MOZA R5 Bundle Review – Direct Drive Racing Wheel Setup

MOZA R5 is a direct drive bundle for under 400 USD

Introduction

Gone are the days of three names dominating the sim racing market. The seeming stranglehold that Fanatec, Thrustmaster, and Logitech all had on the market was set in stone. We would see niche products from smaller groups, but the vast majority of race setups utilized a product from one of those three. Around 2015 something interesting happened. We started to see an expansion of the market to include specialty direct drive products and custom made rims. This was further accelerated in 2020 when COVID hit and people were forced indoors around the world. Suddenly it was very hard to find any sim product at a reasonable price due to the sudden demand of people going stir crazy in their own houses.

So who is MOZA Racing? I had not heard of them until a couple of years ago. The parent company is called Shenzhen Gudsen Technology. This is a well respected supplier of high end camera gimbals since around 2012. It seems that their expertise in designing and producing motorized gimbals fits very closely with sim racing gear. The company already had the engineers, processes, manufacturing, and software development (for gimbal command and control) to take a step sideways and introduce their own products into the sim market.

It was around 2020/2021 that they started to aggressively introduce new products into the market that featured high quality materials at a relatively bargain basement price. A 15 Nm direct drive unit for $999 was a steal compared to what else was available at the time. Fanatec had only just started releasing their direct drive gear, and Thrustmaster and Logitech were still years away from that technology.

MOZA Racing is not one to sit around. During the past six years we have seen multiple revisions of products as well as the introduction of new units. Their software development has kept afoot as well with a very impressive suite of technologies encompassed by the Pit House program. In the past six months they have released their latest 21 and 25 Nm bases that feature anti-cogging motors with flat wire construction. Something that I am not aware of other manufacturers having.

One of the most popular and well reviewed introduction/midrange direct drive products is the MOZA R5 Bundle. I was given the opportunity to take this unit for a spin as well as explore the ecosystem around this particular set.

The MOZA R5 Bundle

The R5 Bundle is not the introductory offering from MOZA, but it seems like it is the most popular. They also offer a R3 Bundle which features a smaller 3 Nm direct drive unit for $279. For racers looking to get into a direct drive unit, the most common opinion is to not go below the 5.5 Nm strength for the best experience. The R5 Bundle now comes in at a very aggressive $399. This is far less than competing bundles in that same Nm range from Thrustmaster, Logitech, Asetek, and Fanatec. The PXN bundles come in a bit less expensive, but do not have the same extensive ecosystem of parts to customize the user’s experience.

The bundle is comprised of three parts: the R5 direct drive base, the ES Steering Wheel, and the SR-P Lite Pedals. I was actually quite surprised by how compact the bundle was when I received the box. The product and packaging engineers at MOZA seem to be some of the best around as very little space is wasted and everything was well protected for shipping. The R5 drive unit is quite heavy as it features a full aluminum housing (the rear is plastic) and that hefty 5.5 Nm electric motor.

The ES Steering Wheel is the introductory rim that comes with the lower end bundles. It is a 12” D-wheel unit that features a synthetic leather wrap, some 18 buttons, a D-pad, and two paddle shifters. It features the full metal MOZA quick release system giving it a very solid connection to the base. The hub can be detached from the D-wheel and replaced with either a formula style rim or a fully round rim ($39 and $69 respectively). The light weight and smaller diameter of the wheel makes the 5.5 Nm drive seem more powerful than it actually is. A larger, heavier wheel will add more dampening due to mass and leverage.

The wheel features LED lighting for the RPM indicator. Telemetry control for this functionality is not universal and some applications need to be modified for it to work. The two shift paddles are not magnetic. These spring based units feel fine for the most part, but I have had missed shifts even when the paddles “click”. They are not as good as the full magnetic units on the higher end rims that MOZA offers. The wheel overall is relatively light, yet still stiff. The synthetic leather feels good and is easy to clean as compared to units featuring Alcantara or suede.

The SR-P Lite Pedals are the most basic units that MOZA sells. This two pedal set is a full metal construction unit with Hall magnetic sensors. This is not a load cell set, nor is it a very progressive feeling setup due to the basic springs being used. This is not a huge deal for the accelerator, but it does impact braking feel and performance. For $29 more a user can purchase the Performance Kit which is an easily mountable second spring with elastomers that provides a greater amount of resistance and progressive feel with braking. I would have preferred the Performance Kit to be included in the bundle, even if that increases the overall cost. It really is a must-have addition to this pedal set.

Finally we get to the most important part of the bundle. The R5 base is the latest revision of their 5.5 Nm unit which features connectivity and performance upgrades from the original units.

The front and sides are solid aluminum, but the rear cover is plastic. I found no issues with the plastic rear whatsoever, and it provides quite a few ports for multiple accessories. The primary six pin power plug is there as well as the USB connection to the PC. The accessory connections are extensive; it features the pedals, dashboard, handbrake, shifter, and emergency-stop. This is a big step up from the original R5 unit that only supported pedal, dashboard, power, and USB.

The R5 base cannot be upgraded to a higher strength, unlike the competing Asetek Initium. That particular 5.5 Nm unit can be upgraded with a different power supply to support 8 Nm.

5.5 Nm is still quite a bit of force that provides a good amount of information. It also features a 15 bit encoder to translate wheel movement into direction in the sim. There are those that complain that 15 bit is not enough, but I find that argument does not hold all that much water. A 15 bit resolution provides 32,768 steps. Within a 360 degree environment that translates into about 90 steps per degree. More accuracy is always better, but we are dealing with very small amounts of play that most humans would not be able to perceive.

The construction is very heavy with aluminum from the front and sides. The stiff plastic in the back handles the duties required of it without issue. The quick release mechanism is extremely robust and is the same one being used on their high end 25 Nm base. It does not feature a “key notch” to quickly ensure that the wheel snaps onto the base. Instead the user needs to center the hub and line up the wheel. This is a bit of a nit-pick, but it can take a few tries to get proficient at swapping wheels. When that quick release mechanism snaps into place, it does it with authority. The R5 base is compatible with all wheels and accessories that MOZA provides.

The base can be mounted on a wheel stand or a full cockpit with the four static mount holes. Standard M6 bolts are used and some are included in the package to utilize the desk clamp. The desk clamp itself is an impressive unit all on its own. Other companies would probably have that as an optional accessory, but the dual clamp unit that MOZA provides in the box is an outstanding value add. 5.5 Nm is really about the most strength that one would want for a desk mounted unit. Anything higher and you risk shaking the desk apart when at full tear. On top of the unit are two smaller screw holes that are used to mount the display accessory. This part sells for $199 and offers a large 5” 720P display for telemetry.

MOZA Pit House Software

Sim control panels have come a long way in a very short period of time. I had been a Thrustmaster owner for years and did not realize that there could be more than a single pane control panel that could adjust about 5 characteristics of the wheel base. Thrustmaster has since released new control panel updates that increase the software functionality, but it is a far cry from what MOZA implements in Pit House.

The Pit House software is actually more than a little bit intimidating due to the huge amount of settings that can be adjusted. New users will have to dig in and see what makes the most sense to change. While intimidating, there are tools to help out beginners. There are many presets for quite a few games that can be applied. These presets come from other users as well as the game developers and MOZA itself. These are a good starting point to quickly get a feeling for the characteristics that are most important for any one racer.

It would take pages to thoroughly go through all of the functionality that can be touched. The most important ones are usually strength curves for effects, activation curves for pedals and handbrake, and how many degrees of rotation that the wheel requires for the application. Pit House does “filter” inputs from sims, but it does so in a pretty organic feeling way. If a user wants a non-filtered experience, they can adjust the different Hz inputs to 100% across the board. As it is, I appreciate being able to tone down certain inputs while raising the strength of others. It is an exceptionally flexible implementation that is class leading.

Pit House also handles all of the firmware updating for the drives as well as accessories. A quick scan will show what firmware needs updated and simply clicking on the upgrade function takes the base offline and updates whatever firmware is needed. So far firmware updates are very simple and no secondary USB ports need to be plugged in. For example, with the latest Thrustmaster rims the covers need to be removed and a USB C plug is required to update the firmware on the wheels itself. MOZA does not currently do this and all updates can be done from the single USB plug on the back of the base.

Usage Impressions

I was not sure what to expect from MOZA after having been in the Thrustmaster realm as well as recently reviewing the Asetek Initium setup. I had heard many good things about MOZA and their seeming price/performance ratio was really high when considering other reviews posted on the internet.

Unboxing was an easy process and the instructions on getting the solution set up was pretty painless. Pit House was installed and the unit plugged in after being mounted on a wheel stand. Mounting again was easy, but the generic stand I was using did not have native support for the pedals. I had to squeeze things around there to get it to work, but in the end only used two bolts. Happily, these are full metal pedals that are made of pretty thick cold rolled steel. Even without using every bolt hole, the pedals were perfectly stable and stiff. The hole pattern on the direct drive base did line up with the mounting plate, so that did not require me to drill any holes.

The ES wheel being 12 inches wide is a little offputting at first since it feels a little small as compared to other competing solutions. This impression quickly goes away once the setup is activated and running a sim. The wheel is light and transmits forces very well. The grip is comfortable and all of the buttons are easily accessible. The included rev panel is a nice addition at this price point. The only real issue is the aforementioned missed shifts with the paddles.

Force feedback feels a bit stronger than the 5.5 Nm that is specified for this device. It felt stronger than the similarly spec’d Asetek Initium unit. It is also quite detailed in the feeling. The interesting thing about sim racing is that so much of the experience has to be through the wheel, as full motion rigs are very rare and expensive. Plus, the feelings of acceleration, deceleration, and lateral g’s are absolutely missing. So to give the driver as much tactile feel as possible as to how the car is handling, things are often over-accentuated as compared to a real steering wheel in a high performance car. The different profiles adjust the response curve of the FFB inputs, and this is a positive thing for any racer hoping to adjust their experience to their liking.

The pedals are perhaps the weakest aspect of this bundle. The brake pedal in stock form is just not very good. There is no progressive feel in braking, so it is really hit or miss when first starting out and getting used to the setup. Adding the performance upgrade is a no brainer for $29. Once that part is installed the user will instantly feel much more confident about their braking. It takes a little getting used to, but it is an extremely useful addition.

Pit House has a power/heat setting enabled by default that automatically adjusts the strength of the base while also keeping it within certain thermal limits. This setting can be disabled to give the user full FFB strength for hours on end. When this is enabled the base stays cool to the touch and the experience is very good. With it disabled the base can get very warm to the touch after extensive driving. I did not notice much difference between the two settings, but mileage will vary depending on the user. Even getting as warm as it does, it should not have a negative effect on overall lifespan for the part. Things are still within tolerances. There is no integrated fan with this setup, so noise was very much at a minimum when racing.

Conclusion

I have really enjoyed my time with the MOZA R5 bundle. It is not perfect, but it is really a good overall product at the $400 price point. Pit House gets updated all the time. Developers are getting closer to MOZA and providing a good experience with new titles coming out. The build quality is outstanding and with 4+ months of constant use there were no quality problems that I ran into (even when running things a little hot).

The entire MOZA ecosystem is also very impressive. Quite a few of the upgrades for this product are very competitively priced. The brake performance kit was only $29. The full metal construction hand brake is $100 (and it comes with both a native plug for the base and a USB plug for use with other 3rd party wheels/bases), and the formula style replacement rim for the ES Wheel is $39. Higher end wheel additions/replacements also undercut the competition. The brand new CS Pro Wheel is $339 and it features a reasonably sized, high quality built-in display as well as a full 325 mm size with leather wrapped grips and two sets of paddles (with the ability to add a third set). This is just insanely competitive.

The R5 Bundle is an excellent and expandable basis for any beginner or intermediate sim racer on a budget. $399 is not exactly pocket change, but considering that the competition from Asetek, Logitech, and Thrustmaster are $100 to $200 more expensive for a similar setup. Adding in the brake performance mod and a formula style wheel replacement for only $70 is also nuts (in a good way). Replacing the D style rim with the formula one takes about five minutes with the included tools with the package. Five years ago I would not have expected a direct drive setup to be at this price point, much less with this level of support and high quality ecosystem additions. Unlike seemingly everything else these days, the sim market is healthy and competitive and the prices keep on getting driven down.

MOZA Racing is certainly a company on the rise and has some extremely competitive products across the board. A 21 Nm wheel base with next generation features for $699 is an absolute steal. They cannot be making much money on some of these products.

If a casual sim racer is looking to upgrade their experience, or if a new racer wants an exceptionally solid setup that will last for years… the MOZA R5 Bundle is sitting in the perfect position for a quality delivered product at a compelling price point.