Description:
For the price of a new racing game, you can get a complete racing wheel with pedals that will add enjoyment to the games you already have. The ThrustMaster NASCAR Charger is a low-cost device that surprised us with its accuracy and relatively solid design. The wheel unit connects to a PC via a game port, meaning it'll work with every racing game on the market--including older titles that run under MS-DOS. We unpacked the wheel and quickly had it secured to our desktop; the quick-release clamps made it easy to remove the device when we needed our PC for more mundane tasks. The wheel is hard plastic all over, with four buttons on the front and two paddle shifters in the back, all of which are programmable. It doesn't support fancy features like force-feedback, so no bulky external power supply is necessary. When we first pulled the included pedal unit out of the box, we couldn't help but laugh. The Lilliputian brake and gas pedals sit on a tiny base and are spaced only about an inch from one another. To make matters worse, the gas pedal can be compressed only a few inches and the brake pedal hardly moves. This definitely is not an ideal setup for success in realistic racing simulations like NASCAR Racing 3 or Grand Prix Legends. As we soon found out, however, the pedals were just fine for arcade-type driving games like Need for Speed: High Stakes. The software for the NASCAR Charger is as basic as the hardware. After the installation process was completed, a simple configuration program let us calibrate the device and make sure all the buttons were working, but that was about it. We were glad to see that Guillemot didn't bog the software down with a bunch of useless features, as many manufacturers do. We weren't expecting much from the wheel in actual operation, considering the price of the unit and the ridiculously small pedals. But the NASCAR Charger never failed to impress, especially in arcade games. The fact that the brake pedal had little travel made it ideal for the split-second brake-slamming tricks most arcade racing games require and made Need for Speed: High Stakes a blast. The real star of the setup is the wheel, which had a perfect amount of resistance for racing--strong enough to allow for curve-carving precision, yet light enough to let us quickly reverse our turns. It was the kind of precision we would have expected from products costing two to three times as much. This little wheel really delivers. We had two minor problems with the device. Foremost is the narrow base for the pedals, which tended to tip to the right when we pressed hard on the gas. A few strips of duct tape solved that little dilemma, but a wider pedal base would greatly enhance this product. Our other gripe was with the wheel, as the fit and finish wasn't up to Guillemot's typical standards. The back and inside edge of the wheel had a semisharp seam and some other bits of plastic that made driving uncomfortable at times. Again, the solution is simple--give it a rub with some sandpaper--but customers shouldn't have to do things like that. If you can put up with the product's few faults, you can have an incredibly fun, precise wheel that delivers more hours of fun than the low price would indicate. --T. Byrl Baker Pros:
- Inexpensive
- Accurate steering
- Steering mechanism seems solidly constructed
- Works with all sorts of racing games
Cons:
- Pedals and the base they sit on are far too small
- Sharp seams on plastic wheel
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