Ascher Racing F28-SC Wireless Wheel Review

When Martin Ascher said he was working updating his wheels and button plates, a lot of us were wondering how he could improve upon his existing products. That to me, were already among the best available. The new F28 SC wheel actually does bring some improvements to the previous versions of his button plates. The new aluminum shifters are crisp and stiff. A noticeable difference in stiffness when compared to the previous, but still very good carbon shifters. The buttons have a very firm feel to them. It takes more pressure to push them than any other wheel buttons I have used to date. Which increases the sense of durability when using them. You certainly know when you have pushed one of these buttons. Even with gloves on. As some may know, I’m all about trying to achieve high levels of stiffness when using Sim racing hardware. This is another area where this wheel design rises above the rest. I has to be the stiffest wheel I have had my hands on to date. I’m thinking that the new 5mm aluminum front plate that replaces the carbon fiber plate used on the previous design has something to do with it. The alcantera grips have held up quite well with me using it in high torque conditions. I had some fellow sim racers stop by to try the F28 SC attached to the SC Pro Wheelbase. And even after them using the grips with no gloves, the alcantera showed no detrimental effects once brushed back out. Of course one of the main features of this wheel it the ability to wirelessly connect to the SC2 wheelbases. And the SC1 wheelbases if you install the plug and play module that is available from Granite devices. I had no problems connecting the F28 to my SC2 Pro wheelbase. No dropouts or missed inputs when using the wheels controls. Which, being such a new solution I was expecting to have some sort of glitch or problem, but I found none. Now this doesn’t mean that no one else will have issues. Being a wireless solution there is always the possibility of having a button press or shifter movement not registering properly. Just didn’t happen to me. I think the external stubby antenna may have something to do with this. One other consideration is that this wheel is 285mm in diameter. My personal preferred wheel diameter has been between 300mm and 290mm. Now that I have had a chance to us a 285mm wheel, I will be adding it to my new lowest diameter wheel I would want to use list. Really, two and half less millimeters on each side of a wheel is not noticeable, to me at least. Overall, I am impressed with this wheel. Martin of Ascher Racing has once again delivered a top tier product. If you are looking for a wireless wheel solution that is oozing quality, I think the new F28-SC wheel is currently the top choice for now.