NEWS
00:03:35 Thrustmaster TS-PC Racer Ferrari 488 Challenge Announced
00:11:06 Asus Bezel Free Triple Screen Kit from CES
00:14:41 DICE Awards “Racing Game of the Year” Snubbery
00:20:58 Chili Bowl Coming to iRacing
00:24:41 AI Coming to iRacing
00:39:53 Dakar 18 Announced

TL;DR REVIEW
00:42:44 Tobii Eye Tracker 4C

THE CONVERSATION
00:49:46 The eRacing Relevance Struggle

HAPPENINGS
01:18:04 GPU Upgrade Before GPU Market Went Mad
01:22:10 Happenings Here

The post This Week Inside Sim Racing – 01.14.2018 appeared first on Inside Sim Racing.

Sim Racing Products Available at Ricmotech

PRO – DIAMETER

The 30 cm diameter of the CSL Elite really is the perfect size for an all around wheel like this.  Due to its price point, there’s a good chance the CSL Elite is the only wheel you’ll have so it needs to be a “jack of all trades.”  This is what the 30 cm diameter accomplishes.  It’s big enough to work with production cars and stock cars but small enough to work with open wheel and GT cars.

PRO – RIM

The alcantara wrapped rim is a major upgrade from the old CSL Elite (now just CSL) wheel.  The old, hard, rubber wrapped rim wasn’t very inviting.  On the other hand, the new rim is very inviting with nice alcantara around the entire rim – in comparison to the alcantara and leather PS4 CSL – and the right amount of padding underneath.

If we have one minor gripe, it’s that the rim is on the thinner side.  A little thicker bolsters to hold onto would be nice.

PRO – WEIGHT

Wheel weight saps force feedback.  It’s less of a concern as you move up in wheel base strength but it’s still something to keep in mind.  Well, the new CSL Elite’s weight is not a concern.  Coming in at 970 g (2.138 lbs), the new CSL only sheds 200 g off of the old CSL – most likely due to the rim’s material change – but it sure feels a lot lighter.  This results in a nimble wheel with no perceivable lose of force feedback due to its weight.

PRO – SWAPPABLE BUTTONS

Like the PlayStation 4 version of the CSL Elite, the new Xbox wheel receives swappable buttons as well.  They’re still not the easiest to remove but it’s nice to have other button options when you race on the PC.

PRO – COMPATIBILITY

The CSL Elite Steering Wheel for the Xbox One (and PC) is designed to be used with the CSL Elite Wheel BASE for the Xbox One (in Fanatec-land, Steering Wheel + Base = “Racing Wheel”).  But, the new CSL Elite wheel has a party trick up it’s sleeve.  It can turn the PS4 version of the CSL Elite wheel base into an Xbox One compatible racing wheel.

This is a big deal because Sony and Microsoft – understandably – don’t play nice with each other, leading to PS4 compatible wheel bases or Xbox One compatible wheel bases.  The CSL Elite wheel changes this.  Thanks to the wheel, you can pick up the PS4 compatible CSL Elite racing wheel and the CSL Elite steering wheel for the Xbox One and be able to go back and forth between consoles with just a switch of the USB cord, steering wheel and push of the “Mode” button on the PS4 wheel base.

That’s pretty slick and a big plus to those who play both sides of the console fence.

NEUTRAL – SHAPE

The round shape of the CSL Elite steering wheel has it’s pros and cons.  On the pros side, it allows the wheel to be used with any type of car.  On the cons side, there are cars where the round rim does feel out of place, like when running open wheel cars.  It just is what it is for this kind of wheel that is trying to be accessible no matter what form of racing gets you going.

NEUTRAL – PADDLE SHIFTERS

Besides the heavy, hard, rubber wrapped rim, there was one other major con of the original CSL Elite steering wheel, the paddle shifters.  They were just mushy, with no semblance of a positive click.

This issue has been corrected in the new steering wheel.  The new wheel features “Snapdome(!)” paddle shifters that now provide some positive – audible – feedback.  The throw of the paddles still starts out on the mushy side but they finish with a click.  We still wouldn’t qualify them as great – or even good – but they are at least passable now.

NEUTRAL – SEMI QUICK RELEASE

The semi-quick release system of Fanatec’s CSL line continues on with the new CSL Elite steering wheel.  The system continues to have the same pros and cons it’s always had.  On the pros side, it’s simple and not as expensive and heavy as the Universal Racing Hub’s actual quick release system.  On the cons side, the bolt it utilizes is still keen to escape and potentially be lost.

NEUTRAL – PRICE

The CSL Elite Steering Wheel sells for $170 (€180).  This is spot on for the quality of the wheel.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The new CSL Elite Steering Wheel P1 for the Xbox One from Fanatec is a solid wheel.  It corrects the major complaints we had about the original wheel and thus really does nothing wrong.  It’s also particularly appealing if you spend your time jumping between the Ps4 and Xbox One.  Does it feel super special or high end?  No.  But that isn’t the objective of the wheel.  It’s objective is to provide a solid all around wheel no matter what system you race on and it succeeds at just that.

The post Fanatec CSL Elite Steering Wheel P1 for the Xbox One Review appeared first on Inside Sim Racing.

Lots of changes

As you can check out our video on the build above and the full changelog of the build below, here is a quick rundown of the highlights.

Highlights

• Red Bull Global Rallycross content was added in form of two cars…
  • Ford Fiesta RS WRC
  • VW Beetle GRC
• …and five new track configurations
  • Daytona Rallycross Long
  • Daytona Rallycross Short
  • Iowa Speedway Rallycross
  • Lucas Oil Raceway Rallycross
  • Phoenix International Raceway Rallycross
• The Dirt Midget car is now available
• Knoxville Raceway was added
• The NASCAR pit crew is now animated
• Heat Racing is now available
• Players can now compete with four different licenses, one for each category of racing (oval, road, dirt oval, dirt road)
• Various other updates to the sim, including the new UI, (spotter) Audio and cars/ tracks

Changelog

License Classes

• iRacing now has four unique License Classes!
• – Each of the four licenses are completely separate from each other, and you will have your own Class, iRating, and Safety Rating in each.
• – There is one license for each type of racing available: Oval, Road, Dirt Oval, and Dirt Road.
• – – Your initial Dirt Oval License Class was granted to you based on an algorithm that took into account both your 2017 Oval License Class, and your 2017 participation in Official Dirt Oval races.

Heat Racing

• Heat Racing, a new format of racing competition has been added to iRacing!
• – Heat racing is a system of competition that divides racers into different groups, or Heats, based on their qualification performance. Each Heat has its own winners and losers, and the best racers from each Heat will go on to compete against each other in the final session, the Main Event. Before that, the other racers from each Heat will go on to Consolation Races, where they may have a chance to earn themselves a spot in the Main Event!
• • For detailed information on Heat Racing, check out this document: https://d3bxz2vegbjddt.cloudfront.net/dev/pdfs/2017-iracing-heat-racing-doc.pdf
• You are able to create and join your own Hosted Sessions using the Heat Racing format!
• • This option is only available in the iRacing Beta Interface!
• • – To setup your own Heat Race:
• • – – Click on: “Go Racing”, then, “Create a Race”, then, in the “Set Race Options” section, for the “Event Type”, select “Heat Racing”. Then, select one of the different configurations in the dropdown and finally purchase your session and join!
• • Session time and price are calculated using the maximum possible value for the number of entrants, which would yield the maximum number of Heat sessions being run. Thus, the time is an estimated total of the time limits for each of the predicted sessions plus a small buffer to account for session transitions and gridding times.
• • The cost for purchasing a Hosted Heat Racing Session has a 25% discount in addition to any other bulk discounts you may already recieve.

Race Results

• The in-Sim Race Results page has been reorganized to handle Heat Racing events, which can have many more sessions than just Practice/Qualify/Warmup/Race. If necessary, you can now scroll the Results left/right to reveal the results for the particular session of interest. Since all cars in the event are listed, yet only a subset of them actually drive in some of the sessions, you can sort the results for a particular session, thus grouping the cars that participated together, and pushing the cars that were not involved in that session to the bottom.

Asphalt Oval Racing

• A physics overhaul has been performed on our asphalt oval cars!
• – For some extensive and detailed information, check out this link:
• – – http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/3582329.page#10803442

Dirt Oval Racing

• The default value for the starting track state for Dirt Ovals in a Race session has been lowered slightly for most cars, and has been lowered significantly for the Non-Winged Sprint Cars. This change will affect Official Sessions and any hosted sessions where the starting state is not explicitly specified.
• The default value for the starting track state for Dirt Ovals in Test, Practice, and Unattached Qualify sessions has been increased to make these tracks more closely match typical starting race conditions. Overall, you should expect the track for a Dirt Oval Practice session to have nearly the same starting usage as a Race session for the entry-level Dirt Oval cars.
• The variability in default starting track states for Dirt Ovals has been increased, meaning that when a starting usage value is not explicitly given, the distribution of generated usage percentages is wider. This will result in more variety in starting track state in Official Sessions and any hosted sessions where the starting state is not explicitly specified.
• Dirt Oval Track surface properties have been adjusted to reduce traction.
• For some extensive and detailed information on the changes within Dirt Oval Racing, check out this link:
• • http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/3582313.page#10803079

Red Bull Global Rallycross Series

• Welcome to the world of Rallycross!
• – Rallycross is a form of racing that combines asphalt and dirt track sections into a short circuit, that also includes a dirt jump. There are limited penalties, no pit stops, and cars designed specifically for this racing format.
• – Rallycross cars and tracks have been added to the iRacing repertoire!
• – – Ford Fiesta RS WRC
• – – VW Beetle GRC
• – – Daytona circa 2007 (Rallycross – Long)
• – – Daytona circa 2007 (Rallycross – Short)
• – – Iowa Speedway (Rallycross)
• – – Lucas Oil Raceway (Rallycross)
• • – Phoenix International Raceway – 2008 (Rallycross)
• On the “Host A Race” page on the membersite, when a track with a Joker Lap (currently only Rallycross tracks) is selected, a new option for selecting the “Number of joker laps” is displayed. Additionally, Full Course Cautions and fast Tows are both completely disabled, and Standing Starts is mandatory.

Simulation

• Headlights can no longer be disabled on Road courses at night.
• The in-car slowdown penalty display now rounds up to the nearest tenth, so that “0.0” is never displayed for time remaining.

Dynamic Track

• Improved the method for calculating simulated tire activity during track initialization.

Rendering

• A new water shader has been implemented at Daytona circa 2007. This shader replaces the formerly static water effect with one which is reactive to the wind and uses current lighting techniques.
• – Please look forward to this water shader seeping into other tracks later this season!

Audio

• A new Ambient Volume slider can be found in the Options menu. This will control sounds like fireworks and jet fly-overs.
• Fixed a bug that was causing backfires to emit at the wrong location when watching a replay. Backfires and shift sound emission should now also stick to the car, rather than Doppler shifting away when viewing from inside the cockpit.

Spotter

• A brand new Spotter Pack, Cole Carter, the official spotter for Scott Speed, is now available in iRacing!
• – This Spotter Pack is ready to assist in all types of racing, including all calls needed for Rallycross racing!
• • – You may select which Spotter Pack iRacing uses in your Audio Options menu.
• The default Aussie Spotter is ready to assist with Rallycross calls.
• • Other Spotter Packs (except Cole Carter), are currently not setup to perform Rallycross calls.

Pit Crew

• iRacing has now finished hiring and training a highly experienced and fully animated pit crew to service some cars and trucks!
• – NASCAR Camping World Chevrolet Silverado
• – NASCAR Camping World Toyota Tundra
• – NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Chevrolet SS
• – NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Ford Fusion
• – NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Toyota Camry
• – NASCAR Truck Series Chevrolet Silverado circa 2013
• – NASCAR XFINITY Chevrolet Camaro
• – NASCAR XFINITY Ford Mustang
• – NASCAR XFINITY Toyota Camry
• • – This super-fast and hardworking team will jump into action whenever you’re pitting with one of the above vehicles on a track where that vehicle should be racing competitively.
• War wagons for many stock cars have been updated!
• • The war wagons should now have more detail, and randomly opened toolbox doors.
• • – NASCAR Camping World Chevrolet Silverado
• • – NASCAR Camping World Toyota Tundra
• • – NASCAR K&N Pro Chevrolet Impala
• • – NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Chevrolet SS
• • – NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Ford Fusion
• • – NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Toyota Camry
• • – NASCAR Nationwide Chevrolet Impala circa 2011
• • – NASCAR Sprint Cup Chevrolet Impala COT circa 2013
• • – NASCAR Truck Series Chevrolet Silverado circa 2013
• • – NASCAR XFINITY Chevrolet Camaro
• • – NASCAR XFINITY Ford Mustang
• • – NASCAR XFINITY Toyota Camry

Opponent Cars

• Opponent car spec data has been updated for ALL cars.
• • The results of this change may be visible on timed penalties (such as cutting corners). An accurate car spec is required to determine the amount of time gained by cutting a corner and hence the appropriate penalty.
• Fixed an issue with the way some cars looked due to an error in weight distribution.

Paint Kit

• Improved font handling when painting cars.

In-Sim Race Radio

• Added the ability for the Sim to ask, within a radio script, whether or not the current session is either a Qualify Session or a Race Session (qual_or_race), or if the current event is a Heat Racing event (heats).
• • See the “readme.txt” file located in your My Documents/iRacing/scripts/radio/ directory for more information.
• Changed the default “StartDriving.txt” and “StopDriving.txt” radio scripts to mute/unmute @ALLTEAMS if “qual_or_race” is true.
• • This change is ONLY applied if you do not have customized versions of these two radio scripts. If you have customized versions of these scripts, and wish to incorporate these changes, see the “readme.txt” file located in your My Documents/iRacing/scripts/radio/ directory for more information on how to use them. (You would basically add “if qual_or_race mute @allteams” to the “StartDriving.txt” file, and “if qual_or_race unmute @allteams” to the “StopDriving.txt” file.)

Controls

• A gold hand brake overlay has been added over the normal red brake bars shown during calibration and when in or out of your car.
• – This overlay will only be present for our brand new Rallycross cars: the Ford Fiesta RS WRC, and the VW Beetle GRC.

Virtual Reality

• Fixed an issue where mirrors and environment maps were rendering with the incorrect cameras when Oculus Rift or Vive was active.

Telemetry

• New live 360 Hz telemetry variables have been added:
• – VelocityX_ST
• – VelocityY_ST
• – VelocityZ_ST
• – LongAccel_ST
• – LatAccel_ST
• – VertAccel_ST
• – RollRate_ST
• – PitchRate_ST
• • YawRate_ST
• More telemetry variables are now optionally available to output at 360 Hz to the “.ibt” file.
• The iRacing telemetry now includes a “NumJokerLaps:” property under “WeekendOptions:” that indicates the number of required Joker laps that must be taken in any race session.
• The iRacing telemetry now includes a “JokerLapsComplete:” property for each “- Position:”.
• Fixed a bug in telemetry session string “CurDriverIncidentCount,” output.
• Fixed a telemetry bug that caused DRS lights to track the last car to join the session.

iRacing Beta Interface

• The iRacing Beta Interface, which includes the Time Attack race mode, has been updated.
• The iRacing Downloader is now fully integrated and functional within the iRacing Beta Interface, and no longer needs to direct the user to the iRacing membersite via a web browser.
• The “Recent Results” section of the iRacing Beta Interface is now fully functional!
• • This section will display results of all kinds from the past 24 hours.
• The “Sign Out” section that was in the bottom-left corner has returned to the top-right corner, and is now a dropdown menu.
• The “My Content” section has been folded into a dropdown menu that appears when you click on your profile name box in the top left corner.
• • – This section includes where you can view the Cars and Tracks you own, as well as your Racing Suit and Helmet.
• • – Within the Cars and Suit & Helmet sections, you can also access the Paint Kit to customize each item.
• You are able to create and join your own Hosted Sessions using the Heat Racing format!
• • This option is only available in the iRacing Beta Interface!
• • – To setup your own Heat Race:
• • – – Click on: “Go Racing”, then, “Create a Race”, then, in the “Set Race Options” section, for the “Event Type”, select “Heat Racing”. Then, select one of the different configurations in the dropdown and finally purchase your session and join!
• • Session time and price are calculated using the maximum possible value for the number of entrants, which would yield the maximum number of Heat sessions being run. Thus, the time is an estimated total of the time limits for each of the predicted sessions plus a small buffer to account for session transitions and gridding times.
• • The cost for purchasing a Hosted Heat Racing Session has a 25% discount in addition to any other bulk discounts you may already recieve.
• Style and Layout:
• • The side-bar action buttons under the “Go Racing” section for “Create a Race” and “Test Drive” are now toggleable, and can be managed in the “Settings” menu. They have been turned off by default.
• • Fixed an issue where some dropdown menus were dropping down behind other interface elements.
• • The gutter between items in the grid view has been reduced, leaving more space for text.
• • Overall style has been tweaked.
• Sorting, Filtering, and Searching:
• • The term “Ranked” has been changed from a Tag into a Category for sorting and filtering.
• • When filtering or searching, if no results are found, the “No Results Bar” should now always appear.
• • The default “no results” text has been updated.
• • Fixed an issue with sorting cars and tracks. This should now work properly.
• • Both the “My Cars” and “My Tracks” sections should now sort items by “Name” by default.
• • Both the “My Cars” and “My Tracks” sections should no longer show Unowned content.
• • The Store should no longer show Owned content.
• • The method for determining if you own a piece of content has been improved.
• Favorites:
• • The toggle for Favorites should now work again for all Car and Track lists.
• • Fixed a rendering issue with the Favorite Star when selecting a car or track.
• Official Series:
• • Now, up to 10 sessions will be displayed for Official Sessions.
• Creating a Session:
• • In the Create a Race modal, selecting a different Race Server now updates the server name.
• • In the Create a Race modal, the purchase cost amount should always be correctly displayed.
• • In the Create a Race modal, the “Track State: Rubber % Slider” has been fixed.
• Joining a Session:
• • The modal for joining a Hosted Session now displays the currently Registered Drivers.
• • Fixed some issues with the Weather Card when viewing the information for a User-Created Session.

Sporting Code

• Some additional information has been added to the Time Attack section.
• The term “Ranked” will now pertain to Official iRacing Sessions in which a participant’s iRating and Safety Rating will be affected.

CARS:

Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS

• Season setups have been updated.

Dallara DW12

• Season setups have been updated.

Dirt Midget

• NEW CAR!
• – The Dirt Midget has been added to the iRacing virtual garage!
• – This vehicle is now available for purchase in the iRacing Store.
• – Originating in the United States in the 1930s and now raced on a global scale, the Midget cars are an incredibly fun spectacle to witness. These cars appear very small but pack a huge power-to-weight ratio and typically run four-cylinder engines. The cars feature a handful of safety features including their own roll cages due to the dangerous nature of their power. The small vehicles weigh in around only 900 pounds but carry engines capable of 300 to 400 horsepower. Often used as a stepping stone to high profile divisions, Dirt Midget races can often feature drivers of high notoriety such as Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Larson, and others. Arguably the most famous Dirt Midget event, the Chili Bowl takes place in early January at the Expo Square Pavilion in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Dirt Sprint Car

• (ALL) – Aero sensitivity to top wing angle and position has been adjusted.
• (ALL) – Adjusted suspension geometry to promote more realistic body pitch / roll motion.
• (ALL) – Legal CW limits are now bound between 42% and 49% in the garage.
• (ALL) – Season setups have been updated.

Dirt Sprint Car Non-Winged

• (ALL) – Adjusted suspension geometry to promote more realistic body pitch / roll motion.
• (ALL) – Legal CW limits are now bound between 42% and 49% in the garage.
• (ALL) – Season setups have been updated.

Dirt U.M.P. Modified

• Fixed an issue where the brake bias adjustment knob was rotating on opponent cars.
• Season setups have been updated.

Ferrari 488 GTE

• Pit scripts have been updated so re-fueling and tire changes take place simultaneously per expected WEC sporting regulations for the 2018-2019 season.

Ford Fiesta RS WRC

• NEW CAR!
• – The Ford Fiesta RS WRC has been added to the iRacing roster of vehicles!
• – This vehicle is now available for purchase in the iRacing Store.
• – The ability to go 0-60mph in under 2 seconds is a phenomenal feat. Probably not a feat you would expect your friendly neighborhood Ford Fiesta to achieve. But take that Fiesta and pack it with a 600-horsepower, turbocharged 2.0-liter engine powering all four wheels and that is exactly the kind of acceleration you get. Rallycross cars are little beasts unlike any other vehicle, and the Ford Fiesta RS WRC is no exception. Driven by Steve Arpin in the Red Bull Global Rallycross Series, this vehicle transitions from dirt to asphalt and back to dirt seamlessly.

Ford GT – 2017

• Pit scripts have been updated so re-fueling and tire changes take place simultaneously per expected WEC sporting regulations for the 2018-2019 season.
• Updates to ensure the rear tires will spin at launch when launch and traction control are disabled.

Formula Renault 2.0

• Tire damping has been increased.

McLaren MP4-12C GT3

• The windshield banner is now part of the body texture, and should be editable by the user.

NASCAR Camping World Chevrolet Silverado

• Intensive vehicle updates including:
• – Tire updates.
• – Suspension adjustments for better height control.
• – Additional shock damping.
• • Aerodynamics updates.
• Season setups have been updated.

NASCAR Camping World Toyota Tundra

• Intensive vehicle updates including:
• – Tire updates.
• – Suspension adjustments for better height control.
• – Additional shock damping.
• • Aerodynamics updates.
• Season setups have been updated.

NASCAR K&N Pro Chevrolet Impala

• Intensive vehicle updates including:
• – Tire updates.
• – Suspension adjustments for better height control.
• – Additional shock damping.
• • Aerodynamics updates.
• Fixed an issue with cockpit windshield reflections.
• Season setups have been updated.

NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Chevrolet SS

• Intensive vehicle updates including:
• – Tire updates.
• – Suspension adjustments for better height control.
• – Additional shock damping.
• • Aerodynamics updates.
• Fixed an issue with Left-Front toe range.
• Season setups have been updated.

NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Ford Fusion

• Intensive vehicle updates including:
• – Tire updates.
• – Suspension adjustments for better height control.
• – Additional shock damping.
• • Aerodynamics updates.
• Fixed an issue with Left-Front toe range.
• Season setups have been updated.

NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Toyota Camry

• Intensive vehicle updates including:
• – Tire updates.
• – Suspension adjustments for better height control.
• – Additional shock damping.
• • Aerodynamics updates.
• Fixed an issue with Left-Front toe range.
• Season setups have been updated.

NASCAR Nationwide Chevrolet Impala circa 2011

• Intensive vehicle updates including:
• – Tire updates.
• – Suspension adjustments for better height control.
• – Additional shock damping.
• • Aerodynamics updates.
• Fixed an issue with chrome on the chassis and windshield.
• Season setups have been updated.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Chevrolet Impala COT circa 2013

• Intensive vehicle updates including:
• – Tire updates.
• – Suspension adjustments for better height control.
• – Additional shock damping.
• • Aerodynamics updates.
• Season setups have been updated.

NASCAR Truck Series Chevrolet Silverado circa 2013

• Intensive vehicle updates including:
• – Tire updates.
• – Suspension adjustments for better height control.
• – Additional shock damping.
• – Aerodynamics updates.

NASCAR XFINITY Chevrolet Camaro

• Intensive vehicle updates including:
• – Tire updates.
• – Suspension adjustments for better height control.
• – Additional shock damping.
• • Aerodynamics updates.
• Season setups have been updated.

NASCAR XFINITY Ford Mustang

• Intensive vehicle updates including:
• – Tire updates.
• – Suspension adjustments for better height control.
• – Additional shock damping.
• • Aerodynamics updates.
• Season setups have been updated.

NASCAR XFINITY Toyota Camry

• Intensive vehicle updates including:
• – Tire updates.
• – Suspension adjustments for better height control.
• – Additional shock damping.
• • Aerodynamics updates.
• Season setups have been updated.

Super Late Model

• Season setups have been updated.

VW Beetle GRC

• NEW CAR!
• – The VW Beetle GRC has been added to the iRacing roster of vehicles!
• – This vehicle is FREE for all iracing.com Members!
• – A little buggy that packs a big punch, the Volkswagen Beetle GRC crosses asphalt and gravel effortlessly with its turbocharged, four-cylinder engine. Championed by Red Bull Global Rallycross driver Scott Speed, his 560-horsepower machine has proven to be a formidable powerhouse, winning three championship titles in a row (2015, 2016, 2017). The all wheel drive Beetle can accelerate from 0 to 60mph in just two seconds, meaning you’ll be putting the transversally mounted, six-speed racing gear box to good use right off the starting grid. This Volkswagen Beetle GRC features a retro form that pays homage to the original Volkswagen Type 1, the longest-running and most-manufactured car of a single platform ever made.

TRACKS:

Atlanta Motor Speedway

• Track settings have been adjusted to better correlate to real world lap times.

Auto Club Speedway

• (Oval) – Track settings have been adjusted to better correlate to real world lap times.

Charlotte Motor Speedway

• (Oval) – Track settings have been adjusted to better correlate to real world lap times.

Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

• Adjusted Pit and Grid stalls as follows:
• – (Classic Pits) – Pit Stalls = 37
• – (Classic Pits) – Grid Stalls = 60
• – (Endurance) – Pit Stalls = 60
• – (Endurance) – Grid Stalls = 60
• – (Grand Prix Pits) – Pit Stalls = 42
• – (Grand Prix Pits) – Grid Stalls = 60

Concord Speedway

• Fixed an intermittent crashing error at this track.

Daytona circa 2007

• NEW TRACK CONFIGURATIONS!
• – A new Rallycross configuration (Rallycross – Long) has been added to this track!
• – A new Rallycross configuration (Rallycross – Short) has been added to this track!
• – All members own this track by default, and these new configurations are now available for use.

Dover International Speedway

• Track settings have been adjusted to better correlate to real world lap times.

Iowa Speedway

• NEW TRACK CONFIGURATION!
• – A new Rallycross configuration has been added to this track!
• – A member who already owns or purchases this track gains access to this new configuration.

Kansas Speedway

• Track settings have been adjusted to better correlate to real world lap times.

Knoxville Raceway

• NEW TRACK!
• – Knoxville Raceway has been added to the digital landscape of iRacing!
• – This track is now available for purchase in the iRacing Store.
• – Located at the Marion County Fairgrounds in Knoxville, Iowa, USA, this half-mile dirt oval raceway is revered as the “Sprint Car Capital of the World”. Every August the Knoxville Nationals, the paramount sprint car event in the United States, is held at Knoxville Raceway. The event takes place over two days and now features a nearly one-million-dollar prize purse. The track was originally built in the late 1800s as a horse racing venue and has progressed from racing stock cars to modifieds to supermodifieds to its current sprint cars.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway

• (Oval) – Track settings have been adjusted to better correlate to real world lap times.

Lucas Oil Raceway

• NEW TRACK CONFIGURATION!
• – A new Rallycross configuration has been added to this track!
• – A member who already owns or purchases this track gains access to this new configuration.

Michigan International Speedway

• Track settings have been adjusted to better correlate to real world lap times.

Phoenix International Raceway – 2008

• NEW TRACK CONFIGURATION!
• – A new Rallycross configuration has been added to this track!
• – All members own this track by default, and this new configuration is now available for use.

Pocono Raceway

• (Oval) – Track settings have been adjusted to better correlate to real world lap times.

Richmond International Raceway

• Track settings have been adjusted to better correlate to real world lap times.

Texas Motor Speedway

• (Oval) – Track settings have been adjusted to better correlate to real world lap times.

The post iRacing – 2018 Season 1 Build is Here appeared first on Inside Sim Racing.

But that is now a thing of the past.  Thanks to the latest RaceRoom update, proper triple screen support has arrived.  On top of that a boatload of other updates arrived as well, which gave us plenty to talk about around the most famous racing mountain in the world.

The post RaceRoom Gets Triple Screen Support (and Other Updates) appeared first on Inside Sim Racing.

Sim Racing Products Available at Ricmotech

PRO – AESTHETICS

Have we mentioned yet how good the Evolve looks? Racing simulator aesthetics can be subjective but we are big fans of the minimalistic look of the Evolve. Every part looks purposeful and is made out of / finished in some of the best paint / powder coating in the industry.

PRO – STABILITY

On camera, the Evolve shows some movement. The wheel deck does wonder a little, the pedal deck shows a little flex towards the top and the seat also has a little deflection. But in use, the Evolve feels very solid. During standard use with a range of wheels from the Thrustmaster TS-XW to Fanatec CSL Elite to SimXperience AccuForce, I never noticed any of the movement.

Yes, if you want to make the wheel deck move, you can. But in normal driving conditions, I never detected any movement.

PRO – PARTY TRICKS

For lack of a better label, the Evolve posses a couple cool – and handy – party tricks. First, there are two casters on the front of the rig that allows you to easily move it by yourself (although it should be noted that the small casters might not work great on carpet). Every simulator should either come with casters or have it as an option.

Second, the front of the rig can pivot up, allowing you to save some space when not racing. I did find this pivot action can cause the bottom frame to not entirely rest flat on the ground but the adjustable rubber feet on the bottom take care of this issue, leveling the rig.

NEUTRAL – SEAT

I love the seat on the Evolve. The carbon fiber on the seat is really well done. It has an excellent tool surface finish and even visible details like the ply buildups at the hardware points.

I also found the seat comfortable for long periods of time. At first I struggled with the fixed seat because I’m a “gangsta lean” driver myself, and the very upright position was bothering my lower back. But then I placed the front seat bolt to the middle of three hole locations (I already had the back bolt at the bottom location) and this gave me the right amount of lean to make me happy. Since then, I’ve enjoyed the “fall in and hold you close” nature of the deep seat.

So if I like it so much, why do we have it it the NEUTRAL category? Because this is a one size seat.

The Evolve’s seat is about as tight on me as I would want any sim racing seat to be. The issue is I’m 5’6”, and according to the interwebs, that puts me at about the 5th percentile for height of male American adults. So if this seat fits a – relatively skinny – 5% male nicely, what does it do to someone in the 50th percentile? Or 80th? Or even as low as 25th?

Well, I found out. I had some friends over one night and I had them try out the Evolve. My friend Steven, who is 6’2” and in much better shape than me, said that while he could fit, it was tight on his hips and he couldn’t race like that for a long time.

You can remove the padding pieces from the rig, but once you do that you’re left with fabric wrapped carbon fiber, which isn’t very comfy.

So while I’ve grown to really like the seat in both form and function, I think there’s going to be a vast swath of folks out there that just won’t fit in it, which isn’t good.

NEUTRAL – WHEEL DECK

On the positive side, the wheel deck on the Evolve has no problem accepting any wheel out there. It even has the front third hole for Fanatec wheel bases, although it’s only accessible when you run the wheel deck in the most forward position. If you try to push it back, the bolt hits the wheel deck assembly’s frame.

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning of some frustrating design elements of the Evolve.

Unlike most wheel decks that just have a deck attached to the frame, the Evolve uses a three piece box approach. There’s pros and cons to this design. You get a good amount of tilt options thanks to the outside box rotating between the frame and the smaller inside box’s angle adjusting inside the big box. One thing of note though, the inside box’s angle is fairly limited because the front of it only aligns with two of the four holes at anytime. Besides further angle options, the inside box can also be raised up, giving you height adjustment which is very handy.

Another unique characteristic is that the wheel deck plate is actually designed to be removed. At first blush I thought this was a great idea. Avoiding the awkward acrobatics of securing a wheel to the wheel deck sounded great. But you still have to put it on the rig and this process is even more awkward. Due to the design, you have to squeeze your hands into the box assembly and turn the knobs that go onto the plate’s welded on threads. It’s barely doable, especially when the wheel isn’t at one of the higher positions.

CON – PEDAL PLATE

On to the pedal plate and it’s a similar – but much more frustrating – story. The knobs needed to tighten the two piece design are under the pedal plate, instead of being in an accessible spot on the side like pretty much every other simulator out there, so it forces you to awkwardly tilt the Evolve on it’s side and have it rest on you while you frantically snug the pedal plate down to the tilt adjustment carriage under it.

I mean…most people don’t change out their hardware that much but if you ever need to adjust the pedal’s position, you’re going to be diving under the rig to do so, which really sucks.

Maybe the idea was that you would hinge the front half of the Evolve up to adjust the pedals but for me and many of people out there, that just isn’t feasible with our rig setup. Just easier to go under it.

As for pedal plate compatibility, there’s also a couple issues. While it accepts most pedals, I found that the Fanatec CSL Elite’s are too wide for the plate. In fact, the Fanatec ClubSport Pedals V3 just fit on the plate and I had to wedge them between the pedal plate feet.

On top of that, adjustability on the plate is limited for some pedals. The Thrustmater T3PA pedals have two hole positions that they align with, giving you some up down adjustability. The Fanatec ClubSport Pedals V3 on the other hand only have one position on the plate.

You can slide the entire plate up and down thanks to the groves on the tilt carriage under it but I struggled to get them in the exact position I liked.

I also struggled getting the Fanatec ClubSport V3 pedals to the angle I wanted. I started with the tilt carriage at the middle hole position but my right foot kept sliding up the pedal. So then I went to move it to the top – highest angle – position but I couldn’t because the front of the pedal plate would hit the frame plate that runs under your feet. Ugh.

CON – INSTRUCTIONS

At first flip through the instructions looked great. Lots of images are always good. But once I started building, that impression quickly flipped.

First, some instructions aren’t correct. The instructions to install the red mesh inserts have the bolts going the wrong direction. Minor, but a silly mistake if you aren’t paying attention. Then there’s the accuracy of the drawings. The knobs in the instructions are different looking from the knobs you get, and when there are two different types of knobs in the box, this gets confusing. Also – sans one page – none of the images show washers, yet there are a bunch of washers in the box. So that becomes a guessing game. Pro tip, use washers everywhere. The written instructions aren’t much help either, and for a simulator with as many parts as the Evolve has, this is an issue.

Lastly, there’s a lot of images of knobs in the instructions, but nothing about all those extra M8 bolts in the box…which brings us to our next subject.

CON – KNOBS

F**k knobs. After losing many hours of my life messing around with them, I have zero clue why they are even in the box. Following the instructions, I used only knobs to secure the wheel and pedal assemblies. What a disaster that turned out to be.

No matter how hard I turned them, they would all loosen up while driving. I eventually contacted Sparco because I had a gap between the wheel deck box and the frame uprights that just didn’t seem right and they told me to scrap the knobs and use the included M8 bolts. So I did that and wouldn’t you know I could tighten the pieces together and they wouldn’t loosen up while driving.

As I went on I would remove one set of knobs at a time as it became obvious that none of them worked. I also discovered during this transition that while Sparco includes enough M8 bolts, they don’t include enough washers and nuts and I had to dive into my own collection to finish out the knob purge.

Unfortunately, there were casualties along the way. In my attempt to get the knobs to work, I broke off one of the three threaded studs on both the wheel deck and pedal plate. Apparently my many re-tightens was too much for them and displayed not only the flaw of using knobs, but using welded threaded studs instead of bolts. Now I’m down to two points of contact on each but they seem to be doing the job once I switched to the washer + nut.

Which brings us back to the Pro’s section of the review. Once I removed all the knobs, the Evolve felt solid and nothing loosened up. Again, I have no idea why they are in the box but if you do purchase the Evolve, just throw them away and pick up six more M8 washers and nuts.

CON – ACCESSORIES

The Evolve is currently a very stripped down simulator. It does not have an h-pattern shifter mount – a standard feature in the industry – or less standard accessories like handbrake mount, keyboard tray, monitor mount and transducer mount.

Speaking with Sparco earlier this year, they told me that accessories like these are coming, but without a timeframe at this time, it’s hard to say when and could be a deal breaker for some customers. Plus, that means more money to spend on an already not inexpensive rig…

CON – PRICE

Just because something is $1,300 doesn’t necessarily mean it’s expensive. It just means that the product has to justify the price. Unfortunately the Evolve doesn’t do this.

If the Evolve was a kickass experience, then I think it would be worth the money, even sans the accessories. It looks like a million bucks, has a carbon fiber seat that isn’t inexpensive and of course carries the Sparco name – which whether we like to admit it or not – adds some “want” deep down in our hearts.

But as we’ve seen in this review, it hasn’t been a kickass experience.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Sparco Evolve is a tough product to recommend. If you eliminate all the knob issues we had – since you’ve watched this review and now know what to do – and even the diving under the rig part to change and adjust pedals since that should become less of an issue once you’re happy with the position, then there’s a chance you could have a good experience. But unfortunately, I think a lot of variables have to line up to have a positive experience.

Take my experience for example. I’m short and relatively skinny – less so these days – and I was able to fit in the seat comfortably. I was also able to adjust all the wheels to my liking with the wheel deck box and appreciated that I could raise the height of them. As for the pedals, I had no issue finding a comfortable location and angle for the Thrustmaster T3PA pedals. But when it came to the Fanatec ClubSport Pedals V3’s, I wasn’t able to find a comfortable position with my short legs because the frame gets in the way of the pedal plate when you move it in and try to add angle.

Now take someone taller, like my friend, and I bet the pedal plate wouldn’t be an issue because it would be in front of the frame. But, he was uncomfortable in the tight seat.

So if it doesn’t work for a short person with short legs and doesn’t work for a tallish person who works out a bunch, then who does it work for? A thin average height person? And that’s average height in the US, maybe not for your country.

I appreciate the different take on the simulator from Sparco. I love the look, the carbon fiber seat, the included casters, the rigidity of it, the fact that it doesn’t take up much space. But not only are there big issues that we’ve noted, there are potentially more nuanced ones like, “Do you prefer driving open wheel cars versus GT cars?” If yes, then the very upright GT seating position might not be for you.

By the time you tally all of these – and potential – issues up, we find the Sparco Evolve simulator to be a tough sell.

The post Sparco Evolve Racing Simulator Review appeared first on Inside Sim Racing.

The post Forza Motorsport 7 – Test Drive – Nissan Bluebird Super Silhouette – Mugello appeared first on Inside Sim Racing.

This brings us to the Renovatio SRD-R3 Digital Dash Display. Featuring not only critical car information, but race information as well, the SRD-R3 display vies to give you all information you need in a compact, no fuss, package.

Does it succeed? That’s what we’re here to find out.

Sim Racing Products Available at Ricmotech

PRO – DESIGN

The Renovatio SRD-R3 is packaged really well. Coming in at 113 x 68 x 14mm, it nicely walks the line between big enough to see but not too big to be difficult to mount / see. The curved shape also helps to make sure the wheel doesn’t block any of the screen.

Materials wise, the screen is clear and bright, the rubber-like coated frame feels nice to the touch, and the clear back gives you a sneak peak of what’s going on inside.

Speaking of the back, it features a mini USB port and two M2.5 threaded holes. The location of the USB could be good or bad depending on how you mount it. For me and my custom mounting solution, I preferred it versus a bottom mount. For Darin – who had this unit before me – the USB port got in the way of the velcro attachment route he went with. In the end, I do think the center back position is the better way to go.

The display comes with a long USB cable that shouldn’t have any issue reaching your PC, but if you decide to do something different, you can go to Renovatio’s website and choose from a nice selection of alternative USB cables.

PRO – MOUNTING

Lets dive further into mounting the display. In my opinion, this is one of the biggest challenges of a stand alone accessory. Thankfully, Renovatio goes to good lengths to ease this issue.

As we mentioned earlier, the display has two threaded hard mounts. Although having hard mounts might be a no brainer, there are products like displays and button boxes out there that don’t have these and it can make mounting a real challenge. If I do have one critic, it’s using M2.5 bolts, a size so small that I couldn’t find them at any of my local hardware stores. I ended up going the imperial route and buying 2/56 x ½ inch bolts with #2 washers that seemed to do the trick.

Besides just having threaded holes, Renovatio also offers Wheel Mounting Kits (WMK) for the Logitech G27/29, Fanatec CSR and all versions of the Fanatec ClubSport Wheel Base. This is nice to see as a lot of accessory manufactures gloss over this detail.

If you have a Thrustmaster T300 / TX or TS-PC / TS-XW, then there is a wheel mounting kit offered from Ricmotech.

But since I wanted to mount the SRD-R3 to my SimXperience AccuForce V2 wheel, I went the custom route. For about $10 I was able to accomplish this thanks the the design of the AccuForce wheel button box. I cut out a piece of wood for a backing plate. Attached it to two non-threaded holes that were designed with the idea of you using them for a backing plate. Then I made it black with a black Sharpie marker and attached the display. Then I got a short USB cable I had and ran it to the USB port on the wheel button box.

By the way, in our review of the AccuForce V2, I wondered out loud the need for a USB port on the back of the wheel button box and why the controller needed a second USB cable to the PC. Well now I know why, the USB is for a display and the second USB cable powers said USB port. And now that I know this and use it, I’m very happy for it, because I think this design turned out really slick

PRO – SRD-M3 GAMING SOFTWARE

The SRD-M3 Gaming Software that comes with the SRD-R3 dash is really well done. It’s easy to install, has a good User Guide right there for questions, allows you to pick and choose game plugins, gives you a good number of dash options on an easy to follow screen and allows you to save your configurations. It also gets updated fairly often which is important in a third party software like this.

Besides configuring the dashboard, the SRD-M3 software also has two other tricks, vDashboard and vTelemetry.

vDashboard is a digital dash on your monitor that is nicely laid out and has options like adjusting gauge colors and angle of tachometer. It’s nice but I didn’t find much use for it with the SRD-R3 digital dash blocking its view. You can move it to the side but looks a little odd there.

I did enjoy exploring vTelemetry. It’s not the most dynamic telemetry tool but it does allow you to see a breakdown of your laps, with speed, RPM, steering angle, throttle and brake inputs, etc. I found it useful to analyze how well I was maximizing my braking.

If I do have one minor complaint it’s that you need to launch the game from the software to have the dash work, at least when you first fire up the game. I was able to play the game, exit, then go back in again without having to launch from the SRD-M3 dashboard.

This is a complaint because issues can arise when you have multiple softwares that require you to launch the game from them….an issue I experienced.

Every time I launched Sim Commander 4 for my AccuForce V2, it would shut down the SRD-M3 software that was trying to connect at the same time. Oddly enough, Darin didn’t have this issue running the same hardware and software, but after a lot of problem solving we eventually threw in the towel and found a work around. The work around for me was firing up the game via Sim Commander 4 – like always – then alt-tabing while in-game and running the “check” mode in the display software to bring the display to life. After that it worked fine.

Not ideal but one of those things when you have two pieces of software fighting each other.

NEUTRAL – FUNCTION

When it comes to actually using the SRD-R3, there’s good and bad.

On the positive side, there’s a lot of good information there such as gear, speed, lap time, fuel left and sector splits. And if you want different information like water temperature, position, live gap time, flags, if you’re in DRS zone and more, you can do that in the Dashboard Configuration.

Where things start to go a little sideways is when it comes to shift points. The dash has 16 white LED’s showing the full RPM range, then 6 configurable purple LED’s up top. The issue is, with the all the LED’s being either white or purple, it’s hard to tell when to shift.

While it’s easy for you at home to see when I should shift with the camera focused on the dashboard, when you’re actually driving you aren’t looking at the dashboard, you’re watching the road and only catching the lights in your peripheral vision.

This is why pretty much all racing cars use some combo of green, yellow, red and blue lights to make it easy for the driver to see where they’re at in the rev band. Without this differentiation – as I found out with the SRD-R3 – it can be tough.

To improve the situation I tried a couple things. First I turned the brightness level all the way down to try to differentiate the white LED’s in the rev band. This did help a bit – the band is made up of three different size LED’s, so there was an attempt to differentiate them – but it still didn’t help enough. Plus, while driving it’s really hard to tell if the RPM band is at the last LED, or second to last…or third to last. You don’t have time to count out sixteen lights.

This left the full RPM guage pretty useless.

As for the top 6 purple RPM LED’s, at first I didn’t have much more confidence in them. The default “Full range” setting in the Dashboard Configuration had all 6 of them on pretty much all the time. Not very helpful.

But then I played around with the options and started to make progress. A few of the standard profiles worked well out of the box. The “Green and red” profile – although all the lights are purple, the software labels them as green, red and blue”…go figure – worked well on the Pro Mazda in iRacing. I also found the “F1 Progressive” setting to work well with – you guessed it – the 2017 Ferrari F1 car in Assetto Corsa. The lights would turn on as you would expect they should and the last one lite up lower in the rev range, the ideal spot to shift for current F1 power units.

But outside of those examples, I spent a lot of time manually adjusting the rev light points and saving it as a profile for that car. This process works but it’s kind of annoying to do for every car and the slider to adjust when the light comes on isn’t as accurate as I would like. It pretty much always skips two or three numbers, and when there is a difference between the light coming on at 92 vs 93, this matters. Would be nice if you could just type in the number yourself.

I also played with some other shift indicators on the SRD-R3. I changed one of the “Alarm” lights to “RPM red zone.” I did this because this light is red and I thought the different color would help. The red light is more noticeable but on many cars you are already hitting the rev chip by the time it comes on, making it not very useful.

I also played with the audio “Gear shift” beeps that the display can give out. At times I felt like they were pretty accurate, other times not so much. Plus with me using my speakers for game sounds and headset for voice talk, hearing the beep is near impossible.

In the end, I was able to get the top purple LED rev lights to assist me. Selecting “Red and blue” profile and manually adjusting the final two lights to come on at the car’s shift light seemed to be the best way to catch the purple LED’s out of my peripheral vision. But I’d be lying if it wasn’t a bit of a strain keeping my eyes on the road, while at the same time trying to catch if a little light had come on.

NEUTRAL – PRICE

While 159.00€ isn’t cheap, it’s in the ballpark of other displays and a lot cheaper than its previous price of 229.00€. What is well priced are the mounting kits which only cost 10€ when bundled with the display. Also, it’s 34.90€ by itself which isn’t terrible either.

Lastly of note, the SRD-R3 comes with a two year warranty.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I prefer using the Renovatio SRD-R3 Digital Dash Display versus not. In the pursuit of having the most realistic seating position and field of view with my setup, there are many times when it’s not possible for me to see the car’s digital display. Other times it requires me to keep the in-game wheel on in cars with wheel mounted telemetry, even though I’d prefer to turn it off. Thus, having a digital dash is helpful.

Is the Renovatio SRD-R3 as helpful as I’d like it to be? Not entirely. My biggest pain point of not being able to see the in-game dash is not seeing the rev lights. And while I eventually got it calibrated to a point where the top LED’s did help, it took more work and concentration than I had hoped. It’s just tough to have rev lights that don’t change color when you’re focused on racing.

Beyond the rev lights, I’m happy with everything else. It looks good and is perfectly sized to be mounted on my wheel or a wheel base with one of the optional mounts. Its nice to know the gear, fuel levels, lap times, etc. I also like the software despite the work around I needed for the AccuForce.

Is my sim racing life better with it? Yes.

But despite that, I’m left a little disappointed at what it could be with something as simple as using different color LED’s, or even using RGB LED’s as that becomes more of a thing. If it had that change, then this display would be a no question recommendation. But for now, I understand if you have reservations.

The post Renovatio SRD-R3 Digital Data Display Review appeared first on Inside Sim Racing.

The post Project Cars 2 – Test Drive – Jaguar E Type – Watkins Glen appeared first on Inside Sim Racing.

While the Rally Wheel Add-on Sparco R383 Mod is suppose to be a replica, it sure doesn’t feel like it. It comes in at a full 33 cm (13 inches) in diameter. Its thick rim is covered in suede with the right amount of padding underneath to keep you comfortable but in control. It’s also really sturdy feeling, resisting our best efforts to twist and bend it.

Sim Racing Products Available at Ricmotech

PRO – FUNCTION

While the name suggests that the R383 Mod is best suited for rally racing, it also does another form of racing exceptionally well, oval racing. At both disciplines, the R383 Mod is fantastic.

For rally racing, the large, round, rim is ideal. The larger rim helps to keep your hands steady – as steady as they can be in rally racing – and the round shape makes it so your hand can slide on the rim and never lose contact due to a flat bottom or top.

Like in rally racing, the large diameter also assists you in oval racing. Oval racing is all about “quiet hands,” allowing your feet to steer the car. Having quiet hands is much easier with a 33 cm rim then a 28 cm one. Another plus is the rim’s thickness. Not only does the rim keep you from death gripping your wheel – no matter the racing discipline – but in oval racing you can really lean on it and use it to help keep your hands steady.

When we reviewed the R383’s brethren, the Sparco P310 Competition wheel, we thought that it was a fantastic all around wheel and could handle cars from open wheel to oval. And while we still think it can, the R383 clearly showed us that it’s better when it comes to rally and oval racing.

NEUTRAL – BUTTON BOX

The button box on the R383 utilizes the same heavy duty plastic that all Thrustmaster wheels use but this time it features a nice looking carbon fiber pattern on the front. Out back is the usual Thrustmaster semi-quick release system that allows the R383 to be attached to all the wheel bases in the Thrustmaster Ecosystem. This includes the T300, TX, T500, TS-PC Racer, TS-XW Racer and T-GT.

The R383 features 9 action buttons, which is an average number of buttons for a sim racing wheel these days. The buttons are the same as the P310 Competition’s, meaning they are concave shaped and have a positive click. What isn’t the same is the color scheme, with the buttons coming in black, white, yellow and orange. While I appreciate the seasonal color for this time of year, I would have preferred to see the Sparco Red and Black color scheme from the P310 wheel and TS-XW Racer wheel base.

Back to P310 similarities, the R383 uses the same coned shaped d-pad with push function, and like on the P310, it has its pros and cons. On the pros side, the stealthy cone shaped d-pad is a neat design. On the con side, it can be a bit tricky to use. You have to be very positive with your left, right, up, down inputs or you can accidently select the wrong function.

The paddle shifters also carry over from the P310, which is a good thing. They’re metallic, nicely shaped, tall (13 cm / 5 inches) and can be moved in and out to fit the user’s finger reach. And while they don’t have the most positive click we have ever felt, it is far from bad and solid for the price point.

NEUTRAL – PRICE

Speaking of price, the R383 is priced perfectly. At $199.99 (£179.99) the wheel isn’t a steal but isn’t overpriced. It’s priced exactly where it should be for what you get.

FINAL THOUGHTS

We’re surprised how impressed we are with the Rally Wheel Add-on Sparco R383 Mod. While the P310 Competition might be the flashier of the two Sparco / Thrustmaster wheels, when it comes to rally and oval racing, the R383 is the way to go.

The wheel is just so well designed for those disciplines. 33 cm isn’t too big or too small. The thick suede rim is comfortable but gives you leverage. The wheel feels super solid. It’s just an all around good package.

We really don’t have anything bad to say about it, i.e. no CONS. Sure, the Fall color scheme isn’t our favorite and you have to be careful with the d-pad, but those are pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.

In the end, if you are a rally and/or oval sim racer and have a Thrustmaster wheel base, or are thinking of getting one, this is the best wheel for the job.

The post Thrustmaster Rally Wheel Add-on Sparco R383 Mod Review appeared first on Inside Sim Racing.

No, the T-GT is not a direct drive wheel, a rumor that had legs thanks to lost in translation comments from GT Creator Kaz. But it is the best wheel base that Thrustmaster has ever made.

While Thrustmaster wheels usually sacrifice some smoothness for road feel, the T-GT does not. It is a fair amount smoother than the previous smoothest wheel, the TS-PC / TS-XW Racer twins, and you rarely feel any bumps or cogs when you turn the wheel. It accomplishes this without deadening the feel either, giving you the best of both worlds, detail and smoothness.

As for force feedback, it is also a step up from the TS Racer twins. We drove the T-GT and TS-XW back-to-back – with the Sparco P310 Competition wheel on the T-GT to eliminate the effect of a smaller diameter wheel – and the T-GT’s force feedback was about 20% stronger. The bump in force feedback isn’t nearly as notable as the smoothness, but it is an improvement nonetheless.

And if you’re curious, the force feedback difference between the 28 cm T-GT wheel and the – easier to turn – 31 cm Sparco P310 Competition wheel wasn’t much, which goes to show you the strength of the T-GT wheel base.

Sim Racing Products Available at Ricmotech

PRO – GRAN TURISMO SPORT INTEGRATION

Clearly the T-GT is the official wheel of Gran Turismo Sport and we’re not just saying that because it has a big “GT” logo on it. While all the standard PS4 controller buttons make their way to any compatible PS4 wheel, none of them have both the left and right sticks. The “mini sticks” on the wheel not only give you another way to navigate, but more usefully, make painting and taking pictures much easier than any other wheel. Without the T-GT, you’re better off going to the PS4 controller to paint or take photos.

But outside of that, what else does the T-GT offer for GT Sport? Depth Feedback. Depth Feedback adds suspension and vibration effects via the steering column. It’s a pretty cool effect. As the car speeds up or goes over rumble strips there’s a low frequency vibration that you not only feel in your hands but – if you have a simulator – can feel through your seat and pedal plate. I was very impressed how well the sensation was felt across my entire Next Level Racing F1GT rig. It’s very SimXperience SimVibe like – albeit not as strong – but doesn’t require you to get a PC and all the other peripherals needed.

For Depth Feedback to work the wheel must be in “GT” mode and GT Sport is the only game that features it. Hopefully this effect can be supported in other titles in the future because it’s certainly a cool sensation, but for now, a GT Sport exclusive.

NEUTRAL – WHEEL BASE DESIGN

T-GT wheel base design is functional, but not very exciting. It’s smaller and lighter than the TS Racer twins, which is nice for a PS4 compatible wheel that might be getting moved around a lot. It has a nice metal base with padded feet that can be secured via the included clamp or INCLUDED M6 bolts and round feet for them as well. It’s nice to finally see a wheel come with bolts, saving customers from having to run to the hardware store when their new baby arrives. Lastly of note, is an I/O featuring modular power, USB, pedal and shifter connections.

So while that is all good, the T-GT isn’t the most exciting looking wheel base out there. The casing is entirely made of black plastic sans some metallic mesh for cooling. The rounded, non-symmetric, shape isn’t awful but isn’t the prettiest either. The most interesting design element of the wheel base is actually the part you’ll see the least, the Depth Feedback transducer on the back.

All-in-all it’s a just okay looking, especially when next to the TS Racer siblings with their angular design and metal inserts.

NEUTRAL – OPTIONS & SETTINGS

The options and settings for the T-GT mirror all the other Thrustmaster wheels. You can change the degrees of rotation on the fly by pressing the “Mode” button and left or right d-pad at the same time to increase or decrease it by set increments such as 360, 540, 720, 900 degrees. This comes in handy for games like GT Sport that do not have any degrees of rotation adjustment.

Outside of that are the usual setting in the Thrustmaster Control Panel. We were able to up the force feedback strength to 100% without any issues from the default of 75%. And Public Service Announcement, even if you only plan to use the wheel on the PS4, hooking it up to the PC, adjusting settings and installing the latest firmware and driver is a good idea.

NEUTRAL – STEERING WHEEL

The T-GT steering wheel is a mixed bag.

On the positive side, all those buttons are awesome. There are 12 push buttons (not including the PS button), d-pad, 2-mini sticks and – my personal favorite – 4 machined aluminum rotary selectors with 12 positions and push function. All the buttons have a nice resistance to them, particularly the L2, R2, Share, and Options buttons, and the rotary selectors feel great to the touch and are very positive in both rotation and push function.

I loved being able to toggle through the bottom right menu in GT Sport by pressing the bottom right rotary selector and then rotating it to adjust things like ABS, Traction Control and Fuel Usage. Outside of GT Sport – which quite frankly didn’t utilize all the buttons – and to PC land, the amount of buttons on the T-GT might give you pause if you were thinking about picking up a button box. Between the number and variety of buttons, only the most complicated cars – like modern F1 cars – might demand more buttons. Outside of that, there are plenty enough buttons to map.

On the not so positive side, the 28 cm leather wrapped rim is an issue. The 28 cm rim just looks and feels small. If it was an F1 like rim, I think I could live with 28 cm. But for a traditional shaped wheel, I want it to be at least 30 cm in diameter.

Oddly enough, in speaking with Thrustmaster at E3, the 28 cm diameter was a pushed from Polyphony themselves. Maybe they wanted to maximize force feedback strength? Either way, it feels small.

Also not helping the size issue is the feel of the rim. After some really great, meaty and supportive, rims from Thrustmaster such as the 599XX Evo 30, TS-PC Racer rim, and Sparco P310 Competition, the T-GT rim feels underwhelming. While the leather is nice, there isn’t much padding underneath it, making the rim a bit hard and not nearly as meaty as I would like. Also not helping the feel is the silver plastic accent on the bottom. There are countersunk bolts on the backside of the rim securing the silver accent piece. When you’re driving your fingers touch the top bolt hole and that doesn’t feel great.

Then there’s the question of the piece from a design standpoint. I don’t think the T-GT is a bad looking wheel but I think it would look more high end without the plastic silver accent and large GT branded center hub. These plastic pieces take away from the quality materials such as the leather on the rim, the metal wheel spokes and the nicely machined rotary selectors.

NEUTRAL – PEDALS

The T3PGT pedals are fine for their price, but aren’t nearly to the level of the T-GT wheel. Having a bundle that allows you to race out of the box is good, and the pedals, with the conical brake mod installed are good enough to get the job done. But for a wheel of the T-GT quality and price, nicer – load cell – pedals are needed. A load cell brake pedal that translates how much pressure you apply to the brake, rather than how much distance the brake has traveled, is just so much more intuitive and better feeling. It is a must at this price point.

CON – PRICE

Which brings us to price. For as nice as the T-GT wheel base is and how slickly it’s integrated into GT Sport, $800 is a lot of money for a package that has okay pedals and 28 cm rim. For that kind of money there needs to be a very high quality experience across the board from wheel base to wheel to pedals, and while the wheel base possess that quality, the other two components do not.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you’re ride or die for GT Sport, then the T-GT is worth giving a look. The buttons provide you the most user friendly experience out there and the vibration that Depth Feedback sends through your rig is really cool and well done.

But outside of GT Sport, the T-GT becomes a much harder sell. The steering wheel is just too small. It’s a disappointing design choice by Polyphony, especially in lieu of our testing in which the larger diameter P310 Competition wheel only slightly reduced the force feedback of the base.

The pedals are also an issue. For the price and quality of the wheel, the brake pedal needs to have a load cell. Sure the T3PGT’s are competent, but I certainly struggled going back to pedals that just measure distance traveled.

And while the T-GT wheel base is the best wheel base Thrustmaster has ever made, it’s not a big enough step up to overlook the steering wheel, pedals, and most of all, $800 price tag. If it was in the $500-600’s range, then some of these issues could possibly be forgiven. But at it’s current price, the T-GT is really asking, “How much of a GT Sport fan are you?”

The post Thrustmaster T-GT Review appeared first on Inside Sim Racing.

The post rFactor 2 – Test Drive – Callaway C7 GT3R – Zandvoort appeared first on Inside Sim Racing.

The post Beyond The Gloves Ep.10 – Does Our Past Sim Racing Hurt Us? appeared first on Inside Sim Racing.