So, after killing my back and neck for 3 days trying to play Forza Motorsports 2 with the wheel attached to the coffee table and the pedals right under me, I went online and looked for a "Racing Seat" setup. After looking at these things and seeing the price, I about keeled over! At my advanced age, that's a legitimate risk! Some of these were nearly $1500!

I looked at it and said, damn, I can build that for less than $100...

So I did! This weekend, I built a platform for my new XBox360 with wireless steering wheel and pedals...

I built this to mount the steering wheel, pedals and a spare racing seat so I can REALLY play the driving games!

The length of reach for the legs and arms is independently adjustable for about 4 feet on the legs and 3.5 feet for the arms. I used diamond plate for the pedal and wheel platforms, 1 1/4" square tubing for the main frame and 1" square for the adjustable sections (I wanted 1 1/8" but they didn't have any in stock and I was impatient). I thought about making the wheel height adjustable too, but I was afraid it would make the frame too flimsy or wobbly.

Finished the seat mock-up using one of my old Z car high back buckets and found a problem... While fixing it, I created a new one...

The angle on the steering wheel plate was too steep. I was looking down at the top of the steering wheel when it was mounted. I fixed it by cutting off the horizontal steering wheel bar and re-welding it to the upright at a steeper angle.

Unfortunately, this made the steering wheel too high for a seat flush mounted to the base. I feel like an old granny looking through the steering wheel while I'm out on my Sunday afternoon drive, but at least I fixed the wheel height adjustability problem!

Now I'll have to build a stand to raise the seat height about 6 or 8 inches...

Not bad for a half days work, $50 in steel, $2 in welding wire, $5 in C25 gas, $4 for the faucet ***** and $4 for a can of gloss black Rust-o-leum!

Ultimately, it's gonna get a full on Corbeau racing seat, but here's a pic of the final mock-up:

 

Wow! You are SUCH A GEEK!

Nice work man.


How do you like the Aquos??? I almost bought one yesterday but I went with the Toshiba 47" REGZA instead (My 37" Vizio was retired to the bedroom )


Rod.

P.S. My XBOX GamerTag = Chot YerFace
and I do have Forza 2

 

nice wade. how old are you ? i want to do that with z32 seat. i think the nissan wrecker near me has a set.

 

i need to pull out my wheel and pedals out and install the driver...im so use to the controller i kinda forget.

 

what the hell man... what do you do for a living??? you sure do have a lot of time on your hands, not just to play the game but to also fab a seat and steering wheel/pedal assembly...

i wanna be just like you when i grow up... lol

 

and you have a bunch of kids too? ...and a wife?

Nice seat though. If I had enough time to even play a video game I'd like to have a setup like that

 

He's gotta get his practice on for Laguna Seca !

 

I love it! Beats the hell out of the 6 year old 42" plasma it replaced and for about 75% less money too!

I'll let you know when I setup an XBox Live account... We can go head to head!

 

i was gonna build one for my ps2, i know by some ppls stds its old, but i like gt3/4 and all the drift games. plus i dont got time or cash for the dang thing. i was gonna use a highback racing seat, and same kinda frame dealy

 

Rod nailed it. I'm one of the original computer nerds dude. I started messing with computers when I was 10 years old when I soldered my first Heath Kit computer together! 1 KB (That's right ONE KB) of RAM baby!

I sold my first custom commercial database application in 1982!

A wise man once told me, "You can work your azz off early in life for a few years, then take it easy the rest of your life, or, you can screw off the first few years and get stuck working your azz off the rest of your life, you decide which is better for you."

I chose the "Work my azz off early so I can screw around the rest of my life" option. That "Wise old man" ended up being my father when he sat me down to have a talk the week before I went off to college...

Dude, I eyeballed that whole setup! I barely even used a tape measure! It took me a grand total of about 6 hours on Saturday afternoon to knock it out and I would have finished about an hour earlier if I didn't have to redo a couple pieces that didn't work right the first time.

I've got a slightly used Recaro out of a friends 'ex'-race car on the way too! Then I'll permanently attach the seat brackets, mount the Recaro to my old ZX sliders and I'll be done!

Everyone has a cross to bear dude...

Kid number 3 is on the way... Should be here December 11th.

Dude, now that I've got the angles, measurements and the material list figured out, I can probably do another one in about 3 hours. Come on down and bring the beer and we'll build **** with metal!

 

ok the question here is, how does the game with the wheel compare up to real life?

 

280zx bucket seat=racing seat?

 

hmmmm... maybe he will be born december 4th instead, then he/she can share a birthday with me, and if it turns out to be a boy, he'll be just like me! enjoy ! lol

 

after I get my Frontier maybe my daughter and I will come down for a visit. I can haul it back in the bed of the truck. Then my dauhter can be an expert drifter before she's even 8 years old!

just hope she doesn't turn bad and steal my 350Z one night....

 

Hmmm...

 

Is it just me, or does it just feel wrong to use a Recarro seat in a home made video game rig?

It just seems kinda sad





Rod.

 

I wish I was rich!! Im still playing Forza 1

 

if i were going to do that, i would use this.



real men use 3 pedals! paddles are for sissies.

 

hells yeah ^^^^

only problem is most setups like that dont matter if you use the clutch or not just switch the gears which ruins the realism for me.... i want it true to the last detail.

 

Agreed, but unfortunately, that wheel doesn't work with the XBox360, only a PC and as mentioned, most games out today don't recognize a clutch... ;(

And the cool part is, that stand will work with ANY wheel and pedal combination. I may actually put an old harness on it too...

 

i heard it is coming out soon in a 360 version.

 

Yeah, but the games still don't support the clutch...

 

i know. but hopefully they will in the future. i would really like something similar to that Ferrari simulator that was in arcades. you had to use the clutch properly.

 

Anybody play Gran Turismo?

 

but those kind of games have a smaller target audience. No females can play it!