Customer Reviews

Thrustmaster Ferrari GT Experience Racing Wheel for PS3 and PC

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This is a great wheel for the ps3. I have burnout paradise, blur, split second, need for speed shift, and motorstorm. It works great with all of them. It has a feature to where you can map any of the buttons to different buttons. The gas pedal is automatically mapped to the R2 button as the brake button is automatically mapped to the L2 button by default. It has different sensitivity settings and a great feel as well as button placement. I also have the logitech gt wheel which is also a great wheel but I find myself using this wheel more. Mainly because it works on all racing games, the gt wheel only works with some games. It doesn't have force feedback which is the only real drawback I have to say about this wheel. I bought this wheel before I bought the gt wheel and I'm glad I did. I have never had any problems with this wheel so far, just make sure you plug it in before you turn on your ps3 with the wheel switched to the ps3 instead of pc. With that said I have plugged it in after I turned on my playstation in the middle of a game while paused and it still worked. Overall great wheel, very universal as far as compatablility with other games, and wheel and pedal unit just feels great while driving.

If you are dedicated fan of racing games, and specialize in driving in them exclusively, the Ferrari Experience Racing Wheel is the wrong product for you, and you probably know that already. For an average gamer like me, who occasionally dabbles in racing games, the hundreds of dollars needed to get some of that gear is an overkill. I still like to have better control than a standard dualshock gamepad, and amazingly, this racing wheel provides it for the about same price. The wheel itself is solidly built of sturdy plastic, and very well laid out with the paddle up/down shifters and all the action buttons. With the strong clamp, mounting this wheel sturdily should be no problem at all. You can however forget about playing it in your lap, the tension of the bugee mechanism makes that impossible. The wheel is a bit on the small side, and the bungee cord tension mechanism is stiff, but the steering control provided by it far surpasses the dualshock thumbsticks. The pedals are very sturdy as well, and provide a nice amount of control over the gas and braking. They do unfortunately tend to slide around a lot, and I ended up mounting them with velcro. Once I did that, they stayed put. I lucked out, and had an old wooden TV stand laying around that provided the perfect mounting setup for this product. If you don't have something like that, a visit to the local store to pick a cheap one is highly recommended. I also love the programmability that this wheel has. Due to this, it is a much better choice than the Ferrari Universal 5-in-1 Racing Wheel, also by Thrustmaster. That wheel is slightly cheaper, but does not allow you to change much, making it potentially less compatible with games. Spend the few extra bucks, and get this one instead.

I tried and made this wheel work in Burnout Paradise, Gran Turismo 5, and Need for Speed Shift. With the programmable buttons, and the fact that the wheel is detected as a standard PS3 controller, this should work with almost any game. The only thing this wheel can't be programmed to have is the horizontal axis of the right thumb stick, and most racing games (with the exception of Modnation Racers) don't use that axis for anything but camera control.

I should start by saying that this was the first steering wheel I've purchased for my PS3. So I can't compare it to others.

I played "Dirt" and was right away disappointed by the large amount of steering I had to do for the small amount of turning the car in the game would do. So I immediately put it in the higher sensitivity mode. This was better, but still not great. For instance I would turn the wheel 1/2 of the range to the left, but the car would only very slightly turn. Not much more turning of the wheel would result in the car making the maximum turn. So basically the range wasn't consistent.

Then I threw on "Motorstorm". The performance was MUCH better. The range of steering was right in line with the steering range of the vehicle on the screen.

One note: I had to restart my PS3 in order for the peddles to be detected. For some reason when I plugged it into the PS3 after it was already booted it detected the steering wheel, but not the peddles.

So, bottom line, for the price it seems like a good deal!!

The quality of this wheel is simply great. From the paddle shifters to the pedals to the wheel itself, it is hard to believe that they sell this thing for less than forty bucks. The pedals have great resistance and ample amount of travel. Anyone who has ever used a cheaply made wheel knows that if the pedals don't have much resistance or travel, then you can't control the car because you either have 100% throttle or 0% throttle - 100% brake or 0% brake. Well, with this system, that is not a problem at all. You can easily ride around at half throttle or apply half brake. The extra resistance for these pedals does mean that you need some sort of mount or ballast to keep the base in place. If you want a cheap solution, do what I do and put a 10 pound weight on the base. There are also screw holes in the base so that you could easily attach to plywood or something else. The wheel also has ample resistance with the "bungie cord" system. You will need to mount this to a table or cockpit, but this is easy because the built-in clamp is very sturdy and works with tables of all kinds. Even the paddle shifters are high quality with ample resistance. I just can't say enough about this wheel. I want to save up for the Logitech G27, but for now I am very happy using this quality alternative at 1/10th the price. BTW, I use this wheel with Gran Turismo 5 for the PS3. It detects the wheel as a regular controller, but this is not a problem at all. Just remap the buttons correctly and you are off to the races... The diameter of the wheel is a little small for my taste, and the force feedback doesn't work with GT5, but those are very minor issues when you consider the price tag.

02-01-2011 Update
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Just rented "Dirt 2" for the PS3 and found out this wheel doesn't work at all with this game. I'm very disappointed. The wheel is still great for the price, but just wanted to warn people about this particular game.

I have had this wheel for about 4 months now, no problems so far. While I don't actually play racing games all that often, the ones I do have work fantastically with the wheel/pedals. The two main games I play are Dirt 2 and Grid, these are both Codemasters games, and the great thing is under their control settings there is an actual preset for this wheel to make setting it up a whole lot easier. I'm assuming all future Codemasters releases will have this preset available as well. The only game I couldn't get to work was GTA IV, they finally enabled wheel support in a patch not too long ago but this isn't one of the wheels they made compatible. Overall construction, it does feel kinda flimsy but it is actually pretty tough...I've put it through a decent amount, it also kinda sounds like some people just get lucky when buying one, some people get very unlucky. Either way if you can't afford a $200 wheel/pedal combo like me but want something you are going to use occasionally then this is a good buy.

Bought this wheel a few days ago. It seems to be well built and should hold up well over time. The wheel itself has a nice shape and size plus it has rubberized grips right where your hands need to be. The paddle shifters are placed in the perfect spot and turn with the wheel. However, there are some annoying things about this wheel. First whenever you use this on PS3, you have to turn enable the pedals and remap some of the button (specifically the pedal shifters). Sometimes, the wheel acts a little crazy during this. I've experienced the gas pedal not working at times and the paddle shifters not correctly mapping. A simple restart of the system usually fixes this but you will have to go through all of these steps again. Second, the pedals tend to pull up in the back when you are using them. When I hit the gas or brake, I have to use my other foot to keep the platform down. This doesn't allow me to brake or accelerate smoothly and is a distraction from the game. I'm going to see if I can try putting some suction cups on the bottom of the platform so it will stay planted on the floor. Third, the action of the wheel isn't the best. The wheel has 2 settings - normal and high sensitivity. Normal seems to be too lax while high seems twitchy. These settings do not seem to affect the brake/gas that I noticed, only the steering.

So while this wheel does have some flaws, it's hard to bet the price compared to others on the market and honestly most of these points are fairly insignificant or can be fixed with some simple DIY work. I don't regard buying this wheel but I'm not certain that I would recommend it to anyone.

VERY FAST SHIPPING..THIS THING IS COOL AS HELL...IT CLAMPS ONTO MY COMPUTER TABLE..LOOKS FUNNY LIKE IM DRIVING MY COMPUTER DESK...HA-HA...THE STEERING WHEEL AND FOOT PEDALS ARE HEAVY DUTY PLASTIC..NOT CHEAPLY MADE AT ALL..THE WHEEL HAS RUBBER GRIP AND ALL THE BUTTONS U COULD NEED ARE IN THE PERFECT PLACE..JUST LIKE A NEW CAR WITH RADIO/CRUISE CONTROLS..BUT ALSO LIKE A PLAYSTATION CONTROLLER...PLUS PADDLE SHIFTERS ARE SWEET..LIKE THE FERRARI "ENZO"..WAY BETTER THAN A STICK SHIFT..STEERING WHEEL COULD USE A TENSIONER TO ADJUST THE MOVEMENT OF THE WHEEL AND MAYBE A LAP SUPPORT BRACKET....BUT NOTHING MAJOR..I DIDNT EXPECT IT TO BE THIS HIGH QUALITY MADE..EVERYTHING HAS FOAM RUBBER PADS UNDER IT SO U DONT SCRATCH YOU TABLE OR FLOOR..VERY IMPRESSED..THANK YOU..TOTALLY CHANGES THE EXPERIENCE PLAYING "NEED FOR SPEED"...FEELS LIKE IM IN THE ARCADE..EXCEPT MY COUCH IS SO MUCH COMFORTABLE TO SIT ON...LMAO...THANK YOU...

I have read too many wrong reviews of this product online, so I had to put an honest opinion of this product from someone who owns it... it is AMAZING! The key is to read the manual, my main goal was to PLAY GT5 on PS3 and this does it flawlessly. You just have to turn it to high sensitivity mode by holding all d-pad buttons down and clicking both shifters, then the light flashes and you are ready to race! Works great on PC too. Can honestly not believe how good of a deal this set is, I'd recommend it to any racing fan who wants the thrill of a racing wheel on a budget. Its not perfect, but its dang close for $50!!!

Pros:
-It's a proper wheel rather than an oversized Super Breakout controller.
-The flappy-paddle shifters have a nice click to them that lets you know you've told the game to shift.
-The buttons on the wheel are very useful for things like turbo boosts and e-brakes and such.
-Their "patented bungie cord system" for wheel centering is perfectly adequate even if it is absurdly obvious.
-The pedals can be tied together as one axis, making them useful as a rudder or yaw control in a flight sim.
-The wheel-center Ferrari badge is classy, while the enormous "THRUSTMASTER" logo on the top lets you know you are, in fact, mastering thrust.
-The vibration feedback system is just about as good as a true force-feedback in most games.
-If you spend the time to tweak the sensitivity it responds a lot like a real wheel.

Cons:
-The wheel is a bit small, somewhere between "Formula 1" and "I tricked out my Civic yo"
-That satisfying tactile click of the shifters is slightly noisier than a Nintendo zapper gun.
-After a few races the rubber on the wheel goes from "grippy" to "sticky".
-The pedal springs are very stiff so it's rather difficult to depress them using your heels as fulcrums, but the pedal board is quite light, meaning you need at least one part of a foot holding it down all the time.
-Confusing literature leaves me a little confused as to whether this is a "2-in-1" wheel with PS3 and PC support, or a "3-in-1" wheel supporting PS2, PS3 and PC.

we love it - works great - works with Need for Speed which is what I wanted it for. Runs fine. Took a little tweeking to get it to work - and some odd settings - but I got it to work and the kids love it.