Nacon’s promising Revosim RS Pure direct drive racing wheel lets you use your phone as a dashboard and settings tool, but it feels like it could do with a little work

Nacon has some form when it comes to racing games. While it might not be the first company you think of when it comes to virtual rubber meeting virtual road, its KT Racing studio is behind games like TT Isle of Man, WRC Generations, and the long-running Test Drive Unlimited series. Nacon has never made a proper sim racing wheel though—and its Racing Department is about to dive head first into the market with a direct drive bundle called the RS Pure, as part of its newly formed Revosim brand.

Featuring a wheel base delivering 9 Nm of torque, a well-featured wheel rim with customisable button caps, and a load-cell equipped pedal set, it’s certainly a confident move into an ever-more-crowded market. A standout feature, however, is the addition of a clip on top of the wheelbase itself. Here you can use your phone as a virtual dashboard, or adjust various force feedback settings via a Bluetooth connection.

I got a chance to test out a pre-release version of the RS Pure at a press event in Paris ahead of its planned launch in June, and can report it feels like a hefty, serious bit of kit. And while direct drive racing wheels are starting to become homogenous these days, the option of using your phone to fiddle around with the settings strikes as a key difference in an increasingly crowded market.

However, I didn’t get to test the virtual dashboard feature, as the telemetry syncing is still in beta testing. Still, here’s hoping a decent range of games will be supported when the RS Pure eventually releases.

Back to the hardware. While the RS Pure initially looks and feels fairly default, the wheelbase and wheel rim are suitably rugged—and the pedals themselves are wide, aluminium jobs that look like they can withstand some abuse. These are tilt adjustable independent of the base, and the included load cell mechanism can be stacked with various differently-coloured elastomer washers to adjust the tension.

I tried out the red version, which Nacon says has a maximum resistance of 100 kg and is “reminiscent of F1 single seaters.” Having never driven an F1 car I’ll take Nacon’s word for it—but it was firm enough to convince me that I would make a poor F1 driver, as if I wasn’t already aware. Still, the blue “light resistance” washers are much squishier, and more suitable for a desk setup to prevent the pedal base from shooting away from you.

One thing I’m not particularly fond of is the profile of the wheel itself. It initially looks rounded, but it’s actually flattened on the inner diameter, which feels a little odd in your hands. While Nacon plans to release more interchangeable rims of its own in future, there’s no hub support for other manufacturers’ efforts for now.

Swinging a simulated Alpine A110 around in Test Drive Unlimited (we were in France, after all), I can say that the feedback feels robust, and the wheel generally responds quickly—although my test unit could have been a touch faster at returning to center. I’d also like a bit more granular response in the feedback itself, as it felt ever so slightly numb.

Mind you, this is the first time I’ve driven in this particular game, and my driving in general leaves a lot to be desired—so perhaps my ongoing skill issues combined with some more arcade-like feedback responses came into play here.

These niggles could also be attributed to preference quirks, and an afternoon spent fiddling around in the app getting my exact settings right would very likely help. I think it’s a clever move to push the controls away from an alt+tabbed application tweak to your mobile device, as most people keep their phone within easy reach while gaming. Plus, I’ve had more than one sim racing game bug out on me when focus-switching to another app.

Direct drive sim racing hardware appears to be reaching a homogenous point, with brands like Fanatec, Moza, Simucube and more competing for your hard-earned cash with very similar-looking products. The RS Pure bundle (that’s base, rim, and pedals) is available to pre-order now for €800, with US pricing yet to be revealed. That arguably puts it more in the lower-high-end direct drive wheel market rather than the mid range, although powerful wheel combos are expected to be pricey affairs.

Still, it also means that the RS Pure runs into some serious offerings from those aforementioned direct drive manufacturers, and potentially some trouble. Will buyers take a punt and opt for Nacon over a more sim racing hardware-associated name? It’s difficult to say.

My brief time with a test unit did reveal the odd kink, and these will certainly need to be ironed out before launch if it’s going to take on the polished efforts of say, Fanatec.

Still, the RS Pure set is a brave entry into the marketplace, and if it can shake out those last few gremlins it looks like it might provide genuine competition. There’s room in this space for more manufacturers, and Nacon has certainly been around long enough to know how to throw its weight towards a new product line.

As for whether it turns out to be a Red Bull or a Williams come June, though? I’ll reserve judgement until I spend some serious hours in the seat with a finished version myself.