Napokon sam uhvatio vremena da napisem review za Rinoseat, naravno da je na engleskom
, ali ako nekoga zanima pretpostavljam da to nece predsatvljati problem. I jos jednom hvala Renatu sto mi je dao priliku da isprobam Rinoseat kako Bog zapovijeda
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RINOSEAT G25 Edition - IMHO the best cockpit solution everBefore further explaining my claim above, I have to make few notes.
I never liked any "commercial" cockpit solutions in up to 500 euros price range, from many reasons. Price, looks and usability (ergonomic) were never combined in one package in my standards. Also, as I had a chance to test many different cokpits, many of them were too expensive for what they were actually providing. So, right before GT4's release, I decided to build my own cockpit and invest as much as I have in order to produce a satisfactory product.
Today I have my own, custom made cockpit solution, made to my measures and made by high-quality materials. When finished, it costed me hefty amount of cash and working hours.
My current cockpit tubular frame is made of high density chrom-ollie steel, use by car-exhaust specialists. It's very rigid, but not as normal steel, and nor as heavy. It combines the best characteristics of steel and aluminum. Seating is a real sports-car shell-seat by Dutch manufacturer. Seat is mounted on custom-casted steel-holders, attached to wooden plank in the bottom, forming low seating position.
My seating position was made in idea to resemblance the seating position in the touring car, with low seating and high wheel position. As I'm 188 cm high, I made distance to the pedals in order to concede with the "touring-position". In visual department, my cockpit is all-black - even the screws and such - and it looks pretty much impressive.
I was very satisfied with it. It gave me great feel of driving, and thanks to my proper planning of positions I never felt any pain in both arms, shoulders and legs, even after lengthy sessions of GT4's endurance races or numerous LAN parties at my friends place. Also, I really loved the "racing" feel of the shell-seat and low seating. During the past few years I tried many other cockpit solutions and none reached the overall level of immersion I had with my cockpit. Playseat, Playseat Evolution, and other not so famous among others, together with even official "Gran Turismo" cockpits that were used by Sony on various gaming-fairs.
However, after I tried Rinoseat - my cockpit became a history.
Rinoseat changed my whole perspective in terms of home-cockpits. Since there are many fields regarding that matter, below is the breakdown:
Rinoseat is very light, somewhere around 15 kilos. My cockpit is around 30 kilos - and I liked to think it was light actually when compare to others. So, it's easy to manipulate with it for storing purposes when not driving. Also, Rinoseat can be fully disassembled in matter of minutes, once you've got used to procedure.
It offers great amount of changes to the seating position, as well as wheel, pedals and shifter position. I've settled with pretty much conservative, "straight" seating position, but there are 4 in total, depending of your driving style. Wheel can be positioned in 2 heights, while pedals can be adjusted in few various degrees positions. Also, you can choose between 2 heights for the shifter-console (I'm talking about G25 wheel here), and you can make micro-adjustment of the side-position through whole length of the console. In short, variations that Rinoseat offers is pretty much unbelievable.
Notice that I've tested the Rinoseat together with few my friends, everyone of them being different in terms of body construction. While my original cockpit was very difficult to use by my "shorter" friends, together as for my "weightier" friends, Rinoseat was easy to adjust or each of them. You can just shorten/prolong the pedal-tube in order to make them reachable for man of any height in matter of seconds, while lack of shell-seating allows that Rinoseat can be used by people that usually do not fit inside shell-seat.
Needles to say, they were all amazed by overall feel of seating, together with driving sensation that Rinoseat gives.
Because of the unique construction of the wheelbase console, vibrations and force feedback effect is carried to the seating, resulting with the further immersion of driving sensation. Height-distance position of the pedals provides great feel for legs, as well it feels very natural for all that are real life car drivers. Overall seating position is particularly good, especially because of side-grips for legs which provides a really useful blocking of movement to the upper part of the leg during pedal-usage.
In terms of build quality, Rinoseat is also a true sensation. I really couldn't believe that such a lightweight construction could withstand G25 wheel and overall torture that serious driving demands - but it passed with highest grades even in that field. It also comes packed in unbelievably small packing, and it takes just 30 minute to fully assemble. Nice touch is inclusion of all tools-needed (very high quality I must say, I was very surprised by it), with only exclusion of small screwdriver you will need for unscrewing the bottom part of shifting-console.
Of course, I have to be honest and say that overall looks of Rinoseat are nowhere as near attractive as my cockpit with real racing shell-seating, or any other similar soultion. But, the looks becomes instantly non-important once you start to actually drive.
If I have to find something I would criticize at Rinoseat, there is only one thing I didn't like - and that is black-red color combination because I find the usage of red color totally unnecessary. But I was told that Rinoseat will soon be offered in full-black color - something like Rinoseat Black Edition - which is very nice, because I'd prefer a black one in every case.
In total, Rinoseat is truly the best cockpit I've ever tried, and from now on it will be my only cockpit solution. It excels in all important fields, setting new standards and providing unrivaled feel of driving together with great versatility in all fields. Also, it's price is almost a joke when compared to all other cokcpit solutions, and it also gives Rinoseat additional boost in terms of acceptance to final user.
These days I'll post some pictures of both my original cockpit and Rinoseat for further comparation.
http://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?p=3037167#post3037167
