Feature: Tips and Tweaks: The Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheel and Clubsport Pedals

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Clubsport Pedals Tweaking Tips

The CSP were designed with the tinkering gamer in mind, and have lots of tunable options to experiment with.  But before you whip out your tools and start fiddling with them, watch Fanatec owner Thomas Jackermeier’s YouTube video blog below (don't worry, I'll wait...)

Although it requires a little effort and elbow grease, do not pass up the opportunity to fine-tune your CSP in order to maximize its peformance. 

Having done my own tweaking (where I learned you should watch the YouTube video first) here’s what works best for me:

1. Move the pivot arm pin for the Brake pedal UP one hole. That'll shorten the throw of the brake pedal arm and make the pedal "hard" so that you really are using pressure and not angle to modulate the brake force. Since the brake is a Load Cell and not a potentiometer, that's the logical setup.

Removing the forward cross brace of the CSP chassis isn't easy — watch the video first. If you have some really long, metric Allen wrenches, that'd be a huge help for the secondary mounting screws.

2. Get rid of the spacer block between the gas pedal and the throttle arm. That’ll help with heel-and-toe shifting if you ever need to do that. You'll need the shorter screws that Fanatec has provided just for this.

3. Carefully change the location of the brake and clutch pedal faces. The stock configuration has the brake and clutch pedal faces bolted down in their center hole positions. If you’re a left foot braker like me, move both pedals to the holes on the right side of the pedal faces, which moves both pedal faces to the LEFT (away from the gas pedal). If you prefer to simulate a typical manual tranny with H-pattern shifter, you'll be right foot braking and doing heel-and-toe downshifts, so you'll use the holes on the left side of the brake pedal face, thereby moving the brake pedal face to the RIGHT, closer to the gas pedal. The clutch face can be left in place, or moved to the LEFT as described above. Whenever you’re adjusting the brake pedal face, use care because the same bolts are used to anchor the vibration feedback motor on the back of the brake pedal arm.

4. While the basic Fanatec pedals come with a mounting bracket to secure them to the Rennsport Wheel Stand, the fancy Clubsport pedals come with… nothing. Which leaves them sitting (and sliding) on the wheel stand’s smooth, brushed aluminum base. I suggest some non-adhesive foam rubber shelf liner (I got some at a Wal Mart). It’s quite grippy due to the CSP’s weight, and holds the pedals in place nicely. I don’t get any pedal movement despite the hard brake pedal geometry.

5. Brake force knob. I have it set to about 1mm short of full clockwise position. This gives me maximum braking at maximum brake pedal force.

6. Many CSP owners have started to notice that after applying the brake a few times in a game, the brake sensor appears to stay ever-so-slightly engaged — at least that is what you’ll see on the Fanatec GUI for the CSP.

So far there’s no fix from Fanatec, so the best solution is a "work-around". To ensure you’re not dragging a brake, set all of your game’s brake deadzone to about 5%. You won’t notice a difference in your braking, and the game won’t see the slight brake response from the CSP (if it’s happening at all). Here’s some screen shots of how to do this in FM3, rFactor and GTR2.

7. Use extreme care around the exposed magnetic sensors mounted to the sides of the CSP clutch and throttle pedal arms. Curling a toe around the sides of these pedal arms could damage the connectors, causing the pedals to stop functioning properly.

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