Final thoughts on the Pro Pedal GT from the guys at Simtrecs. From the moment you open the box, you know there has been a lot of thought by the designer as to what he wanted his pedal set to convey to the customer. Custom modeled foam inserts that neatly layout the components for the pedals and the pedals themselves. Once the pedals are out you are greeted by careful attention to detail everywhere you look. It is evident that each pedal was designed for its intended purpose alone. With the only common part among them being the angle adjustment brackets mounted to the sides of the pedals. There are common elements to the pedals as far function goes. Like the hydraulic dampers. But still selected on a per pedal basis that best met its needs. This is one of the few pedal sets you can buy today that have the electronics encased in metal to mitigate EMI/RFI interference. You know, there are just way too many details for me to list here in the final thoughts segment as to the intricacies of each pedal. And the reason this review is so long. There are plenty of adjustments available here to get the pedals to a desirable setting. Including a good selection of brake tuning bumpers. Of course there is Simtrecs in house Smart Drive tuning software that will allow you to adjust the pedals’ behavior to your individual needs. I mounted the pedals to the optional but very solid feeling baseplate. That is available in 2 different widths. Of course all this is moot if they don’t perform under some stress testing. I used some aggressive heel and toe shifting to put as much pressure as I could on the Pro Pedal GT’s. At first, I tested on a pedal tray that had some flex in it because I was testing the GT Omega Prime cockpit at the time. But to let these pedals show what they can really do. I installed a proper solid pedal tray from Sim Lab. It was then that I could see what they are truly capable of. They took hours of my heel and toe shifting without showing any signs of stress. As I was testing other Sim Racing hardware along with them. I was looking for something to really complain about or not like here. But I just couldn’t find anything. They just
do a great job and feel very good under foot. As I was able to tune each pedal to meet my personal preference. As for the question of long term durability, I really can’t comment. But based on the build quality this set brings to the table, I would not be too worried about it. If you are in the market for a great performing and looking high end set of Sim Racing pedals, the Simtrecs Pro Pedal GT along with its optional baseplate, would be a great option for your consideration.
SRP GT Edition Pedals Review
Final thoughts on the SRP GT Edition Pedal set from the guys at Sim Racing Pro. The first impression I got when removing this set from the box was just how clean the layout looked. Even with all the cables connected. The pedals are mounted to a solid 10mm thick baseplate that provides a nice stiff feel when using the pedals. The front pedal faces have a durable finish to them that showed no signs of wear after a few hours of some very spirited heel and toe driving. The pedal faces have a good adjustment range on the lever faces. The pedals can be moved sideways. But only to a predrilled and tapped position. It would also be easy to remove the clutch pedal and position the brake pedal in its place. The overall build quality is very good. There is high quality heavy-duty hardware and fasteners throughout this assembly. Including thick steel pins and bronze bushings
in front pivot points. The GT Edition pedals use stainless steel sleeved pneumatic cylinders to provide resistance and damping effects. There are also plenty of adjustments available on this set to allow the user to dial in
their preferred pedal feel. Sim Racing Pro uses a circuit board of their own design which has a very neat layout. There is a nice LED light feature on this board that will be useful to find a problem should one arise. I used my usual heel and toe driving technique to give the pedals a good workout. If a pedal set has any short term weaknesses this will usually make them noticeable. But I found no issues here as I hammered away on them. I was able to find a suitable setting on the brake pedal to allow me to go deep into the brake zones consistently. And trail brake the way I normally do. The throttle has enough throw to permit smooth modulation on tricky corner exit points. The clutch does have an interesting magnetic solution employed that give you a sense of pushing on the clutch pressure plate spring. Although, at speed the sensation was not noticeable. As usually happens when you are using the heel and toe technique. Overall I could not find anything in this SRP GT Edition set that would keep me from recommending them as a pedal set that deserves a look if you are looking for one. A solid set of pedals with a very clean look to them.
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.
Motion House 4UN Motion System Review
Here we have a kit that is what I would consider to be a turn key setup. With the only caveat being that you will have to supply your own step up transfromer if you live in North America. All you have to do is mount the actuators to your cockpit, connect the cables to the controller box, load the tuning software, and you are up and running. It’s nice to see more of these type of motion
kits becoming available to the Sim Racing community. It is a well built system. With lot’s of attention to detail. The Actuators stroke is 150mm and they can cover that distance in one second. They have an individual capacity of almost 400 pounds or 180 kilograms. Which is plenty for most applications I think. The actuators feet have lash in them to prevent off angle binding. They
also have a spring in them to dampen the motion. The stock landings included are of the non-captive type. With thick rubber pads in them. This will give very good damping that will keep you from disturbing people who live beneath you. They also have an optional captive landing that is much more solid feeling. Of course these will transmit motion vibrations directly to the floor and not optimal for apartment of condo life. The mounting brackets are nicely made and provide plenty of clamping area when you are mounting them. The controller box has a nice finish to it
and a well sorted plug interface arrangment. Inside we find a well laid out system that uses four servo drives. The supporting circuitry look to be of a professional design. With nice featurs like
the use of ferite cores in the power circuits to medigate EMI/RFI interferance. The tuning software is intuitive and very easy to use. I was able to find a setup that complemented my driving stye without much drama. The motion is quick and I could not detect any latency when driving circuit cars. When I was putting this motion system through my favorite torture test using the iRacing
Lucas oil dirt trucks, it responded well. I was able to get the full 150mm of travel out of the actuators. Once I had a proper tune sorted it responded quite well to this hard treatment. With just a
hint of latency detected when landing the large jumps. Certainly a lot of fun to drive these trucks with this much travel on hand. Overall I think that the guys at Motion House have done a great job developing this 4UN kit. At 5800 dollars plus shipping, you will get a turn key 4 actuator motion system with 150mm or around 6 inches or of travel that I think anyone would be happy to own.
SG Racing Sequential Shifter Review
The first time you lay hands on this shifter you can tell it was built to last. It is
constructed from solid aluminum plates. The side plates are 8 millimeters thick. With the spreader plates on each end coming in at 10 millimeters thick. The shifting lever is a confidence inspiring 15 millimeters thick and 25 milometers wide. Topped of with a solid aluminum knob that has nicely done high grip knurling cut into it. SG Racing includes an aluminum mounting bracket that is over
6 millimeters thick.This all comes together to give the driver a very solid feeling shift. Once I had one of the side plates removed you can see that guys at SG racing wanted the internals to last a long time too. The large shifting level rotates on a nice looking bronze bushing. The stiff steel springs that provide shifting tension, are riding on an 8 millimeter diameter steel rod. The stops are made
from smooth shanked carriage bolts. Which bump into some socket head cap bolts that are screwed into the shifting lever. This provides a very stiff stop and good tactile feedback when making shifts. All this is bolted to the 10 milimeter thick end plates. I like they way this lets the driver smack the shifter back and forth with minimal concerns of causing any damage when driving hard. And when you can drive a Sim Racing shifter hard, it is a great addition to the overall immersion. For the electronics this shifter uses switches that have rollers on their levers. Another feature that should add to overall
functional durability. The USB conversion duties are preformed by a Pro Micro ATMega32U4 development circuit board. A very commonly used and proven board for this type of application. Of course when you have all these parts bolted together, mounted securely and stiffly to your rig, you will get a great feeling sequential shifter. I found the spring tension be appropriate for this application. It gave me a sense of actually making a shift with used. After banging on this shifter for a few hours. I could not detect any loss in feel or performance. When using the SG sequential shifter I could not find any
bad habits. It just got the job done with no dramas. This shifter sells for 170 euros or around 200 dollars plus shipping at the time of this review. Once I was able to spend some quality time with, I personally think that you do get what you pay for here, and maybe just a bit more.
CoRe’s Digital Racing eSM 2020 Review
CoRe Drivers M.Sipilä & A.Terho With Top-10 Result!
The best 20 finnish simracing drivers on the iRacing service came together once again to battle it out at the FISRA Digital Racing eSM LAN Finals event. Two of CoRe’s current drivers, Matti Sipilä and Antti Terho were joining this event to represent their simracing experience in CoRe SimRacing colours and secured a solid Top-10 result by finishing 5th and 10th overall.
The event, which was held at Jyväskylä and provided a nice venture for the LAN finals, was separated in two races which were held at Bathurst for the semi-final round and at Road America as the final race. With very promising performance and racecraft both CoRe SimRacing drivers were able to finish in the Top-10. “Thanks for the event! Ultimately a 4th place was the best I could have gotten but I am super happy with my 5th. I hoped to be a bit better though!” – said Matti after the event. Pictures & content from Daniel Garcia’s Flickr and SEUL.
Sim Lab SF1 Seat Review
This is a seat that is aimed at a person who wants to achieve a proper F1 seating position in their cockpit. At the same time it is able to be configured for a more traditional GT driving position. This seat is a bucket styled
unit. I found the shell to be of very good build quality and just as stiff as my Sparco seat. At 43 centimetres wide it is a large seat. It should be able to accommodate a good range of body types. If you are looking for a seat that fits you tightly, then the SF1 is not your seat. Unless your body is large enough to fill it completely. The sides of the seat are not high enough, or steep enough to provide that type of fit. The materials used on the seat are very good with breathing holes that allow for good air flow. This will keep you cooler on longer stints. All the stitching and embroidery are very well done. With no defects that I could find. When I was using the seat, I could not find much to complain about other than I personally like a tight fitting seat and this one is way to wide to achieve this with my body type. There are details in this seat that you don’t find in cheaper seats. Like the diamond stitched cloth liner that is hiding under the main padding panel. It’s details like this that tend to justify the price tag of this seat. And the seat brackets that I received with this seat are not included. They are available for purchase from Sim Lab. Or you can just use your own brackets. As the SF1 bolt pattern is the industry standard size of 290mm ctr to ctr. At around 560 dollars plus shipping, this is not an inexpensive seat.
But, If you are looking for the feature set that the SF1 brings to the table, It just might be what you are looking for.
Wave Italy Imola GT Style Conversion
It has been a long time since I’ve had a pedal set in a GT configuration. The time was back in 2015 when I did my review on the MPPC GT pedals. And I had forgotten how it feels to be with a set in that configuration. Now with this Imola setup from Wave Italy
I’m back. As some of you may know my current personal go to pedal set is the Italy Impetus you see here. I have been running them for over two years now in the original, Wave Italy calls the “Monza” setup. Which is the only way you could get them at that time. Now they have the Imola option if you buy the Impetus set. I does cost a bit more, but easy to see why with all the brackets that are required. All metal parts in this kit are nicely in a smooth black matt finish. They went together will no drama, and all the fasteners were present. You notice that pedals are close to the bracket sides. I measured the width of the space and it was 345mm, or 13 5/8inches. If you have large feet this may be an issue you. I have a 9 1/2 foot size and was able to navigate the pedal faces with an occasional brush the right side bracket. This with regular sized shoes on. Once I put my driving shoes on I had no issues at all with manipulating pedals cleanly within this space.I forgot how much I liked the GT pedal position. But I think most would like it as it is the setup we drive most cars and trucks with these days. And even more familiar if your car has a stick shift. There certainly is a different feel when pedals mounted in the GT position .vs the standard floor mount position most Sim Racing pedals have these days. I will be keeping my pedals in this configuration. Just feels a bit more natural to me. Of course pedal feel is a very subjective thing and I’m sure there are others who would disagree.
New Clixbeetle-GT Thrustmaster TH8A MOD
I did a review on the original Clixbeetle Pro a while ago. It was an overall favorable review as the pro did what it was to do. Now we have the GT version. It’s easy to see the improvements that have made over the Pro. We now have stainless
steel plates embedded in this PLA+ 3D printed unit. This offers an assembly that the ball bearing seats against while at the same time should be a more durable solution. The new GT is also brings a tension adjustment feature to the table that the Pro does not have. You do have to be careful when adjusting the tension as each of the four set screws must be turned the exact same amount. Not that difficult if you take you time and only turn the screws and eight of a turn each time.
When driving the Clixbeetle GT it reminded me of the Pro I had tested before. It brings a very noticeable improvement to the tactile feedback available from the stock TH8A. And this translates to faster muscle memory training and less
missed shifts. The GT does have a very similar feel to the Pro once you are up to speed and using the shifter in anger. Adding a tactile feedback element that to me exceeds what the stock TH8A has to offer. If I were to pick between the the Pro and the GT I would go with the GT. I think the extra features it brings to the table are worth the price difference over the Pro.
ALL4SIM Meca Pedals Review
Final thoughts on the MECA Cup 1Sim racing pedals made in the Czech Republic by the guys at All4Sim. Here we have an all stainless steel constructed pedal set that out of the box feels like a premium kit. In hand they give the impression that there will be no flex felt when you have them under foot. The MECA Cup1’s each have their own load cell. With the Brake pedal load
cell maxing out at 100kg. Which should be enough pedal force for most sim racers out there I think. The Analog to Digital conversion duties are handled by the industry proven Leo Bodnar
load cell amplifier board. There are nice touches to be found all around the pedals construction. Rod ends and bronze bushings at the pivot points and laser cut 1.4301 stainless plate are all top shelf assemblies. The adjustable pedal faces look good and have enough movement in them to satisfy most position requirements. Be it heel and toe or left foot braking this set has it covered. All4Sim also offers a heel plate kit for the MECA CUP1 pedals. And I would highly recommend you get one if you order this pedal set. This is a massive over 16lb or just under 7.4
kilos, 8mm thick powder coated stainless steel plate. The fact that this is what the guys at ALL4SIM came up with demonstrates to me that they get it. If you want to get the most of what
your pedal set can deliver as far as feel and tactile feedback are concerned, you need as solid a mounting solution as you can get. With the MECA CUP1’s mounted to this plate there is just no flex period. The pedals feel light yet stiff under foot. And allowed them to feel very good right off the starting line. I use a heel and toe technique when testing pedals. This to put as
much pressure I can on them while I am testing. The MECA CUP1’s allowed me get up to speed almost immediately. Not many pedal sets have been able to do that at the SRG. Overall, as you can probably tell, the MECA CUP1 pedal set is one that I have no problem recommending to the Sim Racer looking for a new set of load cell based pedals.