Direct Drive on a Budget? Feel VR Kickstarter is Here, But Act Fast!

[Paul Jeffrey]

We heard about the FeelVR Direct Drive wheel project back at the 2017 Sim Racing Expo, and now the plans are a reality with a new Kickstarter campaign launched today.

The team behind Feel VR had an ambitious target to develop and ship a Direct Drive wheel and pedal set for considerably less than any other DD product on the market, and it looks like they are now finally in a position to open up the long awaited Kickstarter campaign, having already surpassed their funding target in just 75 minutes!

At the time of writing the campaign has received over $200,000 in the first day, and if you want to take home an early bird discount you only have the rest of today to act!

I spent a considerable amount of time on a Skype video call with the team at the back end of last year, and it looks like the plans they have in place are very solid and well thought out, with several demonstration models already in action even back in 2017. In fact, the team would be at the Sim Racing Expo in September of last year, although unfortunately we didn't get an opportunity to pop over and say hi whilst we were on site ourselves.

So what is it the team are offering exactly? Well if done correctly, this could be something of a game changer for sim racers looking to invest in direct drive wheel technology - the team are offering a full Direct Drive wheel, and pedals, for the same price as a traditional mid range standard wheel setup.

At present "early bird" investors on Kickstarter can order a DD wheel, two rims (GT and Formula), all the cables and a set of load cell brakes for.... $549! That's cheap.. very cheap indeed..

So what does it look like, and what are the specs? Read on to find out..

The Wheel

As for the pedals, the team at Feel VR have developed an affordable load cell unit that promises to offer a more detailed and consistent performance that traditional spring loaded versions, as anyone who has tried loadcell can testify I'm sure, and if you wanted to pick them up as a standalone item, early bird prices are $149!

The Pedals

All sounds pretty good on paper, let's see what happens once the units begin to ship towards the end of the year...

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Like the look of these offerings from FeelVR? Will you be investing? Can a budget DD set such as this compete in a competitive marketplace, in your opinion? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[SAGY31]

After spending so much time exploring what wheel and pedals I should upgrade to, I came to conclusion my G27 is still the most reliable wheel on the market (unless I'm willing to spend over 1000€). To be honest I feel lost reading about reliability issues of belt driven wheels by Fanatec / Thrustmaster and even more discouraged by poor customer support. To get back to topic this would be an awesome opportunity presented by FeelVR but If they haven't identified causes of the failures then 2 year warranty is of very little consolation.

 

[Brandon Wright]

I came to conclusion my G27 is still the most reliable wheel on the market.

Better say some prayers for your encoder wheel tonight. Mine barely made it a year.

 

[SAGY31]

I ain't superstitious so it should be fine

 

[menacegtr]

Better say some prayers for your encoder wheel tonight. Mine barely made it a year.

Mine is still rock solid after 7 years and mostly solid usage, brass encoder though

 

[Richlevy]

I will say this for my g25 wheel and pedals, they lasted about 10 years of almost daily use. I am very happy with the accuforce wheel, and the fanatic cswv2 wheels. I would not trade back to the Logitech for anything. But to their credit (logitech) their product did work lol

 

[menacegtr]

I was seriously going in for the full package but after reading about kickstarter, you are backing, not buying a product, what they give you at the end IF they are successful is what you have backed for, its like saying thanks so this is what you will get, no guarantees. I just could not do that, plus its not paypal, credit cards only. I have £1000 to spend on either this package and a 1070 gtx or go for a 1080TI and keep my modded G25, or a Sim experience DD and totally blow my budget. In principle this wheel looks kinda ok but i don't know, there aren't too many youtubers going nuts about it and i asked william at sim racing paddock about whether he would recommend the kickstarter, he wouldn't recommend as nothing in his words have been done about the short falls from his review that he knows of, but hay things can and do change

 

[menacegtr]

I will say this for my g25 wheel and pedals, they lasted about 10 years of almost daily use. I am very happy with the accuforce wheel, and the fanatic cswv2 wheels. I would not trade back to the Logitech for anything. But to their credit (logitech) their product did work lol

I know what you mean, i have spent £400 on a hand built F1 style rim and quick release for my beloved G25 and its still as good as the day i bought it, just can't say goodbye just yet, but would dearly love to go right to the top, i just don't think feel VR is

 

[kondor999]

I'd like to see a reasonably cogent explanation as to how the Feel VR team is able to charge less than 50% than everyone else (including companies that just bundle OSW hardware).

"There's no such thing as a free lunch".

So how exactly is a small startup (with no track record and presumably no specialized knowledge/contacts in China) able to achieve such a low price, when much larger companies (who can negotiate bulk discounts on the BOM) cannot?

 

[Thomas Cameron]

I wonder if they have a commercial license to use Assetto Corsa in their advertising?
@kunos

 

[CC]

I'd like to see a reasonably cogent explanation as to how the Feel VR team is able to charge less than 50% than everyone else (including companies that just bundle OSW hardware).

"There's no such thing as a free lunch".

So how exactly is a small startup (with no track record and presumably no specialized knowledge/contacts in China) able to achieve such a low price, when much larger companies (who can negotiate bulk discounts on the BOM) cannot?

Simply because its a small team/group of guys 4 I believe making and building the wheels on there own,
its not a massive business like fanatec with 100,s of employees and massive overheads and multiple offices and staff around the world,
straight away 4 people compared to 100,s of people even if the manufactured parts have the same production cost that right there is your 50% saving

 

[Richlevy]

I wish them well, I really hope they can make an impact and produce these and other wonderful products for the sim community. The big "butt" is coming though, I just can't get to the point where I outlay my money, in this case for 6 months or more in hopes of getting a product. I do wish them well, and based on the sponsor numbers, they are more than on their way with this package. So I hope to see what they have a year or 2 from now, maybe they can get me as a customer than.
Good luck guys

 

[testdriver77]

Nobody sells a product at productions costs.... the target is profit.

 

[Sabine]

I'd like to see a reasonably cogent explanation as to how the Feel VR team is able to charge less than 50% than everyone else (including companies that just bundle OSW hardware).

"There's no such thing as a free lunch".

So how exactly is a small startup (with no track record and presumably no specialized knowledge/contacts in China) able to achieve such a low price, when much larger companies (who can negotiate bulk discounts on the BOM) cannot?

It starts with a small team and a smaller motor. You can get 10/12nm motors for less than half of the prize of a small mige.
-Small team = working in a celler, garage, maybe outsource the production of a few parts, ...
-Company = buying (or building) a big bulding, buying expensive cnc machines, high electricity/heating costs,...

 

[Terry Rock]

I really wanted to hear more directly from the team on things like...
Projections for drivers.
Were they planning on bringing in an independent software developer... or trying to do it themselves?
Plans for headquarters...Russia or stateside?
This'll affects things like warranty administration.
Addressing what failed during testing and how they fixed it... or plan to.
Just because they're a small team doesn't mean they're incapable of building a good, solid product at reduced cost.
The questions posed are only a few of the ones I needed answers to before committing.
Sadly, I never got those answers and so all I can do is sit on the sidelines and hope they're successful.

 

[kondor999]

The problem with your logic is that a smaller manufacturer is, in general, less efficient than a larger one when producing something like consumer electronics. This isn't modding or software development. We're talking about actual sourcing of the BOM (bill of materials) and how much that costs them.

Unless you've got big volume, you're not going to get the same price that, say, Guillemot gets for the exact same BOM.

What I'm saying is that if a small startup tried to make the Thrustmaster T300 - It would cost a lot more because:
1) They couldn't get the same prices for components that Guillemot can.
2) Guillemot can afford to make a lot less profit per wheel, because they're selling amounts that are likely 2-3 orders of magnitude greater.

These are the sorts of questions we received from prospective investors when I started my company. I'd love to hear directly from the Feel VR team about how they're managing to produce a wheel/pedals combo at well under half the price that major, established manufacturers can achieve.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Yep... people talk about this like there is some kind of magic they do to reduce prices. But then what to expect from people nowadays when they think everything is aboud an evil business owner making 1 bilion profit for each wheel (or any other product) they sell lol
Things cost money to be made, and you know something that can cost a lot of money? Support.

 

[Dirk Steffen]

Please don't dump everyone in the "developed world" together, it's rich business people and they care about no-one but themselves and the almighty dollar. Poor working class in the "developed world" have been shafted by these rich from day one and continue to be shafted.

The strange OT discussion about electronic products not being available in certain countries seems a little uninformed.
Decisions on which market to serve with direct sales or sales though a vendor network are in almost all cases dictated by:
- import export restrictions between trading countries
- tax + duty + shipping cost on a product into a potential market vs. perceived reasonable price to consumer and projected sales in that market
- safety and legislation related hurdles to manufacturers in order to be able to sell a product in certain countries
- perceived risk of credit default from sales in certain countries
- trading restrictions between countries related to certain product groups

Simple: reasons why this product may not be (initially) available for sale in certain countries has most likely NOT to do with some of the strange ideas brought up as reasons why ;-)

It may just simply not be financially viable or legislation related not as easy (or even not possible) to offer such product in direct sales.

Simply because its a small team/group of guys 4 I believe making and building the wheels on there own,
its not a massive business like fanatec with 100,s of employees and massive overheads and multiple offices and staff around the world,
straight away 4 people compared to 100,s of people even if the manufactured parts have the same production cost that right there is your 50% saving

The single major factor in different pricing between a premium Fanatec product (read CSW line of gear) vs the proposed FeelVR offering is:
- elaborate mold based custom components used in Fanatec products (look at housings, brackets, cogs, wheel half cases, pedal components and housings, etc, etc vs. exclusive small production scale based metal sheet construction with very limited invests in tooling necessary (likely possible with minimal tooling invests in very basic metal sheet manufacturing processes)

Don't underestimate tooling invest (and involved R&D, prototyping and engineering costs) to create just a single Fanatec wheelbase without pedals and shifters we are talking about no less than 5 injection molds, at least one extrusion tool and fixtures, jigs for serial production machined components).
There is a distinct reason why the feelVR items are constructed from metal sheet (pre sales tooling invest + lead times without ANY sales revenue to hold over the little team for months before the first sales are made).

 

[Terry Rock]

I believe they could do it at a massive price deficit to others, it just depends on where they source the parts and do production.
Look at someplace like Dealextreme or Tmart and immediately you can gauge some electronics prices in the Asian market versus the mark-up for those same components sold by Western companies.
I can purchase an Arduino clone for $7 direct.
That same board sells for $35-50USD when imported.
Now do production in China and you can immediately see the cost savings.

 

[Mascot]

The dead bats alone must cost $20 per unit!

 

[Deleted member 197115]

I wonder if they have a commercial license to use Assetto Corsa in their advertising?
@kunos

Or any license at all.