Our Verdict
Pros
- Incredibly rigid, even when used with powerful racing wheels.
- Wide range of adjustments for seating and pedal position.
- Markings allow for easy and accurate adjustments.
- Shifter mount included as standard.
- Tools can be mounted to the side of the rig.
- Mounting points across both side mounts for additional accessories.
- Seat is incredibly comfy.
- Internal step makes getting in and out easier.
Cons
- More expensive than competitors.
- No seat slider available.
- ES1 racing seat quality doesn’t match the sim rig.
8020 sim rigs are designed to be the strongest and most durable sim racing cockpits available. There are many big hitters from various sim racing brands, but spoiler alert. Few are as sturdy as the high-end Next Level Racing F-GT Elite 160.
I’ve been sent this cockpit from Next Level Racing for review, and I’ve been using it for around 4 months. During this time, I’ve had a huge variety of hardware mounted to it including various direct drive wheels, hydraulic and active pedals. All of this has given it a pretty darn good workout, allowing me to create this long term review.
What is the Next Level Racing F-GT Elite 160 cockpit?
So jumping in from the top, what exactly is the F-GT Elite 160? Every part of this awfully long name has meaning;
- F-GT: The F-GT moniker tells us it is a formula and GT hybrid, capable of both driving positions, or close to them.
- Elite: The Elite tag signifies that it sits among Next Level Racing’s most premium hardware.
- 160: The number 160 indiciates that the width of the aluminium profile used in its construction is 160mm across.
Essentially, names aside, this is Next Level Racing’s flagship cockpit. It sits above all others, and is designed to be the king of all aluminium profile sim rigs.
Watch our video review
Video review coming soon.
Price
Being a range topping model, it does have a price point to match. The NLR F-GT Elite 160 starts at £999, $999 or €1,299. That will net you the entire cockpit, minus the racing seat.
There are options which go above this price point. I have the front and side mount edition which has a slightly different wheel mounting option. This is more expensive at £1,099, $1,099 or €1,499, and then there is a special edition Ferrari cockpit that costs another £/$100.
| Version | Region | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Wheel Plate Edition | United States | $999 |
| Europe | €1299 | |
| United Kingdom | £999 | |
| Front & side Mount | United States | $1,099 |
| Europe | €1,499 | |
| United Kingdom | £1,099 |
I mentioned that the seat isn’t included, which is common practice for extremely premium cockpits. Although, at this price point, you’d probably prefer an included seat, even if it was just a base spec seat with upgrade options.
Instead, I have the ES1 bucket seat, which again, is Next Level Racing’s flagship seat. This costs an additional £399, $399 or €449, with the Ferrari version adding another £/$100 to the price. The spec I’m running also has the integrated monitor mount, priced at an extra £299 or $299. You can see that things soon start adding up.
The complete price for the unit I’m running is £/$1,797. As a direct comparison, I also have the Sim-Lab P1X Pro cockpit set up right next to this F-GT Elite 160. That is also a 160×40 8020 sim rig, also has a racing seat and integrated monitor mount. That complete build costs around £/$1,300, a good £/$400+ less than this Next Level Racing cockpit.
So what does this NLR sim rig offer that the Sim-Lab cockpit doesn’t to justify the additional cost? Well, it turns out, a fair bit.
Unboxing and installation
Before looking at the overall design, I do want to mention the unboxing experience. Next Level Racing has aced it with their packaging. Most rigs send lengths of extrusion, wrapped in paper or bubble wrap, inside a box.
Next Level Racing went above and created custom-fit foam slots for each piece of extrusion. This made the whole unboxing experience so much nicer, and if the time ever comes to disassemble the rig, I know exactly how it goes back together.
Assembly is an equally nice experience. There is a physical installation manual included which is a nice touch, and the instructions are easy to follow and clearly presented. All of the assembly hardware is universal, meaning there is only one size of T-nut, unlike the GT Omega PRIME cockpit that I recently reviewed, and this made it easy to quickly grab the hardware I needed for each component.
There are pre-drilled holes where needed, and custom shaped plates and fixtures where two pieces of profile meet. Every bolt went together smoothly, and the accuracy of each interacting part was spot on.
You even get an attachable tool holder to mount to the rig, meaning you always have the correct Allen key and socket wrench to hand to make adjustments.
One of my biggest frustrations with aluminium profile cockpits is ensuring that mirroring parts of the rig are mounted in the same position. For example, ensuring both uprights or both pedal arms are positioned the same can be frustrating.
Next Level Racing has realised this and included a load of lines across each component that is often adjusted. This small attention to detail means that you can quickly line up each component when making adjustments. It’s such a small inclusion, but it makes the world of difference when adjusting or moving parts.
Design & build quality
Starting with the design. As mentioned, this sim rig uses pieces of 160x40mm aluminium extrusion. This is the largest extrusion used on a main stream sim racing cockpit to date, and provides the highest levels of rigidity, even when using powerful racing wheels and active pedals.
In fact, this cockpit can cope with the highest-performing wheel bases including the mighty Simucube 2 Ultimate and its 32Nm of peak torque. And this cockpit wouldn’t even flinch.
It’s worth noting that the 160mm diameter extrusion is only used for the base layer, with 120x40mm extrusion used for the uprights, and 80x40mm used for elements such as the pedal supports and shifter mount. This is pretty standard across comparable products.
Every piece of profile is poweder-coated in a satin black, giving a rather stealthy final appearance. And there are Next Level Racing branded logos pre-installed across various elements.
One area that helps a lot with the overall rigidity is the lack of corner brackets. Older generation 8020 rigs used to use corner brackets as they were an easy and cost effective way to connect multiple pieces of profile.
That isn’t the case with this cockpit. Instead, there are pre-drilled holes where main components meet, and the custom plates ensure that every part is securely connected. How some of these plates join and intersect looks like a piece of art with custom-molded aluminium sections curving around to form a join. I don’t say this often about sim rigs, especially brutally industrial 8020 rigs, but this is a pretty design.
Included shifter mount
Now is a perfect time to talk about a few elements that are included, as the side mount for a shifter, as well as the shifter mounting plate are included as standard. This is one of the areas where Next Level Racing goes above and beyond other brands. With a Sim-Lab rig, you don’t get the shifter plate included, although with some Trak Racer rigs you do.
The shifter mount is pre-drilled and can fit up to three pieces of hardware. I managed to fit two MOZA shifters and a handbrake to my shifter mount with some careful positioning. The bracket sits over the side mount and fastens on both side, and this results in the shifter mount being incredibly rigid.
Seat brackets
With the cockpit, you do get a set of seat brackets included, just minus the actual seat. This gives you the option to spec your own seat or use a third-party one if you fancy it. However, one omission is the lack of a seat slider. In fact, Next Level Racing doesn’t currently offer a compatible seat slider for the Elite 160.
This means if you fancy a seat slider, you either have to go third-party or put up with the lack of easy seat adjustments. Depending on how often you use a seat slider will affect how much of an issue this is. I’m often switching out pedals and wheels for reviews, meaning I quite often use the slider to reposition myself after a hardware change.
The only option to move this seat horizontally comes in the form of the four ratchet handles. These do at least make it quite quick and easy to loosen the whole seat mounting. You then have to awkwardly shimmy your seat back and forth before re-tightening these ratchets.
You certainly couldn’t do this while sitting in the seat like you would with a traditional seat slider. However, this is a half-decent alternative for making relatively quick adjustments.
The amount of adjustment available with the actual seat brackets themselves is impressive. These brackets are very rigid, using 5mm carbon steel, and feature a huge number of mounting points. This is one area that is key to the F-GT name.
With 20 holes at the front and 8 at the rear, there are a large number of ways to mount your racing seat. You can get a pretty extreme angle on your seat, and when paired with a set of pedals mounted quite high, you can achieve a formula-style driving position.
Alternatively, you can angle your chair much more upright to simulate a GT or road car. The toolfree screws included let you make these adjustments very quickly.
ES1 Racing seat
I have the ES1 seat, which is instantly recognisable due to its custom molded shape and the bright red seat belts that are included. Now, I have a real love, hate relationship with this seat.
It looks amazing from a distance, thanks to its unique design. It is also incredibly comfy to sit in, thanks to the PU molded foam cushions. However, when you get up close, the appearance starts to be rather lacking.
The chassis of the seat is formed from what Next Level Racing describe as a Five-axis rotationally molded polymer shell. Breaking down that marketing speak, the seat is essentially constructed from a plastic-like material.
It feels incredibly cheap to the touch, and doesn’t look overly high-end up close. While the suede covered padding elements do make the seat comfy to sit in, the padding doesn’t extend up to the side bolsters. And this makes it very uncomfy to get in and out of.
Like many 30-year-olds, getting into a sim racing cockpit normally involves me holding my weight on the side bolsters and then sliding down and into the seat. Doing this with most racing seats is perfectly fine. But doing this with the ES1 seat is incredibly painful thanks to those firm plastic bolsters.
Would I choose the ES1 seat if I were to spec this cockpit out again? The answer is probably not. Despite its comfort and rigidity, the overall appearance and the discomfort getting in and out are two big negatives I can’t overlook.
I haven’t mentioned the included seatbelts that come with the ES1 as standard. They’re a nice touch and feature a range of adjustments for different sized sim racers. However, without a seatbelt tensioner or a true motion platform, they’re a little underwhelming. I have to admit that 90% of my sim racing with this rig has been done without the belts being used.
Mounting options
Like many 8020 sim rigs, the F-GT Elite 160 comes with a few different mounting options. You can choose between either a wheelplate or front and side mount edition. I have gone with the front and side mount option, to allow for more flexibility when positioning my SIMAGIC Alpha Evo wheel base.
The downside of this side mounting version is the additional £/$100 that it adds to the price. This accounts for the additional red brackets that allow for front mounting of Simucube bases, and side mounting for Fanatec and other branded bases.
The side mounts in particular make adjusting the position of my SIMAGIC wheel incredibly easy. When racing in a formula position, I can angle the wheel down, and adjust it back up when sitting more upright. Plus, the red powder-coated attachments look incredible, and contrast the black nicely.
With the side mounts, there are pre-drilled holes across both side plates that let you mount a variety of accessories. I currently have my Elgato Stream Deck mounted here, but have had different DDUs mounted in the past. Anything that opens up flexibility in my configuration down the line is OK with me.
Pedal mounting
At the rear of the rig, or front, depending on how you look at it, we have the pedal mount. This features two large brackets that let you get some good height on your pedal positioning. These adjoin to two strips of aluminium profile which is then hinged against the vertical uprights.
It’s a really nice design and reduces limitations that some pedal mounting solutions run into. Compared to my Sim-Lab P1X Pro, I can achieve a much more formula-style mounting position thanks to the increased angles of attack.
Sitting between both sides of the pedal arms are two folded metal plates. These both feature end-to-end grooves for maximum adjustability when mounting pedals. They can be slid up and down the 8020 pedal arms to accommodate different sim racing pedals. I’ve had active pedals, hydraulic pedals and load cell pedals all mounted to this rig, and haven’t encountered a pedal that I couldn’t mount.
The only downside of this mounting solution is that the sides of the pedal mount protrude out from the rear of the rig, adding a little extra length to the overall dimensions.
Monitor mounting
I am mounting my 49inch ultrawide monitor to this rig directly, using the integrated F-GT Elite mount. This, much like the rest of the rig is finished in powder-coated black, and the build quality is just as high as other areas.
One thing I love about this monitor mount is that the cross beam it mounts to is only 760mm and doesn’t protrude out from the side of your sim rig. So many integrated monitor mounts include a long cross beam to account for triple screens, which sticks right out from the rig.
This issue both my Sim-Lab P1X Pro and GT Omega PRIME cockpits ran into, and it’s just a small point of frustration that isn’t present with this mount.
However, while there are a lot of adjustments, both horizontally and vertically over how you position your monitor. The mount itself is rather restrictive over how m,uch you can overhang the monitor over your wheel.
I have the mount positioned as close to my seating position as possible, and my wheel mounted as far back on its mount as possible, and you can see how far I can get the monitor to overhang my wheel. If you are trying to drop your monitor in front of your wheel base for the best field of view, you’re going to need a freestanding mount.
How well does the Next Level Racing F-GT Elite 160 perform?
Now, despite its pros and cons in terms of design, just how well does this sim rig perform when you’ve bolted everything to it and get out on track? The good news, is pretty damn well.
I’ve raced with my Sim-Lab rig for 2 years, and always thought of it as the pinnacle of rigidity. This NLR sim rig may have surpassed it in terms of just how sturdy and flex-free it is.
Now, I want to say that I’ve only pushed this thing with a 21Nm wheel base, and haven’t tested beyond that. However, at 21Nm of peak torque, this cockpit stands still. There really feels like there is no flex whatsoever, from any part of the rig.
With the side mount, my wheel stays firmly in place. The ES1 seat doesn’t feature the classic flex that many racing seats encounter when pressing hard on the brakes. And the pedals don’t move, even when using force feedback enabled active pedals.
Quite frankly, this is one study SOB. The real test of flex can be seen when filming a 49inch monitor that is mounted directly to the rig with my fanatec wheel dialled up to 100% FFB strength.
You’ll see from my gameplay, that there is small levels of flex at the end of the monitor, however, when we change the angle, we can see that this flex is coming from the monitor itself, and not the frame.
I also have an Elgato light mounted to my pedal plate, and during gameplay, you can see just how little this is flexing.
Final thoughts: Should you buy the NLR F-GT Elite 160 cockpit?
With everything said and done, how well does this cockpit stack up and would I recommend it? Well, this decision isn’t as cut and dry as it could have been. There are a few fundemental miss-steps from Next Level Racing with this cockpit.
The cost is pretty extreme in comparison to other brands. There is no real seat slider option available, and the ES1 seat was disappointing. Some of these negatives can be fixed. You could use a third-party seat from Sparco or another brand, and there are pretty cheap seat sliders available if needed.
When it comes to the core elements that make up a good cockpit, Next Level Racing nails it.
This is easily one of the best-looking and most aesthetically pleasing aluminium profile sim rigs available. There are some included extras such as the shifter mount, the toolkit, the adjustment markers and included seat brackets that go along way to justifying its price.
The sheer amount of adjustability in the seat and pedal position makes this one of the few 8020 sim rigs that can boast formula, GT and road car driving positions. And the adjustments are effortless to make.
That’s not to mention the sheer number of additional accessories that can be added to this cockpit, from flight mounting hardware, caster wheels, motion platforms and more.
At the end of my 4 months with this cockpit, I can easily say it’s one of the most impressive cockpits I’ve ever sim raced with. If you’re looking for the ultimate aluminium profile sim rig, this is one hell of a good choice.
Technical Specifications
Review written by Felix König
