Recommendations Needed for Cockpit Please

[FriendOfJah]

Hello everyone. I hate to ask a general question here, but I figured this is the right forum to do so. I currently race with a TS-PC Racer wheel and T-LCM pedals. I have the wheel mounted to aluminum plate with countersunk screws and the plate bolted to a computer desk. The pedals are on the floor with 3 pieces of wood keeping it off the back wall. I use a regular office chair. Needless to say, my setup is really not ideal for a consistent racing experience.
That being said, we recently moved into a house from a condominium and I now have a large enclosed air conditioned Florida room to setup in. I would really like to purchase a cockpit that can accommodate my current wheel and pedals but will also allow me to upgrade to a Direct Drive wheel later. I’m looking at spending $1K maximum with a decent seat too. I’ve looked at the Next Level Racing rigs and several other brands. Having Parkinson’s disease, I get mentally overwhelmed quite easily and I have found the sheer number of possibilities just way too much for me to consider. I would therefore like to ask the very knowledgeable RD community for their input and recommendations for a racing rig that meets my needs and my budget too. Thanks in advance for any and all help provided everyone.

 

[ColinMac]

My vote - SimLab GT1 Evo - likely all you need (if you're in the uk, then Pure Sims have them and ship from uk so no duty etc).

No seat with the rig but they can likely offer a few of those with bundled shipping.

 

[Ruttman98]

If you are in North America, look at Advanced Sim Racing. Excellent quality, pricing, and free shipping from Canada to the U.S.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Sim-lab is probably the most popular and recommended here. And for a good reason, design, quality, and customer service are top notch.
Just check show your rig/cockpit thread, perhaps 80% of posts feature it.

 

[FriendOfJah]

My vote - SimLab GT1 Evo - likely all you need (if you're in the uk, then Pure Sims have them and ship from uk so no duty etc).

No seat with the rig but they can likely offer a few of those with bundled shipping.

Thanks so much for your reply. Unfortunately I live in the US.

 

[FriendOfJah]

If you are in North America, look at Advanced Sim Racing. Excellent quality, pricing, and free shipping from Canada to the U.S.

Thanks so much for your recommendation. I’ll check them out.

 

[FriendOfJah]

Sim-lab is probably the most popular and recommended here. And for a good reason, design, quality, and customer service are top notch.
Just check show your rig/cockpit thread, perhaps 80% of posts feature it.

Great suggestion, thanks, I’ll look into that thread.

 

[stigs2cousin]

As an European I can´t give you a decisive recommendation where to buy but I concure with the advice above.
An aluminium profile rig is the way to go and Simlab has very good reputation.

From their shop I´d like the GT2 best for your application because it gives the most leg room with less need to "snake in" between seat and wheel.
On my rig the seat is bolted in place, but you should use a seat slider for adjustment (and for sliding the seat all the way back for better entry.)

Also (differently than most here) I don´t see the need for a fixed back bucket seat.
An automotive grade reclineable seat would be more comfortable and allows much easier entry/exit because the side bolster are not that high. Also it´s way easier to find a fitting and comfy one.
(I´m tall and "big" , a fitting and comfy race buckets start around 900€ as in Recaro SPG pro XL.
Totaly not worth it for me.)
Don´t go for Playseat and other toy manufacturers, there the price is more important than quality and especially rigidity.

Only problem with my idea is that the GT2 seems to have only a front mount bracket for the wheel base which wouldn´t go well with your current wheel base.
You´d need to fabricate a wheel deck (very similar to the aluminum plate you use now) and bolt it to the side plates with corner brackets. Nothing complicated, just cutting and drilling.

Good luck and success Carsten

 

[Beef36]

Thanks so much for your reply. Unfortunately I live in the US.

Buy local, or at least in the same continent!

I've had good experiences with Advanced Sim Racing's kit. They have a range of "off-the-shelf" rigs from lower cost basic to high-end.

 

[sipadan]

I'll add +1 to Advanced Sim Racing. I have their ASR4 which I love along with a 80/20 monitor stand from GT Omega. Since you're in the US like me, Sim Labs was out of the question due to shipping costs. That left Advanced Sim racing, Rig Metal, Racing Cockpits, Trak Racer, Next Level, GT Omega, and I forget if there were any others I was looking at. In the end I narrowed it down to Advanced Sim Racing and Rig Metal, but the customer service feedback on Reddit for ASR was solid, so I ended up with them. In the end, there's a huge difference between the aluminum profile of my ASR rig and the profile of the monitor stand I got from GT Omega. ASR uses much thicker, more robust profile and since I got their Infinite Black paint, not only does it look better, the finish is much more durable than the standard black powder coat. I really love my ASR rig. It's made super well and solid. A few suggestions: if you do go with ASR, try to get the ASR4 or 6. The mounting of the uprights uses a connecting plate on those models instead of angle brackets on the ASR3 and lower which makes it more sturdy. I'm sure the ASR3 is fine, but that detail took me a while to notice when doing research. I also got the adjustable seat from ASR since I plan on trying to dual-purpose this rig with a flight sim. Probably still the best choice for my use case, but there's some flex under heavy braking. If you're doing sim racing only, a fixed back seat is probably better.