CSL Elite McLaren Steering Wheel will ship in June
Thomas Jackermeier
Member
in Blog
If you missed the pre-order opportunity for the CSL Elite Steering Wheel McLaren then here is your chance to place an regular order.
From today you can pre-order those steering wheels again and they will be available worldwide on June 6th for shipment.
I kindly invite all pre-order customers who already revceived their McLaren wheel to give me their impressions or reviews here in the comments.
Comments
The weight.
The wheel feels incredible light compared to my other two CSW wheels. As it turned out, the difference comes mostly from the CSW QR. When equipped with the QR, the McLaren is only 20 grams lighter than the Formula Carbon.
The good points:
- Shape and dimensions are really ideal for driving GT3 cars. For me so much better than the Formula, even for open wheelers.
- The 'balancing' shifter paddle may be a good idea, but as it is now it is not good or practical because just too heavy to operate (probably because the very short shift distance. I tried to measure as good as I could and as it turns out the force needed to change gears is 1.3 kg (push or pull is obviously the same). That may not sound bad, but compared to both CSW paddles (Porsche 918 and Formula Carbon) it is not something you want, especially in longer races. The CSW's shift at 3-400 grams.
I automatically started using two and even three fingers (while I use one on the CSW shifters). Pushing the levers is even more difficult and without gloves rather painful after a while. Yesterday I ended up racing a 20 lap race (no gloves) and I was glad the race was over. My fingers still hurt as I am typing this.
- The two N and P buttons with safety collars are WAY to heavy to push, really. I mean, they are not that hard when you just try 'em out, but pushing them while driving is virtually only possible when on a straight and when you have some time. A quick push while steering into a corner is a no go. I used the P as pit limiter and by the time I managed to actually push the button I already had a speeding penalty.
- The two rotary buttons may very well be a good idea for the future, but as long as the sims don't fully support that kind of input, they are rather useless at present.
- Button layout. I will start specifying that if you only use one wheel, the following may not be important. Switching wheels atm is rather dramatic. I can swap from the Formula to the Porsche without issues (though the button layout is not exactly the same but all functions are there). Swapping to the Mc Laren is more demanding. I have (e.g) look left/right/up/down mapped to the analog joystick on the CSW wheels. The McLaren does not have that joystick and the result is that when I start driving (in any sim) I'm looking throught the right window, while my dash is now visible on the right monitor (I did not mention but I'm obviously on triple screen setiup).
Other points:
The rubber grips: the feel is not too bad, but to be comfortable you need to wear gloves. After a (short) while your (my) hands geat sweaty (something I never experienced on my other two wheels) and the grips don't feel comfortable any more.
I miss the rev lights. I know I can see them (when present and visible, depending on the view/sim/eventually the virtual wheel) or on the dash, but having rev lights on the wheel helped me to determinate the position of the wheel in thight corners. I can't remember ever miss-shifting before because of that and now with the McLaren wheel I had it happen several times during night time, pulling the wrong paddle.
Maybe I'm nitpicking now, but Fanatec should have covered the front part of the extra paddles. As they are now, they look ugly and unfinished, even cheap.
When I started I had a kind of ticking sound when turning the wheel. I though there was something loose somewhere and it took me some time to locate it. It was the locking screw for the CSL connection, located in the housing of the allen key in the back of the wheel. I removed the whole thing (don't need it anyway) and the sound was gone.
If you are going tu use only one wheel, it can be certainly worth buying.
The McLaren is a good steering wheel for this very nice price. Look realistic, but a bit too much plastic. Very interesting features (new paddles, clutch paddles, a lot of buttons, 2 big buttons for the pit and neutral, multiposition switchs, and the funky switch) and that's why I bought it. Very useful steering wheel for LMP, Open Wheels, or modern GT race cars like the GT3 or GTE. The feeling of the shifter paddles is much better than previous paddles on my Formula Rim.
I'm very happy that I was able to remove the xbox logo. I removed all buttons caps and I really like these stickers (more interesting and effective according to me for race cars).
I'm using it on iRacing and for the moment I can't use the multiposition switchs on it (except for the blackbox). I hope they will make an update to let me use it for some settings like the traction control.
However, I had some issues lastly on it... It seems that the steering wheel is sometimes lost about buttons... I had a race yesterday and after few laps, I wasn't able to use shifter paddles anymore ! It stopped to work suddenly. I didn't understand. I wasn't able to shift up. I was lucky to have a sequential shifter on the side with the Fanatec Clubsport Shifter otherwise my race was finished... During my pit stop, I removed the rim quickly and put it again (thanks to the quick release !). After that, it worked again correctly about shifter paddles. But I must admit that isn't something nice. I should trust my steering wheel. If it does things like that sometimes it sucks.
I hope Fanatec already saw that problem and will resolve it with new drivers or firmware. If it does that again, I will send a mail to them. I want an effective steering wheel first. It's a big issue for me if it continues to happen sometimes. Without that issue, the steering wheel is great.
Fanatec McLaren GT3 Rim: first 24 hrs review (first time writing a review):
Background: Only wheel I’ve used prior to my Fanatec CSW v2.5 is a Logitech G27. I currently own the Porsche 918 Rim and previously owned the BMW GT2 Rim. I’ll try to be as detailed as possible.
Weight/Feel:
First off, I really like the feel of the molded rubber grips; definitely not a fan of wheels you have to “pamper” like Alcantara for example (to each their own), but this feels nice, firm and sturdy. The wheel, on paper, is lighter than all other Fanatec wheels, but in one hand they feel about the same (compared to the Porsche 918 rim). This could be due to the optional Fanatec quick release adapter that I added on, which is all metal. I do recall it feeling a touch lighter when I first grabbed it, so with the QR it’s probably about the weight of the formula black/carbon rim, if not a little heavier. The finish on the wheel is very nice…yea, it’s not real carbon fiber obviously, but I think it looks really great overall. There are also these little dots in the finish, next to each button, to help position labels (included with the wheel).
Buttons and switches:
It comes with the Xbox button caps installed, but also includes button caps for various functions (#1 - 4, arrows, + and -, headlights, wipers, etc) as well as label stickers for common adjustments (ABS, BRK + and -, DRS, etc). The button caps were difficult to get off using only my hands...and at one point I was worried about pulling on the buttons too hard…but I found a flat piece of metal and pried them off easily. The feel of the buttons are varied, but not in a bad way. The NEUTRAL and PIT LIMITER buttons up top are very stiff, the stiffest by far, and rightfully so…hitting those accidentally are game enders. The other 7 standard buttons have a more familiar amount of resistance, however some of them have a slightly wobbly feel to them (in particular the orange and grey buttons) but it’s acceptable…also the click sound is softer than my Porsche rim. The pair of 2-way switches feel very nice, not too loose or stiff, no complaints there. The standard Fanatec “funky” switch seems to be a little wonky though…I was adjusting settings in the wheel and rotating it in one direction seemed to do a “left, then right (and vice-versa)” kinda thing…not sure if it’s a hardware or software issue…time will tell.
The Rotary dials:
Nice, positive click and firmness to each position for all 3 dials. They don’t rotate 360 degrees (i.e. you can’t jump from Position 12 straight to 1 or from Position D to A on the Clutch encoder. Each position of the 12-way dial is an “always on” button; very important to know because in the wheel’s default mode it’s impossible to map any other buttons (the sim will only detect that dial). There is a workaround: in the Fanatec CSW base settings (as in the one in Game Controllers in Windows), there are 3 modes for the 12-way encoder…mode 2 is “11 position” mode: Position 1 is OFF and the other positions are active buttons. Really curious to see how current/future sims will implement functionality of these dials…I think only iRacing has a use for them (calling up the different black boxes).
Shifter Paddles:
The orange shifter paddles are metal and are at a good distance away from the rubber grips for my relatively short fingers. Unlike my Porsche rim, which has a decent throw with a click at the end, these have very minimal throw and a firm, almost magnetic click to it, more like an “on/off” switch. Should make shifting more precise in theory (more on that later).
The Dual Clutch:
These are not made of metal (a hard plastic I believe), but I still like the feel of the material. Also unlike the shifters, these have a much longer throw: I’d say slightly longer than the throw of the Porsche rim shifter paddles, but with double the resistance. I’ve only used it so far in Mode A, the “bite point” mode. The way the paddle currently works is that you hold in the first clutch (doesn’t matter which one), then hold the second clutch to the desired bite point (which shows up as a value of 1 – 100 on the OLED). When the race starts you let go clutch #1 and then gradually ease out clutch #2. The problem with Fanatec’s current implementation is that, from what I’ve researched, a dual clutch is preprogrammed so that clutch #2, when pulled to 100% of its travel, is at the bite point (let’s say the bite point in this car is 65% clutch). However, the way Fanatec did it will have you holding clutch #2 at exactly 65% of its travel to get 65% clutch…which means you have to watch the OLED to confirm you’re holding it at the right spot. In a race, when waiting for the green light, I believe the last thing you’d want to do is look down at your wheel to ensure you didn’t move the clutch a millimeter too far from the ideal bite point. I believe Thomas said in the forums that future implementation will allow you to program the bite point, but as of right now that doesn’t seem possible…seems very promising though.
Driving tests:
So far I’ve only used it in Automobilista, ran about 30 to 40 laps (mostly on Suzuka) with the Formula Ultimate 18 (2018 Formula 1…insert HALO joke here) between last night and this morning. I LOVE this wheel. Feels perfect for doing quick turns that require minimal rotation of the wheel…very fast and responsive, the FFB feels a hair stronger, which I assume is due to the slightly smaller size and weight. The grips feel amazing when powering through high speed corners like 130R and Eau Rouge…it’s hard to describe but it just feels more nuanced when the FFB pulls in those sections. Shifting was fine for the most part, I like the added resistance...however, I feel like every now and again the wheel missed a shift...could be user error or the game, but when I was downshifting quickly a few times, I felt as if one of the clicks missed a shift. Most of the buttons are in good places to reach; the funky switch and the bottom right button (the one with the xbox logo button cap on it) can be a bit tricky to reach under heavy racing, but I have them assigned as a d-pad for pit changes and the pause button respectively, so it's not an issue.
Final thoughts:
Very happy with my purchase…for the price, and especially compared to the Porsche rim which costs more than double that of the McLaren, it’s well constructed and feels great when racing. I think once they update the firmware to make better use of its features, it’s gonna be one of Fanatec’s best sellers.
I'll update this review as I log more time on the wheel.