Usage Notes
I can say I was very happy with the overall design and functionality of the cockpit. It is a slightly heavier unit due to the use of steel tubing vs. extruded aluminum, but through clever design and manufacturing they gave an impressive amount of functionality and configurability to what has to be considered an entry level full cockpit.
The ease of use of the cockpit as well as how quickly it could convert into Formula and GT sitting positions is another positive. Yes, some of the conversions on aluminum profile units are much simpler due to those more extensive designs, but the end user will end up paying for that ease of configuration. The seat can be adjusted back and forth quite simply with the included hardware, just as one would do in a car. Pull the lever under the seat and adjust as needed.
Once in position I found that the seat did not move even under fairly strong inputs from the wheel. When getting up and sitting down I noticed the right side of the seat does slide forward a bit, but quickly settles back in place. I perhaps would have preferred a more locked down position, but it was not a showstopper.
The PU leather was comfortable to race on for extended periods of time, but it will not breathe as much as other materials such as microfiber or fabric options. This comes with the cost of the overall unit, as using PU leather will provide a lot of wear vs. cloth, but it will not breathe as nicely as a far more expensive microfiber unit. I am of course using this in winter time where the house temperature is in the low 70s to upper 60s. Summer when temperatures start to soar a bit may be a different experience.
Using 4 to 8 nm gear/pulley FFB bases did not stress out the platform in the least. I was able to use them without issue. The pedal flexing when using a higher force load cell brake was a bit concerning, but the extra struts provided with the latest packages should clear up a lot of that (as long as the Formula pedal position is used).
