Thrustmaster TX Racing Wheel Ferrari 458 Italia Edition review

Thrustmaster TX Racing Wheel Ferrari 458 Italia Edition
Background:

Well...im old...ancient someone would say. My first contact with simracing was Geoff Crammond´s excellent Formula One Grand Prix in 1990´s and since then I have driven numerous driving games with Assetto Corsa being the latest one. I have owned and destroyed several wheels from manufacturer´s like Microsoft, Logitech and Fanatec so I would call myself as a experienced driver with average driving skills.
I have been relatively happy with my Fanatec CSR wheel and Clubsport V1 setup but sometimes you just want to try something new and hopefully better. Fanatec Clubsport Wheel would have been one good choice but it was just too pricey and possible future warranty issues made me look elsewhere. Thrustmaster T500 RS is nice but the newer design, brushless motor and better belt system convinced me to buy 458 Italia wheel. Having owned and destroyed a Logitech G25 in my previous life the newly released Thrustmaster TX 458 for 300 Euro´s was the only real choice for me. Luckily it was Christmas so Santa Claus helped me get this wheel. Thanks Santa, I owe you one...or two. :)

First impression & some numbers:
"What the .... Why in earth did I buy this piece of toy wheel" was my first thought after opening the box and lifting the unattached wheel. The two things that really striked out badly was the yellow Ferrari logo and the 2-way Manettino switch which really makes the wheel look cheap. The wheel rim building material looks and feels almost the same as found in early 90´s Nissan dashboard´s. Luckily appearances can sometimes be deceptive as the wheel "quality" will grow on you.
The wheel rim weight is approximately 730 gramms and its 28 cm in diameter. The power supply is inside of the base unit which weight is about 3,9 kg compared to Fanatec´s 2,9kg including the wheel but without the external power supply. In PC-mode you have total 13 buttons and a D-pad in your disposal.

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Gas and brake pedals are made of metal,base from light plastic and the total weight is approximately 1,36kg. Brake has progressive resistance and the gas pedal feels quite stiff. Pedals connects directly to wheel base and they are not USB compatible.

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Wheel can be attached to table/cockpit with good clamping system or more permanently with built-in screw threads. After attaching the steering wheel and making the required firmware update for PC I was ready to Rock´n Roll.

Driving impression´s:
I could feel big difference between the CSR and Thrustmaster TX as soon as I accelerated out of the pits with my rFactor 2 Corvette.In straight line the 458 Italia will give you much more information about the car suspension movement and the bumps on the road. In corners I could feel the change in grip much more clearly and earlier stage than I did with Fanatec CSR. Steering response feels faster, more direct and FFB in whole felt much better. CSR has small FFB deadzone where you dont feel any feedback but with TX you feel the FFB almost whole range of wheels turning range.

With Assetto Corsa the difference between the wheels was smaller but Thrustmaster still feels superior of these two. Again the Thrusmaster feels so accurate,direct and fast to react drivers every steering input. Driving BMW Z4 GT3 with CSR feel´s just little bit boring but the TX wheel made the car more enjoyable and exciting to drive.
Gear leavers are made of strong metal and have nice solid feel to them. They are quite short to allow easy access to back buttons so I needed some time finding right position for my hands and fingers. That ugly Manettino switch works but they really shoud have used better quality switch in that one. Other buttons feel OK but for me the Fanatec has better buttons and the wheel rim in whole feels better. Pedals look and feel quite cheap but surprisingly they work much better than their appearance might suggest.

Conclusion: Connect the dots
FFB quality and the base unit are definitely the best part of this wheel . Driving with this wheel is true pleasure because FFB is strong, detailed and fast. Thrustmaster really should have used better quality materials with the rim and the pedals. Luckily you can always use Thrustmaster T500 RS add-on wheels and pedals or use USB pedals from another manufacturer. Thrustmaster plans to release improved T3PA pedals which includes a clutch pedal. I think this package is OK starting point for newcomer but I would definitely buy new pedals if I was serious about simracing. Im relatively happy with the rim so currently I have no plans to buy the 100€ Ferrari 458 GTE wheel add-on which should be much better in quality wise.

The GOOD:
+ FFB is very good
+ Base is made of strong, good quality plastic
+ Many buttons, even behind the wheel
+ Accurate and reacts fast to drivers input
+ Good clamp that will stop the base from moving.
+ Gear leavers are made of thick metal and changing gear feels quite good
+ Ability to use add-on wheels and pedals

The BAD:
- Pedals are light weight,looks and feels cheap. Surprisingly they do work moderately well
- Wheel rim looks cheap and the build quality should have been better. It does work & feels better than first impression might suggest
- Loud fan under stress
- No power switch
- USB cable can't be removed
- No clutch pedal

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05.02.2014 UPDATE:

My Thrustmaster TX is dead so rest in peace my friend...you will be sorely missed.:(
But luckily his twin brother has arrived. ;)

One morning about 10 days ago my wheel went completely dead, no lights or any wheel movement at all so the electronics must have failed.
I contacted my local dealer and they replaced my wheel in 10 days . Whole process could have been 2-3 days shorter but they didnt have the wheel on stock so Im very happy how fast they replaced my wheel. I also e-mailed Thustmaster twice and both time they replied in 24 hours so no complaints about their reply speed.
According to my local dealer over 10% TX wheels have been returned back for warranty repairs. Other users have also experienced wheel failures so there seems to be slight quality problem with first batch of the TX Wheel.

I still like the wheel very much. :)
 
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Hi,
i`m a new owner of a TX Wheel. Before that, i had a G25 and the TX is a great improvement. But i noticed some cogging when you turn slowly the Wheel. Is that normal, i thought there will be no cogging because of the brushless motor ore comes this from the belt?. Is that cogging bigger at the T500 wheel.
Now i have to install my Raid 320mm suede wheel with SLI-M on it. That was mounted at the G25 before.
I`m using it on Pc only.
 
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Great! Would you mind sharing how they compare to each other in terms of ffb feel, detail, speed and strength? Is the TX on par with the T500 or does it feel cheaper in this regard?

Compared to my T500 it is smoother, quieter and "maybe" stronger, hard to tell the strength thing for absolute certain because I never ran full strength with the T500, and also do not with the TX, it definetely feels more direct in take up tho.

I concur a little with the cogging feeling if you turn the wheel super slow, it is simply the teeth on the belt meshing with the gear on the motor, I know because I had the lid of for my conversion and watched it working, whether than was worse than my T500 I am not certain either.

Overall I am very impressed with the mechanical feel and drive experience, and it will still rip your arms off if you go wild with the FFB and that crappy little 280mm wheel.........the Sparco Mugello is 330mm and works great at around 65% FFB for me, plenty strong enough, I used to run a G25 with a similar wheel at 101% in the drivers for a comparison !

HTH, a definite buy again if I had to......but only with an after market wheel. Derek Spear Design is your friend for an adapter :p
 
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I run ISI based engines and iRacing and Forza with the TX, and can compare with the T500 on iRacing and ISI stuff

I cannot sadly run the T500 back to back with the TX, because the TX is all bolted down in my frame and cable wrapped etc, not to mention the bits I stole from the T500 to make my TX work as I wanted.

I think the TX overall is just a bit smoother and a bit firmer and quicker to respond compared to the T500 on like for like settings, everything seems to work with a bit more pzazz if that makes sense.

If you do not have a T500 would be great update from a CSR/GT2 or G25/27, if you already have a CS or T500 for CSE then maybe just putting down on the maybe list when your current wheel dies, unless of course you are determind to have a good wheel for FM5 and the XB1 which is also PC Compatible, I am wondering if someone might find a way to hack the firware so it works on the PS3/4 as well tbh, technically there is no reason IMHO, regardless of all that MS PR rubbish they came out with.
 
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I concur a little with the cogging feeling if you turn the wheel super slow, it is simply the teeth on the belt meshing with the gear on the motor, I know because I had the lid of for my conversion and watched it working, whether than was worse than my T500 I am not certain either.

But if i let the wheel powerless (plug off usb and powersupply) i don`t feel the cogging, so i think that comes from the motor?.
 
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Just got this wheel with the F1 Rim and GTE Rim add-on. Didn't even mount the stock rim.
I have to say it's a step up from G27, Fanatec Forza Motorsport CSR and Fanatec Porsche 911 RS V2 wheels. Pedals are okay but not as good as G27 or the base CSR pedals. I think it's time to sell the other wheels.

No actionmap for this wheel in the F1 20xx series, so having to use keyboard for some of features is not to my liking but that just a personal thing for me.

If someone could figure out the devicetype/devicename one just might be able to create an actionmap for this wheel.
 
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My Thrustmaster TX is dead so rest in peace my friend...you will be sorely missed.:(
But luckily his twin brother has arrived. ;)

One morning about 10 days ago my wheel went completely dead, no lights or any wheel movement at all so the electronics must have failed.
I contacted my local dealer and they replaced my wheel in 10 days . Whole process could have been 2-3 days shorter but they didnt have the wheel on stock so Im very happy how fast they replaced my wheel. I also e-mailed Thustmaster twice and both time they replied in 24 hours so no complaints about their reply speed.
According to my local dealer over 10% TX wheels have been returned back for warranty repairs. Other users have also experienced wheel failures so there seems to be slight quality problem with first batch of the TX Wheel.

I still like the wheel very much. :)
 
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To add to Jari Vinnari's message about over 10% of TX's being sent back, mine developed a fault today after 30 days of ownership and possibly 30-40 hours of use (see video below). However, I am confident I can get it replaced, just waiting for confirmation from the vendor.

Overall, a fantastic wheel, it feels much smoother and has considerably better force feedback at all points in rotation than my G27, but it developed a fault, for me. If you had the choice between this and a G27, I would 100%, categorically recommend you go for this if you want the optimal driving feel, but make sure you buy it from a good seller with a great returns policy, and don't be disheartened if it does develop a fault (read my update below). I am happy I did not sell my G27, because it is a great backup in case something goes wrong with the TX, but that is all it is, a great backup. Though, do not get me wrong, I have not seen a difference in lap times. I have seen consistency go through the roof with the TX which I can only reason as being due to the quality of the output from the feedback to replicate reality.

To add: I favoured the stock rim after getting used to it (I also have the F1 Add-on), and there are small buttons behind the stock wheel on either side you can assign as shifters for quieter shifting too.

Update: within 7 days of lodging the fault to Thrustmaster, they sent a new wheel base which performs better than the working version of this faulty one.
It is true, they do provide a first rate service and communication.
 
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Thanks for the impressions Mark, Jari and all. If it´s a smooth transition to transfer over rims with dsd adapters to the TX it may be next after my T500RS which I am really happy with.

Smoother and smaller footprint is my two biggest wishes for it.

Fanatec if you listen if you let us use our own rims you are in the race too for CSW 2 :)
 
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I'll add my .02 here since I own both the T500RS and the TX wheel and I play mostly PC racing games and sims which include iRacing, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Stock Car Extreme, Race07, GTR 2, and Dirt 2 and Dirt 3, as well as GT5, GT6 and Forza 5 on consoles.

My first impressions were that the TX was inferior, the FFB didn't feel quite as strong right out of the box, but then again admittedly, I never use the T500RS at full strength either. So after a week of playing with the TX, I've come to the conclusion that it is superior to the T500 from a FFB standpoint and I think my initial impressions were a bit mislead by the fact that my T500 feels very damped and somewhat heavy even with the control panel damping turned down. The included pedals are not as good as the T500 but thankfully you can use the T500 pedals on the TX and there's no H shifter available yet for the TX but you can still the TH8RS with the TX on the PC, just not with the Xbox One.

I'm not going to rehash what most others have already said except in summary I feel the TX is quicker than the T500 to react, it seems less damped and just makes my T500 feel slower in general. I can catch slides much easier with the TX than the T500. The FFB is about 10-20% weaker than the T500 at identical settings but the truth is, there's still FAR more than enough FFB in the TX than you'll actually ever use and the power is there if you choose to increase the gain settings in the Thrustmaster control panel. Make no mistake, its much stronger than a G27 which I also used to own. It certainly does have the power to snatch the wheel right out of your hands if you hit a wall in some sims. What I like most about the FFB in the TX though is the speed at which it conveys whats going on, it feels smoother and quieter than the T500, less cogging and less jerky, and you can feel subtle effects much more naturally. Also, for all the complaints about the cheapness of the TX 458 wheel, its true that it has more plastic on it than the T500 wheel and when you touch it, it does feel cheaper, but when you actually use it, your hands are almost always on the rubber grips on the wheel so you rarely ever notice the cheaper plastic parts. And of course there's the GTE wheel if you really dislike the factory 458 wheel. The TX paddles are wonderful as well, they are much smaller since they don't have to be as large due to the fixed position of the T500 paddles. They have a nice firm click to them when you use them and immediately, I felt quicker using them compared to my T500.

I do not plan to get rid of my T500 wheel as it may still has a purpose on the PS3 and may have a purpose on the PS4, which remains to be seen and I think its still an awesome backup if my TX should fail, but there's no question for me that the TX base is superior to the T500 base. I do of course prefer the T500 pedals and TH8RS shifter. The TX had a bad reputation for a higher than normal failure rate right after release. I do not know if that is till the case but I do know that during those early months, a firmware update was not just optional, it was a REQUIREMENT for TX users before using their wheel and I suspect a lot of people didn't do that before trying to use it and may have caused it to die prematurely. I notice far less reports of failure since the most recent firmware update and I feel like I've given mine a pretty good workout in a variety of games over the last 2 weeks and its not failed or done anything unusual yet. It also seems to run cooler than my T500 and the fan doesn't come on as much as it does in my T500. The noise of the fans are about the same to me, maybe the TX fan is slightly quieter. I highly recommend the TX for anyone buying a wheel and I can even recommend it as an upgrade to existing T500 users. I got mine from Amazon which is listing them now as shipping with the latest firmware so I assume that's the newest version available and mine did indeed have the most current firmware.

For what its worth, I've beaten almost every one of my previous lap records in my racing sims since switching to the TX from the T500 and I honestly wasn't expecting that to happen but the TX just gives me so much feedback about what's going on and the speed at which the wheel reacts inspires greater confidence at the limit.
 
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Nice! Thanks for reminding me about the lack of static paddles it would make it harder to use aftermarket rims I would use sequential if so or some expensive custom solution whatever that would be?

I am a bit afraid that I will miss these 10-20 %. My T500RS go into clipping in notime and 100 % ffb strength is not all that much on a 365 mm rim.

Have you noticed any difference in how loud the wheels are when going over rumble strips or similar? Are they equally loud or is the TX quieter? Much or roughly the same?
 
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Nice! Thanks for reminding me about the lack of static paddles it would make it harder to use aftermarket rims I would use sequential if so or some expensive custom solution whatever that would be?

I am a bit afraid that I will miss these 10-20 %. My T500RS go into clipping in notime and 100 % ffb strength is not all that much on a 365 mm rim.

Have you noticed any difference in how loud the wheels are when going over rumble strips or similar? Are they equally loud or is the TX quieter? Much or roughly the same?

I could see that might be an issue if you wanted a custom rim. Is the add-on GTE wheel not up to your standards?

You will not miss the 10-20% difference unless you're running your T500 at 100% gain in the control panel. The T500 is 60% by default and the TX is set at 75% by default. I find that 80% on the TX is pretty darn close to the T500 strength at 60%. I would say there's probably no question that the T500 has the potential to provide more torque since it uses a bigger motor but I don't feel like I've lost anything in the TX because at 80% in the control panel, its all I ever need and I just make adjustment within each game. I have not needed to max out the FFB setting in any racing game or sim yet with the TX set at 80% in the control panel so there's still some power in reserve.

I will say that the TX is noticeably quieter than the T500, and that was pretty surprising since I thought the T500 was very quiet compared to the G27 I had before. You hardly hear any noise from the TX other than when the fan comes on. Its buttery smooth to the point that you will probably wonder if half of the feedback you thought you were getting on the T500 was legitimate feedback or just cogging, and I'm inclined to believe the T500 has some cogging now since the TX just feels more accurate in regards to the feedback based on what I'm seeing on screen. Its hard to describe really but the speed of the TX wheel and and the noticeable smoothness just make it seem superior to the T500 to me.

I still have my concerns about the TX reliability as there were so many reports of them failing early on, but its really going to be hard to part with the TX if it fails, as much as I like the T500, I just like the TX so much more than it would be hard to go back and not miss the TX. And then of course, I'm still using my T500 pedals with the TX but I just found out that Jon at Basherboards has a CPX adapter that will allow Fanatec pedals with the T500 and TX so I may buy a set of Clubsport V2's and use them with the TX and return my T500 pedals back to the T500 base.

And one last note, I don't know if you have an Xbox One but the FFB in Forza 5 is quite nice. I would like a bit more FFB from the road itself like Assetto Corsa provides, which to me is the benchmark standard for all racing games and sims right now, but Forza 5 does everything else very well and is an enjoyable experience which you can't get anywhere but the TX wheel.
 
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