Asetek Forte Wheelbase

Danish company Asetek is, as we all know, best known for their brilliant water cooling systems, which for many years have been a perfect choice for the performance-mad gaming PC builder. A couple of years ago, via their racing-loving CEO, they threw themselves headlong into the ever-growing world of sim-racing and I was early with a review of the much-hyped Invicta pedals that I did not like very much. Strange design solutions and bizarrely brutal resistance in the brake, which included the shortest travel distance in the sim-racing world, made them an extremely expensive set of very mediocre pedals. Fortunately, their direct drive steering wheelbases are better, and more thoughtful gadgets.

The Asetek Forte is their "mid-range" option, while the Invicta is the top of the line flagship edition, and the La Prima is their "budget" alternative. All three steering wheelbases are designed from motors and controlling technology from the Finnish Simucube, and if I understand it correctly, this base is basically a Simucube 2 Pro - at a clearly lower price than the Finnish original. It should also be said that the Asetek Forte feels better than the Simucube 2 Pro, despite having the same settings and being built on exactly the same premises. To call this base "affordable" is therefore be a real understatement, as it will set you back only £900, which for this product category, is pretty impressive.

The Forte Wheelbase houses an 18Nm strong servo motor and just as in the case of competing wheelbases, we know today that 18Nm is more than enough and that it is more about the ratio of peak power and sustained strength rather than how hard it can deliver force over a split-second. The Asetek Forte Wheelbase feels strong, at least as strong as my older, 25Nm Fanatec DD1, which says a lot about just sustained torque and how the force feedback protocols used in the Forte base are several years more modern than what I use daily.

The design of Asetek's steering wheelbases differs from Simucube in more ways than one, falling somewhere in between the Fanatec CSL DD with the distinct "heat sinks" along the sides and with details such as RGB strips that can be coloured to match other lighting in your sim-rig. It also has a different quick release compared to Simucube and a better one at that, if you ask me. Asetek's solution is very good, clearly on par with the Mozas/Logitech/Simagic NRG-inspired quick release and just a tiny, tiny bit behind Fanatec's industry-leading Krontec variant. If we're going to talk about looks only (which is almost irrelevant when we're talking about a steering wheelbase in a sim-rig), I don't really like the look of Asetek's steering wheelbases. I don't like the plastic casing, the stripes on it, the Forte logo (which looks like it was taken from a Lego Bionicles box), or the RGB elements. The themes are all over the place, and the Forte base lacks the stylish and mechanical feel that Fanatec Clubsport DD Extreme or Simucube 2 Pro, for example, offer.

The mounting options and performance are all the better, however. Like a Simucube base, you can mount this on the front with a special bracket adapted for those who run aluminium rigs with 80/40 profiles or from the bottom, against a flat plate or a table. However, don't think you can mount this with a small plastic clamp around your desk to hammer down Eau Rouge with 18Nm feedback, as otherwise your desk will rattle to pieces and you will have 15 kilos of servo motor dropped right on your toes. You'll need some serious gear for a hefty steering wheelbase like this to say the least.

As for the performance itself, it's easy to really like the Asetek Forte Wheelbase. The force feedback in all the games I tested (Raceroom, Automobilista 2, Assetto Corsa, Assetto Corsa Competizione) is really good with true strength, lots of detail, and a smooth and pleasant ride that never gets too bumpy. Only the Fanatec DD Extreme tops the amount of detail and the crystal clear feedback from, for example, rumble strips and shifting of the centre of gravity in the chassis that Forte offers. In this price range and right now, Fanatec's latest model with their new protocol is still the industry leader. The Forte Wheelbase also tends to run hot when I set it to high settings to utilise all 18Nm of torque - very hot, in fact. That said, there's almost no situation where you need to crank the settings up to the max in terms of pure torque - half or just over 10Nm is usually enough, for everyone, in all games.

There is really no doubt that this is a very good steering wheel base that is sold at a very attractive price. You can buy this base today for £900 which is less than Fanatec Clubsport DD Extreme and significantly less than Simucube 2 Pro. And that is a really, really good deal.