Xbox racing sims: anything there?

Well, I've been playing Xbox racing sims the last few days (while home with a cold), and let's just say, it's not very real, at least not to start.

First, the Xbox racing wheel only has about 270 deg. of turn, which makes it .75 turns lock-lock. That's just a bit quicker than the 2.25-2.5 turns lock-lock you expect in a real car. So, driving down a straight at 100+ mph turns into a hair trigger exercise of swaying back-forth across the roadway. In order to tame the wheel's hyper-sensitivity, you have to monkey with the controller options for each game. I've now managed to get the wheel to more/less behave in Dirt and Grid.

Second, the brakes are way too powerful. Even a light application of the brakes can completely overpower the car under throttle. Again, you can fiddle with that too, 80% braking seems to be pretty good; i.e. brakes still work, but you can initiate a slide instead of just stopping the car.

Now, that said, it's very good for looking ahead, picking a line, etc. It certainly demands a lot of attention in order to drive a stage in Dirt, and the co-drivers notes are good, being able to parse notes and push the car hard is good practice.

Oh, and the Pike's Peak stage in Dirt is beautiful :)