As with any hobby, there is usually a line between casually entertaining the hobby and getting fully into it. In bowling, you can go to the lanes and rent shoes and use the house balls, but you might want to have your own ball and shoes; the same can be said of skiing/snowboarding, tennis, etc. Sim racing is no exception to this either, but the difference is between using your controller or buying an expensive wheel and chair setup. The Turtle Beach VelocityOne Race aims to remedy that with a host of quality features that don’t necessarily break the bank.
My sim racing career has been in development for many, many years, going all the way back to Gran Turismo on the PS1, as I have mentioned in some of my other reviews. Titles like Need For Speed: Underground gave me new ideas about the kind of cars I liked, and now, with games like F1 24 and Gran Turismo 7, a proper racing wheel became the next step towards being a better driver.
This is where the Turtle Beach VelocityOne Race enters the fold. Both of the wheel systems I’ve used previously (Fanatec GT DD Pro and Logitech G Pro Wheel & Pedals) offer fantastic driving experiences but not a lot of on-board customization. The VelocityOne Race, on the other hand, has on-board customization for days. Beginning with the wheelbase itself (where all of the mechanics are housed and what the wheel itself is attached to), we have an aesthetically pleasing unit that has a very large Head-Up Display and the 4 buttons that conform to the Xbox controller’s options array.
Before we go too far into the mechanics and features of the VelocityOne Race, it is important to note that there are some limitations when it comes to where you mount the base and accessories. In my case, I am using the Playseat Challenge foldable chair to mount my wheel and pedals and it has been a steadfast companion for the last two years and counting. It was not until I got the VelocityOne Race fully mounted that I realized there would be a problem.
This problem comes in the form of the VelocityOne Control Unit that gets installed on either the left or right side of the wheel, whichever you prefer. Personally, I installed mine on the right, and there is an identical mounting destination on the opposite side of the base. As I mentioned above, the Playseat Challenge is a foldable chair which allows me to tuck it away when not in use. The VelocityOne Control Unit is directly in the way of the chair’s folding action, which means I cannot fold it properly away.
“The wheel itself for the VelocityOne Race is gorgeous.”
The resolution was that I would have to take it off and put it back on each time I wanted to use it, which is not the most ideal situation, at minimum. If it were almost any other attachment, I’d have just left it off, but I had mapped the buttons on it for F1 24, and it made communicating with my pit crew so much simpler. Now, I can’t expect Turtle Beach to make the whole unit to be compatible with EVERY chair and mounting scenario available, but this chair of mine is extremely popular, so I’d have thought it would fit better. Needless to say, I was let down.
Let’s get back to the wheelbase for a moment because there is a lot to like here. First up is the mounting. It was as simple as taking the three bolts holding my Logitech G Pro to the chair out and putting them into the VelocityOne Race base. The hole configuration was the exact same, and I couldn’t have been happier. Some uniformity in design is always welcome, especially when it comes to mounting hardware. I didn’t have to use different sized bolts or different holes on the mounting plate, it just worked right out of the box.
Once I got it mounted, it was time to power on and see what’s what. The VelocityOne Race base has a beautifully designed digital dashboard that can display everything that is going on with the wheel at any given time. One of my only complaints about the G Pro’s wheelbase is that the screen used to adjust settings is very small and not the easiest to navigate. The VelocityOne Race blows it out of the water with a massive full-colour screen that is easy to navigate to find the exact setting you want to adjust.
The wheel itself for the VelocityOne Race is gorgeous. I usually like simplicity and elegance in my peripherals, but this wheel is something else. It’s got a hand-stitched black leather wrap with the iconic Turtle Beach green stitching on the inside of the wheel. The wheel feels lightweight in my hands, and the paddles on the back fall in the perfect position for quick gear changes.
“I can easily say that the Turtle Beach VelocityOne Race has the best settings menu on a wheel I have ever used.”
With the Xbox face buttons at the top of the wheel, they are easily reached by your thumbs for easy presses, and they have a delightful clicking sound when they are pressed, which reminds me of a pro controller. Two knobs on the bottom round out the face of the wheel. The left knob houses the D-Pad, and the right houses the Digital Dashboard controls.
While we are on now on the subject of the Digital Dashboard, I’d like to give a bit more information about what is available there. It is where you’ll find ALL of the settings for the wheel outside of the PC & mobile apps. The Digital Dashboard is an easy-to-navigate hub for adjusting the degree of wheel rotation, strength of the force feedback, pattern and colour of the RGB lighting (yea it has RGB lighting), and more.
A simple nudge of the rotation wheel brings up the Digital Dashboard on the wheelbase, and you are presented with 11 options to choose from. Turning the dial allows you to move to each one and you use either the Select button or the Back button to navigate entry and exit of specific settings menus. It’s a very simple process to use and a joy to navigate. I can easily say that the Turtle Beach VelocityOne Race has the best settings menu on a wheel I have ever used. It allows you to easily change your settings on the fly or even the settings profile (if you play multiple different racing games, for example) as needed.
There was one aspect of the Digital Dashboard that I didn’t get to try, and that is the real-time race telemetry. This is a setting in the Digital Dashboard that allows you to get info from the game about the car you are driving, such as speed, RPM, and more. At the time of writing, no title on Xbox has this available, and there are a fair few on PC, but none of them are in my game library (Assetto Corsa Competizione, F1 23—but not 24, for some reason—iRacing, Le Mans Ultimate, etc.).
In a technical sense, the VelocityOne Race has some decent specifications. A total of around 7.2 nM of direct drive force feedback (ease in which the wheel can rotate against the in-game forces experienced), which is adjustable to match your preference (I generally keep mine around 6.0 nM), 2600 degrees of wheel rotation available, which is also adjustable in increments of 10, so you can really dial in the specificity of your set up. Lastly, the VelocityOne Race also features a 3.5mm audio jack for your headset.
The audio jack is interesting to me as it allows you to connect your headset directly to the wheelbase, similar to how you would connect one to your controller on Xbox or PS5. From there, you can select from one of five different audio presets or create your own custom audio setting to configure the audio exactly the way you want it. It worked really well in my experience as I was able to turn down a lot of the ambient noise in F1 24 and really hone in on the engine sounds to make precise gear changes.
When it comes to sim racing, I feel like the wheel gets all the plaudits, but the pedals are the real unsung heroes for me. The pedals that come with the VelocityOne Race are absolutely spectacular. Utilizing Turtle Beach’s Dynamic Brake Tek load cell braking system, the pedals use up to 50kg/f of force to determine the strength of braking, not the travel distance of the pedals themselves.
This pairs very nicely with the Race Management Display on the Digital Dashboard as there is a very easy to use gauge showing exactly how much force you are using to depress each pedal. Since switching from non-load cell pedals with the Fanatec GT DD Pro to load cell pedals with the Logitech G Pro and now the VelocityOne Race, the difference is night and day.
“The VelocityOne Race base has a beautifully designed digital dashboard that can display everything that is going on with the wheel at any given time.”
Updating the firmware of the wheel base is a very simple task using either the VelocityOne Tuner app on your PC or on the mobile app of the same name on Android and iOS. The PC app allows you to create your wheel presets for force feedback strength, wheel rotation, and more. The mobile app connects to the wheel via BlueTooth, which is enabled using the Digital Dashboard on the wheel base.
The last thing I wanted to mention is the quick release system employed by the VelocityOne Race. In sim racing, people tend to like a variety of wheels, whether it’s a formula style wheel, or a round one like what comes in the box, being able to swap them out efficiently is a good thing. Unfortunately, the VelocityOne Race falls down a bit in this regard, as the quick-release system employed to take the wheel off is a bit difficult to use.
It has the normal “pull this piece towards you to remove” system that most bases have, but the issue is that the wheel doesn’t let you reach it all that easily. The VelocityOne Race wheel requires you to really stretch your fingers around the wheel to reach the required part, resulting in you needlessly engaging the paddle shifters on the back of the wheel; and if you have smaller hands or fingers, the issue is compounded.
By comparison, the Logitech G Pro system features an extra piece of apparatus that allows you to reach the quick-release part easily without engaging the paddle shifters. It’s an easy thing to overlook if you don’t swap your wheel out, and at this time, Turtle Beach doesn’t have another wheel to go on, but it seems like they haven’t done themselves any favours if they decide to make a new wheel in the future.
There is a lot to like about the Turtle Beach VelocityOne Race wheel and pedals. It will be extremely hard to go back to my Logitech G Pro for the Digital Dashboard alone. I love the feel of the wheel in my hands as it doesn’t feel too big or too small, and the load cell pedals are a treat to use, especially with the amount of braking pressure they can withstand.
Also, the price is extremely hard to beat for what you get: $649.99 USD. By comparison, the Fanatec GT DD Pro sells for $699.99 USD and only offers two pedals and they aren’t load cell pedals. There is going to be some trade-off in this regard, however, as the Fanatec is compatible with PlayStation as well as Xbox and PC and features some really nice wheel options to swap out, whereas the VelocityOne Race is only available for Xbox/PC and only has the one wheel at this time.
On the whole, I can absolutely recommend the Turtle Beach VelocityOne Race for Xbox and PC racing enthusiasts looking for a brilliant wheel and pedal combo, whether they are new to the hobby or experienced users. The bang for buck is incredible and the hardware feels amazing.
