Gran Turismo-Branded Fanatec Direct Drive Wheel Appears on Social Media

Images that seem to reveal Fanatec’s promised PlayStation 5 Direct Drive wheel have surfaced on different social media sites over the weekend, and it looks set to be an official Gran Turismo product too.

Although it’s not clear how the wheel has ended up in circulation — though in one case it was suggested the wheel was being sold on Facebook Marketplace — there’s been two separate instances of users posting the wheel’s packaging which clearly show both the name and design of the unit.

The first appearance was on Reddit, in a post now deleted by the original author, while a second image was posted to Twitter by a former GT Academy regional finalist:

It shows a largely white box with PlayStation blue borders — a rather different approach to packaging than Fanatec’s usual — with a picture of the wheel rim and base printed on the side. The name on the box is “GT DD Pro”, with the “GT” portion being the Gran Turismo logo.

This image shows a full size, circular but flat-bottomed wheel rim, that’s rather festooned with buttons, but most interesting is the GT logo in the middle. Combined with the official PlayStation accessory packaging — as you’d find on PS5 headsets and controllers — and the GT logo on the box, this strongly suggests that the wheel is set to be an official Gran Turismo item.

That’s backed up by the four controls labelled with red, green, blue, and yellow rings. These dials, which also appear on the Thrustmaster T-GT and T-GT II — the official wheel of Gran Turismo Sport — correspond to controls found in GT Sport’s multi-function display and allow for adjustment of the individual functions without having to scroll.

Indeed in many respects the wheel rim does resemble the Thrustmaster item, rather than usual Fanatec fare. That could mean that the wheel is a pre-production test piece rather than the finished product, or that Polyphony Digital has major input on how the official GT wheel looks and is laid out.

While the wheel itself is interesting, the base to which it’s mounted is of at least equal significance. The form appears identical to that of the recently revealed CSL DD wheel, a $350 direct drive unit compatible only with PC and Xbox, which would mean it’s the announced but not revealed PlayStation 4/5 version of that wheel. That is of course backed up by the “DD Pro” naming on the box.

For now, we don’t know if the wheel is the genuine article or not, and Fanatec hasn’t made any official statements just yet. Watch this space for more as this develops.

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Comments (28)

  1. Stoop Solo

    Will it need a specific rim for PS compatibility? If so, that would strain the deal to breaking point for me.

  2. michael lopez

    Seems like an obvious fake but with real intel. Or it is some mule that is carrying fanatec guts, but I doubt that. As others have pointed out it ia simply a thrustmasters with some photoshop. I can not imagine what day poly that fanatec is going to copy the thrustmaster design. GT branded wheels have a look to them but they are not identical.

  3. skYwinger

    Go to the Fanatec Forums side:

    There is no product announcement so far but the first product of this partnership will be announced in a couple of weeks and production is planned to start this year. The industrial design will be made by Polyphony Digital just like they did with other GT licensed products before and I am sure it will be perfectly integrated in their racing titles as other GT products before.

    There you have your answer

    1. Dopplegagger

      I assumed that Fanatec didn’t design the steering wheel. Look like that was the case. Explains a lot.

    1. Kurichan

      That‘s what I mean. The Google translate way is the not the correct way to translate ‚ for‘ in this case.

      The correct way is: PS5, PS4 対応。

      I hope this is just a prototype and fix this (including the design) if it is indeed real.

      1. Bartje_K77

        Just google translate the French word pour in Japanese and you’ll get: にとって
        Or the German word für: にとって

      2. Kurichan

        This was no criticism of you. I am fully bilingual and have worked as translator. Hence the observation.

        What I mean is にとって means ‚for‘ in a different context. As in: ‚for Bartje, Kurichan‘s reply was annoying, but for Kurichan, his comment was just an observation about wrong use of Japanese.‘ that is にとって。

    2. AC12346446

      No, it does not, unles your only friend is google translate (and it is the first search result)
      it doesn’t literally mean “For”
      it should be 対応
      and it should be PS5 対応, not 対応 PS5
      Chinese as well, it should be “PS5 適用” or 適用於 PS5″

  4. Nick Horne

    Official announcement that Polyphony and Fanatec have joined a partnership would suggest this is the legit wheel for GT7

  5. Kurichan

    The Japanese at the bottom is wrong. This looks like someone used a different translation of ‚for‘ and thought it works like Western languages.

    The logos of PlayStation, DD, Fanatec also all look like they have been added after as well.

    This is probably fake.

  6. rfreund

    It looks good in the sense it looks affordable. Thank god Fanatec expands to cheaper markets. Keep it going!

  7. DoctorColossus

    That is shockingly ugly. It’s hard to believe that’s a real Fanatec product given how beautifully designed their stuff is.

    1. Racer294

      Looking at it more. It is very ugly. Cheap and arcadie. In.the coming months and years we’ll here kids saying, ” my parents got me the Fanatec for my PS5 , it was cheap and broke is a week”

  8. Kosiek

    It doesn’t look like Fanatec style nor quality, not even one bit. The size is completely off, since this looks no larger than R260. It more looks like a cheap rip-off of the BMW GT3 2022 rim which you usually see in these silly Hori wheels. Fanatec uses metal, suede, high quality leather, and at least carbon-reinforced plastic. What Fanatec is not is fake aluminum-looking plastic, tiny rims and cheap, toy design.
    Thomas, if you’re reading this and it actually IS your planned product – don’t do that. Cancel it and bundle a McLaren GT3 rim.

  9. mc0029

    Definitely not a fan of the rim and was thinking fake till reading. “or that Polyphony Digital has major input on how the official GT wheel looks and is laid out” 🤔 We shall see, but beating thrustmaster to the dd market (if tm is trying) with something that looks like their wheel makes me laugh

    1. STINGer71

      This looks amazing? Did you ever see any fanatec wheel? 😁

      This looks like bad copy of TGT wheel with D-pad and main buttons out of thumb reach, totally opposite of Fanatecs ergonomic design

  10. mcfizzle

    That is a really ugly rim. It looks like they took an already bulky TGT rim and made it worse. I hope it’s not real.

      1. mcfizzle

        I’ve never used the TGT or seen it in person but it always looked much bulkier than the T500 or T300 rims, both of which I’ve owned. If it’s not bulky than that’s good but I still find this ugly.

    1. Racer294

      The TM TGT was over priced,imo. Fanatec has never made anything cheap. So to add a LC pedal to this bundle expect to tickle $1k US. Branding is very expensive, and Sony ain’t giving anything away. Don’t expect.to pop down to the local big box store and pick one up either. Add some ridiculous shipping and handling to that price.

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