Thrustmaster TS-XW/TS-PC Racer Review

While they were released to the public around a year apart (TS-PC, 2016 and TS-XW, 2017), both of these wheels have a very similar architecture. The main difference in the wheel base is that the TS-XW is XBOX One compatible while the TS-PC is PC-only.

Both wheels are pleasing to look at with very nice details. The TS-PC is black and the TS-XW has red accents that really pop. Other than the XBOX-related buttons, both bases carry a USB port, power socket, pedal port and gear shifter port.

Force Feedback
The 40-watt brushless servomotor both bases have is certainly strong enough, and most likely your last stop in this price bracket before wanting a direct drive wheel. It’s quiet, too, with no annoying grinding or belt sounds. I haven’t tried many of the lower T-series wheels, but I understand this to be about the most powerful money can buy. Most sims I ever tried these bases on translate the forces through to the wheel very well indeed.

Included Wheel Rims
The TS-XW comes with an absolutely gorgeous Sparco P310 Competition Mod wheel, a 1:1 replica of the real thing. It’s a perfect size, wrapped in suede, with enough of a variation of buttons for most needs.

The TS-PC comes with an open wheel rim that is absolutely stunning to look at. The rim also has suede wrapped grips on either side and importantly (for me, anyway), has real buttons on the front unlike the Ferrari F1 Wheel Addon. There is also a version of the TS-PC that ships with a Ferrari 488 Challenge wheel, but I have never used that.

Pedals
The TS-XW Racer Sparco P310 Competition Mod wheel comes with T3PA pedals. There will be many that wonder why they do not ship it with the Pro variant, but frankly I don’t think they need to. Besides, I can’t imagine there would be many out there willing to spend the money on Pro pedals when the wheel is obviously so damn expensive to begin with.

The TS-PC Racer does not come with pedals in any combinations I have seen, though it is obviously compatible with the T3PA and T3PA Pro pedals. This does give you a nice choice because this base is sold with both an F1-style and GT-style wheel, it maybe makes sense to allow users to buy F1-style pedals for themselves if they want to.

Pricing
The pricing on these units has varied quite a bit lately, and the second hand market is a rip-off best-avoided. Ultimately this is an expensive hobby and these are about as much as I’d ever be willing to pay without something very, very impressive being added to the package. Obviously if you are an XBOX user it makes sense to buy the TS-XW which you can use on both platforms.

It’s quite obvious that these products are intended to fall into the gap just below direct drive wheel options. There are budget wheels available but they simply aren’t as good as this base, and it does feel like there is a significant step-up in quality and force feedback that makes it feel like you may just be getting your money’s worth out of them.

TS-PC vs TS-XW
In terms of feel they are exactly the same wheel. Your only considerations are: PC-only vs XBOX+PC compatibility, price, wheel rim you want (although you can buy those separately).