One of the greatest parts about our community is that we can get opinions from all kinds of racers. We have the people looking for the DIY solution (like myself) all the way up to the guys shelling out the big dough for high end racing setups. Luckily for us, we have forum member HappyCamper, who must be a VERY happy camper, according to his review on the Fast Track Sims TC-R1 Chassis.
HappyCamper decided to share his thoughts on the TC-R1 in our forums, and it is a great review, on a truly high quality piece of equipment! He takes us in-depth in all of the elements of the setup, and tells us why this is the “first and last sim chassis someone will have to purchase”:
“Let me start with saying that this is my first and last sim chassis that I will ever have to purchase. When I say last, I mean it is the positive sense that I will never have to purchase another static sim chassis as long as I live for the fact that the Fast Track Sims TC-R1 chassis is really built to last. I personally come from a mechanical background so I can appreciate this unit from an engineering point of view.
Ever since I started sim racing years and years ago, I have always admired those who went to the effort of setting up a purpose built sim racing “rig”, and I seriously never thought that I would I would have the need or desire to purchase one for myself as I had been racing on a pretty substantial office class full wrap around computer desk and another thing that deterred me was that most that I have seen were not really any better than my current setup. I heard the concerns with other sim rigs on the built quality and the compromises that seemed to affect literally every one that I read about or read reviews on.
Then a couple of years ago, I picked up some racing shoes from Fast Track Sims as I needed a set to deal with the pressure required to make the brakes work on the CST pedal system I purchased. I noticed some of the prototype chassis’ that Mark had started to create, but these were in there infancy at that point and kind of forgot about them until I saw the thread on iRacing forums and when I saw where he was with the design of the chassis a year and a bit later, I was like ‘wow’ that really has evolved from what I had previously seen.
I started researching the TC-R1 chassis and in all the reviews that I had come across there was nothing but positive other than price. But I am a true believer in “you get what you pay for” and although it seemed like a premium price to pay for the TC-R1, the build quality, adjust-ability and ability for Mark to custom design certain aspects and accessories where to deciding factors that pushed me over the edge to trade in the old computer desk for a “real deal” purpose built sim racing chassis.
I use the word chassis versus rig, because every time I climb in and out of the TC-R1 it is just like climbing out of my racing kart, and the built quality is that of a real racing car. Everything about this unit breathes robust high end built quality and attention to detail.”
If you want to read the full review, you can check out HappyCamper’s thread in our forums here.
The Fast Track Sims TC-R1 Chassis is FTS’ baseline racing setup. It features a TIG welded tube framed chassis (like in stock cars), to keep flex to a bare minimum. It can also be highly customizable, with a wide variety of optional features. You can also order a high quality pedal set with the cockpit (which HappyCamper included in his review), which features Wilwood components.
What are your thoughts on the Fast Track Sims TC-R1 Chassis?