[review] Fanatec CSL Elite PS4 wheel

Today, i don´t post any new sound mods, i want to talk about the new Fanatec CSL Elite PS4 racing wheel.

I have followed a long time the product line of Fanatec Wheels, but for my taste, they are all a bit to expensive. But now with the new CSL Elite series, it looks interesting in price and quality.

I have started my sim racing career in the mid 90´s with a racing wheel without pedals, but with throttle and brake by pedals on the steering wheel. Very interesting and a complete new driving experience compared to an analog joystick i have used before to drive Papyrus NASCAR Racing.

With the introduction of FFB wheels from Microsoft, i switched to the Microsoft sidewinder FFB racing wheel.

In the beginning of the 2000´s i ordered a Logitech Driving Force Pro and also, very expensive upgrade from FREX Japan, a real Momo wheel with custom made shift pedals, buttons and new pedal set for throttle and brake.

I stayed till now with the pedals, but switched one year ago to the Thrustmaster T300RS Ferrari Alcantara edition.

Now, thanks to Fanatec, i received few weeks ago 4 parcels by UPS with the new CSL Elite PS4 wheel, CSL Elite Pedals with load cell upgrade and the Clubsport F1 rim.



First i have unboxed the base with its new designed PS4 rim.

I have noticed immediately the low weight of the rim. I thought its less than the weight of the Thrustmaster 599xx

alcantara wheel, but i was wrong. The Fanatec has a approx. weight of 1009g, the Thrustmaster has 1093g. So they are equal, perhaps it feels different because the Thrustmaster rim is bigger in diameter.

The quality of the Fanatec rim is slightly better. The leather on the side of the rim feels nice and compared to the suede leather, it could be more durable if driven without gloves.

The blue stitching looks very sporty and with the very bright and good viewable display and shift light indicator, it looks a bit like the steering wheel of a BMW M235i racing.

Special on the new PS4 rim, you can change the button caps with PS4 design to other caps, so you can have individual buttons, way better if you use the wheel on the PC as i do. It is not that easy to change the button caps, in my case i need flat-nosed pliers to get them off.

The shift pedals on the wheel feels great. For my taste they are a bit too far away from the rim. I have big hands, but it could be a bit closer. They have a nice and strong click, but almost silent. Great for me because i don´t have a separate room for sim racing and my wife is very happy if my driving does not make any noise.



Let´s go on with the wheel base. Very nice, heavy and a bit smaller than the T300RS. The table clamp is great and looks and feels like the one from the T300. Perhaps the designer of both companies had the same idea.

Special hint: If u grease the thread of the mounting a bit, it is more easy to screw/unscrew the table clamp.

So, before i can go on track, i have to mount the pedals.



You can order the CSL Elite pedals as a two pedal set, with only throttle and brake pedal, where the brake pedal has a common poti. If you order also the loadcell upgrade kit, the brake pedals will become the clutch and a new brake pedal with a 90kg load cell can be mounted.

As i use a h-shifter from Thrustmaster, a clutch pedal is very important for me, and of course the upgrade to a loadcell brake is not that bad

In the controller setup menu, i have set the brake pedal pressure to 40%, that is more than enough for me, because i don´t have a racing seat. I only have a desk and using an office chair.



In the past years, i used the pedals from FREX Japan. They are great, heavy duty aluminium made with strong springs and nice potis. But no loadcell. Can´t wait to feel the difference.

After mounting all the parts (they look more than they are, and mounting was almost possible without using the manual) i can go on with mounting the PS4 wheel to the base.

In the first moment, i was a bit dissapointed, because the PS4 rim does not have the very nice and realistic quick-release system. It is more like a simplified quick-release with clamp ad a screw to fix it. But compared to the "quick-release" from the Thrustmaster rims, it is far more advanced, stable and durable.



So, now all the hardware is mounted, drivers installed and configured, i can start driving.

of course with Assetto Corsa...what else

I have started with the BMW M235i racing @ Zandvoort. But before a drive, i use a very nice feature of the Fanatec wheels. You can change on the fly the steering angle of the wheel. You can also save 5 presets of settings for each rim, great if you use more than one game. You can setup the steering rotation angle from 200° to 1080°.

After a few laps, i am really amazed how quiet the wheel works. No sound from the motor, the belt or any other noise. Compared to the T300 RS or my old Logitech driving force Pro, it is an absolute great feel.

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Btw. noise: The wheel produces a strange rattling noise if there happens a strong force feedback effect. This loud and noisy rattling is reported from many other users and happens from game to game more or less.

The guys from Fanatec created a beta firmware upgrade (v292) which adds a new setting in the wheels setup menu:

FEI = Force Effect Intensity

This tuning menu parameter is adjustable within the range of 000 - 010. The default setting is 000 which is equal like the current public released firmware for both bases. Increasing the value for FEI means that the motor will decrease the attack impact when the effect direction changes, higher values mean more 'dampening'. This will reduce or eliminate the rattle noise.
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Back on track, after few more laps, i can say that the strength of the FFB is much more intense and higher than in the T300. After some more laps, its even too high so i have to decrease the FFB strength. Great to know that there is enough space for stronger FFB without clipping. That is a point where the T300 is weak, cause with more FFB strength, clipping starts.

Now few words on the pedals: Those CSL Elite pedals are really nice and a have a very good price performance ratio. Sure, i miss a bit the adjustments you can make on the Clubsport V3 pedals, but for 150€ less the the Clubsport, they are doing their job very well. The additional loadcell upgrade does its part to improve the overall feeling of control. I have never had loadcell brake pedal, my modified FREX pedals only has poti for all three axis and some heavy duty rubber damper, which is great, but not to compare to a loadcell brake. After few days of training, my brake performance and lap times increased a lot. The only downside of the not adjustable pedals in my view is, if they are used for heal and toe in combination with an H-shifter. Brake and throttle pedal have the same height, so it is not that comfortable to heal and toe. I will do here no comparison to the stock T300 RS pedals, even if i had for a short time the Thrustmaster T3PA 3-pedal set in use. For a price of 99€ they cost half of the Elite pedals, but have more than the half of performance, quality and feel.

So, now coming to the end of this small review to a short conclusion:

I have compared more or less the Fanatec CSL Elite PS4 wheel with the T300 RS, because it is the lower priced wheel of Fanatec and aimed for the entry level of Fanatec products, but the wheels are not that easy to compare in terms of quality and price. They both are top level wheels, but you will get a better package in quality, FFB strength and durability with the downside of a higher price. But once you have tested the Fanatec wheel, you will never miss the small nice things like the genius quick-release system and the adjustable settings while driving. Sure, the PS4 rim does not have the quick-release system, but sooner or later, i will replace this rim with the Clubsport BMW GT2 rim just for the quick-release.


Pro´s:

-ultra quiet belt drive
-very strong FFB
-very good quality and durability
-wheel settings adjustable while driving with the LCD display
-solid table clamp and compact design of the base
-compatibility to all Clubsport rims and addons like shifter, handbrake
-PS4 support

Con´s:
-higher price compared to the Thrustmaster T300
-inconvenient not that quick-release system on the PS4 Rim
-PS4 rim could be a bit thicker and full of alcantara leather (like the new CSL Elite rim P1)

Big thanx to Fanatec for supporting me with the hardware!

https://www.fanatec.com/eu-de/racing-wheels/csl- elite-racing-wheel-ps4.html
https://www.fanatec.com/eu-de/pedale/csl-elite- pedale-lc-eu.html

 

I recently reviewed th CSL-E PS4 for DrivingItalia and I do find it on another league compared to the T300: there really is no comparison, the CSL is better in everything. There's only one thing where I disagree:

-ultra quiet belt drive

This base suffers from extreme rattling on some titles: FEI was introduced for that reason, as it was not available at first. I did a comparison video here:


Starting from 3:50 you can see how FEI changes the base response over kerbs in rF2 (which is thw title that suffers the most from rattling). With AC instead I found no need to use FEI: if possible I try to avoid it as it smoothes FFB in general.

 

Nice review mate
Und falls du nen Abnehmer für dein T300RS brauchst....

 

Good review I have my CSL since August and am very satisfied with it.

Do you use FEI on your wheel? I use it only for rF2 and for Offroad stuff in AMS, because those two rattle my wheel like mad. I tried it on Assetto COrsa but am not sure if I like it. It makes everything softer, which feels OK, but I suspect it also dorwns out a few details here and there. Do you already have an opinion on that?

 

Nicely summed up. I use the wheel myself from release on, although with CSP3 pedal. I am very happy with both, it is excellent value for money and I read that where support (delivery of spare parts) is needed, they are both friendly and very fast. One word on the BMW wheel you said to use in the future.You then compare the lightest against the very heaviest of the Fanatec wheels, and I could imagine that the motor in the base will react differently a bit, since the motor has to move more mass. With the default rim, the wheel is not only strong, but also very fast. I could imagine that you loose a bit of this agile reaction when the motor must throw around more mass. But that is my guess, I do not know it from experience, I do not have the BMW wheel.

Its the same motor like in the CSW 2.5, they say at Fanatec, but it uses different electronics and different gears.

If you find a way to get the shifting flashlights working in AC, let me know, Fanaleds does not work so far.

The wheel works with all its features (LED, shift lights, shifting indicator) in Raceroom, fyi. You must assign a key in game options to switch the LED functions in RR.

The wheel strangely also works with all its blinking features in Assetto Corsa on PS4. The functionality is all there on PS4, on PC it lacks.

 

The LEDS word with SLIMax Manager Pro: http://www.eksimracing.com/category/hardware/slipro/
It can also do autorotation for your wheel, but this only works well with the stock launcher, with CM there is a one startup delay

 

Nice review, I already have the pedals and the wheel will be my next upgrade from my DFGT

 

I think you're mostly right that the BMW is a slower wheel than something like the Porsche wheel which is lighter (and more expensive). I own the BMW wheel but I've nothing to compare it too, I can say that when I took it out of the box I was surprised by the weight of it. I've never felt like the wheel was slow and you can overcome that weight slightly using the drift setting.

I don't think anyone is going to notice the weight of the wheel once it's attached. You'd have to spend time with a lighter wheel to have some sort of reference. I'm very happy with it though, it's so solid and feels great.

 

Simracing Girl had a review of it, too, and in the thread I asked her on the BMW rim, I recall. Girl said she felt no big difference, I seem to recall. Well.

 

I will try that thing again then. Last time I tried, I did not get it to work, and found it quite confusing. Maybe that is age-related neural network failure on my side.

 

SLIMax this time works. Thanks for bringing it up again. Dont ask me what went wrong the first two attempts, back then it did nothing, now it works out of the box.

 

Nicely done, Fonsecker. 10/10 would drive again - #dogrates.

 

If it is heavy or not, i want this beautiful BMW rim! I have driven it 2012 the first time and it was love at first sight!

 

Why havent you gone after the CSW 2.5 wheelbase then? Its available since long. And probably more adequate for this wheel, I guess. However, i could understand your desire, me too is tempted to get either the Porsche or the BMW rim, but in the end I will fold over both options. By looks, both make me slobber.

The BMW wheel is listed with 2120 gr, the PS4 Elite wheel with 970 gr, the Porsche with 1690 gr. That means the BMW wheels is 2.2 times heavier than the PS4 wheel. I would not underestimate this difference, considering that the BMW was made with the double-belt CSW 2 base in mind (the CSL Elite base uses just one belt). I cannot imagine that this huge difference in weight does not make a difference.

All I mean is don't loose your head! There probably is a reason why they reduced the weight of the CSL Elite PS4 wheel that drastically.

 

@ Gevatter,

do you have a clue for me how I could activate the CSP3 pedals spinner motors in SLImax on both gas and brake? I searched the options, but if it is there, then it escapes me. In Fanaleds, its there, but I do not find it in SLImax.

 

Also, I have found the option for the wheel to have the cluttered info on the LED display reduced, there were almost ten different info pieces cycling through, what use should there be in that? I have just one entry there now, gears, but nevertheless I cannot get the display stopping to rotate from speed to gears, it displays speed all the time, unwanted, and gears only when I have changed them, then goes back to gears.

I want gears displayed, only gears, nothing else! Its the only usefulö kind of info beign displayed there. But this info must be CONSTANTLY there.

 

@Skybird

I'm not at my PC at the moment, nor do I use SLIMax anymore. I suspect the wheel displays values sent to it by AC itself. If you haven't, you need to deactivate the Fanatec Support built into AC. Somewhere in one of the cfg folders there is a file called fanatec.ini. There should be a parameter in there called enabled, set that to 0.

No idea about the pedals, sorry. I don't use them, so this was never relevant for me.

 

I think the overall weight of the wheel is not that huge problem. We do not throw it through the air, it spins around its own axle. And the main weight on the rim is in the middle, so in terms of physics it should not be that problem.

 

Found the several (8) fanatec files in cfg/controllers/presets, but cannot identitfy any useful entry related to the revlights. Also checked controls.ini in cfg folder, but cannot make a useful identificaiton of a related variable/entry.

A file named simply fanatec.ini does not exist on my system, nowhere, says Windows system search. There are only the several fanatec_CSW_abc...xyz ini files in cfg/controllers/presets.

Anyhow, thanks for your time. Its not your fault.

 

Sorry for not clarifying better. I was talking about the fanatec.ini file in the assettocorsa system/cfg subfolder: