ra64's Full Review: Logitech MOMO Racing Wheel And Pedals Set
When I saw the Logitech Momo Racing Force wheel at the Circuit City closeout, I had to buy it. The market for gaming wheels is very niche and therefore you can usually get an older model like this for well under the retail price, but that said, this unit brand new for only $50 is a pretty good deal and I couldn't pass it up.
I haven't been playing many race sims in the past few years as I've been busy and my hardware has gotten out of date. However, I used to play a lot before that, and probably put in a few hundred hours plus on my old wheel, a Logitech Formula GP. Considering I got that wheel for around 12 bucks including shipping, I think I got my money's worth! My Formula GP wheel still works although the steering near center has gotten a little vague, and I've had to open up the pedal base to adjust and clean the accelerator potentiometer a few times to keep it working. I'll compare the Momo Racing wheel to the Fomrula GP a lot as well as the newer $300 Logitech G25 wheel in a few places, which I've only tried for a few minutes in a demo.
Compared to the Formula GP the Momo pedal base is bigger and heavier. The base has pretty big rubber grips on the underside so that it won't slide on hardwood floors, something the Formula GP pedals would do. The pedals are positioned a little far apart – about and inch and a half – which is about the same as the other Logitech wheels. I am able to heel toe ok with these pedals, but IMO left foot braking is the way to go! The accelerator pressure required is light and appropriate, and the brake is much firmer and more progressively sprung then the Formula GP, and vast improvement, although the G25 is yet another improvement over the Momo wheel.
The wheel base seems unnecessarily bulky, as it is both wide and deep, covering almost twice the area on the desk as the Formula GP. The Momo wheel also has a seemingly unnecessary extension underneath which barely clears the drawer thing under where I mount the wheel on my desk. I would say it will mount successfully on less spaces then the compact Formula GP, which can fit just about anywhere. The plastic clamps on the Momo Force are the same style as the Formula GP and can expand to a little over an inch. With the bigger overlap of the base, the Momo wheel stays put pretty good, sliding loose only after repeated extreme yanks on the wheel – and if your driving like that you probably aren't going very fast.
The actual wheel feels really excellent – it's very similar to something in a real racecar; completely wrapped in rubber, thicker and heavier then the formula GP wheel. For the price of this wheel, an A+ really. The tracking of the wheel is excellent, I have no problems with keeping the car aimed straight in some games like I did with the Formula GP. The wheel also has realistic sized and positioned paddle shifters behind it, way better then the over sided button “paddles” on the Formula GP.
The force feedback is pretty good, although I must say I'm still not a big fan of force feedback in general. The main issue I have is the wheel does not turn freely, rather there is a gear resisting it's rotation. No matter how I've configured the force feedback settings in a variety of games, you can still feel this unnatural resistance. This resistance is in addition to the normal resistance that the force feedback adds and that feels fine. The unnatural resistance can be felt most prominently when making steering corrections – so it's a bigger issue in games where you're really sawing at the wheel – like Grand Prix Legends. I had a lot of trouble getting used to this at first but after a while I did get used to it. I'll say I feel the force feedback experience feels a little fabricated, while the non force feedback wheel feels more pure even though its not jerking your hands around like in a real car. And I don't think that the force feedback really helps me drive better, to me it's mainly just for the coolness factor and I still use mostly my eyes and ears for feedback. Another minor side effect of the force feedback is that the gear whine, along with the force feedback jerking the wheel, makes for a much nosier experience then the non force feedback Formula GP.
I should note that the quality of the force feedback varies greatly with the game, so keep that in mind . In some games – such as rFactor, the force feedback felt quite horrible to me, kinda like the wheel was driving the car for me! Some other games felt good, but in a lot you have to do a lot of manual adjusting of the force feedback settings I have to say the ultimate force feedback experience I've encountered is with the G25 wheel at the iRacing demo where the unnatural resistance was not a factor at all. I haven't played iRacing with the Momo wheel, but I'm guessing if the feedback settings are setup well, it would feel pretty good too. I should also note – you can't really use this wheel with force feedback turned off because of that gear resistance. If the feedback is off, you will only feel that gear resistance with no force feedback to balance it.
The sequential shifter can be mounted on either side of the wheel, but the position of it on the wheel base is quite awkward – too high and far back. However there's really no other place to locate it, without having a separate shift unit, and mounting it somewhere else. (There are actually several of these on the market you can use with the Momo wheel). Otherwise the feel and throws of the shifter are decent, it's only due to the awkward position that I prefer to use the paddles for some games.
Like my other logitech wheel, it comes with logitech gaming software which must be installed for the dual axis pedals to work correctly in some games.
I've only used the Momo Racing Force for 10-20 hours in Live For Speed, Grand Prix Legends and rFactor, but have had no problems with it so far. The pedals and wheel still calibrate perfectly. I'd expect the wheel to last a while. However my biggest concern with any force feedback wheel is the force feedback braking and rendering the wheel useless.
Overall I'd venture to say that the $300 G25 is not worth the extra price when you can get such a good wheel for under $100. Sure, it's an older design that been around for many years, but its one of the most popular among sim racers and you can't really go wrong with it. Considering the limited options of wheels at this price point (even considering out of production ones) I have to give the Logitech Momo Racing Force wheel 5 stars. If you're like me – a serious sim racer – but on a budget as to save money for real racing, this wheel is the way to go.
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