I recently had a weak moment and upgraded my entire setup, with a complete Fanatec package. Most of the stuff is great - but the Rennsport cockpit is borderline garbage. It's fancy and a nice piece of furniture (and hence a good WAF) but it has poor fit and lacks any adjustment possibilities. I consider myself pretty average sized, 178 cm and 80 kg. So one would think the standard setup would fit me pretty nice. But nooooo. I first had to mount the DD1 brackets backwards, or else the steering wheel would come so close that the setup would only fit a T-rex with miniature arms. The pedal plate still has to be positioned as close to the seat as it will go, so no more adjustments possible there. The seat has to be mounted at the rearmost position, and I had to use a seat slider as well, to get it even further back. Or else the steering wheel is still waaay too close. Not very impressed with the shifter mount either. It basically goes in one place and that's it, no real adjustments possible. And it sits too close to the seat. The speaker mounting brackets will easily make the front speakers interfere with the monitor, and the center speaker mount has nowhere to be fastened when you're using the DD1 mount. With all this (kind of) sorted, it was time to fit the single monitor. Not only is the monitor stand infinitely difficult to adjust - in any direction - it also lacks the possibility to set the monitor below the steering wheel. I really like the immersion I get from seeing the onboard gauges through the steering wheel - but no more. It's impossible to mount the monitor even flush with the top of the steering wheel. When spending top dollar on a cockpit, I must say I'm disappointed. To say the least. I knew the cockpit wouldn't be as flexible as aluminium profile-based ones, but I was expecting more than this. Way more. Just wanted to let you guys know. If you're planning on a new cockpit - don't buy this one. Or, you can come and buy mine, it's for sale. Cheap. But don't bother with a new one.
Ok, so I took my own advise and cleared my head from negative thoughts and started over. The Rennsport cockpit is still not very flexible, aesthetic design has obvioulsy been the main focus when making it. But when designing it in such an unflexible way, you must at least make sure that the various parts end up in the right place - because you will not be able to move them around. But after some trial and error, some minor hacks and some Ebaying, I'm finally satisfied. Here's my compiled list of pros and cons (cons first, of course): Cons: 1. The seat is mounted way too close to the steering wheel, when using a DD1 with Podium hub. This also results in the pedals being too far away when the seat/steering wheel distance is correct. Solution: I mounted the DD1 brackets backwards, to get the wheel a little bit more forward. I also mounted a seat slider to be able to get the seat in the right position. The pedals are now mounted in the rearmost position, to get them close enough. They don't have any more adjustability, but they sit just fine for my standard length legs. 2. The design limits very much how low you can mount the monitor(s). If you want it lower, you have to mount it further away, which is bad. For me using a curved 55" TV, this was a total disaster. The upper half of the screen was totally wasted, and everything was just wrong. Solution: Ditching the 55" and buying a 49" 32:9 monitor. The 32:9 sits in correct height, 60 cm from my eyes. It took a hit on an already blown budget, but it was worth it. And I like doing things properly - if I'm going to blow the budget, I'm going to do it properly. Which I did. The upgrade was massive. The 49" is exactly the same width as the 55", but half the height. I don't miss the height at all, I don't even notice it - execpt that I don't get to see the instrument clusters in all cars. Being 1000R curved, it massively increases the experience of having side vision. The 49" also has a higher dot pitch, which is nice, but the biggest difference was going from a 25 ms lagged TV running v-sync, to a 1 ms G-sync gaming monitor. An epic upgrade. (I would still have mounted it a tad lower though, if it were possible, but it's not. A 32" will sit too high, so a 27" 16:9 or this 49" 32:9 is the tallest monitor you can mount properly in my opinion.) 3. The monitor mount itself is also a disaster. Getting the monitor in the right position is almost impossible, and many of the parts are really flimsy. But it looks good, which kind of is the whole issue here - everything looks really good, but it just isn't practical. It doesn't really look good either, on a second thought. The brackets are sticking out everywhere, even for me using a fairly large monitor. Solution: Look at the monitor instead of the mount. 4. Mounting peripherals. Kind of obvious when it comes to mounting 3rd party peripherals on a propriatary tubular frame, but one should at least think that mounting the Fanatec stuff should be easy. It's not. The shifter and handbrake basically fit in one place only, which is too far back - even for me, who has already mounted the seat further back than possible by the original design. If the seat was in the "normal" position, the shifter would end up almost at my hip. Solution: Try not to think about it. 5. The mount for the center speaker has nowhere to go when you're using the DD1 mounting brackets. Solution: Velcro. Pros: 1. Looks really good. 2. Sturdy. 3. Gives me a good "cockpit" feeling because the frame kind of surrounds you. Makes it harder to get in and out, but I'm still young and nimble, so that's not an issue. Yet. (Will complain about it in fifteen years though, so stay tuned.) 4. Not really relevant to the Rennsport itself, but I feel obligated to state that the DD1, Podium hubs, pedals, shifters and all that is really, really good. Top notch, very happy. The weakest link there is obviously the handbrake, which feels a bit cheap. But it does its job. Other improvements, thanks to me, not thanks to the Rennsport: I made a really good bass shaker mount, which works very well. I connected the weak rumble motors on the pedals to a 12v driven Arduino. I got some new shifter knobs, which are really nice.