Next Level Racing F-GT Cockpit Unboxing and Assembly

[Will_Ford]

IT'S ARRIVED! Today is the day we unbox and assemble the newly released F-GT Cockpit and Monitor Stand from Aussie Manufacturer "Next Level Racing".

The F-GT is the follow up to the popular F1-GT, and offers many improvements in quality and adjustability. What makes this cockpit really special and unique is the ability to switch between GT (upright) and Formula style (reclined) seating positions with relative ease for a more realistic sim experience.

I'd like to thank Next Level Racing for kindly providing this equipment free of charge for the purpose of review for our simulator project! They were more than happy to assist when I reached out to them and have been fantastic to deal with.

While the equipment was provided free of charge, they are not paying me for this video and have not placed any conditions on what I can and cannot say, so I have done my best to be as unbiased and honest as I can in the video.

Overall I am very impressed so far. Assembly was straight forward, there's a tonne of adjustability and the rig is sturdy with minimal flex.

 

[Mr Sausage]

Hi Will,

I commented on your excellent YouTube video and thanks once again for the review and your answers to my questions. I reckon Next Level are coming of age with this cockpit and the up-coming GTtrack. Thy appear to have reached a higher level of build quality and utility by addressing customer feedback and looking to make improvements without significant (or any) increases in cost.

I'm really torn between this F-GT and the upcoming GTtrack. I am informed by Next Level that the GTtrack will have the same excellent mat black powder coated finish as the F-GT so that is one big issue that Next Level are adressing (for me at least) with these new generation products (quality, durability and aesthetics of the finish).

I am not proud to say it, but sadly I still only have a 19 inch 16:9 monitor and will be busting the bank account to its knees to just get a cockpit plus a Fanatec wheelbase and rim, let alone worrying about monitors and GPUs at this point in time. And with that restriction, the F-GT has one big advantage for me - I can set the monitor at exactly the same distance from my eyes that I am thoroughly used to with my existing desk-based setup (about 75 cm from my spectacle lenses to the surface of the monitor). And I have to have that distance pretty accurate since at my age (with the inevitable presbyopia) and with my eyesight problems, I need spectacles made to work at very specific distances for gaming and desktop computer work.

With the other Next Level cockpits, the viewing distance is greater which for me would force the aquisition of a bigger monitor which in turn ups the resolution from the existing 1366 x 768 to 1920 x 1080. And that in turn really needs a graphics card upgrade as well - I run pretty serious anti-aliasing settings and my 7 year old GPU really isn't up to even the normal HD at high AA settings and still getting the 60 fps I want for smooth racing (but it manages it at the lower resolution).

I think in terms of weak points though, it looks like it is a bit harder to sit down in this F-GT rig on account of the wheel mount and I am guessing the seats in the other Next Level cockpits might be better. That said, a huge bonus for the F-GT (and the earlier F1-GT) is that anyone of any size is going to have no problem fitting into the F-GT - contrast that to the Trakracer products where apparently an 86 cm waist (> 34 inches) is considered "extra large" (when the average American male waist is 99 cm) and I start to think Next Level is thinking things through a bit more clearly than it's competitors and automatically has a much larger potential market of buyers!!

(I'm a fellow Aussie btw, with an apparently enormous 92 cm waist!!).