To start, I have lusted over racing wheels for a long time, like since the original PS and Xbox were out. Finally this past weekend I was able to indulge by buying a Logitech G920 setup.
I’ve always wanted the wheel to feel that deeper sense of immersion into the game, and for me a 2 pedal setup just wasn’t worth it. I had to have the 3rd pedal and 6 speed shifter so I chose the G920. Despite the lack of on center feel and the force feedback issues as noted all over the forum(which are both game issues and not the wheel’s fault), so far I would say that my experience has been ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!!! The first couple of drives I was blown away; this is definitely what I have been looking for!!!
It hasn’t been without struggles though. My first few drives were riddled with spinouts and smashed body panels. On controller I used normal steering with no other assists, manual w/clutch, etc. Silly me thought that with the wheel I would go simulation steering and leave the rest where it was and hit the track…not at first! It took about an hour to get all tuned in and I ended up finding that I needed STM on and normal steering at 900 DOR. And with that I went to the races in my trusty B class Mustang.
I’ve spent about 20 hours with the wheel now and have learned a few things that I’ll share for anyone still reading. Initially I had a hard time “attacking” the corners with the wheel - I constantly felt like I was going to spin out and on top of that had to learn what it felt like for the front end to lose grip and push. The problem was that I would always loop around before the front would push (vicious circle eh?). So the first thing that I have learned is that I do not need my cars tuned for so much oversteer. With the controller I guess I needed the oversteer to get the car to go around the corner but with the wheel my motions are so much more fluid with the steering, gas and brake that I can drive it like a real car! The extra oversteer though would send me around when I should have been going through the corner.
The second learning is a result of the first; now that I am far smoother on my inputs, especially steering, I do not need the car set up for as much grip. I can now apply that PI to a little extra HP which is nice, I have always sacrificed speed for grip in the past which works ok on a lot of tracks…but not so much on some. Regardless, now I can handle the car as well or maybe better with less grip and more HP. Sweet!
A third thing I have noticed is that I must up my braking pressure significantly, but this may be a result of the super stiff brake pedal on the Logitech stuff? With the controller I ran ~90% brake force but with the pedals I am up around 125% on most cars.
Lastly, one of the biggest learning moments I had with the wheel was how exaggerated I had to be with my counter steer in order to catch a slide. On the controller a quick flick of the stick the other way catches the slide easy - with the wheel you have to really yank it until you feel the opposite force feedback kick in - then you know you got it. It is much more steering wheel turning required than in real life based on my experiences. This could probably be tamed down a bit by using a lower DOR, and I may try that soon now that I have the feel for the wheel. At first though the 540 DOR was way too twitchy for me. Now that I have got that all under control I am going back to no assists other than normal steering.
As I stated earlier, I started with my B class Mustang and put a lot of hours in on that car with the wheel. After some time getting used to feeling the front end, correcting oversteer/slides, etc I have now done pretty much everything from D class FWD cars to F1. I prefer to stay B to S class RWD still, but holy cow the torque steer struggle is real with decent HP FWD cars when you are using a wheel so it does make it more interesting! And the F1 cars are still insane. I had to use STM and TCS with those cars! lol I have also managed to work my way back up the drivatar skills. I think I started on the wheel at “Average” and am back up to “Pro” now and ready for “Unbeatable” on the tracks that I am really familiar with. I would say that around the 5 hour mark I noticed a large jump in my proficiency with the wheel and it seems now that every couple of hours I feel better and better. At this point my laps times are still a second or two off of my controller laps, but I am having way more fun and I figure it wont be long and I will end up being faster with the wheel which is really cool because I went into this assuming (based off other’s input) that I would never be as fast as I am with the controller! The other thing I’ve noticed regarding laps time is that I am a ton more consistent with the wheel which is again likely due to being more smooth and consistent with the inputs.
So I guess in summary, if you are on the fence definitely get one! It is certainly one of the deals where I wish I would have done it sooner!
Please, share your experiences too!
I’ll make it my new year’s resolution to use it again. lol