Heusinkveld Sim Pedals Sprint Interview and First Impressions

[Paul Jeffrey]

We talk to Niels Heusinkveld and try out the soon to be released Heusinkveld Sim Pedals Sprint.

Catching up with Niels Heusinkveld at the recent very busy Sim Racing Expo over in Germany, we took the opportunity to quiz the man behind Heusinkveld Engineering about his newly announced Sim Pedals Sprint set of high end sim racing pedals. With Niels in a buoyant mood following what appeared to be a largely very positive reception to the new hardware, we took the opportunity to question him about the features and improvements of the new gear, learning plenty about how some dramatic software features and production improvements have moved the product range on from the already very impressive offerings of HE Engineering.

Not content with merely taking Niels at his word, we also couldn't quite resist the chance to get strapped into the cockpit and have a go ourselves, recording a short but sweet talk and drive segment as we give our first impressions based on the limited time we had with these brand new set of pedals.

Frankly, I was very impressed, although it is exceptionally hard to gather any serious kind of feel with something like a high end set of pedals with such a short period of time behind the wheel... not helped any by a crowd of people watching on, and a camera and microphone in my face!

However, with that said I'm going to be lucky enough to take receipt of a review set of these pedals in the very near future, so please consider this more of a taster video, with a much more in depth and detailed look at the HE Sim Pedals Sprint set to appear on our various social media channels in the near future. So stay tuned, get subscribed and watch out for some new footage in the (hopefully) coming weeks...

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[White Hawk]

After some weeks I could say they are quite good, but not much better than my old Fanatec Clubsport V3. The pedals pads are not so great. They should be a bit more curved and the brake should be grippy and not slippery. The best aspect of these pedals is how adjustable they are, both in hardware and software.

And for reference did you have the Brake Performance Kit on your V3’s before getting the Sprints?

 

[Enzo Fazzi]

So far all I could find is a couple of people have had load cell failures which is a little concerning.

We were aware of the issue and have solved this. All new shipped pedals shouldn't have the issue anymore.

 

[EsxPaul]

We were aware of the issue and have solved this. All new shipped pedals shouldn't have the issue anymore.

Can I ask, are you managing to ramp up the production speed?

The news section of the site said you plan to hold sales after each 2 week production run but I think it's been around a month since the last one unless I'm mistaken?

 

[Enzo Fazzi]

Can I ask, are you managing to ramp up the production speed?

The news section of the site said you plan to hold sales after each 2 week production run but I think it's been around a month since the last one unless I'm mistaken?

We have indeed increased production capacity and we're continuing to sell batches of the Sprints every 2 weeks. The last batch (exactly two weeks ago) was sold out within 10 minutes.
We appreciate a bit of patience from everyone waiting for our products. We're trying our best to build as many as possible, so we don't have to leave people disappointed.

 

[EsxPaul]

We have indeed increased production capacity and we're continuing to sell batches of the Sprints every 2 weeks. The last batch (exactly two weeks ago) was sold out within 10 minutes.
We appreciate a bit of patience from everyone waiting for our products. We're trying our best to build as many as possible, so we don't have to leave people disappointed.

Thanks for the update, Enzo. I completely missed that last sale so I'll have to pay better attention next time around.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Demon Tweeks told me that they expected a shipment on the 10th and that my pedals would come from that shipment. My order still shows processing as it has for over a month now. I ordered pedals, hand brake and sequential shifter. Sadly they had the hand brake and shifter in stock when I ordered, but I doubt they put them aside for me. Fingers crossed I hear something soon.


Goosfraba

 

[F1Aussie]

Demon Tweeks told me that they expected a shipment on the 10th and that my pedals would come from that shipment. My order still shows processing as it has for over a month now. I ordered pedals, hand brake and sequential shifter. Sadly they had the hand brake and shifter in stock when I ordered, but I doubt they put them aside for me. Fingers crossed I hear something soon.


Goosfraba

I ordered them through a local reseller here less than three weeks ago and they were sent yesterday, should have them in a couple of days, guess I just got lucky!

 

[RCHeliguy]

Rub it in!

 

[White Hawk]

No - just the damper kit. I'd also seen SRG I think comment that it didn't really improve the feel - and that the performance kit was the way to go, but by then I knew I was aiming for Sprints.

I'm obviously curious how other folks get on with a comparison, but I never settled fully 'into' the CSV3 pedals - although I'm sure other folks do.

Good luck either way !

The Brake Performance Kit did make a big difference to the V3’s (though I’m still not fully happy with them) which is why you are seeing a big jump up with the Sprints I guess, if Elaphe can answer whether he did have the BPK on his that might be why he’s not feeling it’s as much of a step up, would be good to know.

 

[Elaphe]

I didn't own the brake performance kit on my V3 and I still think the brake pedal felt good enough. However, don't trust my opinion too much because I don't have too much sensitivity on my feet. Of course I felt a huge improvent when going from my spring-based pedal (G25) to a load-cell brake, but, apart from that, it's OK for me.

 

[Jeremy Ford]

I have the HE Pro's (not the Sprints), and previously owned the Fantec V3's with the brake performance kit. So maybe can describe the similarities and differences, which should be similar enough to the Sprints I would have thought.

Adding the brake performance kit to the V3's makes the brake feel very similar to the HE pedals underfoot, both in the travel and compression tension/feel. It is an essential upgrade to the V3's. However, the sensitivity/quality of the load cell is quite different and makes the HE pedals superior for modulating braking vs. the Fantatec pedals. That's what I instantly noticed after installing the HE pedals on my rig. I found trail-braking and controlling lock-ups more intuitive on the HE pedals.

 

[White Hawk]

I just did a thing.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Itchy trigger finger?

 

[White Hawk]

Itchy trigger finger?

Itchy foot more like, but really, how quickly did you put an order in? I’ve been on the fence long enough (at least the last year or two) about this and which DD to get that someone came along and gave me a new lick of paint.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I didn't wait long to order, but it appears that I may have waited just long enough to avoid some initial teething pains. I plan to do something similar with the DD2. I ordered a McLaren GT3 wheel recently too. Then I think I'm pretty well done until the next VR system.

 

[ColinMac]

I think I only waited around 4 weeks or so. Seemed forever, but in the end, they arrived prior to the emailed ship date from Demon Tweeks. Their site said they were in stock, at point of order, but of course, they weren't really.

Still I felt pretty lucky, given that you can't pre-order from Heus themselves.

I ordered a SimLabs keyboard tray from DT at the same time (in fact, two, hic!) - and it came in the same parcel, so clearly had to be ordered in too...

 

[F1Aussie]

Rub it in!

Speaking about rubbing it in, look what turned up today, lol.

 

[White Hawk]

View attachment 301829 View attachment 301830
Speaking about rubbing it in, look what turned up today, lol.

Report back if you can, not a lot of reviews and feedback on these out there.

 

[F1Aussie]

Report back if you can, not a lot of reviews and feedback on these out there.

Only got about 2 hours in them so far but they feel completely different to anything I have tried up to this point.
I have previously used G27, t3pa pro and csr elite.
So far I have noticed that the throttle has quiet a bit of resistance, I believe it is adjustable but have only tweaked brake pressure so far. The good thing about the throttle is that with that resistance you can actually feel the throttle travel. On my previous pedals you were pretty much guessing how much throttle you were using cos of lack of resistance and mushy pedal feel, these are crisp and firm.
As for the brake, wow, with the standard rubber in it, not sure which it is, somewhere in the middle I think, the brake is very firm, feels very different from the load cell in the csr elite. I find it a lot easier to modulate braking and can actually feel and tell when I am locking up the brakes as I can feel it through the steering, never noticed that before. You can then reset the brakes to stop the locking. I can only imagine how stiff the brake resistance can become by using other rubbers and upping the brake resistance to 65kg. It comes standard set at 35kg and I dropped it to 20kg due to the amount of flex the 35 was causing in my rig, am eagerly awaiting trak racer to release their 8020 so I can upgrade but they are dragging the chain.
I did have one gremlin tonight though. In rf2 I suddenly got serious lag on all pedals, I exited rf2 and went to the software and pressed the pedals and it was still lagging so I just reset the USB port and all was okay.

 

[White Hawk]

Only got about 2 hours in them so far but they feel completely different to anything I have tried up to this point.
I have previously used G27, t3pa pro and csr elite.
So far I have noticed that the throttle has quiet a bit of resistance, I believe it is adjustable but have only tweaked brake pressure so far. The good thing about the throttle is that with that resistance you can actually feel the throttle travel. On my previous pedals you were pretty much guessing how much throttle you were using cos of lack of resistance and mushy pedal feel, these are crisp and firm.
As for the brake, wow, with the standard rubber in it, not sure which it is, somewhere in the middle I think, the brake is very firm, feels very different from the load cell in the csr elite. I find it a lot easier to modulate braking and can actually feel and tell when I am locking up the brakes as I can feel it through the steering, never noticed that before. You can then reset the brakes to stop the locking. I can only imagine how stiff the brake resistance can become by using other rubbers and upping the brake resistance to 65kg. It comes standard set at 35kg and I dropped it to 20kg due to the amount of flex the 35 was causing in my rig, am eagerly awaiting trak racer to release their 8020 so I can upgrade but they are dragging the chain.
I did have one gremlin tonight though. In rf2 I suddenly got serious lag on all pedals, I exited rf2 and went to the software and pressed the pedals and it was still lagging so I just reset the USB port and all was okay.

Thanks for the post, using on USB hub or direct?