Nitro Concepts S-Racer

Sim-racing as a hobby is expensive. If we exclude Logitech's plastic belt-driven steering wheels and anything similar, it's more expensive than most activities things in the gaming world all things considered. A good, durable, and sufficiently powerful steering wheel base with a wheel itself and pedals can set you back around £1,000 today, and then to supplement it with a powerful computer, a gearstick, a handbrake, and at least one monitor, the prices reach exorbitant amounts. Plus, let's not forget a rig itself, a cockpit to serve as base of operations. For a long time, Playseat had some kind of monopoly in this product segment, but it has long been outdated and become "old news" because their gadgets in many respects lack the flex-free stability that today's direct drive steering wheel bases require and also cannot be expanded in the simple way that many tubed frames do, and especially the 40/80 aluminium profile rigs that have become the reigning standard of the sim-racing world.

But what do you choose if you want to build a sim-rig on a budget and you can't be bothered to put together something entirely of your own? There are, of course, lots of alternatives, but relatively often they run away in terms of price. Fanatec CSL Cockpit plus CSL Cockpit Seat currently reaches up to around €600, and the crazy thing is that I actually think that's a good price for a good budget solution. Trak Racer's cheapest solution is called TR80 and it can cost as high as €800 when including the seat, and then we have Simlab's cheapest option that is known as the P1X and costs around €1,370 including the Speed 1 seat. Nitro Concept's S-Racer is in the middle between the cheapest and most expensive budget option and costs approximately €650, including the R300 seat. If you want to get it even cheaper, you could buy the S-Racer alone for half of that and then supplement it with a cheaper type of chair, preferably a simple Chinese copy of Sparco's or Recaro's well-known shell variants, which can be purchased on a wide array of online storefronts.

Nitro Concepts' S-Racer is a tubular steel frame and thus weighs a lot, over 30 kilos without a chair. The construction is very good quality, the design relatively well thought out, and even though we here at the editorial office have matched it with a Fanatec DD1 set at about 80% FFB force, we have not felt any flex, which cannot be said about, for example, the Fanatec CSL Cockpit. The instructions are also clearly designed and assembly went smoothly without major problems. It's worth noting that the plate where you attach the steering wheel lacked a working hole pattern for Fanatec CLD DD, which feels like a miss, but a simple metal drill and a screwdriver remedied the small problem and the rest of the assembly went well. The only thing I don't really like about the S-Racer is that I can't set the height of the steering wheel base. Instead, I am forced to mount the chair on a lower bracket to be able to reduce the height, and here Nitro should have come up with a better solution to raise and lower the height of the base.

As for the main merits, it's hard not to praise Nitro Concepts for how sturdy and stable the rig is, and how little space it actually takes up, despite ample room even for a taller rider like yours truly. I like the way it looks, I think the price is spot on, and the instructions for assembly are clearly approved. The pattern of holes on the steering wheel base plate lacks the industry standard options, and the R300 seat is a little overpriced in my opinion, but the rest gets two thumbs from me. A cheap, strong, flex-free and robust tubular steel frame for those who want to take their sim-racing hobby to the next level without breaking the bank. What more could you want.