Thrustmaster’s High-End TS-PC Racer Wheel Costs $500, Launches Next Month

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Thrustmaster has announced the latest addition to its ever-growing lineup of racing wheel peripherals for the PC crowd, the aptly-named TS-PC Racer. Billed as the company’s first “open wheel” design, the TS-PC offers innovative features worthy of its hefty £399.99 ($499.99 USD) asking price. The unique design allow players to “experience an incredible range of sensations and information in their racing sessions.”

The new 40-watt brushless motor will be capable of generating dynamic and powerful effects as stated by Thrustmaster themselves. While optimized force feedback will be the standard affair, the TS-PC’s strong point will be in its torque delivery, offering better response in a series of tight turns when compared to previous wheel offerings.

Where the wheel truly begins to develop its own personality is with the new “Motor Cooling Embedded” cooling system. The embedded cooling solution will maintain the motor’s optimal performance when pushed, ensuring that overheating becomes a non-issue – all while being silent to boot.

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The new Field Oriented Control (FOC) boosts the precision of Thrustmaster’s previous technical offering, H.E.A.R.T (HallEffect AccuRate Technology), allowing the motor to respond to increased torque, with the advantage of offsetting and preventing power loss.

An external TURBO power supply rounds out the feature set and is specifically designed to provide continuous power, and with a peak output of 400 watts the adapter ensures the wheel is able to respond accordingly.

The wheel rim is F1-style in appearance and features 6 buttons, including a 3-position rotary selector switch with a push function, with wheel adjustment angles ranging from 280° to 1080°. The construction materials are what you’d expect given the price: suede covering adorns the wheel grips, with the faceplate and wheel-mounted paddles made of polished-brushed aluminum.

If the looks of the TS-PC Racer aren’t to your tastes, worry not as it will be compatible with Thrustmaster’s entire lineup of add-ons. In an added bonus, the competition’s offerings will also be compatible – whether they have a USB or DB9 connectors, though you will need the DB9 T.RJ12 adapter for the latter.

Thrustmaster’s TS-PC Racer wheel will retail for £399.99 ($499.99 USD) when it releases on December 5. For the original announcement be sure to stop by Thrustmaster’s page.

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Comments (16)

  1. ribloGT

    Le wheel looks interesting but i think a T300 at half the Price will do the same work with a lower Price…

    I keep my hands on my old trusty G27 and when it will die (i Hope the more later possible) i will choose a new one…

  2. Szuper

    Were you need 1080 degree angle if using F1 rim ?
    This steering wheel (not base) looks good, really good, very practical LMP/GT cars maybe…

  3. WVStarship

    Wow, I must say that is perhaps the UGLIEST wheel I’ve ever seen. That thing just screams “TOY!!!” :)

    I presume this is a PS4 compatible wheel? In any regards I think I’ll wait for an affordable DD wheel

  4. Oyashiro-sama

    Wow, that’s a superbly amazingly ugly wheel they’ve managed to create. Don’t even know where to start, maybe the horrible button colors? *Insert the apocalypse horror meme here…*

    1. Johnnypenso

      It is incredible how they can put so much effort into the tech behind the wheel and yet design something that looks like it should retail for about $99 and use rubber bands for resistance instead of FFB.

  5. OptiMystik

    heh, when everybody wait for new direct-drive wheel from TM, they release new one belt-drive wheel – surprise! :-P

  6. Johnnypenso

    Glad to see they are putting a solid effort into cooling. I take it this is a belt drive wheel? There’s no mention of it here that I can see.

  7. scooterlord

    This is great news! Hopefully there aren’t any reliability issues with this one… I put my G25 up for sale to buy a T300RS when I read about reliability issues.. ‘locked’ the G25 about a couple of months back and I am still getting calls to sell it ^_^

    1. Leggacy

      I’ve heard about issues but I’ve had a t500 for 2.5 years and no problems whatsoever. it was a massive difference from the G25 I was using before. I wouldn’t go back to Logitech. That’s not to say that the G25 doesn’t still get some use on PC.

    2. Szuper

      @OptiMystik, maybe your wheel is one of the first markets?

      After second -> today timeline wheels is about 1/3 crashes first two weeks. But thrustmaster cant confirm this because sales drop down…

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