Thrustmaster T500 RS steering wheel for Gran Turismo 5 & PS3
—The latest racing wheel with official Gran Turismo credentials is the Thrustmaster T500 RS, and it’s a beast.
“The goal that I set for the Thrustmaster team was to design for me the most precise wheel ever developed, without any latency – to accurately reproduce the sensations of GT5, and let users truly feel the emotions experienced by drivers on real racing circuits” said Kazunori Yamauchi, CEO of Gran Turismo developer Polyphony Digital and Senior Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
The first thing you’ll notice is it’s weight….heavy… due to the large quantities of metal used in the construction. The wheel unit weighs 4.6 kg (10.1 lbs) and the pedal set weighs 7.3 kg (16 lbs). The pedals, which are constructed entirely from metal, can be configured in a “floor-mounted” F1 style, or “suspended” GT style, and feature adjustable resistance on the brake pedal.
The 65 W industrial motor give you forced feedback, capable of generating 150mNm of torque at 3000 RPM. But despite all that power, the Thrustmaster T500 RS does not vibrate out of control due to a large dual-belt system. Thrustmaster’s patent-pending magnetic sensor-based H.E.A.R.T HallEffect AccuRate Technology gives the wheel 65536 discrete positional values along its 1080 degrees of rotation. The motorized stop feature means you can choose the maximum amount of rotation on the wheel to suit the car you’re driving and the circuit you’re driving on.
The T500 RS will be available from January 5 in North America and Europe and from January 25 in Japan, at a suggested retail price of US$599.99 / £449.99 / €499.99. A gear stick add-on will be available in the coming months, so you’ll have use the sequential paddle shifter until then.
12/24/10
