Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo S (CE) Review - PAGE 1

Accessories on the Xbox are a limited group; they face a requirement of having a specialized chip to authorize them to play, killing advances in technology for the console and limiting players to a censored view of what the market is, something we’ve seen this with the X-Arcade and products like the Logitech G25/ G27. Gamers today get a glimpse of light in all of this chaos: Fanatec comes to the Xbox platform once again with the Porsche 911 Turbo S Clubsport Edition for the 360. Packing a huge set of accessories with it, the Fanatec might be one of the most complete wheels on the market.

The 911 Turbo S Clubsport Edition comes with the following:

• Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheel
• RF Dongle for Playstation 3 and PC connectivity
• 6+1 gear shifter attachment
• Sequential gear shifter
• Standard cable pedals (gas, brake, clutch)
• Mounting bars to connect sequential shifter or 6+1 shifter
• AC adapter
• USB cable for wired connection
• Mounting plate for pedals

It’s a simple package full of boxes with new parts all over; after we finished unboxing everything and celebrating like it was our birthday it came to building the 911 Turbo S. Construction of the wheel is simple; it uses predrilled holes to push and set the gear support rods in on the left or right side depending on preferences of the gamer. One item we have to stress is that a good connection is everything with this wheel; we placed the rods in the wheel and the gearshift on the other end and used heavy force to get them stable. The penalty for not doing this is the shifter acts flimsy and likes to wiggle in use (this is prominent in the 6+1 shifter with such tight channels) which makes securing the wheel essential.

For those with a custom mounting setup, the Fanatec comes with preset holes for drilling and a template to help make drilling easy. If one has the means to do this we recommend it as the rewards are noticeable, bringing stable control while fighting cars in each race. We used a classic mounting setup that worked with the Driving Force Pro and the original Fanatec Speedster, a low cost TV tray the wheel and shifter mounted on with the pedals right below. We can say this isn’t the ideal mounting situation; the 911 Turbo S is a strong wheel and it bent our table in many directions. Using our legs for stability and some tape on the bottom of the pedals to hold it to the hardwood floor, we were almost ready.

The Fanatec has a few stages of work before it launches right into play; we used the Xbox 360 as our first subject and ran through the configuration stages to sync the wheel to our console. Connection takes a few minutes and only uses the dedicated Xbox button on the side. With PC and PS3 users the Fanatec uses a few extra steps with the connect and back buttons before it is ready for use which keeps the installation streamlined. PC users should keep in mind they need to install the Windows driver before jumping into their games.