- 3,082
- Allen, Texas
- crispychicken49
- crispychicken49
Fanatec Porsche 911 GT3 RS V2
So, I recently bought the 911 GT3 RS Wheel with Clubsport Pedals, and promised I would post up a review. So here it goes.
The Feel of The Wheel-Many wheels I've had the luck to test in the past felt cheap, and plasticy. What Fanatec has done is basically take a toy, and make it feel like a real wheel from a car. A lot of that has to go down to the Alcantara Leather, handstiched, that is a perfect replica of the actual wheel in the 911 GT3 RS. Then there's the metal Porsche logo, exact down to the last detail of the real thing. The Alcantara wheel is incredibly beautiful, not to mention it smells nice too! One thing I would do is go to an Auto care shop, and buy some Alcantara protection. I have that on mine, and it's supposed to keep the wheel lasting new for a very long time. Then there's the plastic that circles the Porsche logo. Even though it's plastic, the texture on it makes it feel, leathery almost. The buttons have a great haptic feel to them, you always know which one you've pushed and you can tell when it's all the way down. The best part is, they're brushed in a sparkly metallic coat of paint. This makes it look like the metal on the real wheel. Now, usually beauty comes with it's drawbacks, just like that hot girl you see at the bar, and then she tells you she's a man. But so far, I haven't found any. The Alcantara gives massive amounts of grip, the buttons look and feel nice, I really have nothing bad to say.
5/5
Force Feedback-This is a big factor in the overall total of the wheel. That's why every wheel I test will get a score out of 25 on this. With the adjustability the wheel offers, you can set the FFB from 100, all the way to 10. 100 is very strong, and depending on if you've got a high powered car our not, you may be in for your daily workout. In fact, to test how strong it is on 100, I went in an LMP on Circuit De La Sarthe (GT5), and boy were my arms swaying. Right now though I have it at 70, mostly because without the fans turned on the wheel will get fairly hot. It's very precise in it's movements. Even with the way GT5 has it's FFB set up, I can usually catch slides before they get to bad. It's very lovely trying to out brake someone, as the wheel has a setting to select ABS vibration (more on that later) to where the wheel and pedals will shake when you brake past a certain point. It also has a default setting of gas vibration. One complaint here however is it is sometimes a little rachety mid turn. I know that's going to happen however with the technology we have at the moment. Though the CSR Elite is supposed to have this different.
23.6/25
Paddle Shifters-For me, I am a big fan of the traditional Stick shift. That doesn't mean I hate paddle shifts, it just means I prefer the Stick over the paddles. Still, I am reviewing the wheel, which means I must use the paddles. Since I bought the Clubsport Edition I got the extra metal paddles. Many people complained about the feel of the paddles, but I actually like them. They might not move to much, but still, I always know if I've shifted. Only con is that they're a little bit farther back then I'm used to, but hey, I have small hands!
4.8/5
Shifter-I was greatly surprised about the shifter. After hearing tons and tons of horror stories on the shifters, I didn't think they would be as good as they really are. Sure the noise is a problem, but other than that I think they have an amazing feel to them. I can tell if I've shifted into the right gear, or missed, even with my eyes closed. To me it doesn't feel cheap like a lot of people claim it does. Sure, it's not perfectly real, but cheap doesn't describe it for me. Another drawback however is the mounting point. The metal beams feel frightening to me, and the PS/2 connector point on the bottom means a little more engineering done to put it into a rig, but other than that, I think it's great!
3.8/5
Adjustability-Many games don't always fully support wheels in them. (Looking at you GT5) That means that, even if they do have adjustment options in game, it wouldn't do anything for the wheel. That's why Fanatec wheels offer options that go way past any game I've played. You can adjust Sensitivity, Linearity, FFB, ABS Vibration, Dampers, Drift Mode, and many other things. You can even save up to five different setups for five different games. This means you can personalize the wheel completely to your preference's. However, one thing is completely overshadowed in other reviews of this wheel, or any other Fanatec wheels for that matter. It's the fact you can turn the fan's on and off. What you do is when you power it on, it will start to calibrate. When it goes to turn back to the left, catch it and hold the two right hand side lower buttons, then slowly turn it back to center. After that it will list the firmware variant and then on or off. It should say on, of not switch it on. There you have it, turned the fans on!
5/5
User Friendlyness-This is also overlooked a lot of the times in reviews. To me, this is a big thing. THis will be a bit short here because, I mean, how long can you drone on about User Friendlyness? Overall, it's very friendly. Most people can just pick up and play on PS3. However, all is not true for PC. For PC, you will have to download all the drivers from the website and then install them. After that though you are good to go!
4/5
Fanatec Clubsport Pedals (CSP)
The Fanatec Clubsport Pedals. The best pedals you can buy for console gaming. Here we go!
Feel-A powerful group, can make or break a pedal set. Lets start with the gas pedals themselves. They're aluminum plates brushed with silver paint. Though if you think that's dull, then you can always buy a color set from Fanatec! It's a very tough material, and it has a nice Racecar look to it. Now lets go into the individual pedals.
Gas-Gas is fairly nice. Nice and long, (pun not intended) it's great for heal and toeing. It absolutely dwarfs the other pedals. However, I feel the default spring is a little loose. It's not terrible, in fact it's quite good, but it's not as good as the other pedals.
Brake-There is one word, and only one word to describe the brake. AMAZING! The load cell makes this feel exactly like a real brake pedal. To compare it to real life, the pedal in a BMW 330I feels exactly like this. In fact I measured it and it has about the same throw.
Clutch-Resistant to this is phenomenal. I actually have to work my leg to push on this. I really can't find any complaints to this. It's just awesome.
28.2/30
Looks-I kind of touched base a little on previous, so I'll keep it short. This pedal set looks amazing. Very industrial looking and robust. These things look like they'll do some damage, and boy do they succeed!
10/10
Adjustability-As always, Fanatec has been a leading player in this area. THey didn't fail here either. If you think the pedals aren't stiff/loose enough, bring out a wrench and tighten/loosen the spring! It's that easy! You even have the choice of moving the pedal faces to give the allusion of different throws, or even move them into a position to give easier heel and toeing. Then if you open them up (not advised unless you contact Fanatec and ask for permission to open them up as to not void the warranty) you can move the brake up a peg to give a different throw. You can even invert them! As not to mention you can buy the tuning kit to change springs, brass bars, all that jazz.
10/10
Overall Totals
GT3 RS V2 Wheel-46.2/50Clubsport Pedals-48.2/50
Grand Total-94.4
My Grade 👍👍
Final Verdict
If you're in need of a wheel around the $300 mark, then this is the wheel for you. It's a full head and shoulders ahead of the competition.
