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Best Australian prices for a rev-crushing Thrustmaster T818, Evo 32R wheel and pedals base pack

Posted on by angelo
Best Australian prices for a rev-crushing Thrustmaster T818, Evo 32R wheel and pedals base pack

I’m always looking for a new excuse to lace up my gloves, grab a steering wheel, and dive back into my favorite racing sims. The other week, the universe gave me two good reasons to do so. For starters, Thrustmaster asked me if I wanted to put its T818 setup to the test. For a few seconds, and as if on cue, Sony also had the good sense to release an adapter to allow my PlayStation VR2 headset to work on PC.

As we all know by now, racing games + any VR headset on someone’s head = a perfect match. With the phantom jolts of a recent Moza R12 Wheel experience still faintly resonating in my forearms, I cleared out my test desk and set about building a brand new endorphin-generating ecosystem.

The list of specific components I tinkered with is below. You can skip the tedious reading by clicking here to access the rest of my thoughts.

Featured in this article

T818 Direct Drive Wheelbase

T818 Direct Drive Wheelbase

Thrustmaster EVO Racing 32R Steering Wheel

Thrustmaster EVO Racing 32R Steering Wheel

Thrustmaster T-LCM Pedals

Thrustmaster T-LCM Pedals

Thrustmaster Desk Mounting Kit

Thrustmaster Desk Mounting Kit

  • Thrustmaster Cockpit Mount – $89

Weight

11.02 pounds (4.99 kg)

If you’re looking to upgrade to a wheel ecosystem that offers a realistic driving experience and a demanding degree of force feedback for the wrist, look to the T818, Thrustmaster’s current and very impressive flagship wheel. While you can find slightly crazier Direct Drive motors that deliver 12nm (think Moza R12), the beefy 10nm on offer here still delivers smooth, angular acceleration and instantaneous force effects.

If you are a newbie coming from the non-DD generation and discovering this category of wheels, the sensations that await you will be mind-blowing and much better than what you expected. If you are a DD veteran, like me, you will find that the T818 is a competitively priced device that qualifies perfectly for its place in the grid of high-end peripherals.

Speaking of a high entry price, let’s not forget that this unit is just the basis for a pick-and-mix proposition of pedals, wheels, gear levers, and more. The good news is that Thrustmaster is particularly committed to ensuring that many of the same components – past, present, and future – are compatible with the T818, thanks to the two included “quick release” connectors.

In terms of aesthetics, this base is definitely a bit more “Capital G Gamer” chic compared to some of its closest competitors in its price range (like the Moza R range and the Logitech G Pro Wheel). That being said, the more obvious facets of this design, like the colored outer plates and the LED disco lighting around the wheel connection, can either be separated (additional cost) into more metallic plates or disabled in software, respectively.

Personally, I like the ability to have a splash of color and a bit of whimsy with my peripherals. I see that as a positive, as opposed to the slightly bulbous 19.2 x 22.4 x 18 cm (width/height) appearance of this base (which could simply be due to the fact that I’m spoiled by the smaller Moza R12 that somehow offers more power via a more svelte package). I ended up liking the look, though.

As I mentioned before, if you’re already a Thrustmaster customer, chances are your current wheel will fit and sit perfectly with the T818’s ridiculously backwards compatible quick release system. That being said, if you’re looking to modernise your wheel by upgrading the base, I highly recommend looking into the EVO 32R, a 320mm offering covered in synthetic leather, designed to cater to a wide range of racing disciplines, be it GT, rally, oval, drift or off-road.

In terms of compatibility, it’s also worth noting that this isn’t just a T818 proposition: the EVO 32R can interface with PlayStation (T-GT I/II and T300) or Xbox (TS-XW, TX) bases. The versatility continues with the EVO 32R offering the ability to mix and match paddle shifters and rims. You can also give it a less dramatic makeover by using a torque screwdriver to massage the position of its two upper thumb button modules for a better position. It’s a pretty handy trick (literally speaking) if you’re switching between disciplines and want your inputs to be more precise. just like that.

I think Thrustmaster has struck a good balance here between durability, comfort, and price. The top-mounted 7-bar LED works well and adds extra visual information, and I didn’t find a bad egg with any of its many inputs (a 4-way dpad, 9 buttons, and 4 rotary encoders with push-button function). Likewise, the magnetic-sensor shifters are precise, nicely and dramatically curved, and don’t come with an overly jarring metal-on-metal replica like some of its competitors.

Finally, let’s get to the root of this package: Thrustmaster’s T-LCM pedals. As the more knowledgeable among you may have guessed, this acronym stands for Load Cell Magnetic, the technologies chosen to deliver ultra-precise braking. To cut a long science lesson short, the load cell mechanisms will more reliably transmit the intensity of your braking to the game, and the magnetic Hall effect technology is much less prone to mechanical wear.

Of course, if you like to kick your pedals or shift with ferocity, like a possessed Tofu driver, you’ll want that long-term durability. Better yet, you can quickly configure these pedals with the six included springs that offer varying degrees of resistance. The standard setup worked just fine for most of my needs.

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Other features I liked about this product include its wide, non-slip base with an attractive textured finish and its three generously sized (and adjustable) pedals. At 5kg, it really hits the sweet spot between being high quality and sturdy, but also easy to pick up and store. Finally, I like their cross-platform nature: you can expect these incredibly well-built pedals to work with your Thrustmaster PC, PS4/5, Xbox One setups. Overall, this is indeed a huge step up from Thrustmaster’s previous pentiometer-based efforts, the T3PAs.

Before we continue, let’s take a moment to detail the games I used during testing. Most of them are VR-compatible racing games by default (but some require unofficial mods) and I found that they all worked very well with the T818:

So, did the above-mentioned setup deliver the results I was hoping for? The short answer is this: I was very impressed with the little T818 ecosystem I built for myself, both in terms of responsiveness and accuracy when communicating a ton of racing details via my wheel of choice. The aforementioned components provided an impressive degree of grip/surface information, increased immersion, and wrist-tingling, almost overwhelming feedback, to the point that beginners will likely want to practice up to the 10nm peak on offer.

If you’re looking to embark on your first DD experience and want to feel some Gs – or if you’re a veteran looking for respectable performance without spending the price of a real car to get it – then this Thrustmaster ecosystem is well worth a pit stop.

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Adam Mathew is our Head of Australian Trading. He plays on virtually every platform, often on YouTube.