i bought a new wheel last weekend since my old one started to be very shaky and noisy. so i went for the logitech momo racing wheel. my old one is the logitech wingman force and i love the non-tooth-wheel-feeling so the change to the new is some kind of difficult. especially for high speed steering (correction of oversteer
) the old one is much better than the new stuff and i am really afraid of breaking something sometimes. but the precision and the pedals are really great. the feedback is much better (more effect channels) and stronger. unfortunately, i got this swaying and rattling on straights which is mentioned in lot of racing boards. every hint to fix this was without success so this is a little bit disappointing. after a couple of laps to get familar with the new wheel i was able to drive a 7:54 again but i had troubles with the pedals which were working as combined axis. uninstalling, deleting of all logitech wingman software and a fresh new reinstall fixed this problem. so i went for a short test race to check if the setup and the wheel will work but it was quite a mess. the feedback was so strong and the rattling on the straights rendered the car very unstable. i decreased the force to 80% within gtr (150% at the control panel) and i added a small deadzone (2%) for the steering (which i really dislike usually) to get a stable car on the straights.
i did some small adaption of the setup, symmetrical springs on the front, a lifted rear (5 mm) and a stronger sway bar on the front. i thought i am quite used to the new wheel so i started a new 24 h race (the 4th if i remember correct). i started at position 30 to get rid of the pressure from behind for the first laps. but the porsches were acting very strange. the track was quite hot, 37 degrees, and everybody was pushing very hard. but the porsches were sliding and powersteering in each bend so it was quite dangerous to follow, not to think about passing. after 7 laps, i had 4 or 5 spins and 2 crashes with unexpected spinned cars. more then 10 cars were out and my elise was damaged so that i wasnt able to reach 240 km/h on the straights. due the fact that it was impossible to drive a constant line and the loosy car i was so angry that i cancelled the race.
i went back to the garage to perform another short test session. i set the rear wing to 7 instead of 6 to get more grip on the rear so that it will be easier to break in bends. a short run gave me a 7:54 on a 27 degree track which is quite ok and the car felt much more better. lets go for race number 5. i started on position 30 again, track temp was above 30 degree, forecast dry (unfortunately), opponents at 105% and wild. the first lap was except a spin of a porsche (what else) in turn one without any troubles. so i started to increase the speed to get close to my 8 minutes laps. the car behavior is great, much more predictable, superior grip and handling. after passing 3 or 4 cars i had the chance to drive 3 laps without passings on difficult parts and i got a 7:59, 7:58, 8:03 (two passes) in a row. then a couple of passings (overlapping the elise and a porsche), the gts went for their stops, stopped my furious trip to 8:10-8:15 for 2 or 3 laps. then the track was free again, just a g2-viper in front of me. lap 8 and 9 was really fast, the empty tank, the free track and the returned confidence in me, the car and the wheel leaded to a 7:56 (one pass) and a 8:03 (inside pits). i was able to get closer to the g2 viper in section 3! (karussel-galgenkopf). now on position 11, it was time for the pits, fuel and small repair (touch with a porsche while passing him) took 38 seconds. the tire wear was 5,5 on the front and 4,5 on the rear which is really great for soft tires and this speed. (i now, that are gt-tires and i feel quite bad driving those wheels on my ngt car
) i saved the race because it was late but i learned that i drove the 7th fastest lap with just 4 seconds slower than the fastest lap overall. i think i should switch to gt class with my car to be fair.