PRIMING THE PLAYSEAT
A good-quality seat is crucial
Doing driving sims right means acquiring a whole hill of new hardware. One of the most critical items is a driving seat. We can’t overstate how important being in the right seating position is for mimicking that authentic behind-the-wheel feel. Bolting a wheel to your desk and plopping yourself into an office chair just ain’t the same.
Enter the Playseat Evolution Alcantara. It’s one of the more affordable seatpods in Playseat’s range, at $369, but it’s a fullfeature job, with an adjustable bucket seat, and mounting plates for a wheel, pedal box, and gearshift. There are other similar models available for around the same price, or more.
Initial deboxing impressions involve an unpromising and slightly intimidating jumble of parts. But the instructions are clear, and assembly is much simpler than anticipated. Twenty minutes later, and you’ll have a rather sexy looking seatpod.
Overall, there’s plenty to like. The bucket seat is probably a little broad for my skinny frame, but the result is still the right kind of seating position to put you in the mood for driving. If there is a problem, it concerns the lower forward part of the steering wheel support. It clashes, ergonomically, with the pedal box platform, making it tricky to get both the pedal box and the wheel in ideal locations.
The oversized proportions of the Thrustmaster pedal box we’ve paired with the Playseat make matters worse. But the design of the wheel stand makes it likely you’re going to run into at least some problems getting an ideal pedal position.
For that reason, our recommendation from the Playseat range would be one of the Revolution models. The Revolution has a tweaked steering wheel mount that solves ergonomic conflict with the pedal mount. It’s otherwise very similar to the Evolution seatpods, and roughly the same price. Thus, it’s a bit of a no-brainer. Head to www.playseatstore.com to browse the full Playseat range.