So, R5 arrived in the shop yesterday, 1 day earlier than expected which is a nice bonus, got it home and here are my first impressions from unboxing to first experience.
Unboxing
Very nice box, solid and secure which is nice. I have had wheels in the past which have come in less than sturdy boxes which has caused alarm at times. Wheel is presented on the top of the box and securely in the packing, initial thought as I removed from the box was how weighty it felt. Lots of little bags of bits to remove before unveiling the next layer which houses the wheel base and the pedals. The wheel base was much heavier than I was expecting, very solid and well tucked into its box. The pedals come in 3 parts, the base plate and the 2 pedals ship disassembled from each other. Cables are all packaged securely through the various layers along with the basic instruction manual.
Assembly and setup
I started with the pedals as the least assembled part of the package. Relatively straightforward to bolt the pedals onto the base plate, ensuring the pedals are the correct way round before securing. However the pedals don't fully hard-mount to the Next Level Racing GT Lite cockpit. The front 2 mounting screw points do line up just about with the space within the pedal mount of the cockpit, but as soon as any torque gets applied to the screws, the pedals lift at the rear. I reverted to cable ties but they pedals still move too much so I may revert to using the front 2 mount points in conjunction with cable ties at the rear portion to stop them moving.
Wheel assembly is very straight forward, I used the table clamp to attach the wheel base to the GT Lite as, again, the mounting holes don't line up, no massive issue here though as the desk clamp is more than secure enough and is easy to mount to the wheel. The rim slides onto the base with a very satisfying click and is rock solid.
Downloaded the Pit House software and began the configuration, everything was recognised immediately, calibrated straightaway and was ready for action with minimal fuss. Wasn't immediately obvious where the firmware needed to be updated from, it just showed that it needed doing but not where to do it.
The amount of options is quite overwhelming having come from the basic functionality of the Thrustmaster app, will take some time to understand fully what each thing does and the effect it has. I like being able to alter the pedal curves though and being able to select presets for a variety of sims off the bat is a nice touch.
First experience
First sim I booted up was the sim I have played the most of recently with the T300, Automobilista 2. Loaded up a preset in Pit House and jumped in. Used the McLaren GT3 around Sebring as that was the most recent combo I spent a good amount of time with on the previous wheel. Straight away, the clarity and the smoothness is really quite impressive, I tried to describe it to my wife as almost feeling like Ultra High Defition in feeling compared to the 720p of the T300. As a long time non DD user (all the way back to 2005), it is very hard to put into words how it feels, especially without it sounding like a marketing pitch. The smoothness was almost disconcerting at first, again, being so used to feeling the gear/cogging effect of gear and belt drive wheels, it is quite impressive to feel that level of feedback but with such beautifully smooth movement.
It really comes to life over the bumps of Sebring, with each movement and moment of feedback feeling absolutely spot on to what is happening with the car on the screen, and it is so incredibly responsive. The texture that comes through from the road, the curbs, the grass and gravel is mind blowing as well. This enhanced feeling and incredibly tight response lead to me beating my previous lap record with that combo by about 2 seconds, which is crazy.
I then hopped into Le Mans Ultimate, using a preset again, and again the clarity of the feedback and detail was just as good here, if perhaps just a little on the strong side with this particular LMU preset, particularly under heavy braking, my entire GT Lite frame was vibrating which hadn't happened with AMS2.
AC Rally also felt superb, the preset here doing a very good job with the overall strength and feel and again, immediately I was setting faster stage times, with so much more responsiveness, I really feel like I can actually drive faster as I feel a lot more connected to the car and road and with how responsive it feels, the corrections and catching moments of oversteer really help this.
Pedals
I'm giving the pedals their own section as the SR-P Lite pedals are the element of the R3 and R5 bundles that get spoken about the most as weak point of the package. Going into using them with the knowledge of this, I was actually pleasantly surprised by them. The build quality is very good and exceeds the build quality of my previous pedal set (Thrustmaster Race Line LTE), which is a good comparison as a very similar pedal set, with the metal construction, modular design and no load cell, the Race Line pedals are also what comes with the Thrustmaster T598 which sits just about at the same price point as the R5. The SR-P Lite feels more substantial in the hand and underfoot than the Race Line set, the brake pedal has a lot more resistance than I was expecting and more than the Race Line pedals offer, there is also a good amount of travel, and the software recognises the whole span of the pedal travel, which isn't always a given, certainly I have had issues with the Race Line pedals when extending the travel using the adjustment slots on the back, they then wouldn't calibrate correctly, no such issues with the SR-P Lites. Overall, very impressed with the pedals considering they are the weak point of the bundle, which speaks to the quality of the R5 package as a whole.
Build quality and physical feel
Following on from the pedals, the build quality overall is excellent, nothing rattles or squeaks or feels in anyway like it hasn't been put together properly. The wheel rim feels fantastic, the faux leather wrap feels supple under hand, it has nice girth which is great for me personally, I find wheels that are too thin get tiresome after a while. The buttons all feel good, not clicky and mechanical like some higher end wheels, but still a marked improvement over the T300, although the T300 was long in the tooth by the time of its demise.
Overall first impression
As my first foray into the direct drive market, I am overwhelmed by how good it feels, there may be more powerful bases out there, but the 5.5nm is a significant boost from the traditional belt and gear drive capabilities, so for me it feels absolutely more than powerful enough to satisfy. The build quality and overall physical feel has really impressed me at this price point, the software is deep and the in game experience is the best I have experienced across the vast swathe of wheels I have owned.
Moving forward, I will likely get the brake kit and clutch pedal for the SR-P Lites, they are a good pedal set for me so I will probably just do the basic additions for those. I think I will need to reassess my cockpit situation as the Next Level Racing GT Lite is probably the weak point now. It isn't the most comfortable rig to sit in for long periods, it is designed as a portable fold away rid but as I have it permanently out, it is a bit of a faff and takes up more space than a conventional PlaySeat would and with the increased forces of a DD wheel, there is a lot of flex in the frame and rattles happening and finally the pedal plate isn't sufficient for the new pedals.
