Thrustmaster T248R review: My first proper wheel does not disappoint - I'm addicted

What is this thing doing to me?

I've been laying in bed thinking about how I can be quicker in some of my favourite racing games, if I could've done more to make a pass stick, if I could've defended better, if I could've got out of that corner quicker, if I could've got on the throttle sooner...

And I haven't done that for years.

I've been a fan of racing games all my life. The very first game I ever played was Colin McRae Rally on the PS1 with my dad in the late 90s when I was a wee bairn and I've been playing them ever since.

For one reason or another, I've never had a proper wheel. My dad and I got a cheap one around 20 years ago but we couldn't get to grips with it, parked it and went back to playing using a controller.

But I've recently got the Thrustmaster T248R, my first proper wheel complete with pedals. And my word, I'm nothing short of addicted.

The Thrustmaster T248R wheel / Jake Brigstock, indy100 & The Independent

Setting it up, I first clamped the wheel to make sure it was secure - the pedals plug into the wheel itself, there's a USB cable that connects the wheel to a PS5, PS4 or PC and also a power cable. I found it fairly easy to set up and once it was prepared properly, I was away.

The wheel is pretty much laid out like a PlayStation controller on a steering wheel - on the front, there is the same layout as a PlayStation controller except for the two sticks (for obvious reasons). There are also two encoders to make changes more easily on the fly while racing.

The wheel rim itself is wrapped in perforated leather and it feels like the real thing.

L1 and R1 are the paddles which are used for changing gears with the L2, R2, L3 and R3 buttons having their own buttons on the wheel itself. Inside the Share and Option buttons are specific wheel settings and mode buttons.

These allow you to tweak the settings of the wheel exactly how you want them, such as changing responsiveness and different modes for driving a GT car or a single seater. Changing wheel settings can also be done in games too.

There's also a LCD display screen and LED buttons that change in real time as they would do in a real racing car, indicating what RPM you're at and flashing when to change gear if you haven't already. Two more LED buttons indicate if there is a flag out on the track and a pit light for if you're scheduled or being called into them.

The brake pedal can also customised to exactly how you want it so you don't always have to press it down the full way to get the maximum effect if you prefer a shorter pedal. I left it as standard while trying it out.

As mentioned, I've not had a proper wheel like this before, and even before setting it up properly, out of the box it already felt as though I was in for a properly authentic experience.

And it did not disappoint.

The Thrustmaster T248R box / Jake Brigstock, indy100 & The Independent

Playing through all of the following on a base PS5, I first took it for a spin with Gran Turismo 7. For some reason, I thought it was a good idea to go straight into the deep end, taking my trusty Super Formula car for a spin around Fuji.

But I was quickly humbled

I was completely useless at first. I was way too ambitious with the braking zones, too trigger happy with the throttle, losing control frequently and I was nowhere near challenging for 19th in a 20 car race.

But I slowly but surely kept getting more and more used to it, stringing together some sort of lap within the white lines and getting the feel for it. The force feedback was excellent here in telling me if I was being too ambitious and asking too much of the car.

Soon enough, on my third full run, I found my groove. I just kept on finding lap time and ended up winning a 15 lap race around Fuji race by more than 30 seconds (a bit of strategic thinking put some gloss on the win but I was already in the lead when the heavens opened mid race).

I never looked back after that, continuing to dial down the traction control settings and working my way up to manual shifts across different events with this car.

I then used a number of different cars in a number of different events following this and it was a thrill throwing my car around each track.

The pedals that come with the Thrustmaster T248R wheel / Jake Brigstock, indy100 & The Independent

Next up was F1 25 and I immediately got to grips with it here. The settings in F1 25 off the bat are a lot more forgiving and I was straight on the pace from the off, having come through the initial learning curve through Gran Turismo 7.

I had a great feeling with each F1 car that I drove and quickly took the fight online.

There was the usual F1 online game-ness as cars I had performed clean overtakes on just crashed into me or spun me around - but there was one race where everyone kept it fairly clean around Barcelona and I just missed out on a top three finish by less than second.

That was what got me thinking about what more I could have done...

I also tried out Dirt Rally 2.0 and EA Sports WRC but I need to get a bit more practice in with those... I adore these rally games but I struggled to get to grips with them properly with the wheel, even when I got the settings exactly how I wanted them.

I was okay to a point on the tarmac rallies but on gravel and snow, that was a different story... Safe to say, I'm more of a circuit racer naturally but love these games.

And then it came to arguably the ultimate sim racing test on console - Assetto Corsa Competizione.

The Thrustmaster T248R is absolutely brilliant / Jake Brigstock, indy100 & The Independent

I've previously dabbled with Assetto Corsa Competizione on a controller and for me, it just does not feel good. Even after heavily tweaking settings and trying out loads of different cars on different tracks, it just did not click.

However with a few hours under my belt with the wheel, I was absolutely hooked from the off using the T248R.

I started off driving a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 around Nurburgring (the smaller version) in time trial mode. This might sound like a tricky and technical track to start off with and it very much was - but having played a lot of Formula One games growing up, I know the layout fairly well and it's one of my favourites.

Again, I struggled a lot to begin with, not managing to string together any sort of clean lap after a number of attempts... It took a bit more setting up to get the wheel exactly how I wanted it in terms of responsiveness and feedback.

A quick note here that Assetto Corsa Competizione feels completely different to Gran Turismo 7. Yes, Gran Turismo 7 is badged as 'the real driving simulator' but it feels realistic compared to Assetto Corsa Competizione which is actually realistic.

I felt like I had to relearn everything I'd just put hours into on Gran Turismo 7 - but then things started to click, to a point.

I found my rhythm and learned the behaviour of the car and how it was responding to what I was asking from it. So I then moved on to Spa-Francorchamps.

After having that initial experience at Nurburgring, I was much more quickly on the pace here. However I kept making the smallest error here or there and couldn't string the perfect lap together.

This feeling did not go away as the hours went on and I took on career mode. Over the course of three or four laps or so, I could put together a great lap time if the best bits were all combined. But that consistency was so hard to come by - yet so addictive to chase.

Monza was next and it was a similar story - I was putting clean laps together but finding the optimal time across a single lap was proving tricky. But it didn't stop me from learning and trying. I just found myself getting more and more confident the more I used it.

Sim racing has never really been on my radar because I've never had the proper hardware but I'm very much being won over by my brief experience so far.

Overall, I'm absolutely loving the new racing experiences the Thrustmaster T248R is offering to me, as it's vastly improving my performance in the games I already love. It's opening up different titles I haven't had much luck enjoying with a controller.

When opening the box, I went into it a little bit daunted at what to expect - but I shouldn't have been in the slightest as I found it really easy to set up and take to the track in my favourite games within minutes. The wheel and pedals feel really high quality in terms of their actual build too.

The wheel felt really responsive across the board in the games I tried it out with, it was easy to use through in-game menus, it was simple enough to cycle through different presets and modes on the wheel itself to suit my preferences and the pedals were great too - even if I did find them to slide around a little at first on a hard surface before taking appropriate measures (like putting them against something that wouldn't move).

It can take a bit of tweaking in individual games to get it to feel as it should, such as EA Sports WRC and Assetto Corsa Competizione, but Gran Turismo 7 and F1 25 offered much more of a 'plug in and play' feel. But when the wheel is set up across the board, it delivers fantastic performance.

It retails at £269.99 / $349.99 and represents one of the best value for money racing wheels on the market right now (considering others will set you back several hundred more).

If you need me, I'll be out on the track.

Elsewhere from indy100:

• Rally Arcade Classics: The 90s-style Gran Turismo / V-Rally arcade game crossover I never knew I needed
• I've tried F1 Box racing experience - this is what it's really like

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