The new T500 RS wheel and pedal set becomes available tomorrow in North America and Europe, and on January 25th in Japan. Produced by Thrustmaster, it’s the officially licensed product for Gran Turismo 5 – and comes in at a whopping £459. As you’d expect for that sort of money, it’s a high-spec product.
The goal set by Polyphony Digital CEO was simple. Thrustmasters simply had to produce” the most precise wheel ever developed, without any latency, to accurately reproduce the sensations of GT5, and let users truly feel the emotions experienced by drivers on real racing circuits.”
Not much to aim for then.
As a result, the set-up is quite hefty, with the wheel weighing 4.6kg and 7.3kg for the pedal set, and there’s a lot of metal used in the construction. Sequential gearlevers are mounted on the base and feature 17cm levers, whilst the wheel offers 1080 degrees adjustable rotation. The pedals are fully adjustable for spacing and height, with a ‘floor-mounted’ F1 style position, or ‘suspended’ GT style, and the brake pedal has had special attention with reinforced and adjustable resistance.
A 65W industrial motor is used for the force feedback, and the wheel features 16-bit resolution and 65536 values on its steering axis. More importantly, the promise is that it won’t get any less accurate with use.
The Thrustmaster T500 RS is now available from selected stores, including Amazon.
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