The MS wheel isn't bad considering it was designed for a budget market, my biggest complaints are the pedals and the rim size. The pedals are horrendous so you will definitely need to bungee cord them.
Apparently David the Madcatz FFB wheel is really overpriced for what it is. Not much rotation, clamps not very stable, wheel feels slightly cheap and the peddles are quite bad. I think this isn't the wheel to buy, even if you have the cash.There is a big gap between
Madcatz Mc2 @ £40
Madcatz FFB wirelsss @ £180
Fanatec CSR with pedals @£270.
Some fast guys use the M/S wheel.
I took the view that I will eventually own a good wheel and went from #1 aboce to #3 above. Could not spend almost £200 on the Madcatz and went the little extra. Very happy. Tried out another Xbox game too called Race Pro and now with FFB its a physics revelation. Lacks the eye candy of Forza but the driving is unbelievable.
The Madcatz MC2 is and has been used by quite a few very good racers and although it looks a bit kiddish it has proved very reliable and probably the best value for money. I have had mine for 15 months, had about 600+ hours of use and only this past week have I started having problems with my downshift paddle not working properly.I recently bought the Madcatz Wireless wheel for £90 from the gamestation site. Overall I think it's pretty good, pedals are reasonable, but not a massive amount of resistance from them. There is sometimes an issue with corner turn in not being as responsive, but I just altered my car setup a bit to compensate, can't really decide whether it's my wheel settings or a problem with that particular wheel. Doesn't bother me too much though.
It is solid and comes with a table clamp and leg rests, I use the leg rests myself, there is good grip but the rests themselves could be a better ergonomic design. The button and d pad layout is the same as a control pad. The paddleshifters have a good feel too. There is no force feedback though.
The only thing I have to compare it with is the Madcatz MC2, which imo felt like a kiddies wheel.