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Wheel Shootout (Fanatec Porsche Turbo / GT3RS v2 / Logitech G27 / Momo Racing FFB) + Review of the Fanatec Rennsport Cockpit
Hallo to all GT and sim racing fans!
It took me some days to finallize and write down the first part of the four wheel shootout review. My brother and I which are both very much into arcarde racing had tested the Fanatec Turbo, the Fanatec GT3 RS v2, the Logitech G27 and the Logitech Momo Racing FFB wheel several hours all mounted on the Fanatec Rennsport Cockpit. So here we go ... I hope you will like the review which is our first one (If you have any questions please feel free to answer on my post. Of course we are very happy about any kind of constructive positive or negative citicism
) ...Introduction
Before I want to go deep inside the review of the four wheels and the Fanatec playseat I think its necessary to introduce myself and to give a short overview of my virtual racing experience so far (Im from Augsburg/Germany so please accept my apologize for my bad English). I started racing on my old PC with Microprose Grand Prix in 1992 equipped with a normal analog joystick. I loved this game a lot and would have given my right arm for owning one of these great steering wheels I want to introduce in my today review. But the main reason why I always wanted to have a racing simulator at home was a Virtual Racing video gaming machine which I was able to play for my first time on our summer holidays in the Netherlands. Four years later I upgraded to Grand Prix 2 and also bought the first Playstation together with the official Formula one racing game, Ridge Racer and my first really sleazy Madcatz wheel. Nevertheless I really liked it because it was my first wheel and costs me about 3 monthly earnings I hardly had to earn with my side job doing a paper round. When I was around 18 years old I started to lose interest in virtual racing a little bit and spent my spare time on different hobbies. I dont know exactly what was the initial jump-start to find the way back to my racing hobby, but with finishing my studies I bought with one of my first paychecks the Logitech Momo Racing FFB and started racing again on my PC and mainly different arcade games (Need for Speed Underground, Race Driver etc.). Finally this year I made another big step into achieving my dream of owning a like real racing simulator with buying the Fanatec Rennsport Cockpit and a mid-priced FFB wheel. For the review I also asked my brother, who is also much into arcade virtual racing like myself, to support me and give his second opinion.
The four steering wheels, their compatible accessory (pedals (Clubsport/Standard Fanatec/Standard G27), shifter (Fanatec/Logitech)) and the Rennsport Cockpit we all tested on the PC playing many hours on Need for Speed Shift, RFactor, F1 2010, Dirt2 and Drift. Within our Review we dont want to list all the functions of each wheel separately because we think this has been already done in many other reviews and can also be easily found on the homepages of the different manufacturer. We really want to concentrate on the differences of the wheels in the racing situation, how they feel like and how good is their build quality. Finally we did a short ranking in different categories. So lets start with the review
Part I - The Wheel Shootout
Of course, if you want to buy a certain product you always have to start thinking about what is the price frame you are willing to pay for it. So first of all I want to list the particular street price of each wheel package (including shipping) you have to pay here in Germany (prices have all been checked on October 3th 2010), which I will also use as a reference for my later conclusions:
Fanatec Porsche GT3RS v2 (including Clubsport pedals and Fanatec shifter set) 380,- EUR
Fanatec Porsche Turbo Set (including standard pedals and Fanatec shifter set) not available any more (used for around 250,- EUR)
Logitech G27 250,- EUR
Logitech Momo Racing FFB not available any more (used for around 40,- EUR)
Lets start with the budget wheel, the Logitech Momo Racing FFB. As every Logitech hardware you can install the driver on any operating system and the thing will work without any problems. Plug&Play was always a big strength of the Logitech equipment I had so far. In addition the wheel can be mounted easily with the good working screw clamps. The wheel itself is really nice build and solid, with its good Momo-F1-style wheel which is coated with a nice soft rubber. Personally I have the feeling that the build quality of the wheel isnt that far away from the much more expensive wheels we tested and it should last for a long time. The only thing which I noticed and didnt like is a little bit of play within the steering shaft. I could move it some millimeters up and down, not sure if this has already been a problem when I bought the wheel some years ago. The shifter paddles are made of plastic and not out of metal like at the more expensive G27. Nevertheless they worked really well for me and have a good pressure point. Within the on-road test the wheel again does a really good job compared to its price. The FFB is quite strong, of course not as accurate and strong as on the other three wheels, but also not too far away. Yes, there is a noticeable class difference (the lap times with the other wheels and even more with the better pedals became a lot quicker) but you will have a lot of fun with this wheel. When you compare the pedals between the Momo wheel and the other three wheels (especially the G27 and the Clubsport pedals) the difference is getting bigger. The Momo pedals, made out of plastic, of course dont have the building quality like e.g. the pedals from the G27. But, also the driving accuracy you have with the Momo pedals is far away like when using e.g. the Fanatec Clubsport pedals, they of course add a lot of realism when playing a racing game compared to a simple digital button on a joypad. All in all I would they its a really good wheel for a racing beginner or gamer who wants to have a much better racing feeling at home than the standard joypads/Keyboard can provide. Especially when having a look on its price the wheel does a really good job and you will have a lot of fun playing racing games with it.
Because I think many people who are thinking about buying a wheel in the price range of about 300,- EUR will compare the top-of-the-line Fanatec with the competing Logitech wheels, it would probably make sense to compare the remaining three wheels and their accessory all at once. First of all two general comments before I want to go into detail:
1. A definite recommendation is really hard to give because all three packages have their advantages on different areas and the street price compared to each other is still quite different. So it really depends on where you set your personal weights and what your personal budget is (You get what you pay for).
2. Its a pity that we did not had the new Fanatec Porsche Carrera wheel (direct driven) in our review because it seems to be a very interesting package pricewise. But we will be able to have a closer look onto it very soon and soon as we have it here we will hand in later a comparison to the other tested wheels and release an in depth review.
Lets start with the comparison of the wheels itself. When you have a first look on the wheels you will notice the huge different between the rim diameter, thickness of the rim, amount of directly available buttons on the wheel and that the Logitech steering wheel is the only one made of metal. I personally like the Fanatec steering wheels a lot better. I have big hands and the Fanatec wheels feel much more comfortable and like the real thing. On the other hand the Logitech with its metal frame looks more solid, which does not mean that the Fanatec wheels dont have a really good building quality. All wheels were coated with high quality materials (G27: original leather, Fanatec Porsche Turbo: original leather; GT3RS: original Alcantara leather) which we liked all very much and where we failed to find a clear winner. Button-wise (except for the two sequential paddle shift buttons) the Fanatecs are equipped much better, way more buttons than the G27 and with the directional pad directly on the wheel (G27 has most buttons and the directional pad mounted on the H-shifter, so you are forced to mount the H-shifter anyway to have the possibility to use the pad). The part where the Fanatec wheels really could be improved and where the G27 is a clear winner are the sequential paddle shift buttons. On the Fanatec wheels they dont feel as much reliable as the rest of the wheel and because of their little imprecise switching point you sometimes miss a switching operation. Especially when mounting e.g. the Clubsport aluminum paddles which are included in the GT3RS package. On the other hand this is the part where the G27 really shines with its metal F1-style paddles and a very good pressure point. Although we did not really needed the ability to mount the wheels directly on a normal table, for our wheel comparison we tested how firm they can be mounted there via the wheel clamp. Both systems (Fanatec/Logitech) do a good job here. I eventually liked the G27 here a little bit more but the Fanatec system also worked quite well and in addition to the standard system, they sell a very solid alternative solution in their web-shop.
Lets have a closer look on the on-road test of the three wheels. And here we come to the general question what are the advantages / disadvantages of the direct drive on one side and the belt drive on the other. Especially with our three candidates its also a matter of taste which you prefer more (In general, especial if you have a look on the high quality market, the belt drive system is definitely the technology to go with, within the mid price market, in my opinion, both systems (belt/direct drive) have their right to exist. ). Personally I like both FFB alternatives and it really depends on which racing game you play and how the FFB has been programmed there. The direct drive in the Logitech wheels give you a more direct feedback from road and car which is especially really helpful in Dirt2 where we were able to control the Rally car better than with the belt-driven Fanatec wheels, because their FFB effects here are a little bit to indirect and smooth. The feeling of the FFB effects on the G27 are more intensive e.g. if the car looses grip and when the underground of the road is really rough. On the other hand the direct drive of the G27 often lacks of realistic feeling when driving street cars. The steering is often too rough and not perfectly smooth like on the Fanatec wheels and therefore sometimes hard to control precisely. The FFB of the Fanatec wheels is totally smooth, feels very realistic and negotiate bends is very precise. Again the thicker Fanatec rim ads realism when driving most of the games. Beyond that the belt-drive has no play within the FFB in the center of the wheel, like the direct drive of the G27 has. All in all my brother and I liked both FFB systems very much. The FFB strength is on a comparable level and every wheel has its (dis-)advantages depending on the racing game you play. Finally if we have to vote for a winner here the new Fanatec GT3RS v2 would be our choice. The belt drive has been further improved compared to the 2 year old Porsche Turbo. Fanatec made it even smoother and more silent. Whereas the Porsche Turbo wheel is just a little bit more quiet than the G27 (which is also not very noisy), the GT3RS v2 is by far the most silent wheel. In our opinion the additional small rumble effect motors, the Fanatec wheels have, were a nice but not a must-to-have feature, also because they are not featured by any racing game. Personally if I had one wish, I would leave them away and maybe invest the money into an even stronger FFB motor and/or better sequential paddle shifter buttons.
One of the coolest feature the Fanatec wheels provide is the possibility to tweak wheel settings directly on the wheel and you can find your individual and perfect game settings (FFB strength, and all other needed functions) on the fly, which makes your live much easier. I didnt expected that I would be that enthusiastic on this feature because of course you also have the possibility to tweak your settings in the wheel drivers, but it is a really, really cool feature which I dont want to miss any more. Especially on the PS3 where you dont have a separate driver tool for tweaking your wheel-settings right its a must-have-feature.
The Fanatec Turbo Wheel is the only wheel in our review which can be connected wireless to a PC or a PS3. So the only cable which is connected to the wheel and the pedals (if you use the Standard Fanatec pedals) is the power cable. I really like this feature, especially the wireless functionality of the wheel. It works very safe and we never had connection break downs when mounting the wheel about 3-4 meters away from the wireless-dongle (It even works better than my wireless Keyboard from Microsoft). I would appreciate to have this feature on future Fanatec wheels maybe in combination with a alternative possibility to connect it directly via USB cable.
I dont use separate shifters (Sequential and H-shifter) very often when playing racing games because most of the time Im using the shift paddles on the wheel, so for sure there will be many people which can give a more qualified feedback on this. But nevertheless I want to share my impressions with you. Both systems (Logitech/Fanatec) work really good for me and I would say that the build quality of the G27 and the Fanatec is good enough for a regular use without any problems. Anyway the G27 has a little better build quality and moreover its look and feel is more like the real thing. One example: Because you have to press down the gearshift leaver to enter the reverse gear like in a real car it cannot happen to activate it by mistake. Furthermore the Fanatec shifters are a little bit too noisy when shifting gears. Im curious to see how the Fanatec Clubsport shifter will be look like. If they are on the same building level than the Clubsport pedals Im sure they will be a big step forward to the current models. Currently I would prefer the G27 shifter a little bit over the Fanatec solution, but its really a small difference.
Both companies have a very good support. Logitech as a big international company has a great working support structure which always respond very fast when I had to deal with them. The people at Fanatec are very helpful and do their best to give individual answers/help to customer questions or problems. For such a small company they really have a great support and still try to improve it step by step. What I really like about Fanatec and what is a really big plus compared to many other companies is their dedication to improve their existing products with firmware updates, adding new features to their wheels, or even hardware upgrades.
When reading other Reviews of Sim-racing wheels on the internet you will very often read the conclusion that nothing has improved their racing skills more than investing their money into a better set of pedals. Especially after testing all these wheels with different pedals I can approve that the pedals are a very, very important integral part when it comes to realism and control in sim-racing.
Personally Im not the biggest fan of the Fanatec standard pedals. They just dont feel right for me, especially the throttle which has too less resistance and therefore is not as good controllable as on the other pedals here for me. But to be fair, I never had any problem with the standard pedals and they do a good job in their price range. All in all I must say they are a big improvement to the cheap pedals of the Momo Racing FFB wheel but also not as solid and functional as e.g. the G27 or even more the Clubsport pedals. With the pedals of the G27 I was really satisfied. They are build quite solid (e.g. the plastic they are made of seems to be more solid than on the Fanatec pedals) and are a good compromise if you dont want to spent a lot of money. You still have the feeling just to use a racing toy and not driving a real car but they add a lot of accuracy to your driving. Brake pedal and throttle are very smooth with a very practical counter pressure. Another huge step forward are the Clubsport pedals which are build very solid and come very close to the real thing. They are nearly totally made of metal and their whole look and feel is very close to a real car and thats probably the biggest compliment you can give in this case. Out of the box they can be adjusted easily without buying any additional upgrade and can be trimmed to nearly any personal taste (and if there is still something you are missing e.g. even more stiffness in the feel of the throttle you can buy an upgrade kit from Fanatec). I was able to adjust the brake pedal of the Clubsport pedals to feel very close to my brake pedal in my Audi. The feeling of the load cell brake pedal is much better than any brake pedal just using a spring and it simulates the increasing resistance of a real brake really well. The throttle with its long travel makes it possible to accelerate very accurate. When driving with the Clubsport pedals you really have the feeling to use professional equipment which is made for racing enthusiasts but all for a really affordable price. Although there are still some pedals on the market which are still a little bit better, e.g. when having a look at the building quality, they definitely are among the crème de la crème and are a lot cheaper than comparable pedals. Of course its unfair to compare the Standard with e.g. the Clubsport pedals because their price is on a totally different level but personally I think its worth the extra money and when deciding for one of the more expensive Fanatec wheels the Clubsport pedals are the perfect accessory for it. Especially because Fanatec offers a very nice package including the Clubsport pedals and the GT3 RS wheel for a very fair price.
Part II Fanatec Rennsport Cockpit
Coming soon
Summary / Conclusion
For a budget under 50,- EUR the Logitech Momo FFB Racing package does a decent job and can add a lot of realism playing racing games compared to a normal Joypad/Keyboard. Of course it cannot compare to the more expensive wheels in our reviews but for beginners its definitely worth thinking about. The most interesting part and the reason why we wanted to start this review was, how the three top products of Logitech and Fanatec compete against each other. All packages have their Pros and Cons and it really depends on the individual taste and how much money you are willing to spent on. If you really have the money my brother and I are on the same mind that the GT3RS v2 package with the Clubsport pedals is the combination you should go with. The price performance is really good and you get overall the best wheel and by far the best pedals. Nevertheless the Logitech G27 is a very nice wheel with good pedals and the best shifter in our review, available for a fair price. As already mentioned we are really looking forward to see how the new Fanatec Carrera wheel would compete next to the G27, because its price seems to be very competitive.
Personal comment / whish which goes directly to Fanatec:
I really looking forward for your Club Sport shifter which will hopefully resolve all my points of criticism I have on the current standard shifters. But my biggest personal whish would be a new top-of-the-line Fanatec wheel (Clubsport wheel
) which sets a new standard in the commercial market in respect of building quality and driving realism in the price range under 500,- EUR. I would be the happiest man alive to have a wheel in this price range with a smooth belt drive which is comparable to wheels known from the arcade video game machines in strength and smoothness (e.g. like the Happ wheels, Frex or ECCI), with a comparable build quality and with all the great adjustability and compatibility the Fanatec wheels are having today. Pictures:
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