Community Question | Your First Sim Racing Wheel

[Paul Jeffrey]

Us sim racers tend to quite like our toys... from rigs, to wheels, pedals, button boxes, VR headsets, apps, software, PC's and plenty of stuff in between.... and for those of us lucky enough to own a wheel, I'd love to know which one was your first...

Not everyone runs with a wheel and pedals, but of those of us that do, I'd like to know which one was your first, and what you thought of that hardware and how in impacted your experience playing racing games and simulations.

For my part, my very first wheel was the little white plastic Microsoft Xbox 360 wireless unit - I thought that was the absolute pinnacle of technology back in the day. Oh, how the hobby got serious after that!

Although ownership of a racing wheel came late on for me, I also clearly remember playing IndyCar Racing over at my mates house using a really old, spring force PC wheel. That piece of kit brought the whole experience to an absolutely unthinkable level of immersion. The passage of time has dulled my memory of its name now, but suffice to say I was very, very envious of that bit of hardware...

Anyway, have fun reliving days gone by in the comments section below!

 

[moos]

mad catz for ps1.

 

[cvilla]

This is my first pc wheel. No FFB.
In the picture pedals are over the monitor basement of the wheel. Old CRTmonitors was heavy just to fix on the table the wheel base.
Only two pedals, very little.
1998 circa

 

[kizz360]

Ahh memories - my first wheel was the sidewinder precision - spent many hours playing toca 2 with that wheel

 

[Col_ed_Viân]

In 2005 or so, I got a Thrustaster Enzo Ferrari Force Feedback.
I tried to use it to play some racing game on pc, but the wheel was not that good and I found that playing with keyboard was much better.
Now I have a TS T150 (the one with the Ferrari logo) that I use to play Assetto Corsa.

 

[Helldriver]

My History of Racing Wheels, i´m feeling kinda old.

1. Thrustmaster Formula T2

2. Thrustmaster Formula 1:

3. Logitech Momo Racing:

4. Logitech Driving Force

5. Logitech G25:

6. Logitech G27:

7. Thrustmaster T500:

8. Ioni Simucube

Looking forward to the future of simracing.

 

[Fabri]

1. Can't remember the first wheel manufacturer, but it was a three in one controller, with a detachable full rim wheel and the small handles could be pulled a little and then rotated to either form a flight stick / formula wheel or a bike handle bar. Black plastic and two buttons and spring force, no force feedback. Maybe someone still knows it and knows the manufacturer and model?View attachment 364570
2. Guillemot Ferrari Force Feedback Wheel
3. Logitech Momo Racing Wheel
4. Logitech G25

I remember some of similar, that was my first sim wheel. Great

 

[smasha]

I pretty much had a non force feedback wheel as my first it was in the latter 1990s but then I got a Guillemont Thrustmaster wheel with force feedback and then after that I got an Xbox wheel, but as for that old Guillemont wheel whenever I tried to install it on Windows 7 it bricked the OS and same on Windows 10 it was a lovely wheel for its day but I was recently looking at new wheels but they are more of a "want" for me rather than a "need" so they are waste of money at the moment for a guy like me

The Ferrari wheel was fantastic for GPL and GP3,when the Logitech red momo came out,it took me a while to get used to it due to the bigger rotation and it had noisy ffb in GPL,like electrical interference,more modern sims like GP4 and Nascar Racing 2003,it was fantastic.

Miss my Act Labs Shifter,nothing like it on the market today.

G25,G27 is still the benchmark for reliability unless you want to spend 3k plus.

Act Labs still going?

ACT LABS Home Arcade Controller - Everything Else Is Just A Toy!

ACT LABS -- your home arcade controllers center, racing, golfing and more. Everything else is just a toy

www.act-labs.com

 

[Proslot]

This is my first pc wheel. No FFB.
In the picture pedals are over the monitor basement of the wheel. Old CRTmonitors was heavy just to fix on the table the wheel base.
Only two pedals, very little.
1998 circa

Thanks, this was my first wheel as well, I've been trying to rack my brain thinking what it was called over the past couple of days but couldn't think of it. It wasn't a bad wheel (self-centreing only) but I do remember having a few issues with the gear change paddles on mine.

 

[Shoc23]

My first wheel back many years ago. You would push/pull the steering wheel shaft when driving to simulate the gas/brake pedal. Very nice design would fit into any office drawer.

Since then ran i have used Thrustmaster, Thomas Superwheel, and now Fanatec wheels.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

View attachment 365217

My first wheel back many years ago. You would push/pull the steering wheel shaft when driving to simulate the gas/brake pedal. Very nice design would fit into any office drawer.

Since then ran i have used Thrustmaster, Thomas Superwheel, and now Fanatec wheels.

amazing! I can't even begin to figure out how this would work!

 

[beef]

View attachment 365217

My first wheel back many years ago. You would push/pull the steering wheel shaft when driving to simulate the gas/brake pedal. Very nice design would fit into any office drawer.

Since then ran i have used Thrustmaster, Thomas Superwheel, and now Fanatec wheels.

That is genius lol love it, and two buttons for throttle and brake

 

[Jivesauce]

My first wheel was the Logitech Driving Force (not pro!) which appears to be at least visually really similar to the red WingMan that many other people posted:

My wife had tracked down a copy of F1 2002 for PS2, which was difficult to find in our area, so I got this wheel to play it with. Unfortunately, the FFB was still really basic and it only had 200 degrees of rotation. I already had real-world track experience at that point (not in an F1 car of course) and it just didn't feel anything like a real car to me and I pretty quickly put it away and didn't use it anymore. I have no idea why I didn't try it with Gran Turismo or GTR on PC, both of which I had, it probably would have worked better with those.

Anyway, it kind of put me off sim racing and I didn't pay attention for many years. A couple years ago I was really antsy for some driving as I had to stop doing track events for various reasons a few years back, so I started looking into it again. I hadn't realized how far it had all come, so I bought a G920 on sale for $200 and a copy of Assetto Corsa. I couldn't believe how much closer to reality it was than anything I had tried previously.

After a year of setting it up on my desk every time I wanted to drive and tearing it down afterward, my EXTREMELY understanding wife allowed me to build a rig in our living room, and I switched to a TS-PC Racer and that's where I am today! For what it's worth, after switching to a dedicated rig that I could just get in and drive, my playtime was something like 5x-6x higher from one year to the next.

 

[Adams007]

Logitech DFGT, G27, T500rs

 

[Cazdad2]

Xbox 360 racing wheel. And gasp, my interest in racing took off with Forza 3, which wasn't arcadey IMO. Felt it was light years ahead of Other Xbox racing games. I took a table my sons used for Legos - tabletop had a Lego paltform and used with my Xbox wheel in family room. I know, not ideal. As I moved to PC racing In basement man cave I then upgraded to Logitech Driver Force GT, then Thrustmaster Tx Ferrari 458 and now have Accuforce DD wheel. Thrustmaster pedals were good, but upgraded to the their 3 pedal set up - not much better and then went loadcell with Fanatec v3. Decent pedals sure make a difference. Can't say I'm any better of a driver, but can't blame my rig. Also have Simxperience motion chassis set up. Initially went triple screen with 2 cards in SLI, then but then went to a single good card and 4K tv that is only used for gaming.

Still have all the wheels...

 

[Alexandre Christianini]

Thrustmaster Formula T2. I bought with Papy's Nascar Racing

 

[KaKeX]

Logitech DFGT. Still have it and use it.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

my EXTREMELY understanding wife allowed me to build a rig in our living room,

this goes far beyond being extremely understanding
give her my regards

 

[Keith Joyce]

Logitech DFGT. Still have it and use it.
View attachment 365364

Do you use a squash ball under the brake pedal?

 

[Miguel Batista]

amazing! I can't even begin to figure out how this would work!

Mice (? Mouses?) weren't always optical. Back in the day they had a ball that rotated and told the pointer where to go. Very clever that design. Never thought about it. Unlimited degrees of rotation too.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

Mice (? Mouses?) weren't always optical. Back in the day they had a ball that rotated and told the pointer where to go. Very clever that design. Never thought about it. Unlimited degrees of rotation too.

Yep, remember how one used to clean that ball every couple of weeks because fluff collected inside? And at my school students used to forever steal them from the school PCs, we had a big box with reserve balls (and how does that sound …). It's probably still collecting dust somewhere.