Does a better wheel and pedals make difference.

[navgomeister]

Hello guys, I have a question. I am now running the t150 with the stock pedals, now is my question if better equipment makes you faster? I am thinking to upgrade to better pedals, and if its faster, a better wheel.

 

[RasmusP]

Pedals are only about consistency. Being able to press the amount of input that you want after a good amount of practice.
And about not hurting your feet/legs by bad positioning or too low/heavy resistance.
Imo the stock t150 pedals are not delivering the above so yeah, I'd at least buy a set of t3pa pro!

Wheel: difficult thing. I went from a g27 to a fanatec csw 2.5. Had a ts-pc for a week and a friend bought a t300.

There are a few aspects about the wheel:
1. Turning speed: if the wheel reacts too slowly, you will need to actively countersteer, when you feel the loss of grip. With a quickly turning wheel, the wheel will turn very fast and instead of actively countersteering you let the wheel turn itself and then grab it/slow it down at the right moment.
This won't give you any speed but I personally don't spin as often with the better wheel! Making races more safe and practice more efficient.

2. Amount of force and details: this won't make you any quicker just like that but you will feel things you didn't feel before. Now this is a tricky thing because if you know what you should feel, you can find these things in the cheaper wheels too.
For example a real life racing driver will be fast with your wheel no matter what.
But I for example don't know how to be very fast yet. For me the better wheel brought things to the surface I didn't know that existed before.
Most importantly feeling the brake, the weight shift to the front and the changing grip at the front wheels due to it.
So for some cars I could trailbrake a lot more precisely and become faster with some practice.
A real life race driver knows how to brake and knows what to feel and will find the details with a cheap wheel too. It's just a bit more hidden.

To give you some examples from me:
Csl elite throttle compared to the g27 throttle has a longer travel, more resistance and for me, it's easier to get the right amount of throttle at the exit.
I don't have a loadcell brake yet (only the 2 pedals) but the brake isn't any better than compared to the g27.
I did screw a sponge into my g27 spring to give it a more progressive resistance. Was very nice with it!
The t3pa pro have some piece of rubber, working similar

For the wheel I simply enjoy driving more, having more fun.
I only became faster through one corner at the Nordschleife:
Entry to Schwalbenschwanz is a 180 kph right hander and you arrive there with about 240 kph. So you have to brake slightly while turning in and keep the car on the edge.
With my csw 2.5 I gained 1.3 seconds just through that corner.
I didn't gain much for the whole rest of the track though.

Conclusion:
- you need to be able to be consistent with your pedals. If not you need better ones
- if you don't know what to feel for, a better wheel might show you better what you should look for

- it won't make you quicker just like that but you'll be more consistent, feel a bit more and therefore be able to use your practice time a bit more efficiently.

- and you will have more fun, which was the main reason for me. I simply didn't enjoy driving my logitech wheel anymore.. Too loud, not smooth enough etc.

 

[navgomeister]

Thanks for the reply. I think i am also going to buy the csl elite pedals

 

[alexSchmurtz]

I used the stock pedals with a T300 for a year, I think they are similar if not identical? Then switched to the CSL Elite with LC: that was a game changer! Of course I had to get use to the brake at first, but the throttle was such a step up already! More travel and a lot more precise. I simply could not modulate with the TM pedals: it was on/off. So even without LC I think it would be an improvement (with the possibility to had the loadcells later; but that would be more expensive as you need to buy an usb adapter to use the non-LC pedals with a wheel from an another brand—when that adapter is included with the LC pedal).

Good pedals mainly gave me much more consistency at first. But I think I am also faster now; not sure how much come from the pedals themselves, or from the practice I did since then. I think good pedals are more important than getting a better wheel.

 

[RasmusP]

I think good pedals are more important than getting a better wheel.

Yep, but only to a certain amount.
Going from csl elite LC to Heusinkvelds won't give you the same improvement like T150 to CSW 2.5.
As you say pedals give you control and consistency. But once you get both to a proper level, the improvement is very little.
A better wheel will uncover actual details about the car behavior. Although I think going from ts-pc/csl elite upwards won't give you much improvement either.