The best value for money in any sim racing setup comes from modular racing wheel bases. These are the nerve centre of any wheel, pedal, and gear shifter bundle, and modular ones allow you to attach more than one wheel to them, giving you better scope to specialize in an area of racing you like best. Essentially, they're the thing you're really paying money for when you buy one of the best PC racing wheels. But boy, do you usually have to pay money for them.
Modular setups from the likes of Logitech G can cost you within the region of $1,000, and if you start to look at the even more specialist brands, prices go even higher. Turtle Beach, which is still a relatively new team in the sim racing world, is launching a new modular setup today, which only costs $449 / £329 - an alluring price point versus the competition.
The racing sim market seems to be heating up at the moment, but Turtle Beach is filling a gap in the market in terms of price. Thrustmaster's latest offering avoids a modular design entirely; instead, it's doubling down on a more affordable flagship. The new Nacon Revosim Pure Bundle offers the same modularity with more power, but it's a few steps up on the pricing ladder. Moza's R3 bundle is the only modular build I know that comes close to what Thrustmaster is launching today.
Turtle Beach might be going for a ballsy undercut here, but based on its first racing wheel, the Turtle Beach Velocity One Race, it has a fair bit to prove. Although the brand's first crack at sim racing had some great specs, it wasn't received all too well on the whole, and the unreliable compatibility and force feedback led us to bring it into the pit stop instead of allowing it to join the grand prix of best Xbox steering wheels.
The new Velocity One KD 3 is a more affordable, scaled-back option. It only offers 3.2Nm of peak torque compared to 7.2Nm in the Velocity One Race. That's understandable, seeing as it has a much smaller (and less bulky) form factor in its wheel base. The pedals are customizable though, with a Hall effect throttle and brake. Disappointingly, there's no room for a clutch, which does limit things slightly.
Thankfully, a modular build isn't going to waste, because there's already an F-RX wheel available separately, which looks more like a track-specific option, similar to the one found in the Logitech G RS Wheel Hub range.
It's definitely shaping up to be an interesting mid-range race in the wheel and pedal market right now. Thrustmaster's T248R isn't modular, but it does have a similar price point for PlayStation and PC players and offers more torque. The new KD 3 is available only for Xbox and PC, but if you're on a gaming PC, you've got loads of choice right now.
- View all racing wheels at Amazon
- Thrustmaster T248R: $349.99 at Amazon
- Moza R3 Bundle: $359 at Amazon
Are you okay without the pricey sim racing gear for now? Check out the best PC controllers, the best PS5 controllers, and the best Xbox Series X controllers.
