Our Verdict
Pros
- High-quality materials
- Fantastic HD Screen
- Leather hand grips
- Data port for extra compatibility
- Good input selection
- Shifters feel good
- Excellent quick release
Cons
- Not a fan of rev lights
- A few plastic elements detract from quality
- Shifter silencing pads don’t dampen sound enough
MOZA Racing have really pulled it out of the bag with the FSR wheel. This is possibly one of the most impressive sim racing steering wheels I’ve seen in a long time.
What is the MOZA Racing FSR Steering Wheel?
The FSR wheel is a formula-style wheel that features a large 4.3″ HD display. Yes, brands such as Cube Controls and Rexing have released sim racing wheels with large display screens before, but they often cost over four figures, putting them out of the reach of many sim racers.
This wheel doesn’t even come close to that price.
And before I go any further, I know Thrustmaster also have the SF1000 wheel with a screen which is actually cheaper than this FSR wheel.
However, that wheel doesn’t quite stack up in terms of build quality or performance when compared to the FSR. But I’ll touch on that more later.
Price
Before going too far into this review, I want to discuss price. As that is often one of the most important factors when shopping for sim racing products.
The MOZA FSR wheel costs $649, which comfortably places it at the top of MOZA’s product lineup, ahead of the GS and RS wheels.
The Design of the MOZA FSR Steering Wheel
So, we know the price point, but what actually is the FSR wheel and who is it targeted towards?
You can look at the FSR wheel as a MOZA GS wheel with a screen added on.
If you haven’t checked out the GS wheel yet, head over and read my in-depth review, and find out why I think it’s one of the best formula-style wheel rims of 2022!
The design of the new FSR wheel borrows heavily from the GS wheel, with a little reconfiguration to accommodate the large new screen.
The number of buttons, encoders and inputs remains exactly the same as the GS wheel, and so does the fantastic build quality.
Carbon fibre has been used throughout, from the thick face plate to the shifters. While the GS wheel used forged carbon fibre, this FSR wheel opts for a more conventional carbon fibre weave.
The hand grip material has also changed, opting for a more versatile perforated leather rather than the more delicate Alcantara. This for me is a good move, as it essentially makes the wheel more hard-wearing.
For me, the wheel is sized just about right. Interestingly it comes in slightly slimmer than the GS wheel at 280mm. The GS wheel sits at 300mm across, making it slightly on the large side for a sim racing wheel.
280mm really is the sweet spot when it comes to formula-style wheels.
MOZA FSR Steering Wheel Features
As you can see, the FSR wheel borrows a lot from the GS steering wheel, including the inputs, rev bar and magnetic shifters. And that isn’t a bad thing as the GS wheel has just about everything you need in a sim wheel.
4.3″ HD Screen
Before I talk about the inputs, I first want to touch on the FSR wheel’s party piece, the screen. This is the biggest draw for choosing this wheel over other offerings such as the GS wheel or the Formula V2.5 wheel from Fanatec.
The HD screen measures 4.3 inches from corner to corner and includes a variety of different displays and designs. In fact, at launch, there are XXX different displays.
Some are more orientated towards GT racing with readouts including traction control level, brake bias, predicted lap times etc.
Screen layouts
Others are designed to look more like a real-world car’s dashboard and feature a circular speedo. A couple of screens are also obviously targeted at those racing F1 24.
This screen, in particular, which I love racing with, emulates a similar design found in F1 24, with the ERS overtake bar, your deployment and harvesting levels front and centre.
You can switch between each different screen while racing by using a combination of the right dual clutch paddle and the right joystick. This lets you quickly check your tyre temperatures before switching back to see your ERS deployment or your predicted lap time.
I didn’t realise how much of a game changer having a screen on your sim racing wheel really was until I races with this wheel. When racing F1 24, ACC or any other game, I often find myself relying heavily on some small HUD elements, or on the in-game wheel’s screen.
This can be hard to read if the display is too small or require button presses to bring up the correct bit of telemetry I’m after. With the information right in front of you on your wheel, I spent much less time looking around my monitor searching for information.
It also adds a level of immersion to my sim racing experience which I loved. When using the wheel, and looking down to check my tyre temperatures, or my ERS deployment level. It made me feel much more involved in the race compared to checking an on-screen HUD.
Push Buttons
Moving away from the screen for a second, there are a plethora of different inputs on the FSR wheel—probably enough to start the engine on an Airbus A380! OK, maybe not quite enough to start an A380, but there are still a lot of inputs on show here.
You’ll find a set of 10 individual push buttons, each assigned to a different input in the game. These are perfect for activating the pit speed limiter, ERS overtake mode, and DRS, or for simply pausing the game or changing your camera angle.
Each button is LED backlit with a range of different colours for you to choose from. This is a really nice touch, and adds to the premium feel of this wheel. It’s also helpful for those who like to race in a darker room as you can easily see the buttons with the lights out.
Each button features a nice throw distance, with a very positive click.
RGB Rev Indicator
Towards the top of the wheel is an RGB rev bar. This is the classic MOZA rev bar which features individual customisable LED lights behind a diffused plastic strip.
If you’ve seen any of my other MOZA steering wheel reviews, you’ll know that I’m not a fan of this rev bar, and would much prefer individual LED lights like those found on real race cars, or Fanatec wheels.
You can adjust the colour of each individual light, allowing for a truly personalised experience when accelerating through gears. And you can also adjust the timing of the lights as well in the MOZA Pit House software. This works well in practice, allowing you to make the rev lights illuminate early or late, or in groups like some Formula 1 wheels do.
Rotary Encoders
Moving onto the rotary encoders. The FSR features the same five front-facing rotary encoders as the GS wheel, albeit in a different layout due to the screen. But essentially, they are exactly the same. Then there are an additional two thumb encoders, one on each side of the wheel.
All of these encoders can be configured to affect different in-game car settings. These inputs allow you to quickly adjust settings such as brake bias, engine modes, differential setup etc on the fly.
Each encoder at the front sits in front of a pre-installed sticker with numbers on, and it is good to see that MOZA has fixed the quality control issue that plagued the GS wheel.
With the older GS wheel, almost none of the encoders lined up with the stickers, but now they do. It’s a small issue and one that is easy to fix and it’s good to see that they have addressed it.
Knobs
There are also a couple of smaller knobs or joysticks. These give you four direction inputs as well as a click input. I almost always use these for scrolling through menus in-game, allowing me to do away with my keyboard and mouse in some games.
They’re also useful for quickly glancing left and right to see what is around you on track.
Strangely, despite being able to rotate the knobs a full 360 degrees, they only register four directional inputs like a D-pad would. Seeing them act as two full 360 analogue sticks would have been nice.
Shifters
Flipping the wheel over, we have a range of paddle shifters. There are two carbon fibre magnetic paddle shifters, with two carbon fibre analogue shifters directly below.
The shifters feel amazing to the touch. They’re constructed completely from carbon fibre, with really nice smooth edges that just feel nice to touch. They feel equally as good to use, with a really positive click.
The magnets used are pretty strong, requiring you to really want to shift. You certainly won’t accidentally knock the shifter or miss a shift. However, the strong magnets and the metal and carbon fibre construction do have their drawbacks.
Because you have to pull each shifter relatively hard, they do make a rather large click when you activate them. While this does not affect me in my studio, it can be heard in adjoining rooms, which could be annoying if you race later at night.
Don’t blame me if you wake your sleeping child or partner when racing late at night. You have been warned!
Quick Release
Finally, there is the familiar MOZA quick release. This appears to be unchanged from the quick releases found on other MOZA products. And that is a good thing. This quick release is undoubtedly one of the best on the market.
You simply pull the quick release and then pull the wheel away from your wheel base to release it. Then, push it back on to re-attach it. It’s as simple and intuitive as a quick release can be. If you have other MOZA steering wheels such as the CS, RS or GS wheel, you can interchange them in seconds.
Data Port
Just below the quick release is something we have not seen on a MOZA wheel until this one: a port for a data cable. Every MOZA wheel until now has used Bluetooth to communicate with the wheel base.
However, the FSR features this port, allowing for it to be hard-wired to a wheel base. I have spoken to MOZA, and they have indicated that this will allow the MOZA FSR wheel to be used with other brands’ wheel bases for the first time ever.
This is fantastic news and really opens up this wheel to a much wider range of sim racers.
MOZA FSR Steering Wheel Performance
When you get out on track, the FSR wheel really comes into its own. The tried-and-tested design of the buttons, encoders, and shifters all work seamlessly and deliver a high-quality experience every time you activate an input.
The screen takes the immersion and gameplay to another level. You truly feel like you’re behind the wheel of a race car, and if you have an ultrawide monitor or a triple-screen setup, you could be forgiven for forgetting you’re sitting in your living room or office.
Of course, if you only race in VR, you may want to steer away from this wheel and look at the cheaper GS steering wheel. It delivers the same level of control without the screen, which, quite frankly, isn’t required in VR.
Compatibility
The FSR wheel’s compatibility is rather unique for a MOZA product. Normally, I would tell you that this MOZA steering wheel is PC compatible only and only works with MOZA-branded wheel bases.
However, that isn’t quite true this time around.
Yes, the FSR wheel is still only PC compatible, with no confirmed console compatibility baked in. However, adding a data port on the rear of the wheel opens up compatibility with other branded wheel bases.
I haven’t had full confirmation of how this works just yet, and we’ll know more after the official launch.
Cons of the FSR wheel
OK, before I give you my final verdict on this wheel, I am going to mention a couple of things that I didn’t like about it. I thought it was only fair to mention these despite my overall positive experience.
Rubber moulding issue
The first thing I noticed, which is a very minor build quality issue, is that the rubber moulding on the front of the wheel, just above the rev lights, sticks away from the face plate. It looks like the rubber is slightly too large and bulging out. Hopefully, this is a very small issue with the first run of production models.
Loud shifter paddles
Secondly, the shifters are still very loud to use. This is something that I mentioned in my GS steering wheel review. And it appears not to have been fixed with this wheel.
The magnets that are a part of the shifters are very strong giving a fantastically positive feeling when pulling a shifter. But the force it takes to do so makes a relatively loud sound as the metal of the magnet makes contact with the metal shifter housing.
Some silencing pads are included, but they don’t remove the noise enough for my liking.
Screen page toggle button
Next up, I did mention that you can change the screen’s display while driving allowing you to flick between different screen layouts. This is a really neat feature and something I did use a lot. However, this required two inputs to be pressed on the controller.
If like me, you have either of these two inputs mapped in-game, every time you change screen, these two inputs will activate. The easy solution to this is for us not to map those buttons in game. However, I’m very used to using the right joystick to look around the car, meaning every time I changed screen, my camera quickly flicked to the right.
Should you buy the MOZA FSR Steering Wheel?
Quite frankly, this wheel has had me excited from the second I opened the box. It delivers pretty much everything I would want from a sim racing wheel. Being primarily a racer of Formula 1 and GT games, this wheel design is spot on what I would be looking for.
The screen is an addition that I didn’t realise would have such a big impact on overall gameplay. Its immersion and functionality are incredible.
And it is almost hard to go back to wheels without an in-built screen. Wheels such as the MOZA GS wheel, the Fanatec Formula wheels, and the Cube Controls Formula wheels all seem so rudimentary all of a sudden.
There is no getting around the fact that this is a rather expensive steering wheel, although it does avoid the lofty price tags of some uber-premium offerings.
It should certainly be a carefully considered purchase, but if it is within your price range. I would recommend it in a flash. It offers great design and build quality, fantastic immersion and in-game control. This is the best MOZA Racing wheel yet and a good sign of things to come.
Technical Specifications
Review written by Felix König
