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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#151125 2018-11-07 17:19 |
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Small Update: Size Does Matter
Turns out steering wheel size plays a huge part on driving. And offline shopping at the start of the month does have it's merit too.
Additionally, I'm selling some of my parts, have a look! (NOTE: Crap, I thought I didn't update my RP for half a week. Two days warped quite quickly for me somehow) [07 Nov 2018] So, I wrote 1,5 weeks ago that I've replaced my stock steering wheel with a Momo Model 78 330mm and I'm happy about it. Fast forward to today and I can say that I might want to take back my words. Sure, they're FIA-approved racing steering wheel and it's small size means less effort to turn it on high speed corners so it feels (and actually does look) like go-kart/open wheel racer steering wheel and giving your hand, um, that 'steering feel'(? Not sure what is the right word to describe it). But let's face it, how many times we faced high-speed corners on public roads? Moreover, somewhat my arm movement is a bit limited while performing a sharp/multi-point turn, which is obviously a bit inconvenient while daily driving the Evo. At least this hasn't escalated to the point where I have to do a multi-million point turn.
"Then why did you buy it Smoke?" I say let's get back to the day when I bought the Model 78. I bought it because (a)It was on 20% discount, (b)Rantaro told me about said discount (I haven't introduce his name yet that time), (c)It was one of the last few wheels available at the rack so I gotta grab it quickly, and (d)Look again at my go-kart wheel theory above. Yeah, I've said it and I'll say it again: I'm a bad money spender. But truth to be told I'm also curious about the best steering wheel size for daily use, so I hit various online forums first before doing my daily work. After checking some forum recommendations, it turns out 320-350mm wheels are indeed the recommended size for daily driving. However, despite the smaller sizes indeed gives more feel to your hands, it is also indeed rather heavy and at worse case reduce visibility to your dashboard instruments (I don't think this has happened to me). Most of the 320-330mm users has similar or smaller cars than my Evo such as Integra DC5 and Miata, while the 350mm users consists of big, heavier car users like Supra A80 or track and drift racers. I want a wheel that is more forgiving to my hands and turns faster, so I went for 350mm steering wheels. As you've known from my previous update, I spent almost my entire money to upgrade my running gear parts, so for now I decided to look away form online shopping and went to the local store where I bought my Momo Model 78 along with my tools after work. I have a feeling that since this is the early days of the month, they've either restocked a bunch of their steering wheel or cleaning up their remaining supply by offering a discount. I parked my Evo on the backside of the store again so I could fit them immediately, just like when I bought the Model 78. Sadly, unlike the other day, Rantaro couldn't help me because he's still in his work shift. And my guess was sort of correct. The shop has added Momo Model 69 to their inventory, and they're available at 350mm size. I also checked the Model 78 and they're still only available at 330mm. The Model 69 also has a fatter grip and facilitates horn function, so not only it's FIA-approved, it's also more suitable for daily driving. All I had to do was rearrange the horn wiring to near-standard again to suit the Model 69 horn button. And what's more, they put the price at V$175 as 'introductory price'. What a nice way to promoting your product, innit? (NOTE: Price reference taken from here. Damn, should have visited this one back then!) And with the wheel purchased, I returned to the parking lot to install it. As a comparison, here's the old Model 78 wheel........  .....aaand here's the Model 69. They're indeed looks similar apart from the size and the grip. As of the installation process, it was a bit quicker than the Model 78. It is easier to arrange the horn wiring, and the mounting process it pretty much the same. As of the seat access, thankfully the Bride Zeta II is low enough to provide me better access so there's pretty much no problem with my feet hitting the wheel and such.
 I also took another shot of my Evo because why not.
 After a quick testing by driving my car back to my crib, it was indeed feels better to my hands. I think the bigger wheels would make a difference too trackside, so I'm planning to go to Tsukuba this Saturday to evaluate my Evo after all the mods I did to it. If you want to join me on the track or just want to visit my crib, don't hestitate to hit me up!
 And now, an announcement:
EDIT: Sorry, forgot to put my cash update. I'll put it directly here as it's only affected by one item: Initial V$ = V$ 2,661
Momo Model 69 350mm steering wheel = V$ 175
V$ at the moment = 2,661 - 175 = V$ 2,486
That's all my update for now, don't hestitate to PM me if there's a part that caught your interest
or if you want to join my trip to Tsukuba this Saturday. Thank you for stopping by and see you soon! This post was edited by BigSmoke (2018-11-15 15:55, ago) |
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