A Simracing Wheel That Works In A GT3?

[Paul Jeffrey]

Recently German sim racing hardware giants Fanatec announced an interesting new collaboration with BMW to develop a replica sim racing wheel... that isn't a replica, but actually works in the real car!

Yes you heard that right, the newly announced BMW Fanatec wheel has been created to work in both the real and virtual world, meaning that for the very first time sim racers will have the opportunity to use hardware on their rigs at home that is identical to the wheel attached to the latest GT3 specification race cars from the Bavarian marque.

The announcement piece from Fanatec got me thinking, with the worlds of real and virtual racing seemingly converging ever closer in recent months, how big is this announcement for our sport? To see a brand as prestigious as BMW engaging with the powerhouse that is Fanatec to produce a crossover piece of hardware like this is something rather incredible, and can only mean exciting things for the future of hardware development at the very highest end of the market.

Think back 10 or even 20 years ago, playing with a plastic wheel on the old Xbox with it tightly pinned onto the sofa by your knees, and how far hardware has travelled in such a short space of time is almost crazy to comprehend.

This announcement, aside from being very, very cool in its own right, is potentially massive for our hobby. BMW themselves consider esport to be a key pillar in their motorsport adventures going forward, both in terms of competitions and hardware, and that extra influx of prestige and obviously exposure can only be a great thing for our community going forward.

Real cars using sim racing wheels, at the top level of international GT racing. Yup. We live in strange but absolutely wonderful times.

Fanatec BMW announcement | Read more HERE.

What do you make of the new announcement? Interested to see how the wheel performs in the real and virtual world? Do you think this is the start of potentially a golden age for sim racing hardware? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Steve Worrell]

Get outta here with your reasonable logic. Who do you think you are making all kinds of sense. Dont you know this is 2020?


Please nobody get offended, just a stupid joke.

I got it...And liked it.

 

[NDG]

Lolz... I got a hand me down momo wheel from a wrecked Honda civic of a friend. Works perfect on my G27! Even the holes matched like it was officially supported.

 

[PosiSteve]

Time to switch to Fanatec then.

 

[lovemesomespeed]

So - I made my philosophical post earlier - now I’ll give my thoughts on the product itself...

I think it’s awesome to see the merger between real product and sim product. So I think it’s progress in that regard. The cost will be high - but that’s fine - nothing wrong with that.

However, it looks like a toy to me. Like something I would buy my kids. Not a fan of the design. I’d much prefer one of the many replica wheels already on the market.

 

[Fanatec_Thomas]

Communication protocol is different too.
How well that will work with existing wheelbases?
Is there planned backward compatibility for old wheels?
Does new QR work with them?

Our DDs are confirmed for sure but we are also working on backwards compatibility to the Wheel Bases with the current quick release.
Once attached to one of our wheel bases, we do not use CAN Bus anymore.

So - I made my philosophical post earlier - now I’ll give my thoughts on the product itself...

I think it’s awesome to see the merger between real product and sim product. So I think it’s progress in that regard. The cost will be high - but that’s fine - nothing wrong with that.

However, it looks like a toy to me. Like something I would buy my kids. Not a fan of the design. I’d much prefer one of the many replica wheels already on the market.

Form follows function and I am pretty sure that you will see more similar shaped wheels coming up for GT3 racing. This shape is state-of-the-art but of course a matter of taste at the same time.

 

[ACFAN]

This is a very interesting product. I've been very into the 'how realistic is this sim wheel compared to real life' talk and from the videos and reviews I've seen I think us sim racers have had actually a better quality experience with hardware compared to real cars. I mean I remember when Chris haye was talking about us having magnetic paddles etc which aren't even a thing in the real cars. Real shiftsrs feel like your average g29s I guess. So in a lot of aspects I reckon this will be a 'downgrade' of sorts. But you can't beat the moulding and button placement of real wheels plus the looks.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Our DDs are confirmed for sure but we are also working on backwards compatibility to the Wheel Bases with the current quick release.
Once attached to one of our wheel bases, we do not use CAN Bus anymore.

Thanks Thomas, so CAN is only active when attached to GT3 mount otherwise it's same old protocol as before?
Seems like there is a lot of confusion on actual CAN usage in simracing scenario.

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

So - I made my philosophical post earlier - now I’ll give my thoughts on the product itself...

I think it’s awesome to see the merger between real product and sim product. So I think it’s progress in that regard. The cost will be high - but that’s fine - nothing wrong with that.

However, it looks like a toy to me. Like something I would buy my kids. Not a fan of the design. I’d much prefer one of the many replica wheels already on the market.

That's the thing, what people usually associate with toys (bright colors and blinking LEDs) has been the standard in racing for a while now, it's designed this way because it helps the driver locate the desired button with just a glimpse.

Yet anytime a steering wheel with colorful buttons comes out the self conscious simracers(playing a PC game in their man cave mind you) denounce it as being "toy like".

 

[Evert Geurtsen]

Hi Thomas, if this is compatible with the current DD and QR would you take deposits now, pre price announcement, in exchange for a small discount when it become available?

 

[GagarynGaribaldi]

Hi @GagarynGaribaldi , your feedback is appreciated.

Firstly I'm sorry to hear about your base, and that it is taking a while to resolve. Turnaround times are affected during busy periods like this. I have previously been in contact with you on the Fanatec forum so I will also follow up on this case there. Of course it is not normal or acceptable for any of our products to lose connection/freeze, so please stay in communication with Technical Support until you are completely satisfied with the performance.

The jolt issue is resolved when using the Home screen on the display. We are still working on further improvements, but the driver was considered to be worthy of a full release, which is why it has been rolled out to all product pages on the site.

Regarding your concern about adding more products into the ecosystem potentially affecting software development: the team is keenly aware of this, and in fact the introduction of CAN bus support in this product required a complete redesign of our firmware architecture, which will have long-term benefits for the customer. The plan is to extend this new-generation, modular firmware architecture across the entire ecosystem. This will significantly improve the efficiency of software development in general, leading to greater stability and a better overall user experience.

Hi Dom - I may have misunderstood you but I was expecting you to contact me on the Fanatec forum - but you haven't. I sent you a DM on 10 December on the Fanatec forum but you haven't replied to that so trying here too. Still no wheelbase, still heard nothing.

 

[JamieG]

Don't worry folks, they just announced that the wheel will be less than 5000EUR