Could a gaming Steering Wheel with pedals and a gear lever actually help you learn to drive a manual car?

[Actual_Criminal]

I have failed my manual driving test 4 times... Here in the UK, around 952 out of 1000 people pass within 4 attempts, so I certainly do suck. I am not a practical person. 

 

Unfortunately, I don't have any family to practice with, so have just been paying for lessons. I have done about 60+ hours worth of lessons so far. I could go into all the reasons I had failed, but the first two times were because of stalling the car (I'm now fine with this). The other two times were UK road related, so just general mistakes rather than the use of the car. 

 

My friend has suggested buying a Steering Wheel with pedals and a gear for some extra practice, For a Logitech G923 Racing Wheel, a Logitech G Driving Force Wired gear lever and a frame for it, it would probably cost me about £450. - For context, a real road legal car to practice with would cost about £2,500 (minimum) and about £3,500 in insurance and a further £400 in Road Tax and MOT. + I could only drive the car when I had someone with me at all times in the front-passenger seat who has had a full driving licence for 3+ years.

 

Once I pass my test, my employer will give me a fully paid for 2024 lease car with no costs to me, so I don't really want to buy a car. (FYI, I need to learn in a manual as I would be driving various cars from time to time and are likely to include manual cars.)

 

Anyway, do you realistically think that a steering wheel + accessories can help people learn to drive? 

 

If yes, what games as of 2024 do you think would work best for trying to learn in?

[Hinjima]

12 minutes ago, Actual_Criminal said:

I have failed my manual driving test 4 times... Here in the UK, around 952 out of 1000 people pass within 4 attempts, so I certainly do suck. I am not a practical person. 

 

Unfortunately, I don't have any family to practice with, so have just been paying for lessons. I have done about 60+ hours worth of lessons so far. I could go into all the reasons I had failed, but the first two times were because of stalling the car (I'm now fine with this). The other two times were UK road related, so just general mistakes rather than the use of the car. 

 

My friend has suggested buying a Steering Wheel with pedals and a gear for some extra practice, For a Logitech G923 Racing Wheel, a Logitech G Driving Force Wired gear lever and a frame for it, it would probably cost me about £450. - For context, a real road legal car to practice with would cost about £2,500 (minimum) and about £3,500 in insurance and a further £400 in Road Tax and MOT. + I could only drive the car when I had someone with me at all times in the front-passenger seat who has had a full driving licence for 3+ years.

 

Once I pass my test, my work will give me a fully paid for 2024 lease car with no costs to me, so I don't really want to buy a car. (FYI, I need to learn in a manual as I would be driving various cars from time to time and are likely to include manual cars.)

 

Anyway, do you realistically think that a steering wheel + accessories can help people learn to drive? 

 

If yes, what games as of 2024 do you think would work best for trying to learn in?

I would say no. I will explain tomorrow with a longer answer.  I desperately need sleep

( Sim racing since 2002, full 7000 euro+ setup )

[Actual_Criminal]

1 minute ago, Hinjima said:

I would say no. I will explain tomorrow with a longer answer.  I desperately need sleep

( Sim racing since 2002, full 7000 euro+ setup )

Thanks, looking forward to it!

(thinking of getting a racing wheel anyway for general gaming, but not a priority for now.)

[Godlygamer23]

It could actually - although I've never used a steering wheel/pedal setup like this, so my view is limited. The big issue to me is that different vehicles have varying clutch feels, and different bite points. Some vehicles have less or more aggressive clutches, depending on their design and intent. I had an Audi that had a very soft clutch pedal, and I could barely feel the bite point, especially compared to basically a street legal race car I own, which has a much tighter and heavier clutch.

[Electronics Wizardy]

I have a racing wheel with pedals, and there really isn't a great clutch feel like a manual car would give you. I'd guess the racing wheel won't help too much.

 

But if your doing the manual car parts fine in the test and failing the other road parts, I think the issue is not the manual part of the car.

[Godlygamer23]

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I have a racing wheel with pedals, and there really isn't a great clutch feel like a manual car would give you. I'd guess the racing wheel won't help too much.

 

But if your doing the manual car parts fine in the test and failing the other road parts, I think the issue is not the manual part of the car.

Is there even a "bite point" with racing pedals? Basically, the manufacturer set the farthest left pedal as the clutch pedal, and gave it a "bite point". In racing games with proper support, can you even stall out the car, or "feel" the engine starting to stall out so you can correct it? 

[Actual_Criminal]

8 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Is there even a "bite point" with racing pedals? Basically, the manufacturer set the farthest left pedal as the clutch pedal, and gave it a "bite point". In racing games with proper support, can you even stall out the car, or "feel" the engine starting to stall out so you can correct it? 

Good question actually... no point buying one (for my purpose) if there is no bite point or stalling out the engine. I bet that is probably game dependent though.

[RONOTHAN##]

At least with cheaper stuff like the G923, no. Coming from someone who did learn how to drive a stick after spending a decent amount of time in racing games specifically playing manual mode on a G920 (basically the same wheel as the G923), you might learn the general process, but that's about it. 

 

Probably the biggest one is the clutch doesn't feel right. In a real car, you'll have a bite point where the petal starts to feel different, whereas in a racing sim it doesn't have that bite point, or if it does it doesn't line up with where the cars in games have it. Mastering the clutch pedal is arguably the hardest thing about learning how to drive a manual, and if you can't use the sim to get that skill, I'd say it's useless. 

 

The other issue is the gear shifter doesn't have the same mechanics of the real thing, and therefore the same limitations of the real thing are missing in the sim. In the racing sim, you can start ripping it into the next gear the moment you start pressing the clutch, whereas if you tried that in a real car (at least the ones I've driven) you will grind gears. Granted, if you know you need to wait till the clutch is fully depressed before changing gear, and know that you need to go slower rather than just rip it from one gear to another (assuming you're driving a normal car, some sports cars won't care if you shift hard from one gear to the next, though you should still avoid doing that unless you're on a race track), it isn't that big a deal as shifting is the easiest part of driving a manual. 

 

You might get good at figuring out when to shift or knowing what gear to shift into, but that's about the only thing you will learn. The higher end setups with rumble motors and better designed pedals might make it better, but at the point where you're getting those high enough end sim setups you'll end up in cheap used car territory. 

[xAcid9]

IIRC, Live For Speed and RaceRoom have "decent" clutch feeling. Both game is "free", you can try them yourself. 
Other game is simply linear feel or just almost impossible to stall. 

 

Also try to get a full set 2nd hand G27, it's usually cheaper.