Review: The Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheel and Clubsport Pedals

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Clubsport Pedals

At the top of Fanatec’s pedal product line sit the Clubsport Pedals, or CSP for short. The CSP may offer the biggest performance enhancement in the Fanatec lineup. Thankfully, Fanatec sells them as a stand-alone product via their a-la-carte ordering option. At $200 USD they’re pricey, but on the PC they can be coupled with other wheels on any racing sim that supports multiple USB controllers.

Clubsport Pedals

When used together on a PC, the PWTS and CSP have their own USB connectors so each unit communicates directly with the Fanatec drivers. There’s an option to daisy-chain the pedals into the PWTS, but doing so lowers the bit rate of the CSP to 256, rather than its stand-alone rate of 1024.

Crafted from blocks of solid aluminum, the CSP look like they’d be more at home in an SCCA race car than in front of your LCD TV. Like other products from Logitech and Thrustmaster, the CSP features gas, brake and clutch pedals each with adjustable pedal face locations, pedal firmness and throw, but what makes them really special is how the inputs are translated into electrical signals. Rather than use angular displacement sensing via a traditional potentiometer, the CSP uses non-contact magnetic sensors for the gas and clutch, which theoretically means they won’t wear out like a mechanical potentiometer.

But most significantly, the CSP’s brake response is calculated via a load cell, a load-sensing device which measures forces placed on the sensor by your foot and converts them into brake pressure in the game engine. That’s a much more linear replication of function than using a rotating potentiometer, which measures the brake pedal’s rotation angle. This puts the CSP’s method of operation in close harmony with real racing brake pedals, which are rock hard and allow drivers to precisely meter out brake pressure as a function of the pressure exerted by their foot. And like real racing brake pedals, the CSP offers some fantastic control in racing sims. The result is quite possibly the most realistic-feeling brake pedal in sim racing.

Clubsport Pedals brake detail

Also attached to the backside of the brake pedal arm is a tiny vibration feedback motor. Working in conjunction with the vibration feedback motors in the wheel, this unit also provides brake lockup feedback straight to your braking foot, providing some much needed synthetic "feel" to a sim racing brake. On top of all that, at the front end of the pedal base is as small knob which allows you to adjust the exact point at which maximum brake response is achieved. Quite clever, these Fanatec boys.

But all is not roses and sunshine for the CSP’s design. Despite its otherwise bullet-proof look, closer inspection reveals vulnerability. Stuck to the sides of the clutch and gas pedal arms are dime-sized circuit boards with delicate wire connectors jutting straight out from them, presumably for the magnetic sensors.

Underneath are loose wires and cables that snake their way from the wheel and the individual pedals to a tiny motherboard, protected only by a screwed-on skid plate. This gives the CSP a slightly unfinished look, with the exposed wires and connectors just asking to be unintentionally hooked, stepped on, yanked or snapped off. Owners are left with a feeling that they must tread lightly with their superb purchase lest they destroy it.

The loose wires and exposed connectors stand in stark contrast to the otherwise sturdy looks of this product. Prudence would dictate training yourself to never move fast around the pedals — accidentally yanking a wire out or snapping a PS2 connector off when situating yourself behind the Rennsport Wheel Stand would be "bad".

If you’re budget has room for the PWTS but not the Clubsport Pedals, fear not — the PWTS comes with an adapter that lets your pedal input PS2 swap over to the connector for the Logitech G25 and Logitech G27 pedals, or the Microsoft Xbox 360 wheel’s pedal set. While not ideal, using these other pedals offer a less expensive alternative for the budget-minded sim racer.

Video: Fanatec discusses an early version of the Clubsport Pedals

Exposed wires underneath

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