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The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Great racing wheel for casual racers.

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  I was super excited to try the new Thrustmaster T248R. Ive been playing racing games with a controller for years and I’ve always wanted to know what it felt like to use racing wheel. I love to play racing games and one of my favorite games is Forza Horizon 5. Since I am new to the racing wheel world, I had no idea what it entailed. I had no prior knowledge or experience with casual or sim based racing with a racing wheel, so I thought the Thrustmaster T248R would be a good starting point for me. Setup Setting up the T248R was a bit of a chore for me. After unboxing all the accessories and the wheel and pedals, I didn't know how to install the wheel on my desk. The included instructions didn’t explain how to install, so I went to Thrusmaster’s website and watched several how-to videos. This helped tremendously, as I was getting frustrated with the included instructions. I didn’t notice proper instalation instructions on the provided document. Cable management was also a bit of a nuisance. If you are wanting a clean and minimal setup, you will need to take some time to hide the cables and look out for cable length. The cable that connects to the pedals isnt very long. I had to account for this. Also, if you plan on installing the pedals on carpet, there is no carpet stops at the bottom of the pedals. This may cause movement and repositioning the pedals while driving. Installing the Thrustmaster software in the Microsoft store was simple and took almost no time. There are a host of features and options within the software that I’ve yet to explore, but looking forward to over time. How does it perform I was pleasantly surprised how accurate it felt driving with the racing wheel. It does take a learning curve, and Ive yet to fully master after a few weeks of driving. Im playing racing games primarily on my gaming PC, so it took me awhile to learn which buttons to select on the wheel. The wheel feels great with each turn and the included LCD screen is an added bonus. I find myself in awe at the wheel accuracy versus using a controller. The pedals are firm and rigid with good response time when pressing the pedals. It did take me awhile to used to the starting position of the pedals. Conclusion Since this was my first experience with using a racing wheel, I think the Thrustmaster T248R is the perfect starter racing wheel for casual racers like myself. Aside from the lack of carpet stops, my overall experience was mostly positive and fun. If you own a Playstation or PC, this one's is worth taking a look at.

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  Posted 1 month ago by kriserikka

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Great wheel and pedal set!

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 50 Contributor

  Amazing wheel and pedals racing set. It came with all you need to have it desk mounted. They include the wheel, which has a nice LCD screen and LED indicator lights (more on this later), a desk mount (this is my only con here, the mounting clamp is made of plastic and feels cheap and it only has one tensioning point, a long metal screw, that has again, a plastic lever), which was kind of finicky to have setup and I was scared to give it all to make it seat properly on my desk, I felt it was going to break at one point. I rather prefer regular metal clamps, but it is what it is. Once clamped on my desk you connect the wheel base with the pedals set (they nicely include 3, gas, break and clutch), then the USB cable to your PC (my case) or your PlayStation (compatible) and then on the PC you download their windows app to install its configuration software (and firmware updates). The pedals feel great and the break one has a medium stiffness spring, which you can replace with a black one, which is stiffer, depending on your liking, this is great! The wheel itself feels great and responsive to what the car and road is telling you on racing games, this a hybrid system (belt and gear). I like the LCD screen, its really useful and not a gimmick. It can show speed, RPM, gear shifts etc. The LEDs can indicate when its time to upshift, pit stops etc. and you can configure those. The paddle shifters are metal and feel very click and responsive (they are loud though). My only cons are the desk clamp mounting system and the wheel itself (or the back) have lots of plastic, making it feel cheaper, I would prefer more metal all around, but its a very nice starter kit for anyone getting into the racing hobby!

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  Posted 1 month ago by JamexRZ

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Realistic racing

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 50 Contributor

  The Thrustmaster T248R is a great entry level wheel and pedal for those looking to get in to the racing sim market. With different manufactures out there producing a variety of different set ups it can sometimes be difficult to determine which is the right fit for you. Hopefully this will help answer some questions. For review purposes this was tested on a PC against Assetto Corsa and Need for speed heat. Out of the box you get everything you need to get you started including the racing wheel, 3 pedal base and all necessary wires. This particular model also comes with an additional spring for you to be able to change brake pedal pressure. There are three settings you can set up for in the way of firmness, but please note this is only for the brake pedal. One thing to note is yes this can be played and mounted without a racing sim cockpit, however for best results this particular module is meant to be used with one. Keep in mind that their are other manufactures out there that create a base pedal set up that allows for cockpit mounting or floor mounting all via a friction style base, this is not that set up. The center LCD display screen at the top of the 12'oclock position was a really cool feature to see on there. Depending on the game you play that screen can be used for different displays such as RPM, rev limit, etc. Corsa gave me full function and the ability to map it how i wanted where as more laid back games like Need for Speed Heat gave me no ability to set it up. Speaking of set up, Thrustmaster in my opinion has never been user friendly in the way of mapping buttons and more importantly firmware updates. What i mean in particular is other models out there can do everything through a provided app, and yes, while Thrustmaster does provide a app that allows for button mapping and supposed "Firmware Updates" that was not the case for me as of the time of writing this review. I own 2 other Thrustmasters so i already know the procedure, but this particular model required me to download the Firmware off of Thrustmasters main site then i had to install it through the app. I tried to bypass the app and nope, the Firmware would not load properly and road force feeback when playing Asseto Corsa was basically non-existant. Just something to keep in mind in case your not exactly tech savvy. Now moving on to functionality when gaming, the steering wheel and pedal does a very good job at offering pretty realistic feedback. Even when playing a simple game like Need for Speed Heat, when taking a turn at a high rate of speed you can feel the G-Force adding more resistance to the steering wheel making it tougher to control around the bend. When apexing your turns and running over the curb ever so slightly the wheel does a good job at mimicking that slight hop. Wheel jolt can then be felt adding slight instability in the steering wheel that you would expect to feel when racing on a real track. Pedal and steering wheel input is instantaneous, and while i didn't actually measure input speed it feels like 1ms or less. There was one experience i did notice on the T248R model that i had experienced on my other Thrustmaster models as well and that was random feedback drop outs. I would be racing in my game, didn't matter which one, and if i took a turn too hard and ended up in the dirt or grass, the force feedback would go crazy as you would expect it to in real life, and then randomly would just cut out and stop working for a few seconds. What's disappointing is my previous model did the same thing and so does this model. So i would race, slide off the track, wheel would give me the correct feedback based on my situation, then would get back on the track the steering wheel would have no resistance or feedback, then 20 secs later it would come back. This happens rarely, but when it does happen its very frustrating as it tends to take you out of the immersion of the game. Even more frustrating is this was a issue on previous models as well. Overall if your looking for something to get your foot in the door with that won't seriously break the bank then this is a set up for you. If you have kids or maybe you don't take care of things too well, then this is a set up for you. My previous models i have had my kids drop my wheel and spill liquids on them and they still keep working years on down the road. If you are not too good at setting up software, then you may want to look around as their are other brands that will give you a more user friendly experience and still provide the same quality feedback. Overall Thrustmaster builds good quality products that will probably out live all of us. My only gripe and reason for 4 stars is the very rare random cut outs.

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  Posted 1 month ago by Crasher