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Mustang GT3 Sim Racing Wheel from VPG – Close Look

Mustang GT3 sim racing wheel by VPG

Featured Image: Mustang GT3 by VPG

Today I’m looking at VPG’s latest masterpiece, the Mustang GT3 wheel.

Before we get started, I’ll add a disclaimer. It is for serious sim racing hobbyists who want to build a realistic cockpit setup. Yes, it’s a higher-priced item – but what you get justifies the price.


Licenced wheels take a long time to seek approval, and, in VPG’s case, this is a low-volume, high-quality product.

VPG Mustang GT3

VPG takes a long time to develop a new wheel and is known to always come to the party having applied new manufacturing techniques to their wheels.

My first serious sim racing wheel was a VPG wheel and it’s been fun watching them develop over the last few years. Here it is – £1,599.00.

Box contents – comes with clear and coloured dome gel stickers and a coiled USB cable

Engineering, Marketing or Both?

Let’s get straight to the point: this isn’t just another “racing-inspired” sim wheel. The VPG Mustang GT3 wheel is manufactured in the same facility, using moulds and materials identical to the real GT3 race car wheel.

Ford Mustang GT3 cockpit
Mustang GTD GT3 Tech Tour at the Rolex 24 (source)

The first thing you notice when mounting this wheel is its weight – or rather, a lack of it.

At just 1,120g, it makes my McLaren Artura wheel feel quite weighty by comparison. This isn’t just about numbers though – I think we already know by now that material choice and stiffness fundamentally changes how force feedback is transmitted to your hands.

Mustang GT3 sim racing wheel

VPG were the first to fully master the carbon / composite approach to wheel body design in sim racing with their V-PGT Carbon. At the time, experiencing such a broad frequency range in the FFB transmitted from my Simucube to the wheel was quite a revelation.

Since then, lower-budget manufacturers have followed the trend. The SIMAGIC GT NEO and later, the MOZA VGS are good examples.

Carbon Fibre and Composites – More than Simple Aesthetics

Carbon and manufacturing detail close up is faultless
Carbon and manufacturing detail close-up is faultless

Carbon fibre composites can achieve a Young’s Modulus (stiffness) of 200 GPa or higher, while even aerospace-grade aluminium tops out around 71 GPa. This isn’t just numbers – it’s why you feel every nuance of force feedback with a composite based wheel. Thinking out loud, pure composite QR hubs ought to be a thing next!

Cheaper composite wheels do the job perfectly well, of course, although you notice gaps in the “feel” where some FFB frequencies seem to get lost. This is, I think, the material absorbing specific resonant frequencies found in certain ranges. Like a good hi-fi system, a good design aims to reproduce as much detail as possible. This is precisely what a VPG wheel nails every time.

in cockpit GT3


Electronics and Componentry

One of VPG’s strengths has always been its attention to detail in the electronics implementation. The Mustang GT3 wheel continues this tradition with some clever innovations:

FeaturesElectronicsTechnical
Officially Ford Licensed10 APEM 650gf buttons76 mappable inputs
Genuine Ford Mustang GT3 carbon fibre body and grips2 Otto P9 rear buttons76 individually controlled RGB LEDs
Magnetic paddle shiftersHall sensor analogue clutch4 LEDs per button
Hall sensor analog clutch2+2 ALPS 7-way funky switch12 LEDs per rotary
Aluminium button guards and knobsSimHub Compatible1120gr weight
50.8mm PCD and 70mm PCD QR compatible*

*70mm PCD only if installed using the VPG wheel Hub and adaptor (sold separately)

A standout feature is the funky switch implementation. By using the centre multi-position switch, you can effectively double your input options – position 0 gives you inputs 2 and 4, while other positions provide inputs 1 and 3.

Mustang GT3 Sim Racing Wheel

It’s a nice solution to expanding input options while maintaining the authentic GT3 layout.

The Feel

Remember how I wrote about carbon fibre’s superior stiffness-to-weight ratio? This translates directly into what you feel through your hands. The wheel’s 1.12kg weight might seem like a mere specification, but it fundamentally changes how the simulated force feedback information reaches you.

Those who’ve driven only with aluminium chassis wheels might find the difference a bit of a shock. It’s rather like upgrading from a budget set of headphones to studio monitors – suddenly you’re hearing details in the music you didn’t know were there.

Mustang GT3 - very high manufacturing standards
Mustang GT3 – very high manufacturing standards

Ergonomics

The ergonomics deserve special mention. The injection-moulded rubber grips, copied directly from the race car’s wheel, show why proper endurance racing equipment is designed the way it is.

After a 4-hour stint, when your brain is seriously starting to fade, you appreciate how the ergonomics help you manage fatigue, or minimise it altogether.

Weight

The weight of the wheel plays a role in how quickly you can catch a slide. The reduced moment of inertia (explainer) means you can make faster corrections, and the enhanced feedback clarity gives you a better sense of when those corrections are needed.

It’s not going to turn you into Harry Tincknell overnight, but it does remove one more barrier between your inputs and the car’s response.

The dual-clutch paddles are placed above the shifter paddles at the top of the wheel. After a few practice starts, the positioning makes sense and your muscle memory adjusts.

Mounting

I mounted the wheel on the tail end of a Simucube SQR adapter. Unfortunately, none of my QR extensions are 50.8mm PCD – they’re all 70mm.

Mustang GT3 sim racing wheel - rear
Exquisite carbon detailing, paddle shift and body design have really been a focal point of refinement for VPG over the years. My SQR adapter has seen some use that’s for certain!

If you like to run an extension, you’ll need to add the QR hub adapter, which adds approximately £50.

SimHub Integration

Setting up the Mustang GT3 wheel in SimHub is very straightforward. When you first connect the wheel, SimHub detects it as a VPG device and presents two configuration options: default LED behaviour or individual LED control.

The latter gives you granular control over each of the wheel’s 76 RGB LEDs – (four per button and twelve per rotary!).

Simhub Integration
Simhub Integration

The VPG community Discord also offers pre-made LED profiles that showcase what’s possible.

GT3 final

Conclusion

This particular wheel doesn’t belong to me, I’m sad to report. I would very much like to add this to the collection at one point. It’s “up there” with my all-time favourites, partly because of the convenience of setup, but mostly because of the technical marvel it is. Having recently dropped £1100 on another high-end wheel, I can’t help but kick myself I hadn’t waited for the Mustang GT3 to arrive.

If you’re feeling like breaking the January blues with a gift to yourself (and perhaps like me you’re still watching the Daytona 24), then the Mustang GT3 will make an ideal long term companion to your high-end sim setup.

GT3 mustange wheel boxed

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Mustang GT3 Sim Racing Wheel from VPG – Close Look

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