Hello everyone,
This review is on the ARC Carbon Shifter. Below is a photo of my Carbon shifter mounted on my rig.
Now that I've had some time to play with my ARC Carbon Seq. Shifter (it's all I've used every night for the past week) I'd like to tell you my impressions. I was going to include my ARC Carbon pedals in this review but decided to do those separately.
First off and most importantly please realize I am a novice at sim racing. I've only been sim racing for around a year and due to health reasons that has been rather sporadic. That being said my impressions are base upon the little experience I have with a small selection of peripherals, mainly the Thrustmaster T500RS, the T8RS shifter (both in H-pattern mode and seq. mode), Fanatec shifter set, the CSR Elite wheel, CSP v1 (with v2 mod) pedals, and the CSWB w/F1 wheel. So, as you see I have not used any really 'high end' gear prior to receiving my ARC Carbon duo. I'm sure someone who has used all the various 'high end' gear could give you a great comparison of each to the other but mine will be limited to the equipment I've used.
So, let's get started... In my opinion this unit is very reasonable priced for a piece of 'high end' gear but depending upon where you live in the world your shipping charges may be steep. There are two versions, one with USB port and one without (which may be used in conjunction with the ARC handbrake to only use one USB connection).
Shipping time was quick, mine arrived exactly five days from the day I paid for it, very happy with the fast shipment. My shifter was packaged in a white box with ARC Team tape sealing it. Upon opening I found the shifter and components wrapped in brown paper, nothing was damaged and all looked good. Included in the box were the warranty, the base unit, the handle knob, USB cable (USB version only) and an extension lever. The unit I received had the black finish (black finish is an extra 5.00 - approximately $7.00 US), the aluminum finish is standard.
Other ordering options include a desk clamp 19.90 (approx. $27.00 US) and a couple of choices for shifter knobs, the Sparco T-Rex shift knob and the Sparco R77 - 32.19 ($42.74 approx.) & 24.79 ($33.00 approx.) respectively. Due to shipping cost I think I'd stick with the stock handle (which is fine) and pick up a shift knob locally if I wanted one. Since I already had an extra Sparco laying around I used it.
The shifter may be mounted by attaching the optional clamp to the four holes on the bottom of the shifter and or just bolting the shifter directly to a support using the bottom holes 6mm x 15mm (do not use screws longer than 15mm). You should select a rigid, strong locations for mounting.
A great feature of the shifter is the ability to made adjustments. There are an adjustble hardened steel spring plungers on each side. You use these to increase/decrease the gear lever resistance by tightening or loosening the spring plungers. Before attempting to make any adjustments you must loosen the M3 grub screw placed on each of the nuts on each side (these grub screws are easy to miss since they are very small and are in the side of the retaining nut). I'm not sure what size allen wrench is used to loosen the grub screws but it's metric and it is very, very thin. I feel they should include one of these with each kit since I doubt many will have the proper size allen wrench for this grub screw, especially in the states. At any rate, once you loosen the grub screws you may proceed to adjust the spring tension. You do this by using an allen wrench (once again metric but I"m not sure of the size although it is one everyone should have) and either tighten or loosen the screws on each size the same amount. There is a scale on each side but I found it useless. I just made the adjustment by turning the same amount on each screw (1/4 turn or 1/8th turn) then checking the tension and if necessary made further adjustments as necessary. Very easy and you can definitely feel the difference. BTW, be sure not to over tighten the plungers. Bottom line, mounting and setting up the shifter was simple.
Now to the good part, how does it perform? This will be short but sweet... in one word AMAZING! This unit is well made, very sturdy with a solid real world feel when shifting. It's hard to describe but it gives you a feeling of confidence. The ARC seq. has a solid mechanical click which you can feel as it goes into gear which adds to the immersion factor but more importantly it actually feels like a real sequential shifter. The ARC Carbon shifter is not going to let you down and could withstand a great deal of abuse if you ever get over zealous with your shifting in the heat of a race.
There really is no comparison between this and my TH8RS in sequential mode and it makes the Fanatec seq. shifter look like a cheap toy (sorry I can not make a comparison to the other high end shifters).
This shifter is the real deal.
I'm using the extension and a Sparco shifter knob on with my shifter.
Right now ARC Team is offering a 20% discount on the Carbon shifter. The seq. shifter with USB is listed is at 132.44 (around $175.00 US) and the non-USB is 103.29 (around $137.00). Shipping will vary depending on where you live. To give you an idea my shipping, to 38603 USA, was around 76.00 (including PayPal fees). That would put the price shipped for the USB version around $200.00 - $250.00 shipped to the states (I'm just estimating shipping to west coast).
Disregarding the shipping charges I think the price of $176.00 is an outstanding value considering the quality of the gear that you receive; especially concerning the fact that a Thrustmaster TH8RS is listed at roughly $140.00 on Amazon. That's only a difference of $36.00. Granted the TH8 is an H-shifter as well as a seq. but many people buy a second TH8RS to use as a seq. shifter. If not for the shipping charges it would be a no brainer to get the ARC seq over a 2nd TH8. Even considering the cost of shipping I think it is a worthwhile purchase.
Dimensions (mm): length 176mm, width 50mm, height with the extension (excluding handles and clamp) 190mm
Gear weight (kg): 1
Clamp Weight (kg): 0.5
Spring plungers force (N): from 57 to 104
Movement of the force on the lever (Nm): from 0 to 9
Power supply: USB
Clamp span (mm): from 0 to 40
http://www.f1driving.it/ecommerce/
http://www.f1driving.it/en
This review is on the ARC Carbon Shifter. Below is a photo of my Carbon shifter mounted on my rig.
Now that I've had some time to play with my ARC Carbon Seq. Shifter (it's all I've used every night for the past week) I'd like to tell you my impressions. I was going to include my ARC Carbon pedals in this review but decided to do those separately.
First off and most importantly please realize I am a novice at sim racing. I've only been sim racing for around a year and due to health reasons that has been rather sporadic. That being said my impressions are base upon the little experience I have with a small selection of peripherals, mainly the Thrustmaster T500RS, the T8RS shifter (both in H-pattern mode and seq. mode), Fanatec shifter set, the CSR Elite wheel, CSP v1 (with v2 mod) pedals, and the CSWB w/F1 wheel. So, as you see I have not used any really 'high end' gear prior to receiving my ARC Carbon duo. I'm sure someone who has used all the various 'high end' gear could give you a great comparison of each to the other but mine will be limited to the equipment I've used.
So, let's get started... In my opinion this unit is very reasonable priced for a piece of 'high end' gear but depending upon where you live in the world your shipping charges may be steep. There are two versions, one with USB port and one without (which may be used in conjunction with the ARC handbrake to only use one USB connection).
Shipping time was quick, mine arrived exactly five days from the day I paid for it, very happy with the fast shipment. My shifter was packaged in a white box with ARC Team tape sealing it. Upon opening I found the shifter and components wrapped in brown paper, nothing was damaged and all looked good. Included in the box were the warranty, the base unit, the handle knob, USB cable (USB version only) and an extension lever. The unit I received had the black finish (black finish is an extra 5.00 - approximately $7.00 US), the aluminum finish is standard.
Other ordering options include a desk clamp 19.90 (approx. $27.00 US) and a couple of choices for shifter knobs, the Sparco T-Rex shift knob and the Sparco R77 - 32.19 ($42.74 approx.) & 24.79 ($33.00 approx.) respectively. Due to shipping cost I think I'd stick with the stock handle (which is fine) and pick up a shift knob locally if I wanted one. Since I already had an extra Sparco laying around I used it.
The shifter may be mounted by attaching the optional clamp to the four holes on the bottom of the shifter and or just bolting the shifter directly to a support using the bottom holes 6mm x 15mm (do not use screws longer than 15mm). You should select a rigid, strong locations for mounting.
A great feature of the shifter is the ability to made adjustments. There are an adjustble hardened steel spring plungers on each side. You use these to increase/decrease the gear lever resistance by tightening or loosening the spring plungers. Before attempting to make any adjustments you must loosen the M3 grub screw placed on each of the nuts on each side (these grub screws are easy to miss since they are very small and are in the side of the retaining nut). I'm not sure what size allen wrench is used to loosen the grub screws but it's metric and it is very, very thin. I feel they should include one of these with each kit since I doubt many will have the proper size allen wrench for this grub screw, especially in the states. At any rate, once you loosen the grub screws you may proceed to adjust the spring tension. You do this by using an allen wrench (once again metric but I"m not sure of the size although it is one everyone should have) and either tighten or loosen the screws on each size the same amount. There is a scale on each side but I found it useless. I just made the adjustment by turning the same amount on each screw (1/4 turn or 1/8th turn) then checking the tension and if necessary made further adjustments as necessary. Very easy and you can definitely feel the difference. BTW, be sure not to over tighten the plungers. Bottom line, mounting and setting up the shifter was simple.
Now to the good part, how does it perform? This will be short but sweet... in one word AMAZING! This unit is well made, very sturdy with a solid real world feel when shifting. It's hard to describe but it gives you a feeling of confidence. The ARC seq. has a solid mechanical click which you can feel as it goes into gear which adds to the immersion factor but more importantly it actually feels like a real sequential shifter. The ARC Carbon shifter is not going to let you down and could withstand a great deal of abuse if you ever get over zealous with your shifting in the heat of a race.
There really is no comparison between this and my TH8RS in sequential mode and it makes the Fanatec seq. shifter look like a cheap toy (sorry I can not make a comparison to the other high end shifters).
This shifter is the real deal.
I'm using the extension and a Sparco shifter knob on with my shifter.
Right now ARC Team is offering a 20% discount on the Carbon shifter. The seq. shifter with USB is listed is at 132.44 (around $175.00 US) and the non-USB is 103.29 (around $137.00). Shipping will vary depending on where you live. To give you an idea my shipping, to 38603 USA, was around 76.00 (including PayPal fees). That would put the price shipped for the USB version around $200.00 - $250.00 shipped to the states (I'm just estimating shipping to west coast).
Disregarding the shipping charges I think the price of $176.00 is an outstanding value considering the quality of the gear that you receive; especially concerning the fact that a Thrustmaster TH8RS is listed at roughly $140.00 on Amazon. That's only a difference of $36.00. Granted the TH8 is an H-shifter as well as a seq. but many people buy a second TH8RS to use as a seq. shifter. If not for the shipping charges it would be a no brainer to get the ARC seq over a 2nd TH8. Even considering the cost of shipping I think it is a worthwhile purchase.
Dimensions (mm): length 176mm, width 50mm, height with the extension (excluding handles and clamp) 190mm
Gear weight (kg): 1
Clamp Weight (kg): 0.5
Spring plungers force (N): from 57 to 104
Movement of the force on the lever (Nm): from 0 to 9
Power supply: USB
Clamp span (mm): from 0 to 40
http://www.f1driving.it/ecommerce/
http://www.f1driving.it/en
