Digitally Fast: Your Guide to the Hottest Virtual Racing Accessories

Video games aren't just for kids anymore. In recent years, the level of graphics, realism, and gameplay has increased significantly across the gaming market, giving car enthusiasts something to cheer about - more realistic racing simulators. Even some of the top names in various racing series have admitted to learning a track they've never driven by logging hours behind a gaming monitor. And now, with gaming consoles being a standard household item and with most car guys owning at least a couple racing games, we decided it was high time to get our hands on some products that claim to make the experience a little more realistic than a standard thumbpad controller and couch could ever hope to. So we rounded up a host of racing game accessories and hooked them up to our Playstation 3 running the popular Gran Turismo 5 Prolouge game, the latest in the popular series. Bottom line? If you want to get the most out of racing games, you owe it to yourself to check out the following products.

Playseats Evolution $349.99

If you're going to get serious about your virtual racing (or are just looking for a more realistic experience) you're going to need a game seat. It's just that simple. While all the wheel/pedal combos listed below will work when clamped to some tables, chairs, or other makeshift platforms, no workaround setup will come close to touching to a dedicated, purpose-built assembly. We chose the Playseat Evolution for our testing purposes and found it to an excellent choice.

A newer model from Playseats USA, the Evolution features an actual racing-inspired bucket seat mounted on a reinforced tube frame. Platforms for mounting both the steering and pedal assemblies are attached as well, and are easily adjustable for varying driver body types and sizes. The seat itself is also wide enough to accommodate slightly wider users -- unlike many similar items found in today's sports coupes and sedans - and is covered in high-quality vinyl, available in several different colors. An optional seat slider gives even more precise and on-the-fly adjustability and an optional gearshift attachment allows for the mounting of the separate Logitech G25 shifter unit. The setup seems to be very durable and solid, not twisting or moving around much during spirited "driving."

A distinct advantage to the Playseats Evolution over some of the competing products that we've seen is its ability to be stored compactly when not in use. Not everyone wants a racing seat serving full-time duty in the living room (although we couldn't find anyone like that around our offices) and the Evolution's back is able to be folded flat for storage in a closet or garage. The steering and pedal platforms are also easily removable and can be reinstalled in seconds for impromptu races.

We'd recommend purchasing a game seat like the Playseats Evolution so much that we'd plan on working the purchase price into your wheel budget. Though you could conceivably use a table or lap attachment for any of the wheels below, the difference between a proper setup like the Evolution and a makeshift one, is night and day. The angles and ergonomics of steering wheel and pedals will be completely wrong when not mounted on a purpose-built product, making turning quick laps difficult and uncomfortable at best and impossible at worst. Simply put, we wouldn't buy a gaming wheel without buying a proper gaming seat to go along with it.

Logitech Driving Force GT $149.99

As the cheapest wheel here, the Logitech Driving Force GT certainly didn't feel cheap. While the construction is mostly plastic, the Driving Force GT still presented itself as a quality product. The wheel itself features a firm, grippy, rubber-like material that is comfortable to hold and reduces slippage from sweaty-palm on-track maneuvers.

The only wheel of the bunch to not offer a conventional H-pattern shifting setup (or a clutch pedal), the Driving Force allows shifts with either the integrated sequential shift lever or the paddle shifters located behind the wheel. We opted to use the latter most of the time, due to their improved actuation over the gear lever, which seemed a little flimsy. The wheel's force feedback provided good strength and feel, considering the single-motor, gear-driven design. While a little noisy and choppy in operation, both of these downsides were hardly noticeable in the heat of a hard-driven race, and the plastic mounting clamps kept a solid grip, disallowing movement of the wheel under the same conditions. Pedal operation was good with solid resistance in the brake pedal, though the base unit was the lightest of the group and the construction was all plastic. We found the pedal base could slide around under aggressive use a bit more than the heavier units we tested, but a rubber pad or carpet under the base should keep movement to a minimum.

Touted as the official wheel of the Gran Turismo franchise, GT developers actually worked alongside Logitech's engineers to bring this wheel to market. One of the results of this partnership is the large red rotating 24-position knob on the front of the wheel. This enables the user to make realtime, on-the-fly adjustments to brake bias, traction control, and stability programming - a feature that no other wheel tested here has, and game options that are only available through the controls on the Driving Force GT.

Overall, the Logitech Driving Force GT is a very good choice at any budget, and with the exclusive on-wheel adjustment feature, makes a perfect companion if your primary virtual racing experience revolves around Gran Turismo. You'll be surprised at how much a difference this budget-priced accessory makes in your gaming experience.

Logitech G25 $299.99

It doesn't take too much Googling to determine that Logitech's upscale G25 is a gamer favorite around the Web. The online reviews and forum threads mentioning this metal and leather built beauty all seem to offer the same remark: It's a wonderful wheel and pedal setup, but it's pricey. We concur. While the steering wheel and pedal base are both still constructed from plastic, the G25 offers a gorgeous leather-wrapped wheel and shift lever along with real metal pedals and paddle shifters. The feeling is of quality and solidarity throughout, the G25 even offering a bolt-in method of installation to wherever you choose to mount the wheel and pedals. We found that the Playseat Evolution comes pre-drilled for the correct G25 bolt-pattern, leaving us up and running in minutes with a much beefier and permanent-feeling mounting system than the included plastic clamps allow for.

The G25 wheel adds a few more features as well. The shift lever is mounted on a separate console that also includes all the standard command buttons you'd need to navigate in-game menus and the like. The console has its own mounting clamp integrated for tabletop installation, but for use with our Playseat Evolution, a special adapter is needed (available from Playseats and its retailers) that allows it to be bolted up. A knob on the console allows a switch to and from a clutchless sequential setup or the full H-pattern mode, a nice feature that caters to personal preference and allows for a more realistic experience (it can be odd using paddle shifters to swap cogs in a 1979 Ferrari 512 BB). The paddle shifters are also the most realistic on this unit, looking and feeling like the real deal, rather than just a fancy plastic button.

Pedal resistance is similar to the Driving Force GT - firm but not overly so - and the clutch pedal features good feel on both depress and release. The sequential shift lever action was significantly more solid than the Logitech's cheaper offering, and a dual-motor design allowed for stronger and smoother steering feedback as well. All of this is not to mention the much improved appearance that the G25 offers over its budget-priced counterpart. Opt for this wheel if you're a serious virtual racer looking for a nice blend of function, form, and value. Logitech is also a long-time player in the gaming business, well-known for the reliability of their products.

FanatecPorsche 911Turbo $349.95

It's easy to discern that Fanatec's Porsche 911 Turbo wheel is the most expensive in this article by simply opening the box. Just opening the cardboard flaps, the wheel's leathery aroma begins to fill the air and by the time it's been fully unboxed, you might as well be inside a tannery. Designed to be a near-exact copy of the item found in Zuffenhausen's force-fed sports car, the Fanatec wheel is the same diameter and thickness. One huge difference is that the Fanatec wheel -- despite earning Porsche's blessing and full licensing -- is made in China, not Germany, although it is designed in the latter. Either way, first impressions are favorable, right down to the metal Porsche crest in the wheel's center. Oh, and two Porsche key-like items are included inside the packaging as well. While nearly identical, one is a wireless USB connector (none of the other wheels here have a wireless option) and the other is a 1GB memory stick. Cool.

Like the G25, three methods of shifting are available: paddles (more like buttons behind the horizontal spokes), a sequential lever, or an H-pattern lever and clutch pedal. Unlike the G25, the sequential and H-pattern shifters are two separate units, each able to slide on to the side of the wheel's base. Each is constructed primarily of plastic and rubber, lacking the leather wrapping of Logitech's premium offering, and the H-pattern unit - while notably direct and precise - is much tighter than that on the G25, seeming to "click" into each gate with an almost switch-like actuation. While we had little trouble getting our gears, the G25 shifter felt a little less artificial in its movement. Meanwhile, the pedals are chrome-plated plastic, not metal. Worth noting, however, is the metal plate that screws on to the bottom of the plastic pedal base. This, in combination with the non-slip rubber pad that Fanatec includes, keeps the pedal assembly from slipping around much better than either Logitech unit.

In actual use, the Porsche 911 Turbo wheel feels like a strong competitor to Logitech's G25. Easily the most realistic to the touch, the wheel's feedback is also the strongest, able to nearly wrestle its way out of the user's hands at its highest setting. The feedback level is adjustable, as is the number of degrees lock-to-lock, allowing for faster steering in formula-type racers and slower steering for street machines. Multiple settings are able to be stored and recalled for various cars or games. And not only does the unit offer feedback, but it also rumbles, using separate motors and contributing strongly to the realism.

The pedals offer good resistance, though the clutch return may be a bit strong for some, with too much of a spring-loaded feel. Fanatec's wheel also offers a bolt-on mounting option in addition to its plastic clamps and includes a template for drilling the appropriate mounting holes - a good thing, as the clamps were unable to adjust tight enough to hold the steering unit firmly to the thin metal steering platform of the Playseats Evolution. We needed to bolt the Fanatec wheel on to keep the feedback from ripping the wheel off the platform altogether.

Who would we recommend the Fanatec Porsche 911 wheel to? The cost-is-no-object Porsche enthusiast. With the best steering feel here, the strongest feedback, and the added rumble and wireless capability, it just edges out the Logitech G25 for ultimate wheel. Still, the pedals can't quite touch the G25 for feel and nor can the shifter. We also wish the quality of some components were better -- epecially the cheap-looking plastic pedals. This one is probably most likely to impress your gaming buddies as well.