I’m a sim racer with a passion for Motorsport, good racecraft and the tech side of sim racing. I made SIMRACINGCOCKPIT.GG as a place to share my experiences. I hold an International Class C race licence and write for sim racing store G-Performance and Motorsport resource Driver61.com
Featured Image: Massimo Cubeddu – Cube Controls
Today I’m pleased to feature someone who has made a very significant contribution to the sim racing industry, Massimo Cubeddu. If you’ve not heard of Massimo, you’ve almost certainly used his (and his wider team’s ) sim racing wheels – I make no apologies for being a bit of a Cube Controls nerd – the original Formula Sport was my first “serious” sim racing wheel.
Since then, Cube Controls have not stopped – with regular and innovative product releases happening “on the regular”. Their latest Mercedes-AMG wheel isn’t just a sim racing wheel; Cube Controls have partnered with Mercedes AMG Motorsport to bring Motorsport and Sim Racing to real life.
I’ve had the new Mercedes-AMG Wheel on my setup for a while now. I’ve looked at how to install a QR hub (using the Mercedes-AMG wheel) and instead of jumping straight to the review itself, I thought it would be cool to ask Massimo some questions.
So, Massimo, what aspects of the AMG-Mercedes wheel are you most proud of?
Certainly the level of ergonomics of the whole wheel and tactile response of each input, but to be honest I’m proud of the entire wheel as a whole!
On this wheel, we introduced our brand-new custom button assembly, that’s already been used on some Motorsport projects with AMG and some other brands. (Have you seen the in-car footage of the recent Bathurst GT lap record done by Mercedes AMG?)
This button assembly has been designed to provide both reliability and the best tactile feedback.
The shift paddles are a completely new concept and they are exactly the same part number as used on the Mercedes AMG Track Series and GT2 race cars. The only difference is that, as all of our sim racing steering wheels, they use a hall sensor instead of a limit switch as in the race car.
The grips are based on their current GT3 and old GT4 steering wheels.
The ergonomics were already good but we further refined it, adapted to our design concept, and added a silicone rubber with a much-improved grip, both without and with gloves.
Of course, it means that all these components have gone through the Mercedes AMG validation process via their development drivers, and the end result is the outcome of all this work. And I assure you that they did lots of testing and provided lots of feedback 🙂
How did the AMG collaboration begin?
We got in contact with one Mercedes-AMG licensing representative via one of our German vendors. He’s a sim racer and a fan of our products, so things started on the right foot straight away!
Initially, we explored the opportunity to launch an officially licensed steering wheel based on a new design. Things started to get even more interesting when Mercedes-AMG was further involved in the talks, as well as HWA, which is the manufacturer and developer of their race cars.
At this point, the project changed to a “let’s design a new steering wheel for our upcoming Track Series and GT2 race cars and a sim racing variant of it”. Exciting! And that’s how the project continued the development with numerous back and forths with Mercedes AMG and HWA.
Thanks for your time Massimo, see you on track!