Steering Wheels

The last 12 months have been a busy year for Fanatec, who have been steadily updating their line of products aimed towards the more demanding sim racer.

The future of Logitech’s sim-racing steering wheel products has come under question since the company announced they “plan to discontinue other non-strategic products, such as speaker docks and console gaming peripherals, by the end of Calendar Year 2013,” in their latest quarterly earnings report.

As expected, no new Gran Turismo games were announced at E3 2012, which is being held this week in Los Angeles.

For many GT players a driving wheel is a must but, no matter what wheel you choose, you need a sturdy place to mount it. While there remains plenty of choice in the commercial driving rig market from such names as rSeat, Wheel Stand Pro and VisionRacer, many gamers also enjoy creating their own, often cheaper, and there are many threads in our Sim Racing Hardware forum of such builds.

With former steering wheel market leader Logitech resting on its laurels, there’s been a flurry of activity fill the mid-to-high end range of steering wheels over the last few years. For Gran Turismo 5 players, the licensed Thrustmaster T500RS was generally considered one of the best options – until now.

The new “official” GT5 steering wheel, the Thrustmaster T500 RS, releases this Wednesday, and InsideSimRacing got their hands on an early unit to provide us with some much-needed details and first impressions.

One of the most frequent complaints about the popular Logitech Driving Force GT is the pedals. The brake, in particular, can be quite “squishy”, making it more difficult to accurately gauge the force being applied. Since the DFGT was released, several popular DIY mods have been shared in our forums, but this one is probably my favorite: simply wrap a small bungie cord around the brake pedal and hook it around the base of the unit, as YouTuber megadarren demonstrates above (thanks, TRC_Hunk).

Full details about the new “official” GT5 steering wheel, the Thrustmaster T500 RS, have now been released, and it looks like Kazunori Yamauchi’s original tweet hinting at the price was actually correct. It will be released on Wednesday, January 5, 2011 in North America and Europe for $599.99, £449.99, or €499.99 (it’s coming Jan. 25 in Japan). Thrustmaster is clearly targeting the higher end of the market with this price range, especially considering the T500’s H-pattern shifter (to be released in the next few “months”) is not included with the package.

With the launch of Gran Turismo 5, the steering wheel market is really heating up. Now, however, the bar has apparently been raised with the new Fanatec Porsche 911 GT2. The wheel is receiving high marks from users in our steering wheels forum, and there’s even more kind words from the hosts at InsideSimRacing, who called it part of the “best package” to play the game. Keep an eye on the wheel segment of InsideSimRacing’s Gran Turismo 5 review in the video above (you’ll find the wheel discussion begins at 24:45) for more, or watch Darin’s mini-feature on the GT2 here.

PlanetaDeJuego snagged the first official shots of the new “official” GT5 Thrustmaster T500 RS steering wheel. Notably, the T500 appears to feature a “reversible” pedal mount, which can be used in either a top or bottom-hinged configuration. Thanks to all who sent these in!

Kazunori Yamauchi has continued to reveal interesting bits of information on Twitter about the new official Gran Turismo 5 steering wheel, the Thrustmaster T500 RS. Unlike the last “official” wheel, the Logitech Driving Force GT, it seems Polyphony Digital will now be endorsing a premium product which commands a considerably higher price tag. According to Yamauchi, the T500 RS will sell in the range $500 (keep reading…), with the separate gated shifter sold separately for a still undisclosed amount of money.

A brand new steering wheel, the Thrustmaster T500 RS, first popped up in the game’s settings, as noted by TomN here in our forums. Today, Tom also discovered this teaser animation on Thrustmaster’s website, revealing the T500 RS’ new logo alongside official GT5 branding. The teaser provides us with our first peek at the new wheel (aside from the in-game icon), though many details remain unknown. What we do know, however, is that the T500 RS will feature “unmatched steering accuracy, thanks to the built-in H.E.A.R.T (HallEffect AccuRate Technology)” and “16-bit resolution with 65,536 values in the wheel’s rotation”.

Check out this 25% off coupon on all Logitech gaming products, including their steering wheels. This drops the price of the G27 wheel from $299.99 to $224.99 ($23.50 less than Amazon), and drops the Driving Force GT from $149.99 to $112.49 ($17.50 less than Amazon) with free shipping. Just apply the coupon code LOGIGAME-910 to your order from the official Logitech online store and you’re good to go.

GTPlanet independently verified leaked shots of the new Logitech G27 a while back, but many of you still weren’t convinced.  Earlier this week, however, a VirtualR reader just happened to stumble upon the new wheel at Logitech’s own web site.  He wisely nabbed screenshots while the pages and images were still online to verify his discovery.  Although there doesn’t appear to be any new technical details revealed in the Portugese product description visible in the screenshots, it confirms the exterior design (including the six wheel buttons, thicker wheel, shift light indicators, and the suspiciously absent shift mode selector switch).  It’s becoming more and more likely, however, that the G27 is simply an evolutionary update to the G25, as opposed to a radical new design with lots of additional features.  We’ll keep you updated, of course, as more information is released.

The Logitech G25 was one of the first steering wheels to introduce a clutch pedal and gated 6-speed shifter.  It’s success has prompted other wheel manufacturers like Fanatec to jump in the game, fueling competition in this niche market to new heights.  Now, with the G25 pushing 3 years old, everyone is watching Logitech to make a move.

A few of the first hands-on comments have been popping up around the web by people who actually got to play Gran Turismo 5: Prologue with the new Logitech Driving Force GT wheel, and so far, they are good. While these are just impressions from the floor at the Game Developers Conference (and not full reviews), it is interesting that the force feedback is getting so much attention. Hopefully, these folks have experience with other force-feedback wheels, and can actually detect an improvement from the older games.

Logitech has just announced the all-new Driving Force GT wheel for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue! This is the first wheel of its kind that has a dial on the wheel itself to allow the user to adjust things on the car in real time, such as brake bias and damper settings. The force-feedback feature has also been given more power, and most importantly, the illuminated GT logo in the center can now be pressed to blow the car’s horn in the game.