MOZA Racing Vision GS Wheel – Review

MOZA Racing Vision GS Wheel – Review

The Vision GS Wheel is the latest steering wheel in MOZA Racing’s line-up. After its first presentation as a prototype at Gamescom 2023, it is now regularly available from MOZA Racing and, with its striking centred display, is not only the latest, but also probably the manufacturer’s most eye-catching steering wheel at the moment.

Ordering and shipping

As usual with MOZA Racing, the steering wheel can be purchased directly from the manufacturer. Depending on the country, shipping costs, customs duties and taxes may be added to the prices quoted:

749$ / 829€ / 749£ / AUD 1,299 / JPY 119,900

It can be assumed that the steering wheel will also be available from MOZA Racing’s well-known third-party suppliers in the future.

The product tested here was provided by the manufacturer. No influence was exerted on this review at any time.

Scope of delivery

Similar to the last tested KS Wheel from MOZA Racing, the scope of delivery is also very limited here. In addition to the steering wheel packaged in a fabric cover, the packaging only contains the two sticker sheets and a pair of tweezers for attaching the stickers.

• Steering wheel
• Sticker sheets
• Tweezers
• Cloth bag

Specs

Compatibility

For compatibility with its own bases, MOZA continues to rely on the proven in-house QR with an NRG style. This combines data and power supply without additional cables, making the Vision GS Steering Wheel fully compatible with all of the manufacturer’s wheel bases.

An RJ45 port is available on the back for third-party manufacturers, which can be used to operate the steering wheel as a stand-alone USB device in combination with the separately available MOZA hub and the matching QR mount.

Features

The main feature of the 310 millimetre Vision GS is undoubtedly the centrally mounted screen and the striking shape of the steering wheel. The latter is achieved at the front by the hand-stitched artificial leather grips with integrated RPM LEDs and the carbon fibre composite face plate:

The Vision GS wheel features a face plate constructed from carbon fiber reinforced composites. This material provides exceptional strength and durability and surpasses the rigidity of standard composite materials or plastics.

Including the QR, the total weight is around 1.5 kilograms, which is a very good result for a diameter of 310 millimetres in combination with the wide range of functions. The build quality is very good throughout, so unwanted flexing while riding is not an issue.

Buttons

MOZA Racing has installed the following buttons:

• 8 RGB buttons: There are four illuminated buttons on each side of the wheel with a very short actuation distance (0.25 millimetres) and therefore very crisp characteristics. The colour of the buttons can be freely adjusted and the labelling is done using stickers.
• 2 thumb encoders: The two thumb encoders, which are made of aluminium and switch very smoothly, are located within direct reach of the thumbs. The smooth design is particularly suitable for riders without gloves.
• 3 rotary encoders: There are three rotary encoders in the centre of the lower end of the steering wheel, which can be operated both as normal encoders (+/-) and as rotary switches (each position outputs a separate value). The triggering force is in the medium range, which is also due to the design of the aluminium caps.
• 1 Funky-Switch: MOZA has responded to the wishes of the community and installed a Funky-Switch (up, down, left, right, click, turn left, turn right) on the right-hand side of the wheel, which is very comfortable to use and, as usual, perfect for navigating through menus, for example.
• 1 Joystick: There is a joystick on the opposite side of the Funky, but it behaves like a D-pad or four individual buttons.
• 2 Buttons on the back: As a nice bonus, there are two more buttons on the back of the wheel. Functions such as DRS or a battery boost can be easily controlled here.

Button-Sounds

soon

LEDs

In addition to the illuminated RGB buttons, there are 10 RPM LEDs that have been elegantly integrated into the steering wheel rim. In addition to the RPM, various telemetry effects can also be displayed here:

• Wheel Spin
• Pit Limiter
• ABS
• TC
• DRS
• Flags

The illumination of the LEDs is consistently good, the brightness was never operated above 30 per cent during the review, so there is still plenty of room for a higher level if required.

Paddles

On the back of the wheel there is a combined aluminium block consisting of a magnetic shifter and analogue axle on each side. The design corresponds to that of the GS Wheel (V2), with the exception of the forged carbon paddles.

The shifters are comfortable to operate thanks to the magnetic design, but the feel of the shifter does not quite match the recently tested wheels from Ascher Racing, for example. The sound level is slightly louder than average.

The function of the analogue axles can be freely configured as usual. They can be used either as single axles, as a combined axle for use as a double clutch, for example, or as a normal button. The resistance generated by the built-in spring is comparatively low, but is perfectly adequate for occasional racing starts.

Display

The highlight and currently unique selling point of the Vision GS Wheel is undoubtedly the central display, which has a size of 2.85 inches and a refresh rate of 60 Hz. Combined with a resolution of 480 x 480 pixels, excellent colour reproduction and maximum brightness, the display is currently unique on the sim racing market.

As an additional gimmick, MOZA has installed a gyroscope sensor that optionally rotates the display to the correct angle when cornering in order to keep the content as straight as possible and thus in a constant position. The position of the display was chosen accordingly in the centre of the steering wheel’s axis of rotation. While this concept reaches its limits with short and very fast movements, it is ideal for significantly improving the readability of the dashboard on long curves.

To navigate between the various dashboards and their individual pages, the display has a touchscreen that responded very reliably to inputs (without gloves) during the test.

Software

The well-known MOZA Pit House is again used as the software for the Vision GS Wheel. Here, the various aspects of the wheel can be configured in detail in several sections:

• Steering wheel settings: The functions of the analogue axes, the joysticks and the rotary switches are configured here, among other things. Key combinations can also be defined here (e.g. to set the steering wheel angle to 900° or to change the joystick mode), the paddles can be calibrated and the brightness of the RPM LEDs can be set.
• RPM LEDs: In this window, the colour and mode of the RPM LEDs (all LEDs have the colour of the highest active LED, all LEDs light up in their defined colour) as well as the limit speeds and the time of flashing can be configured. Even though it is possible to save your own presets externally, a setting that can be defined for each vehicle would be a significant added value.
• Telemetry LEDs: Various telemetry effects can be displayed on the RPM LEDs in freely selectable colours: Wheel Spin, Pit Limiter, ABS, TC, DRS, Flags).
• Dashboard Settings: The individual dashboards can be managed here and the corresponding editor can be opened.

Even if the software basically works well and is clearly structured, dynamically illuminated buttons via telemetry data, for example, would offer significant added value.

Dashboards

MOZA provides a whole range of ready-made dashboards in various designs from which you can choose without having to deal with the dashboard editor. During the review (still carried out with beta software), we noticed one or two teething problems, but overall the selection of dashboards supplied was balanced and was convincing in the test. The GT V01 Dash emerged as a personal favourite, which was then consequently adapted slightly in the editor.

Dashboard-Editor

With the newly introduced editor, MOZA Racing now offers for the first time the possibility to configure dashboards completely freely and customise them to your own needs. Various options are available for this purpose, which remind experienced sim racers of Simhub when creating dashboards:

• Text
• Rectangle
• Ellipse
• Image
• Dial Gauge
• Linear Gauge
• (Track) Map

For example, the text can be displayed dynamically using a wide selection of variables (telemetry data such as tyre temperature, lap time or current gear) and then further adapted using additional JavaScript code. Experienced users can click together simple dashboards in just a few minutes, while beginners are faced with a somewhat steeper learning curve. The dashboards created in this way can be both exported and shared. It is therefore to be expected that a large number of customised dashboard designs will emerge from the community in the future. However, it will probably be some time before the kind of diversity we are familiar with from Simhub, for example, is achieved.

Simracing-PC Dashboards

To get you started with community dashboards, here’s both the customised GT V01 Dash.

Driving impressions

The Vision GS Wheel was fully convincing during the test drives. In particular, the size of 310 millimetres proved to be ideal for the popular GT3 cars of the Assetto Corsa Competizione. Even on longer drives, there were no operating errors with buttons or shifters and the long-term comfort was consistently good despite the slightly noticeable seams in the thumb area.

Conclusion

The Vision GS Wheel from MOZA Racing is probably one of the manufacturer’s most interesting steering wheels at the moment and stands out from the mass of currently widespread Formula-style wheels with its unique design built around the central display. The diameter of 310 millimetres of the very well-made steering wheel in combination with the multitude of features make it a very good companion for GT cars and allow the minor teething troubles of the newly introduced dashboard software to be overlooked.