Some of my sim racing posts have popped off lately, which leads me to believe some of you at the very least like the idea of Cars Going Fast. A few of you may even daydream of being the one to make Cars Go Fast. I'm here to say it is way easier than you think to get into, and it's fucking addicting. It's impossible to overstate how much of an adrenaline rush it is to push cars to the limit against other drivers - whether it's AI or real people behind the wheel. Real motorsports are often expensive if you dare to reach beyond time attack experiences or track days, and while some people take their daily drivers to the track there is an obvious risk of personal injury or destroying your only ride home that puts people off of it.

Simulation Racing is your friend, in that case. The cars you wreck are repaired in the press of a button, and the injuries you incur are at worst a chipped fingernail unless you're running an extremely expensive simulation rig with the capability of ripping your arm straight out of its socket. Only the most dedicated, sim-obsessed freaks end up on that scale of things. To be honest, if I had the money to blow on such equipment I'd be that exact kind of freak.

So, you've been made aware there is an outlet for a desperate need for speed, but you don't know where to start. There are an abundance of steering wheels and pedals among other accessories to choose from, making it harder than ever for entry-level speedsters to figure out what to buy. Beyond just the typical steering wheel and pedal setups you can buy, you have different configurations like 3-pedal sets, h-pattern and sequential shifters, handbrake levers, button boxes and a whole bunch of other shit you don't even know if you need yet. Let's brake it down. (haha get it brake as in the thing that slows cars down, i'm fuckin hilarious please hug me i'm so touch starved)

Wheel & Pedal Combos

If you wanna get into simulation racing, the first thing you gotta do is get a wheel and pedals. Some racing games are forgiving enough to allow you to use a controller just as effectively as a wheel, like most Forza games after Motorsport 7, Project CARS 2 or CarX Drift Racing Online. If you find yourself wishing you had more precision and control over the car - with, say A STEERING WHEEL - then here are some things to keep in mind when purchasing a wheel.

1) Force Feedback Configurations

The big advantage of modern steering wheels is the advancement in FFB technology. I remember as a kid when wheels were just plastic toys that functioned exactly like a controller, with vibration motors being the only information you get about the car you're driving. Today, there are four Force Feedback configurations to consider; Gear-driven, Belt-driven, Hybrid, and Direct Drive.

Gear-driven is considered the bottom of the barrel for most sim racers. It's a cheap system that uses gears to increase the power of the electric motor providing resistance through the wheel as you turn it, shaking it as you strike a kerb or a bump in the road, or trying to spin in your hands as the car begins to rotate too far. This has the unfortunate side effect of making the wheel feel 'notchy,' and the force feedback 'imprecise and blurry.' That being said, gear-driven feedback is still a fantastic place to start for beginners. Logitech G25 and G27 wheels use this system, and it has been used by numerous sim racing esports drivers to get their feet wet in the sim. Some high-level drivers even today still use an old G25! Finding a used one for a reasonable price should be easier now than it was during the pandemic, when it seemed like everyone and their grandmother was picking Sim Racing as their new plague hobby. Reasonable prices for used gear-driven is $125 - $200 USD, but you likely won't find a new one. That's because the gear-driven wheel was replaced by the Hybrid system as the entry-level solution for new sim racers. More on that later.

Belt-driven is considered the mid-grade of feedback systems. By using belts instead of gears for delivering feedback, the actual feel of that feedback in your hands is smooth as butter and immediate. My first step into sim racing was with a Fanatec Porsche GT3 RS V2 wheel, which was also belt-driven. It cost me about $400 after shipping and duty fees, not including the trip south of the border to pick it up because Fanatec didn't ship to Canada at the time. However, I knew at the time exactly what I was getting into, and I knew I was gonna be using this wheel, pedal & shifter set until it broke. Which it did, when Fanatec's new driver software bricked them! I'd avoid Fanatec, if only on the basis that their customer support is fucking miserable. However, Thrustmaster sells modern belt-driven wheels with better customer support, and with device drivers that fucking work. A couple friends of mine swear by the Thrustmaster TX as a huge step-up from the gear-driven wheels they used to use, and I would recommend it myself for those who know they'll get bitten by the Racing Bug.

Hybrid systems are a combination of gear-driven and belt-driven force feedback configurations. By utilizing gears and belts, the wheel ends up feeling smoother than a gear-driven wheel but more notchy and blurry than a straight-up belt configuration. That being said, the belt also lends additional power and bite to the gears, which gives you more force than a gear-driven wheel. Ultimately, hybrid wheels are an improvement on gear-driven, but not by much - and certainly an unnoticeable difference to people who are just getting into sim racing. I currently use a Thrustmaster T248 as a replacement for the Fanatec belt-driven wheel that died on me, and I can't say I can recommend this wheel to anybody except newbies who aren't sure if they'll like sim racing, or to people who need a complete sim rig on a budget. The pedals that came with my T248 are pretty substantial, and the potentiometer brake pedal took some getting used to after stepping down from the loadcell brakes I had with the Fanatec, but they feel solid and smooth enough to do the job. I'll talk about the difference between potentiometer and loadcell later. Logitech's G920 and, as far as I recall, the G29 both use a hybrid system that is about on par with the T248, while also having button interfaces on the wheel and a wheel rim that feel a little more substantial/less plasticy - less like a toy than my T248. If you just want a wheel that works well and don't care about the looks or the plastic though, the T248 is a solid choice.

And finally, Direct Drive. DD wheels are by far the most expensive wheels on the market, but they're also the most customizable. There are dozens of different companies popping out of the soil selling their elegant wheel bases and rims, with rim designs ranging from basic, round NASCAR stock car replicas all the way up to the Formula One alien spaceship lookin fuckers where every function of the car you could possibly fuck with can be fucked with by pressing buttons and turning knobs on the face of the wheel. Some of them even have fucking full colour LCD screens built into them like real fucking racing wheels. Even motherfucking Cosworth is getting into the sim market, adapting one of their most popular motorsport wheels to direct drive systems.

If you have a shitfuckload of money burning a gigantic hole in your wallet, you'll probably find your way around this ecosystem and find something to jack yourself off with. No judgement, some of these DD wheels and rims are gorgeous. But to bring the focus back to new sim racers, the biggest bang for your buck in this region of the rig-building ecosystem is the Moza Racing R5 wheel base. It delivers a maximum of 5.5 Newton meters of force, which - trust me - is certainly more than you'll ever need. It's compatible with most modern sim racing games, but if you wanna use it for older stuff like rFactor 1 or Richard Burns Rally you're gonna have a bit of a hassle getting everything working nicely. As for what wheel rim to buy, go with your gut! If you're gonna be doing a lot of different disciplines of racing from open-wheel to tin top, the CS V2 wheel from Moza will work great. If you want a spaceship wheel rim that looks like it came straight out of an F1 car, the GS GT V2 rim seems to be a great choice.

Accessories

I'll keep it short cuz i'm tired and this shit is pretty simple. If you wanna shift with a clutch pedal and an h-shifter, buy a pedal set that has a clutch pedal and buy a Thrustmaster TH8A shifter. if you've been sim racing for a while but you wish you could make changes to the Anti-lock Brake and Traction Control systems without diving through multi-function displays on the HUD, grab an Elgato Streamdeck to use as a button box or buy one from Etsy. If you want to do a shitload of drifting and hate having your handbrake bound to a button on the wheel which makes that button reside in a completely different position than when you last pressed it, buy a 3DRap Akina Handbrake or one of those cheaper ones from Amazon if you're on a budget but desperate for the authenticity and immersion.

Is this guide comprehensive? Nope. Should this guide be used as a be-all, end-all for new sim racers? Also nope. This is the word vomit of a single sim racer who has only ever used two different wheels in their lifetime. Ultimately, you should read the reviews from websites like Traxion.gg among others to get a better picture about what wheels suit your needs.

At the end of the day, if you need a wheel on a budget, a used G25 or a Thrustmaster T248 are really solid options. If money is no object, go wild with direct drive wheels. If you want a better wheel than entry level stuff but don't have the money to become a wheel rim collector, snap up a Thrustmaster TX. Those are my recommendations.

That's it, that's the post. When you get your wheel, just kinda fuck around for a while in a sim of your choice. Assetto Corsa has a tremendous modding scene where basically any car you think of is a mod that is either released or in production. iRacing has an extremely populated multiplayer sim racing community if you wanna race against real people. Assetto Corsa Competizione is the best GT3/GT4 endurance racing simulator money can buy. pick one and send it, bud.

Go forth, and shred tire.