Home : Hardware : Reviews : Driving Force GT
The ultimate consumer racing wheel
There are some things in life that should just be. Cellphones should be unlocked, gas should be affordable, Wi-Fi should be freely available everywhere…some things just don’t come so easily. Driving in a videogame, however, needs a racing wheel. Most of us are only privy to using one at the local arcade, which is a shame in this day and age where arcades are slowly fading away, and in-home consoles are quickly taking their place.
Logitech has always been at the forefront of racing wheels, and they make wheels specifically for the only racing simulator we really care about: Gran Turismo. Their latest establishment is the Driving Force GT, made specifically for Gran Turismo 5.
The aim for the GT is to give the most realistic driving experience with the least amount of hardware, which is both a good and bad thing. The GT comes with the racing wheel, a pedal attachment with gas and brake pedals, and power steering. Literally.
In fact, so much power is required for the realistic steering that the USB connector alone isn’t enough for the GT. An additional power cable is required, with an incredulously large power supply. It was actually quite unnerving being forced to relocate power cables to accommodate the monster-sized supply.
What that supply feeds, however, is the most realistic steering ever seen to date on a consumer grade racing wheel. When driving in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, using the wheel made the difference between a good racer to a great racer. Yes, we mentioned that GT5P was a great race simulator with quite a few problems, but the difference between using the wheel and using the SIXAXIS, Dualshock 3 or any third party standard controller is remarkable. As it should be.
The GT has plenty to offer. Other than featuring a full controller's worth of buttons (minus the analog sticks), all of which also work without the power supply, the wheel itself is an 11” realistic feeling steering wheel that supports 900 degrees of rotation. Add to that an adjustment dial for quick in-game changes to a list of features and you have one of the slickest, most sophisticated racing wheels on the market.
What isn’t mentioned in creating the most realistic racing experience is that the real world doesn’t play nice. To make something exceptional, it generally has to be tailored for a specific type of user, and the GT is not. It’s made for gamers and racing enthusiasts, but lacks realism with no clutch shifting as we’ve seen in Logitech’s previous G25, no handbrake accessory and a somewhat uncanny tiptronic shifter.
These minor nuisances play little part in taking away from the feel of the GT, however, because they aren’t what racing is really about. It’s about being able to time your turns, shift at the right time, and push your car to its limits. In this, the GT prevails.
Force feedback is the most important part of the wheel. Without it, the racing would be more difficult than using a controller because of how much effort is required. Indeed, having raced with both the GT and several different controllers, they both have comparable advantages. The GT is better at slight corrections, uses the pedals for accelerating and braking, and has the adjustment wheel to change not only settings for the wheel, but for the car as well. Controllers, on the other hand, are better at correcting larger driving errors that would require turning the wheel quickly and far. It also doesn’t fight back, and subsequently is easier to use for long periods of time.
