Fanatec Has Released Details on Their All New ClubSport V2

[Ryan Ogurek]

Fanatec has released the details on their new ClubSport Wheel Base V2. They say they have completely reworked the ClubSport with durability their top priority. The V2 is now powered by a brushless servo motor with 75% more torque than the V1, but whats this? A price of $599.99!

It may not be a direct drive, but they claim it feels as good as one and may be a direct competitor.

The V2 will also be available as a console friendly version to allow for use with Xbox One and PS4.

If this wheel turns out to be the way it sounds, its going to be difficult to beat that value! To make the deal even more irresistible existing ClubSport owners will have the option to pre-order the V2 at a significantly discounted price.

Fanatec has started production this week, and will begin accepting pre-orders once they start shipping. The first products are anticipated to arrive late September or early October.

Here's the details as stated by Fanatec.

7 Ultra Precise
We replaced the optical sensor with two magnetic high resolution hall sensors mounted on both the motor and the steering axis. The new sensors have double the resolution and the magnetic sensors are less vulnerable to dust or scratched code discs.

6 Smoothastic
The cogging of this system cannot be felt by a human anymore. It is incredible smooth and feels natural and realistic. It is on par or better with the best and most expensive wheel out there although those wheels costs a multiple of the CSW B V2.

Every little bump can be felt and effects which were filtered by the wheel mechanics can now be felt. Your racing simulations will feel different and new to you.

5 Rock Solid
Our focus was to achieve high durability even for hardcore users.
• Improved QR release with rubber o-ring and less tolerance in production
• A brushless motor which can be cooled much easier as it gets hot on the outside and not on the inside so heat can be transfered better
• New cooling system featuring an additional fan on the backside right behind the new huge heat sink
• Integrated heat sensor inside the motor
• Motor can now even be operated at 180 C° although the FOR overclocking would be de-activated already at 120 C° and FF would shut down at 130°C. The motor has plenty of power so most people will not use max settings anyway. And during betatests it never happened that a motor was shut down or the FF was cut due to overheating.
• Ball bearings on the motor axis and bigger ball bearings inside the pulleys so we can increase the belt tension and avoid any belt slip. At the same time we have much less drag in the system.
• Magnetic sensors instead of the optical so we avoid problems with dust and scratches
• New main cable
• New electronics
• And many other small improvements to the overall build quality


4 Power. A lot.
The new motor is custom designed and exclusive to Fanatec. Although the gear ratio has been changed to increase the rotation speed, it delivers about 75% more torque than the CSW B V1. This means over 7 NM of sheer
power and this is enough to use even heavy rims with no disadvantages. The size of the power supply has also increased in order to feed the big motor.

3 Brushless Servo
A brushless servo motor is currently state-of-the-art for force feedback systems and in principle this is exactly the same motor as the most expensive direct drive base units out there.
• Smooth performance with no cogging (in combination with our Poly-V belt drive system or direct drive)
• Easier to cool as the heat is on the outside of the motor and not on the motor shaft
• Strong axis with ball bearings
• Optimized for use in stall at max power
• Fast acceleration
• More efficiency -> more torque with same power

We had to develop entire new electronics for that motor as the motor
driver is quite complex. Now that it is done we can easily use it for smaller brushless motors or a direct drive wheel.

2 Next Generation
The ClubSport Wheel Base V2 is the next generation of our wheel base but there is also a strong demand of wheels for “Next-Gen” consoles. People were asking us to make their wheels compatible to the Xbox One and Playstation 4 but if we want to make it official and legal then we need to follow the rules of the console makers and they clearly do not allow
that.

So how can we make a product where there is a chance that the customer can keep at least most of the equipment he purchased? We can easily make the pedals, shifters and handbrake compatible and this is what we did but what about the base unit?

And how can we make a product multi-platform compatible if we can only get approval for a license if the product has only the symbols of either one console on it?

We came up with an idea which brings modularity to a whole new level and protects your investment. If you play on PC then just go ahead and purchase the wheel base as it is and you will not be bothered with symbols which might hurt your eye.

But if you want to enjoy the painless simplicity of a console with its great exclusive racing simulations then you will get the option to buy an optional steering wheel which will
add full console compatibility to this base.

We want to achieve compatibility to both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 and we are happy to announce that we already signed a contract with one of them. We will announce this product at the end of this year.

There will be multiple steering wheels available in different price ranges and they will compatible to several Fanatec base units from mid-range to direct drive.

1 By Invitation Only
The great response we get from our beta testers lead us to the conclusion that the demand for this product will be much bigger than the supply. Production output will be lower as before as we spend even more time on quality control and testing.

At the same time we want to honor the loyalty of our existing customers and want to offer a special pre-order discount for the owners of the current ClubSport and CSR Elite base so that they can enjoy a little upgrade advantage.

This is how it works:
• We will send an e-mail to our webshop customers with an invite code. There will be several waves of e-mails in the next months.
• Only after you entered the code to your profile page you will be able to purchase or pre-order this product
• After you purchased one V2 base you will receive a second code. You can give that to a friend or buy a second base.
•
Only one code will be given with a purchase as we want to avoid that people are selling their products or invites on eBay and make money with it.
• We will also give away invites in giveaway events so frequent followers of the blog or Facebook will also get a chance to get an invite

This is the priority we will use for the invites to make it as fair and transparent as possible.
1. Webshop customers of the CSW B V1 and CSR E (sorted by purchase date)
2. Webshop customers of other ClubSport products like CSP or CSS
3. All other Fanatec customers

Of course we will treat all territories with the same priority.

Not every customer will use his invite so go ahead and ask your friends if they use their invite of if they give it to you in case you are not on the list yet. It is possible and welcome to transfer invite codes.

Please do not ask our sales team for invites. They are not authorized to give out codes anyway. If it is your turn then you will get an e-mail. We will open a thread in our forum which explains more details and where you can also ask for invites from other members.

By the way, all lucky customers who placed a pre-order for the old V1 base just got a free upgrade to V2 and they are the first to receive the new product.

The Price

Pre-order price:
EU: 499,95
USA: 499,95
AUS: 655
J: 65.000

Regular price:
EU: 599,95
USA: 599,95
AUS: 785
J: 78.000

Prices are calculated different in the regions depending on taxes, laws, logistic costs and other local costs.

If you would like to have your products reviewed and featured here on RaceDepartment, please email us at ryan.ogurek[at]racedepartment.com

 

[eKretz]

If your motor gets hot it is losing power, no two ways about it. Most just don't notice it since human hands aren't calibrated in ounces or pounds of force, and the loss is gradual as the wheel/motor heats up while at the same time one's concentration is usually focused quite narrowly on the racing. If you check your wheel with an objective method of measurement, it will be losing power if it's getting hot. The T500 is a bit different case than the CSW V1 in that the T500's motor isn't pushed as hard as the CSW V1's motors. The T500 is run at more like 60% of max stall current, while the CSW V1 is pushed at more like 90 - 100%, depending on motor condition.

The CSW V1 lost 40% after about 30 - 40 minutes of running F1 2012 at 100% in game feedback, with 60% environmental effects and 30% wheel weight, IIRC. Wheel settings were set at default except for SEN - which I run at 360 for F1. I could feel it quite well when it dropped, but I was looking for it. I measured linear force with a cable around the periphery of the wheel and converted this to torque to get my numbers. My home is A/C'ed also - no extreme environment here either. This was with the formula wheel also, so minimum stress there as well. I posted some numbers and graphs in the CSW modding thread at GTP but it's now 85 pages long. I don't recall exactly where it was at.

 

[JeffL]

One thing I would like to add so that people don't freak out if their unit gets hot. yes heat on a motor can cause loss torque but it doesn't mean motor is origin of the heat. because an undersized coil on a transformer can also create heat and as long as the voltage drop is within the motor specs than you won't see a drop in the power factor. Does anybody have any actual motor specs on the units? Mfg etc.

 

[Blkout]

If your motor gets hot it is losing power, no two ways about it. Most just don't notice it since human hands aren't calibrated in ounces or pounds of force, and the loss is gradual as the wheel/motor heats up while at the same time one's concentration is usually focused quite narrowly on the racing. If you check your wheel with an objective method of measurement, it will be losing power if it's getting hot. The T500 is a bit different case than the CSW V1 in that the T500's motor isn't pushed as hard as the CSW V1's motors. The T500 is run at more like 60% of max stall current, while the CSW V1 is pushed at more like 90 - 100%, depending on motor condition.

The CSW V1 lost 40% after about 30 - 40 minutes of running F1 2012 at 100% in game feedback, with 60% environmental effects and 30% wheel weight, IIRC. Wheel settings were set at default except for SEN - which I run at 360 for F1. I could feel it quite well when it dropped, but I was looking for it. I measured linear force with a cable around the periphery of the wheel and converted this to torque to get my numbers. My home is A/C'ed also - no extreme environment here either. This was with the formula wheel also, so minimum stress there as well. I posted some numbers and graphs in the CSW modding thread at GTP but it's now 85 pages long. I don't recall exactly where it was at.

I don't doubt your logic that when the motor gets hot, its losing power, the only issue is how do you define how hot is hot? Certainly each motor, circuit design, and cooling will play a role in defining how hot is too hot.

 

[Christian Casey]

There is definitely a point where excessive (subjective) wheel force vs driver performance becomes a problem, not just in lap times, but overall enjoyment.

Personally I run my CSWv1 with the BMW at 70-80% on GSCE/Ftruck, with Iracing it varies to the extreme, less with the carbon, but I always set to be able to work the wheel easily with rapid, constant correction (Ftruck is a good example).

I too have not felt fade at any time, cooling fans are always silent (they may not increase to temp, I don't know, the most likely do) so looking forward to reading the CSWBv1 testing to see what kind if conditions/variables are needed to produce in this case a 40% fade.

 

[eKretz]

No special conditions guys, I outlined them above. You need to measure, not go by subjective feel, if you really want to know whether your base is losing power. I've found that the Sim and even which car you drive can make a very large difference in the amount of heat produced in the wheel. For instance, Assetto Corsa's BMW Z4 GT3 gets the wheel quite hot, but a car like the Ferrari 458 doesn't add much heat at all. The GT series seems to roast the wheel like an oven, whereas iRacing doesn't faze the wheel much at all. So it's a very Sim and car dependent thing.

For me at least, when the wheel is set to FF100, as it says in the CSW "manual" this is where the Sim maker intended the FFB level to be, so this is where I leave it. I never go above FF100, and rarely go below. In iRacing of course we have a nice system for finding the ideal setting without clipping, but a lot of Sims don't have that capability.

There are plenty of guys who don't really want much FFB, but for me, it adds some amount of immersion, so I enjoy feeling a realistic level of FFB, and the cars I enjoy most are those like the Z4 GT3 and the vintage F1 cars. I want to feel each car as it should be, not adjust it to where I'm comfortable and can make easy laps.

There are plenty of other guys who have experienced the FFB loss on the V1 wheel as it heats up. I know because quite a lot of them have contacted me. There are a few mechanisms that cause the power loss, not the least of which is the wheel's firmware. It's programmed to reduce the pulse width to the motors once they reach a certain temperature, and won't restore it until the motors cool down to a certain threshold. If they get even hotter, the FFB will cut out completely. I have never had mine cut out except when the motors were damaged. (My stock motors, like many others, were replaced under warranty several times before I modded my wheel with aftermarket motors).

 

[Christian Casey]

If your motor gets hot it is losing power, no two ways about it. Most just don't notice it since human hands aren't calibrated in ounces or pounds of force, and the loss is gradual as the wheel/motor heats up while at the same time one's concentration is usually focused quite narrowly on the racing. If you check your wheel with an objective method of measurement, it will be losing power if it's getting hot. The T500 is a bit different case than the CSW V1 in that the T500's motor isn't pushed as hard as the CSW V1's motors. The T500 is run at more like 60% of max stall current, while the CSW V1 is pushed at more like 90 - 100%, depending on motor condition.

The CSW V1 lost 40% after about 30 - 40 minutes of running F1 2012 at 100% in game feedback, with 60% environmental effects and 30% wheel weight, IIRC. Wheel settings were set at default except for SEN - which I run at 360 for F1. I could feel it quite well when it dropped, but I was looking for it. I measured linear force with a cable around the periphery of the wheel and converted this to torque to get my numbers. My home is A/C'ed also - no extreme environment here either. This was with the formula wheel also, so minimum stress there as well. I posted some numbers and graphs in the CSW modding thread at GTP but it's now 85 pages long. I don't recall exactly where it was at.

You could feel it when it dropped? Did it graph as a sudden drop?

Would you class this as heavy FFB?
You used default setting on the CSWB including the default 100% dampening and 100% spring force?
Didn't you find the wheel weight setting excessively heavy in 2012?

Don't get me wrong, I fully believe your results and heated motors will obvious output less force, I just would like to read the your data as I find this extremely interesting as I haven't felt any drop.

Example, right now I finished a 1 hour race on Ftruck 2013, all forces maxed in game, wheel set to 80%
0 Dampening, 0 shock, 0 drift, 0 spring.

I was taking particular notice and I couldn't feel any drop in force.
My arms only just started to feel it (I have trained heavy weights most of my adult life) so I highly doubt muscle fatigue had a lot to do with it.
As I said I believe your findings, im just struggling with "normal" usage vs power loss.

One correction I heard my fans slow down as I started typing this, first time I have noticed this due to being quite quiet.

Edit; I had a 2 min brake at 30 mins

 

[Christian Casey]

No special conditions guys, I outlined them above. You need to measure, not go by subjective feel, if you really want to know whether your base is losing power. I've found that the Sim and even which car you drive can make a very large difference in the amount of heat produced in the wheel. For instance, Assetto Corsa's BMW Z4 GT3 gets the wheel quite hot, but a car like the Ferrari 458 doesn't add much heat at all. The GT series seems to roast the wheel like an oven, whereas iRacing doesn't faze the wheel much at all. So it's a very Sim and car dependent thing.

For me at least, when the wheel is set to FF100, as it says in the CSW "manual" this is where the Sim maker intended the FFB level to be, so this is where I leave it. I never go above FF100, and rarely go below. In iRacing of course we have a nice system for finding the ideal setting without clipping, but a lot of Sims don't have that capability.

There are plenty of guys who don't really want much FFB, but for me, it adds some amount of immersion, so I enjoy feeling a realistic level of FFB, and the cars I enjoy most are those like the Z4 GT3 and the vintage F1 cars. I want to feel each car as it should be, not adjust it to where I'm comfortable and can make easy laps.

There are plenty of other guys who have experienced the FFB loss on the V1 wheel as it heats up. I know because quite a lot of them have contacted me. There are a few mechanisms that cause the power loss, not the least of which is the wheel's firmware. It's programmed to reduce the pulse width to the motors once they reach a certain temperature, and won't restore it until the motors cool down to a certain threshold. If they get even hotter, the FFB will cut out completely. I have never had mine cut out except when the motors were damaged. (My stock motors, like many others, were replaced under warranty several times before I modded my wheel with aftermarket motors).

I agree here, I think I'm just not driving it hard enough even though to me (and I'm not weak...lol) any more force and catching the vehicle would become difficult.

But I will leave it as an intriguing conversation. Thanks for the responses.

 

[eKretz]

Let's see, if I recall, the exact settings were SEN360, FF100, Lin OFF, DEA OFF, DRI OFF, FOR100, SPR000, DPR000. Same settings in everything I run unless the FFB is super weak. And now that I think about it, the Sim that took it down 40% may have been GT5. I will try to find the info in the GTP thread and link it when I have a bit more time.

BTW the drop in power was measured as I stated before - max stall torque when cold versus max stall torque when hot. The graph was from a program called Wheelcheck from David Tucker at iRacing - it showed the difference in the wheel's response to one of his tests from the program.

 

[Christian Casey]

Ok I took "default" as out of box. Hugely appreciated if you could.

 

[RaceNut]

Oooh Dean, where at? I would REALLY like to see those results and show them to some of the folks who insist their wheels don't lose ANY power when hot.

Hey eKretz, I was referring to the ongoing testing in the Wheel-check thread on the iRacing forums. I know you frequent there so you may already have read about that.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

Well the NDA embargo lifted today, so without further a do

I don't get involved in personal endorsements, and certainly not on something I would not buy with my own money, but I have to say, I have been testing the V2 for a while here now and it is nothing short of sensational, it is a no brainer insta buy in my opinion, no offence to Fanatec intended here but the difference between the V1 and V2 is night and day for the better, not that the V1 is bad, just that the V2 is so much better.

 

[Christian Casey]

Awesome. Instabuy initiated....

 

[RichardHessels]

YAY!
Australia gets ripped off once again! Fantastic news!

You australians voted for a parlement that protects their national market by adding a huge amount of import tax.. so complain to your government.

 

[Christian Casey]

Lol, not like we have a choice, we have dumb in one party and dumb in another.

Hrmm....steam import tax...

 

[RichardHessels]

Lol, not like we have a choice, we have George W Bush in one party and George W Bush in another.

Hrmm....steam import tax...

Be happy you don't live in Brasil, they put 40% import tax on...

 

[Christian Casey]

Lol, I thought you were from elsewhere.

 

[eKretz]

Oh naughty naughty Mark. There is still 10 minutes of embargo left, lol.

 

[Blkout]

Oh naughty naughty Mark. There is still 10 minutes of embargo left, lol.

I forgive him, its not like it was a long drawn out review. More like a glowing recommendation which I also appreciate given his experience and qualifications. That's not to say I wouldn't be interested in your own opinion since you know quite a bit about Fanatec wheels also.

 

[eKretz]

Here you go:

http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/csw-v1-vs-csw-v2-comparison.92426/

 

[Christian Casey]

Nice review, I especially like the measured assessment. Good job mate.