Lap Graph because I haven’t had the time or energy with real life things to be able to focus on watching the actual race.
The results tell me that Jake wasn’t there. Really, he totally didn’t show up for the race. Luckily he has built himself enough of a cushion in the championship that he still has a solid lead heading into the final two races of the season. But enough about Jake, let’s talk about the folks that raced.
Bugatti’s Getting Too Affordable?
Well, they have a solution to stop that problem. Now you can buy a Bugatti more expensive than ever. It’s called La Voiture Noire which is a stupid name that sounds nice because it’s in French.
Read more here, or here, or here, or here, or here, or here, or even here. Doesn’t seem that everyone agrees on the price other than the fact that it is massive. 12.5-19 million are the numbers thrown around. Looks good, but I kinda don’t see the point. Oh well, if I had enough disposable cash to throw at something like this I probably would as it would mean I already owned nearly every interesting car every built and a handful of amazing race tracks.