Sim racing wheel and wheelbase database

Peak torque is the maximum rotational force a wheelbase motor can apply at the shaft, measured in newton metres. It is a ceiling rather than a setting. Almost nobody drives with overall gain at maximum, because a base near its limit clips, meaning several different forces arrive at the same saturated value and you can no longer tell them apart. A stronger base run at half output frequently feels more detailed than a weaker base run flat out.

Drive type describes what sits between the motor and your hands. Gear driven wheels use a helical gear train, which is cheap, strong for its size and audibly mechanical, with a small dead spot at centre. Belt driven wheels replace the gears with a toothed belt, which removes the notchiness and softens the smallest details. Direct drive bolts the rim to the motor shaft with nothing in between, so every force the physics engine produces arrives unfiltered. That is why a 5 Nm direct drive base can feel more informative than a gear wheel that pulls harder.

Rotation is how far the wheel turns lock to lock. Circuit cars need roughly 900 degrees, rally and road cars often want more, and formula cars use far less. A 270 degree wheel cannot represent a road car steering rack at all, which is the single clearest signal that a wheel is a controller rather than a simulator input.

Mounting is derived from the torque figure, not stated by the manufacturer, and it is the specification people ignore most often. Force feedback is a reaction force: whatever the base pushes against has to push back. Torque you cannot mount is torque you cannot use. Work out what your frame can hold with the wheelbase torque calculator, and check the frame fits the room with the rig space calculator.

For buying advice rather than raw specifications, start with the best sim racing wheels, the best direct drive wheelbases, or the side by side numbers in the wheelbase torque chart.

Specifications are drawn from manufacturer published figures and product listings and can change between hardware revisions. We research published specifications and verified owner reviews rather than testing gear in person. Confirm current specifications with the manufacturer before purchase.

The gain column is the one that makes the chart useful. It is the overall gain percentage that produces roughly 6 Nm at the rim, which is close to what a real GT car delivers and close to where most sim racers settle. Read across it and the point becomes obvious: a base in the top band and a base in the middle band feel almost identical in ordinary cornering. The difference only appears at the peaks, where the stronger base still has somewhere to go and the weaker one flattens off.

That is also why the mounting column matters more than the price column. A base you cannot bolt down properly has to be run turned down, at which point you have paid for reserve you cannot use. Decide the frame first, confirm the pairing with the wheelbase torque calculator, and only then shop the models. Every published figure in one table is on the wheelbase torque chart, and platform support model by model is on the wheel compatibility chart.