Quote:
Originally Posted by Electromotive
Want to drink, drive and relax? Race a Caterham 420R through Donington Park and leave a mark
Want to bend some fender? Crash a F1 car on Suzuka circuit, with your evening tea and biscuit
Crotch spawns causing crotch pain? Take a Porsche 911 GT for a spin in the rain
Wife nagging too much? Also causing crotch pain (!)? Floor a Ferrari on the Nordschleife again and again
That's all folks! Thanks for reading. |
Thanks for the informative post. I recently did all this research and set up a rig at my house about 6 months ago. This is my current setup.
Your parting words strike a big chord and are some of the main reasons I decided to go ahead with sim racing. While driving in Dubai isn't as stressful as in India, sim racing offers the chance to experience track driving in a risk free relatively inexpensive way. Obviously, the real track experience is far better but is that much more expensive and difficult to access. Here, I can just pop in, in the evening with a cold beer and just have fun without worrying about damaging my engine, suspension, brakes or worse, my whole car. It also helps hone driving skills and gives a new found respect for racing drivers and the skill required. It takes me hours of practice on any track to come within a few seconds of pro driver timings.
I don't have a lot of components in my setup, just a tv, console, wheel, pedals and seat. However, I decided to splurge on the wheel and pedals as that would future proof it. The equipment I have is,
1) Fanatec CSL Elite Racing wheel base with an F1 steering wheel
Fanatec is the most well known for making premium sim racing equipment for beginners and intermediates. After a lot of research, decided to go with this wheel base as it is one of the best belt driven bases with the highest torque in the category offering unto 6Nm which is marginally more than the CSL DD without the boost kit. Mine was one of the last units sold, after which they replaced the CSL elite with the CSL DD. Thrustmaster is the other good option, although their wheel bases offer lesser torque and the materials used aren't as premium.
The quality of the base, steering wheel and pedals is fantastic. There are ample reviews online for these as it was quite popular. The wheel base is plastic but has a nice carbon fibre look with Fanatec decals on the side and a brushed aluminium front face. The F1 wheel has dark matte metal in the centre and side grips are covered in Alcantara. While these feel good, the wear on them is more than I like as it gets dirty quite quickly. Buttons are tactile and have a nice click to them. Paddle shifters are really satisfying to operate. Overall quality of the equipment is excellent and in my view, worth the premium over Thrustmaster and Logitech.
2) CSL Elite pedals with the load cell kit
The base pedals come with the accelerator and brake pedals that use potentiometers for assessing the acceleration and braking level. The pedal quality again is excellent, with a matte black coating. The positioning of the three pedals can be set according to preference, i.e. can be set up as a formula style with accelerator and brake pedal on opposite sides or close by if you want to do heel and toe. The pedals have a rubber pad that can be removed.
The brake pedal has a sponge that simulates brake pressure in a car. A load cell kit utilizes actual brake force applied as the indicator. It also comes with customizable washers that allow you to change the load for full force from 45kg to 90kg. The load cell is an expensive upgrade but it allows for better brake control and more consistency while braking by building better muscle memory. It especially helps in trail braking. Again, I decided to splurge and get the good stuff in one go.
Fanatec don't sell products in the UAE or India. I had to therefore ship it from the US. US prices are lower than Europe prices. The numerical value in both currencies is the same, i.e. the wheel base costed $350 in US and EUR 350 in Europe. So if anyone plans to import it, buy it from the US website, also have a look at Japanese and Australian prices and the cost to ship the items from there. Shipping costs can be significant as the equipment can weigh well over 10kgs depending on what is bought.
3) Next level F-GT
I decided to go ahead with the Next Level FGT as it was reasonably priced and was available for purchase in the UAE. Shipping this from outside was not feasible as the box weighed 45kg. The rig comes all broken and has to be built. It can be done at home with a little bit of patience. It took me a couple of days to set everything. I like the rig because it has good rigidity, has a lot of customization and has fore and aft movement on the seats. Another great feature is that the rig can be converted to a formula style (sit low, with legs on the same level as the upper body) or GT style which is more normal car like in comparison. Changing between the layouts will probably take an hour and I haven't tried it out yet out of sheer laziness. The rig can easily accommodate belt driven wheels and some of the lower torque DD wheels.
The TV is a fairly standard 40 inch QLED Samsung. I did not have room for an ultra wide monitor or the more engaging three monitor setup (which would have been useless anyway as it will require upgrading to a PC from my PS4).
It is extremely entertaining to spend time sim racing. The fanatec base, wheels and pedals, for my needs are more than sufficient. While the fanatec stuff do improve the experience, you can have as much fun just sim racing with more basic wheels. I would highly recommend considering it if you have the time, budget and space. There are other rig options that can fold and don't take up as much room when not used. As I had mentioned, there are several reviews for individual equipment online that will help make the purchase decision, a little research is all that is required.
Happy to help with any queries.
Cheers