Review GT1 Evo cockpit

We come back with analysis, with reviews or whatever you prefer to call them. Today we have Victor Moro, who already wrote an analysis of GTEYE springs for Logitech pedal, and in this case he will give us his impressions on the assembly and sensations of the cockpit GT1 EVO from Sim-Lab.

First of all, thanks to all the Sim-Lab team and to Richard Schouteren in particular for being kind enough of sending me a GT1 EVO cockpit for analysis. As introduction, Sim-Lab is a Dutch company founded in 2015, and what started as something new in a small garage gradually became one of the reference sites for simracing related products, especially for cockpits, thanks to its close ties with the aluminum industry.

Packaging

Shipment of the cockpit consists of 3 packages. Try to be present when they arrive so you don’t have to pick them up from the parcel service, because they are neither small nor light (30 kg aprox.). As Sim Lab reports through its website, shipping usually takes between 2 and 3 weeks, and in my case it did.

The long package contains the parts of the aluminum profiles that make up, what we could say, the skeleton of the cockpit, “the sticks”. The “sticks” are distributed in such a way that together they form a giant Tetris I-Block. Our I-Block is wrapped in abundant bubble wrap, compacted with a kind of plastic flanges. Together they form a mini exoskeleton that makes it very difficult for our merchandise to suffer damage. As a curiosity, 17kg weighs.

The small package contains the seat support pieces which basically consist of 4mm aluminum plates, protected with thin sheets of protective material between them to avoid scratching. The package is labelled as fragile goods, which should, in theory, help preserve its integrity.

The third and final package is medium sized and rectangular. The content could be differentiated into several parts:

• The aluminum plate where the pedals will go, wrapped in bubble wrap.
• Different bags with screws, nuts, rubber “feet”…
• The bracket for the steering wheel.
• An individual mini-packaging for the slider parts. This is well thought out, since these screws and nuts are different from the rest of the cockpit.

The different materials that go in this box, are separated and protected from each other by paper, which at first might seem not enough, but somehow all the elements are protected individually, and we are talking about screws and nuts, seems sufficient. The weight, 13kg.

Mounting

Let’s proceed with the assembly. For this, and first of all, we need the assembly instruction manual which can be downloaded here. Yes, it is a little scarce. There are no references or suggestions of almost any kind. In the cockpit’s own web in Sim Lab you also have available a video in which they mount one.

As tools we will need a pair of Allen keys and a big screwdriver. The assembly in general is quite simple and repetitive, which less skilled people will appreciate, as is my case.

Once we dismembered our I-Block, we have all the individual pieces that will conform the skeleton of our cockpit. Taking a superficial look at them with my non-industrial engineering eyes, one can appreciate above all that they are simple and solid. The cuts of the pieces are clean and uniform, without any type of irregularity.

The elements that will keep all of this together are the screws, the corner brackets and the nut slots (or sliding nut).

• The corner brackets have a triangular shape, which will allow you to fit like a glove between the points of union of the aluminum profiles. They also have anti-rotation tabs that go in the channels of these, which will help us, if possible, to avoid movements that will question the integrity of the structure. The Sim Lab guys warn us that, if necessary, these tabs can be broken, when the corner bracket has to be placed transversely to the channels, for example in the bar where the support for the steering wheel is fixed.
• The sliding nuts are the pieces that go inside the channels and that allow us to screw the bars together through the corner brackets. They go in very easily, diagonally and with some angle, into the rails, and the staggered shape of the edges ensures that once inside these, does not dislocate, having to worry only about the screw in the thread.

As any type of assembly-construction, we will begin with the “base”, that will form the two bars of 1350mm and two bars of 480mm. In the video montage they recommend us to first mount the corner brackets in the ends of the 480mm bars and then to assemble it to the 1350mm bars. It seems logical. In what seemed like a very short lapse of personal lucidity, I thought this had occurred to me, but then I realized that I had already seen the video above a couple of times and … no. Once we have assembled the 8 corner brackets we attach it to the 1350mm bars. You have to screw each one a little and then move on to the next one. Once this is done we have the “base”. Turn it over, and screw the “rubber feet”.

Then we will mount the “bridge”, where the base of our steering wheel will go. We will use the same principle as before. In this case it makes even more sense, since you’re fighting gravity. With the 2 bars of 580mm and the remaining 480mm we form the “bridge” on the ground. This is one of the cases in which you have to break the tabs of the corner brackets. Using a large screwdriver and a very light wrist movement yields easy. First time I break something and it’s fine. We assemble together the “bridge” and the “base” with 4 corner brackets, and we tighten it enough so that it is firm but not fixed. You have to adjust the distances later.

Mounting bracket for the steering wheel that we will connect to the “bridge” has the appearance of a perforated card, perforated card on a 5 mm clear aluminum sheet. When we read in the description that the GT1 EVO is compatible with so many different models of steering wheel, is because, regardless of the base that we put on this support, there will be a hole in the plate perfectly positioned to fix it. Despite the number of holes, the base of the steering wheel still looks pretty solid. The finishes on the bottom are of high quality. To anchor the base to our cockpit, we have a pair of pivoting plates. We will use the black screws to maintain the harmony in the colors that we will screw to the nuts with anti-vibratory material. You can adjust the inclination of the base for the steering wheel, but we will not do this until it is all mounted, once again, firm but not fixed.

The cockpit has a bar to anchor to the “bridge” and where we would place our theoretical shifter. I don’t have it, and to put it to make a test in the world of simRacing seems to me a little risky. The assembly would be the same as we have done so far, with our corner brackets, our sliding nuts and … well, you get an idea.

We now mount the pedal plate, which like the steering wheel plate has many holes to maintain compatibility with different products. We need the bars of 195mm that we will fix to the base, these together with the “bridge”, will form the 4 supports of the plate. It also allows to adjust the inclination and distance to be more comfortable.

Finally the seat and the slider, which will allow us to regulate the distance of the seat at any time. It is undoubtedly the assembly process that has a little more difficulty, but not too much, it is just tedious.

Finally the seat and the slider, which will allow us to regulate the distance of the seat at any time. It is undoubtedly the assembly process that has a little more difficulty, but not too much, it is just tedious.

Once everything is assembled, it is necessary to adjust it to the particular size of each one, in this case mine. And that’s why this article has come in handy. The VRacing Team teammates told me that they had cockpits similar to the amount of physical problems they had had for not having the seat adjusted properly, and that it was preferable to take the trouble to unscrew and screw N-times, rather than to be upset. As if you have the handlebars of the bike a couple of centimeters too close or too far; for some journey of 5km you will not notice, but for one of 100km you will. We spend a lot of time sitting there, it is worth bending the back as many times as necessary to add a few degrees of inclination to the steering wheel or separate the pedals a little.

Impressions

Like everyone else, the cockpit I started with was a little rudimentary. It consisted of a G27 anchored to the table and an Ikea chair. I had to anchor and unhook the steering wheel to the table every time I wanted turn a couple of laps, since it was my simRacing/Desktop table. It wasn’t the paradigm of comfort. From that, I went on to a Playseat Challenge, much more comfortable, but it lacked something. Besides, I still had the problem of mounting/dismounting because of space issues. The logical evolution seemed like a cockpit of this kind.

After intensive testing, the first word that comes to mind is comfort. There’s no comparison with anything I’ve tried before, somehow you can waste a lot of time there without realizing it. With the Playseat or my desk chair the desire to keep going around violently collided with the need to get up and stretch my legs.

The cockpit gives a sensation of considerable solidity and robustness. True, I have tried it with a G27, whose FFB should not threaten the integrity of the cockpit’s structure, but I find it hard to imagine that even an OSW would be able “break” this mountain of aluminum. It is a possibility to explore in the future.
Immersion

Immersion

This is ultimately a bit subjective and depends on the other hardware you have, but with the seat, the SPEED 1, already in place and with the distances well set, the feeling is similar to sitting in a GT competition car. You can endure sessions of several hours without having back pain or discomfort in the twins or ankles, and I think that’s something to value positively.

Using VR I can forget almost everything and focus exclusively on driving in a comfortable and functional way, as the fabric does not add heat and perspires enough to be cool in summer and pleasant in winter.

The seat has a pocket to leave the mobile and the cushions under the thighs are removable for easy cleaning. The main structure is made of carbon fiber.
Conclusions

Final thoughts

Like every improvement, it always leads to a positive conclusion. I used to have a hard time sitting around because of the discomfort of having to use a structure where I didn’t feel very comfortable. Now that problem is gone and I can go as many times, or hours, as I want without having to end up ground in the lower kidneys. Being able to press the pedals without the base slipping is also an improvement that facilitates confidence when driving. In addition, the issue of compatibility allows me to add other models of pedals and steering wheels in the future, something that was impossible with the Challenge. That’s not to mention the solidity and modularity given by the profiling that allows you to mount any accessory without having to wind your brains and everything being well fixed. So in general we can say that it is a change for the better quite remarkable and is appreciated as the days go by.

Price GT1 Evo: 399€ in grey, 449€ in black.
Price Speed 1: 329€ available in 3 colors.