Sim Lab Push-Pull Rally Shifter

My memory is like a sieve. Sometimes I barely remember my name or where I live, which often becomes problematic when it comes to work. You must therefore promise to forgive me for certain things in this review concerning WRC history.

I have some vague memories of WRC in the 90s and how the regulations for the different teams clearly stated that gear changes inside the WRC cars had to be done via "one single sequential shifter", which most teams interpreted as a sequential gearbox with a lever, of course. But not Mitsubishi, who built a single paddle where you shift up by bringing it towards you and down by pushing it away from the wheel with the back of your hand. Ingenious and, of course, this meant that the team's driver didn't have to take his right hand off the wheel tons of times per run.

Since then, the push/pull paddle has been an integral part of WRC and rallying history, and although the current hybrid cars are driven using a classic gear lever (linked to a five-speed sequential gearbox - and without an active centre diff), the push/pull paddle is one of those things that all of us rally fans love.

Ever since the announcement of Sim Lab's Push-Pull Rally Shifter, I've been waiting with bated breath, and after about three weeks with this accessory in our racing rig, I'm ready to share some thoughts.

The Sim Lab Push-Pull Rally Shifter mounts to the front of your steering wheel base if you are running with a Simucube model, something from German sim-racing giant Fanatec, Simagic or VRS. It is not attached to the steering wheel but is static, just like in WRC and comes with three different lengths of aluminium rods that you use as a spacer to be able to mount the paddle close enough (or far enough) to the wheel itself.

At first, I didn't think this paddle would work in our rig because we installed a spacer of seven centimetres in our Fanatec DD2, which means that all the wheels we attach to the steering wheel base are seven centimetres closer to the driver than they look out of the box, but Sim Lab has really thought of everything here. The longest two poles that come with the paddle were mounted by yours truly in under two minutes and then it was just a matter of tightening the bracket to the steering wheel base and angling the paddle itself so that it lined up perfectly with our Sparco steering wheel. It plugs in via USB and there is no software or installation required to make it work, nor did we have to hold the little calibration button. The only thing we had to do when we started using the shifter was to launch Dirt Rally 2.0 and bind the gears in the menu to the Sim Lab's paddle. Super simple.

The gears are based on magnetism (purely mechanical) and the magnet is just right to give a satisfying click but not as merciless as the paddles on, for example, Cube Control's CSX3 or Asher Racing's more expensive steering wheels. The resistance cannot be adjusted here, which is a bit of a shame, but on the other hand I find the feel and "hardness" to be brilliant, which makes it less of a problem for me.

Of course, going from our Oktane Design Sequential Shifter box to the Sim Lab Push-Pull Rally Shifter has meant that I have been able to keep both hands on the wheel without losing the "rally feel" that the sequential lever offers. This has made me significantly quicker through my favourite stretches even though it required a break-in period of about two hours. The biggest difference for me has been that I can control the car a little more actively with gearshifts now and don't rely quite as much on controlling the car with the brake, which has made me quicker through the rally forests in Codemaster's brilliant second rally outing.

This product is, in my opinion, very cleverly designed with brilliant mounting options, brilliant compatibility and perfect functionality and given that I don't have a single complaint, it only remains for me to give it our highest rating. Because this is one of the most fun and trouble-free additions to our racing rig in years.