Extreme Competition Controls CDS

Usually, reviews about sim racing controllers cover controllers that can be bought new and are being produced at the time of writing of the review. Not this review. This review covers a controller that hasn't been produced for about six years now. One that has only been sold new in 1995 and 1996. A controller that, after being used or having gathered dust for six years, is still miles ahead of almost anything you can buy new today. The controller that opened up the market for high end sim racing equipment. This review is about a sim racing controller that just doesn't wear, and that you will occasionally be able to buy through Ebay or sim racing discussion forums. I'm going to talk about Extreme Competition Controls' (ECCI) first controller, the Competition Driving System (CDS).

I bought an ECCI CDS4000 myself in 1999, and ever since that day I'm trying to convince friends of mine to get on the high quality controller path as well. When I noticed a used ECCI CDS for sale last year, it didn't take long before I had convinced my friend Wouter van Geffen that he really should buy that wheel. To my utter surprise and joy, he did! My evil plan had succeeded: finally I could put this wheel to the test, and he seemed to be pretty happy with it as well. So, let's take a look at this six-year-old controller…

THE WHEEL UNIT - OUTSIDE

The housing of the wheel is an almost round cylinder, made of a stainless steel construction. It's pretty large, but 'cute' at the same time and it just breaths quality all over. The 28 cm (11 inch for you weird measuring folks) wheel itself is covered with black suede leather and hand-stitched with a red wire. An instant "I need to touch this NOW" sensation overwhelmed me when I first saw the wheel on my friend's desk. The wheel unit just looks terrific, and like Steve Smith once wrote in his Indycar Racing II Strategy Guide: it should be part of the New York Museum of Modern Art permanent collection.

The unit is not equipped with shifter paddles or a shifter stick. Instead, the wheel sports four buttons facing the driver. These buttons function as ordinary joystick buttons and can be used as such. Usually you will use them for shifting and looking left and right, but of course you can assign them to any function, if supported by the sim.

The unit is weighing in at a massive 16 pounds and doesn't need a clamping mechanism to stay put. Therefore, it doesn't have one, which makes it very easy to put the wheel aside when you need your pc for other things than controlling your virtual race car. As if you would ever want to put this controller aside… what a ridiculous thought!

The wheel unit rests on two 'feet': one at the front, one at the back. The height of the foot at the back can be adjusted. This enables you to change the wheel angle, increasing steering comfort for different seating positions.

THE WHEEL UNIT - INSIDE

The beauty of this controller doesn't end on the outside: the outside is just a starting point. When opening up the unit and revealing the inside, it's getting even more impressive. A massive shaft is connected to the steering wheel on one side, and to a rubber tube (which is connected to the high-quality Clarostat potentiometer) on the other side. This is not your usual plastic crap: it's a 0.75" massive stainless steel shaft. This thing won't break, nor will it bend. A block of ball barings ensures the steering will stay smooth longer than most of us will live. Just about everything in this controller is made of steel or aluminium. The construction is way overdone and doesn't look like it could ever break or fall apart.

The steering unit contains two springs: one is wound up when steering to the left, the other is wound up when steering to the right. These springs are sure not to break either: they're very thick, and winding them up instead of stretching them (what's done on most other controllers) is much better for the lifespan of the spring and guarantees it will never start producing annoying creaking sounds.

More beauty lies in the way the springs are used. The springs are not wound up in a linear way. The thing driving the springs is ECCI's copyrighted cam system. This is a plate, of which the curved edges wind up the springs when turning the wheel. Through this system, ECCI has been able to finetune the steering characteristics of the unit. The result is that the increase of counter pressure you experience is not linear to the increase of the turning ratio of the wheel. This is something that is pretty hard to describe, you'll have to try it to know that it really, really makes a huge