Thrustmaster wheels comparison (kind of buyers guide?)

[Decepticon]

Posted this in the DiRT Rally section but thought I'd post here as well as it generally applies to all racing games rather than just that and this seemed the most general section where it applies.

So I've been using one of the cheapest Thrustmaster wheels available for a couple of years on and off now, but with Dirt Rally, Project Cars and some other great racing titles coming out recently to join the back catalogue of other awesome sim games I've decided it's time to upgrade! So I've spent the last week or so researching my options and thought I'd share my findings for anyone else looking into getting a FFB racing wheel.

To start off, I'm in the UK, this makes Fanatec wheels and pedals a lot harder to get hold of so I've left them out. Also, it became apparent that both the Logiteh G27 and G29/920 (Xbox One version of the G29) with their gear driven feedback are not nearly as smooth as what Thrustmaster has to offer and generally feel more "toy-like" to those who have tried both, so I've also ruled them out also and will be focusing entirely on Thrustmaster's 3 main racing wheels with FFB: the T150, T300RS and the T500RS.
Although this will hopefully help you with deciding between them, most of my considerations were with getting to the top end of Thrustmaster's pedals, wheels, etc. In other words, at the end of the day I want to end up with the T3PA-Pro pedals, the TH8A shifter, and whatever wheel I wanted. I've included the T150 for comparison for those who may want a cheaper option.

Here's my list of pros and cons I came up with for each, taking into consideration compatability with other rims, pedals, etc.

T150 PROS
- Cheapest!
- Compatible with upgrade pedals and shifter
- Option of the T3PA or the T3PA-Pro pedals
T150 CONS
- Not as smooth
- Weaker FFB (wouldn't be able to just let go to correct for example)
- NOT compatible with add-on wheels (i.e. F1 wheel)
- Smaller wheel
- Stock pedals not great, will slide around on carpet?
- Not as solid as T500 OR T300
- Pedals not adjustable?
- Stock rim not all grippy (i.e. more plasticy)
- Same plastic clamp as cheaper models
- Wheel can't be hardmounted

T300 PROS
- Decent FFB (not that much worse than the T500)
- Paddles with wheel (i.e. non-static)
- Compatible with pedals and shifter
- Option of the T3PA or the T3PA-Pro pedals
- Compatible with the add-on wheels
- Apparently quieter than the T500
- Smoothest wheel, most detailed wheel
- Can upgrade up as and when you can afford the upgrades
T300 CONS
- Weaker FFB
- Smaller wheel
- Stock pedals alright but will probably slide around
- Not as solid as T500?

T500 PROS
- Best pedals included
- Strongest FFB
- Most solid
T500 CONS
- It's BIG
- Most expensive
- Paddles static
- Have to get the conical brake mod seperately


About brake mods - the Conical Brake Mod is a popular mod that is included when you purcahse the T3PA-Pro pedals but not with the pedals included with the T500RS pedals even though they're the same pedals, but this can be purchased from Canada for 30CAD (or approx. £15)

What was my decision in the end? Personally I'll probably be going for the T300RS, for the smoothest, most detailed and quiet FFB, then I can upgrade to the better pedals as and when I can afford it, and get the F1 wheel and shifter separately. This also means I can give my old pedals to my girlfriend when I upgrade as she'll bbe having my old wheel.

Pricing?
Here's a list of prices from my searches, Box.co.uk generally seemed the cheapest, but didn't have the T3PA-Pro pedals, these can only be bought from thee Thrustmaster UK shop (both have free delivery). One thing to note however is that the T300RS seems to come up on Amazon lightning deals down to £200 from around £265, so if you're ok waiting around you could save a bit more there...

T150 - £114.99 (Box.co.uk)
T300RS - £234.99 (Box.co.uk
T500RS - £354.99 (Box.co.uk)
T3PA Pedals - £76.45 (Amazon UK)
T3PA-Pro Pedals - £149.99 (Thrustmaster UK Shop)
TH8A Shifter - £109.99 (Box.co.uk)
F1 Wheel Add-on - £119.99 (Box.co.uk)
Conical Brake Mod - ~£15 (thebrakemod.com)

For me it'll cost a total of £614.96 (including the F1 add-on), compared to £599.97 if I were to go the T500RS route. The advantages of this are you get a smoother wheel, non-static shifters on the wheel (i.e. they move with the wheel rather than being fixed in place like that are on the T500), a slightly smaller less heavy unit which may help with stability if you were to mount the wheel on a race rig like a wheel stand pro, you could try selling the stock pedals after upgrading which would bring costs down, or if you really aren't bothered about being able to invert the pedals then you can get the cheaper T3PA pedals instead, bringing costs down further.

I know this was a big wall of text but I hope it helps people somehow, I've spent a long time looking into this and I thought I'd try save someone else the time :)

[GTI Leo NOGUEIRA]

It helps a lot! Thanks!!!!!