Brake Pedal Force in Heusinkveld Sprint vs. Road Car

acnomad · Jan 14, 2024

In setting up my pedals while awaiting the rest of the components to build my first sim racing rig, I found that the Heusinkveld Sprints do not come close to resembling the amount of pedal effort to apply the brakes in my road car (BMW F80). I realize that the power assist, which makes the first few inches of pedal travel in the road car feel effortless, is obviously not present in the sim pedals. Reconfiguring the elastomer components helps a bit, but they are still not anything close to the way the road car brake pedal feels.

While I realize the advantage of having it, I'm not interested (at this moment) in having race car feel in the sim. Rather, I want the sim to be a tool to get better at driving the road car on the track.

What solutions exist to better mimic the feel of the road car in Heusinkveld Sprint pedals?

Deleted member 197115 · Jan 14, 2024

I have found that switching from elastomers to springs of different resistance is better for progression simulation. This is on Simtrecs pedals, but the same company sells kit for HE Sprint as well. Springs in general are better in a long term than degrading and inconsistent under prolonged use elastomers.

HE Sprint Brake Spring Upgrade Kit

MRP Brake Spring Upgrade Kit for Heusinkveld Sprint Stock is due 25 March 2024 – Please check back to order 8x Springs 3x Spring Retainers Material: High Quality Japanese Spring Steel Brake Stiffness: From medium to super-hard feel Many hours have been spent using VRS to log brake trace to...

www.mrpltd.co.nz

stigs2cousin · Jan 14, 2024

There is a lot of discussion on this topic on the internet.
I asked a similar question when thinking about buying a DD wheel.

The problem is that even "real car pedals" like Simtag don´t feel like completely like the pedals in your car. You could put the pedal assembly from your car on the Sim and it would feel "off". A few years back there was even a guy on this forum who used a real pressure plate assembly to replicate clutch feel but was never satiesfied with the results. The problem is that the complete tactile aspects are missing (engine, wheight transfer, G forces, the grinding feeling of the pad digging into the disc etc)

It´s only a problem when "dry humping" the pedals, your brain will "fill in the blanks" when you start driving.

About the "spring vs elastomer" discussion, I see that as personal preference.
An irl brake system does not respond linearly to an increase in brake pressure, exclamation point! (I´m ignoring software bull shittery on brake-by-wire systems on purpose here.)
Some people find a linear increase in travel vs brake forces helps the with brake modulation, I personally am happy with the new HSV elastomers. I made the swap from the first version to the recent one on my Sprints and can corroborate that the new ones feel quite different, especially in the release phase.

My advice:

go with slightly stiffer elastomer setup than "feels right" now and just start driving.

Same with the TrueDrive profile for your Simucube. I´d use the default AC profile, maybe increase inertia a bit when you´re having osciliations.

It´s so easy to get lost in tinkering with the tech that the driving parts goes out of the window

Deleted member 197115 · Jan 14, 2024

Dan Suzuki talked about elastomers vs springs in this video, elastomers for all intent and purpose even with all their cons work, cheaper too, I personally prefer stiffer pedals relying on resistance with little movement instead of the mushy travel, but when experimenting with spring kit on Simtrecs mixing springs of different strength was producing more pronounced "progressive" feeling than elastomers of different hardness. They were also quicker to return for better controlled trail braking.