March 2025 Monthly Sim-Lab XP1 Pedals Giveaway

Mine is pretty simple. Christmas of '99 I received my PS1, Test Drive 5, and my Dale Earnhardt Interact V3 wheel setup. Ive been hooked since then, simple as that. Stayed up until 11pm that night which was unheard of with my 8PM bedtime.

Man! San Fransico jumps with the Pitbull, ill never forget that.

I've only been sim racing for 10 months now. I needed a new PC and bought a second hand one with good specs 64gb ram and 6 gb graphics card originally bought for recording music. Bought an xbox controller and tried out a few racing games while I looked for a second hand wheel. Asked a friend if he had a spare wheel and he showed me his collection of at least 10 wheels and he was still only using a G29. I decided after seeing his collection I wanted something better and bought a Moza R5. Four months later upgraded to an R12 and RS v2 wheel and then a KS wheel and an adapter and deep dish wheel, shifter and handbrake. Next I'll be getting pedals and a sim rig. Also bought a PS4 pro and logitech wheel just to play gran turismo 7. ( I think I have a serious problem)
So far this little hobby has cost me more than my real car. I also decided to get into flight sims as well and thats cost me another $1000 plus and I don't even have all the gear I want for that either. Also I want a better graphics card etc etc etc.
Should have stuck to music but that was getting expensive too. It's only money, what else would I do with it?

Ive always been a racing fan and a racing game lover!
My first memories of me playing racing games took us to the early '90s when my big brother took me every other day to the arcade and I always played a top view game with a red machine, which I don't recall the name now, and I was so into the game that he could easily get away smoking cigarettes whiteout me knowing and letting my parents know (I was 6/7 yo he was 14/15 yo).
Then it was a long journey from games over early home console and PCs games. I remember playing GTR demo for months over a keyboard!
My first wheel was a Logitech I found on sale over a local shop, and this was the great start! RBR was one of the very first sim I've played with a wheel, than a lot of rFactor mods, and from then I've own mostly every racing sim!
It's already been a long journey and I wish it will be at least that long in the feature!

Now I'm in need of a new pedal set cos my 12 years fanatec CSP V1 need really a brake (I mean, my brake don't work good ).
Cheers guys, this place was a home for knowing a lot of things and downloaded a lot of mods thorough years! Keep going like that as I see this place as one of the place where you can share and grow our hobbies, like it was the old iRacing forum!

I started all the way back with my C64 and Stunt car racer

It might not be a simracing game, but i got to love racing games. Since then i raced most in Need for speed 2 SE where i managed to a 2nd place in a national competition, since i had a 12mb voodoo2 card at the time, and the graphics where amaazing. Bugs hitting the windshield.

I played pretty much all the NFS games up till 2005 when rFactor and GTR released. I was still playing with keyboard, but the next year i got my very first wheel the G25, and i have been racing ever since.

In 2010 i got to try iracing for the very first time. I was really bad, so i went back to other sims again.

I always had some fun in the simcade titles. So i also played alot of the F1 and the ealier Dirt games

After a few years break with some tours to Afghanistan, Project Cars released and i was back in the game. Got a Porsche 911 GT3 RS V2 Wheel and i loved it. Then i moved to Project cars 2 and loved that even more.

Today i race in pretty much every thing

Iracing, AMS2, ACC, ACE, Dirt Rally 2.0

It's all a bit stop start, but...

...It all started way back in '85 for me with REVS, an F3 sim, on the C64, well possibly even earlier in '83 with Chequered Flag on the Sinclair Spectrum but it's debatable you could call that a sim title whereas REVS definitely was, at least for the time. For sure it looks basic in the extreme today, but back then it was a revelation. Also it was written by the legend Geoff Crammond and was the precursor to his revered F1 series.

Moving on to '89, I must have sunk a ton of money into Hard Drivin' in the arcades - the first driving game to actually offer a full FFB wheel. Home computer and console versions did arrive, but due to the hardware limitations of these home devices it really wasn't possible to capture the immersion of the arcade version, and the FFB wheel, which was a major part of the experience wasn't going to become an affordable consumer thing until more than 15 years later.

The next racing game that grabbed me was Virtua Racing in '94 when it was released for the Sega Megadrive. Was it a sim? NO, but what it was, was a huge leap in graphics over other Megadrive titles, due to it's unique feature of effectively having a GPU built into the cartridge. Known as the Sega Virtua Processor, or SVP, it was intended to be used in future games, but it turned out to be prohibitive in terms of cost, and at that stage we were about to experience a paradigm shift in gaming technology anyway.

And now in '95 we have what for me what was the beginning of the golden age of racing games. With the introduction of the original Playstation I ran out and bought it alongside the release titles Ridge Racer and WipEout. While neither of these could be described as sims, both could be described as groundbreaking in terms of home gaming - WipEout I still play to this very day.

Of course that wasn't the end for me with the Playstation. Destruction Derby followed shortly after the release which was amazing with its physics and damage model.

However it was in late '96 where I got my first wheel and pedals alongside the Formula 1 release for the PS1, The wheel was a Mad Katz wheel. No FFB, just bungie cord centering, and it was fun, for a bit. I used it for the F1 game, but nothing else to be honest, because it really wasn't that good, and I didn't really do that much "sim racing" for a couple of years

In late '97 Sony released their Dual Shock Analog controller along with a little known title called Gran Turismo, which, for better or worse, ended up transforming the entire sim racing genre. I distinctly remember walking down to One Step Beyond, which was a local game store in Norwich UK with the sole intention of buying Colin McRae Rally. However they had this other game on demo and it took me just shy of 0.37 seconds to realise that I was not leaving the store with Colin McRae Rally, and in fact I left with Gran Turismo and a pristine new Dual Shock.

I played the hell out of GT, and the sequel,Gran Turismo 2, over god knows how long. However something very interesting fell in-between and that was TOCA 2: Touring Cars. Sometimes I still think of this as the best pack racing I ever experienced

I finally caught up with Colin McRae, but it was the later Colin McRae Rally 2.0 - a rally game that for me still stands and I still play it today - something I can't say about Gran Turismo.

And then not much - I bought a PS2 with one of those attachable monitors that makes it like a laptop, plus GT3 and 4 in summer 2006, but then I moved countries, had to learn another language and find work. Sim racing and gaming in general was on the back burner.

Fast forward to 2017. I bought Grid Autosport when I realised it had a Mac version. I played this on keyboard and had an absolute blast. I subsequently realised that both Dirt Rally and F1 2017 were also available natively on Mac and bought these as well.

But I was curious, what is this FFB that everybody is talking about. So I took a risk and bought a G29 just to see if it would work with a Mac.It did, and I was seriously impressed with what I felt especially when I realised that in F1 2017 the bumps and vibrations were not random, but based on the actual track surface. However the Mac did not play well with these titles with often second long pauses which made racing impossible.

This prompted me to explore the console world as things need to run well there. There was this new fangled VR thing being promoted with the Playstation 4, as well as GT Sport so I took the plunge with a PS4 Pro and PSVR and I really enjoyed the initial experience until I realise that GT Sport was nothing more than a demo in VR - It took until WipEout Omega Collection got VR support to convince me about the VR potential

I stuck with this for a while, buying AC, PC1 & 2 and Wreckfest on PS4, but there was a new kid on the block,which was Assetto Corsa Competizione. I installed Windows onto my iMac to play it, but it was obvious that Apple had really skimped on the hardware despite my Mac being the highest spec iMac from 2017.

So I bought a top spec PC, two actually, one to run normal PC gaming, and one dedicated to sim racing and the rest is history - I've bought every single modern sim title, with the exception of iRacing (it doesn't offer good value for money in my opinion).

In terms of hardware I've moved from bungie wheels right through gear and belt driven wheels to direct drive wheels, but I will say that the most fun I've had is with the gear and belt wheels. The DD wheels are definitely better, but because I used the gear/belt wheels at the start they gave me the wow introduction to FFB that DD wheels ddn't


TL;DR I've been sim racing for far longer than a lot of of you were nothing more than an itch in your father's nether regions, and I'm still terrible at it,

This is how it all began for me. The Philips Videopac game computer, whose very first game cartidge was a racing game. Actually, there were three games on there. The first was a top down, infinite scroller where your goal was to keep driving without crashing into any of the other cars as long as you could. The second put you and a friend on a top down track where you had to make it to the finish before your opponent would without leaving the track or crashing into your opponent, both of which would be penalized by a time penalty.

My brother and me spent hours racing each other, occupying the family TV, and the third game I don't recall we ever played...

I start my simracing career with giving a G29 as a present to my son.
But he did'nt like it. he is more a soccer player.
I always liked racing but in fact of cost's i was not abel to drive in real life.
So simracing has stole my hard by giving me the chance to drive agenst real other people with a fraction of the cost.
I have tryed this pedals on simrig form Rene Butler @ sim formula europe 2024 and i liked it.
After sim formula europe i bought a dennis reimer sim wheel and a fanatecc clubsport v1 pedal set to stay on low cost's.
Hopefuly overtake.gg can help me to get to a next lever with this great simlab pedals.

Kind regard Bert Verhoof (nl)

Passionate about cars since I was a child, I had more than 100 1/43 scale models, I started around 1995 with gran prix 2 and I had practically all the sims, viper racing, the entire TOCA series, GPL, GT Legend, Sport car GT, the 24 hours of Le Mans plus all the rally ones.
The first steering wheel was a Logitech wingman that I used until around 2007.
Then due to various commitments I had to give it up almost completely, I returned to racing in 2022 with a Logitech G29 and a computer with an integrated graphics card that barely did 15/20 fps.
Now I have replaced the computer and screen and finally, having a lot of free time (the benefits of retirement) I enjoy all the AC sims, AC competition, Automobilista 1e2, Raceroom, and I hope to enjoy ACEvo in the future too.
The next purchase will be for a DD steering wheel with pedals and maybe a nice sim rig

I remember playing Pole Position in the 80's in my older brother Atari videoconsole and a few years later Formula 1 videogames in PS2 and XboxOne. In 2019, before the Covid boom, I bought my first wheel, a crappy Thrustmaster 458 spider, that made me go deep into the simracing rabbit hole. Upgrade after upgrade, and about 15.000 euros later, I'm now the proud owner of a triple monitor setup with a too expensive gaming PC, Simlab rig, Simucube2 base, Heusinkveld pedals and varios CubeControls wheels.

After buying a game pad for my PC, I realised that now, after a keyboard, it is possible to actually drive a car in gta5 and even feel some difference between them.
Rest of the story of the rig building is here:
One day Steam offered a discount on some racing game. Later I discovered that it's not a game.

I've been playing racing games since I could play at all. I remember games like Super Monaco GP 2 which I believe was on the Sega Megadrive, even a game with Nigel Mansell on the cover which was on a Nintendo platform I believe.

As years went by I played a whole lot more different racing games like the F1 series on the original Playstation. I have fond memories of that. I had a stepdad at that point who was really competitive and we were holding leaderboards of fastest laptimes etc. I was so proud once I was able to break one his times only for the day after him breaking it again.

Same with rally games like Colin McRae and another rally game I can't remember but was pretty popular back in the day.

Since 2010 I've been playing iRacing, I am one of those guys who has a lot of the cars and tracks. I managed to buy myself a Fanatec CSL Elite wheel along with some pedals which I still use to this day.

Nowadays I'm really into LMU, the multiclass racing is really peaking my interest and I have a feeling those higher downforce cars are more my jam than the LMGT3's. I am not a very good simracer by any means. I am unable to find the limit of the cars I drive and I suppose I developed bad habits which are now ingrained in my driving style which are hard to get rid off. But that hasn't stopped me from having fun in all the sims I race in. iRacing, LMU, ACC, ...

I'm lazy and bad with money.

also, My premium expired.

To be honest I´ve never really had a sim racing because I didnt see it necessary for the potato pc I had for all these years, but now that I finally bougth a better pc I can play better racing games with better sim racing support, If I dont won this giveaway its okay but I wish you guys the best

I fell in love with formula 1 and gradually ive been trying to put together a sim racing set when money allows ive now got a good pc next up is wheel and pedals

I've always been very interested in cars and racing games ever since I got an XBOX 360 and Forza Motorsport 4 (still one of my favourite games of all time), and I also remember always spending a lot of time playing BeamNG drive on my dad's early rig he let me play on when I was younger, later he would make me a simple wooden rig with a seat from a Renault Espace, with a Thrustmaster TMX and simple pedals, on which I played AC with my dad a lot; mainly Nordschleife track days, which still are great fun to this day. Today I have a pretty good rig, with a Moza R3, triple 1080 monitors and Simagic P500 pedals. The majority of the time I play AC, but I also am thinking of giving ACC or Automobilsta 2 a try.

Always been interested in racing games, but the first "sim" experience was probably Indianapolis 500 by Papyrus, then the Geoff Crammond games. I'd have to look back at release dates as to what order everything came in but also did the other early NASCAR/Indycar games. My most vivid memory of the early days was probably using a Spectravideo Quickshot type joystick, forward to accelerate, back to brake but doing fast "F1" downshifts by pulling back and hammering the fire button . There's the TOCA games in there somewhere and the Colin McRae's and a bunch of others I can't remember.

Dipped in and out over the years, had a VIC 20, C64 (neither really sim racing computers ) then went Amiga, PC and pretty much all of the Sony and Microsoft consoles for gaming, even had a Dreamcast so played Metropolis Street Racer that predated Project Gotham. Had some of the Microsoft force feedback kit, a Wingman Formula force and pedals, T300 RS before moving onto direct drive.

Only ever did online stuff on console and am an offline only racer on PC. I stick to circuit racing but I'll try all sorts of cars. Haven't got much interest in time trialling, hot lapping or free roam, until the latter becomes photo realistic in VR !!

It all started when I picked up a random racing game, thinking it’d be just another way to kill time. But the moment I hit the throttle, I knew something was off—I was instantly hooked. I could feel the precision, the way every corner needed to be perfect. So, I ditched the keyboard and made the only real decision: I invested in a racing wheel and pedals.
That’s when everything clicked. The difference was night and day. No more sloppy inputs—everything had to be calculated. I spent hours dialing in my car setups, perfecting my braking points, and learning every single track inside out. I didn’t just want to race; I wanted to dominate.
I started entering leagues, going for those top times, battling against the best. I wasn’t racing for fun anymore; it was about consistency, strategy, and grinding until I hit that perfect lap. I even started analyzing telemetry, watching replays, and studying other drivers to find any advantage I could. It became a relentless pursuit of improvement.
I didn’t care about casual racing anymore. I was all in—chasing that feeling of being the fastest on the track. Sim racing went from a hobby to an obsession, and I’m not stopping until I’m at the top.

My brother has always been a grease monkey, he promised to buy me a wheel and gran turismo if i passed my exam back in 2004. I passed and spent hours and hours on GT 4 needless to say I was hooked!

played every GT game ever since. 5 years ago my wife got me a metaquest 2 and i was looking for vr games to play. Downloaded asetto corsa and played the game on vr with a gamepad! for 3 years I was havi8ng so much fun, early last year i finally got some spare cash. It was a no brainer, spent it on a used rig and a cammus C5 & CP5. been sim racing every weekend ever since.

Spend most on my time racing GT3s on LMU and Karts on AMS2 these days

It all started with Gran Turismo 4 and the thread on GameFaqs "The Nurburgring Diaries". Bought a Logitech Driving Force Pro wheel for my PS2 and loved every minute of it. I still have that wheel sitting on a shelf.

Then I found Forza 3 , Forza 4, and the time trial competitions, again on GameFaqs. I bought a Microsoft xbox 360 wheel for those games. Pure bliss.

A bit later on, I discovered Simbin and RACE07. Holy crap NOW THIS IS A RACING GAME!! My microsoft wheel will not work on PC...Bought my Fanatec CSR Forza Edition ( I still have it and still use it daily ) for that game and have never played on console since. I still fire up Gran Turismo once in a while, but only for a few minutes then I get bored.

GTL, GTR2, Game Stock Car Extreme, rFactor1, AMS1...OH MY, I AM HOOKED!! Assetto Corsa, rF2...WOW! Now I am in love.

I don't even play other games anymore, simracing has me hooked.

The only games that ever held my interest as much as sim racing does is Elder Scrolls: Morrowind or Fallout 4.

I started sim racing more seriously about 2 months ago, did some race room with a non ffb wheel for about 140 hours and got a second hand Logitech GT force and since then I am already over 110 hours in rfactor2 and already part of a community.
I run an average of 42 hours per 2 weeks and plan to upgrade my home made wooden rig to a real rig with a better wheel and pedals.
I did some Gran Turismo and some F1 games on PlayStation when I was younger but always only with a controller.
Since I got my t80 second hand and then my GT force, I'm hooked and can't stop driving and watch videos to try and get better.