Perhaps because some don't want to spend *all* their money on PC racing equipment?

Why is money an issue? If you love the sport you should be willing to sacrifice everything else you hold dear for it. I'm far from rich, but I will be willing to sacrifice nice clothes, shoes, colone, concert tickets, and other useless and trivial things in order to get all the high quality racing gear I want

Quote from isamu :

Why is money an issue? If you love the sport you should be willing to sacrifice everything else you hold dear for it. I'm far from rich, but I will be willing to sacrifice nice clothes, shoes, colone, concert tickets, and other useless and trivial things in order to get all the high quality racing gear I want

OT:
There are people who can't sacrifice nice clothes, shoes etc. because they don't have money for them. I know people who would love to have a car or a good equipment to use with sims but they have barely enough money to pay electricity.
/OT

I think the Porsche wheel will be a great competitor for the G25, I may consider buying one later.

And I thought I was wasting my life away simracing...

isamu- the one thing that I find really exciting about your project, other than the obvious great equipment, is the incorporation of the Xbox 360 PCB into your design and the simple 25-pin connector swap to switch between PC/PS3 and 360.

I was asking Fanatec if they could sell us an add-on in the future to the Porsche wheel for the 360 instead of needing a full new wheel they are working on for the 360 in the future. However, due to M$ security chip and I'm sure a mountain of paperwork, it's not possible. But you and your buddy's solution makes me wonder if I end up using this 911 wheel I've ordered over the long term, if I might be able to mod it myself to do just this. I'd love to be able to switch out a cable connector for a second set of cabling run to the 360 wheel PCB and still use the great (for consumer) guts of this wheel, and more importantly, not have to swap entire wheel assemblies on my cockpit.

Do you or your friend have any details, links, or info on tapping into the 360 PCB I could study?

Thanks

That Frex wheel looks the dogs b*****ks

Quote from isamu :

I will be willing to sacrifice nice clothes, shoes, colone, concert tickets, and other useless and trivial things in order to get all the high quality racing gear I want

I agree.

I spent every last cent on building my simulator, so i had to go without a few luxuries, and could only afford to go for a night out once a month.

Quote from mikemav :

isamu- the one thing that I find really exciting about your project, other than the obvious great equipment, is the incorporation of the Xbox 360 PCB into your design and the simple 25-pin connector swap to switch between PC/PS3 and 360.

I was asking Fanatec if they could sell us an add-on in the future to the Porsche wheel for the 360 instead of needing a full new wheel they are working on for the 360 in the future. However, due to M$ security chip and I'm sure a mountain of paperwork, it's not possible. But you and your buddy's solution makes me wonder if I end up using this 911 wheel I've ordered over the long term, if I might be able to mod it myself to do just this. I'd love to be able to switch out a cable connector for a second set of cabling run to the 360 wheel PCB and still use the great (for consumer) guts of this wheel, and more importantly, not have to swap entire wheel assemblies on my cockpit.

Do you or your friend have any details, links, or info on tapping into the 360 PCB I could study?

Thanks

Thanks for the kind words bro. Yeah, it's a long, arduous and involving project. Fortunately he's got the bulk of the work done already.

360 owners are longing, yearning, begging.....DYING to get their hands on a quality wheel! That's why instead of sitting back waiting for companies like Logitech and Microsoft to get their act together, I decided to take matters into my own hands. So many 360 users, particularly on the Forza 2 forum, love to complain about that piece if shit toy from M$, yet they're not willing to tackle a project as complex as mine. Just wait until they get a load of my ultimate FFB wheel

Anyway, if you are electronically inclined, and want somewhat of a decent wheel for your 360, I would suggest simply buying the POS M$ toy, gutting it, and using the PCB to connect to the Fanatec wheel. That's one way to do it. I couldn't help ya on electronics though... I farmed out my project to my buddy

Isamu I apprecied your effort for making your own wheel. Using a Frex. But you cant compare a frex with a G25 or the porsche wheel. That comparing a ferrari with a trabant. That not be perspective. You need to look at the target and the target of the G25 or Porsche wheel isnt getting Frex owners buying there wheel.

Sure the quality of the frex is way better then both wheels. And it should be considering the costs. I would love to see your setup up and working as I a m interested in the end result but dont compare that with the G25 or Porsche Wheel.

Quote from sidi :

I don't recall seeing a price mentioned but if it's close to g25 they better up there game.

£205 in the UK. The G25's RRP is £199.99.

EDIT - Anyone got a link to these Vista drivers that i need to email for?

Quote from isamu :

Care to share your gold shitting donkey for a day or two?

Fanatec 911 Turbo Wheel: Gear shifting knob looks uncomfortable. And i don't like that massive wheel centre. And actually why porsche? Would be better, simply racing brand wheel?

Quote from AndroidXP :

Care to share your gold shitting donkey for a day or two?

Quote from PioneerLv :

Fanatec 911 Turbo Wheel: Gear shifting knob looks uncomfortable. And i don't like that massive wheel centre. And actually why porsche? Would be better, simply racing brand wheel?

Because, in real life, an airbag has to fit into the wheel.

Quote from AndroidXP :

Care to share your gold shitting donkey for a day or two?

Dawg, trust me....I'm a broke ass ****. I barely get by on my check. I just save for the things I really want, like racing equipment

Who uploaded these? http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=911WheelReview

Quote from PioneerLv :

Fanatec 911 Turbo Wheel: Gear shifting knob looks uncomfortable. And i don't like that massive wheel centre. And actually why porsche? Would be better, simply racing brand wheel?

Because put yourselves in their position. These guys are gamers- they are an 8 person company I believe they said, and they've made a higher-end gaming mouse I believe before. Not a big giant like Logitech.

So anyway, you're there, much like our poster isamu here, who decided to build his own, wanting better choices in wheels, so you'd like to develop one, but you want to also make enough money to keep the doors open too. There are only so many of us forum-dwellers who are on top of this stuff (I'd barely qualify as that, being a PC-sim newbie), so it's a small market.

What do you do- one way is to licence is to a popular brand, in this case, Porsche, and get their materials, leather stitching plant, wheel design, etc..., to give you an authenticity goal to strive for. Also helps sell something if it has a familar brand to Joe Consumer- Porsche qualifies there. This opens up your market of potential buyers beyond hard-core gamers, to include rich Porsche owners and enthusiests too. They plan to sell these in Porsche dealerships. I think that's quite a brilliant marketing strategy for a small company of gaming fans, who are reading these boards and responding daily.

I think they said it took several years to get Porsche's approval to proceed, and then 3 years in development. I know it won't be perfect, but I can't wait to try mine out. Damn slow delivery company in the US! It should have been here for the weekend. Urgh.

Anyway, Porsche is used here to try to open this wheel up to people beyond just us, so they can hopefully make some money too! I have no problem with that myself.

Quote from isamu :

1)I was excited until I saw kamkorPL's vid. The wheel appears to make the same horrible "ZipZip" noise as all of Logitech's wheels do. Are you guys sure this is a belt driven wheel? Because the sound of it gives the impression that it's gear driven. Of all my pet peeves in FFB steering wheels, the ZipZip noise whilst turning left and right is the biggest one. It is annoying beyond belief.

Yes it is belt driven and far quieter than the Logitech wheels and is definitely belt driven, because firstly it says so on their website, secondly you can hear the belts slipping if you really listen and thirdly there are some pictures which clearly show a two belt setup by someone who took it apart. I hate to break the news to you but your wheel will not be silent either and that Frex you posted makes as much noise as this wheel, you can't get over the fact that your still applying resistance to an electric motor just doing it with a quieter and slightly less efficient method.

Quote :

I can't help but wonder why any of you decided to buy this plastic Fanatec wheel, with Frex' wheel right around the corner? I mean seriously, have you guys *seen what ShigeT has in store for us?*

Money is an issue for some of us, if I had that kind of money I'd probably buy my own car or put it towards savings not spend it on expensive toys, if you've really got that kind of disposable income then great but the only question left to ask is why the hell aren't you racing for real?

For the RRP of the 911 wheel (and look how the G25 is no longer anywhere near its RRP) isn't enough to get you a DFP, Frex adapter kit and wheel, that's £260 + shipping from Japan for a horrible 2 pedal set with a noisy wheel with poor FF. I still think I'd go for it over the 911 wheel and for me there's no way I'd want a G25 over it I'd be interested to hear what the person who sold it to me to upgrade to a G25 thought of his decision. In total for me my DFP, frex adapter and wheel came to about £120 because I bought the adapter later and second hand. Intrestingly that's pretty much the same as the tester discount on the 911 wheel, which comes with 3 well positioned pedals, which are still vastly superior to the DFP pedals in terms of quality and better placed than the G25 pedals and it has a shifter plus the fact it's so simple to put it away, the pedals can just be picked up and moved with no wires attached, the wheel has one wire to unplug and two flick paddles to quickly attach and detach it. I can set the 911 wheel up in an instant, the DFP on the other hand has lots of wires everywhere that have to be sorted out and I find I have to use a pair of mole grips to tighten the mounts sufficiently tight, it takes at least 30 seconds to do all that.

Quote from PioneerLv :

Fanatec 911 Turbo Wheel: Gear shifting knob looks uncomfortable. And i don't like that massive wheel centre. And actually why porsche? Would be better, simply racing brand wheel?

Good question, it is a stylish item, which is more than can be said for the G25 and most of the high quality wheels have always either gone for red and rather geeky G25 style or gone down the purposeful real racing/carbon fibre look. This wheel might actually be something you wouldn't be embarrassed to be seen with and don't immediately try and hide the minute anybody walks in. Whether this could be achieved without the Porsche badge I'm not sure, but my feeling is if they just tried to do a racing wheel we'd end up with another hideous wheel that wouldn't have any of the sense of style that this wheel has or probably the nice soft touch plastics on the bits you don't need to touch. As it stand this wheel has two very strong points that separate it from the others on the market, firstly it's stylish and secondly it's so simple to setup and compact whilst still retaining 3 pedals and a shifter, probably not two things that are going to both anybody building a simulator in their shed but those of us who live in normality they may be more appealing.

Quote from deggis :

Who uploaded these? http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=911WheelReview

This is the second video on youtube by an American that is so unbelievably biased, doesn't really help Fanatec at all because it's obviously not pointing out the flaws the wheel does have. This kind of crap is of no use to anyone considering the wheel and could just of easily (and more cheaply) been produced by their marketing department.

Quote from ajp71 :

This is the second video on youtube by an American that is so unbelievably biased, doesn't really help Fanatec at all because it's obviously not pointing out the flaws the wheel does have. This kind of crap is of no use to anyone considering the wheel and could just of easily (and more cheaply) been produced by their marketing department.

I agree it seemed too one-sided, especially from a G25 owner, but he seems really enthusiastic about his wheel. YouTube said Toronto, Canada, BTW, not USA. Most of us in the US are still waiting I believe...

Quote from ajp71 :

This is the second video on youtube by an American that is so unbelievably biased, doesn't really help Fanatec at all because it's obviously not pointing out the flaws the wheel does have. This kind of crap is of no use to anyone considering the wheel and could just of easily (and more cheaply) been produced by their marketing department.

Yeah, I posted the link before watching it. I agree, didn't sound too neutral review... smells like real Porsche? And that virtual penis enlargement segment was really necessary? I'm not interest which processor the guy has. He didn't say he was G25 owner? Mentioned G25 at least twice, but didn't say did he own one.

I'm not in the market for a new wheel right now (content with my DFP, and all my spare cash is going on stomp boxes and studio gear at the moment) but I like the fact that Fanatec is a small operation, and if their kit is reliable I'd probably pick it over a G25. At least they had the sense to put more than two buttons on the wheel!

Quote from thisnameistaken :

At least they had the sense to put more than two buttons on the wheel!

Yeah it's the same as the DFP, 10 buttons + a D-pad + 2 paddles

EDIT - I sent an e-mail to Fanatec asking about the drivers and they said there'll be a new set available later today. Primoz has also e-mailed me the older new drivers so I'll give them a try. Having used the wheel more though I'm now pretty certain that drop off/interference in the wireless is causing it to loose centre and possibly the pedal issues Jakg had. Every so often there's a momentary cut in the throttle pedal audible by change in engine note and visible on the LFS throttle bar, it may affect the otehr pedals but I haven't noticed it happening. Less often, probably once every 5 minutes of use there's a moment when the wheel seemingly looses connection, it just goes limp, my guess being that the driver still thinks the wheel is in the same place when it reconnects and any movement in this phase is what causes the loss of centre.

Quote from ajp71 :

Yeah it's the same as the DFP, 10 buttons + a D-pad + 2 paddles.

Only thing is, you are much better off leaving the top corner buttons unassigned - I keep pressing those (look R/L) when least desired, e.g. when countersteering.

hm i wonder if the lag in the video is caused by the wireless or something else
has one of the testers got a crt that can run at 100hz to eliminate most of the lag?

So if my DFP brakes down this is worth the money?