[Phil]

This morning I got an email from Fanatec with a 20% discount for the ClubSport Wheel Base V2 Servo AU.

The servo bit is new and I want to find out if it's actually as good as they say it is.
Here's the sales pitch:

Although it looks familiar to you it has almost no part which has not been modified or replaced to make it a better base.

Our focus was durability, durability, durability and then performance.  And while we made a radical re-design, we decided to make an offer nobody can refuse.

The smoothness, vividness and precision of a Direct Drive wheel combined with a torque increase of about 75% and (optional) compatibility to the latest gaming consoles.  And all that with a moderate price increase.


Here are the details:
7 Ultra Precise
We replaced the optical sensor with two magnetic high resolution hall sensors mounted on both the motor and the steering axis. The new sensors have double the resolution and the magnetic sensore are less vulnerable to dust or scratched code discs.

6 Smoothastic

The cogging of this system cannot be felt by a human anymore. It is incredible smooth and feels natural and realistic. It is on par or better with the best and most expensive wheel out there although those wheels costs a multiple of the CSW B V2.

Every little bump can be felt and effects which were filtered by the wheel mechanics can now be felt. Your racing simulations will feel different and new to you.

5 Rock Solid

Our focus was to achieve high durability even for hardcore users.
•    Improved QR release with rubber o-ring and less tolerance in production
•    A brushless motor which can be cooled much easier as it gets hot on the outside and not on the inside so heat can be transfered better
•    New cooling system featuring an additional fan on the backside right behind the new huge heat sink
•    Integrated heat sensor inside the motor
•    Motor can now even be operated at 180 C° although the FOR overclocking would be de-activated already at 120 C° and FF would shut down at 130°C. The motor has plenty of power so most people will not use max settings anyway. And during betatests it never happened that a motor was shut down or the FF was cut due to overheating.
•    Ball bearings on the motor axis and bigger ball bearings inside the pulleys so we can increase the belt tension and avoid any belt slip. At the same time we have much less drag in the system.
•    Magnetic sensors instead of the optical so we avoid problems with dust and scratches
•    New main cable
•    New electronics
•    And many other small improvements to the overall build quality


4 Power. A lot.

The new motor is custom designed and exclusive to Fanatec. Although the gear ratio has been changed to increase the rotation speed, it delivers about 75% more torque than the CSW B V1. This means over 7 NM of sheer
power and this is enough to use even heavy rims with no disadvantages. The size of the power supply has also increased in order to feed the big motor.

3 Brushless Servo

A brushless servo motor is currently state-of-the-art for force feedback systems and in principle this is exactly the same motor as the most expensive direct drive base units out there.
•    Smooth performance with no cogging (in combination with our Poly-V belt drive system or direct drive)
•    Easier to cool as the heat is on the outside of the motor and not on the motor shaft
•    Strong axis with ball bearings
•    Optimized for use in stall at max power
•    Fast acceleration
•    More efficiency -> more torque with same power

We had to develop entire new electronics for that motor as the motor
driver is quite complex. Now that it is done we can easily use it for smaller brushless motors or a direct drive wheel.

2 Next Generation

The ClubSport Wheel Base V2 is the next generation of ourwheel base but there is also a strong demand of wheels for “Next-Gen” consoles. People were asking us to make their wheels compatible to the Xbox One and Playstation 4  but if we want to make it official and legal then we need to follow the rules of the console makers and they clearly do not allow
that.

So how can we make a product where there is a chance that the customer can keep at least most of the equipment he purchased? We can easily make the pedals, shifters and handbrake compatible and this is what we did but what about the base unit?

And how can we make a product multi-platform compatible if we can only get approval for a license if the product has only the symbols of either one console on it?

We came up with an idea which brings modularity to a whole new level and protects your investment. If you play on PC then just go ahead and purchase the wheel base as it is and you will not be bothered with symbols which might hurt your eye.

But if you want to enjoy the painless simplicity of a console with its great exclusive racing simulations then you will get the option to buy an optional steering wheel which will
add full console compatibility to this base.

We want to achieve compatibility to both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 and we are happy to announce that we already signed a contract with one of them. We will announce this product at the end of this year.

There will be multiple steering wheels available in different price ranges and they will compatible to several Fanatec base units from mid-range to direct drive.

1 By Invitation Only

The great response we get from our beta testers lead us to the conclusion that the demand for this product will be much bigger than the supply. Production output will be lower as before as we spend even more time on quality control and testing.

At the same time we want to honor the loyalty of our existing customers and want to offer a special pre-order discount for the owners of the current ClubSport and CSR Elite base so that they can enjoy a little upgrade advantage.

This is how it works:
•    We will send an e-mail to our webshop customers with an invite code. There will be several waves of e-mails in the next months.
•    Only after you entered the code to your profile page you will be able to purchase or pre-order this product
•    After you purchased one V2 base you will receive a second code. You can give that to a friend or buy a second base.
• 
 Only one code will be given with a purchase as we want to avoid that people are selling their products or invites on eBay and make money with it.
•    We will also give away invites in giveaway events so frequent followers of the blog or Facebook will also get a chance to get an invite

This is the priority we will use for the invites to make it as fair and transparent as possible.
1.    Webshop customers of the CSW B V1 and CSR E (sorted by purchase date)
2.    Webshop customers of other ClubSport products like CSP or CSS
3.    All other Fanatec customers

Of course we will treat all territories with the same priority.

Not every customer will use his invite so go ahead and ask your friends if they use their invite of if they give it to you in case you are not on the list yet. It is possible and welcome to transfer invite codes.

Please do not ask our sales team for invites. They are not authorized to give out codes anyway. If it is your turn then you will get an e-mail. We will open a thread in our forum which explains more details and where you can also ask for invites from other members.

By the way, all lucky customers who placed a pre-order for the old V1 base just got a free upgrade to V2 and they are the first to receive the new product.



The Price

Pre-order price:
EU: 499,95
USA: 499,95
AUS: 655
J: 65.000

Regular price:
EU: 599,95
USA: 599,95
AUS: 785
J: 78.000

Prices are calculated different in the regions depending on taxes, laws, logistic costs and other local costs.

Availability

We started production this week and as soon as we start shipping, we will open the pre-orders for the invited guests. The first products should arrive at the end of September or early October.

[Wally]

It sounds good on paper, especially this:

"6 Smoothastic

The cogging of this system cannot be felt by a human anymore. It is incredible smooth and feels natural and realistic. It is on par or better with the best and most expensive wheel out there although those wheels costs a multiple of the CSW B V2.

Every little bump can be felt and effects which were filtered by the wheel mechanics can now be felt. Your racing simulations will feel different and new to you."

[Dick Forrest]

ADD TO CART!

[Phil]

ADD TO CART!

What wheel would you get? I'm liking the BMW GT2 wheel.

[Bacchulum]

Yeah, don't forget you have to buy a wheel rim as well.

[Phil]

Does anyone know for certain if you can use the Precision Sim Engineering wheels on the Fanatec CSR?

[Dick Forrest]

ADD TO CART!

What wheel would you get? I'm liking the BMW GT2 wheel.

I'm a long way off getting a new wheel Rudski. but yep the BMW wheel. to start with. Then the ummm open-wheeler type down the track.
I'd have to put a Reliant sticker over any BMW logos though..

[Phil]

Poll   

Porsche 918 RSR AU Wheel VS BMW M3 GT2 AU Wheel


http://www.fanatec.com/au-en/steering-wheels/clubsport-steering-wheel-porsche-918-rsr-au.html

http://www.fanatec.com/au-en/steering-wheels/clubsport-steering-wheel-bmw-m3-gt2-au.html

[Phil.8]

I have one ordered and coming in early december,, already have the universal hub and a momo mod 29 wheel.  I will have a version one base for sale early december if anyone interested, will probably keep my formula rim so will need ya own rim. it has just had a new center cable put in and comes with a new un used PCB.  was 12 months old in semptember.

[Guybrush Threepwood]

I would be waiting to hear from people when they actually get and have used it for a while.

AFAIK Fanatec don't have the best reputation for reliability and customer service which is the only concern (other than the price) when it comes to this stuff.

But this might be something for next years tax return for me.

How much do the rims cost?

[Phil.8]

http://www.fanatec.com/au-en/steering-wheels

[Bird]

Poll   

Porsche 918 RSR AU Wheel VS BMW M3 GT2 AU Wheel


http://www.fanatec.com/au-en/steering-wheels/clubsport-steering-wheel-porsche-918-rsr-au.html

http://www.fanatec.com/au-en/steering-wheels/clubsport-steering-wheel-bmw-m3-gt2-au.html

I like the bmw's covering more (but then again it maybe different to the touch),
however those rainbow buttons...yuck!

[Phil]

Poll   

Porsche 918 RSR AU Wheel VS BMW M3 GT2 AU Wheel


http://www.fanatec.com/au-en/steering-wheels/clubsport-steering-wheel-porsche-918-rsr-au.html

http://www.fanatec.com/au-en/steering-wheels/clubsport-steering-wheel-bmw-m3-gt2-au.html

I like the bmw's covering more (but then again it maybe different to the touch),
however those rainbow buttons...yuck!

ATM I am leaning towards the RSR wheel only because I just noticed in the description they kinda rip on their own wheel.

"A new material mix saves about 30% of weight over the BMW GT2 rim which will result in increased acceleration and fidelity"

I don't know what they mean by increased acceleration, probably just sales BS but what I gather from this is using this wheel you feel more of the bumps and basically FFB should be better. I could be wrong as well but they both look solid and for about the last year I've been looking  I thought I'd buy the BMW but now that it's time to buy I'm having doubts. I do like the fact it has two sets of LEDS as well one for revs and the other for I assume telemetry.

Reliability isn't honestly something I am too worried about. For starters even the Logitech gear in some places gets a bad review and we all know they are pretty solid. Specifically with Fanatec, I have also heard good and bad stories but this unit isn't cheap and their description of the product makes it out to be ultra durable. That kinda implies it's of superior quality and three years wouldn't be an unreasonable expectation.

[Phil]

I would be waiting to hear from people when they actually get and have used it for a while.

AFAIK Fanatec don't have the best reputation for reliability and customer service which is the only concern (other than the price) when it comes to this stuff.

But this might be something for next years tax return for me.

How much do the rims cost?

About $350 to $500.

[Bird]

The acceleration probably refers to the FFB motor's ability to quickly "accelerate" the wheel (since it's lighter...).

But I'm not sure how much relevance does it bear when you power-gripping it during some tough intense racing