Hello There,
My name is Dan the Dartman on Xbox live. I am a HUGE fan of the PTG site and spend quite a bit of time on there. Their paints and tunes are equal to the best out there. Anyway I have been asked to write a little article about my racing rig. I have been a fan of Forza since the first Forza, 10 years ago. I found out early on that I am a very poor driver with a game controller. Actually, i'm not the best with my rig either, but I sure have FUN trying to be!!!
When Forza Motorsport Two came out I purchased the old white and grey Microsoft wheel and pedals. It was so much more fun than a controller, I felt as though I was driving the car rather than telling it what to do with the controller. It did not take me too long to realize it needed something other than my lap to play on. I went to work in my garage and after a weekend of trying things I had a very low end wheel and pedal cockpit that I needed to have a chair behind. It was a ton better than my lap, my friends were all jealous. I made a second one identical and i'd play side by side on split screen with friends, we spent a lot of hours on that game.
Forza Motorsport Three was coming out and I had heard of Fanatec wheels and pedals, I had to have one. I ordered it with just the Porsche 911 turbo wheel and kept the Microsoft pedals as it was cheaper for me. It now was a solo set up as I could not afford 2 of them, It was a huge upgrade for me and I was loving it. My wife is a saint to allow me to have this and I tried to show her this as much as I could when I was not racing. LOL.
Around the time Forza Motorsport Four was prepping for release I decided to again upgrade to the CSR Elite wheel and Clubsport pedals as they were so heavily sought after and I wanted them badly. When they arrived and I saw how nice the wheel and pedals were I went back into my garage and in a weekend I built version 1 of my full racing rig, real seat and all. I built it out of 1 1/2 inch PVC, gosh it was so nice to sit and not have the pedals moving around under heavy braking. I played the heck out of that game and started to go online, then my first wakeup call! I had a few friends over and I was beating them nearly every race so I decided to go online as I was feeling pretty confident. OMG was that a reality check for all of them to see!!! I was lapped by nearly the entire field and humbled as well, I still kept going online and getting better.
The new Xbox was coming out and Forza Motorsport Five was a release title so I was very pleased. Then I found out my 1 1/2 year old wheel was no longer going to work on the new Forza, PANIC!!! I did some heavy investigating and found the Thrustmaster TX wheel. I ordered it right away and I had it for the release of FM5. Right away I was not as happy with the brakes that came with it as I was spoiled from the Fanatec Clubsport pedals. I found the Basher CPX adapter that allowed me to use the Clubsport pedals with the Thrustmaster wheel and upped the ante; I ordered the new Clubsport V2 pedals too. They were a nice upgrade and I was really liking the racing rig. I enjoyed having friends over to play on the racing rig but I noticed that with the real seat it would move like in a real car so the pedals were in the right spot for any of my friends. However the wheel was not always matching up to where they wanted it. Back to the garage with my rig – LOL. I bought another real car seat and took off the adjustable slider for it. I mounted that up front and then made a platform for the wheel to mount onto it. Now my friends can get in and set the seat to where it is best for their legs and then bring the wheel to where they want it for their arms, totally adjustable for anyone. I'm proud of this as I have never heard of this before, I had to make my idea a reality on my own and it worked well.
About a year ago I heard about the new Fanatec V2 base and again I had to have it. I bought it and waited for a rim that was combative for the Xbox. It took nearly a year but I purchased the GT rim and the adapter so it would work on the Xbox. I bought the Clubsport shifter and also saw the Clubsport V3 pedals so they also came and with the brake damper of course, man was that a great purchase!!! I had the top of the line Fanatec set up with my own homemade racing rig and I was ready for Forza 6 now. I have my surround system and it is really immersive while in the rig doing my racing. I 'try' to have non-racing nights and watch TV with my wife as she was nice enough to allow me to get all this great equipment.
I would say I have invested about $1800 dollars in the entire Racing rig but if you noticed my gamer tag I used to play Darts competitively. I traveled all over the United States doing tournaments and making money (I won over $90,000 in prize money over the 20 years I played) but even with all the money I won, I still spent way more than I made on hotel rooms, food, gas, entry fees, etc. I gave that up to be home and not have to be gone 3 weekends a month and 4 nights a week playing league. The racing rig is very cheap when you put it all in perspective. I never really got super-fast but every now and then I even surprise myself and put down some pretty good times.
I may see some of you online racing and always remember, take it easy on this 49 year old man.
Happy laps to all of you!
Dan the Dartman