Learn me: Fanatec gaming wheels

Within the last few months, I've gotten a chance to test out a couple of homemade gaming rigs, and I'm really thinking about getting one of my own. To add to this, it looks like I'll be living in my apartment for at least the next year or two, so I have no place to store or work on a track car.

I'd really like something compatible with GT5 and Forza, so Fanatec gets the nod there, but no one local that I know has one. Are they really worth the loot and make your gaming experience that much better? Or will they be dust covered within a few weeks, and hard to get rid of?

I see right now, Fanatec has their CSR wheel and pedal set for 250, and a load cell for the brake is like an additional 15. Plus figuring for either a stand or building my own setup, I could be into this for about the cost of a track day.

Thanks for all the help!

All I know about Fanatec wheels is I missed a great deal on a lightly used full setup, and I'm STILL licking myself for it.

Try visiting the Cockpits and Steering Wheels forum at www.gtplanet.net for some feedback. I think there is even somebody from Fanatec that posts there regularly.

Thanks for the help! There's a lot of good information over there!

I really like mine a lot, but without a proper way to mount the wheel and pedals, it's become a dust collector.

wow, I am surprised my account is still active over at GTPlanet. I do believe I'll share my cockpit build over there. I just acquired a Driving Force Pro wheel from Strike Zero a week or two ago, fits my setup perfectly.

I've got the porsche Turbo S wheel that they released around Forza 3. You want the upgraded wheels and pedals. My pedals are the standard ones, and they're having some quirks. I assume they've fixed them with the revised version. I don't have any issues with the rest of the setup, however.

Pedal issues: Sometimes, the brake is slightly depressed just by sitting there, and it throws off Forza 4 in the menus. If I lift the brake all the way up with my foot, it'll behave. It's not an issue in the racing. I'm also having quirks with the throttle pedal. Occasionally, the throttle will not actuate properly, and I have to turn the wheel off and back on several times until it calibrates properly. When it is happening, full throttle seems to produce no effect, and the only way I can get it to rev at all is by rapidly modulating the pedal. This started happening roughly a year to a year and a half after I got the wheel/pedal combo.

racerfink wrote: I really like mine a lot, but without a proper way to mount the wheel and pedals, it's become a dust collector.

I was hoping you'd post. Is the mount issue a problem with the wheel itself, or that you just don't physically have anything to mount it to?

I've been eyeing up that stand on Fanatec's site, but I don't know if I'm willing to put out that money for a prefabbed solution or if I should just build my own rig with a car seat.

Do you have the brakes with the load cell, and if so, is it worth it?

I use a $30 Rigid Flip Top feed table and an IKEA Poang chair. I built a lttle sloped platform for the pedals that bolts to the base of the table. Works fine and folds up fairly small.

I had my wheel mounted to the coffee table, and my load-cell pedals on the floor, all in front of my couch. It was like sitting in a Semi and trying to drive fast. I've got the seats I've pulled out of the Spec Miata, I just need to build something that will allow a proper seating position.