The Chicane Podcast

Latest in F1 Dynamics and the Fanatec Situation

• TGS Sim Racing • Episode 4

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Our in-house F1 expert Jeff Smart, alongside co-host Eric Kelly, takes you through a high-octane discussion on the sim racing landscape. This episode, we're putting the pedal to the metal with F1 23's 'Simcade' fusion of simulation and arcade, dissecting graphics, multiplayer platforms, and the odd choice to forego mouse support on PC. Jeff's sharp insights don't miss a beat in celebrating the game's dynamic sync with the actual F1 season, offering fans a virtual seat in their favorite driver's cockpit.

Switching gears, our conversation cruises through the technical bends that shape our sim racing rigs. From the limitations of game engines to the nuances of car physics and feedback, we leave no stone unturned. The spotlight shines on the transition from DIY wooden setups to the sleek 8020 system, with a nod to the versatile and cost-effective American Sim Racing ASR1 rig. We share the thrill of customizing our setups and the search for that perfect tactile feedback, proving that in sim racing, every detail counts to cross the finish line.

As we cool our engines towards the episode's end, we navigate the bumpy track of customer service within the sim racing gear industry. Tackling Fanatec's recent challenges head-on, from shipping woes to support struggles, we shed light on the community's concerns and the need for compatibility and transparency. With the anticipation of F1 24's release fueling our excitement, we look forward to new gaming horizons and maybe even getting Eric on the virtual grid. So, join us for this lap of insights and excitement – it's an episode no sim racing aficionado should miss!

Please e-mail the show for any questions, comments or stories/experiences at thechicanepodcast@gmail.com

Watch the show in video podcast form on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/@TGSsimracing

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Intro/Outro Rights below:
Song: Low Mileage - Hold You [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds
Free Download/Stream: http://ncs.io/holdyou
Watch: http://ncs.lnk.to/holdyouAT/youtube

Jason:

The Hello and welcome to the Chicane Podcast, where we discuss all things in the sim racing world. I'm your host, Jason Rivera, and I'm joined here by Mr Eric Kelly and Jeff Smart. How are you guys doing today?

Erick:

Doing great man. Great to see you guys again.

Jason:

All right, welcome back. So today we have three topics that we're going to talk about. We might have a bonus topic added on today if we have some time. So the first topic we're going to cover is on the current F-123 game, because the new F-124 game is slated to be released at the end of May. Then we're going to go into Jeff's thoughts on the new F-124 game and then we're also going to cover the Fanatec situation that I'm calling because there's a lot of news and a lot of articles and a lot of updates that are happening daily. So we want to give everyone a brief summarization of what's going on with that situation. So, with that said, we're going to walk this into the first topic and I'll hand this over to Eric.

Erick:

With that said, we're going to walk this into the first topic and I'll hand this over to Eric. Yeah, man. So if you guys don't know, jeff is our resident F1 expert, a fan of all things F1, got on his Mercedes hat right now and we want to start out by asking Jeff what your thoughts are on the current F1 23 game. Like if there's anything that you like. I personally want to know things you like about it and things you're hoping that they fix, like issues with it.

Jeff:

Yeah, so I got in, as previously noted, got into some racing for F1 and F1 23 is, I believe, the only licensed F1 game where you can actually jump in Verstappen's car, lewis Hamilton's car, with the Mercedes and the Red Bull livery on it. So you can do it other ways, you know, through some modding and stuff, but F1 23 by EA Sports is the only one that you can just jump in and race. Oh, yeah.

Jeff:

So I like it. A lot of people give it a hard time that it's a Simcade. It is Nope, not no argument here. It might not be as polished driving simulator as you know. Your set of course, competition on it, or ACC or some of the other ones. You know the physics is probably where it's really. You know the, the, the physics is probably where it it it's really. You know, not eye to eye with some of those other high end um Sims that I just kind of alluded to. But uh, I think the graphics are good. A lot of times people are, um, you know they're they. They might be a little bit oversaturated.

Jeff:

Um but they're good. It's awesome. I mean you, you, you, for what it is is a sim kid and I'll be awesome, I drive it, I enjoy it, I have a great time. I think the multiplayer in the f1 world uh, portion of that game is is awesome, where you can jump in there and do time trials. You can do you know, a short grand prix, um, you can do. You know situations where, um, you know you have five laps left to go and it's raining. There's a whole bunch of different things. There's a decent online platform where you can race other people. If I want to jump in in Hawaii, the time zones don't really match up, but I can jump in and get a race and that's not easy with all the other platforms.

Jason:

That's a good point.

Jeff:

That's a very good point, but I am going to go down somewhere here and I know you guys know where I'm going with this, but there is no mouse for F1 23. Come on, we put a man on the moon, like 40 years ago. We can't get a mouse on a PC game. Come on, ea, come on.

Jason:

And how many games. They're on their 23rd game, Jeff Dude. You know, theoretically, theoretically 23. I don't know how many games I mean. I might need a fact check, but come on, dude.

Erick:

They made enough to know they need a mouse in the game. I'll tell you that.

Jeff:

Yeah, come on, dude, they've made enough to know they need a mouse in the game. I'll tell you that. Yeah, um, I, I enjoy it. So, um, real f1 uh seasons going on, like a couple weeks ago, um, they were in china and it's cool, I can jump in and through doing the f1 season in the f123. I can do china that week. So I, I'm doing, you know, monday after work I jump in there and do some uh my prep, my FP one, uh free practice one, uh FP two and FP three, and then throughout the week I'm getting in there and I do my qualifying and I do and I can knock out a. I think I do like a, I think I'd do like a one-third length race in China, and then I can jump in on Sunday morning and watch my Mercedes under-deliver and under-perform.

Jason:

Well, wait a minute now I'm going to butt in there. I'm going to butt in there. We had a sprint quali race in China, and who was number one? Jeff, who was number?

Jeff:

one. Hey, the mercedes don't get to say that very often, but it was hamilton specifically was number one p1 so from that perspective, it's an awesome game. Like I, I can learn the track at the same time that you know. Uh, george russell is doing fp1 in the same track you know. So from that perspective, it's awesome. That's a great point.

Jason:

That is a great point you know, because you can learn the turns, because you know how the turns feel, you know how they enter, you know speed that goes into the turns and while you're watching the actual race you're kind of like, oh wait, he should be in third gear, fourth gear, fifth gear, what? What gears he in? And you can kind of compare your lap times to theirs and see what they're doing.

Jeff:

Can I carry? Third, yeah, can I carry, just adds a little bit. Yeah, it's a little bit more to uh, not the immersion, but you know, like you're going on the tour on the season with the actual f1 crew right, that's yeah that's cool.

Erick:

That's the ultimate immersion, like literally, like you can watch the race and say, yeah, I just came from running that you know going around those turns and all that stuff, so I never thought about that.

Jeff:

That's cool yeah, it makes me feel a little better too when I go do track limits and I'm doing track limits on the same corner. It makes me feel a little better.

Erick:

Yeah, that's dope man With that, with the complaints about F-123, I know one of the things you're looking for in F-124, my support. Is there anything else that you're looking forward to in F-124 that you've either heard about or is on your wish list?

Jeff:

Yeah, not holding my breath on the mouse Acknowledged, or is just more of the driving experience to get it. You know, raise it up a bar to get a little bit closer to the set of course of competition, just your ACC. Where it comes to realism, watching some of the videos on YouTube, I think we're getting a little bit of it. You know, I think EA is releasing maybe what they want at this point keeping their cards closer to their hand a little bit. But uh, you know, time will tell, time will tell I'll, I'll be transparent, I'm gonna get it because I'm the one guy.

Jeff:

It is what it is um time will definitely tell time will tell, right um I. I think that they are maxing out that that engine that they have I forget what it's called the engine that they're using for their.

Jason:

That is a good point, that's a great point they are they've been using the same engine for years yeah, they haven't they haven't changed over. One of them is frostbite. I'm not sure if they're using the frostbite. We got to look up. We got to look that up. Uh, to help out jeff here, because I know he wants this is proper triple screen support, because right now we're staring at a freaking stretched out image and it just hurts my head to look at. You know what I mean.

Erick:

That's painful.

Jason:

They pretend like it's triple screen support, but there is no full fidelity there, like the other Sims.

Jeff:

Valid point. No argument incurred. No comments.

Jason:

Yeah, cause the F one 24 game, as Eric and I discussed in the in the previous, in the past, uh, they're talking about physics and tire models and suspension models and I'm like all this information that's written on a single piece of paper, all this information that's written on a single article, on a document. But can you show that to me, can you make me feel, can I feel that in my hands? Or are you just going to shake the camera around, like I mentioned before, to make it seem like the damn suspension? Because the thing is, when you race on other simulators, when you, when you get on other sims, you feel everything that the car is doing the f1 game. You're not really. It's not all the way there, and I think jeff can talk to you more about that.

Jason:

Is what I'm saying is the weight. I can't tell how heavy these cars are because there's just it's just dead. You know what I mean? It's kind of like you're turning a wheel and the wheel is fixed at a certain weight and that's it. You drive this cars on ACC. We talked about that elevation and stuff like that. The car feels significantly lighter in the air when it's coming up the hill, vice, when the car is completely slammed on the front and the suspension is loaded. I can feel the dampening effect big time in my hands.

Jeff:

Yeah, a good point. When you're coming in hot into a corner or driving the McLaren 720 and ACC into a corner, you can feel the weight of that car trying to get stopped. I think you hit the nail on the head there that it's just not to the fidelity that those other cities are. Yeah, I think we're getting there. It's almost like that ea is putting, you know, the window dressing on and nice shingles and siding, but it's it's just a not a solid foundation, right? If that analogy makes any sense no, and it's.

Jason:

And again, I don't mean to bring this up again. You know we summarize that, but I'm really upset because I'm a fan and this podcast is not to bash EA, if EA is listening. Sorry, but I care about the sim racer. I care about the people that put money into this hobby and want to have a good experience but then it's getting ruined by false advertisement, false promises you promised us, you've been promising us, a better driving experience. Every single year this game comes out and it feels almost identical. I think 23 was the first game that finally changed the physics since f1 uh, f118. And I was talking to jeff about this the other day and I was like jeff, he was complaining about f12123 and how you wish it was more realistic and I was like dude, you have no idea how we got here. You know what I'm saying and that's what I was talking about in the previous episode. It's a good time to come into the hobby now, because things are kind of leveling out. You know what I'm saying.

Erick:

Yeah.

Jeff:

I got one more update for people. I believe we're getting new maps, a re-scans of spa, maybe silverstone, maybe a handful of other tracks. I think maybe Abu Dhabi has a re-scan of some updates that the track in real life now will have in F one 24. So excited to see that.

Erick:

Yeah.

Jeff:

And I guess this is kind of turning into maybe a little fast session with EA. But you know they are doing, they are moving the ball forward here. They are doing some, some, some, some good updates to the F1 experience in the sim world. So excited to see those yeah.

Erick:

I'll say that's definitely what not having any competition does to you. Though, for real, if they're the only ones with the license, the only game that you can hop into, or staff in his car, or you know lewis hamilton's car, they're just like madden, just like you know nba. Well, not like the nba, but I mean, at a certain point they're just making money. They know people are going to buy it because they like f1. And, like you were saying, jason, if you're concerned about the SimRacer, ea definitely is kind of lax on their laurels man.

Jason:

Yeah, it's almost like a sprinkle effect. You have a bag full of sprinkles and every year I just throw a few rocks on there because there's no one else selling ice cream. You know what I'm saying? There's no competition. Who's making F1 games? Iracing, iracing is a beast. They have Formula cars. They have one licensed Formula car and it's the Mercedes, but it's their old car. They't even get the, the new ones they they use in the same. I think it's the 22 version.

Jeff:

it is now yeah, or the double I know there's a handful of other mods that you can do for for other. Uh right, ams2, I know ace, uh setto Corsa has a couple mods. But again, the multiplayer, the F1 world.

Jason:

The music. The announcer the career mode. You don't have any of that.

Jeff:

You know what I'm saying. That is cool, I do enjoy that.

Jason:

Right, okay, so well, we are coming really close to the release of this game and we will definitely be revisiting that because, as much as I hate to say this, you know I support the community and the game is. I own the game, the new one, it's in my queue and I think Jeff joined me on that round that, on that path, you know.

Jeff:

So patiently coming down all right.

Jason:

So, jeff, so with that said about f1, we'll, we'll come back to it and it's, it's perfect, because your equipment is here now and you're installing and you're tweaking and hopefully get that good to go for the new F-124 game when it comes out, and with that you're getting rid of your Fanatec gear For some semi-cube stuff Not semi-cube, sorry. Simagic, simagic, yeah.

Jeff:

I got my pedals in, still just waiting on some mounting hardware. Right, I'm going to change gears a little bit here and kind of talk with you. You can't have a sim racing discussion without the gorilla in the room here. It's the Fanatec situation.

Jason:

The Fanatec situation, the fanatec situation. The fanatec situation. The fanatec situation is up next. But before I hit that topic, before we start that topic, I have to give it up to mr eric kelly. Mr eric kelly just purchased a brand new 8020 rig. We need to cover that. It needs to be said right now. I'm staring at it, I can see it in the background. I want to know the details and then we'll hit up that fanatec situation there.

Erick:

Jeff cool, yeah, yeah. So, um, like jason said, just uh, bought and, like a kid at christmas, ripped open and put together my first 8020 rig. Nothing crazy, but it's really a sign of the times. I already had a rig that I had built my poor man's rig with a seat off of Honda Civic and some plans that I found on YouTube, with some 2x4s that I put together and that was fine for my G29. But once I upgraded to the SimMagic Alpha with the 15-millimeter wheel and P1000 pedals, my poor little wooden rig was just coming apart. So I got an 8020.

Erick:

I got one from American Sim Racing. It is the ASR1. And this company was newer. I hadn't really heard about them but once I did, did some research, research and they had a pretty good reputation. They definitely have a smaller footprint, they're shipping out of Canada and some of the things that really impressed me their entry point for their rig. This one was $379 out the door, right, no tax, no shipping. I ordered it a week before last and it got here. Um, when did it get here? Like that friday, I think, and so like, shipping time was great, um, cost for the lower, for the lower 48, shipping is great.

Erick:

Yeah, yeah, I think jeff can touch on that yeah, and and I'm not saying even, you know, depending on where where you're ordering from, you know, looking at like I wanted the, the, uh, the, the evo from sim lab but shipping on that was gonna be 200 plus and so, just like with the time frames and stuff, I knew I didn't want anything too crazy. So when I found them it was kind of a godsend and put it together and it's rock solid. It's like I said, it's an entry level rig but no, don't come with the seat brackets, then come with the shifter mount, but it's 80 20. So you can add this stuff on later, which you know. Once again, shout out to Jason, because I was kind of getting distracted by some of the glitz and glamour of the, you know, the tube rigs and stuff.

Jason:

They look cool and all of that, that track, brace man Almost got him Jeff. That track brace was dope.

Erick:

The Alpine edition. Man with the blue.

Jason:

Yeah, with that blue huh. Yeah, but that you can't put anything that you can't attach, anything that's not proprietary put anything that you can't attach, anything that's not proprietary.

Erick:

Yeah, so there was some. There was some mods, you know, because it's round two we can get, you know, little clamps and clamp stuff on there, but the biggest thing was the rigidity and just the ecosystem flex man some things you can add, but once you go 80 20, it's like just the world opens up to you and it doesn't matter what level 80 20 you have no oh my god and don't and stay off etsy etsycom yeah, I hadn't been on there yet, but I'm, I'm already oh my god, I need an etsy credit card, bro.

Jason:

Like a freaking rewards I would be yeah I put so much damn money into etsy. I don't know Jeff, hey man, jeff could talk man about yeah, it's, I wish I never found it. I need to buy my own so I don't have to buy that stuff bro, if you just type in 8020 for all you listeners out there, just go to Etsycom, put 8020 it, you're gonna have like a hundred pages of stuff, you know, cell phone holders, shift mounts, all kinds of things. Yeah, eric have you?

Jeff:

you spun any laps yet on the on the rig. Are you still dialing it in getting it set up?

Erick:

nah, I've taken it around some laps and for me I'm in vr, so it's, I mean, the immersion is crazy. And I was asking you about the haptic motors because I'm at the point now where the breaking feel, I'm not, I'm not getting anything there, still numb. It's a lot better because I can, you know, use more muscle memory because I have the uh, the higher uh force brake pedal. But I need some sort of feedback, you know, from the pedal, just the vibration or something to let me know kind of what the abs is doing or yeah, eric's talking about the, the, the haptic motor that goes on top of the brake pedal, that warns you about uh abs.

Jeff:

When you touch abs, you know what I mean yeah, I got five laps on, maybe five or six as I installed it, uh yesterday, very recent. Yeah, man and uh oh yeah, very, very nice. It adds another level of immersion, but also helps with uh, with lap time, for sure, because you can every time hit to that level of where the brake is right before abs. Um, so I'm a big, a big fan of it.

Jason:

So right and I want to cut in there and I do this a lot, I'm sorry, but abs settings with that mount, with that, with motors, just be mindful, if you're running I'm going to use ACC as an example If you put the aggressive setup on ACC, it's going to set I'm talking McLaren here it's going to set your TC and ABS to six. So that means that there's a level, there's a different threshold's a there's a different threshold to how much braking power is allowed. You know what I'm saying.

Jason:

So, if I, if I keep my ABS set at six, then my haptic motor is going to trigger way faster than what it would if it was set low. And the thing is you want to set it low. I know it's harder to drive like that, but you know you need as much stopping power as you, as you, as you can control.

Jason:

You know essentially, you know so and again, that's another topic that we can go over is settings and brake pressures and different, uh, brake ducts and different brake pads. Definitely that's a lot of stuff we can touch on later. Sim-specific, because if you're playing GT7, that might not be the case in GT7.

Erick:

You know what I'm trying to say, yeah, yeah, they got different pads and brake setups you can add on depending on the car Some of the race cars they come default with carbon ceramics and racing pads. And you know brake setups you can add on depending on the car some of the race cars they come default with carbon ceramics and racing pads and stuff, so you don't get to modify much. Um, but you can do your brake balance you can do. You know abs and um tc on some car, on some cars, but nothing like acc though that's right.

Jason:

Acc is kind of like um, they have tc cut, which I never use, and it depends on the car too. But um, yeah, eric, I definitely want to revisit. I want to give you some time on that rig and then we'll ask for your long-term feedback, or maybe a month you know, a month with the rig and see what you find, because everything is great when it's brand new. You know what I'm saying. Everything works when it's brand new and I just want to make sure when you start putting that thing and installing all the stuff on it, then we will, we'll revisit how how that's performing and how it's holding up.

Erick:

You know, if you may, yeah, yeah, definitely, because I'm already in my head. You know, I do vr a lot and I'm kind of looking over like maybe be nice to mount a monitor up there, you know, give me some other other options and see of course you're, you're, you're, you're, you're curious, because now you opened the door, you basically opened the gate, bro.

Jeff:

Just quit delaying and buy the haptic. It's going to happen sooner or later. I'm going to have it eventually. Somebody else? Just do it now.

Erick:

Yeah, the haptics are coming, you can go and buy it, man.

Jason:

I'll send you the links.

Erick:

I mean, I'm basically gonna, I'm I already know stop it those pedals because I want the uh. I want the uh, not the gas, but the, the pneumatic throttle.

Jason:

Oh, the hydraulic add-on yeah, I would tell you this I would do the haptics before I did the hydraulic. Yeah, full stop as far as racing goes.

Erick:

The hydraulics I mean the haptics, before I did the hydraulic.

Jason:

Yeah, a full stop as far as racing goes.

Erick:

The hydraulics I mean the haptics would be much better. The hydraulics, they say, makes it feel more natural. But as far as increasing any sort of speed or feedback, the haptics are really the only main upgrade.

Jason:

All right, well, eric, so we're going to move into. I want to hear more. I want to hear what you decide on that. So please, yeah and don't spoil it. We want to put this on the Chicane podcast, right here, I'll save it. Yeah, save it. So, with that, we're going to give this back to Jeff and Jeff's going to update us on the Fanatec situation. So, jeff, the floor is yours.

Jeff:

All right. So I'm going to jump in and just kind of where we are today with the Fanatec situation. Maybe we'll get into how we got here. But anyway, fanatec this past week was bought out by Corsair. They produce a lot of peripheral information. Eric, I know you have a lot more information on the things that they produce and sell, but I think this is hopefully a breath of fresh air for the community. Fantech started to get a really bad reputation in the customer service lane and that kind of turned a lot of people off. A lot of people jumped in on some Black Friday, friday or, uh, black friday deals that they had and I'll and I'll be transparent. I'm not sure everybody got their shipment still. And here we are. You know, may um, when you send an email to customer support and they say, hey, we're backed up, we'll get to you when we get to you, yeah I'm sorry, I'm sorry guys, that's, that's unacceptable.

Jeff:

I mean I'll give you 48 hours but an email to at least just say, hey, we got it. Just give us a second. Um, yeah, yeah. So I'm excited for it as a you know somebody that enjoys sim racing and want to bring people in. Fanatec is a good jumping off spot for a lot of people, or jump in like myself. So I want to see them still in the arena. I don't want to see them go under. I'm excited that, of course, they're bought them and hopefully they can turn it around, but what are your guys thoughts on this?

Erick:

Yeah, I mean I'll say this, being somebody who recently had to make the decision between Fanatec and somebody else, that was a major turnoff for me. I was willing to risk the shipping times, but when I got in the forums and saw people who, after they got their Fanatec gear, were talking about the woes they had with customer service, I'm like you can't suck on both ends, right, it can't take forever to get here. Then, if it gets here, if there's something that's not not quite right, it's taking months for you to address that. I'm not you're you're. There's no advantage at this point. Right, it'd be different if they were significantly cheaper, or something like that I'm paying for that was a deal something.

Erick:

Yeah, like I'm paying top dollar to be locked into the fanatec ecosystem, which is already. They have some poor business practices with that QR stuff. The way that works, that's already a headache. There's no motivation for me to choose Fanatec over something else. And with them going to Corsair, hopefully they can address at least the customer service issues, maybe by taking advantage of Corsair's customer support infrastructure. But they've got to accept what's happening in sim racing, which is there's a lot more competition. They just have to be more open. They have to allow their products to play with others. That's just how it is.

Jason:

Right, and my take on this is Fanatec has the name Fanatec sponsor. Everybody knows Fanatec. I don't understand why they're letting this happen. You know they fired their CEO. Got fired Okay, you fired the CEO. Now you just basically turned the company over to a bigger company, which is good. It's good that the brand will continue. But my concern when you were buying gear, eric, was warranty how do we know that fanatec is going to still be here when things break down? Nothing is perfect, nothing, yeah you know things break, stuff happens, mishaps, whatever it is.

Jason:

You want something that you can, you want to get in, you want to trust, you know, a company that you can rely on. You know what I'm saying and not be in these, you know. I mean them being in the financial problems doesn't affect us as sim racers, but then when it's affecting the core of the company, then it then it does. It affects all of its users. With the warranty issues with Fanatec, it might affect some users that bought into a DD2 that comes with a five-year warranty with Fanatec. So how does that transfer? Does it transfer to Corsair? Does it go away? Are they going to make them pay shipping?

Jason:

There's a lot of questions that are unanswered with this company in the future of these products. We don't know, you know, because corsair doesn't make sim racing equipment. They don't, they don't know anything about it. So what they did was they basically transferred fanatec from ender, which ender is the actual owner, or it was to corsair. So I'm hoping that quality and products and you know, I hope it gets better is what I'm trying to say, you know for especially for those on the console. And what about the software side of things? They have a big software team that are keeping these devices up to date. Where does that end up? There's a lot of unanswered questions, and that's how come we're bringing this up.

Jeff:

I mean from a Fanatec user. And something that really kind of turned me off to the whole situation is the customer support. Don't make me just a number, a random person out there. If I need to get in touch with somebody it shouldn't take three months to get back from an email. I'm hopefully optimistic that a bigger company will have bigger, better support. Yeah, offer horror stories out there on some of the Reddits and Facebook groups about this stuff. When it comes to the Fanatec things, people have no idea when their stuff's going to ship, don't even know if they have a shipping call or a order confirmation, but know it's just out there in the ether whether they are going to get their stuff or not. You can't do that in today's day and age. You've got to provide that customer support in the backbone. Of course Aira will help provide that.

Jason:

And transparency. Why is it that I go on fanatechcom, add something into my cart and it says that it will ship in one to two business days? Why does it say that then no? And it won't, no and it won't, and then they take your money.

Jeff:

They will straight up take your money from your credit card, send you an email that says oh hey, um, your ships, uh, your stuff, shipping out next month yeah, and I don't like when I bought my stuff, when it got delivered transparency I get everything but the qr amount in one shipment and then three days later I get the qr in a different shipment, like come on that's a true story right there.

Jason:

True story.

Jeff:

You got all this stuff sitting here. You can't even use it. It just doesn't provide a polished product like my magic stuff got here all in a box, all ready to go.

Jason:

yeah, the QR was installed Was it not Jeff. Why do you need a separate box for a QR? Come on.

Jeff:

You got one shipping from somewhere and then that QR ships from somewhere else, totally different in the country. It's just not.

Jason:

You know what's funny, Eric? The QR that Fanatec uses has no electronics in it. But, SimMagic has electronics in it, so the install is a lot more involved. You know, with a Fanatec they ship the wheel with the pins exposed and a cover and you literally slide the QR over the pins. It's just an old system, it's outdated. They need to get their shit together. Straight's outdated. They need to get their. They need to get their shit together straight up. They need to get their shit together yeah, I don't know why.

Erick:

And to jeff's point about you know the transparency. I'm looking at sim lab right now, at the gt1 evo and one of the things that I was able to factor into, you know, not purchasing this, purchasing this one outside of the price is there transparency with the shipment? It says currently ships at 10 to 15 working days. That's fine.

Jason:

Expectation management, if I already had a rig.

Erick:

You know that's something I can factor in. Okay, I'll buy it now. It'll be here in a month.

Jeff:

That's okay. I'm still waiting on these other parts.

Erick:

It'll all arrive relatively the same time, yeah yeah, but if if this said one or two business days and it's three weeks and I still ain't got it, we got big problems yeah big and then trying to reach out to customer support.

Jeff:

You're not hearing back.

Jason:

It just compounds the problems and the frustration oh, you're throwing gas on the, on the fire there. You know, basically Jet fuel.

Erick:

Jet fuel, Take my money, break your promise and then don't respond.

Jeff:

Oh, we got big problems, so I guess kind of in summary of the Fanatec situation is we, the sim racing community, are hopefully optimistic but holding our breath a little bit with what comes of this transition to Corsair.

Jason:

And I want what I want all listeners out there to take out of this this is not a bash podcast. We're not here bashing Fanatec. We actually want Fanatec to remain and we want it to improve. We want sim racers to have the option. If they want to go the Fanatec route, then they need to be informed on what's going on with them before they make a purchase decision like that. Because when you go on the website, it's all beautiful, it's all great, they have a builder. You could build a setup. They put it in there. Real nice for you.

Erick:

You know what.

Jason:

I'm saying they're not going to market that they sold their company and they're having hardships.

Erick:

To your point, man, not bashing at all, but definitely holding people accountable.

Jason:

Right For real, well said.

Erick:

Well put. Yeah, yeah's, that's the case and, like you said, we do need them to stick around. The more competition the better. They're one of the ogs they've kind of made, you know, sim racing mainstream. I appreciate them and the work they've done to build up their reputation yeah, it's not all bad.

Jeff:

No, it's not all bad no yeah, we need them around awesome entry entry point into into the uh different options, just different options yeah, hopefully.

Erick:

I think best case scenario corsair keeps pretty much the fantech business intact as far as the engineering and technical piece and they just give them some resources yeah, definitely on the financial side big time you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, they'll need that. But but let the engineers over there do what they do. They make good products. They got some funky business practices with the qr stuff, logistics issues, but the products are good products though I, I agree.

Jason:

I agree the the quality of a product that you get from phenotech is pretty, it's, it's, it's, it's very good. I want to say there's some things in there that are weird and it's old and because the dds that they're building now they're actually, you know, they caught up to the times. It it used to be. They had the DD1 and it was out for many years. Then they came out with a DD2 and it was the same old hardware but they were good. You know, they were good pieces of kit. It wasn't like you're spending this money and it's going to break down on you. You know what I mean.

Jason:

The thing is the chance of it breaking down on you and now you have a company that you can't go to is what we're worried about here. That's all.

Erick:

Yeah, yeah, we'll see.

Jason:

Because, like I said before, nothing's perfect, nothing is set in stone, and with that, this is an evolving topic. Straight up, this is an evolving topic and we will cover this as things unfold, because it's not, trust me, this is not the end of the headlines for fanatec, not in one bit. Yeah, and with that. I think that's all the time we have for this week's episode. I'm gonna do a round table with the gents, with, uh, jeff and eric. Do you, do you guys have anything else to add to the episode today? I'm going to do a roundtable with the gents, with Jeff and Eric. Do you guys have anything else to add to the episode today?

Jeff:

No man, I'm just about to jump on here and watch the F1 GP here and tell everybody out there drive fast and brake late.

Erick:

Dang it, there you go. Yeah, nothing here, man, just hoping I had some time to hop on my rig and dial it in some more today.

Jason:

I'm pretty sure you do, man, come on.

Erick:

I'll find a couple minutes.

Jason:

Find a couple minutes, man, it's all good. Yeah Well, with that said, thank you both for being here and to all you listeners out there. Tuned man, it's gonna get, it's gonna get. It's gonna get juicy. When these games come out and everything, when f1 24 comes out, we'll have way more content. Um, both of us are getting the game, and I, maybe, eric, maybe eric might jump in there with us, who knows?

Erick:

yeah, I gotta, I gotta pull it up right now, man I got f1. I got f1 22 and, yeah, I'll talk to you.

Jason:

We'll talk, we'll definitely talk and with that said, thank you guys for tuning in and have a great week.

People on this episode

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Jason Rivera

Host
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Erick Kelly

Co-host
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Jeff Smart

Co-host