Manual H-Shifter with clutch cars are much more fun to drive than the paddle shifters

thanks @Berniyh for the info!

since I'm having your attention: you got the ultimate paddles... do you think the price diff to the pros is adequate?

 

Driving in VR, the shifting of the virtual driver is not an issue, as when shifting I am not looking at the shifter, neither in real life or in VR, so as long as the hand leave the wheel to shift I am fine.
Being able to see the shifter position, in VR, would be nice, as I do some time in real life, for cars who are not indicating which gear is on. I just hope I will live long enough to see it.

 

It's hard to quantify the difference between the pedal sets, so I can't tell you really. Especially since I've never driven the pro pedals.

For me the main reason why I bought the ultimate pedals was the damping system. That helps to smooth the pedal input.
Due to a broken damper (replaced by HE almost instantly without additional cost), I had to drive for a week without a damper on the clutch and that felt really weird.
Unfortunately, I can't tell you if this weird clutch feeling would translate to the pro pedals, because it might be that the setup on those is adjusted such that they are better without the damper.
Oh and it could've been a habit thing. Maybe I would write the same when going from no-damper to damper, although I kind of doubt it (at least when I mounted the damper again it felt "right" instantly).
Besides that, the pedals allow for higher forces, but I'm not interested in that. The way I've got it set up, the pro set would do that as well (although for the same rubbers in use, the pros would still result in a slightly higher travel per force).
The other reason why I went for the ultimates was that I got them for a discount of 10% (as I bought them together with the Sim Rig) and I thought I could sell them if I think it's too much.

Would I be happy had I bought the pro pedals? I guess so, at least as I don't recall reading that someone didn't like the pro pedals.
I might wonder what it feels like driving with the dampers, but that would be about it.

If you have the chance to go to SimRacingExpo, then I'd suggest that to you. HE are usually present there with rigs and there would surely be happy to let you test drive their stuff.

(btw, I've read that one damper is worth approx. 100€, so 3 dampers would make up just about half of the price difference. I don't know if the price per damper is correct though.)

 

thanks for the thorough explanation. At least with the dampers the price difference starts to make sense.
I just startet to drive manual cars a few weeks ago on the sf servers, and it really is something special, so much so that I think I "need" (want ) better pedals as well. And HE seems to be the route to go.
When and where is SimRacingExpo?

 

Keep in mind that these pedals only make sense if you've got a rig to mount them to. They can't (really) be used free-standing.

Of course at the most legendary race track in the world:
http://www.simracingexpo.de/simracingexpo_en.html

 

I got the large Motedis rig. Should work, I think.

of course
A little bit far, but I'll see.

Does HE ever offer discounts?

 

Should be fine. If it's flexing too much, you can still modify the pedal mount.

Haven't seen that so far. You do get a discount if you purchase multiple products.
e.g. you get a 20% discount on the handbrake (which is an awesome product btw) or the sequential shifter, if you purchase the pedals.
A discount on the pedals is only possible if you get the rig (like I did), afaik.

 

Yes, i ve got a discount for one of their other products that was included with my hepropedals.

 

time to start saving up

 

sure .. Heel & Toe makes every car fun ... even 20 years old 80HP hatchback I used to have .. sadly lots of cars don`t have too H&T friendly pedals or space around legs .. but heck I`m doing it even when I drive van

 

I'd say if you need to save up for long, then maybe it's a better idea to get the pro pedals and invest the rest in a good wheel.
For me it was a bit easier, because I did already save up for some time for the DD wheel, which I knew would cost me around 2000€ (+rims), so I decided to move that back by a couple of months and get the rig + pedals first.

That's the cool think about the separate pedal mounts, because it allows for position adjustments of each pedal.
With some effort, you could even mount the clutch and brake hanging, but the throttle standing like some of the older cars had it.

In my setup, I just moved the throttle a bit backwards such that the brake and throttle roughly align when the brake is pressed fully (actually it's not fully pressed, because I only use about 70-90% of the possible travel, what I mean is the 100% as calibrated in DIView.). That does make it easier to blip the throttle in a controlled way when braking.
Also moved the brake and throttle a bit closer to each other than the clutch, but I might revert that, because when driving with shoes (which I'm going to try) the pedals are a bit too close to each other.

With the Fanatec CSPv2 I had before the HE pedals, such adjustments weren't possible, which always annoyed me, especially for the throttle.
The throttle alone is worth the upgrade, for me personally. But then, I drive a lot of cars (e.g. 911 3.0 RSR, Yellowbird, 917/30, 917K etc.) that require very controlled throttle input. So it makes sense that the throttle for me is the most important pedal.

 

My current car is fine but I drive often cars that are not mine and those I can't modify just for sake of having fun for few days there is always some workaround ... Rolling feet, toe&toe,...
for sim racing I made myself custom pedals where I can set them however I want - inspired a bit by Niels HE pedals ..

 

I was talking only about simracing pedals. I've seen very few cars that have adjustable pedal positions and I don't think I've ever seen one where you could adjust them individually.
Normally it's a forward/backward tilt of all pedals to adjust for longer/short legs.

 

I`m half sleeping reading ... well with pedal plates you can adjsut distance and height of them to some extend in real car .. but yep, no movig pedals ...

 

Usually I do heel and toe intuitively, but yesterday was very weird.
We had warm weather but it started to rain with a bit of thunder/stormy weather, which lead to very high humidity.
This caused my shoes (only worn inside) to be so sticky on the pedals that I couldn't twist my feet while braking to roll over to blip the throttle.
I looked like biggest noob trying to race in the RUF Yellowbird...
After a few tries I gave up and went to a server running paddle shifted cars.

 

yes, I'm coming to a similar conclusion. Since racing on sf, I miss a more sensitive throttle input. These cars don't like sudden weight transfer, AFAIU, and especially on corner exit throttle input needs to be most gradual.

 

I am only aware of the Thrustmaster and the Fanatec shifters as separate items. And both are huge, and high, not really a good solution if you need to be able to not have a fixed cockpit but out the wheel on and off the table. I used the G27 before, and I loved the dimension and low height of that shifter. Is there a way to make it or the G92 shifter compatabile with the fanatec wheelbase or do attach it to the USB port of the PC directly? Are there altenrqative products on the market? Mind you: rather smaller items with less height, it is not immersive at all if you hand reaches to the shifter when the stick's end is on your eye's level...

The paddles on my >CSL Elite for PS4< are top class, btw. Feel very solid, would not mind to have them in a real car. Some reviewer said in a long review video somewhere that they are probabaly the best paddle mechanisms Fanatec so far has build into any of its devices.

 

Yes, but my Fanatec CSL throttle is already an improvement over my old G25.

It has a bigger throw and higher resolution of the sensor.
This helped quite a bit going on throttle, but it's still a bit light on reducing it. Never completely sure how much throttle is applied until I'm off it completely sometimes. Though also better than on the G25 pedals.
The biggest improvement is the loadcell brake though.

 

Quick question: does anyone still use the 3D printed SHH shifter? Do you have a long term review on that? I don't really like my VAN shifter and I tried a Fanatec shifter at a friend's place and it feels might tighter much higher quality, but I don't wanna put that much investment yet.

 

In the common consumer range, there is also the Actlabs Shifter (which was actually around for a longer time than the Thrustmaster), but I don't know if they still sell it and iirc the build quality wasn't exactly great.
It's quite huge as well.

In the more expensive range, there are a few more devices, but I don't know if you would find stuff like that interesting.
The only one (as far as I am aware of) that is quite compact is the Frex H-Shifter:
http://frex.xsrv.jp/gpshop/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=62{9}49{10}69{19}74
Although the previous version actually was even a bit smaller, iirc.
It's obviously more expensive than the Fanatec shifter (337€ without VAT if I converted correctly).
(Also +Shipping, which won't be cheap.)