There are plenty of wonderful simulation racing wheels on sale, but what's that saying? There's nothing like the real thing, or something along those lines. Welp, Fanatec's gone ahead and blurred the lines further, because its latest wheel is actually a real BMW M4 GT3 racing wheel. As in, you can connect it to a real M4 GT3 race car via CAN bus and it works. Honestly, that's flat-out awesome.
So cool.
FanatecGracing the world this weekend, the Fanatec Podium Steering Wheel comes off the exact same assembly line as the racing wheel that serves duty in the 2022 M4 GT3 race car. It's made from the same carbon fiber and benefits from the identical insight so many professionals provided in testing the unit for real-life motorsport. Fanatec and BMW worked together from the start of development to ensure it met all of BMW Motorsport's requirements, and happened to be an amazing unit for sim racers.
The buttons and switches all feature backlighting and the company promises the wheel features the most precise thumb encoders to date for a racing wheel. Underneath the BMW emblem sits a four-way D-pad for gamers, and to the sides sit push/pull magnetic shifter paddles. I mean, guys, I can keep describing this unit, but this is a real racing wheel at the end of the day. It's just 12 inches long and weighs about 3 pounds, thanks to all the carbon fiber.
The BMW Fanatec sim racing wheel not only works with the actual car -- if you happened to come in possession of an M4 GT3 -- but it works just as well with a Windows PC. It also plays nice with the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, as long as the wheel connects to a PS-licensed wheel base. And with that, I've never wanted to build a proper sim racing rig more.
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