Fanatec has announced the pricing of its new dual-purpose steering wheel – developed for sim racing and the BMW M4 GT3 race car – that will be available for pre-order on 20th December.
Developed by Fanatec in conjunction with BMW Motorsport, the wheel rim has been homologated for GT3 racing, so can in theory be used on a sim rig, detached, and re-attached into the cockpit of the new M4 GT3 before heading out on track in next season’s GT World Challenge.
Although simracers have never had access to a wheelrim developed form the ground-up for real and virtual racing before, this extra immersion comes at a cost – €/$ 1399.95. However, we reported on a BMW blog earlier this year, only suggesting the cost would be under €5000, so for the final price to be €3600 under is quite a surprise – especially considering the extra safety precautions and complicated electronics required for a real racing machine.
Featuring two clutch paddles, push/pull magnetic shifters and back-lit buttons – very helpful for night racing – the M4 GT3 rim is expected to be available sometime in 2022. And with the release of the BMW M4 GT3 in Assetto Corsa Competizione this week – the official game of the GT World Challenge – sim racers will be able to try out the virtual car and see if the Fanatec BMW M4 GT3 Steering Wheel would look good on their rig.
With a similar Bentley GT3 wheel rim on the way, and the CSL Steering Wheel BMW already available for pre-order, one wonders what else Fanatec has in store for simracing and motorsport fans alike.
Here’s a list of features to be found on the new BMW M4 GT3 Steering Wheel:
- Multi-layer (8 layers) full carbon fibre body
- RGB LED-backlit front buttons (colour-adjustable and dimmable, interchangeable caps)
- Customisable via FanaLab
- Two custom-designed, 12-step thumb encoders with Hall sensors
- Dual-action (push/pull) magnetic shifter paddles
- Fanatec QR2: all-new quick release allows operation in the 2022 BMW M4 GT3 race car
- Communicates with 2022 BMW M4 GT3 via CAN bus
- 310 mm diameter
- 1400 g (approx)
- Designed and developed in Bavaria by Fanatec and BMW Motorsport
- Rubber hand grips molded over carbon fibre structure
- 14 push buttons (12 front-facing, 2 rear-facing) with 700 g activation force
- 1” OLED display
- Three backlit 12-position rotary switches with encoder functionality
- 4-way D-pad under the BMW logo
- Two dual-Hall sensor clutch paddles
- New-generation firmware, upgradeable via integrated USB-C port
- Compatible with Windows PC
- Compatible with all PS4 and PS5 systems when connected to a PlayStation-licensed wheel base
What do you think of the pricing of this new sim/real wheel? Let us know in the comments below.
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