- 680
- somewhere in PA
- deadcell96
For reasons unknown to me, my Fanatec Carrera decided it didnt want to work anymore and wont calibrate. Because of this, I decided to buy a Logitech G27. Not only does this let me experience one of the most popular wheels on the market, it also gives me a reason to use the shifter plate that came with my Rennsport wheel stand.
WHEEL
The wheel itself is made of metal and is wrapped in real leather. It is definitely a step up from the rubber I had on the Carrera and the DFGT before that. The leather is really comfortable and nice to hold. The wheel has a small set of LED light acting as shift lights. There are six buttons on the face of the wheel, unlike the G25 which only has two. The paddle shifters are like actual paddle shifters, not just buttons on the back of the wheel. There is a positive click when they are pressed.
The wheel uses the same case as the G25. For mounting the wheel, there Logitechs superb mounting system and paired with the two hard-mounting points in the back, makes the wheel rock solid. The knobs can be pushed down for a cleaner look. All of the ports are on the bottom of the wheel. There is also a thing which you can wrap wires around for a cleaner look.
This wheel has two force feedback motors instead of one like the other wheels I mentioned. Obviously this translates in to better feedback. The G27 also uses helical, or diagonal cut, gears instead of straight cut ones to reduce noise. With the gears, the wheel is very quiet and I feel that they make the wheel more responsive.
SHIFTER
This will be a combined review of the shifter and the adapter plate. The shifter itself is much bigger than the Fanatec shifter. This is because there are buttons on the shifter, unlike the Fanatec. These buttons are your menu controls. They feature a d pad, four buttons arranged like ps3 buttons, and four buttons across the bottom. The shift knob and boot are leather with a plastic cap on top of the knob showing the H pattern. There is a cap with a Logitech logo on it in the place where the sequential selector was on the G25. I feel that it is a waste of space which could have been removed or be used for more buttons.
The shifter is basically silent when it moves around, unlike the very loud Fanatec shifter. It is also very smooth when moving around. I feel that the throws were a little longer compared to the Fanatec. This did take a little time to adjust to, but I was completely fine afterwards. There are three mounting points on the shifter. They are on the left, right, and center of the shifters underside. There are hard-mounting points by the left and right table mounts. Like the wheel, the knobs can be pushed in.
There is not much to say about the shifter plate. Is just a piece of metal that mount to the stand by the wheel mounting holes. It also hard mounts to the shifter. There are two problems I have with it. The first one is that it wobbles when you change gears. It isnt noticeable, but it should not do that to begin with. The other problem is that I feel it is too far away from me. Changing gears can be a bit of a stretch and pushing the buttons is even more so. Besides that, the setup is almost perfect.
PEDALS
The pedals are almost exactly the same as the G25. There are two differences though. The first is that you can move the pedal faces left or right to go with your style. The second one is that the gas pedal sits further back that the brake and clutch, much like some real cars. This is supposed to make heel-toe downshifting easier. Besides that, theyre the same.
However, that does not mean that they were bad pedals to begin with. The pedal faces are made of metal, which is already a step up from other pedal sets. The red spring cases are designed to look like hydraulics, although its a detail you will not notice that often. Each of the pedals requires different amounts of pressure to depress fully. The gas is the loosest, the brake is the tightest, and the clutch is in between them. On the bottom, there are hard-mounting points, although you can only really use them if you have a rig. There are also some spikes to help them grip better on carpet. All of the metal used makes this pedal set quite heavy and can make transportation of my wheel stand require much more effort. There are a lot of modifications for the brake pedal to make it more realistic, ranging from a simple spring swap to full replacements. You can also remove the pedals from the case to reverse mount them.
GAMEPLAY
I tried this wheel out with two games, Race07 for the PC and Gran Turismo 5 for the PS3. In both games, the wheel performed fantastically. The steering was precise and quick in both games. With GT5, the wheel is easy to toss around, which is perfect for people who drift or rally. Speaking of Rallying, the wheel does make some strange sounds when its driving around. Hopefully that is normal. In Race07, the wheel gets even better. The steering is accurate, the clutch is a lot better than GT5, and the LED lights have an extra feature with it. Overall, it is a very fun wheel to drive no matter what game.
CONCLUSION
If you are considering a wheel, the G27 is definitely the one to get, especially being new from amazon for a little over 200 dollars. It is easy to see why so many have and love this wheel. With brake mods and adapters to fit real aftermarket steering wheels, you can really make your G27 one of a kind. This is definitely one of the best wheels to got if youre starting out.
WHEEL
The wheel itself is made of metal and is wrapped in real leather. It is definitely a step up from the rubber I had on the Carrera and the DFGT before that. The leather is really comfortable and nice to hold. The wheel has a small set of LED light acting as shift lights. There are six buttons on the face of the wheel, unlike the G25 which only has two. The paddle shifters are like actual paddle shifters, not just buttons on the back of the wheel. There is a positive click when they are pressed.
The wheel uses the same case as the G25. For mounting the wheel, there Logitechs superb mounting system and paired with the two hard-mounting points in the back, makes the wheel rock solid. The knobs can be pushed down for a cleaner look. All of the ports are on the bottom of the wheel. There is also a thing which you can wrap wires around for a cleaner look.
This wheel has two force feedback motors instead of one like the other wheels I mentioned. Obviously this translates in to better feedback. The G27 also uses helical, or diagonal cut, gears instead of straight cut ones to reduce noise. With the gears, the wheel is very quiet and I feel that they make the wheel more responsive.
SHIFTER
This will be a combined review of the shifter and the adapter plate. The shifter itself is much bigger than the Fanatec shifter. This is because there are buttons on the shifter, unlike the Fanatec. These buttons are your menu controls. They feature a d pad, four buttons arranged like ps3 buttons, and four buttons across the bottom. The shift knob and boot are leather with a plastic cap on top of the knob showing the H pattern. There is a cap with a Logitech logo on it in the place where the sequential selector was on the G25. I feel that it is a waste of space which could have been removed or be used for more buttons.
The shifter is basically silent when it moves around, unlike the very loud Fanatec shifter. It is also very smooth when moving around. I feel that the throws were a little longer compared to the Fanatec. This did take a little time to adjust to, but I was completely fine afterwards. There are three mounting points on the shifter. They are on the left, right, and center of the shifters underside. There are hard-mounting points by the left and right table mounts. Like the wheel, the knobs can be pushed in.
There is not much to say about the shifter plate. Is just a piece of metal that mount to the stand by the wheel mounting holes. It also hard mounts to the shifter. There are two problems I have with it. The first one is that it wobbles when you change gears. It isnt noticeable, but it should not do that to begin with. The other problem is that I feel it is too far away from me. Changing gears can be a bit of a stretch and pushing the buttons is even more so. Besides that, the setup is almost perfect.
PEDALS
The pedals are almost exactly the same as the G25. There are two differences though. The first is that you can move the pedal faces left or right to go with your style. The second one is that the gas pedal sits further back that the brake and clutch, much like some real cars. This is supposed to make heel-toe downshifting easier. Besides that, theyre the same.
However, that does not mean that they were bad pedals to begin with. The pedal faces are made of metal, which is already a step up from other pedal sets. The red spring cases are designed to look like hydraulics, although its a detail you will not notice that often. Each of the pedals requires different amounts of pressure to depress fully. The gas is the loosest, the brake is the tightest, and the clutch is in between them. On the bottom, there are hard-mounting points, although you can only really use them if you have a rig. There are also some spikes to help them grip better on carpet. All of the metal used makes this pedal set quite heavy and can make transportation of my wheel stand require much more effort. There are a lot of modifications for the brake pedal to make it more realistic, ranging from a simple spring swap to full replacements. You can also remove the pedals from the case to reverse mount them.
GAMEPLAY
I tried this wheel out with two games, Race07 for the PC and Gran Turismo 5 for the PS3. In both games, the wheel performed fantastically. The steering was precise and quick in both games. With GT5, the wheel is easy to toss around, which is perfect for people who drift or rally. Speaking of Rallying, the wheel does make some strange sounds when its driving around. Hopefully that is normal. In Race07, the wheel gets even better. The steering is accurate, the clutch is a lot better than GT5, and the LED lights have an extra feature with it. Overall, it is a very fun wheel to drive no matter what game.
CONCLUSION
If you are considering a wheel, the G27 is definitely the one to get, especially being new from amazon for a little over 200 dollars. It is easy to see why so many have and love this wheel. With brake mods and adapters to fit real aftermarket steering wheels, you can really make your G27 one of a kind. This is definitely one of the best wheels to got if youre starting out.
