Thrustmaster Ferrari GT Cockpit 458 Steeling Wheel Review

Installation and Performance

The wheel is very easy to set up; just attached the screw-in cable that is located in the back of the wheel and steering column to each other, then screw in the five fixing screws that were included in the box. This only took me a couple of minutes to complete and once it’s done the whole unit looks incredible.

Loosen the dials in the base unit and you can adjust the angle of the steering column up and down, loosen the dial on the column and you can extend the wheel up or down; allowing quick and easy adjustment to suit your seating position and the length of your legs/arms.

Gaming Performance

Tweaking the setup on this wheel is very straight forward, it’s easy enough that I can quickly adjust the reach for my 8-year-old son to play and to make sure he can reach the pedals, then adjust it back again for my go. Installing drivers wasn’t an issue either, given that the wheel operates off of the standard Xbox 360 Windows Driver, which has been installed on my computer for ages already, so it really was as simple as plug and play.

The wheel does feature a limited feedback feature, which gives you a moderate vibration about on par with the stock Xbox 360 controller, what is unique about it is that it can be felt in the wheel, steering column and the pedal base. While playing games like Race Room you could feel the buzz of the curb on the apex through the pedals; pretty cool. One thing the wheel does lack is full force feedback, the resistance on the wheel is provided by a strong spring, which sounds rubbish, but it actually feels very well-balanced and the force increases the further you turn the wheel. The upside of this is the wheel operates virtually silent, I often find motor driver wheels are quite noisy and can be tiring over longer races.

The floor standing setup means you don’t have to clamp anything to your desk or a table, this means the wheel can free stand, perfect for desk use, in front of the TV from the couch or even as part of a more serious race setup if you want to use a custom seat. Not once did I have issues with the floor pedals moving, no doubt thanks to the extra weight of this being a one piece unit.

Need for Speed Shift 2, Dirt 3, Grid 2, Live for Speed, Assetto Corsa and Euro Truck Simulator 2 all worked perfectly with the wheel; although some took more configuration than others, especially ETS2 and LFS. The wheel feels accurate with no dead zones, the pedals are responsive and offer a nice level of resistance, the spring return on the wheel is strong, but not invasive and the overall build quality of the setup feels rock solid, the unit hasn’t moved around once when in use.