Community Question | Your First Sim Racing Wheel

[Paul Jeffrey]

Us sim racers tend to quite like our toys... from rigs, to wheels, pedals, button boxes, VR headsets, apps, software, PC's and plenty of stuff in between.... and for those of us lucky enough to own a wheel, I'd love to know which one was your first...

Not everyone runs with a wheel and pedals, but of those of us that do, I'd like to know which one was your first, and what you thought of that hardware and how in impacted your experience playing racing games and simulations.

For my part, my very first wheel was the little white plastic Microsoft Xbox 360 wireless unit - I thought that was the absolute pinnacle of technology back in the day. Oh, how the hobby got serious after that!

Although ownership of a racing wheel came late on for me, I also clearly remember playing IndyCar Racing over at my mates house using a really old, spring force PC wheel. That piece of kit brought the whole experience to an absolutely unthinkable level of immersion. The passage of time has dulled my memory of its name now, but suffice to say I was very, very envious of that bit of hardware...

Anyway, have fun reliving days gone by in the comments section below!

 

[anton_Chez]

G25 introduced me into the world of sim racing. Now, with a specially built room to house my simulator, I am most certainly in at the deep end. Love pretty much all of my time doing it. Can't remember being interested in anything else at this point.

 

[ShredatorFIN]

Actually, this stupid thing. Years and years ago. On X360.

I didn't know anything about wheels, thought it might be fun to play Forza with, wasn't super expensive. Turned out, it doesn't have FFB. But I had never even tried a wheel with FFB, so I didn't know what I was missing. I just went "Huh, this is it? Not that special" and soon it was collecting dust, and back to gamepad which was much more practical in a living room.

Years later I got Assetto Corsa (just before it hit 1.0) on PC. Played it with a gamepad a few times, and again "Huh, this is it? Not that special".

But then I read about FFB wheels, how AC got praise for it's wheel feel. I thought, "There's gotta be more to this" and bought a G27. Big revelation moment. G27 and Assetto started my sim racing career. Been hooked ever since.

So, G27 was my first true wheel. Upgraded to T500RS after that, just to play Assetto with even more realistic feeling. Then I expanded into lots of other sims, basically now I have all of them, except iRacing. Planning to get a better wheel if T500 ever breaks down... but it doesn't.

 

[PicoBp]

It was some crappy 180° rotation, non-feedback (rubber band centering), plastic "wonder" in the early 2000's. Genius, Speed or Trust maybe? Can't recall. Got followed by a Logitech MOMO Force (black), DFGT, G27, T300, TX, even a G25 as a short-term replacement.

 

[Deleted member 217114]

A DFGT in 2014 for ETS 2, WRC 4. Then a half year later I sold the DFGT for 50 euro. And bought a used G27 for 170 euro. I was pondering about it for 2 days, lol. It was one of the biggest purchases I made back then. Dirt 3, Dirt Rally, RBR. Good times. During the years I had a Used T300 (broke after a month), a new TX, then a Fanatec v2.5. During end 2017 I was so disappointed into Codemasters I sold all my stuff. Then 1.5 years later I bought everything again. A mix of new and used. Now only racing AMS and AMS 2. Tried RBRpro, but you need a facepic + social media, which is a no no for me.

 

[Graham Botha]

My first wheel was the Logitech Wingman Formula Force GP which I got to play NFS underground 2, way back in 2003/2004. I worked for a Logitech distributor at the time and as they had lost the distributorship, it was deemed as old stock & I managed to get it for less than half price. Brilliant wheel for the time and it still works as I gave it to a relative a year or two ago... unfortunately there was no way I could get my hands on the 1st Gen Momo wheel. It was just too expensive.

 

[Wilko Jones]

My first wheel was the Madcatz racing wheel micro for the original Xbox. It was hot garbage! I got it for Forza 1. Soon after I ended up getting a Fanatec Speedster 3 w/ Force Shock. A much better wheel than the Madcrapz thingy.

 

[Leonardo Ratafiá]

Madcatz Andretti wheel.
Still keep it, will post some pics later.

 

[Ben Lee]

I forgot, I actually had one back in about 1997 for Gran Turismo on the PS1. Some really cheap and nasty “Logic3” wheel which attached to your legs by a strap, it was beyond useless.

 

[Reynaldo Luna]

I started at the arcade with Atari Sprint 1 and 2. Later it was Hard Drivin'. That was the one that I learned to drive stick with. Years later I had an N64 and I found a steering wheel for it sitting in a parking lot late one night. I used it to play Top Gear. Skip to many years later and I finally got a new console the 360 and I got a Mad Catz wheel with the funny looking pedals. I was hooked and wanted to race on a pc, so I upgraded my pc and bought a G27. I built a rig for it with transducers and everything. Istill use it when I can. I want to buy a dd wheel some day, but I want to upgrade to VR first. Oh, does the Tomy Digital Derby count as a first wheel?

 

[JoeSchmoe]

Logitech momo, thought it was pretty hot then.........one before that, just cant recall what it was.......

 

[Kayumi]

I cant remember exactly which wheel I first used as this was owned by my father, but something like this

My first own wheel was a Logitech G25, which served me for 10 years without a problem! Good times

 

[djmonixe13]

A madcatz wheel on the ps2 that had these pull out side so you can put the wheel on your lap. Sat in the predecessor to the ikea poang chair to get that seating position just right.

 

[Brett Hollran]

first home used steering wheel was the one for the sega saturn. we used to hammer sega rally. then i had none ffb wheel for the xbox (cant remember what it was called or find a pic online) and then i got the good old microsoft xbox 360 wireless as shown above and used to run top ten times in r2 class ( GT McNappa)...then i tried assetto corsa on a joypad lol but instantly knew i had to go pc. so here i am today with a thrustmaster tx with t3pa pro pedals and load cell with fanatec handbrake and thrustmaster shifter. next stop DD and 80/20 rig

 

[Nick Hill]

I started with the same white wireless Microsoft X360 wheel Paul did!

I even had an adapter (still have it actually) that allowed you to use it (or any other X360 controller) on the PC. Works great for normal X360 controllers but, as you might guess, you can forget about FFB. I got a G27 after that.

 

[nuno8210]

My first wheel as a Thrustmaster Formula T2 (just like the one in the first post with the blue plate) with Grand Prix 2! Some years later, the secon one was a Microsft Sidewinder with Force Feedback and still a game port (not USB)!

 

[robt100]

A madcatz wheel on the ps2 that had these pull out side so you can put the wheel on your lap. Sat in the predecessor to the ikea poang chair to get that seating position just right.

View attachment 364542

I had a very similar Madcatz wheel myself, I think I was about 9 at the time. Then there was about 5 years of nothing, the DFGT, G27 which was donated to me when my DFGT blew up...literally! (thanks Mr.C!) and now a T300 with fanatec CSPv2.

 

[Flaxh]

This was my first wheel.

Followed by the Fanatec Speedster 2 for the PS2 and then the CSL Elite PS4 many years later.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Act Labs Force RS steering wheel. NFS Porsche Unleashed, full force feedback support, good old days.

 

[MotherDawg]

Fun to see that a lot of us began with the " Old Red One ".

Mine lasted almost 3 years of GP2 and Sport Car GT. Followed by TOCA 2 and Rally 2000 but then the wheel started to stick and be hard to turn. I opened it up an one of the plastic bushing was in " self destructive " mode. The white outer bushing had melted and was smearing itself around one of the pulley shaft.

On the net, there was a guy selling ball bearing kits but also made his drawings available. At that time, I had access to a machine shop so I turned my set of bearing adapters and bingo, I had a Ball bearing modded WMFF.

It lasted for so long I was still running it when Race2Play closed in 2016. I bought a G29 in 2018... My Old Red One is in it's box and waiting for me to build a 2nd gamer...

At the end, the throttle potentiometer had worn out the resistive material... I had opened it up so many times to move the feelers over to unused material... it's done for.

I still have all the instructions to take it apart and putting it back together !

 

[Kresh]

The first wheel I ever bought was a Saitek R220 it was quite an update from playing with a keyboard. At that time I didn't know that simulator games existed but this wheel was my gateway wheel that introduced me to sim racing. I was searching for every possible car game out there to try it with a wheel. As I got deeper into driving games I found the existence of FFB wheels which led me to buying a Logitech DFP and the rest is history. After 13 years give or take I am still driving with a wheel.