The Dreamcast is something of a haven for racing game fans – between Crazy Taxi, Daytona USA 2001, Ferrari F355 Challenge, Sega Rally 2 and OutRun, it’s home to many of the greatest arcade racers ever made, not to mention plenty of other brilliant racing titles, like Metropolis Street Racer, Le Mans 24 Hours, Spirit of Speed 1937 and Re-Volt. With this kind of a lineup, it seems like the perfect console to pair with a racing wheel. Unfortunately, the reality is that it’s pretty hard to get hold of a wheel that lives up to the mentioned classics…
Recently, I set out to try and get the best wheel I could for the console – one that would propel the blissful evenings I was having with Sega Rally 2 into sheer ecstasy. As I scoured the internet for morsels of information on the many wheels produced for the console, I found that four wheels were typically held in higher regard than the rest:
- Sega Race Controller/Rally Wheel – The Dreamcast’s first-party wheel was commonplace and considered reliable by some, but others regarded it as cheaply made and bare bones.
- Mad Catz MC2 – Perhaps the most popular choice for serious racing fans, this wheel was lauded for its technical features, but reports of breakages lined up with Mad Catz’ track record for cheap construction.
- Interact Concept 4 – A wheel with a low attach rate, but very highly regarded by some for having similar features to the MC2 and besting that wheel in construction quality.
- Thrustmaster Ferrari Racing Wheel – Maybe the scarcest wheel of the four, this wheel nonetheless received rave reviews from those who had paired it with Ferrari F355 Challenge.
By chance, I ended up owning three of these wheels and modding one of them over the following months. I’ve decided to review each of them to ensure that other eager fans on the net will be better informed than I was, particularly with how rare and pricey these wheels can be nowadays!
First purchase – Thrustmaster Ferrari Racing Wheel
For my first wheel, it just so happened that the rarest of the above choices was one of the most readily available when I looked, as a fairly priced specimen was available in my country when I began my search. I was excited to get hold of the Thrustmaster Ferrari owing to its reputation (among a small group of users, I might add), but some harsh realities would be exposed after unleashing it from its smart packaging.
But let’s get the good out of the way first! For starters, the wheel really looks the part – it’s probably the best looking wheel of the big four right out of the box, with a sleek design and sharp Ferrari branding that undeniably gives it an air of authenticity (not to mention making it a perfect pair for Ferrari F355 Challenge and OutRun). It has some strong features to back up the look too. Every button and control on the Dreamcast controller is present and in easy reach – A, B, X, Y, a D-pad, an analog stick, and Start are available on the face, with paddles on the rear of the wheel also corresponding to L, R, A and X and the included pedals mapping to L and R as you'd expect.
These work in conjunction with perhaps the wheel’s most useful feature, the “Mode” button, to allow full compatibility with the Dreamcast library, including games which don’t typically support racing wheel peripherals. “Mode” essentially switches the wheel into a standard Dreamcast controller, allowing you to finally play games like Hydro Thunder the way you always wanted to. The presence of both paddles and connectable pedals makes the wheel appealing for those who have either preference for acceleration and braking.
The wheel has both suction cups on its base and a clamp that can be used to attach it to a table or a desk, negating any concerns of it moving around if you wish to use it on a hard surface. Finally, the expansion slot on the side of the wheel is shaped to house either a VMU or a Vibration Pack, giving you the chance to add some feedback to the games that support it. That said, you might be underwhelmed by how light the vibration effect is, owing to how far from the steering column the slot on the base of the wheel is.
It's too bad then that the wheel’s performance doesn’t match its strong first impressions. Despite the paddles on the rear of the wheel being foolproof in theory, they’re positioned in quarter-circle segments around the steering column, with the top pair mapped to X and A (gear changing) and the bottom pair mapped to L and R (acceleration/braking). This means that you’ll be attempting to use your ring and little fingers on the bottom pair if you don’t want to use pedals, which isn’t easy! To make matters worse, the paddles don’t rotate with the wheel, leaving you to stretch your fingers as far as possible on those sharp turns.
Both the wheel and the pedals have a stiffness to them that can prove problematic – the tight bungee cord-based centring mechanism in the wheel makes turning it something of a workout, and when coupled with the wheel’s lightness, can cause some unwanted lateral movements if you’re using the wheel in your lap. The stiff pedals then have a tendency to slip around on carpeted floor, though I wasn’t able to test them on hard floor.
And lastly...there’s the sensitivity.