Our Verdict
Pros
- Completely redesigned
- Incredibly sturdy
- No flex even with high-powered wheels
- Lots of adjustability
- Side shifter mounting platform included
- Modular and upgradeable
Cons
- Can be hard to adjust
- No real pedal plate included
- No shifter mount included
- Fingerprint magnet & scratches easily
OK, I’m going to get this out of the way early in the review. This is easily one of the best sim rigs I’ve used. If you don’t have the time to stick around for the details about the pros and cons of this sim rig, which I will get into, simply go away knowing that this is a top-quality sim rig.
Yes, it does come with a pretty big price tag, but it backs that up with one of the most stable platforms I’ve encountered. As you may have seen from my previous Sim-Lab review, I’ve been racing a lot with the smaller brother of this sim rig, the GT1 Pro.
That sim rig was incredibly capable and a great option in the mid to high-range category, priced around £200/$250 cheaper than this P1X Pro. But the guys at Sim-Lab dangled this P1X Pro in front of me, and I just couldn’t say no.
So here we are with another sim rig review, this time for the Sim-Lab P1X Pro. I’ll run through the pros and cons, of which there certainly are some—this rig isn’t perfect—in this review.
What is the Sim-Lab P1X Pro?
So let’s jump right in. The Sim-Lab P1X Pro sits right in the middle of Sim-Lab’s current lineup of cockpits. Below it is the GT1 Pro and the older GT1 Evo. Above it is the insane X1-Pro cockpit, which really is above and beyond what most sim racers will need in their home sim rig.
Realistically, this P1X Pro is a top-of-the-range 8020 sim rig. It utilises huge 160x40mm aluminium profile along its base. The uprights are 120x40mm and there are some puny 80x40mm strips of extrusion in use for the shifter mount.
Sim-Lab P1X Pro Cost
The Sim-Lab P1X Pro costs from;
That price will get you the cockpit and your choice of wheel mount, where there are three designs to choose from. You’ll see that I have the integrated monitor mount on my setup which is an additional £170 / $200, along with some accessories such as the seat mount and seat slider.
All in all, everything I have here, which I’d consider to be a complete setup, costs around £1,300. You can save some money by reusing an old racing seat, or by not opting for the seat slider and integrated monitor mount, which would bring you back down to the original price.
Sim-Lab P1X Pro assembly
Starting from the beginning, you get a fair few boxes, each containing various parts of the sim rig from the frame to the wheel mount and integrated monitor mount. Everything is well packaged to avoid scratches during delivery, and I really couldn’t find any fault with this part.
Assembling this whole rig took me a full day. Literally, around 6 hours from opening the first box to putting on the last sticker. It is a full-on job, which is a little easier if you’ve dealt with aluminium profile rigs before.
The instructions are all online, so you’ll have to keep referring to a laptop, iPad or your phone. I don’t mind this and it’s the way most sim rig manufacturers are going these days.
The assembly process can be done on your own, but having a second person when adjusting things will certainly make things easier.
There is a lot of adjustment available in this rig, and making sure everything is positioned just right can be fairly time-consuming. I spent well over 2 hours simply readjusting the position of my wheel deck, pedals and monitor mount.
But I would say the assembly process is pretty straightforward. There are no corner brackets or complex parts.
Sim-Lab P1X Pro build quality
While assembling, you’ll immediately notice the build quality of this sim rig. Once it’s put together, the whole thing is as solid as a rock. Almost every bolt uses a nice 3D branded Sim-Lab washer, which really elevates the overall appearance.
There are only a few pre-drilled holes but they lined up perfectly, and every piece of extrusion is incredibly accurate allowing easy use of T-nuts to secure parts together.
Everything is finished in matt black, which looks really premium. There are no bare pieces of metal on show anywhere. The only downside of this matte black finish is that it is a huge fingerprint magnet. If you race with gloves on, that’s ideal, but keep your mits off this thing if you don’t.
It also is prone to scratching, especially while adjusting parts. To adjust the positioning of things you have to undo the bolts and slide the frame along itself. The metal-on-metal contact can and does lead to scratches and scuffs if you’re not careful.
Overall design
I do really love the overall style of this sim rig, and that says a lot, as I’m not normally a fan of 8020 sim rigs. Sim-Lab has been clever with the design of the P1X Pro by making the larger pieces of extrusion appear sleek by not including some grooves.
The lower base pieces, in particular, look really high-end and sleek, thanks to the smooth metal that separates the upper and lower grooves. The addition of rounded corner brackets on the base really gives this sim rig a classy appearance.
Normally, aluminium profile sim rigs suffer a lot from looking like a bunch of the same metal pieces bolted together. Sim-Lab gets around this with the P1X Pro by ensuring that each piece of extrusion is unique.
The base is 160mm across with a smooth face, and the uprights are slanted and 120mm across with a smooth inner face. The side mounts are normal-looking 80x40mm pieces of extrusion, but both feature unique-looking brackets that break up the overly metal appearance.
The box includes four feet, which allow the sim rig to almost hover above the floor. This is ideal for people who like to run some RGB lighting around the underside or for people who may be sim racing on an uneven floor.
Now I’m used to almost sitting on the floor while sim racing, so getting used to being more elevated took some time. I’m not short, but even I could dangle my legs with the feet only cranked to about halfway. This thing can feel a bit like a throne sometimes.
You can see the stark difference when I compare this sim rig directly to the GT1 Pro. That sim rig has the same overall width and length dimensions as the P1X Pro, but the P1X feels soo much bigger due to its elevated position and thick frame.
As I go further through this review, you’ll learn that the Sim-Lab P1X Pro certainly isn’t perfect despite being incredibly good. Other sim rig manufacturers are doing some things that Sim-Lab should probably take note of.
Nice little design touches like the height adjustment indicators on the inside of Next Level Racing rigs can be really helpful, and most sim rig manufacturers actually include a shifter mount as standard. These criticisms won’t help the P1X Pro at all, but I’m hoping Sim-Lab will take note of these little touches in future releases.
Wheel plate
When ordering your Sim-Lab P1X Pro, you get a choice between three different wheel mounts. You have the front mount which is ideal for direct drive wheel bases like those from Simucube. There is the Fanatec DD mount for all things Fanatec, and the wheel deck.
I’ve opted for the wheel deck here as it is the most universal of all mounts which is ideal when I’m swapping between different racing wheels. This wheel deck is secured to the rig by two bolts on either side. These let you adjust the positioning and angle of the wheel deck.
The only thing you can’t adjust directly with this wheel mount is the distance of your wheel in relation to the vertical uprights. If you want to move your wheel closer or further away, you have to loosen all of the bolts holding the vertical supports up and move the whole upright section.
This is a little bit annoying as I had to do this a couple of times when swapping wheels. And this is when it is the easiest to scratch the bottom of your rig.
The good news is that the wheel deck is pre-drilled for about a million different bolt patterns. This makes mounting your wheel incredibly easy, no matter what racing wheel you have. I had a MOZA R12, a Fanatec CSL DD, a Thrustmaster T818, and my Asetek Forte all mounted to this wheel deck without any alignment issues.
The wheel deck itself is pretty thick to prevent any flexing across its surface. And you can see from underneath that it has some extra supports that run from front to back to further stabilise everything.
At various points in this review, you will also see that I used a completely different wheel mount. This is the Asetek front mount which isn’t available via Sim-Lab. This allowed me to front mount my Asetek wheel to get a slightly more custom setup.
For those who are looking to mount third-party wheel mounts, rest assured that it’s just as easy as mounting a Sim-Lab mount. Attach it via T-nuts from the inside of the vertical supports.
Pedal plate
Moving down to the pedal plate, you’ll notice, well, the distinct lack of an actual pedal plate. Instead, we get some more pieces of aluminium extrusion. This may not quite look as pretty as a full pedal plate, but it does allow for some more custom mounting solutions.
At the rear, you get a thick piece of profile that is not adjustable. Then, at the front, you get another piece of extrusion that can slide forward and back. This combination should let you mount pretty much any pedal set to this rig, as you aren’t limited to pre-drilled hole positions.
While this let me mount my much-loved Asetek Forte pedals with ease, it did mean the front of the pedals overhung the front of pedal plate. This isn’t too much of an issue, but it does mean I don’t have anywhere to rest my foot or heel off to the side of the pedals themselves.
As I already mentioned, the real upside of this solution is the ability to mount almost anything anywhere. It also adds a lot of stability. You’ll see that there is zero flexing in this thing, even when I stamp on the pedals.
The pedal supports on either side are fantastic as well. They allow for a ton of adjustment. There are two slot gaps to mount through on each side. Combine this with the slot gaps in the extrusion, and you can position these pedals almost anywhere.
They also aren’t mounted to the vertical uprights like they were on the GT1 Pro giving you independent control over your pedal position and your wheel position.
The only place you’ll run into any trouble is if you want to mount your pedals really high. I’ve got mine mounted pretty much as high as they can go at the rear, yet I’m still nowhere near a semi-formula position.
Shifter and handbrake mount
The good thing with most Sim-Lab sim rigs is that they always throw in the way of mounting your shifters and handbrakes. The P1X Pro isn’t different and includes a side mount. This side mount is pretty lengthy which is good if you want to stick a few different peripherals to it.
Like most parts on this sim rig, you can adjust the height to find the perfect position and you can mount right to it using some T-nuts. The only downside is the lack of an actual shifter mount that is commonplace with other sim rigs. That, unfortunately, is a paid add-on if you do want a dedicated and adjustable shifter mount.
Integrated monitor mount
I have opted for the integrated monitor mount, going for the single option, and this is fantastic if you like to keep things minimal. I say minimal because by integrating your screen into your cockpit, you no longer need a freestanding mount, which takes up extra floor space.
But there really is nothing minimal about this mount. It’s chunky as hell and fits with the whole aesthetic of this P1X Pro. In fact, the crazy shapes and chunky metal brackets are probably one of my favourite design features of this whole rig.
Again, there is a crazy amount of adjustment available. The side mounts allow you to move your monitor back and forth across a range of around 30cm. And you can mount the brackets anywhere up the vertical struts.
I don’t like two real negatives about this solution. The first is that if you opt for the single monitor mount, you get a huge piece of extrusion to mount your monitor to. This piece of extrusion measures 1.2 meters across and is designed to allow you to add the triple monitor mounts to it.
However, if you’re running a smaller monitor, you’ll see this sticking out to either side of your screen giving it weird-looking ears whilst simultaneously being a real pain in the ass when you’re working on your rig as it always gets in the way.
Thankfully, I had a much smaller piece of extrusion lying around that I could mount to my monitor, so I didn’t have to put up with this obnoxiously big bit of metal sticking out.
My second real annoyance has more to do with the vertical uprights than the monitor mount. Because the vertical pieces of the profile stick up pretty high, they can stop you from lowering your monitor down to the right position.
You can see that I managed to position my monitor to almost sit on top of the uprights. But if I wanted to lower it further, my only option would be to push it further back to sit behind these vertical supports.
Sim-Lab Speed 3 Bucket Seat
The seat I’m using is the Sim-Lab Speed 3 Bucket Seat. This is the exact same seat I used on my Sim-Lab GT1 Pro and I transferred it over to this P1X Pro.
The beauty of an aluminium profile sim rig is that you can use any seat you have. If you’re upgrading from a sim rig you already own, you can save some money by using your old seat.
The Sim-Lab P1X Pro includes a set of 40x40mm pieces of extrusion on which you can mount any seat. However, the seat brackets I have here aren’t included, and neither is the seat slider. If you don’t already have a set, you will almost certainly need to purchase these additional seat brackets; otherwise, it’s virtually impossible to mount a racing seat.
I’ll touch on the Speed 3 seat a little, but not too much, as I already covered it in my GT1 Pro review. This seat costs around £350 / €390, depending on where you’re ordering from, and is an all-in-one fibreglass bucket seat. That leads to a few potential issues and some positives.
First of all, this seat has zero adjustment, no recline or bolster adjustment, and it only comes in one size. This will make it a tight fit for many, but for me, at 6 feet 1 inches, it’s about spot on. Although even I would have preferred a touch more width at the top of my legs just to stretch a little in between races.
If you like to feel hugged by your seat, you’ll find this Speed 3 incredibly comfy. Adding to the comfort is really soft foam padding for your seat and throughout the backrest. It’s comfy enough to sit in for hours on end, but stiff enough not to sag or start to lose shape.
Encompassing the entire front of the seat is a mesh fabric which feels pretty rough to the touch. This is because it features a pretty open mesh stitching to aid breathability. During use, the seat is a pretty comfy place to spend time, and I didn’t feel the roughness of the mesh fabric at all.
This Speed 3 seat certainly isn’t the cheapest fibreglass racing seat around, but its pricing is pretty standard. I’d happily recommend it if you want to complete the Sim-Lab look, and it even comes in a few colours if blue isn’t your thing.
Adjustability
I have already touched on adjustability in each area, but I want to say this has to be one of the most adjustable sim rigs around. The pedal plate can move completely independently from the vertical supports. None of the vertical supports mount to pre-drilled holes, which allows you to position it anywhere along the base.
The monitor mounts’ design and the large seat mounting profile let you achieve almost any driving position. My main criticisms with the adjustability are the wheel mounting and the extra tall vertical struts, which can block some monitor positions.
To move the wheel forward or backward, you must move the whole vertical support. If you have the side mount attached, you’ll need to loosen 10 bolts just to move your wheel forward or backward.
Sim-Lab P1X Pro performance while sim racing?
Now I want to touch on the bit that really matters, just how well does this Sim-Lab sim rig holds up while racing. When I reviewed the mid-level GT1 Pro a while back, it held up well to my flex test, although with stronger wheel bases, some flex and vibrations were certainly present.
Wheel mount flex
I tested this P1X Pro for flexing. I cranked my Asetek Forte wheel right up to max to see if anything was present, and as you can see, there is no visible flexing, vibrations or movement in the frame. And for the first time ever I think, my monitor isn’t wobbling or shaking while racing.
You can see me here hitting both the GT1 Pro pretty hard and very unnaturally, I might add, and you can see how much it moves. When I do the same to the P1X Pro, there is very little movement.
Pedal plate flex
When we move to the pedal plate, we get the same story. This thing is rock solid. You can see me braking pretty hard with my Forte load cell pedals and there is nothing. There is zero movement anywhere.
Even when I stomp unnaturally hard on the pedals, you won’t see a single bit of movement anywhere. This is helped by the fact that Sim-Lab uses extrusion instead of an actual pedal tray.
Compatibility with various peripherals
I’ve touched on compatibility a few times in this review. But it is worth noting that compatibility with almost all sim racing products is incredibly high. The new wheel deck has a lot of mounting holes which account for even new racing wheels like those from Asetek and MOZA.
There are three different wheel mounting options, which give you multiple ways of mounting your racing wheel. The pedal tray, or rather the two pieces of extrusion that sit where a pedal tray normally is, gives almost unlimited mounting options.
Does the Sim-Lab P1X Pro justify its cost?
The Sim-Lab P1X Pro is only around £150/$150 more than a GT1 Pro, which isn’t a huge leap, especially considering the huge step up in terms of rigidity and quality.
At around £700 or $850, this is a pretty big investment, but it’s one you may never need to replace. The P1X Pro can undoubtedly handle the most powerful sim racing equipment with ease. It doesn’t even bat an eyelid with powerful direct-drive wheels, giving it huge scope to be a long-lasting sim rig.
Much like the sim rig that this P1X Pro replaced, I would almost certainly expect to see sim racers using this sim rig in 10 years time and it would still be one of the sturdiest rigs around. If you can afford its cost, overlook some of the minor negatives I’ve mentioned. It will repay you by being one of the very best aluminium profile sim rigs you can currently buy.
Technical Specifications
Review written by Felix König
