Trak Racer Shows Alpine F1 Wheel Replica, Aims To Be The Full Package

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Images: Trak Racer
With plenty of new gear on show, Trak Racer made it clear that it aims to be more than a sim racing rig manufacturer - the company could soon be a complete package.

To most sim racers, Trak Racer is most likely associated with rigs. Indeed, building sim racing cockpits is what the manufacturer has done for quite a while, but it wants to do more than that - and that was very obvious at ADAC SimRacing Expo 2024.

While the Australian company had a number of rigs on show, it also presented several pieces of hardware, some of which was already on show at Sim Formula Europe 2024 earlier this year. The company had brought their TR3 pedals, a sequential shifter, a handbrake, and two versions of an upcoming direct drive wheel base to Maastricht.

All of these re-appeared at SimRacing Expo, but they were joined by new gear as well. For one, Trak Racer had its own monitors on their rigs, with 34" ultrawides and 49" super ultrawides being their go-to.

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Up To 30 Nm Direct Drive​

The wheel bases, meawhile, were available in three versions and now feature LED strips at the top that can act as rev lights, for example. The three bases are capable of 12, 18 and 30 Nm of torque, respectively, and they were fitted with a brand-new wheel as well: Trak Racer has built a 1:1 replica of the steering wheels the Alpine F1 team uses in its cars.

And while the sequential shifter, handbrake and pedals had already been seen publicly before, Trak Racer's Global Business Development Manager Johan Akkerman hinted at the gear possibly being console-compatible in the future - just days after news broke that Asetek is aiming to have console gear available in 2025, non-PC sim racers could be headed to an unprecedented age of hardware availability for their systems.

Regarding the peripherals and monitors, Trak Racer CEO Matt Sten also pointed at 2025 for the first products to launch: The handbrake and shifter are likely to be availabe in Q1 of next year, with the wheels to follow in Q2 - "and then the direct drive bases", as Sten stated. "This is a whole new category for us, but we are excited as we got lots of new stuff."

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TR40 S - Competitively-priced Entry-level Rig​

On the more established side of things, Trak Racer also showed a new entry-level rig - althoug it did not look entry-level to us. Using aluminium extrusion and sporting an integrated monitor mount, the Trak Racer TR40 S is set to retail for less than €300 without a seat - an extremely competitive price.

A new two-piece GT seat is also on the way, and new colors will be available for the TRX rig. A V2 of the TR8 Pro rig is also on the horizon, which will be available in silver and black. Finally, a new hybrid seat bracket will allow sim racers to mount both GT and formula-style seats with the sae set of brackets.

Clearly, Trak Racer is going down the one-stop shop route, with complete simulator set ups sporting their own products exclusively on the horizon in the not too distant future. We will keep you in the loop once we get our hands on potential review versions!

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What are your thoughts on the new Trak Racer hardware and the company's "full package" approach? Let us know in the comments below and join the discussion in our hardware forum!
About author
Yannik Haustein
Lifelong motorsport enthusiast and sim racing aficionado, walking racing history encyclopedia.

Sim racing editor, streamer and one half of the SimRacing Buddies podcast (warning, German!).

Heel & Toe Gang 4 life :D

Comments

Almost a year ago we found out their plans. Rebranding stuff should not take so long to happen...
Waste of time following this!
SimLab delivers...
Grtz.
 
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Premium
I skimmed through a couple times. Didnt see mention of the shaker setup in that cabinet. Looks interesting.
 
Are there ppl collecting these wheels? I find it odd to have so many options. You can use all these buttons only in recent F1 cars and not fully, no sim allows for that much setup during driving. Except for Max Verstappen, I doubt many other sim racers use smth beyond bb/diff or are able to drive using them... It'd be cool for Max to have his Red Bull wheel available :laugh:
 
That's not an Alpine F1 wheel, that's the esportsim FSW Series 3 "Ferrari" F1 wheel with a "TR" sticker on the main dial...

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Yannick, thanks for covering us.
We had for test a lot of new gear including our bass shaker kit (already launch) along with 5 wheels, two sized direct drive, pedals, shifter, handbrake, DDU and more.

Please replace the formula wheel with the Trak Racer o e - the BWT Alpine F1 Team A522 steering wheel replica.
 

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Almost a year ago we found out their plans. Rebranding stuff should not take so long to happen...
Waste of time following this!
SimLab delivers...
Grtz.
Besides the esportsim wheel, nothing else rebranded for the event.

Competition and companies like Trak Racer that push other brands is not a bad thing. Welcome it as it just means more options and better products for consumers.

If you give it a chance you would find the new TR direct drives are up there with Simucube and ahead of big brands like Fanatec and asetek with regards to the in-game detail and feedback. ✌️
 

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Premium
Besides the esportsim wheel, nothing else rebranded for the event.

Competition and companies like Trak Racer that push other brands is not a bad thing. Welcome it as it just means more options and better products for consumers.

If you give it a chance you would find the new TR direct drives are up there with Simucube and ahead of big brands like Fanatec and asetek with regards to the in-game detail and feedback. ✌️
Legitimate question, with literally 5 new types of first time productions under the Trak Racer Brand as well as steering wheels bringing it to 10ish brand new items, what internal systems have seen either restructuring or additional resources to address issues of delays, cost of delivery, support effectiveness, stock management and overall quality control for the company?
 
Legitimate question, with literally 5 new types of first time productions under the Trak Racer Brand as well as steering wheels bringing it to 10ish brand new items, what internal systems have seen either restructuring or additional resources to address issues of delays, cost of delivery, support effectiveness, stock management and overall quality control for the company?
address issues of delays - we have implemented new demand planning software armed with AI to reduce stock out

cost of delivery - this is driven by the freight carrier unfortunately. We are looking at ways to reduce costs (ie sending large orders on pallet instead of seperate boxes)

support effectiveness - we average around 4 hour turn around on support and sales tickets. We have more CS team members than we need and working toward 24/7 support. Who else does that?

stock management - see point 1

and overall quality control - our quality issues are under 1% of orders. We are working on internal processes to reduce that further.
 
Premium
address issues of delays - we have implemented new demand planning software armed with AI to reduce stock out

cost of delivery - this is driven by the freight carrier unfortunately. We are looking at ways to reduce costs (ie sending large orders on pallet instead of seperate boxes)

support effectiveness - we average around 4 hour turn around on support and sales tickets. We have more CS team members than we need and working toward 24/7 support. Who else does that?

stock management - see point 1

and overall quality control - our quality issues are under 1% of orders. We are working on internal processes to reduce that further.
Understood, appreciate that information. I'm more than happy to take this off a comment section if you're open to discussion, and I'm not trying to slander or besmirch.


That being said, In regards to 2-5 I feel like this is the kind of stuff I would hope would take precedent over building out an entire eco system that is already en route to saturation by more experienced hardware manufacturers. multi box shipping has been an issue since even march 23, speaking from experience of the initial TRX launch which was plagued by the Fanatec spacer issue, warped seats etc. Additionally and again this from experience, if the changes in your QC rate and turnaround time are that substantial, why maintain review suppression? I've had a fantastic experience with your US rep when trying to get missing parts for the motion platform but that, and parts were in stock domestically mind you, still took a week just to get sent out. When they did, the item in question was in the exact same shape as the initial defective item. My main point is that if you're asking for people to give you a chance, then let the successful changes you've mentioned do the talking through the whole customer base.
 
Understood, appreciate that information. I'm more than happy to take this off a comment section if you're open to discussion, and I'm not trying to slander or besmirch.


That being said, In regards to 2-5 I feel like this is the kind of stuff I would hope would take precedent over building out an entire eco system that is already en route to saturation by more experienced hardware manufacturers. multi box shipping has been an issue since even march 23, speaking from experience of the initial TRX launch which was plagued by the Fanatec spacer issue, warped seats etc. Additionally and again this from experience, if the changes in your QC rate and turnaround time are that substantial, why maintain review suppression? I've had a fantastic experience with your US rep when trying to get missing parts for the motion platform but that, and parts were in stock domestically mind you, still took a week just to get sent out. When they did, the item in question was in the exact same shape as the initial defective item. My main point is that if you're asking for people to give you a chance, then let the successful changes you've mentioned do the talking through the whole customer base.
We have onboarded very experienced engineers from other brands to handle the peripherals. They are different departments and has no bearing on improvements in other areas of the business. If you have outstanding issues, please continue to email with our support team to resolve.

Thank you for your input and support.
 
Premium
We have onboarded very experienced engineers from other brands to handle the peripherals. They are different departments and has no bearing on improvements in other areas of the business. If you have outstanding issues, please continue to email with our support team to resolve.

Thank you for your input and support.
Likewise I truly appreciate your time and transparency with me. Really looking forward to all the new items in action.
 

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Yannik Haustein
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