The best racing wheels and pedals for iRacing and your budget

If you’re new to the world of PC-based sim racing, you’ll probably need to buy a few things. Your graphics card or CPU may need to be updated, or in the worst case, there may be a brand new gaming PC in the future. A variety of gaming monitors are just a click away. If you want to seriously dive in, virtual reality headsets really get you into the game.

But by far the most important purchase you will make will be a steering wheel and pedals. These are the only components that you actually touch, the only things that can replicate the tactile sensations of a sport that is largely based on feeling.

Obviously, getting something good is extremely important, but it’s also important to find something that fits your budget. You can easily spend more on a sim racing setup than on a real racing car – which sounds crazy until you start figuring out what is actually competitive in the real world.

I have been a sim racing driver for almost 20 years and have tested many bikes from many companies during this time. Get in and we’ll find the right setup for your budget.

A place to play

Before you start buying a bike, it is important to find out exactly where you are going. If you’ve already set up your PC at a desk, it’s probably the easiest – and certainly the cheapest – way to clamp the bike there. However, it’s not for everyone, especially if you hate having extra cables to run around your work area.

In addition, many high-performance bikes cannot be clamped to a desk simply because they are far too powerful. So if you have the budget and space, a special Sim Racing cockpit makes a big difference. Being able to just sit down and start driving means that you spend less time on cables and more time on driving. You can also customize your cockpit with bespoke seating, button panels and all sorts of fun things.

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The 3 best wheels and pedals for iRacing

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This is definitely an area where recommendations are difficult because pre-designed sim cockpits vary widely in price, size, construction and intent. I wanted something robust for my needs so that I could test high-performance bikes. However, I needed a small footprint to avoid giving up too much of my office. And I didn’t have thousands to spend either.

I chose the Next Level Racing GTtrack. It is only 21 inches wide, so it fits well next to my desk and is still robust enough to handle the most powerful direct drive wheels on the market. It’s also easily customizable, with an open box frame construction with lots of exposed holes and surfaces to add anything you want. You can also switch to a movement platform later if you want to give your rig some momentum.

At $ 899, it’s not cheap, but Next Level Racing offers other, cheaper options, like the $ 499 F-GT suitable for mid-level bikes, and even the $ 299 F- GT Lite that you can fold up and put in the closet.

Those are three great options, but if you want to save some money and don’t mind going the DIY way, Open Sim Racing There are dozens of plans based on inexpensive extruded aluminum profiles, so you can do a truly custom setup.

Logitech Driving Force G920, G29

To get started, I recommend the Logitech G920 – or the G29. Both are enough because they are basically the same bike. These wheels can perform twice as well on game consoles, but you need to choose your platform preference. If you’re doing a bit of Forza Motorsport on the side, the Xbox One compatible G920 is for you. If you’re more interested in Gran Turismo, the PS4-enabled G29 is your choice.

If you’re just running iRacing and the like on PC, you can use both, but I will say that the G29 has more buttons and knobs, making it a slightly better choice. However, there is a slight difference.

In any case, you will get a well-built bike with mostly metal construction and a sewn leather cover. 900 degrees of rotation can handle anything other than a big rig simulator, and force feedback is sufficient.

However, there are some shortcomings. For one thing, the wheel diameter is less than 10.5 inches, which means that it feels a bit toy-like compared to the original – or indeed some of the later wheels that I’ll mention. The bigger problem is the pedals. The brake pedal uses a potentiometer with which the degree of rotation can be digitally recorded.

Potentiometers work well for throttle and clutch, but the hydraulic brakes in a real car don’t affect how far you push the pedal, but how hard. Since potentiometers only measure movement, the exact modulation of the brakes can be a challenge. Logitech has tried to reproduce the feel of a load cell by limiting the stroke of the brake pedal, but if anything, which only reduces precision.

Really, at this price, this is the only fly in the ointment. The Logitech G920 and G29 are excellent bikes. Many pro-level iRacers use them, which is about as good as possible. I’ve driven a G27 for years and if $ 400 is out of your budget I would highly recommend eBay to buy a used G27 or even a used G25. They’re mostly the same bike, and a healthy modding community will make sure they work in the years to come.

Award: Do you have a little more to spend? Check out the Thrustmaster T300, especially in the Ferrari integral design. It starts at $ 500 and features a larger diameter wheel wrapped in Alcantara that feels more like the original. This bike is also interchangeable if you want something different later.

Fanatec Clubsport wheelbase V2.5 and Clubsport V3 pedals

For those who want to take their Sim races a little more serious, Fanatec offers a range of products that are guaranteed to challenge the healthiest budgets. In my book the Clubsport Wheel Base V2.5 hits the sweet spot between luxury, performance and price.

The belt-driven internals deliver the power of a high-torque engine that is based on an attractive anodized aluminum base. The window above, in which the internals are exposed, is a nice gesture and shows the attention to detail here. With a torque of six pound-feet, it is almost four times as powerful as the Logitech. However, if this is too much, it comes with an extensive suite of tuning software so you can choose it as you wish.

I would recommend combining this with the $ 300 BMW GT2 wheel from Fanatec, which is 12.6 inches in original size and wrapped in Alcantara and offers a healthy selection of buttons and controls. However, the positioning of these buttons leaves something to be desired (many are too far away to be reached by quickly pressing the thumb), and the shift paddles on the back are terribly vague.

The Clubsport V3 pedals are hard to beat on the floor. The all-metal construction is commercial and comes with two pedal surfaces. The standard installed flat pedals can easily be replaced with D-shaped pedals, which I prefer. They even have haptic motors that sum up to replicate ABS.

Most importantly, the brake on the club sport pedals has a load cell. Unlike a potentiometer, it measures force, not movement, so you can precisely scrub the speed moving through Suzuki through T1 and T2 and handle all the braking that’s so important for iRacing.

If there is a disadvantage, it is the cost. The Fanatec Clubsport Wheel Base V2.5 costs $ 550, which may not sound too bad, except that you have to pay an additional $ 300 for the BMW GT2 steering wheel and another $ 360 for the pedals. Total cost? Cool $ 1,210.

Fanatec Podium DD1 wheelbase

If your budget has not yet reached the break point, welcome the podium. While Clubsport is Fanatec’s mid-tier product, Podium is at the top, and the $ 1,200 DD1 is my choice at this price level. With a whopping 14.7 lb.-ft. The torque you have can literally pull the steering wheel out of your hands. So be careful – the warning signs on this thing are not on display.

This torque is a good topic that may be needed even for those who want the ultimate in realism when simulating classic cars without power steering. For me, I turn the torque down to about 65% when driving my DD1. Why? More power from your bike doesn’t make you faster. If anything, fighting the wheel can slow you down.

For me, the real attraction of the DD1 is the loyalty of the sensations. While all of the wheels I’ve discussed so far rely on gears or belts to apply power to the wheel, DD means direct drive here. This means that the steering wheel is attached more or less directly to the shaft of an electric motor. The feeling is perfectly soft, just like in a real car.

It’s a premium part of the kit and something I like to use, but the big part of Fanatec parts is that you buy yourself into a healthy and ever-expanding ecosystem. The steering wheels you use on a clubsport wheelbase can be used here, as can the pedals and things like external shifters, hand brakes, and more. As your skills and needs grow, so does your setup.