Upgrade advice needed

Nortski · Dec 27, 2020

Good afternoon everyone, hope you're all enjoying the holiday season.

I'm looking for advice with regards to upgrading my sim racing gear.

This lock down here in the UK has given me chance to get back in to sim racing after a 5 year break and to be fair I was never that good at it haha!

I decided this time I will delve a bit more deeper in to it and see where I can go.

Recently I failed to qualify for the Tatuus F3 race that S397 hosted. In fact I was 5 seconds down from the pole setter! However; since then I have practised on the same circuit and in the same mod and have reduced this to 1.1s.

I'm currently using my trusty Logitech G27. I am actually happy with the wheel as it is very responsive to me inputs. However; I think I could do with some better pedals. Could you guys help me out here? I have a budget of around £200. I am looking at the Fanatec CSL Elite pedals with the load cell brake upgrade or maybe a preowned set of the Fanatec ClubSport V3?

I'm open to suggestions.

Also; in your experience guys, can a set of load cell pedals make a markedly improvement on lap times?

HUM24H · Dec 27, 2020

A quick note; The one thing a pressure based brake system (load cell or hydraulic) will give you, is allow you to be more consistent with your braking and in turn have more consistent lap times. This is something that can help you, if you are willing, to build that consistency and then look at the laps to see where you can improve.

The main thing to take away here is a load cell brake won't immediately make you faster, it will make you more consistent which in turn can make you faster if you look at where in your lap you can improve.

The CSL Elite pedals are a good set of pedals for the price, I would also say take a look at some reviews of the AXC TrueBrake mod for the Logitech pedals. I have been running it and they have been great at creating a pressure based brake system that isn't using a load cell, as not all pressure brake systems need to use a load cell as some use a closed hydraulic system with a sensor.

Would say take a look at the AXC TrueBrake mod and if you don't think you'll like it then go for the Fanatec CSL Elite LC pedals.

Nortski · Dec 27, 2020

Hey thanks for the reply. I do suffer from inconsistent lap times so this should help me.

I will take a look at the AXC TrueBrake mod right now.

Nortski · Dec 27, 2020

Another question. With just the brake pedal using LC, does it confuse the brain at all when the throttle pedal is using foot position instead of pressure?

HUM24H · Dec 27, 2020

Not at all, if you think it when driving a real car. When you want to maintain, let's say, 30mph you find the position in the throttle pedal to help maintain that. Most modern cars use sensors anyway to measure the throttle position and then a computer goes off to set the correct air/fuel mixture for the engine.

Braking is always a different story as braking is a series of really small pistons in the brake callipers that react to hydraulic pressure, so the harder the brake pedal is pushed the harder the pistons will push the pads to the disc and like wise if the pedal is gently pressed then the pistons will push the pads very gently or in some cases not at all.

The load cell in sim racing pedals is to try and mimic that pressure based system people are accustomed to in normal road cars.

You'll get used to the load cell after some practice.