Ever been annoyed at how impractical it is to transport your standard Sim racing wheel around, that you can’t simple pick it up and take it to a friend’s house in your bag for a quick race in your favorite sim. Well now those problems can be set aside now that Simraceway and SteelSeries have teamed up to provide us with the simraceway SRW S1 racing wheel.

A little about the S1 wheel itself:

The Simraceway® S1 Steering Wheel is a high-performance, handheld PC racing wheel co-designed by SteelSeries and Ignite Technologies. The portable, motion-sensor wheel features a patented throttle and brake lever system that offers a fully simulated racing experience within hands reach. We’ve collaborated with and tested the SRW-S1 Wheel with top ranked Indy 500 race car drivers and Simracing World Champions.

First Impressions 

The Simraceway SRW S1 wheel comes in a very nicely presented box containing the wheel itself along with a small instruction manual and free $10 credits to Ignite GT’s Simraceway. First impressions of the wheel are that it is a very well made wheel consisting of a tough plastic making up the main component box for the buttons and light array along with a rubberized handle to give you the best grip while racing.

The wheel has been designed very nicely to support many in-game functions right at the users fingertips with a total of 20 buttons, 3 dials and a d-pad allowing the user to interact with the game just like using any other controller. The wheel itself is connected to the pc via a 1.5 meter long USB cord that allows for direct plug and play to any computer. One note we must add is the USB cord is easily wound up around the paddles on the rear of the wheel on those occasions when you are not using the wheel.

In-Game Impressions

The SRW-S1 wheel’s functionality stretches to just about every modern-day PC game out their from Simraceway, iRacing and even the F1 series produced by Codemasters. The first unfortunate thing i noticed when i first entered the track with the wheel, no force feedback is available with this wheel so unfortunately like other competitive wheels on the market you don’t have the realistic feel of the tires and track surface bumps and grooves.

However where the Simraceway SRW S1 lacks in force feedback it gains advantages in how functional and easy to use it is in-game. The buttons found on the wheel face allow many quick changes to in-game settings such as steering rotation, driving assists and driving assist intensity. All can be changed within seconds without taking your eyes off the main task at hand of driving.

The wheel itself is incredibly precise catching every motion you make and translating that to the car in-game. The wheel features a steering sensitivity dial ranging from 180-360 allowing you to change how sensitive the car is to your input which is very useful for those slower to react cars in-game. Another perk of this is that it becomes really easy to switch your sensitivity as you switch from car to car in-game without having to run any 3rd part software just to change a simple wheel setting.

On track you soon get into the rhythm and feel of the motion controlled wheel without force feedback. After a few laps the idea of turning a wheel that is basically reacting to your every hand move becomes easier to grasp and soon its like using any other wheel minus the force  feedback. On the rear of the wheel you will find four paddles, Accelerator, Brake, Up shift, Downshift. Two larger paddles are at the bottom providing the accelerator and brake functions, both paddles are easily reached by even the smaller handed person. These take no adjusting to as they are easily pressed and de-pressed depending on the amount of throttle/brake you wish to apply. The upper two paddles that of the Up shift and Down shift provide a very nice click sound when completely pressed hence letting you know that you just shifted up or down. The upper two paddles of the accelerator and brake are also easily accessed but are further up the wheel and also substantially smaller in size than that of the larger paddles for the shifter functions thus might take a little bit of adjusting too.

Conclusion

The Simraceway SRW S1 wheel is a well-built and easy to use wheel which is great for taking on trips without the need to carry a large wheel and the mass of cables that come along with it. The face of the wheel has many easily accessible functions which are very useful for changing settings or for example requesting a pit stop in-game. However the SRW S1 wheel does have its equal downsides which if improved would make the wheel’s realism factor increase with the addition of force feedback. The wheel provides a new fun factor to many sim racing games on today’s market and lets not forget its simple plug and play factor.

Our Wishlist 

• Addition of Force Feedback would bring a lot more realism to the wheel
• A possible desk stand or mount for the wheel, we are unsure of development plans for the wheel but there is certainly mounting holes available on the back of the wheel.
• A power light to allow the user to know if the wheel is plugged in and turned on