It's been a little over a month now that I've had 'the rig' and I'm pleased to say that buyers remorse hasn't set in. It might be because it was actually a few months ago now that I bought all the gear, or it may be that I'm still getting to grips with the whole setup.
Anyway, like all good projects it's never finished, so this is Rig Evo, or Stage I tune, or whatever bullshiat that we like to call bolting things on to improve (what generally broke anyway).
Here's a rundown of what I've done to change things up a bit...
The standard Fanatec knobs are OK. But the cylindrical one looks like a low earth orbit resupply ship and is about the same size. And the traditional round knob has a rubber band around it of some sort - you'll see them in product shots. Thankfully the shaft (way too much knob/shaft words, sorry profanity filters) is standard fare for car parts. And so a happy half hour lining up this Sparco thing and life is better. I'd prefer a smooth one (not using that word again), but in terms of size, weight and general feel, that'll do for some time I think. Note to buyers, this would be huge on a car though - having similar, but smaller and smoother on my MX5, vicar.
I've posted this elsewhere as a hilarious 'see the bottle of red' holder. But in reality, this is plain and simple a water holder. It is ace. I drink plenty of fluid through my night's gaming thanks to this. The engineering of it is pleasing too....
I bought a metal (and of course black) holder and a couple of bottles from the local store, drilled out the mounting holes, ground down two T-slot bolts (they were too proud for the bottle), and fitted.
And it works well, it's not in my line of sight, is close enough to reach without being in the way, and without a bottle it is unobtrusive enough to not detract from what is surely a piece of art.
As an aside, I 'stole' a quick-release clippy thing from the pedals (cos there's nothing quick about releasing them) and used it as a hook for my headset, perfect actually. And before I'm lambasted about cheap headsets, this is voice-only and has the great feature of sitting away from one's ear, very important when it's 30.c+ in the room with the air-con on.
Lumbar support is key in this setup. The seat doesn't tilt quite far enough back to support my thighs. It's comfortable enough, but early on I grabbed a cushion from around the house to push my kidneys back to where they should be in the scheme of me. But it was some dour checked affair.
Then I found this online. It is a thing of beauty and really does sit well in the whole setup. And if you look closely (i.e. inside) you'll see the same house cushion doing its thing. Happy days.
Not so much a new thing, but an adjusted thing, and worth noting for those with these pedals and without simian proportions in arm and leg.
Talking to a fellow TrackRacer owner they mounted the hinges (the silver bit) on the main rail and did away with the uprights. I like this idea, but to do so would mean moving the diagonal supports back further towards the seat - and as you can see, that's not happening.
The solution, and maybe when a mate is around... is to spin the pedal plate by 180 degrees, so they're at the bottom of the plate then I can move the whole thing out away from the seat. The challenge there is that then the setup will be getting too close to Big Rig ergonomics, not Sim Rig. Hmmm. I remain less than enamoured with the pedal setup, but for now it works OK and is comfortable enough.
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Next? I'm waiting on a handbrake, and as this is a no expense spared build, I've spared no expense at all and bought damn near the cheapest one I could find...
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