Intro
The La Prima bundle is currently the lowest rung in Asetek Simsports lineup, in the same way that the Cayman is the lowest rung Porsche. It’s still a fair bit of money so you’ll expect a fair bit of kit. In this review, I’ll paint a picture of what it’s like, whether it’s good value, who this bundle is best suited to and who it is not.
I’ll be up-front: I am super impressed overall. I initially dismissed Asetek when they first appeared on the scene as I fell on the wrong side of the fence regarding the styling - I wasn’t a fan. Turns out, it’s beautiful on the inside, there is clearly a lot of pride poured in and it feels complete and well executed. However, there are certainly things you must know about before you buy, Asetek made a couple of choices that deviate from the norm that may affect your decision. Let’s look.
Important Viewer/Reader Disclosure
Asetek has provided all the featured equipment to me free for the purposes of review. However, I approached them due to my interest in Asetek and they have no say in what I say. Nobody but me has editorial control, and Asetek was provided no preview of the review before you, the wider audience. I hope you’ll find this to be evidently fair and informative!
Read the entire review through first, but if you do make the decision to buy then discount codes can be used at the retailers below.
🛒Asetek Simsports EU - 5% Off Code DANNYLEE
🛒Asetek Simsports US - 5% Off Code DANNYLEE
🛒Asetek Simsports Global - 5% Off Code DANNYLEE
🛒Sim Demon UK - 3% off with code DANNYLEE3
Many more regional resellers are listed here: https://www.asetek.com/simsports/authorized-resellers/
Summary
First up, a quick summary of the main points covered:
All the components feel solid, serious and mature and look better in person than the photos convey, in my opinion.
The wheelbase is super strong and smooth, very much grown adult grade.
The steering wheel is well sized with loads of onboard controls and customisable lighting, but no dual clutch paddles and nor can they be added to the La Prima model.
The pedals are well built and great to drive, but are designed in a way that requires a mounting angle that some cockpits might struggle with, definitely something you need to know. More on this later.
The Asetek software is super slick, very friendly with easy force feedback tuning.
In general the bundle is priced right. You will feel like you’re getting what you paid for and the quality does feel high. It’s more complete and refined than I had taken it for at first glance and Asetek themselves seem to be taking things really seriously.
Unboxing
The La Prima Bundle features a wheelbase, wheel and pedals in individual boxes. They are available for sale individually, but if you buy them individually it amounts to about 1300 euros, whereas the bundle is 1135 so there is a big difference with the bundle. At present Asetek is only for PC. No console support, unfortunately, though they have expressed an intention to move into console eventually.
The wheelbase, the heart of the experience, produces 12nm of torque. That means force feedback which is about 5 times the power of the Logitech G923 and 3 times the power of the Thrustmaster T300, two of the most common wheel setups people tend to be using before they make a big upgrade to something like this. There’s much more to it than just raw force numbers: The La Prima is a direct drive wheelbase which means it's lightning fast, strong and virtually silent, but that newton meter power figure is the most simplistic way to illustrate how big a jump it is. 12Nm is really strong and fully adult-grade, no matter who you are. This is no toy and will transform what you thought racing games and simulators were capable of being. The usual reaction of people going from entry level (G923, T150, T300) to something like this is one of shock and joy, as it should be for what you’re paying, but believe me when I say it’s a whole new world.
Asetek La Prima Wheelbase
It’s quite a long and slender wheelbase, which is helpful for monitor positioning. It looks very race-spec with the Asetek branding prominently visible. It comes with a remote power button which is very important as curiously the wheelbase itself has no onboard power switch. The outboard button is required to bring the base to life, so don’t lose it or damage it or you’ll need to get a replacement in order to turn the base on at all. An unusual decision…
The La Prima Formula is a 290mm diameter wheel with customisable rev lights, 12 standard buttons, 3 dials with customisable lighting, shifter paddles, 2 thumb encoders and 2 multiway switches. That’s a total that’s slightly above par. The more expensive Forte wheel may have more switchgear, more lights, and ability to equip dual clutch paddles, but the overall platform is actually the same. Same casing, same quick release, same shape, same grips, same shifters. Although you can see evidence of the reduced spec, you still get an awful lot. It's only achilles heel is that you can’t upgrade it with dual clutch paddles so if they are a must for you then bear that in mind - you’ll be needing the Forte to run those.
The La Prima pedals feature a throttle and brake with adjustable throw and resting angles, as well as an adjustable brake cylinder with swappable internals to modify the pedal softness and behaviour underfoot. A clutch add-on is available but I’m not in possession of that right now so it won’t be included in this review - maybe soon! The pedals are quite distinct in style, so you can make up half your mind with your eyeballs alone, but the quality, proportions and build are all very good. As hardy as it seems, there are a couple of vulnerable looking wires here and there. The main USB connector sits at an angle that could spell curtains if something catches the wire wrong, and the wires at the rear of the brake cylinder look exposed.
The throttle and brake can’t be horizontally adjusted or spaced further apart on this model, but you can move the pedal plates across by about 1-2cm further apart from eachother using the alternative bolt holes, so there is at least that option. Much like the steering wheel, you’re still getting a lot of what the more expensive Forte gives you - many of the same components, same materials, same underlying platform, same overall aesthetic. You get the same brake cylinder as the Forte, you just don’t get the LED strip on the heelplate or the adjustable throttle tensioner, and the heel plate hasn’t been given a haircut to expose the bare aluminium. Long story short it’s mostly a cosmetic gap between the La Prima and Forte, and if you don’t really care about that then you save money by opting for the La Prima spec.
This bundle is clearly aimed at those that are really intrigued by an Asetek Simsports setup but don’t want to pay for perceived optional extras that come on the Forte and Invicta, like the extra LED lights, dials and excess wheelbase power. This is for those who just want to buy the important bits to get racing on Asetek hardware. In that sense, the La Prima is spot on target. Everything that is here feels high quality because the cost saving doesn’t come from reducing the standard of the components, it comes from outright removing them. This is a bundle that leaves out a lot of stuff that you just won’t miss until you’re much further along, and should that day arrive then if there’s one thing Asetek has gotten excited about, it’s upgrade kits. Being able to spec up your equipment so you don’t have to sell your current lot first and buy a whole new setup with the help of those proceeds is helpful, so if you were concerned about upgradability then you’re probably best covered here. I can’t see any other manufacturer doing this to this extent. A kit to upgrade the La Prima wheelbase to the Forte’s 18nm is in the pipeline.
Mounting
With the unboxing done, the next thing to do is mount it all up - this is where any of the pain and strife with an Asetek setup is concentrated, so pay close attention to what follows. The La Prima wheelbase has captive T nuts on the underside to bolt it from underneath, but the spacing and sizing doesn’t piggyback any other manufacturers so you either need one of Asetek’s mounts, or if you have the knowhow you could drill your own holes according to the schematic. Future cockpits on sale might start accommodating Asetek fully, but as of this video’s recording date, you’re likely to need a mount or need a drill. Put simply, Asetek’s proprietary mounting pattern will mean you face some extra steps and expense if you want to leave your current rig or cockpit intact and undrilled. I have opted to start off with the mount that comes across as the most ordinary, the Wheelbase Mount With Tilt.
As you can see, I’ve fitted this directly to the wheel deck atop of my Pro Sim Rig PSR3, using the same holes as previously used with my Fanatec base, meaning this mount should be compatible with most wheel decks and wheel plates that already accept Fanatec hardware. You might need a few additional nuts and bolts at hand to accommodate sizing variations in your own wheeldeck or rig, but the end result is a fairly low key solution which, true to its name, can be tilted. It also doubles up as a sandwich type mount if that’s what you’re all about. At 75 euros it’s not exactly cheap, but there are definitely worse value offenders out there.
The bottom mount is a spreader plate designed for profile rigs which have a solid cross beam, so if your cockpit has a solid length of profile which itself can be tilted, then this is the one for you. It’s the cheapest and simplest mount option at 60 euros, feels like a lot for a flat steel plate but the price is the price, all the intricate cut-outs probably triple the production cost. You can get table clamps that go with this mount but if you’re mad enough to use an Asetek base on a table you’d better hope it wasn’t from IKEA.
The front mount is the most expensive option at 125 euros. This mount fits onto any profile type rig and completely replaces whatever wheel deck or cross beam solution you may already have, whilst also offering the power button pride of place, and an emergency stop button would sit the other side but the La Prima doesn’t utilise one. Because of this wholesale conversion of the wheel support, installation is somewhat involved. I think this will take you 30 minutes to get through at least. You’ll need a torx screwdriver to undo the power button casing and a small screw of a very particular size to affix the power button backing cover, both of which weren’t found in the kit I received and both of which sent me rummaging through my garage and man-draws to find them, it wasted a lot of time. I thought this was a bit odd so I asked if these bits were missing on purpose and, as it turns out, the kit doesn’t include a torx bit, but it was supposed to include the screws, so hopefully you shouldn’t have the same problem - they were just missing from the kit in my case. Although the front mount takes above average tinkering to install, it’s not as complicated as I’d expected and the result is actually quite pretty, it felt worth the effort and adds a bit of personality.
So that’s wheelbase mounting, but I think pedal mounting is actually far more important to tell you about so bear with me here, I do have a point. The pedals are mounted via pre-machined holes in the base, if you have a profile base pedal tray like the Pro Sim Rig PSR3 Pictured above then you’ll have little trouble. If you have a pre-drilled steel plate pedal tray then there’s a chance you might have to modify your plate and drill some additional holes - that’s fairly standard stuff especially for newer manufacturers. What’s not standard, at least to me, is the aggressive angle that Asetek chose to go with for their pedals which makes them a bit fussy about what cockpit or rig you’re putting them on.
Look at the image above and compare the pedal face angle of the La Prima’s (left) to the Fanatec CSL Elite V2’s (right). You can see that the resting angle is very different. In my estimation, most low to mid range cockpits are designed with Fanatec-style obtuse angles of attack in mind, not Asetek perpendicular style. With the lower cost La Prima bundle in particular, I am certain there’ll be some overlap of people with lower-end cockpits (in the sim racing spectrum, that is) that buy this bundle to start their upgrade path and discover the hard way that they can’t get the pedals positioned correctly if their cockpit only has limited adjustability. If your pedal tray can be maneuvered in a way that brings it in line with your hips (such as pictured below) either through height or angle, then you should be fine, but if you can’t align your pedal tray to point basically towards your seat then you might find there’s a problem getting the pedals to line up with the sole of your foot in a comfortable way. Your results may vary and you may be absolutely fine, but speaking of my own personal experience, only the La Prima pedals have forced me to tilt my pedal tray away from me in order for the pedal faces to be angled comfortably for me. I’m just fortunate this rig is able to do that.
Asetek’s choices are theirs alone to make and at the end of the day they have done it with full intent, it’s not a miscalculation. The philosophy is to encourage as close to a 90 degree angle of attack on the pedals as possible because in their view this is how real race cars are, therefore the pedals are designed to enforce a seating position that replicates it. I agree with the message, you will perform better if you have a good seating posture where the pedals are as level and in line with your seat as possible, but I don’t think it would have compromised Asetek’s mission to allow maybe even just the pedal faces to be angle-adjustable, just to cover those who buy this equipment, bolt it all up and discover that they’re caught short with the pedal angle. I wouldn’t put it past them to solve this with some form of accessory further down the line given other things they’ve addressed.
So there we go, that’s mounting - I did say this was the area where any pain and friction might be found, let’s move on and get to the good stuff.
First Time Setup
First time setup is super simple, taking 15 minutes maximum. Download and install Asetek’s Racehub software on your PC, turn on the base using the power button, enjoy the little musical ditty emitted by the base upon power-up and connection, and follow the guidance. There are bound to be some firmware updates for you to apply but this was drama free and required merely a click to allow. The slickness of the software overall inspires confidence. It’s within the Racehub software that you can adjust force feedback options, pedal calibration and curves, wheel lighting and dial modes and so on. There’s a fair bit of stuff to tweak but nothing seems too advanced or daunting, it feels simplified and minimalistic but all the usual stuff is here.
Driving
I begin my exploration of new hardware in iRacing, as I always do - it’s what I know best. The first thing I notice is how smooth and clear the wheel feels in hand, it’s something I’ve heard mentioned by others but I can concur, it’s the purest feeling wheel I’ve used yet. That ultimately doesn’t matter a whole lot when there’s a ton of feedback going on, but it’s an observation of what many perceive as a mark of quality, nonetheless.
I was quickly able to dial my force feedback settings into how I like them, which isn’t usually a challenge for iRacing because my settings for it are often ‘all force and no friction’, as I happen to like the way the feedback is served up by the game as it comes, it’s only in other simulations that the nuance in FFB settings starts to appear. The sensations and feedback flavour of the La Prima are very similar to the Fanatec Clubsport DD and Moza R12. In my opinion there’s nothing major you can tangibly feel that separates the three of those, though the La Prima feels the smoothest but all three can punch fast and hard. I’m already many, many races in with the La Prima. The most effective statement I can provide is that I’m very happy using it and very happy to recommend it as a good example of a 12Nm direct drive experience - it gets my seal of ‘This wheelbase drives as I expect it’, not as catchy as a seal of approval but it’s pretty clear about what I truly mean.
In Assetto Corsa Competizione, a very different force feedback experience, I was able to dial in my settings and attain a good feel, which is so important with ACC to enjoy it. Once tweaked to my preferences the drive is excellent, very strong and purposeful and does a great job of transporting me inside the tough GT cars on screen. ACC’s sawtooth rumble strips and concrete kerbs are conveyed perfectly and excitingly. The way to tell that you’ve achieved a representative picture of force feedback within ACC is if you feel like you need a bit of peace and quiet afterwards - ACC is a brash, harsh simulator with an awful lot going on at the wheel.
Power-wise, the 12nm of the La Prima is a lot. Particularly, if this is your big upgrade from something like a G923 or T300, get ready: it’s an entirely new world. It’s hard to overstate how much more electrifying and addictive sim racing becomes when you step up to something like this. Although the Asetek Forte and Invicta models pack more force and responsiveness at 18 and 27 nm respectively, they are extremely powerful units with more force than the majority of people will ever put to required use. The La Prima is all about paying only for what you’re going to need and that definitely applies here. At 12nm of power, this is what I consider to be the sweet spot in terms of strength vs cost, and observing the feedback meters I estimate that my feedback settings are pushing it to around 90-95% of what it can do. This doesn’t leave much more headroom, but what I don’t use, I don’t need. Like eating a pizza, but being too full to finish the last bite - yeah, it might’ve been close, but you’re still stuffed, so what more do you want?
If you find yourself looking further up the scale than this then you will be transcending because of that upgrade itch you need to scratch, which is still a very good reason, but it won’t be because you thought the La Prima isn’t good enough. It’s an excellent force feedback experience that makes me feel confident of its quality and life expectancy.
The throttle and brake are excellent to drive and I also found them to be intuitive to work with - once mounting them correctly is overcome, you have yourself a pedal set that feels upmarket. This may sound silly, but I love the solid metallic tap I feel through my shoes when they make contact with the pedal face as I move my foot from the heelrest to the plate - it’s a physical cue that I first came to appreciate with my Heusinkveld Sprints, a much needed mental marker as I prepare to hit my braking points. The brake pedal is stiff with the factory-fitted elastomer, but you do get an alternative softer elastomer included in the kit which I’ve taken to using. This too is still on the firm side but has far more give relative to the standard bushing. I believe strongly in shoes and so does Asetek - these pedals are best experienced with footwear due to the high resistance of the brake pedal.
An accessory kit of elastomers is available that broadens the softness scale but I don’t have them to test and review (maybe soon). However, given that ordering them separately after the fact might cost a pretty penny in shipping, my advice is that you won’t need to include them unless you know you like a distinctly soft or extremely hard pedal, the standard elastomers do a good job to cover the ‘advanced sim racer’ bracket of customers. However, clearly enough demand was present for the kit to exist, so if you want to cover all possible bases then you may just decide you want to include them anyway.
The throttle is on the soft-to-medium side of the spectrum in terms of resistance, and there’s no way to adjust this tension on the La Prima as it lacks the optional tensioner. You can add one as part of a Forte upgrade kit but it’s not cheap. However, it’s still a perfectly normal throttle pedal with a slightly higher resistance than the lightly sprung CSL Elite V2’s I’ve come from, so it’s far from problematic in my eyes, most people will find no fault or will adapt to it in short order.
The brake cylinder system is called M.L.C.P.C, or Mechanical Load Cell Powered Cylinder. This doesn’t work like your average run-of-the-mill load cell pedal, and for that Asetek caught a bit of flak for their unusual approach back when it was first seen, but I am not much of a purist - personally I don’t really care how something works, only that it does, and these do. The pedal translates the pressure I put into the footplate into measured braking just like any other load cell brake I’ve used does, and although it achieves it in a somewhat wacky way inside that cylinder, I nonetheless found it to be very smooth and modulatable requiring no adjustment of myself as an experienced load-cell brake user. If I wasn’t around to see the initial flurry of discussion the MLCPC system prompted when it first appeared, I would probably be none the wiser. Watching my telemetry back, I can see some lovely examples of very smooth ramping down of the brake as I trail into corners, so although I approve of it by feeling alone, the proof is in the pudding.
Steering Wheel and Quick Release
Attaching the steering wheel to the wheelbase is very slick and simple, released in turn by pulling the rather oversized and rather orange tab. All parts that contact eachother in Asetek’s quick release are metal, and I find there to be zero dither, play or uncertainty in the system, it’s effective. The pins are the only vulnerable element to the quick release, and unfortunately in the process of mounting the La Prima wheelbase to the front mount, I damaged one of them though fairly minor clumsiness that could easily happen to anyone. It wasn’t terminal - the wheel still worked just fine as it still made contact, but nonetheless a replacement part to fix the pins was required, which are available separately, presumably as Asetek predicted that this might happen no matter how careful they instruct you to be in the handling of the equipment. So, be careful!
The wheel handles are on the somewhat slender side, clearly enough people have fed this back to Asetek to prompt them to make XL sized handles available, though they are an optional accessory, not a free either/or option you can choose upon order. Personally the standard grips are fine for my hands - they are a bit slippery when brand new, but they do tack up and grip better after a few uses once you’ve put down your own layer of sweat and filth. Or just use gloves like Asetek wants you to.
The paddle shifters are super positive with a short travel and very satisfying to pop up the gears with. I do like these. They’re plastic rather than carbon or metal, but are of good quality and the exact same as found on the higher tier Forte wheel.
The onboard rev lights are really bright and expressive with nice colours to choose from and adjustable behaviours, with pit limiter indication as well. The backlit dials in the centre of the wheel are also really nice to look at and use. All of the lighting is brightness adjustable and the wheel can be instructed to do a soft/soothing light show when idle. Pretty nice.
The dials, encoders and switchgear are on par in terms of feel, not cheap but not luxury either, the 12 buttons on board are a little on the smaller side and have no labelling present on them, nor are any stickers or labels included, so they’re all just kinda sitting there, nameless. This is maybe the one single element of the La Prima kit that feels like they actually forgot something, I have definitely had to rack my brains to remember exactly which button I’ve assigned to my pit limiter a couple of times, and as they’re all quite close to each other and small in size there’s potential for a mis-tap.
If you have a third party wheel in mind that you want to use you’ll need to buy the invicta quick release kit as an extra, it works very well and the integrated USB connector is very considerate, making wired wheels effectively wire free, or at least dangly-wire free.
Between the wheelbase, the wheel and the pedals, it’s the wheel that feels like it has the most room for improvement and might undergo the most changes if and when Asetek heads into its second wave somewhere down the line. It’s essentially the face of Asetek’s lineup, yet it didn’t win hearts and minds upon release. In the end, it’s just down to taste and you don’t need me to tell you if you like it or not, you can make your own mind up.
If you didn’t know Asetek Simsports were relatively new to the scene, looking at this kit and using it for yourself you’d think they’ve been round for many years, and I think there’s a good reason for this - the Simsports subdivision is quite clearly a passion project for the CEO, Andre Ariksen. Despite holding the top position, he presents the vast majority of product demonstration videos.
Given that Asetek itself is a massive company of which he is head of, the Simsports division probably has a very healthy budget and the undivided attention of the decision maker, it’s not surprising that they’ve come in fairly strong out of nowhere. Console support is a target of theirs and I actually believe they could beat some other notable names to it, due to their size and likely connections within the right industries.
Reasons Not to Buy
Whenever I review something I look for any reasons not to buy, whether it’s a quirk with the equipment or the company itself. What reasons are there not to buy the La Prima? The biggest by far is that pedal design - they work well and are built well, but they demand a rig that can position them correctly or they just won’t sit right for you, it’s not a question of quality but a question of your personal circumstance, there are other ecosystems with friendlier pedals that are more accommodating of lower budget rigs, this could be the difference between keeping the rig you’ve got, or having to spend money on a new one. Apart from this, there’s no hidden surprises waiting for you that I can identify so far. The Asetek ecosystem seems to be expanding at a good rate with upgrades and alternatives, customer support seems to be doing their job, and fellow owners seem largely content.
Final Conclusion
So my final summary. Whilst the design wasn’t to everyone’s taste initially, including mine, I can’t argue with the quality and completeness of the equipment now that I’ve actually tried it for myself. Asetek’s La Prima bundle makes me feel like I’ve been welcomed into a promising ecosystem, so I’m pretty confident you’ll experience that same thing, and they are now a name I’m going to be watching a lot more closely. So long as you pay attention to the mounting considerations with the wheelbase and pedals, I can’t see any reason for disappointment with the kit overall. Comparing it to other ecosystems I have experience with, in my opinion the fit and finish is definitely superior to Moza’s, and from my observation the customer service has so far kept a much cleaner sheet than Fanatec’s. There are other brands I am still yet to explore, but the La Prima has impressed me and I would feel no hesitation recommending it to those looking to step up into serious sim racing. It passes my tests confidently.
Thanks for reading! Remember to check out the review in video form at the top of this article page.
🛒Asetek Simsports EU - 5% Off Code DANNYLEE
🛒Asetek Simsports US - 5% Off Code DANNYLEE
🛒Asetek Simsports Global - 5% Off Code DANNYLEE
🛒Sim Demon UK - 3% off with code DANNYLEE3
Many more regional resellers are listed here: https://www.asetek.com/simsports/authorized-resellers/