Controls for Racing Simulators

Today I am using the red Logitech Momo wheel for racing sims. It's actually not a bad wheel and I really like it for a number of reasons. A nice leather grip and comfortable wheel, 6 buttons on the wheel, metal paddles and two decent pedals. It is a mechanical (cogs) mechanism which eliminates snapping drive belts that I had problems with using wheels prior to this one, but it also has a slight disadvantage of it feeling a bit mechanical when you drive with it. I have driven 57958 Km in LFS using this wheel until today and it's still in one piece - however I had to manually service it twice in this period due to screws unwinding themselves, quite a simple procedure though - if you need help with maintenance of this wheel I have published some maintenance tutorials on our team site.

Anyhow - although being happy with this wheel, I want more of the controls in the SimRoom. Namely a clutch pedal, H-shifter, sequential shifter, Resistance in the brake pedals, a wheel that can turn further (more degrees)!

I have not decided on any controls yet, but here is a list of what I am considering:

Logitech G25 Racing Wheel
This is a upper range consumer market product with a wheel capable of rotating 900 degrees. It comes with three pedals and a separate H-shifter (optionally sequential mode). I've never tried the wheel in a sim, but many of my fellow racers use this wheel and are truly happy with it. My greatest concern with this wheel is the plastic low quality feel of the shifter (I just felt it the shop), and I want more than two buttons on the wheel itself (I am currently using all six on my red Momo-wheel).
Cost: roughly 2100 SEK

FrexGP Steering Wheels
I could use my current Red Momo wheel and purchase a mod adapter from Frex, but it wouldn't give me the 900 degree turning angle. Frex modify the Logitech Driving Force Pro (DFP) wheel. There is a discussion forum bout the FrexGP Wheels on racesimcentral that is quite useful for answering questions about this wheel.
Cost: The DFP custom base + Momo 26 round wheel = 2700 SEK
(someone that understands the Frex-pricing better - please correct me :)

FrexGP Shifters
Frex also make shifters such as the Shift+ (sequential), HShift+ (8 gears). These seem to be of solid quality and very distinct compared to the consumer G25 models. As with the wheel there is a forum post on racesimcentral discussing these shifters.
HShift+ Cost: 2310 SEK
Shift+ Cost: 700 SEK

ECCI Trackstar 6000 Pedals
The ECCI 6000 pedals are beautiful aluminium pedals and are very adjustable. You can purchase the 2-pedal version with the optional clutch pedal as shown on the picture. I haven't been able to find a specific price if all you want is the 3 pedals (with an optional high definition USB-control for the clutch) - as I am not so interested in their steering wheel. The wheel looks very nice and is probably of extremely high build quality, but has no force feedback as I understand it - which is definitely a must-have requirement for me.
Cost: 3562 SEK (3 pedal version, pressure sensitive brake pedal)

FrexGP Pedals
This pedal conversion kit modifies existing pedals with a pressure sensitive brake pedal. Instead of the conversion kit you can purchase the "Pedal Outright" option they have which is the Driving Force Pro/MOMO Racing Black pedals with Frex making the modifications. As with the wheel, I find the Frex options a bit confusing and would prefer to just buy packaged solutions for wheels and pedals, maybe they will tidy up their web site one day and make it more clear. Link to racesimcentral forum discussing these pedals.
FrexGP Pedals (Outright version with Clutch+) Cost: 3450 SEK

BRD (Ball Racing Development) Speed7 Pedals
Pedals made out of aluminium that may be mounted on floor or overhead. I haven't read up much about these pedals yet but will do and add information to the post. There is a quite detailed description of these pedals in the title link for more interesting reading.
Cost (3-pedal version): 3710 SEK

Products in development...
There are some interesting products in development worth keeping an eye out for. In particular when it comes to steering wheels:

FrexGP (in development)
Frex are developing their own Force Feedback wheel that seems to be promising! There are some videos of this wheel available Here and Here and shown in LFS action (same video as the one demonstrating 3-screens in a previous post).

BRD Speed7 Wheel (in development)
BRD are developing their own FF wheel capable of 1080 degrees rotation with up to 16 button functions and other interesting features. The news on their site however is from 2003 so I won't hold my breath for this wheel.

Conclusion???
I haven't made a decision yet - will investigate further :)
Category: Hardware [cat_hw]