Fanatec CSR ELITE REVIEW AND CSR PEDALS
Posted by Adam Flockton on Tuesday, March 20, 2012
This wheel is one of the official forza motorsport 4 wheels produced by fanatec in recent months. Here I will tell you my thoughts! The wheel is without doubt the best multi platform wheel on the market. Here I will tell you my thoughts!
Packaging
The wheel came in some extremely secure packaging. There was a lot of padding all around the wheel and base etc and when it got to me there was no scratches or dints as you would expect when paying so much for a wheel!
The documentation inside the box was also very good and told you almost everything you need to know about the wheel. One addition that I would like to see for all fanatec wheels across the board is some kind of documentation saying everything you need to know about the tuning menu for the wheel itself.
Another addition for the wheel would bette drilling templates. When buying fanatec pedals you always get drilling templates which you can use as a guideline on where to drill to mount the pedals to a surface. The same would be useful for the wheel. Especially the CSR ELITE and Clubsport Wheel as they will not have clamps (unless you purchase the Clubsport table clamp). These can only be hard mounted so I feel in this situation a drilling template provided in box would be a great addition to the packaging/box.
Overall however I am happy with this area. However things that I have mentioned really would be a useful addition!
Aesthetics
The wheels base is made from metal. The red and black definitely fits in with the forza colour scheme and in my opinion looks mighty fine! It also feels very solid and is extremely heavy! Whether or not all rigs can take this weight I don't know, you would have to ask the manufacturers themselves!
Another great thing to note about the base which contributes to aesthetics is the transparent screen on top of the base. From this screen you can see all of the internals of the wheel which is a pleasant site!
The rim is made from several different materials and looks very similar to the fanatec CSR wheel. This wheel however has some minor changes. The plastic of the standard CSR wheel is replaced by a rubbery type material. This material is far more grippy than the plastic and is a nice addition in terms of feel to the rim. I do however think that it looks a little bit worse due to it being many different sections of the material. The other noticeable change is the metal face of the CSR has been replaced with a carbon fibre plate. This again looks extremely good!
Another thing to note is that in the future there will be new edition rims such as a GT rim and a Formula rim, much like the Clubsport wheel without the quick release. So, if you are unhappy with the rim there will be alternatives out in the near future.
Build quality
So far I have to say the build quality is second to none! There is no flex that I have noticed in the rim or the wheel shaft. The reason I bring this up is the first batch of wheels had some inconsistencies in this area. Fanatec said they would bring in extra quality control measures during production and from my model anyway I can confirm it has worked!
Another good thing about this wheel is the mounting system! The only way you can mount the wheel is by screwing it into the surface you are driving on. This 100% stops any kind of undesired wheel movement that you may experience if you don't hard mount it. I think part of the reason for this is the weight of the wheel and the power it has may have made it difficult for fanatec to engineer any other method of mounting!
I think another thing to mention about this wheel is the weight is a good thing and is down to the build quality! The wheel base unit is made mainly our of metal which as you can imagine is far heavier than plastic!
Overall like the previous two sections, I believe this wheel excels in this area!
Force feedback and driving in general.
This is without doubt the most important area when buying a wheel. The CSR E really does deliver here! The first thing I noticed when going on forza Motorsport 4 is how much stronger it is in comparison to the elite that I previously used! I thought forza was reasonably strong, I was blown away when u turned on gran turismo 5. I was u prepared for what hit me on 100% strength! My arms nearly twisted in the opposite directions when I corrected a bit of oversteer!
The wheel is also very smooth. How it can be this smooth and powerful I don't know, but it is! The game that it is least smooth in is f1 2011 but in comparision to my dfgt it is a lot smoother! I am sure with more tuning I can continue to make the wheel is smoother.
So to conlcude on game specific force feedback, GT5 is by far my favourite force feedback on console. Forza is 2nd however it is not quite as good as gt5. F1 2011 and dirt 3 are pretty reasonable. And f1 2010 never had good FFB on any device.
And of course you can tailor the. Force feedback by using the tuning menu to tailor it to your specific requirements!
Games tested on:
Dirt 3
F1 2011 (ps3+360)
GT5
FM4
F1 2010
As expected when looking at the CSR Elite specs, this wheels force feedback is phenomenal! The price tag is of course expensive however you do get exactly what you pay for!
Features
The wheel includes, like most fanatecs, an LED display which houses the wheels built in wheel settings were you can adjust many wheel settings.
An example of what can be tuned is in the list below.
SEN:900
FF:100
SHO:100
DRI: 3
ABS: 65
LIN:0
SPR:0
These settings are for forza motorsport 4. However I have found that thay work quite well on Gran Turismo 5.
Another great feature is the wireless xbox functionality. This removes the need to use at least one of the wires which is helpful if you don't want to be left in a tangled mess!
The wheel has two force feedback motors and two vibration motor!
This wheel and the other CSR wheel has a crafty little feature known as ACL (auto clutch) when using forza the wheel trick the game into thinking you have pressed the clutch pedal to shift and means that every shift is fast and consistent.
All of the above combined makes for a fantastic experience!
The conclusion
To conclude I have to say this is without doubt the greatest wheel that works on all 3 platforms. In fact in my opinion for the time being it is in the same ball park as the thrustmaster t500rs as the ultimate wheel. I imagine it will stay on that perch at least until the fanatec Clubsport wheel is released which will hopefully be on another level!
Overall however I don't think anyone could be displeased with this wheel on any platform!
Fanatec CSR PEDALS
The fanatec CSR pedals are fanatec's basic premium pedals. The pedals are made out of plastic mainly and has metal pedal plates.
The greatest feature to this set is the adjustability. You can adjust the pedal travel distance, the resistance the positioning of the pedals and the angle the pedals are at.
There is also an inversion kit which can be fitted on any of the 3 pedals at anytime. With this inversion set you do not necessarily need to mount all 3 in this way, just the one two or three!
The pedals don't have a load cell brake so were very easy for me to get used to so I was setting great times immediately! With this set I am able to play gt5 without abs unlike DFGT pedals. For some the load cell will be a big miss but for those like me who have rarely used load cell equipped pedals there is not a big miss.
Overall I believe this is a nice pair of pedals, and a set that I could quite easily use in my own setup. Of course there not as good as Clubsport pedals but if I was racing on a budget I could happily use them.
Would I recommend this setup overall? Yes, absolutely although if you are spending this much on a wheel and want the best possible experience you may want to consider a more premium pedal set!
Packaging
The wheel came in some extremely secure packaging. There was a lot of padding all around the wheel and base etc and when it got to me there was no scratches or dints as you would expect when paying so much for a wheel!
The documentation inside the box was also very good and told you almost everything you need to know about the wheel. One addition that I would like to see for all fanatec wheels across the board is some kind of documentation saying everything you need to know about the tuning menu for the wheel itself.
Another addition for the wheel would bette drilling templates. When buying fanatec pedals you always get drilling templates which you can use as a guideline on where to drill to mount the pedals to a surface. The same would be useful for the wheel. Especially the CSR ELITE and Clubsport Wheel as they will not have clamps (unless you purchase the Clubsport table clamp). These can only be hard mounted so I feel in this situation a drilling template provided in box would be a great addition to the packaging/box.
Overall however I am happy with this area. However things that I have mentioned really would be a useful addition!
Aesthetics
The wheels base is made from metal. The red and black definitely fits in with the forza colour scheme and in my opinion looks mighty fine! It also feels very solid and is extremely heavy! Whether or not all rigs can take this weight I don't know, you would have to ask the manufacturers themselves!
Another great thing to note about the base which contributes to aesthetics is the transparent screen on top of the base. From this screen you can see all of the internals of the wheel which is a pleasant site!
The rim is made from several different materials and looks very similar to the fanatec CSR wheel. This wheel however has some minor changes. The plastic of the standard CSR wheel is replaced by a rubbery type material. This material is far more grippy than the plastic and is a nice addition in terms of feel to the rim. I do however think that it looks a little bit worse due to it being many different sections of the material. The other noticeable change is the metal face of the CSR has been replaced with a carbon fibre plate. This again looks extremely good!
Another thing to note is that in the future there will be new edition rims such as a GT rim and a Formula rim, much like the Clubsport wheel without the quick release. So, if you are unhappy with the rim there will be alternatives out in the near future.
Build quality
So far I have to say the build quality is second to none! There is no flex that I have noticed in the rim or the wheel shaft. The reason I bring this up is the first batch of wheels had some inconsistencies in this area. Fanatec said they would bring in extra quality control measures during production and from my model anyway I can confirm it has worked!
Another good thing about this wheel is the mounting system! The only way you can mount the wheel is by screwing it into the surface you are driving on. This 100% stops any kind of undesired wheel movement that you may experience if you don't hard mount it. I think part of the reason for this is the weight of the wheel and the power it has may have made it difficult for fanatec to engineer any other method of mounting!
I think another thing to mention about this wheel is the weight is a good thing and is down to the build quality! The wheel base unit is made mainly our of metal which as you can imagine is far heavier than plastic!
Overall like the previous two sections, I believe this wheel excels in this area!
Force feedback and driving in general.
This is without doubt the most important area when buying a wheel. The CSR E really does deliver here! The first thing I noticed when going on forza Motorsport 4 is how much stronger it is in comparison to the elite that I previously used! I thought forza was reasonably strong, I was blown away when u turned on gran turismo 5. I was u prepared for what hit me on 100% strength! My arms nearly twisted in the opposite directions when I corrected a bit of oversteer!
The wheel is also very smooth. How it can be this smooth and powerful I don't know, but it is! The game that it is least smooth in is f1 2011 but in comparision to my dfgt it is a lot smoother! I am sure with more tuning I can continue to make the wheel is smoother.
So to conlcude on game specific force feedback, GT5 is by far my favourite force feedback on console. Forza is 2nd however it is not quite as good as gt5. F1 2011 and dirt 3 are pretty reasonable. And f1 2010 never had good FFB on any device.
And of course you can tailor the. Force feedback by using the tuning menu to tailor it to your specific requirements!
Games tested on:
Dirt 3
F1 2011 (ps3+360)
GT5
FM4
F1 2010
As expected when looking at the CSR Elite specs, this wheels force feedback is phenomenal! The price tag is of course expensive however you do get exactly what you pay for!
Features
The wheel includes, like most fanatecs, an LED display which houses the wheels built in wheel settings were you can adjust many wheel settings.
An example of what can be tuned is in the list below.
SEN:900
FF:100
SHO:100
DRI: 3
ABS: 65
LIN:0
SPR:0
These settings are for forza motorsport 4. However I have found that thay work quite well on Gran Turismo 5.
Another great feature is the wireless xbox functionality. This removes the need to use at least one of the wires which is helpful if you don't want to be left in a tangled mess!
The wheel has two force feedback motors and two vibration motor!
This wheel and the other CSR wheel has a crafty little feature known as ACL (auto clutch) when using forza the wheel trick the game into thinking you have pressed the clutch pedal to shift and means that every shift is fast and consistent.
All of the above combined makes for a fantastic experience!
The conclusion
To conclude I have to say this is without doubt the greatest wheel that works on all 3 platforms. In fact in my opinion for the time being it is in the same ball park as the thrustmaster t500rs as the ultimate wheel. I imagine it will stay on that perch at least until the fanatec Clubsport wheel is released which will hopefully be on another level!
Overall however I don't think anyone could be displeased with this wheel on any platform!
Fanatec CSR PEDALS
The fanatec CSR pedals are fanatec's basic premium pedals. The pedals are made out of plastic mainly and has metal pedal plates.
The greatest feature to this set is the adjustability. You can adjust the pedal travel distance, the resistance the positioning of the pedals and the angle the pedals are at.
There is also an inversion kit which can be fitted on any of the 3 pedals at anytime. With this inversion set you do not necessarily need to mount all 3 in this way, just the one two or three!
The pedals don't have a load cell brake so were very easy for me to get used to so I was setting great times immediately! With this set I am able to play gt5 without abs unlike DFGT pedals. For some the load cell will be a big miss but for those like me who have rarely used load cell equipped pedals there is not a big miss.
Overall I believe this is a nice pair of pedals, and a set that I could quite easily use in my own setup. Of course there not as good as Clubsport pedals but if I was racing on a budget I could happily use them.
Would I recommend this setup overall? Yes, absolutely although if you are spending this much on a wheel and want the best possible experience you may want to consider a more premium pedal set!