Sim racing rigs: wheel bases, pedals, cockpits and displays.

Specifications below are the makers' own claims unless we say otherwise, and makers update their ranges often, so check the maker's current page before you buy. We do not quote prices. For the sport itself, see sim racing.

Do you need a wheel?

Not to start. iRacing's system requirements list an analog gamepad, joystick, mouse or touch screen as the minimum controller. It recommends a wheel and pedal set, and suggests force-feedback wheels and pedals for serious online racing.

Wheel bases: gear, belt and direct drive

The wheel base holds the motor that creates force feedback. Fanatec's explainer describes three designs:

What makers claim for their bases

• Logitech describes its G29 (PlayStation) and G920 (Xbox) as dual-motor, gear-driven force-feedback wheels and its entry point. It says its direct-drive RS50 (up to 8 Nm peak) and PRO Racing Wheel (11 Nm) mount the wheel on the motor shaft with no belts or gears, which it says means less delay and more accuracy. Its TRUEFORCE feature, on the G923, RS50 and PRO, ties force feedback to a game's physics and audio and is processed 4,000 times a second, Logitech says.
• Simucube lists three Simucube 3 direct-drive bases: Sport at 15 Nm peak (8.7 kg), Pro at 25 Nm (11.0 kg) and Ultimate at 35 Nm (13.0 kg), all with a 23-bit absolute angle sensor of over 8 million steps and its Link quick release. Its specification page gives a 24-month warranty for Sport and Pro and 60 months for Ultimate. A Simucube reseller, GPerformance (19 August 2026), says 3 years for Sport and Pro and 5 for Ultimate; Simucube's own page is the primary source, and regional terms may differ.
• Moza: a review reproduced on Moza's blog (3 October 2024) says Moza's bases run from 3 Nm (R3) to 21 Nm (R21), calls the 12 Nm R12 enough for nearly every discipline, and quotes only peak torque, not sustained torque.
• Thrustmaster describes its T598, announced in October 2024 according to Box This Lap, as using a "Direct Axial Drive" axial-flux motor that it says moves smoothly without cogging, with 5 Nm constant torque, up to 100% overshoot and 5 ms latency. It is described as PS5 compatible.

The torque figures are not all the same measure: Simucube, the Moza review and Logitech's RS50 figure are peak torque, while Thrustmaster quotes constant torque plus overshoot. Compare like with like.

The Moza-hosted review describes a "Hands-off Protection Mode 2" meant to prevent injury from sudden strong wheel movements when your hands are off the wheel. Read your base maker's safety instructions and settings before you drive.

Pedals

A pedal can sense how far it moves or how hard it is pressed. Simucube's explainer says a load-cell pedal measures force rather than travel and turns it into a digital signal for the sim. The rest of its claims:

• Force-based braking matches how real drivers brake and lets muscle memory learn repeatable braking percentages, which matters because a sim gives no g-forces or seat-of-the-pants cues.
• Potentiometers (travel sensors) wear because they have moving parts, while load cells have none and need little maintenance.
• Hydraulic pedals use fluid in a closed loop for a realistic feel but need more maintenance, such as bleeding and leak prevention.
• Its own ActivePedal replaces springs and fluid with a motor whose force and behaviour are set in software, and its Pro and Ultimate versions use stainless steel S-type load cells rated to 2,000 N. It argues that kilogram ratings quoted for other pedals do not by themselves show quality.

Some makers sell upgrades. Fanatec sells a CSL Pedals Load Cell Kit that adds a load-cell brake to its CSL Pedals, and Box This Lap says Thrustmaster's two-pedal T598 set can take a load-cell third pedal as an add-on kit.

Cockpits and rigs

A cockpit holds the seat, wheel base, pedals and often the screens in fixed positions. Sim-Lab, which makes aluminium-profile cockpits, says extrusion rigs became necessary once direct-drive wheels from the Open Sim Wheel project appeared, because their servo motors could not be clamped to a desk or ordinary furniture, and it calls extrusion rigs very rigid, light and modular. That is the maker's claim; we found no measured comparison of profile rigs, steel-tube rigs and wheel stands. Racing-equipment makers sell cockpits too: Sparco's US site, for example, lists sim cockpits and sim racing seats in a gaming category. Before buying, check that the cockpit maker lists your wheel base and pedals as compatible.

Displays: one screen, three screens or VR

Trak Racer sets out the trade-offs in a July 2023 article:

• One monitor: it often sits far from the eyes and forces a very low field of view, so Trak Racer advises placing it as close to your eyes as possible.
• Triple screens: peripheral vision lets a lower field-of-view setting still work. They go on free-standing stands or a mount built into the cockpit.
• VR: a wide view and better depth perception for judging distances, but it needs a powerful PC and graphics card, can cause motion sickness (especially in newcomers), and a headset can feel heavy over long sessions.

Trak Racer concludes the choice is personal preference.

What the platforms ask for

iRacing

iRacing's requirements page (last modified 31 March 2026) supports Windows 11 64-bit only, and not virtual machines, macOS or Linux. Its minimum is a 4-core CPU, a graphics card with 6 GB of dedicated video memory, 16 GB of RAM, DirectX 11 and 40 GB of disk, which it says gives minimum graphics in test mode. Its recommended spec (6 cores, 8 GB video memory, 16 GB RAM, 225 GB for all cars and tracks) gives medium settings. It needs at least a 256k DSL-class connection, recommends cable or fibre, and does not support 5G/LTE or medium and high Earth orbit satellite internet. VR headsets, including popular Meta and Pimax models, are supported, and iRacing says a VR PC should meet at least the recommended spec.

Le Mans Ultimate

Le Mans Ultimate, from Studio 397, is a Windows PC game sold on Steam, with VR support; it entered Early Access on 20 February 2024 and was fully released on 22 July 2025. Its Steam minimum is Windows 10 or 11, an Intel Core i5-8400 or Ryzen 5 2600, 8 GB of RAM, a GTX 1060 6 GB or RX 580 6 GB, DirectX 11 and 45 GB. Its recommended spec is an i5-10600 or Ryzen 5 5600X, 16 GB of RAM and an 8 GB graphics card (the page lists a "GTX 2070" or an RX 6600). The developer says its force feedback comes from a 400 Hz physics engine, with presets developed alongside several hardware makers.

F1 25 and consoles

EA's F1 25 support page shows that wheel support depends on the platform. Moza wheels, for example, appear on its Xbox and PC lists but not its PS5 list, and the PC list adds bases and pedals from makers such as Simucube, SIMAGIC, Asetek and Heusinkveld. EA says some PC wheels get built-in presets that map buttons and set force feedback automatically, and that on PS5 or Xbox it cannot help with device problems and refers players to the wheel maker. Its VR headsets appear in the PC section of the page. Before buying a wheel for a console, check the game's own compatibility list for that console.