One of the more famous modders is Derek Speare. He makes a wide variety of components in the industry, ranging from button boxes, to shifter enhancements, to adapters that allow you to put a real life steering wheel on your T500RS or Logitech G25/27!
This month I purchased the T500RS Wheel Adapter, and we'll now see how the adapter works, and how it changes your experience!
PART 1: CONSTRUCTION
The T500RS Wheel adapter is the product of a 3D printer, and it is SOLID! There is no flex whatsoever, and does not feel brittle. It comes with 6 self-tapping screws that will bore quite nicely into the adapter for your wheel to be mounted (it comes out of box with pre-drilled holes to begin with though). It will work with any 6 hole 70mm pattern steering wheel. This thing is built to last!
PART 2: DESIGN AND INSTALLATION
The design for the wheel adapter was sourced directly from Thrustmaster in the form of a CAD model, and then had some tweaking by Derek to make sure the adapter stays solid on the wheel base. Installation was interesting though. I believe that due to a minor design issue that causes the adapter to be forced to be installed "upside down" it does not install the same was as Thrustmaster's stock rims, and leads to a very small off-centeredness and mounting screw being off, but that can be debated. If you run iRacing, rF2, or Assetto Corsa, you can re-calibrate your wheel to run the DSD adapter, so it wouldn't be too big a problem.
PART 3: DRIVING
This may be subjective to which aftermarket wheel you run, but the wheel I ran was this one:
It is a $30 steering wheel I purchased from Amazon, but it definitely provides a great feel attached to the T500RS! Some of the quirky nuances with the stock GT rim are dulled if not removed with an aftermarket wheel. The wheel feels a lot less coggy, and feels a lot more fluid. I've only done a couple oval races with it, but I can tell an aftermarket wheel does allow you to have a much smoother feel!
One other plus (that is somewhat exclusive to my rig, but may apply to other rigs), is that there is more visibility between the top of the wheel and the base. With the stock GT rim, there is visibility issues in the gauges that are now visible with the aftermarket rim.
One compromise you will make with an aftermarket wheel is that you lose the 9 buttons and directional pad that is on the GT Rim. You can also buy a wheel plate from DSD if you want to put buttons on your aftermarket wheel, but that requires a bit of a DIY work, or you can buy a wheel plate from Sam Maxwell, which is top-notch level quality that will likely leave your GT Rim in a box.
PART 4: CONCLUSION
Derek Speare's T500RS Adapter is a great addition for the T500RS owner, but it also is what you make of it. You can go the $30 wheel route, like I did, and be perfectly content with the added smoothness of the wheel and level of immersion, or you could always go all-out and get a MOMO or a SPARCO wheel, and get a high level of immersion! There are some minor hiccups that can be easily fixed in a V2 model, but you definitely can adjust to it and have a great time with it.
RATING: 85/100!
You can buy the adapter from http://www.derekspearedesigns.com
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