GT Academy is rolling up to Race Camps at the end of another year of competition and there’s one thought hitting the minds of those of us who didn’t qualify… “I’ll get a wheel set up and qualify next year”. As luck would have it, Pagnian Imports has sent us across their Next Level Racing Wheel Stand to test.
First impressions of the stand are fair. It’s a pretty heavy piece of kit and comes bundled with all the nuts and bolts (and washers) required to fit just about any brand of wheel to it, along with adapter plates for the Thrustmaster wheels. There’s big, chunky bolts provided for the main adjustment options and to collapse the stand away in pretty short order, so there’s no fiddling about with tools – though you will need a 13mm spanner or socket to secure or detach the wheel mounting plate. The plate can’t be adjusted for angle however, though you can achieve some tilt by using supplied washers as bolt spacers.
Aesthetically it’s reasonably pleasing too. The majority of the stand comprises 10cm2 steel box section finished in a nice gloss black with the occasional Next Level Racing branding sticker. While I’m not the world’s biggest fan of the shiny chequerplate used for the pedal base, it does the job and is, again, drilled to provide hard mounting for most types of pedal boxes that can be mounted. For those that can’t there’s an L-shaped bracket included that can be fixed to the front to prevent the pedals sliding off the end under particularly panicked braking. The whole base slides backwards and forwards for the longer and shorter legged gamers.
The gear shift mount can be positioned either on the left or right, with a reversible Z-shaped piece of black box section slotting into the ends of the horizontal bar – a plastic blank is provided for the unused end to save on skinned body parts. I found that mounting the G25 shifter to the plate before attaching it to the Z-section resulted in interference from the mounting bolt, so be careful in which order you assemble things!
There’s a couple of nice touches here too. With our wheel stand, Pagnian included the Next Level Racing embroidered roll mat which you can toss out onto your floor to save hard surfaces from your driving efforts – and the mat’s long enough that you can put a seat onto the back (or the Next Level Racing GT Ultimate) and keep the stand and yourself the same distance apart. Also on the good idea list is a set of four velcro straps which you can use to secure the many, many cables in place – no more inviting loops of electricity to snare with your feet.
Driving the Wheel Stand is just like driving a full rig – something of a revelation considering this is a portable stand. Despite being a foldaway design, the two-post construction, good, wide-footprint and significant weight means that this effectively portable, temporary stand does not move. Avoiding the centre post style also means you have complete freedom of movement with your legs and feet, so those of you who like to heel-toe will be entirely satisfied.
Despite being a folding stand, it’s not so much of a portable piece. You’ll almost certainly need to detach the gear shift bracket (which is pretty simple) and probably the pedals and wheel too in order to store or stack it and the physical dimensions mean that, unlike some other portable wheelstands, it won’t fit in the boot of my MX-5. There’s also the sheer weight – it comes in at around 18kg (40lb).
But that’s not the Wheel Stand’s forte. It’s part of a modular racing rig design to which you can attach a racing seat, a three monitor set up, a gaming desktop or a keyboard and mouse stand, all also available from Pagnian – it can even be ordered as a flight simulator rig. It works perfectly well as a standalone though, performing admirably even while I was slouched on the sofa.
The Next Level Racing Wheel Stand is available to customers in Australia through pagnianimports.com.au for AU$245 delivered, while European buyers can order from pagnian.co.uk for £149 with free European delivery. North American customers will need to order through the Australian website using the Contact form, and with cross-Pacific delivery it totals US$295.
Considering the weight, stability and adaptability of the Wheel Stand it’s one I’d heartily recommend. If only I’d had it in June, I might have been a contender…
With thanks to Hess at Pagnian Imports for providing GTPlanet with this review unit.
See more articles on Next Level Racing, Review, and Wheel Stands.
I have this stand in the Gtultimate v2 cockpit package and love it! It is rock solid!
I don’t know about this stand. The wheel/pedal ergonomics look horrible. The way the pedals are angled, you’d have to be laying on the floor to go more than 15 minutes without your shins bursting into flame and your calves screaming at you to stop the torture.
I misread the company name as Pagani & got all excited, LOL!
Looks like a good solid wheel stand. However, I’d still go for the Wheel Stand Pro if I was in the market for one of these types of stands.
I’d hate to think that was the intent behind the name. That being said the product itself looks like a solid bit of kit.
This looks pretty good. I badly need some sort of portable rig for my G27 so I can give the wheel thing a go again, I’m pleased to hear the comments that this one will not move around because I can’t tolerate that.
On the subject of the G27 not being compatible for PS4, I’m not too concerned, because I’m not sure a PS4 is worth buying, and I’m really not sure yet if GT7 will be the game I expect it to be, making a PS4 purchase not necessarily worthwhile. The future for me could be a cheap PC and a return to GPL.
I’m more worried about my G27 working with the PS4
May I have your attention please. Could the wheel sim shady please stand up?
Ye cannot believe the G27 won’t work on PS4. Do they think we are made of money? So this means I have to go and buy another wheel…. grrr!
Or turn to PC racing sims. All the wheels are supported there.
Until the day they drop their prices significantly. But based on all other products that Pagnian Imports sells on their site which is normally 20% markup, it’ll probably never happen.
Looks very solid, functional and versatile…well done.
Looks like another Apiga wheelstand copy. =/
That actually looks a lot like my home made wheel stand.
I thought a picture would’ve accompanied the news story nicely.
This is so awesome. I’ve always wondered if there was a wheel stand with interchangeable shifter mount, so you can simulate driving RHD and LHD cars correctly; something that almost everyone takes for granted. I would love to have this indeed.
Back when I was trying out my G27 the use of the H-pattern shifter and switching it from side to side based on whether my car was RHD or LHD was the most enjoyable aspect of it, great fun! :) I was simply using a portable table at the time, far from an ideal rig unfortunately.