Fanatec's New BMW Wheel is a Sim Racing Wheel You Can Put In Your Race Car

This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:

This article was published by Andrew Evans (@Famine) on December 5th, 2020 in the Hardware category.

 

Was just now reading about this via email notification. The wheel looks impressive. Waiting to see how much it costs when released.

 

BMW...

Withdraws from WEC, still no word on LMH, or LMDh
Participation in DTM collapses, doesn't use Class One car in SuperGT
Does not commit to IMSA
Motorsport Boss moved with no permanent replacement
Withdraws from Formula E, doesn't announce ETCR (or any TCR!)
Ends collaboration with Schnitzer and RBM

... but hey guys, we got a new Sim racing wheel!

 

1. That’s cool.

2. Will this “swap from sim rig to race car” feature ever get used outside of promotional activities? I have to imagine the number of people with that opportunity will be in the dozens at most.

3. Since (2) isn’t going to be the USP of the wheel I guess its desirability comes down to if it’s a better wheel for the money than the Formula rim Fanatec has available. I would have said the McLaren GT3 but that was discontinued.

 

Are those comparable to the adaptive clutch paddles on the discontinued McLaren GT3 wheel? If so, this might become a great option for (affluent) handicapped sim racers as the McLaren model proved to be quite popular with them.
Also, do Podium wheels require a Podium base or do they work with the "lesser" variants (CSL etc.) as well?

 

This is very posh! But, a Clubsport flavor would be a nice option. I'm guessing >$700US

They work with all bases. But, sometimes not all functions will.

 

Good to know, thanks

 

I actually completely agree with you, but I can’t lie that this gives me some very bad (or good ) ideas for my own racecar. Given that it’s seemingly an actual FIA approved wheel, I’m wondering how much it would take to get it to work in my own car even though it’s not an M4 GT3. If this thing could potentially just take some programming and a different quick release to make work, then this would make a seriously cool wheel to have in a grassroots time attack car! I’d just have to take off the BMW logo and replace it with an Audi one .

 

I think this rim is so freaking cool. The fact it doesn’t need to be PC only, or a specific wheel base. Means if you can afford it you can use it on your console and current Fanatec official base. Also that it fully works on the real GT4 car itself is amazing. This can’t be cheap though lol.

 

FTFY: BMW M4 GT3

 

I'd say the simple fact that it's not a replica but the real thing will convince enough people to buy it even if they don't intend to ever use it in a real car.

 

Nice B7 you got there, wish my B7 was a dedicated track car!

I still think they're gonna be a little proud of this wheel and over charge for it.

You're not gonna need a lot of buttons for your B7. Engine mapping with a custom tune yeah, meth maybe.

But you're not gonna have levels of abs or tc. The diff definitely isnt gonna have any tuning.

You have a wiper stalk for that and highbeam/turn signal stalk.

 

Now I only need to buy a BMW racing car and I'm all set.

 

Hopefully they don’t charge too much but yeah I could see it being something that is a possibility. Right now I have separate switches for my air to water intercooler pump, LED’s for night racing, and fans. Although I can’t adjust ABS degree abs TCS on the fly right now, they do have systems that allow for that so that would be something that I’m going to be adding sometime in the future. It’d also be nice to be able to flash the headlights with just a button on the steering wheel because you’d be surprised how much you need to use that in time attack. People like to ignore blue flags especially when they’re on a flying lap.

 

What are you running for ECU?

I've never heard of anyone running an air to water on the B7. Most just use a TR6 or a TR18 core.

Do you just have that plummed through the oil cooler loop then with an auxiliary pump?

 

Mine has a centrifugal supercharger, so that’s why I’m running an air to water intercooler. So it’s from a water tank where the battery used to be, and it goes through an intercooler setup from the boost pipe into the intake. Right now it’s just on a reprogrammed stick ECU and for now it’s all that we really need although for more functionality in the future, a standalone aftermarket ECU would be nice.

 

Do you have an A4 or S4? I have an A4, thus the air to air question. Im running a TR6 core and its pretty damn efficient for its size.

A guy in the Kansas City Audi Club here has a JHM supercharged B8 S5 and its pretty quick. He made 475 to the wheels I believe.

 

I think @fortbo has an S4.

 

Yeah it’s an S4, I don’t want to take this thread too off topic so if you have anymore questions I’d love to talk about it in my build thread in the members rides part of the forum! It’s vortech supercharged with lowered compression, forged internals, and it’s running about 12 lbs of boost right now.

 

This is supposed to be from the bmw event.
Csw v3 ???????

10nm dd (probably csw range ?

 

Fanatec have you sorted

 

That's cool and all but I hope they continue releasing cheaper GT3 replica wheels.

 

This base seems very interesting.

 

I think it looks ugly and very plastic. But it might look and feel very good in the flesh.

 

Say, is that a robot face on the side with a cigarette in the corner of its mouth?
I think I will name it Fanarob.

 

is the Thrustmaster Sparco 383 wheel a 'real' wheel or a replica? (I know it is 1:1 size)

 

This is a fake lid.

 

Ooops, didn't think about that! I feel silly now.