The Asetek range of Sim Racing products is not officially supported for console use at this time. However, some “hacks” can get you going on a console.  No time frame for official console compatibility with the Asetek Simsports products has been announced.

Once they are able, Asetek plan to offer a wheelbase/wheel motherboard upgrade for console compatibility.

Asetek has provided three price points in their wheelbase range.  All of which share a significant amount of hardware and the same level of build quality with each other.  Costs have been reduced on the Forte and La Prima models in areas that have very minimal impact on the driving experience other than the maximum force available.

La Prima Wheelbase

At 12Nm peak torque, the La Prima still packs a good punch.  Considering many sim racers dial back more powerful wheelbases to around this level anyway, it is a very generous offering for their “Entry Level” wheelbase.  The La Prima wheelbase removes all LED strips and additional USB ports which are found on the Invicta wheelbase.

The La Prima wheelbase will one day be upgradable to a Forte.  In the words of Asetek CEO “You buy a new PCB, a new Power Supply, the LED Strips, and BOOM, you have a Forte”

La Prima Vs Forte:
With both bases set to a peak torque of 12Nm, the La Prima offers an extremely similar force feedback experience to that of the Forte.  The La Prima has a slightly lower Slew Rate to the Forte, which I had expected to result in slightly less responsiveness in the Force Feedback and reduce the sense of connection with the car, but in reality, this was not the case.

With the reduced dynamic range of the La Prima, you are still able to dial in road texture and other fine details to get just as much feedback through the wheel as you can with the Forte.  But for those who are after extreme forces on impacts, or want to be wrestling the car through corners with all their might, there is an argument that there is some added immersion available with the stronger bases.

As an alternative to the La Prima, it is worth looking at the MOZA R12 Direct Drive Wheelbase if you need to save a bit of money. The R12 also offers 12 Nm of peak torque, with very good detail and overall driving experience. But for those who are able to stretch their budget to the Asetek La Prima, you will be getting a superior Force Feedback Experience which we discussed in detail in our La Prima Review.

Asetek have a formula wheel in the La Prima, Forte and Invicta range as well as stand alone button boxes and a range of rims.
The La Prima and Forte Formula wheels are 290mm in diameter, which is perfect for Formula-style cars but slightly too small to be ideal for GT3 and similar styles. Particularly with such strong wheelbases, having less leverage with a smaller wheel will likely feel a bit twitchy in cars with less downforce.  The Invicta Formula Wheel is 300mm or 304mm depending on your choice of grips.

The Forte Formula Wheel houses a huge amount of inputs and programmable LEDs in a Carbon Reinforced Nylon Housing.  I always love to see thumb encoders, particularly on formula wheels, and this has six of them!  The rotary encoders are 12 “absolute position” encoders, so your sim will know the position of the encoder rather than receiving an up or down pulse.  We then have two toggle switches and two 7-way funky switches, which will give excellent control of HUDs and game menus.

The La Prima wheel is a fantastic cheaper alternative, as it is using the same quality construction.  Overall it provides a very similar driving experience with the only missing features being the Flag LEDs, Button LEDs and four thumb encoders, but there are still two!  These features are nice to have, which could make the Forte Wheel worth the extra money for some drivers, but they are definitely not deal breakers that have an enormous impact on the driving experience.

The flagship Invicta Formula wheel adds premium build material being built from a solid block of aluminium with a carbon fiber front plate which houses a 4.3″ 60Hz touch screen.  There is a huge range of hardware customization available at purchase, and infinite customization on the LEDs and dash with Simhub integration.  It is one of the cleanest software implementations we have ever seen for a wheel with this kind of feature set.  Unfortunately the paddles have not been improved over the La Prima and Forte wheels.

The La Prima and Forte Formula wheels come with two magnetic shifter paddles, and both can be upgraded to have two additional magnetic paddles and two analog clutch paddles.  The Invicta comes with all 6 paddles only and the option to upgrade to Forged Carbon paddles, although these do not add any improvement to the feel and rigidity of the paddles over the La Prima and Forte wheel.

Forte and La Prima wheels have the same quick-release system which has proven to be easy to use, rock solid, and reliable.  When we first tested the Forte Wheel we had issues with the latch being too weak meaning the wheel could be forced off without pulling the lever.  Asetek pulled the wheel from production when this was discovered and has now fitted their quick-release with a stiffer spring.  We can’t get it to budge anymore and are confident that the problem has been solved.

The Invicta Formula Wheel has a 6 x 70mm bolt pattern for quick release mounting a can be purchased with or without the Asetek Quick release.  An awkwardly placed USB-C connection is available for direct connection to your PC while using third party wheel bases.

Asetek La Prima Pedals:
The La Prima Pedals come as a 2 Pedal set with an optional clutch, which appears to be identical to the throttle with no two-stage clutch mechanism.

The Brake Pedal on the La Prima is the exact same pedal as on the Forte pedal set, which includes the “M.L.C.P.C.” (Mechanical Load Cell Powered Cylinder).  This load cell brake really excels for those after a short throw and stiff pedal feel. If that’s not you, I would recommend trying to adjust your current pedals to be stiffer and shorter if possible. One of the benefits for me when first using the Asetek pedals, was being forced to use this short-throw approach.  I definitely found it to change my braking technique for the best, and have seen lap times and consistency improve because of this.  But for those who want the adjustability of going from a formula or GT-style car to a Streetcar with a long brake pedal throw, this might not be the brake for you.

The La Prima throttle is very basic.  It is essentially the same as the Forte and Invicta throttles, but without the main adjustable spring that provides the primary resistance on those pedals, and relies only on a small spring at the pivot point of the pedal to create resistance.  The La Prima pedal is smooth and has a good amount of adjustability in the travel of the pedal, and provides everything you need to drive fast and consistently, but if you want to make the pedal any stiffer, we’re told that soon you’ll be able to convert it to a forte pedal by purchasing the spring mechanism on its own.

Asetek Forte Pedals:
In addition to the upgraded throttle pedal, the Forte pedals also include an LED strip in the heel rest, which at the moment can only be set to a static colour.  In the future, this should be telemetry controlled, to provide feedback from your Sim such as flag alerts or ABS activation etc.

Asetek Invicta Pedals:
Do you need a hydraulic brake for Sim Racing?  No… But it’s cool.

The Invicta Hydraulic brake does add a noticeable amount of texture to the brake pedal and removes a tiny amount of sloppiness you can get in the load cell brakes if you have the initial phase in the pedal stroke set up quite loose. But it is definitely a luxury item for Sim Racing, and probably won’t make you a better driver.

Having said that, this has been my favourite hydraulic brake pedal, due to its simplicity, consistency, and reliability. Having used it for hundreds of hours over 18 months, it never skipped a beat. And I have only switched away from these to go to the Simcube ActivePedals, which are a completely different ball game.

The Invicta Hydraulic brake focuses on doing one thing, being a short and stiff pedal, and does it really well.  There are pedals with much more adjustability available.  But if you don’t want that, then this has got to be a contender for the best Sim Racing brake pedal.

The Invicta Throttle is the same as the Forte but with the Invicta pedal pads which are better suited to driving with boots.

The Clutch pedal has an adjustable rollover point which mimics the feel of a bite point in a real clutch.  Asetek has done a good job of this while keeping the design quite simple, but there are other pedals out there that would be better suited to the type of cars you are likely to be relying on a clutch pedal heavily for.  My choice for pedals with more versatility would be the VRS Direct Force Pro pedals or the Heusinkveld Ultimate + Pedals.

Invicta Long Travel Kit:
Because of the lack of adjustability, Asetek now has a Long Travel Kit for the Invicta pedal, which will extend the throw of the brake pedal by 10mm for US$/€15.96 (Excl. VAT).

Wheelbase mounting is an important factor in choosing the right wheelbase for your sim-rig.
The following options are currently available:

• Side Mount with Tilt: US$/€ 71.99 (Excl. VAT)
• Bottom Mount: US$/€ 55.99 (Excl. VAT)
• Bottom Mount with Tilt: US$/€ 63.99 (Excl. VAT)
• Front Mount: US$/€ 119.99 (Excl. VAT)

The front mount is the most solid of these options and will be the best of the options from Asetek for mounting any of their bases on a standard aluminium profile cockpit.  I am excited to see that Simcore have now made a mounting bracket for Asetek wheelbases, which means you can use their very sturdy UM1 mounts.