Our Verdict
Pros
- Performance from wheel base is incredible
- Upgraded steering wheel is much better than before
- Higher quality materials used on steering wheel
- Pre-equipped with QR2 Lite
- Easy mounting
- Great wheel base design
Cons
- Only includes QR2 Lite
- Follows older steering wheel design
- Plastic use on steering wheel
- Steering wheel flex
Fanatec may have removed their Podium series bundles from production. However, by introducing the Gran Turismo DD Extreme racing wheel, this now becomes the most powerful racing bundle Fanatec offers.
We have reviewed the ClubSport DD previously, however, this bundle includes the upgraded Clubsport DD+ wheel base, capable of 15Nm of constant torque. Fanatec has chosen to continue its partnership with Polyphony Digital, and paired the ClubSport DD+ wheel base with an upgraded Gran Turismo licensed steering wheel.
Does this combination of Fanatec’s powerful ClubSport DD+ wheel base and a redesigned Gran Turismo steering wheel make for the best high-end sim racing bundle around? Let’s take a look and find out.
What is the Fanatec GT DD Extreme?
We’ve had the GT DD Pro for a good few years, and that remains one of the best mid-range direct drive racing wheels around, albeit slightly pricey. Fanatec has now introduced the Gran Turismo DD Extreme, but what seperatese this racing wheel from the GT DD Pro?
Well, it turns out quite a lot. The Gran Turismo DD Extreme uses the ClubSport DD+ wheel base which is considerably more powerful than the GT DD Pro wheel. This increases the power from 8Nm with the Pro to 15Nm with the ClubSport DD+.
You also get a new Gran Turismo licensed steering wheel with the Gran Turismo DD Extreme bundle. The redesigned steering wheel follows a lot of design cues that the GT DD Pro steering wheel introduced but has a few key upgrades.
Price
These upgrades do lead to a considerably higher price tag compared to the GT DD Pro. The new Fanatec Gran Turismo DD Extreme costs €1299.95 in Europe, $1299.95 in the United States. Below is the full pricing breakdown.
- Buy the Fanatec GT DD Extreme (United States) – $1299.95
- Buy the Fanatec GT DD Extreme (Europe & UK) – €1299.95
- Buy the Fanatec GT DD Extreme (Australia) – $2139.90
This is a considerable price jump from the cost of the GT DD Pro bundle. And its important to note that the older GT DD Pro bundle also included a set of sim racing pedals. Whereas this Gran Turismo DD Extreme does not include pedals. Below is a comparison between both bundles and the ClubSport DD+ wheel base.
| Racing wheel | Torque | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Fanatec GT DD Extreme | 15Nm | €/$1299.95 |
 | Fanatec GT DD Pro Bundle | 8Nm | €/$799.90 |
 | Fanatec ClubSport DD+ | 15Nm | €/$999.95 |
What’s included in the GT DD Extreme bundle?
Before I look at performance, compatibility and other areas, first I want to break down all of the elements that are included in the Gran Turismo DD Extreme bundle. Unlike Fanatec’s Ready2Race bundles, this high-performing PS5 sim racing bundle only includes the racing wheel and steering wheel.
There are no pedals included. This means that if you are buying this bundle, you will need to either use a set of compatible Fanatec pedals that you already own, or spend more money on buying a set of pedals. This bundle is already rather expensive, so having to purchase a set of pedals increases that initial cost right away.
ClubSport DD+ wheel base
Despite the lack of pedals, you do get a lot of performance for your money. The impressive Fanatec ClubSport DD+ wheel base is the foundation of this bundle. It features 15Nm of peak torque and includes the new FullForce technology that the latest Fanatec direct drive wheel bases introduced.
This wheel base is PS5 compatible out of the box, meaning you can purchase the stand-alone ClubSport DD+ if you aren’t interested in the Gran Turismo licensed steering wheel. However, you cannot buy the steering wheel individually. The only way to currently get it is as part of this bundle.
Gran Turismo licensed steering wheel
The steering wheel itself initially looks incredibly similar to the wheel that came with the GT DD Pro a few years ago. In our Fanatec GT DD Pro review, I wasn’t a huge fan of the steering wheel due to it feeling rather cheap due to the heavy use of plastic.
Thankfully some things have changed with this steering wheel iteration that is on the Gran Turismo DD Extreme, despite it following a similar design. There are upgrades which make this a much better wheel than before.
QR2 quick release
To connect the steering wheel to the wheel base, you do get access to the new QR2 architecture. However, there is a big catch here. You only get the QR2 Lite included, and that is less than ideal.
The QR2 Lite is constructed entirely from plastic and normally is restricted to 8Nm of peak torque to prevent it from failing. However, Fanatec has introduced some trickery with this bundle and allowed the QR2 Lite to operate at the full 15Nm of peak torque with this steering wheel only.
That is problematic in a few ways. First, Fanatec introduced the limit of 8Nm with the QR2 Lite for a reason. That reason had to be safety or performance-related, with the QR2 Lite incapable of performing at extreme torque levels safely.
By increasing the limitation right up to 15Nm with this bundle, it means that either Fanatec weren’t telling us the truth about the performance limitation of the QR2 Lite. Or that this could lead to excess failures down the road. Either of those outcomes isn’t great.
Also, if you decide to use a different steering wheel other than the Gran Turismo licensed wheel that is included, then the QR2 Lite drops back down to its maximum performance of just 8Nm.
Ultimately, this means that if you only use the included steering wheel, you can access the full performance of the wheel base. But if you opt for a different steering wheel, you will require an upgraded QR2 wheel side adapter to use the full performance.
The Design of the new Gran Turismo steering wheel
I have previously reviewed the design of the Clubsport DD and DD+ wheel bases, which you can read here. So I’m going to skip over that and look at the new steering wheel, as this is the entirely new part of this sim racing bundle.
The design of the steering wheel itself flows from the original GT DD Pro steering wheel. There are a lot of similarities and a few areas where Fanatec have completely redesigned elements.
The main chassis of the wheel utilises the same slightly bulbous plastic body, with most elements in a similar position. Despite Fanatec using a very similar design, the whole body has actually been redesigned subtly. Elements are slightly further apart or moved ever so slightly.
The inputs
The old directional sticks have been upgraded to 5-way directional sticks and utilise a cleaner metal construction. They also now have RGB LEDs behind them rather than coloured plastic. This lets you customise the colour of each stick and can result in a fresher-looking design. The Funky Switch has also followed suit and been upgraded to use the same bare metal appearance.
There is a cluster of four buttons that mimic a PS5 controller on the lower right-hand side. These look and feel almost identical to the ones found on the GT DD Pro wheel. Four additional buttons jut out from the body. These are plastic and feel OK to activate. The buttons are all labelled with the corresponding PlayStation 5 inputs making them easy to use in game.
All of these inputs operate nicely with positive clicks and movements. If you’ve used any Fanatec steering wheel in the past, you’ll feel right at home with the decent level of quality on show here.
The OLED screen
One brand new area of this steering wheel is the new OLED screen. It has been positioned right at the top of the steering wheel and looks a little bit awkward due to it not being implemented into the design.
Despite it looking a little stuck on, the screen itself is excellent. It utilises the same telemetry platform as Fanatec’s premium Podium Button Module called Intelligent Telemetry Mode (ITM). In practice, it works well displaying multiple layers of telemetry that you can cycle through mid-race.
When racing on PC in games such as iRacing and Assetto Corsa Competizione, this screen worked incredibly well. Jumping over to Gran Turismo 7 on our PS5 though, and the display reduces down to just showing the speed readout. This is no doubt due to the integration of the screen by the game developers, and I’m sure over time, we’ll see more developers supporting the screen in various ways.
The wheel rim
Another big area of change is with the hand grips and wheel rim itself. Gone are the perforated material and the plastic inserts of the GT DD Pro. With this Gran Turismo DD Extreme steering wheel, we now get a premium vegan leather material.
This leather runs the entirety of the grip giving a really smooth and relatively plush surface no matter your hand position. The diameter sits at 300mm which is ideal for this style of wheel rim. It feels realistic to race with due to the dimensions and makes the wheel incredibly versatile regardless of which motorsport you participate in.
Where this steering wheel really excels is in that versatility. I always recommend that sim racers ensure they own a circular wheel rim. It opens up opportunities to race rally cars and road cars that a formula-style wheel rim doesn’t.
Buying this bundle gives you that base option for a steering wheel that can be used at any time. You can still purchase different Fanatec steering wheels or use any wheels you may already own for more specific disciplines.
Things I don’t like about the steering wheel
Moving onto the downsides of this wheel, there is one really big one which is a carryover from the original Gran Turismo licensed wheel on the GT DD Pro.
This wheel utilises plastic throughout its construction which is its biggest downfall. This makes the wheel itself feel more like a toy than a real steering wheel. When you’re spending over €1000 on a product, I’d want it to feel pretty high quality.
Removing the cost of the wheel base and quick release, this steering wheel costs around €240. For a similar price, you can pick up a BMW GT2 V2 wheel or a CSL steering wheel. These options include metal chassis with a choice of Alcantara or leather. This makes it strange for Fanatec to opt for a cheaper plastic on this Gran Turismo steering wheel.
This plastic body does lead to a fair bit of flex in the steering wheel. During racing, this is less of a problem. However, if you push or pull on the steering wheel there’s a good amount of movement.
Extreme performance
With this bundle being the highest-performing Fanatec bundle you can currently buy, you’d expect the performance to live up to the name. And in this department, it does incredibly well.
The new force feedback algorithms and technology that Fanatec introduced with the ClubSport DD and DD+ go a long way towards making this Gran Turismo DD Extreme the best sim racing bundle that Fanatec has ever created.
FullForce is a term that Fanatec has coined for its new immersive force feedback. It is essentially a new force feedback protocol that generates vibration effects that are present in the force feedback. This new level of feedback leads to added immersion when on track.
Combining these new forces with the improvements to the response rate and continuous performance over time leads to an incredible feeling driving experience. You can read more about the performance in our ClubSport DD review where I talk about it in more detail.
Does the QR2 Lite allow for the full 15Nm of torque to be used?
One of the big questions surrounding this Gran Turismo DD Extreme bundle when it was first launched was to do with the quick release. I spoke about this previously in our QR2 section, but to clarify, this bundle can access all 15Nm of peak torque available. This is despite the limitations that Fanatec previously applied to the QR2 Lite.
The main problem with this comes back to the reason why Fanatec restricted the QR2 Lite to 8Nm in the first place. If you run the force feedback strength up close to its maximum of 15Nm, flexing does creep in. This flex comes directly from the quick release join.
Being constructed entirely of plastic, it is no surprise that higher torque modes will cause some instability. However, despite the flexing which is certainly present, the QR2 Lite does hold up pretty well.
During my time with the wheel at its maximum strength, I was never worried about the level of flex or risk of failure. And this makes it harder to swallow that you cannot use other steering wheels with the QR2 Lite at 15Nm.
Read our guide on the best PS5 sim racing setup.
Compatibility
Right out of the box, this Gran Turismo DD Extreme bundle is plug-and-play with PS4 and PS5 consoles. All you need to do is connect a compatible Fanatec pedal set to the rear of the wheel base and you can start racing. The same is true on PC, although you have more freedom to use any sim racing pedal set from any brand.
There is also Xbox compatibility baked into the ClubSport DD+ wheel base. You won’t be able to use the PlayStation-only Gran Turismo wheel on Xbox. But if you do swap in an Xbox steering wheel, the DD+ wheel base will start working on Xbox consoles.
Game compatibility
As this new Gran Turismo DD Extreme bundle is relatively new, it isn’t a surprise that you won’t find presets for the wheel in many games. You can use this wheel with most sim racing games on PS5 and PC, but you will often have to configure the button layout yourself.
Some PlayStation games don’t fully utilise the new OLED display or the rev lights, including Gran Turismo 7 funnily enough. However, over time, we are sure that developers will start introducing true support for the ClubSport DD+ and its new FullForce feature.
Should you buy the Fanatec Gran Turismo DD Extreme?
That leads me to whether I’d recommend this racing wheel bundle or not. There is no getting away from the fact that this sim racing bundle is pretty expensive. At over €/$1200, the Gran Turismo DD Extreme is a big investment.
However, there is certainly no worry about lack of performance. The new force feedback improvements that Fanatec has made make this easily one of the best high-end racing wheels around. The question then comes down to whether this bundle is worth the price or if you’d be better off buying a different steering wheel.
If you are a fan of Gran Turismo, or like the look of this steering wheel, then there is no other way of getting your hands on one other than this bundle. The steering wheel also introduces an incredible OLED display that is hard to find on other Fanatec wheel bases in this price range.
Because of that, I would say that this is a good bundle considering the improvements to the steering wheel. The performance from the ClubSport DD+ lives up to the extreme name, and it’s a wheel base that I’ll be using for a very long time.
Are there pedals included with the GT DD Extreme bundle?
The Fanatec Gran Turismo DD Extreme does not include any sim racing pedals. It only includes the wheel base, steering wheel and quick release.
Can you use all 15Nm of torque with QR2 Lite?
When using the Gran Turismo steering wheel that is included, you can use all 15Nm of torque with the QR2 Lite. However, if you switch to a different steering wheel, the peak performance drops to 8Nm.
Does the Gran Turismo DD Extreme work with Xbox?
The ClubSport DD+ wheel base that is included in this bundle is compatible with Xbox consoles when paired with an Xbox-compatible steering wheel. Unfortunately, the included Gran Turismo steering wheel is not Xbox compatible.
Technical Specifications
Review written by Felix König
