Thrustmaster brings direct drive steering wheels to console racing sims

Thrustmaster has announced a new steering wheel base that makes the company’s direct drive technology available on consoles for the first time. It also introduces a new electric motor design — already in use on high-end hybrid sports cars like the Ferrari SF90 — to the world of sim racing, improving realism while also shrinking the hardware.

The Thrustmaster T598 can be preordered today for $499.99 (including a set of racing pedals) and will be available starting on October 19th. Although it is compatible with both PCs and consoles, it’s limited for use with only the PlayStation 4 and 5.

Direct drive sim racing wheel bases are often preferred by enthusiasts because the steering wheel is connected directly to an electric motor, instead of using gears or belts, producing more torque, which creates more convincing feedback effects for a driver.

Wheel bases using a direct drive system typically rely on radial flux motors, but they come with some drawbacks. Their design tends to be larger to help dissipate excess heat that’s generated, and because the steering wheel shaft rotates perpendicular to the motor’s magnetic field, it creates occasional moments of drag. That can produce a sensation known as “cogging” where a steering wheel feels like it’s jerking as it’s turned.

Racing sims will compensate for cogging through algorithms that prevent those jerky motions from affecting a vehicle in a game, but Thrustmaster’s T598 solves the problem by instead using an axial flux motor (originally demonstrated by Michael Faraday way back in 1821) with a different design making the magnetic field run parallel with the motion of the steering wheel’s shaft. Thrustmaster says its Direct Axial Drive technology nearly eliminates cogging while the new wheel base delivers five newton-meters of constant torque to increase force feedback effects and responsiveness.

The T598 wheel base features four buttons and a small screen for adjusting settings and saving or loading user profiles. When used with the included 11.8-inch steering wheel that features magnetic paddle shifters, additional buttons, but no display, the wheel base’s screen can show game details like speed or a racer’s position.

The new wheel base also comes with a set of Thrustmaster’s Raceline Pedals LTE (Long Term Evolution) that use the company’s proprietary magnetic Hall effect sensors for improved accuracy and longevity. The firmness of the pedals can also be adjusted by swapping to a different set of included springs that increase tension.