In Which Joey Builds a Pretend Race Car

[SlimKlim]

ALL GLORY TO THE TH8A.



This thing definitely stands up to it's price. Very direct and fairly realistic shifting feel, not to mention the limited gates, which is about as close as I'm ever going to get to owning an R8.

Its also highly customize-able, I've already cracked it open (what's a warranty?) and put a rubber band around the lateral centering spring to give it more side to side resistance, and I'm eyeballing an upgraded tensioning pin that has a ball bearing on the end of it to allow you to increase shift resistance without causing drag (if you overtighten the standard tensioning pin it won't want to fully engage a gear). If I get that pin I'm also going to replace the rubber band with a slightly stronger o-ring.



Some people have also come up with 7th gear block off plates which might be nice to have because it's easy to accidentally hit 7th instead of 5th, which the game reads as Neutral if the car doesn't have a 7th, but continuing to increase the lateral tension might solve that problem without having to make a plate.


The upgraded pedal set requires more braking force, which is nice, but also causes me to go scooting around the room under enthusiastic braking, definitely not good for a sense of immersion or lap times, so the very next step in this project is coming up with some sort of "quick-disconnect" bracket to hold the seat to the stand.

I'm thinking I'll just pick up some threaded rod, cut it to 4 equal lengths, run it through the rear lower part of the stand and use some nuts and brackets to make little catches to drop the front wheels into. That should keep me in one place, not add bulk, and be adjustable for when other people play.

I also hard mounted the wheel to get rid of the bulky clamp, but the particle board for that piece is getting pretty worn out and is probably going to start pulling itself off the screws (the FFB exerts a LOT of force when it really gets going). I want to rebuild it out of 1/4 plywood and make it wider for more strength and give room for accessory mounting. It also needs a more durable coat of paint on the whole thing, and some cable management wouldn't hurt nobody.


Another thing I'd like to do is pick up an old USB numeric keypad to use as an Aux button box. Its a little silly, and out of my budget to spend $100 on a cute little box with an engine start button and toggle switches when I can accomplish the same thing using a $5 keypad.



As you can see there's a ridiculous amount of things that can be mapped, but not very many of the wheel options actually come with unassigned buttons. Mine has two, only because they aren't being used by the gas and brake, and right now i HAVE to assign them to the ignition and starter because it won't restart the car for you if you stall during a spin.

Maybe I'll turn it into an art project and try to make some custom key stickers in Photoshop I could have printed and cut out to stick over the keys so I don't have to remember what everything is.