Fanatec CSW Community Test Poll

We now have 6 potential candidates to test the new Fanatec Clusport wheel. It is now your job to vote for the candidate you believe would put together the best review. Voting will take place for 7 days and at the end of that period the person with the greatest amount of votes will be the reviewer for apexspeed.com!



Option 1:

Username: Keith Carter

Registration date: November 25th, 2000 - (ApexSpeed Administrator)

Number of posts: 4,269

Age: 37

Country: USA

Favourite games: rFactor, rFactor2, GT5, F1C

Platforms: PC & PS3

Preffered driving style: Road F1

Current gear: Logitech G25 & VisionRacer VR3 w/ home built PC (AMD 955 black quad core 3.2 with ATI 5770)

Links to reviews or other texts that show volunteer's expertise: I run and maintain the ApexSpeed sim racing league. I also run a spec formula car at the national level in the SCCA. More information can be found on my site: http://www.keithcarter.net/


Short introduction/statement:
Greetings,
My name is Keith Carter and I have been actively racing with my father in the SCCA for the past 12 years in Formula Continental (2000-2007) and have since been racing an SCCA Enterprises FE which is a spec class. The only time we have competed in the Runoffs (2010) we placed 6th. I have been sim racing since the days of Papyrus ICR, but have only really actively sim raced since 2003 as a learning tool to become familiar with track layouts before setting a tire to pavement in real life. This was done with an F2000 mod for Nascar HEAT which was used for our league until 2008 when we had switched to rFactor


Option 2:

Username: Flyer23

Registration date: 2/28/12

Number of posts: 23

Age: 51

Country: New York, USA

Favourite games: Enduroracers, Any F1

Platforms: Rfactor

Preffered driving style: Road GT (other options: Road GT, Road F1, Oval, Rally, Drift) Gt and F1

Current gear: G25 about 5 years old

Links to reviews or other texts that show volunteer's expertise:

Short introduction/statement:
I think my real life racing skills would be a great benefit to review this wheel. I would be able to give honest and unbiased review. I would be excited to do this project. I am currently running in 3 different leagues. Running 2nd in one and top 10 in the other 2. I am competetive by nature and enjoy racing online.


Option 3:

Username: smbrm


Registration date: November 17, 2009

Number of posts:93

Age: 59

Country: Canada

Favourite games:
I have been a sim racer since 1990. I started sim racing with Pole Position and a keyboard, graduating through various sims: World Circuit, Indycar Racing, the Grand Prix Franchise, Grand Prix Legends, F1 Challenge & F12002, GTR2 and rFactor. I currently league race in the Apexspeed Winter League and VLMS/ERL LMP2. Prior to that I league raced with the old MNRL in various classes including LMP2, GroupC, Indycar & F5000.

Platforms: PC

Preferred driving style: Endurance Sports car racing, Open wheel, FA, F1, Indycar, F5000

Current gear:
Starting with a Virtual Pilot, followed by a Guillemot Ferrari force feedback wheel, I now race with a G25 Wheel and G25 pedals with an AP Electrix Load Cell Mod and Bodner cable mounted in a self designed/built racing rig.
http://www.insidesimracing.tv/forums...p?f=110&t=2493

My system is a PC Intel 6600 quadcore with Nvidea 8800GTS video card and am awaiting finalization of rFactor2 to upgrade.

Links to reviews or other texts that show volunteer's expertise:


My background in racing is on the engineering side. As a mechanical engineer specializing in engine lubrication, I have worked with F2000, Rothmans Porsche Challenge, Champcar and F1, including the opportunity to design performance enhancing engine lubricants for the 1988 & 1989 Formula One World Championship Winning Team. At present I participate in technical team management with an amateur F2000 team. I find sim racing a useful tool to understanding and developing race car engineering expertise and its relationship to the race driving experience.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...4864small.jpg/

I have a keen eye for detail, being a builder of highly detailed scale model racing cars.

http://members.shaw.ca/millersbrm/speeddetails.html

As an author, I write, illustrate and publish Model Detailing Profiles to assist scale model builders with accurate detailing of their projects. Additionally, I have also authored product brochures & supporting technical literature, presentations, magazine articles, technical articles, papers(SAE & Institute of Mechanical Engineers).

Short introduction/statement:


I have always had an interest in the sport of sim motor racing, its technical challenges, and its linkages to motorsport. I would like to offer my unique combination of experiences, and engineering perspective to the Fanatec wheel review.

Option 4:

milesmcewing

Information will be posted shortly


Option 5:

canuk

Information will be posted shortly


Option 6:

Username: RNGD

Registration Date: April 6th 2012

Number of Posts: 1

Driving style:
Road GT, Road F1, Oval, Rally

Favourite Games (and platforms):
iRacing, netKar Pro, rFactor2, CARS, GT5, F1 2011, RBR

Current gear:
Gaming PC
PS3
XBOX 360
ButtKicker Gamer 2
43" Triple Screen Setup
Playseat
Logitech G27
GoPro HD Hero2

Age:
25

Country:
USA

I don't really have any track racing experience, but I've always loved motor sports and I've been sim racing for over three years and spend almost all my free time doing it. I've also done a decent amount of autocross racing and have used the OMP Superturismo, OMP Corisca and Sparco 375, which are similar to the BMW rim. Sim racing has definitely helped with autocross and autocross has helped with sim racing so I think the experience in both will be beneficial when testing these products. With my work schedule I have almost unlimited time to test so I would be able to commit a lot of time to deliver a highly detailed and thorough review. I have experience using the G25, G27, Fanatec 911 GT3 and Thrustmaster GT500RS and would contribute a completely unbiased review including high quality photos and video. I also just purchased a GoPro HD Hero2 so I can film some awesome first-person videos of the wheel in action. The possible camera angles with the GoPro provide a unique perspective of the wheel in action.

I haven't participated in any product reviews in the past, but I've already started doing research to figure out the most important aspects for the review and will put in the work to provide the in-depth information potential customers will be looking for. I know the amount of comprehensive research I do any time I'm searching for a product and I know how beneficial unbiased and detailed reviews are so I'll do my best to deliver that. If I get this opportunity I would also be completely open to questions and requests to help provide any specific information people are looking for. I might not have the most experience, but I'll definitely put in the time and effort to deliver a review that covers everything you want to know about these products and more. The sim racing community has always been super helpful and it would be awesome to get this opportunity to be a part of that and contribute to the product development.

150+ page views, but only a few voting. Please vote, guys! :tire:

What is a clusport wheel? Is this a steering wheel for simulation or real?

OK - I figured it out!

Hello Zac,

I think you are going to have to remove me! I'm off to Japan for a month on Thursday - so I won't be around!

Good luck with the test.

Cheers
Miles

Guess my PM didn't go through...
oh well, I"m probably not the best at it anyways...

Keith, I'm not sure who to vote for... I've raced online with 3 of you... all adequate racers, hard to pick one to favor

As you can see milesmcewing has backed out of the competition. So if there is anyone who votes for him and would like to change their vote just post your new vote in here or send me a pm.

Zac Burke

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Keith Carter

150+ page views, but only a few voting. Please vote, guys! :tire:

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Looks like a bunch of newbies are stuffing the ballot box. :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tifosi

Looks like a bunch of newbies are stuffing the ballot box. :(

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Well, that's not difficult to put a stop to... Seriously? Soliciting "votes" from social media outlets and other forums? :rolleyes: Sorry guys, you have to be more than a "Junior Member" here to vote in polls from now on.

:thumbsdown:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Doug Carter

Well, that's not difficult to put a stop to... Seriously? Soliciting "votes" from social media outlets and other forums? :rolleyes: Sorry guys, you have to be more than a "Junior Member" here to vote in polls from now on.

:thumbsdown:

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Well that would be my friends who I race with on another site. I would like to request all new member votes to be removed. I told them I was in this poll and they all decided to help. Nothing wrong intended just trying to help a fellow racer. If need be I will even withdraw so Keith can win the chance.

Nah, no worries. I have a feeling you guys are both might get a chance to test that awesome wheel setup. ;) :beer:

Okay gentlemen :blackflag::yellowflag:

It looks as though the general direction of the candidates is that only votes from "true" members shall be aloud. So therefore, for a vote to count, the member whom made the vote must have been an apexspeed member, at least 4 weeks before the poll opened making the cut off March 12th 2012. This is to keep the voting 'fair' and to let apexspeed as a community choose who they want to see a review from.

The point in the community test is for the selected community (apexspeed.com) to choose someone whom they believe will do a good job making the review so the members of that community can see what the selected product (Clubsport Wheel) is like.

At the end I will go through the votes and add them up and announce the official winner for our community!!! I will then be in contact with them and we can get everything all set up!

Any questions from anyone, thats what I'm here for!!!

:greenflag::greenflag::greenflag:

Thanks
Zac Burke

Congrats to Keith, since I am pretty new as well and do not know many people here. I wish you the best. I'll just have to crush the times at Mt. Tremblant.....Because the older I get, the faster I was.....LOL;)

I was hoping to write in John Winter :(

Now that the poll is closed I added up the official votes and the result is:

1. Keith Carter: 14 votes

2. Smbrm: 3 votes

3. Flyer23: 2 votes

Congrats to Keith Carter for sweeping the votes and you are now the tester for apexspeed.com!

Be sure to check back in a month or two to see Keith's review!!!

Cool! Thanks for all who voted and thanks to Zac and Fanatec for the opportunity!

I'll do as great of a review as I can for all of the ApexSpeed viewers to read. :tire:

Congratulations Keith. You obviously have lots of adoring fans! I am sure we will all look forward to your review.

Thanks to Zac for running the poll and getting Apexspeed setup to participate.

Stephen

All the best to you Keith. Now I will just have to FLOG you tomorrow night at Mt. Tremblant.....LOL

Would there be any chance of a SECOND reviewer ? :D

There is a few extra wheels, so there is a very small chance of a second reviewer being picked. But that is up to the test supervisor at Fanatec and not me. (If it were my choice everyone would get a CSW :D) I will let you guys know if i hear of anything of the sort!

Have you recieved the wheel yet Kieth? Must be sweet !!!!

Nope, not yet. There was a hold up when they wanted to update the firmware before shipping them out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Keith Carter

Nope, not yet. There was a hold up when they wanted to update the firmware before shipping them out.

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Review coming soon ?

I have the unboxing part of the review done. It's really great stuff. Unfortunately I need to fabricate adapters to be able to mount everything to my VR3. It doesn't use the same hole format as the Logitech stuff.

VR3? How do you like it. That is currently my number one option. Love the Human Racing GT, but getting one is problematic. The Vesaro is great but outrageously expensive. I am waiting to see the Rseat F1, but dont know if that will ever make the market. Thoughts on your VR3?

I really like it. There's the design to it where it's not an eyesore if it's in a gaming room. It's more of a feature to the room. It's kind of designed around the G25/27 though so the angles and mounting options I'm finding with the CSW and pedals is not a direct fit. The angle and position of the wheel is fixed so you need to adapt to the position it's in (which was fine for the G25). One thing about it though is that the seat isn't really designed for hours of sim racing since it's replicating a real racing seat so your butt starts to hurt after a while.

Since the wraps are off and we're now allowed to discuss the wheel, I'll be posting my review later today. There are now a bunch of video reviews as well on YouTube as well from other beta testers. I need to get the photos downloaded from my camera and do the final read through to make sure I didn't miss anything in my experience.