As children, the world around us is fascinating. Objects look gigantic compared to us, cars go faster, and things that seem scary are pretty tame. When you talk with children, they will typically have some kind of fascination with cars, dolls, guns, swords, and even food. As we grow up, some of these fascinations continue on and make us who we are as adults. However, there’s a difference between turning a hobby or interest into a career.
With dedication and practice, almost anyone can become what they want with enough hard work and some luck. The best example of this is Jann Mardenborough who used a racing setup to become a professional race car driver. He was the racer who inspired the Gran Turismo movie and utilized a racing kit to practice and become a competitive champion. If you dream of potentially becoming a competitive driver then picking up a racing kit might be a good idea.
This past week, we have been testing out one of PXN‘s latest racing wheel kits. Here are our thoughts on the PXN V9 Gen2 900 Gaming Racing Wheel kit and how much it will cost you to pick it up.
PXN V9 Gen2 900 Gaming Racing Wheel: $189.99
Manufacturer: PXN
Parts: 900 Steering Wheel, Shifter, and 3 three pedal base
Platforms Supported: PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S
Release Date: August, 2024?
Before we dive into the specifics of the PXN V9 Gen2 900 Gaming Racing Wheel, let’s talk about our experience with the kit. In order to test out the PXN V9 Gen2 900 Gaming Racing Wheel kit, we decided to test it with an Xbox Series X and our gaming PC. Up first was the Xbox Series X.
Typically, when you play on an Xbox Series X, you do not have limited space to work with and don’t always have the ability to set up all parts of a racing kit. Because of this, we attempted to try out only the racing wheel.
With setting up only the racing wheel on the Xbox, we expected that we would be able to remap the steering wheel controls either through the Racing wheel controller or through the game settings. Neither of these beliefs turned out to be true and made for our racing experience to be a quite awkward and uncomfortable experience.
In order to use the racing wheel we had to plug in our Xbox controller in order to get it to work despite being plugged into the Xbox directly. Even with the controller plugged in, we got stuck using weird buttons on the racing wheel in order to use the gas and the brakes. Although you can play without the foot pedals, the hand controls are awkward and rather uncomfortable.
With the racing wheel being rather uncomfortable to use on the Xbox Series X, we decided to move it to our desk and try it out on the PC. Setting up the shifter, foot pedals, and racing wheel on the desk was fairly easy.
If you are racing using an automatic, you do not need to use the gear shifter; so it all depends on your personal preference. The only downside was that we still had to have an Xbox Controller plugged in when using the wheel. With everything set up at the desk, it was ready to try out some other racing games.
For the PC test of the PXN V9 Gen2 900 Gaming Racing Wheel, we decided to try out the kit playing Blur, Need for Speed Carbon, and The Crew Motorfest. With The Crew, we were able to adjust the controls slightly to make things a bit easier but with the older games, we were out of luck. When racing, it was easier to use the 270° rotation vs the 900° rotation.
On the second day of trying to use the wheel, we encountered an issue that was rather annoying. For whatever reason, when the wheel was in 270° mode, it would force us hard left or hard right and you had to steer against it in order to go straight.
Additionally, the wheel would lock in weird ways making it hard to compensate. In order to fix this problem, we had to disconnect all the cables, uninstall the driver, and reconnect it.
As a fan of racing games, but not a die-hard racing fanatic using the racing kit felt like more work and took up way more space than a controller. For those who want to feel like they are in the seat of the car racing against others, it could be a great accessory but for the casual gamer, it is not worth picking up.
The wheel is not adjustable without a mounting kit to suspend it, so you have to drive in an awkward manner. The Pedals despite being floored wouldn’t always register that they were fully compressed. The lights on the Racing Wheel will show you if the kit is registering an input but something seemed to be going wrong.
The PXN V9 Gen2 900 Gaming Racing Wheel is a decent item for those who want to feel like they are behind the wheel but it does have its flaws.
For $189 it’s not a bad accessory by any means and could be an interesting way to teach someone how to drive before they ever have to actually step behind the wheel. It could make a great gift for a racing fan but you have to have the space and ability to set it up fully in order to enjoy it.
The PXN V9 Gen2 900 Gaming Racing Wheel was reviewed using a retail unit provided by PXN. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here.
