Drivers, to your cars!

As the graybeard among GWN’s staff of writers, I feel like I’ve been a racing simulation fan since Ulysses S. Grant was President of the United States. I remember the precise moment when I was hooked. It happened soon after I became the proud owner of an Amiga 500 Computer (remember those?). Of course, I never did any computing on the Amiga. No sir. I used it for what it was really designed for—playing GAMES. In those days all my games, including racing simulations, were played using skinny little joysticks. Racing wheels for computer games either hadn’t been invented or I just didn’t know about them.



Today, racing wheel and pedal systems are almost as common as Internet porn. Systems are available for both PCs and consoles, and Thrustmaster is one of the leading manufacturers of these controllers. So when my editor offered me the opportunity to get behind the wheel of the latest Thrustmaster PC racing device, I jumped at it. The system that landed on my front porch: Thrustmaster’s RGT Force Feedback Pro “Clutch Pedal Edition” Racing Wheel (RGT CE) by Guillemot Corporation. I admit I haven’t tried the older, non-clutch pedal version, so I can’t tell you about the differences (other than the clutch pedal). My review of the RGT CE will have to stand on its own.

Packaging

The RGT CE arrived in an attractive but somewhat flimsy box. The thin cardboard practically fell apart in my hands. I became concerned about the quality of what I might find inside. I needn’t have worried. Unlike Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, I found exactly what I was expecting—an attractive, sturdy-looking black wheel base with a sequential stick shift, American and European power adapters (real handy if I take this bad boy on my second honeymoon to Paris), a pedal base with three pedals, a little user manual in multiple languages, a long, threaded bolt affixed with a slender lever, a table clamp to receive the bolt and secure the wheel to my desktop, and a set of drivers on CD.