Just got my SRW-S1 today. I had already tried the Microsoft SpeedWheel (same concept) and liked it quite a lot, so decided to take the plunge on this "big brother" version.

In a word, it's Excellent. I have a full driving rig with a Playseat Evo and G25 (along with a triple-screen setup using Tri-SLI GTX580's 3gb VRAM and a 5.2Ghz i7-2600k), so I'm fairly demanding when it comes to this sort of thing (although I'm getting the new Fanatec CSR Elite so I can have a single rig for PC, Xbox and PS3). Anyway, I digress.

Overall, if you haven't tried one of these "Motion type" wheels, you really should. It's fantastic on the road (no pun intended) with your laptop, and with a little bit of practice, the control is quite good.

One thing in particular: With zero resistance, you can make lightning fast corrections (such as catching a slide). In this respect, I actually prefer it to my G25. Where it falls down is the lack of FFB, of course. You must use your ears to tell if the front is washing out, and your eyes to see if you're oversteering.

Here's my quick breakdown:

Plus:
+ Very good precision
+ Adjustable sensitivity (from 180deg to 360deg) via a rotary switch on the fly (awesome feature)
+ Buttons for everything and THEY ARE LABELED!
+ Works great with all driving games (tested with GTR2, rFactor, F1 2011, the new GTL, GTR Evo)
+ Accelerator/Brake/Gear change controls very well done (much better than the MS SpeedWheel)
+ Works extremely well with Simraceway (naturally), which fully supports the wheel, including the LED tach
+ My lap times were very close to my full G25 setup within 30 minutes of acclimation

Minus:
- Not all features supported outside of Simraceway (rotary dials for difficulty settings and LED tach)
- Obviously not self-centering (hint - dial in about 1deg of deadzone and it works well)
- Obviously no FFB
- You need to rest your arms occasionally (I'm really trying hard to find a negative here)

Thanks for the quick review, I figured traveling is where it may be best suited and again I await the first pictures/video of someone strapping it to a wheel as a control box or to a hub to use as a attached wheel itself.

A quick update: My lap times on the Nordschliefe, in the DRM Revival mod for rFactor (BMW 320 Turbo, Porsche 935) using this wheel are now within a couple seconds of what I can do with my G25.

This is fairly amazing, given that it has almost zero footprint and can easily go with you on an airplane flight. Those of you who've tried the cars in that mod, know that they are some of the trickiest around (peaky engines,, snap oversteer, etc).

In particular, the rotary dial where you can alter sensitivity is a Godsend. I wish every wheel had this, rather than having to adjust a slider in windows (G25/27) or a digital readout on the wheel itself (Fanatec).

Needless to say, this is highly recommended as a portable alternative. For home use, my new CSR Elite will be here in 2 days - and I'm hoping its FFB is more useful than the G25's.

lol, I knew it would happen

http://www.bsimracing.com/2012/01/hardware-steelseries-srw-s1-mounted-on-a-logitech-g25/

That Fanatec CSR Elite wheel is really cool since you could use it with xbox/pc/PS. I am currently using a Logitech DFGT with my PC which I really like, but if I ever get an XBox I would have to buy another wheel just for the xbox which is not cool. The CSR wheel is a high end wheel and will have to save some $$$ if I want to even think about purchasing it.

Hey all!

I found the forum looking for simraceway information the day before I had stumbled on the SRW-S1 and just love it, I also wrote a mini review and hope it is okay to post it.

Well due to UPS being slow as Christmas and by the way why is it when the wife orders shampoo, wine, kitchen gadgets or any other thing I am totally not interested in, UPS is banging on the door at eight a.m. But let me order a graphics card, game, memory, hard drive, arrows, a new bow or something fun I am interested in they don't show until the afternoon?? But I digress.....





I only had about 45 minutes to play with errrrrrr investigate its possibilities :p before I had to head out for work.

Package: It comes in a really sturdy package the clear film is like presidential limo windshield glass, it is packed neatly with several cardboard compartments separating the wheel, cable and instruction manual. I also discovered from it falling onto the floor :p a ten dollar gift card for simraceway.

I noticed right away there was no software CD or DVD so I flipped through the manual, it itself is small sort of leaflet size. But, it does contain all the information one would need to understand the device. In it was a picture of a green CD with the caption "Looking for the disc?" under that it reads, "We have dispensed with discs to save the planet!" It then tells me to go to simraceway.com to download the game client.

This is from the wiki:

Simraceway is an online racing service that hosts live, multiplayer racing events. The race environment is hosted and developed by Ignite Game Technologies, Inc. The service uses a client-server software model similar to popular online games such as World of Warcraft allowing the racing environment to be continually updated. Simraceway allows racers to compete online for free or prize-based competitions monitored by professional race marshals who encourage fair, competitive racing. The service is free to join and went into full release in November 2011. The platform is similar to Forza 4 (Microsoft Studios) and F1 2011 (Codemasters) and the Gran Turismo series (SCEA).

Dan Wheldon

On August 9, 2011 two-time Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon signed on to the Simraceway team to help design the gameplay experience. "It was pretty obvious that Ignite was not looking to build just another racing game, so the opportunity to influence Simraceway's physics directly was pretty appealing."

Dario Franchitti

On October 13, Dario Franchitti signed on to the Simraceway team to help with the design of the tracks, cars and overall gameplay experience. "It's almost impossible to describe the feeling you get inside when you're behind the wheel of an old race car but what I hope to be able to do is use my knowledge and experience to help the team at Simraceway replicate how it feels to drive."

So before going further I head over to simraceway, now I play theHunter another subscription based game so no big deal in understanding the process. I put together my profile as the client downloaded a whopping 1.8 gig file, install went flawless. As I started the game the first time it detected the device and pointed me to the set up screen, shortly later I was in a Evo X entering the Longstone Pass road course in northern England. Now I did not take the time to run setups or tune the car i just wanted the feel of the controller, with the default settings the throttle is the right paddle behind the device, the brake is left, clutch can be top right or left paddle.

You would be surprised as to just how natural the feel is once you have it up and are moving the car, I noticed right off the ring fingers of both hands could rest right on the throttle and brake paddle. The index finger of both hands can easily and with comfort reach the two upper paddles, the first few turns were surprisingly fun with the controller. With a little time I found myself kicking in the guts on the HUGE straight a way the track has. The LED throttle indicator is a bit annoying but with a slight movement towards me that was not a bother. The graphics in this game are no where near NFS Shift or GRID but I suspect simraceway is more about proper simulation?

I then tried it on NFS Shift and GRID the LED throttle light does not work on either of these games, not a big issue considering how bright it is. The wheel set up just fine as a generic wheel and I made a run on the NFS Shift Dakota oval, I left the green driving line on and made two laps. I held a perfect line with cars around, there was a bit of weaving in another practice run but I did not have time to tweak the car.

GRID setup the same way and for once since owning that blasted game I can get around the tracks!

This may not be for the hardcore sim racer but for a person just getting into sim racing, the casual racer or the person with limited desk space this is absolutely worth the 120 dollar purchase price.

Any insight as to if this could be modded (coupling of some sort) to meld it to a G27 base?

Hows functionality in rF?

It's nice to have so many new faces around here recently.

Bringing in lots of interesting opinions/info as well.

See the link that David Kennard posted a few posts earlier above.

and here is the guys photos of setup:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/113839068734380231178/albums/5692962491031835953

and a post/comments from VirtualR:

http://www.virtualr.net/steel-series-srw-s1-on-g25-videos

For ease of setup and footprint this could be really interesting. Bit pricey though. Does it work on PS3?

No PS3. Doesn't work on anything but PC, apparently.

For someone like me, it would seem to be just the ticket; I cannot be arsed to get a wheel and pedals set up for a few minutes of racing, and I would like something a little better than a Logitech Dual Action, however proficient I have become with one.

Sadly, this new wheel is not quite compatible with all sims. F1 Challenge '99-'02 and NASCAR Thunder 2004 both do not recognise the controller's right hand flappy paddle shifter. Richard Burns Rally seems to get the throttle and brake axes mixed up so that one has to apply the gas to get off the gas, and apply the brakes to get off the brakes. WRC 2 just hates it, and will not recognise it at all (although it must be said that WRC 2 is a temperamental little #%&*$#), neither do Superstars V8: Next Challenge or SBKX.

Actually, it does not seem that any of the sims that I actually enjoy and play are supported fully - or in some cases, at all. A few of them, such as RBR and F1 Challenge are quite old, of course, but some of the above mentioned games are quite new. Of course, it just might be lousy joystick/controller support in these games, as the SRW-S1 is essentially generic, bit it is a bit of pain, from my point of view.

It probably works beautifully with Skyrim.

I have been using it in iRacing and it works flawless I am ten points away from being able to be promoted on the ovals

Thanks James. SBK would have been one title to use it on, but you saved me some cash there.

It's too bad, really, because I do not doubt that SBK, WRC etc. rejecting the controller has a lot more to do with Black Bean than with the wheel. Their products have had problems supporting various wheels and controllers, as you know, and they are not the best at patching.

I must add that the wheel does work beautifully with F1 2011. I never really played it before with any enthusiasm, but the SRW-S1 gets along just fine with it, much better than the Logitech Dual Action, so I might just have to learn to love F1 2011.

Functionality in rFactor and all the Simbin games is excellent since the labeling on all the buttons matches exactly what's available in-game. That's because the Simraceway software is derived from rFactor (or at least they sure look very similar) and the phrasing of the various functions is identical.

What this means is that, if you're playing rFactor, you can assign all the buttons and they'll be labeled correctly. I really wish my CSR Elite had such an awesome set of buttons!

Those ancient sims (sorry, they are) you mentioned have issues with *all* decent controllers, btw. Try getting F1 Challenge (which is 9 years old at this point) working with a Logitech G25. Or on Win7 x64 for that matter. It's a nightmare. In any case, I can't imagine being able to stand the crappy physics in those old games (with the notable exception of GPL), when we've got amazing sims like rFactor, rF2, iRacing, NetKar Pro - and the list goes on.

I've been using this wheel for about a month and it's really amazing IMHO. The adjustable sensitivity has got to be the best feature, followed by its accuracy, followed by the aforementioned plethora of buttons with proper labeling for all the best sims.

I have a CSR Elite at home, but for the being on the road, this thing's amazing. And, truth be told, I'm not always in the mood to sit down at my full race-rig. Those times when I just want to do a quick lap or two, I actually enjoy my little SRW-S1 about as much.

Lastly, my lap times in rFactor DRM Revival 1.1 are actually a bit *faster* than what I was ever able to achieve with my old G25. I'm not 100% sure why, but I think it has to do with how fast you can counter-steer with (of course) zero resistance. I also think the throttle might be more accurate - since I'm using my finger rather than my right foot. I'm able to feed in just the right amount of throttle with this little thing. Amazing!

Thats a Great wheel at an Amazing price- With the Option to be mounted ! amazing deal!

Hi all. I just bought this off of Amazon U.S. for $90 USD. I must have caught it on sale because it is back up to $120 USD. I bought it based on the reviews here.

It comes tomorrow and I can't wait to get it and test it out.