It's plastic all the way round folks, with a bit of rubber for added 'grip'. And no, there's no sign of 'ribbed shenanigans' on the rubber finish to the small wheel itself either. But the rubber does serve a purpose- it helps quash the 'sweaty palms' syndrome. In other words, after 40 laps of consistent hair-pin bends, a players palms might well get on the sweaty side of the fence (yes we know it's a grotesque thought). And although a rubber finish to a wheel isn't quite as good as leather one, the Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback still works well enough.
The pedals themselves are also made out of plastic and unfortunately suffer from the same syndrome that most other sets of pedals do- they are not very stable on a carpeted surface. If you slam hard on the brakes the pedals tend to jerk in an upward fashion.
Ergonomically speaking, the Wheel is very comfortable to use and its eight fire buttons are all fairly well placed. There are two gear changers at the rear of the wheel, which are easily accessible via your index fingers. A further six buttons, three on each side of the center of the steering column, are also within easy reach of your thumbs A further button, which has a green LED displaying 'FORCE' is there for one purpose and one purpose only- to disable the Force Feedback. No airbag, ejector seat or on-board toaster we're afraid.
Rather refreshingly, the Wheel itself was a doodle to set up. By simply locating a game port found on the back of any sound card and then a power outlet for the power brick, you're good to go. However, please make sure that if you've got your mind set on one, that your system specs meet the below minimum requirements:
Minimum Requirements:
· Pentium 90 processor or higher
· Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows 98 operating system
· 16 MB of RAM
· 25 MB of available hard-disk space
(an additional 15 MB recommended for installation)
· Quad-speed or faster CD-ROM drive
· Super VGA, 256 color monitor
· Sound Blaster compatible audio board with Gameport/MIDI port
· DX 5.0 or later
· Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
· SideWinder Game Controller Software 3.02
· Internet Explorer 3.0a or later or Netscape Navigator 3.0 or later,
or other frames-capable browser
