Nacon's first attempt at sim racing hardware is so good that I'm not sure it's charging enough for it

Sim racing used to be quite a niche area of gaming. Yes, you had a couple of cheaper racing wheel options from big brands, but the higher-end gear was seemingly always left to a few specialised manufacturers. That’s changed in recent times though, and now not only are more and more gaming brands trying to secure a spot on the sim racing starting grid, they’re starting to battle each other on price in the pit lane too.

That's where the Nacon Revosim RS Pure enters the race. An experienced hybrid game publisher and hardware manufacturer, this is Nacon’s first attempt at a sim racing setup, and it’s getting punchy on lap one because at $799/£699 the Revosim RS Pure falls right in a gap in the market. With everything you need to build a full setup in one box, including a 9Nm direct drive wheelbase, there simply aren’t any other best racing wheel bundles available at this price point, and certainly none that claim this level of on-paper performance.

This begs a question: Why haven’t we seen this kind of offering at this price before? Is it because it can’t be done without cutting too many corners, or is Nacon just executing a well-planned undercut? I’ve been racing with the Revosim RS Pure for the last couple of weeks in search of an answer.

Design

I’ve tested a wide range of sim racing equipment across the full price and quality spectrum, from budget classics like the Logitech G923 to higher-end options like the MOZA R12 and Logitech G Pro. Traditionally, it’s always seemed like a case of getting what you pay for, but unboxing the Nacon Revosim RS Pure, I immediately started to question that theory. As I lifted each part of the bundle out of the box, I became less and less convinced I’d read the $799/£699 price point correctly. This gear looks and feels much more premium than that.

Everything you need to start your sim racing journey from scratch is included in the box, along with a few extra flourishes that again, defy its price. The star of the show is ironically the least exciting looking, a 9Nm direct drive wheelbase that follows the script when it comes to modern design. It’s a black box with a few go-faster (mounting) grooves down each side and that’s about all there is to talk about. It looks, and perhaps more importantly, feels, incredibly similar to more premium options like the MOZA R12 with plenty of heft and a fully metal outer layer.

Connections are all housed around the back of the RS Pure wheelbase, not that you can use all of them yet. The basics are here, with a six-pin power cable and its accompanying button, the USB-C connection to your PC, and a proprietary port for the included two-pedal set.

There are two further ports for a Revosim RS shifter and handbrake, though neither of those is actually available to purchase yet and you won’t be able to connect up any other-brand gear you might already have. In brighter news, there are a couple of surprise additions that I have to applaud Nacon for. Not only is there a Bluetooth pairing button to directly connect the RS Pure to your phone, but there’s also a 3.5mm headphone jack, something I’ve only ever seen on the Turtle Beach VelocityOne. It’s a really nice quality of life feature, particularly for racers like me using a racing seat away from their desk and PC.

The Revosim RS Pure Steering Wheel is just as strong in terms of build quality, and again, lots of the expected design elements you’ll find on other wheels are here. This is a classic 30cm GT-style rim with some gentle sculpting in the usual areas and wonderfully soft and slightly padded faux leather upholstery all over. There’s a little dot matrix texturing on the main grip area, and even the internal stitching is softer and more comfortable than I’ve seen on more expensive wheels. Around the back, the main body is plastic but I’ll forgive that as it doesn’t feel cheap or hollow. The shift paddles are metal, though feel quite lightweight; it takes very little force to activate them and while I don’t mind this personally, some eager racers may end up with more shifts than they aimed for. The strikingly green and fully metal quick release is beefy and secure, and I appreciate the fact that it holds itself in the open position when not attached.

Features

Twelve programmable buttons are spread around the edge of a metal faceplate, though some of these are further from the thumb’s reach than I’d like, and I have reasonably large hands. I love Nacon’s decision to include swappable plastic covers and stickers for these as standard though, that’s the kind of thoughtful touch I’d expect from a top-end wheel. A thumbstick and rotary encoder round off the front inputs. I’d have liked a little more resistance to each step of that knob; it’s a little too light for more detailed adjustments on the fly, but it’s nicely grippy with a rough outer texture.

Heading to the floor, the Revosim RS Pure includes a modular, two-pedal set with a separate heel plate. It’s all metal, again, and at this point, I’m sure you’re getting tired of me saying it feels more premium than its price. It’s true though, these pedals aren’t flashy or overly designed like the Logitech G Pro’s $379 set. They’re almost industrial but in a reassuring way. There’s plenty of adjustability here with a large faceplate on the throttle and a 100kg load cell sensor in the brake. There’s even an assortment of different elastomers included too, so you can dial in the resistance and feel of the brake underfoot. Guess what? That’s an inclusion I’d expect to see on more expensive gear than this.

Performance

As far as bundles go, the Nacon Revosim RS Pure is a pretty comprehensive one—as I write this, it even includes a pair of racing gloves as an added extra, though I imagine that deal will come and go over time. What it will always include in addition to the wheelbase, rim, and pedals, however, is the hardware needed to mount it to your desk. It’s a sturdy bracket, but one I wouldn’t actually recommend you use. 9Nm of torque isn’t to be messed with and there’s a great chance you’ll see all manner of gear rattling off your desk or even tear that cheap flat-pack desktop in half around a tight hairpin.

Instead, I’d recommend doing what I did and mounting the RS Pure to a racing seat. I’m using the (excellent) Playseat Formula Instinct, though the mounting pattern and included bolts should make this pretty universally compatible with racing seats from a range of brands. Admittedly, the RS Pure wasn’t as simple a setup process as I’ve had before with other wheels. Everything did eventually line up, but the T-slot nuts used to attach the wheelbase to the platform are fiddly to install and took a few goes to all have pointing in the right direction at the same time. The pedals were equally argumentative to get secured, but did eventually fix firmly in place.

The Revosim desktop app was quick to recognize my full bundle and offers the basic range of adjustment options you’d expect to see from any wheel. There are four default profiles here for different racing styles, but be warned, it turns out it’s incredibly easy to accidentally switch between these by clicking the rotating encoder on the wheel itself. Don’t ask me how I discovered this quirk, and definitely don’t ask which words I used trying to work out why I could suddenly no longer corner midway through a lap in F1 25. Just keep an eye on the four white diagonal lines on your wheel as they reflect which profile you’re currently in.

With everything set up, I was keen to jump straight out on track and see what the RS Pure was capable of, but this was annoyingly easier said than done. As is often the case with brand new additions to the sim racing grid, game compatibility is distinctly lacking early on, and it’s an even smaller field of options than the Nacon website will have you believe. Don’t assume that just because a title has a tick next to it in the compatibility grid that you’ll be able to load it up and hit the tarmac. ‘Compatible’ here means that the game will acknowledge the RS Pure bundle exists, that’s it. It doesn’t mean that anything will be pre-bound, pre-configured, or actually tailored to work together at all.

There are a handful of games that are what I would actually consider ‘compatible’, so I spent most of my time in F1 25, EA WRC, and Forza Horizon 5. This was worth the frustrations though, because across all three, the Nacon Revosim RS Pure was superb and great fun to drive with. Don’t feel belittled by some of the specs of more expensive wheels; the 9Nm of torque available through the wheelbase is more than enough for a majority of sim racers. I did find it often needed quite a lot of tweaking to get the feel right, both through in-game settings and the Revosim app. I assume (and hope) this will improve over time to become a little more plug-and-play, but for now, be prepared for some time in the digital pits.

When you do find the right setup, there’s plenty of oomph here to wrestle you around a tight, gravel-covered rally corner or deliver the full brunt of a snap of oversteer from a poorly set-up Red Bull at Silverstone. It may not feature quite the same level of force feedback realism as something like Logitech’s G Pro wheel, but for essentially half the price of that bundle, I was genuinely impressed by the detail carried by the Nacon Revosim RS Pure. I don’t claim to be an incredible sim racer, I still have the racing line turned on and I stick to it, but I could feel the degradation of my tyres lap after lap in F1 25. I haven’t said it in a while, so I’ll say it again now: this is a $799 bundle with everything you need included, and it’s punching well above its weight.

I was pleased to see a bunch of different colored elastomers in the Revosim RS Pure’s box, nine in total, which combine to unlock an impressively broad range of customization potential. These dictate how firm the pedal feels underfoot and how much force you’ll need to apply to hit maximum braking, something you can further tweak on the software side in the Revosim app. The softest compound comes preinstalled, a wise choice for the masses, though it doesn’t take much effort to swap these out and play around with different setups. The accelerator uses a Hall effect sensor for precise tracking of its position, and the pedal itself offers enough resistance to deliver plenty of control with a reasonable travel distance too.

Also included with the RS Pure bundle is a clip that slides cleverly into one of the mounting grooves on the top of the wheelbase. It’s a neat idea that lets you use your phone as a telemetry or dash display, though it’s a feature that feels noticeably undercooked for now. There just aren’t many titles that are making use of the feature and it would have been good to see Nacon spend a little longer locking in these integrations before launch. It meant I personally got very little use from this potentially standout feature, though your mileage may vary, and I’m sure it’ll improve over time as software catches up to hardware.

Should you buy the Revosim RS Pure bundle?

It’s not quite perfect, but the Revosim RS Pure is a superb first entry to the genre from Nacon. Build quality and general performance are both excellent, and importantly, on par with more expensive options from other brands. To have delivered this level of performance with so few genuine cutbacks is worthy of serious praise, and it’ll be interesting to see what (if any) knock-on effect it has in the market. Interestingly, the French brand has confirmed both Xbox and PlayStation versions of the bundle coming soon, so there are more ripples to be made in console-shaped pools too.

There are teething and compatibility issues here; they’re no greater than what you’d expect from a brand-new ecosystem, but they do hold the experience back. It means the Nacon Revosim RS Bundle is easy to recommend to new sim racers, or those looking to upgrade from a belt-driven beginner setup, but with the caveat of holding on a few more months or being prepared to invest serious time in button mapping. It’s clear that Nacon is making improvements all the time; a couple of new games popped up with pre-configured button maps in my time testing it. Just be warned that it’s not quite as broadly plug-and-play yet as I’m sure it will be eventually.

How I tested the Revosim RS Pure bundle

I hooked up the Nacon Revosim RS Pure bundle to my gaming PC and used it as my primary sim racing setup for a few weeks. It was mounted to the Playseat Formula Instinct - F1 Edition cockpit throughout, using the supplied tools and bolts from the box. In testing, I tried a range of games, both from Nacon’s published compatibility list and a few extra titles that aren’t officially mentioned, launching them both via the Revosim app and directly via both Steam and the Xbox desktop app. I tried a range of wheel configuration options, starting with the default presets in the app, as well as making manual adjustments to check the impact of different features.

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