Fanatec Clubsport Pedal Review

[Brian Clancy]

This is the first part of the review of Fanatecs GT3RSv2 Wheel and the Clubsport pedals. In this part I am going to be looking at the peddles. Both these items can be purchased together or as single units, hence the decision to review them independently.


Fanatec Clubsport Pedals (CSP’s)

First Impressions:
I have to say I was quite excited to test these out and there was an air of excitement as I took delivery of the wheel and pedals. Once I had removed the pedals from the very smart box they come in, the first thing to get my attention was the weight of them. This is one very sturdy set of pedals! The next thing is the finish! Made almost totally from aluminium, the finish is, well, frankly, superb. The hard anodising (the silver and black finish on the aluminium parts) is first class as is the machining of the individual components. Nice, clean radius to edges, high quality fasteners throughout and all bolts counter sunk. As a time served engineer, this is the sort of thing I appreciate and notice first, but then you start to take in just how damn good looking they are! Very much a functional design, but still a very attractive one, the aesthetics are simply ‘race track refugee’. I have fitted peddle boxes of a similar design and quality to some very expensive race cars and these look very much the ‘part’!


Back of pedals

Nuts, Bolts and Techie Spec:
Okay, there are a number of things about the club sports that will be new to many of you, not least the Load Cell on the brake and the ‘contactless’ hall effect sensors on the throttle and clutch. Without doubt the load cell is the big improvement, so I am going to start with the brakes. On a ‘normal’ set of pedals, the brake input is measured with a potentiometer and resistance is supplied by a spring. The end result is that if you wish to apply say 75% braking power, you would normally depress the brake pedal 75% of its range of movement to achieve this. Whilst a perfectly acceptable system, it is not realistic when compared to a ‘real’ cars brake pedal, the ‘real’ pedal will only move a small amount and will gradually become harder to depress. The simplistic way to explain this is it has more to do with force than movement. The load cell mimics this attribute superbly as it measures the FORCE applied to the pedal, NOT the range of movement. There are two big benefits of the load cell, one, the brake feels far more realistic when compared to the older ‘spring/pot’ system and two, more importantly, it is far easier to achieve repeatable, reliable and consistent braking with this setup. The biggest reason is it seems far easier to ‘remember’ a physical ‘pressure’ than an amount of travel, meaning you can brake right to the edge of ‘locking up’ without doing so, making trail braking easier and more consistent, allowing later braking and so on. This load cell system knocked my PB at my favourite track down by over a second in just a few laps and my speed is still improving now as I become more and more accustomed to it! There are not many products that can REALLY MAKE YOU FASTER!The hall effect sensors on the throttle/clutch are also a very positive step forward. With no contacting parts, they can’t wear out, have a very high ‘digital’ resolution, wont develop any ‘play’ or ‘slop’ like potentiometers and aside from possibly needing a simple clean with a cotton bud very occasionally, I can’t see any reason for them not to last years!Also, another clever feature is the 'ABS' function, if the pedals are connected to a Fanatec wheel, a small vibration motor can be set to create some vibrating FFB on the brake pedal. I should also point out that the pedals are USB connected OR connected directly to a Fanatec wheel.

Adjustability: It became apparent very early on that the CSP’s are designed with a great degree of adjustment built in to them. The pedal pads themselves on the brake and clutch are very adjustable, not only in position (by virtue of the holes drilled in them) but also by angle and height. This can be altered by either removing the spacer behind the pedal completely or just turning it upside down (altering the angle of the face of the pedal pad). The brake pedals travel can also be adjusted simply by moving its axle pin up one hole (this does require some simple disassembly, but reduces the travel noticeably) whilst the springs on the clutch and throttle pedal are both ‘tension’ adjustable by simply turning the nuts that hold them in place. Beyond this, Fanatec also supply a very comprehensive ‘tuning’ kit that comes with numerous springs for the clutch and gas pedal and PU foam inserts for the brake. It is also possible to adjust the throws on the gas and clutch pedals by either ‘packing out’ the pedals rod base to reduce the travel before the rod ‘bottoms out’ or if you are more daring you could also ‘trim’ the rod a little shorter to increase the throw. Finally, I should also mention that Fanatec have added another great feature to the load cell. At the back of the pedals is a small silver knob (a Potentiometer). Turning this allows you to adjust the amount of physical force needed to reach a given braking value, I.E. you can make the brakes very sensitive with a light pedal , a heavy pedal that really does require quite a bit of effort, or anything in between. For me this is a particularly useful addition as the adjustments are made outside the game/driver so can be made in real time with little fuss!
This degree of adjustment means comfortable and reliable ‘Heel and toe’ setups are VERY easy to make, even for people with small or very large feet!

A great tutorial on pedal adjustment.

Driving with the CSP’s:
Again, like all reviews, this is based on very personal feelings, but driving with the CSP’s is a joy. Out of the box they feel wonderful, but once adjusted to your liking, they take on a whole new feeling! The pedal movement is soo smooth, silky even. The travel on the clutch and gas pedals is quite a bit longer than on the G25 and this translates to more accuracy in use, standing starts are more consistent and the increased throw on the gas pedal makes controlling an oversteering RWD car a pleasure! But most of all, it is the brakes that bring the most joy, you find yourself braking later with much more confidence and control.

Conclusions:
A truly superb set of pedals, they will make you faster if you don’t have a load cell currently, with really top notch quality of components/materials/construction and finish. All this at at a very competitive price!

Value: 98 /100 At 199.95 Euro’s plus delivery, it’s top marks

Functionality: 99 /100 With the load cell, hall effect sensors and this level of adjustability it nearly got 100!

Quality: 98 /100 Superbly engineered and finished, top marks again

RD Rating: 295/300 I very much doubt we will see any other product score this high again!

Buy One???: I believe mine was ordered by the Mrs J but I doubt she will let me have them before Xmas!
You can find the Fanatec website HERE

 

[InsaneOzzie]

Evan, thanks for the link mate, Ive looked at their site a few times, their a New Zealand Group, they once advertised as stockist for the Ubutto Ozone Cockpit but they carry a different brand now.
Also its actually cheaper for me to buy from the USA than NZ, better exchange rate.

P.S. You need High Quality DNA to be an AUSSIE.

 

[Sergio Andrade]

RS n s

 

[Sergio Andrade]

kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

 

[Sergio Andrade]

You may find my review that I did 1.5 years ago useful, comparing the GT3RS wheel with the G25: http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=145043

ReDi,

Many thanks! I appreciated!

Rgds

 

[Sergio Andrade]

Sergio :wink:

I will be reviewing the GT3RSv2 very, very soon AND the new Carrera wheel too! So keep an eye out for the reviews soon!

Brian,

Tkx! I'll be waiting for!

Any date to publish the reviews?

Rgds

 

[Brian Clancy]

Brian,

Tkx! I'll be waiting for!

Any date to publish the reviews?

Rgds

not quite yet, but within the next week or two for sure

 

[Kris Vickers]

Superb review Brian, really well done

I have to say aswell, that i have tried these and have to agree with Brian (even if not as enthusiastically lol) that they are really good quality pedals and truely improve the racing experience.

At first i was against these pedals, as i`m not too keen on the asthetics. But honestly, they look better in the flesh and they far outweigh that negative (for me at least) with all the positives of its functionallity.

Thumbs up to both Brian and Thomas for the review and the product!

 

[Groover]

I bought the combo pack with the GT3RSv2 and CSP and I was really surprise to see such cheap design regarding the shifting paddles. The design makes them flimsy and the worst that I have ever used. Doing a research to see if it is possible to mod them. Other than that it's top notch.

 

[Alex Kyriak]

Kris - what are the negatives you mention? They look (and sound like from the review) the mutt's.

 

[Kris Vickers]

Kris - what are the negatives you mention? They look (and sound like from the review) the mutt's.

For me, the negative is (or was) how they look.

I wasn't a fan of how they looked. But after seeing them in the 'flesh', decided that the pictures i`ve seen of them, did them no justice at all.

 

[David O Gorman]

Quick question regarding the Brake pedal.
from reading the review it works the same as a car brake so if you stamp quickly on the pedal
it becomes active quicker t,rather than easing the pedal down.
My question is does it also feel the same as when you stamp on it as it would in a car.
It feels in a car that when you stamp on the pedal that the travel is very short compared to easing the pedal down,
a bit like if you have a syringe full of water and you hit the plunger quickly ,
it wont travel quickly as the amount to water to push through the small hole is too great,(almost feels like its not moving at all)
however if you match your pressure to the amount of water than can exit the syringe it travels the full extent easily.

Reading about the brake the sensor seems to be like a sensor that can read the pressure only ,but doesn't give you the
different resistants that different pressure on the brake pedal would in a car.

Hope i explained my self properly.

 

[Brian Clancy]

Hi David

Your about right, but if you stamp hard on the pedal (depending on how sensitive you have set the load cell) the wheel will lock, where if you gently apply what FEELS the SAME pressure, they probably wont. TBH the load cell only measures pressure, so this must be a human perception rather than anything else, but it does feel really quite realistic. Because it uses a PU Foam at the end of the rod from the pedal to the LC, it softens the intial contact, making the pedal feel softer in the first part of its travel, then as it compresses it begins to make the pedal feel harder (along with the extra loading from the LC). All this makes for a really good feeling pedal. Im sure that if you could have a 'Real' hydrualic brake pedal alongside this LC pedal, you find diffrences, but tbh, its pretty darn good

Hope that helps

 

[David O Gorman]

Thanks for the answer Brian ,hoping that Santa will bring these to me this year even if he dose use my credit card.

 

[Brian Clancy]

Thanks for the answer Brian ,hoping that Santa will bring these to me this year even if he dose use my credit card.

Yeah, I think (but I dont know for sure lol) that Mrs Santa has ordered mine (shes pretty stealthy and probbably got it ordered with a friends card so I cant see it on the statement lol) so I wont know. (bless her, Grrrrrrrrrrrr) lmao:wink:

 

[David Garcia]

Great report!

 

[Sergio Andrade]

Dear Friends,
After 7 month from my last post talking about my satisfaction with the CSP I'm having serious brake issues.
Looking for solution I've contacted Fanatec, which promptly identified the issue as a bad functioning of the load cell delivering a new one immediately, without delay and with no cost.
I changed the device, but, unfortunatelly, after 3 weeks of use I'm having exactly the same brake issues.
After to check on web for solution, I could see that the brake issues occurs since Fanatec delivered the CSP to the market.
The major problem is that this issue remains without solution as could be attested by the posts of the owners of new units of the CSP from Fanatec.
I confess that I'm at least dissapointed!
All the best 4 u all

 

[Unregistered]

Hi GReat Review;

I like to ask has anyone had the opportunity to use the CST pedals and compared them to the CSP? I'm on the fence. I'm leaning to the CSP just for cost reason, but I have the go ahead from my boss (wife) to get either.

I currently have the g27 after long years of service (don't laugh) from my Momo FFB. Recently I became addictive to iRacing (after years of deactivation) and I'm being beaten in the breaking zones. I will be upgrading my wheel as well soon to either one of the new fanatec wheels or thrustmaster 500.

I look forward to anyones comments.

Thanks.

 

[Marcel Hwang]

I have these peddles and nothing but trouble. Bougth a G27

yep same here load cell failed after 7 weeks from purchase. i mean WTF fanatec check video here

because of all the hype. thats $300aUD down the toilet

 

[Darren Croswell]

I've had my clubs for quite awhile now, I have yet to do any adjustments to them even though I have the tuning kit, and I absolutly love them. I can't quit playing long enough to play arround with adjusting them......Well worth the money!