Blog

Thomas Jackermeier

PC Games Hardware has made a comparison between the G27 and PWGT3RS and the winner is:

Porsche 911 GT3RS

We also received the PC Games "Top Produkt" award.

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/home/

Thomas Jackermeier

Please note that the RF dongle for PWTS is also compatible to the PWT.

It will be more compatible and it is no longer needed to set back the systemdate of the Playstation 3.

We also reduced the price from 50€/USD to 29,95 €/USD.

Thomas Jackermeier

We just released a new frimware for the Porsche 911 Turbo S wheel.

Please note that we can only recommend that you install the firmware if you experience problems. Updating the firmware of any device is always a risk if the update is interrupted somehow. Therefore we cannot take responsibility if something goes wrong.

Changes:

Improved precision around the center for some wheels (not all wheels were affected)
FF and SHO values adjustable in 10% steps

Please note that we recommend to update the RF dongle only if you have any problems. Try first to update only the wheel.

PLEASE READ THE MANUAL AND FOLLOW IT!!!

Please let me know your Windows system version here in this blog post in case you made the update with or without success.

UPDATE

If you have FF dropouts you must reduce the FF strength to 60. This is as strong as 100% in version 613. (Edit: This turned out to be false information)

We will release a new FW very soon to fix that.

I took off the 660 firmware in the meantime.

UPDATE 2

As we could not verify the issues with the new firmware I decided to upload ver 660 again. I also included the previous ver 614 so you can load the old FW as soon as you have issues and compare.

Thomas Jackermeier

Changes:

Fixed issue: Slow reactions of the sliders in the game controller test page

Fixed issue: Crash during vibration test

You find the drivers in the support pages on www.Fanatec.com

Thomas Jackermeier

We would like to make a community test comparison between the following wheels:

Logitech G27
Porsche 911 Turbo S Clubsport Edition
Porsche 911 GT3RS Clubsport edition

The testers will receive all 3 wheels for testing and of course we pay the freight in both directions.

If the tester wants to keep one of the Fanatec wheels he gets a discount of at least 50%. This is independent from the test results. The discount will be granted even if you already own the product. As a bonus, you will get pre-production version of a new product for free long before release.

The test should compare the strengths and weaknesses of each wheel and the tester has to rate the wheels according to a specific weighted rating scheme.

Minimum requirements to make the test:

Tester must race on at least a PC and PS3.
Ability to express yourself clear and in english language
Ability to take pictures and/or to make a video
Tester must be member of the911 wheel Club and has fully filled out the test registration form.
Tester must be located in EU or USA

Advantages to get higher priority:

Beside the PC and PS3 you own a Xbox 360 as well
You are a well respected member of a big and established gaming community
You already made tests (post links)
You are a well known and respected simracer (console or PC)
You are in the top 100 ranking of the GT5 Time Trial demo (post time and country)
You are already a customer of Fanatec and perhaps own one of the wheels.
Commitment to make a video (20 min max)

All you need to do is to post this information in a comment to this post.

Please do not send me e-mails or PMs. Thank you. If I think that somebody is qualified I will contact him. You can also post proposals of testers which you think are qualified.

Please spread the word in your community about this test.

Thomas Jackermeier

http://www.fanatec.de/html/index.php?id=3117&lang=en

We just uploaded the full manual of the PWTS. Please make sure you look for the PWTS manual and not the PWT manual.

German language will be availble in week 1 and other languages will follow soon afterwards.

Thomas Jackermeier

Some customers complain that the wheel is shaking on a straight road.

Solution:

Make sure you have sensivity set to OFF = 900°
Reduce the FF to 66 or 33.

The GT5 Demo is much better adapted to our wheel than GT5:P and therefore the shaking is almost non-existant if you follow these rules.

Thomas Jackermeier

We have a new driver version available. This version is not fully tested yet.

Changes:

Windows 7 tested
No more center calibration function for wheels which are supporting the calibration by hot key.This avoids a conflict between both calibration methods.
Reduced demand for system ressources. This increases the games framerate in several games like GT legends significantly.

(you can test this with www.fraps.com )

Thomas Jackermeier

We discovered a strange phenomenom with the wheel rotation.

FM3 works fine and detects the wheel as a 900° wheel if you have selected 900 in the SEN setting of the Tuning menu and if you start the Xbox console with the on/offf button on the console.

But in case you start the console by pressing the Xbox Guide Button on the wheel, the wheel detection of FM3 does not work properly and the wheel is recognized as 270° wheel. As the setting in the wheel is still 900 it will result in a very unsensitive wheel so you have to move the wheel a lot.

There are two ways to let FM3 go to the correct mode:

1. Turn the wheel off and on again

2. Change the SEN setting to 540 and back to 900

Please make sure you have the correct 900° mode activated because FM3 will work much better with it. Try it!

PS: In order to confuse you even more: If you start the game and in the Tuning menu you have selected anything other than 900, the game will detect the wheel as a 270° wheel. So if you select 540 the game will be even less sensitive than if you select the proper 900° mode. Got it?

Thomas Jackermeier

There is a great mod made by ron7 about how to attach the Porsche wheel shifters to cockpits like the Playseat etc.

It looks solid and made with standard components and without the need of special DIY skills.

Check it out!

http://insidesimracing.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=110&t=1331&start=10

Edit: If you like to have it more simple you can buy the RennSport Wheel Stand Shifter adapter and just bolt it to anything.

Thomas Jackermeier

Here is an exceptional review of the professional simracers at Autosimsport

Watch out for the Volume 5 issue 3 review section

http://www.autosimsport.net/index2/index.php

PDF download (30 MB): http://www.autosimsport.net/index2/index.php/component/docman/doc_download/101-autosimsport-magazine-vol-5-iss-3

"Wow-I score this wheel 472%!

I could stop right there, but as these words are sufficient on my side, I should probably explain to the fair readers out there what I actually mean. Oh bugger it. Wow is what I mean. Wow. Wow. Wow."

"...-the simulator, ultimately, is only as good as the interface we use to interact with it, and Forza Motorsport 3 became a new product entirely. "

Thomas Jackermeier

Here is part 2 of the shootout between

911 Turbo S Pure
911 GT3 RS
G27
Driving Force Gt
F430

Another great victory for our wheels!

My concern is that nobody understood that this is a comparison about the wheels itself without considering the pedals.

Please let me know if this was clear to you after watching it and if you would be interested about the opinion of SRT what complete package (incl pedals) would be the best at the moment.

Thomas Jackermeier

The first of the 3 product version of the PWTS is sold out.

The regular 911 Turbo S (PWTS) and the 911 Turbo S Pure (PWTS P) is still available and of course the Clubsport pedals as well.

Thomas Jackermeier

Another great review for the Porsche 911 Turbo S wheel and the Rennsport Wheel Stand:

http://www.virtualr.net/fanatec-porsche-911-turbo-s-review/comment-page-1/#comment-32272

"Conclusion

If
you´re looking to find a wheel that works on the PC and both the Playstation 3
& Xbox 360, Fanatec’s Turbo S is not just your only option but a very
pleasing one too."

Thomas Jackermeier

Here is a new driver version which has the following changes:

Flatout 2 crash issue fixed
Shaking curb issue fixed (shaking does not stop after driving over curbs)
Added new setting 6 for DriftMode

This version is still Beta but should run stable. Please let me know if the above mentionded issues are fixed.

This version works with all Porsche wheels.

Thomas Jackermeier

Here is an interesting video about a competition in Silverstone.

PWTS with FM3

vs

Johnny Herbert in a real 911 GT2

The vid was made very well although they need some assistance how to set up the monitors

No idea if the result was fake or not but the track was obviously wet in real which is certainly a disadvantage which can cause 3 seconds.

Thomas Jackermeier

Another detailed review of the PWTS.

"Dieses Lenkrad ist ganz einfach eine Klasse besser und eben auch teurer"

Deutsch

http://www.speedmaniacs.com/News,Hardware-Test-FANATEC-Porsche-911-Turbo-S-Wheel-und-RennSport-Wheel-Stand,4323

English

http://translate.google.de/translate?u=http://www.speedmaniacs.com/News,Hardware-Test-FANATEC-Porsche-911-Turbo-S-Wheel-und-RennSport-Wheel-Stand,4323&sl=de&tl=en&hl=de&ie=UTF-8

(google translation)

Thomas Jackermeier

The RennSport Wheel Stand is expected to arrive today in our warehouse in the USA and it will be processed immediatly after arrival.

UPDATE

The goods arrive today and will be shipped today and tomorrow. You will get a tracking number once it is shipped.

Thomas Jackermeier

Mike made a great mod and took his 911 Turbo S and his 911 GT3 RS and exchanged the electronics so he can enjoy Alcantara leather on the Xbox 360.

This is the only wheel in the world like this but I guess I will try to mod one as well.

Just to be very clear: If you open the wheel and damage something, you risk to lose the warranty. (Sorry but we cannot take full responsibility for your mechanical skills. It is hard enough to control our own production)

Watch the videos for a detailed tutorial how he modded the wheels. It is also a good video to see how you open the wheels in general.

Thomas Jackermeier

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/911_turbo_s/

"We have
to thank the folks at Fanatec for giving us a run with their latest dose of
madness -- the 911 Turbo S defines what a solid racing wheel should be with
sleek looks and even the choice of interchanging parts with Logitech wheels.
The price may be steep for some racers with a tag of $499 for the Clubsport
Edition on the Fanatec Shop, but the wheel delivers on every cent invested with
great craftsmanship in the construction and rigid handling. Add onto this the
ability to play on the Playstation 3, PC and Xbox 360 and it starts to show why
it’s such a value, particularly with extremely limited inventory on the 360
platform."

Editor's Choice Award

Thomas Jackermeier

We are currently working on a complete new website of Fanatec.com which will also integrates the 911wheel.com community section and comes with a new webshop as well.

We can still do some changes so it would be great if you let me know what changes you like to see in these areas

Product description
Forum
Blog
Other community features
Support section
webshop

Please leve your comments hear if you like to see some changes or improvements. Thank you.

Thomas Jackermeier

We did not ship the first PWTS Pure versions with the pedal adapter and without the pedal cable so several customers could not use the PWTS Pure with the G25 pedals or MS Monaco pedals.

Following Murphy's law, we shipped a pedal adapter to those customers which only works with the G25.

If you have received a PWTS Pure and need an adaptor for the G25 we can supply one immediatly. Just contact our customer service please.

In case you want to connect the MS wheel I am happy to tell you that we solved the problem and currently producing new adapters. They will be sent to us by express and we will ship it to all customers which requested the adaptor for their Pure version. Shipment will take about 1-2 weeks until you get it.

UPDATE

We will send new adapters today by UPS from China to our distribution centers in the US and Germany. We should be able to send them to customers by the end of week 46.

Thomas Jackermeier

Here is a detailed review about the PWTS and RSWS:

http://www.consolegaming.eu/newspost.php?id=295

Overall rating 9,8 / 10

"In
conclusion, the Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo S wheel, accompanied with the
RennSport Wheel Stand, is by far the best racing equipment that any console
gamer can have, in a house that won't be able to fit a fully sized cockpit!"

Thomas Jackermeier

As we are getting more and more requests for help on technical issues it made sense to open a special thread for discussion of technical issues.

Please go to our forum section and post your problems under "technical issues"

Thomas Jackermeier

Apparantly the first units of the PWTS come without a quick guide so it will be hard for you to figure out how to set it up.

http://www.fanatec.de/download/pwts_support/pw_ts_quickguide.zip

Sorry for this but to print the manual would have delayed the shipment.

The full manual will follow next week. In the meantime you can check the PWGT3RS manual how the TUNING works.

http://www.fanatec.de/html/index.php?id=3116&lang=en

UPDATE

In the attached document who can see how to connect the RF dongle to the wheel in order to make it work. You can also see how to calibrate the shifters or the wheel center.

Thomas Jackermeier

We have sent out some pre-production units of the 911 Turbo S wheel to community testersand the feedback is fantastic!

The testers made extremely detailed and proffessional tests which will answer all questions around the product.

We told nobody what to write and the testers are in no way related to Fanatec. In fact most of them have ordered the wheel at the regular price so there is some critisizm as well and we will not filter any of those opinions. But I am glad that the testers all seem to like it a lot and that makes me quite happy to hear because after 3 years of development you get some doubts if you are still doing the right thing

I m sure i missed a lot of reviews so please send me all the links and I will update this post so you have a good overview.

Thanks so much !

Forums:

gtplanet

http://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=121039

Forzamotorsport.net

http://forums.forzamotorsport.net/forums/thread/3005266.aspx

http://forums.forzamotorsport.net/forums/thread/2988584.aspx

http://forums.forzamotorsport.net/forums/thread/2998405.aspx

http://forums.forzamotorsport.net/forums/thread/2994342.aspx

http://forums.forzamotorsport.net/forums/thread/2958411.aspx

EA.com

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/315715.page (shows shifting with NFS Shift, G25 pedals with PWTS)

GTforums

http://www.gtforums.co.uk/gtforumsc1/showthread.php?tid=340

http://www.gtforums.co.uk/gtforumsc1/showthread.php?tid=340 (plenty of pictures)

iRacing (members only)

http://members.iracing.com/iforum/thread.jspa?threadID=52335&tstart=0

ten-tenths

http://www.ten-tenths.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2551455#post2551455

Atari

http://forums.eu.atari.com/showthread.php?p=2165932

Frontforen

http://frontforen.de/xboxfront-community-foren/gaming-zone/rennspiele/18079-fanatec-porsche-911-turbo-s-wheel/index32.htm

Forzacentral

http://www.forzacentral.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30727

RacingFR.com

http://www.racingfr.com/forum/index.php?s=5c0cfd23dc5610b022c6ed95fa31aed3&showtopic=32612

Videos:

(Telemetry data on display, PC driver)

(PWTS with CSP!)

( driving with FM3, Tuning, clutch)

(SRT)

(German comments, shows how stable shifter is mounted on standard rods)

(unpacking and mounting on playseat)

(button layout)

(FM3 demo driving, Tuning, clutch)

(PWTS on Wheel Stand, comparison to MS wheel)

(real turning angle vs what you see in cockpit)

(kid drives to demohow easy it is for beginners, rumble in FM3, e-brake-clutch )

(clutch demo, advanced shifting)

(PWTS with G25 pedals)

(NFS Shift on Xbox with G25 pedals with h-pattern and clutch)

http://www.youtube.com/user/stivxbox#p/a/1/ohAuaW1oNuI (wheel and screen shown together, very professional made)

(FM3+NFS Shift+Dirt2)

(good close ups)

(test with GT5)

(shows PWTS with wheel stand during driving and also shows sexy racing outfit)

Thomas Jackermeier

Due to several requests from customers we would like to make the offer for all customers to ship the wheel directly from the chinese factory by UPS or Fedex express to your door. This should take only 4 days instead of 4-6 weeks.

This option is available to all customers in EU and USA
It costs150 USD per wheel independent what wheel has been ordered
Payment ONLY possible with Paypal
You need to send a special email to info[at]911wheel.com (replace [at] with @) with the following content:

Header: PWTS advanced shipment

Text:

Please send my Porsche 911 Turbo S wheel by advanced shipment.

Order nr

Name

Email
This is a limited offer from today until Oct 12th
We do not guarantee any arrival dates. We just make sure that you get the wheels earlier than with normal shipment by boat
The wheels with advanced shipment will by produced right after the wheels we dedicated for airfreight and go to early customers.

We will send you the payment info afterwards and a tracking nr. as soon as it has been shipped.

Thomas Jackermeier

Some users noticed that the PWGT3RS wheel disconnects after some playtime and you even hear the system sound which indicates that you plug off a USB device.

Mark Jeangerard and Thomas Detige found out that the root cause for this issue are wrong power management settings for USB devices.

"Also, many system come preset to conserve USB power by temporarily
cutting or disabling power to USB ports that are not actively in use.
This can often be problematic for USB drivers that run in the
background, since background tasks are not given power priority by the
OS. If you use USB interfaces or controllers, than you should disable
this power management scheme. Go to the Device Manager > Universal
Serial Bus Controllers > right-click on a "USB Root Hub" >
Properties > Power Management > deselect "Allow the computer to
turn off this device to save power" > press "OK." Repeat this
process for all USB Root Hubs in the Device Manager."

"For Win7 users, go to control panel > system and security > power
options. Click "change plan settings" next to the selected plan, which
is balanced by default. On the next screen, click "change advanced
power settings", look for "USB settings" in the list and put "Setting"
under "USB selective suspend setting" to "Disabled". This should
automatically deselect "Allow the computer to turn off this device to
save power" on all USB root hubs power management tab, but you can
check it manually in the device manager to be sure. The USB power
saving feature should now still be disabled after rebooting."

Thanks a lot for the help!

Thomas Jackermeier

We used the delay to implement a few new features which I am sure you will like a lot.

1. USB connection cable

On PC/ PS3 you now have the option to choose between a wired or a wireless connection. This feature is standard on all versions of the wheel.

(If you now consider to cancel the order of your wireless dongle you are free to do so but please note that you need to cancel the complete order and reorder again due to technichal reasons.)

2. DriftMode

We now have the driftmode implemented into firmware so you can use it also on the consoles without the driver

3. ABS vibration

In the firmware you can choose a percentage of brake force on which the vibration motors of the wheel and the CSP will be activated. This helps you to find the optimal brake force easily. Compatible to all games on all platforms!

I hope you like the features.

Thomas Jackermeier

We finally get our hands on a PC which shows this problem so we can reproduce it. This means we can now look for the root cause and solve it with an upcoming driver release.

This can still take several weeks but it will be solved. In the meantime we recommend to set the curb vibration to "0" in simbin sims. In rFactor there is no possibility to tweak the curb effects so it cannot be turned off.

Other sims dont show this problem.

Thanks to Michael for the PC!

Thomas Jackermeier

We are now waiting for final approval from MS and already prepare production. As we will ship the first units by air shipment we are confident to deliver all open orders which have been ordered until June 2009 at the end of September. The rest of the open orders will be shipped in October and if you place an order now you can expect to get your product in November.

The schedule is still not 100% confirmed as there are many uncertainties. I will keep you up to date once we get the final approval and start manufacturing.

UPDATE 15

All airfreight shipments (pre-june) have been shipped on last Wednesday (28.10.) and should arrive very soon at your house.

UPDATE 16

Post-June orders:

EU:

Ship Edith Marsk ETA 25.11.2009

USA:

Ship Mathilde Maersk ETA 13.11.2009

ETA: Is arrival date of the ship in the harbour. Then it needs to be unloaded and the goods go to customs clearance etc. It can still take 2 weeks from ETA until the wheel arrives at your door.

There are more containers on the way but these are the first to arrive. By middle of December we should have all inventory for the open orders in our warehouse.

We are currently lacking some raw materials but we plan to finish the production of the 10.000 units within the next 8 weeks.

UPDATE 17

Here is a little bit more detail what is on the way.

EU

The first containers will arrive on 25th of Nov. and we
will ship all open PWTS orders a week later to our customers.

The Pure and Clubsport editions ordered until September
will also be delivered with this shipment. Please don't ask for a precise cut-off date because we cannot tell you.

All other open ordes will be delivered in the second
shipment which arrives on the 2nd of December.

USA

The first shipment will arrive on the 13th of Nov. and will ship one week later to customers.

The first shipment will contain all PWTS (all versions) ordered until late September.

The rest will arrive in the second shipment which will land on the 20th of Nov and will be shipped out to customers one week later.

Shipment from our warehouse in CA to your door depends on where you live.

It will even be enough to have some stock but I am sure it will not last very long.

The only part which is delayed are the standard pedals which are bought separatly. I will update you later on those.

UPDATE 18

The fist container arrived in the USA but the shipment got stuck in customs. They thought that the prducts might be pirated so now we have to proof that we have the authorisation to use the Xbox and Porsche logos.

The container in the EU will arrive in time next Wednesday.

UPDATE 19

The standard pedals for PWTS which have been ordered separatly have not been shipped with the sea shipments unfortunatly. We will send them out from China by the end of next week by airfreight so you should have them with some delay.

The Pure versions do come with pedal adapters now so please use G25 or MS pedals in the meantime if possible.

UPDATE 20

We received the authorisation letter from MS today and hope that customs will release the US shipment very soon.

UPDATE 21

With the second shipments we can still fullfil all open orders.

EU

First containers have arrived. We expect to get the goods by end of next week in our warehouse.

The second ship (Estelle Marsk) will arrive on Dec 2nd.

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/datasheet.aspx?SHIPNAME=estelle+maersk&TYPE_SUMMARY=&PORT_ID=&menuid=&datasource=SHIPS_CURRENT&app=&B1=Search

USA

The first containers should be shipped to customers early week 49.

The second shipment (Maersk Antares) has arrived as well and we wait for customs clearance.

UPDATE 22

The second shipments have arrived in EU and USA and by the end of this week (week 50) we will send out all open orders.

Only a few PWTS Pure customers did receive a defective adapter or we did not ship the adapter cable. If you are affected please contact our e-support and we will send you a new adapter. (Please make sure you conenct it to the right plug and only connect it when the wheel is power off)

The delivery of PWTS in USA was just enough to fullfill the orders so the next delivery will be in January.

In EU we have PWTS in stock.

We also have PWTS Pure and the Clubsport pedals in stock now for immediate shipment in EU and USA.

The PWTS Clubsport Edition is about to be sold out within a few days as we are reaching the maximum number of its limited edition and we will stop offering this model very soon.

Thank you very much!

UPDATE 23

The standard pedals which have been ordered separatly are on the way by airfreight to USA and EU and will be shipped out in week 51.

UPDATE 24

Several PWTS Clubsport editions have been shipped without the RF dongle and the shifter set.

We are aware of that and we will ship all missing items. We just decided that instead of waiting until those parts arrive, we better send out the wheels and pedals first. The RF dongles will be shipped next week but I am still waiting for info on the shifters.

UPDATE 25

As all pre-orders have been shipped, i decided to change the publishing options of this post so it does not stick on the front page anymore.

Thomas Jackermeier

Kane, the most evil guy on the universe tries out the PWGT3RS mounted on the new RennSport e-motion cockpit if he can use it to kill innocent spectators on racing tracks.

As he was not able to kill somebody he was obviously dissapppointed so there will never be a NOD racing wheel made by Fanatec.

Thomas Jackermeier

Fanatec does not have a separate booth but we actually are very present at the GamesCom in Cologne which starts today until the 23th of august.

You can test 3 Porsche 911 Turbo S wheels Clubsport edition with Forza MotorSport 3 at the Microsoft booth. All are mounted on RennSport Cockpits with Triple monitors. (Hall 6, Booth A011)

Or you test the 911 GT3 RS Clubsport edition at the booth of the publisher Airmotion (Hall6.1 booth 56). It is also mounted on a RSC with triple monitors.

And finally we show the new Rennsport E-Motion Cockpit at the community lounge of EA with Need for Speed: Shift. The lounge is resticted to community members and by invitation only but if you meet me at the show i can probably manage to get you in.

Pictures and videos to follow...

Thomas Jackermeier

Today we start shipping the Porsche 911 GT3 RS Clubsport edition from our US warehouse.

EU customers have to be a bit more patient as we are still waiting for the Clubsport pedals to get through customs. We will ship all open EU orders next week.

Thomas Jackermeier

One of your community members has made a great guide how to invert your CSPs.

Please check out the guide of Wheel Nut at GTforums:

http://www.gtforums.co.uk/gtforumsc1/showthread.php?tid=224

Please note that you can do this mod without losing the warranty if you do not cause any damage during this conversion. The mechanical skills needed to do it are quite low.

Thomas Jackermeier

Due to the upcoming internal competition of the 911 Turbo S wheel we decided to reduce the price of the original 911 Turbo wheel to 249,95 USD.

This wheel is only available in the US for now but we will import the wheel to Europe later this year as it will be a good solution for PlayStation owners who do not care about the Xbox360 and prefer the wireless connectivity and the increased compatibility of the PWT on the PlayStation 3.

Get one of the last units with the USB memory key!

http://www.fanatec.de/webshop/new_usa/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=35&osCsid=90d18b55759c660418e06f0651fd2dd5

Thomas Jackermeier

There was a cool event at the Nürburgring this Wednesday to introduce the "Face of Forza" in Europe Natacha Gachnang.

She is a very successful F2 driver and she obviously had fun to take the journalists on a lap around the GP track with an Audi R8 V10.

She told me that only one journalist asked her to slow down

Her cousin Sebastian, the Toro Rosso F1 driver, was there as well and we had some little competition between us on the FM3 tracks. The final race was interrupted as he had to leave to the airport so he owes me a revanche.

Both of them asked me for a wheel and I am happy to send them one so they can practice FM3.

I also had the chance to drive one of 5 Audi S4 on the GP track with 3 other guys of Microsoft and behind the car of the instructor Alfred Heger, a well known DTM and endurance race driver.

Alfred and me had to wait only 2 times per lap so that the MS guys can catch up again B-) behind us.

Please see some pictures here:

http://picasaweb.google.de/Thomas.Jackermeier/FaceOfForza#

TSR.CH (French)

http://www.tsr.ch/tsr/index.html?siteSect=500000&bcid=689073#bcid=689073;vid=11020424

Thomas Jackermeier

I just received the arrival dates of the ships bringing the new GT3RS and CSP shipment to US and EU.

EU:

PWGT3RS: August 4th

CSP: August 11th

US:

PWGT3RS: July24th

CSP: July 30th

Please note that it can take 1 to 3 weeks until everything goes through customs and arrives at the customer destination.

Thomas Jackermeier

Several users reported a bug in our driver since very early versions.

It only occurs on a few games and not on all PCs. But we were never able to reproduce this bug so we cannot solve it. It just does not happen on our test PCs.

So we need your help to solve this driver bug in case it occurs on your PC.

Symptom: After hitting a curb and going back on the road, the shaking of the curbs does not stop until you hit another curb again

Please answer the following questions:

1. Please list the games on which the problem occurs.

Name of game

Version number of game

What mod or custom track is installed?

What track?

2. Do you have any plug-ins installed e.g. RealFeel or similar?

3. Please list all games which you played and did not show this problem

4. Please list some system info

Run the program dxdiag.exe and save the system info to a txt file. Then copy the info of your system. Only this info is relevant:

System Information

------------------

Time of this report: 7/16/2009, 12:19:38

Machine name: HOME_GAME2

Operating System: Windows Vista™ Ultimate (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.lh_sp2rtm.090410-1830)

Language: German (Regional Setting: German)

System Manufacturer: System manufacturer

System Model: System Product Name

BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ (2 CPUs), ~2.2GHz

Memory: 2046MB RAM

Page File: 2042MB used, 2289MB available

Windows Dir: C:Windows

DirectX Version: DirectX 10

DX Setup Parameters: Not found

DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 32bit Unicode

5. Test system performance. Please run the fraps tool (www.fraps.com) and tell us the framerate you have in the game in the lap when the bug occurs.

Thanks a lot to everybody posting this info here in the blog.

Please do not post anything else in this thread as our developers ned to have a look and check this information.

Thomas Jackermeier

There were some bugs in the FF protocol in ver 097 which caused the FF to stop.

We also solved the issue with hanging sliders of the pedals in the tes tab.

Thomas Jackermeier

This driver has undergone a complete rework of the installation routine and we made several bugfixes regarding the following issues:

installation problems
problems to detect the correct wheel
rFactor plug in issues

Note: install the new rfactor .dll before you install the driver.

Please let me know if you still have issues. Thanks.

Thomas Jackermeier

Attached you find an update program to update your CSP with new firmware.

The new firmware has these improvements:

Select the amount of brake dead zone (down to 0)
Broader range of adjustment possibility on the brake with the potentiometer

UPDATE: The 64 bit version is not working and we are trying to fix this issue.

UPDATE 2: If the vibration on the brake pedal does not work, please install CSP_FW_Update_2_Win32

Thomas Jackermeier

I am very pleased to announce that the team of Turn 10 has chosen our Porsche 911 Turbo S Clubsport wheel to show the new racing game at E3.

The wheel is mounted to a motion simulator with 3 big screens which makes it a nice setup to play his fantastic game.

I had the please to test drive the new tracks and was blown away by the graphics and physics. This game loks totally different from Forza 2 and not just like an update. The rewind function is not new but very welcome and of course I love to finally play in cokpit mode.

I will be at the Microsoft booth and if anybody wants to come bye he is very welcome. I will post some pictures later today.

Here is the official ress release from Fanatec and Microsoft:

http://forzamotorsport.net/en-us/news/The-Ultimate-Racing-Wheel-for-Xbox-360.htm

Thomas Jackermeier

This video shows you how to adjust and tune your Clubsport pedals.

It also shows how to change the lubricant on the first batch to make it move more smoothly.

Thomas Jackermeier

As the first products arrive at customers we can also already see the first user impressions.

I would like to give you a short summary of the threads I found but please post me links so I can add them.

http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=145043

http://forum.gtr-30.net/thread.php?postid=128004#post128004

http://forum.virtualracing.org/allgemeines-technik-forum/54082-fanatec-porsche-wheel-50.html

http://www.gtr4u.de/thread.php?threadid=26913&page=10&sid=ecb153fb2b16da151d4f278388221dee

http://www.virtualr.net/fanatec-porsche-gt3-rs-wheel-hands-on-photos/comment-page-1/

Thomas Jackermeier

UPDATE 3: ver 64_091 and 32_091 now available

We finally have a certified driver for Vista 64 for all Porsche wheels and the CSP.

Please have a look at the attached beta version and let me know if everything works fine.

We also changed the installation routine of the 32 bit driver completely.

There are still some minor things to fix like wrong logos etc but the driver should run stable already.

IMPORTANT: Please de-install all previous drivers manually before installation and make sure that the PWservice.exe or PWsrvc.exe is not running before installation. If possible search for those files and delete them because somtime the de-installation routine does not delete those programs.

Thomas Jackermeier

After going through customs for about ten days in the US we are happy to announce that the 911 GT3 RS wheels and Clubsport pedals are on the way to customers.

Tomorrow the first wheels will arrive depending on where the customer is located.

We ship from California and Germany.

The final driver is unfortantly still not ready yet but in the meantime you can use the driver of the Porsche 911 Turbo wheel or the Beta version from this blog.

Thomas Jackermeier

We just received the new shipment of RennSport Wheel Stands for the US and EU and will ship the open orders right away.

After fullfilling the open orders there will be enough stock to fullfil new orders immediatly.

Thomas Jackermeier

We are proud to introduce a new feature in our driver: The Drift Mode

The Drift Mode reduces the overal resistance of the wheel and let you turn the wheel more easy. It almost works like a power steering. It reduces the basic dampeing of the wheel.

You can adjust several values and we are still experimenting a bit with the values so you have a lot of choice in the attached Beta version of the driver.

At the moment we only have a 32 bit version but once this feature is settled we will release a certified 64 bit version.

Please note that I recommend to turn on the "dampening strength" now as this just controls the signals sent from the game. For example if you drive through muddy water.

Please let me know your feedback on this feature. Thanks!

Thomas Jackermeier

We just started the pre-production of the 911 Turbo S wheel.

It took a little bit longer than expected but Microsoft wanted us to support a new feature for Forza 2.

The wheel will be shown at the E3 on June 2nd in Los Angeles and we
will also send the first units to customers and testers soon.

We made it possible to fully flash the electronics
so we can add new features or solve bugs if there were some we did
not find yet.

Blog

Discussion List