Simrig SR2 (Motion System)

We have spent 1000 hours in our Racing rig with the Swedish Simrig entry-level product SR1 mounted on the aluminium chassis from Swedish Rig Design. 1000 hours. Of which probably 900 of them in Dirt Rally 2.0. It simply works wonders for immersion, for realism, for the feeling of simulating real rally. And let us tell you now, after running simulator racing with an exercise system, it is never possible to go back to a static solution. Never.

Fortunately, this is not something we will ever have to do either, rather we move forward towards even more detailed, strong and realistic simulation of the car's movement, this thanks to the newly released flagship system Simrig SR2, which was released on Tuesday last week. We received our review copy a little over a month ago, as the first gaming site in the world, and have driven for about 80 hours so far and can simply state that Simrig has topped the sim racing world's most affordable entry system with another incredibly affordable, durable, nicely packaged and well-built collection of devices that works wonders for creating a realistic feel of car-movement.

For those of you who are not as hopelessly nerdy and crazy about simulator racing as I am, I thought I would quickly explain what this is. SR2 has four "motion actuators" which are all mounted on an aluminium rig and then connected to an included control box. SR2 costs £3500 for four actuators including power supply, control box and cables. The control program "Simrig Control Center" is then easily downloaded from Simrig.se and within a couple of minutes you are up and running.

The SR1 system costs £2900 while the SR2 is yours for £3500 and when it comes to the differences, the SR2 runs on 1000 watt motors instead of 500, they can thus handle 50 kilos more "load" (225 kg total weight), work a bit harder, offers more details, more movements per minute and they do not get warm in the same way as the SR1s becomes after about five hours of continuous driving.

Here at Gamereactor, we have continued to mount gadgets on our Modus Ultimate rig from Swedish Rig Design, which together with the Evo chair from Sparco, slide rails under it, Fanatec DD2 and Heusinkveld Sprint pedals has meant that we have become a little too heavy for the SR1's. Thus, the upgrade to SR2 is an extremely welcome one for us and the improvement in terms of sensitivity and the amount of details conveyed here, is immediately noticeable and lovely for those who, like us, spent over 1000 hours with the SR1.

The single biggest change in SR2 compared to SR1 is spelled details, which I have previously mentioned. It involves almost twice as many movements per minute and especially in Dirt Rally 2.0, it results in that you as a player of course feel more of how the surface feels and where there is a grip and not. The SR2 generally feels calmer as well, even though the system moves more and I think this is primarily about the stronger motors, just like when you go from a belt-driven steering wheel to a Direct drive one.

Simrig SR2 is a fantastic system, which thanks to brilliant build quality, powerful engines and fantastic software, makes it the best you can buy in it's segment, with the price in mind. The closest competitor D-Box sells its D3 system, for example, for £8900 and I want to go so far as to say that Simrig SR2 is just as good. And that, of course, is not a bad grade. Apart from the fact that it will of course be expensive for those who, like me, want to build a serious racing rig, I have a hard time finding any kind of minus points regarding SR2. It's a brilliant system and it simulates motion in a superb way. Feeling the gravel under the tires and how the Fiesta R5-suspension travels or how the curb pushes the rubber and into your chassis, is something all racing-fans should experience.