Simagic TB-RS Hydraulic Handbrake

Around £300 for a sim-racing handbrake... That's as expensive as it gets. Incredibly expensive. Especially considering that you can buy the Dutch Heusinkveld's fantastic handbrake for almost £100 less, which is the brake we here at Gamereactor have used for the past two years. However, the difference between hydraulic braking action and a spring suspension with associated rubber gaskets is so great that it is easy to justify the higher price. Hydraulics is the way forward, in my opinion, and Simagic TB-RS provides an incredible feeling.

The Chinese Simagic manufactures some really nice sim-racing products today, but it is also impossible to ignore the fact that parts of their product range do not really feel complete. We here at Gamereactor have been using the Q1-P sequential gearbox from Simagic for the past 18 months and it has certainly not been flawless. The springs that give resistance to the piston that gives the feeling of changing gear are mounted with e-clips as brackets and these small thin washers break after many thousands of shifts. This happens regularly here at Gamereactor which means having to order these special discs in 30 packs and "servicing" the gearbox at least twice a year. The same kind of "ill-considered" feeling in terms of durability/mechanics also applies to the P2000 pedals, in my opinion, as the attachments are not really as stable as they should be and make the pedal arms a bit wobbly. This also applies to the TB-RS. It feels incomplete.

There is a gap in how the hydraulic piston itself is mounted here, which means that the TB-RS rattles a bit when you use it. This isn't a major problem and it doesn't affect the functionality or feel when unlocking the rear axle, but for around £300 it shouldn't be allowed to happen. Similarly, it just seems odd that the TB-RS comes with a plastic handle covered in cheap foam rubber. I mean... Why? Who wants to pay that much money for a handbrake to sit and grip foam rubber? Bizarre, is what it is.

Aside from those minus points, however, the TB-RS is rather good. The feeling of how the yoke on the rear axle grips the brake discs and unlocks the axle itself, is incredibly well communicated in how this handbrake works and it's not even possible to compare it with spring-based variants such as the one from Simlab or Heusinkveld. This is much better for those who intend to do a lot of rally simulating or drifting in their rig. If you also supplement it with Simagic's Haptic Motor (those small motors that were basically designed for the P1000 pedals), you can create a handbrake feeling that is better than anything else on the sim-racing market right now. It's just a shame that Simagic doesn't quite get the important details right in terms of mechanics and design.