What Are Your Favorite Small Additions To Your Sim Racing Rig?

Have Your Say What Are Your Favorite Small Additions To Your Rig.jpg
Sim racing gear can easily break the bank, as anyone who has come into contact with virtual racing likely knows. However, small additions can make life in the rig not only easier, but also more enjoyable while allowing your piggy bank to see the light of another day – even simple things like being able to customize the buttons on a steering wheel.

It is not just expensive high-end gear Fanatec has on offer. Recently, I stumbled upon their Button Caps & Sticker set. This set allows you to individually label a multitude of differently colored button caps and use them with your Fanatec wheels. As someone who frequently switches between a Clubsport Formula V2.5X and the Porsche GT3 wheel, this is a simple but welcome addition to my sim racing gear – remembering what function is where on the different wheels sometimes is a more of a task than I would like to admit.

The principle is extremely simple: A total of 50 button caps in different colors, circular stickers in various other colors and more circular, clear stickers with functions in black or white on them allow the user to create the exact button layout they like. There are even rectangular stickers with the functions on them to put directly on the wheel as an extra addition – all while making your wheel look like it belonged in a real race car even more. The set is available via the RaceDepartment Store if you want to take a look yourself.

Fanatec Button Caps and Sticker Set.jpg


Your favorite small additions?​

Of course, this is by far not the only small addition to a rig one can make. 3D-printed holders to use old phones as dash displays, LED strips to add nice lighting effects, self-built button boxes or even just a sticker of your favorite race car manufacturer or racing team – the possibilities are near endless.

RaceDepartment wants to know: What are your favorite small additions that make your sim racing life more enjoyable? Feel free to let us know in the comments – and post pictures, too, as DIY solutions are always an inspiration to other sim racers.
About author
Yannik Haustein
Lifelong motorsport enthusiast and sim racing aficionado, walking racing history encyclopedia.

Sim racing editor, streamer and one half of the SimRacing Buddies podcast (warning, German!).

Heel & Toe Gang 4 life :D

Comments

Hooked a small subwoofer from a soundbar I had up to simhub...put it against the back of my seat (dyi seat from a Mazda 3) only use it for shift thud and a little bit of riad feel and honestly, I like it better than my friends transducers he has in the back of his rig....and mine was a free:)....I'm completely enjoying doing my rig mostly dyi, I get some satisfaction from doing it myself
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Of course, that depends on whether we class "small" as financial cost or physical size?
For the former - constructing a rig from scrap wood and MDF offcuts, and finished off with a Mercedes C180 seat from eBay for £10
For the latter - a foot rest for the left (clutch) foot and a second hand Fire 7 to display SimHub HUD data.
 
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I got a 3.5mm headphone extension. On the male end it plugs in to pc and on the female end it has a mount with 3.5mm connector, not just a basic cable end. I mounted that on to the side of my 8020 rig beside the seat and I plug my headphones or IEM's in to it. It is especially useful for my IEM's because if I have to leave the rig for couple minutes I can leave them in my ears and just disconnect them from beside the seat and plug them back in.

A lot less hassle when you have to do something for a minute and can just leave headset on you.

Certainly one of the smallest changes to the rig.
 
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The 21:9 Ultrawide wasn't a small addition, but getting some quick detachment plates to move it without much effort between my desk and my rig was. Probably the best 20 bucks I spent in the simracing world so far...
I am curious about these quick detachment plates. Was this something you bought or fabricated? I'm finally considering upgrading my main monitor (after maybe a decade, I mostly race in VR) for work and have been considering something similar to what you have to game on occasionally.
 
I love my two clip-on fans for cooling and also the triple monitor hood built from foam board, tape and black cloth, which makes everything feel more enclosed...

but the best one by far is an Amazon Echo Flex ($20, but discontinued). Combined with a couple cheap chinese smartbulbs and smartplugs and an app called AssistantComputerControl, with only 1 voice command my entire room converts to "racing mode": the right lights turn off/on, wheel turns on, computer switches PC to max performance powerplan, switches from single to triple monitor mode, switches fan profile to high and opens the sim of choice.
 
I am curious about these quick detachment plates. Was this something you bought or fabricated? I'm finally considering upgrading my main monitor (after maybe a decade, I mostly race in VR) for work and have been considering something similar to what you have to game on occasionally.
This: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01HOCMF8Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There are other examples, I just ordered two of these and put one on the wall above my desk and the other on the rig so I can just pick up the screen and move it.

It is great for switching but the space I have on my desk without the monitor stand is even better.
 
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A couple of chocks to stop my motion rig, er, I mean office chair from skating off...
I used an old pair of sneakers for that.

Now it would be the second mouse and keyboard, that way I don't have to pull them away from my desk everytime I enter the rig.
 
Premium
What I keep thinking of doing is building a button box with an engine start/stop button linked to the PC power button. So sit in the seat, push the engine start and PC turns on.
Is that a bit "nerdy"?

And I also use a remote USB hub but also a USB card to provide five extra internal USB ports.
 
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Premium
What I keep thinking of doing is building a button box with an engine start/stop button linked to the PC power button. So sit in the seat, push the engine start and PC turns on.
Is that a bit "nerdy"?

And I also use a remote USB hub but also a USB card to provide five extra internal USB ports.
It is and it's brilliant.
 
1. As a VR -exclusive driver, a fan aiming at my face is a must. Else every sessions ends in "foggy driving conditions" and obscured vision. It also adds to the illusion of speed from feeling the wind. :)
2. Classical finger-free leather driving gloves, to save the leather rim of my round Fanatec steering wheel from sweating hand palms. My other GTR3 wheel is rubberized, so there it would be less an issue.
 
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I have two things I have done. One cost me some money, the other cost me some time but it was a fix.

I have a 32 button StreamDeck I use as a button box. With that one box I have made button boxes that are exclusive to every sim and to every car I use in those sims. Probably the most versatile "button box" out there.

The second change was due to my rig flexing since I got it last year. I could not figure out the issue until I was practicing for the iRacing 12 Hours of Sebring race and one of the bolts holding my seat to the rig came out. I was afraid it had stripped out the threaded receiver in the seat and even went so far as to replace the seat with a spare that I had in my garage. When the spare proved to be too uncomfortable for my back I decided to go back to the old seat.

I found out that the receiver was not stripped out, it had just come off the bolt because it was not tightened enough when I put the rig together. I blame it on my habit of "pinning" everything together and then tightening all the bolts down as one of the last things I do.

I forgot to tighten the seat bolts when I finished assembling the rig the first time...

Now that I have done so the rig is rock-solid.
 

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