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Asetek Simsports Invicta Pedals

Danish company Asetek has finally released their long awaited premium-pedals but our residential simracing-nut is not very impressed.

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There has been an incredible amount of talk about the Danish water cooling experts Asetek's first simracing product. On most occasions, Asetek itself has in principle rejected all possible competitors' alternatives available on the market and meant that they either do not feel like real pedals from a real racing car, or contain, for example, brake fluid which is corrosive and thus directly "dangerous" to have at home, indoors. In many ways, the Danes have called all pedals on the market "toys", which has made the expectation of their premium pedal soar through the roof.

The focus in the development and manufacture of these pedals has always been an optimal braking feeling, which according to Asetek is about rigidity and minimal travel for the pedal itself. The brake here moves at most about 20 millimetres, which is very little compared to for example, Fanatec V3 or Heusinkveld Sprint, and the braking feeling has been achieved with the help of the now patented technology "Thorp" ("Twin Hydraulic Opposing Rapid Pistons") which is a hydraulic cylinder with double pistons that make the brake feel absolutely rock hard. Even with the softest rubber elastomers installed and with the least possible resistance set in Asetek's flexible software, the Invicta brake is brutally hard, but still sensitive and realistic if I compare with the real life Porsche Cup GT3 car I drove on the track last year, for example.

Asetek Simsports Invicta Pedals

Here at Gamereactor, we use Heusinkveld's Ultimate Plus pedals with the brake set to about 90% of the maximum pressure, which of course makes it very hard. Jumping over to Asetek Invicta's deliberately rock-hard brake has thus meant a clearly smaller "jump" or a clearly shorter period of getting used to something completely new, than for those who go from, for example, Thrustmaster's Pro-pedals or Fanatec V3. The brake in the Invicta is great. Being able to replace the rubber elastomers without having to use tools (everything can be fixed with your fingers) is super smart and the Thorp system clearly does its job. The brake offers superb precision and it is easy for me to brake enough via muscle memory, here, without locking up the tires and risking slipping off the track. Many simracers believe that the brake is by far the most important of all three (or two) pedals, which of course is true, in many ways - and here Danish Asetek has succeeded very well. Is the Thorp brake better than the Heusinkveld Ultimate Plus brake? No. Properly tuned, the Heusinkveld variant is just as good, which is the finest of compliments that Asetek can get here.

Asetek Simsports Invicta Pedals
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It's everything else with these pedals that does not really impress me. Unfortunately. To begin with, I dislike the footplate and how it is designed. Asetek has decided that everyone who buys their products will be driving with shoes, which I seldom do. Or... I sometimes drive with shoes, but mostly in Sparco's simracing socks that have a rubber-coated bottom, and it just does not work with these pedals. Not if you do not want to tear the skin off your own precious feet, that is. The ribbed surface of the steel in the footplate and the pedal plates' aggressive hole pattern means that it is simply not possible to use Invicta without shoes on. A big minus for myself.

Another minus in my opinion is the fact that Asetek has decided in advance that the pedals can only stand in a certain way when it comes to spacing and inclination. Something that feels strange when we talk about pedals for almost £1200 (for three pedals including the plate). I want to be able to adjust the inclination of my pedal arms and I really want to be able to move the brake a bit from the accelerator pedal to avoid sitting and rubbing my knees against each other. And it does not work here. It does not work on pedals from Logitech, Thrustmaster or even Fanatec as well, but those sets cost £150 while Invicta costs as much as Heusinkveld Ultimate Plus, which can be set in all sorts of different ways.

Asetek Simsports Invicta Pedals

Apart from this, I do not have very nice things to say about the accelerator pedal here. Asetek put all their collected focus on the brake and ignored the "right" accelerator pedal. The feeling becomes obvious after just a few minutes with Invicta and considering that you can not separate the pedals and replace the accelerator pedal with any other brand, makes it difficult for me to really recommend these pedals. The accelerator here feels soft and like a "toy", especially if we compare it to, for example, the Heusinkveld Ultimate Plus, which is Asetek's closest competition here. The base plate if you also only buy Invicta with brake/gas (£890) is also too narrow and creates a certain discomfort for those with large, wide feet. Even there, Heusinkveld wins with the superb Ultimate Plus. Finally, I would also like to hand out some criticism to the person who came up with the idea to put LED lights in here, which can be turned off but feels like a strange things to feature on metal pedals, which according to the manufacturer itself should perfectly mimic the look and feel of a real racing car.

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Asetek Simsports Invicta Pedals

I have no doubt that Asetek has the ambition and to some extent also the experience from real racing, which will lead to several upcoming, exciting products in the world of simracing. However, it is not really possible to turn a blind eye to the problems that exist in the Invicta pedals, which despite a qualitative brake solution is a clearly worse alternative than the nearest competition. For Invicta to work for me, a different type of design and a different basic thinking would be needed. Detachable, movable pedals, adjustable pedal arms, pedal plates and bottom surface made for people who want to drive without shoes and a much better accelerator pedal would have done the trick. As it is now, I would call these pedals very average, in total, and not worth their hefty price tag.

Asetek Simsports Invicta Pedals
05 Gamereactor UK
5 / 10
+
Very good brake pedal. Smooth and well made software. Beautiful design.
-
Straight up bad gas pedal. Cannot be used without shoes. Lacks proper adjustment options mechanically. Too expensive.
overall score
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