The Best Sim Racing Shifters – Buyer’s Guide

Featured image: SIMAGIC DS-8X sequential / H-pattern sim shifter

Today, I’m going to walk you through the higher-end intermediate to advanced sim racing gear shifters – if you’re a bit fed up with your Thrustmaster TH8A or Logitech Driving Force shifter, this article is for you. The bottom line before we go deep: the CONSPIT CHS is the best dual-mode shifter you can buy, and the best for people who race for real. Beneath it, Moza’s SGP is the budget sequential and Moza’s HGP is the budget H-pattern. The items in this list aren’t your “common or garden variety” units, as I’ve tried to pick shifters that are new to the market, lesser-known, or just outrageously expensive in some cases!

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I’ll cover sequential, H-pattern and dual-mode units, a magnetic sequential, and a couple that are built around real Quaife gearbox internals. While they’re all a bit different, what they all have in common is the coolness factor… Manual shifting in the sim adds huge realism, and the discipline of keeping the car balanced while changing gears under braking is something that directly translates into car control technique useful for the real world. That combination is “trail braking” (slowing down, braking and starting the turn) and the heel/toe downshift to match the engine RPM to the road speed, so everything stays nice and smooth.

If you’re not sure about the right technique to use while shifting, check out my guide to heel and toe, and if you’re looking for a guide to the best equipment options as a beginner, my sim racing beginner’s guide is the place to start.

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H-pattern vs sequential | CONSPIT CHS | Moza SGP | Moza HGP | Simagic DS-8X | Fanatec SQ V1.5 | VNM Shifter | Simagic Q1S | Simagic Q1 | Heusinkveld MagShift | Pro-Sim H-Pattern | Pro-Sim PSL V2 | Sim-Lab Push-Pull | Which should you buy?

What are H-pattern and sequential shifters?

The terms “H-pattern” and “sequential” will come up repeatedly in this guide, so in case you’re new to the shifter market and have no idea what I’m talking about, let me give a quick explanation.

H-pattern shifters operate like a standard gear shifter in a manual car, meaning you move the lever around a “gate” in an up/down/left/right motion to find whatever gear you want to engage.

Sequential shifters only need a forward/backward motion to move between the gears, with no side-to-side movement, but as the name suggests you must move through the gears in sequence. You can’t jump from first gear to third, as you could with an H-pattern. Quite a few of the shifters in this guide do both – usually a slider or lever on the body switches between the two modes – and that’s what I mean by “dual-mode”.

As well as shifting modes, another term you’ll hear when talking shifters is “throw”. This refers to the distance the gear lever travels to change gear. A short throw is often preferred for sportier cars, which means less distance, equating to a quicker gear shift.

CONSPIT CHS – the best dual-mode shifter

The CHS is a dual-mode shifter: 7+R H-pattern and sequential on separate mechanical paths, all metal, with that special purple anodising I’ve seen on CONSPIT gear before. This thing is solid as a rock, and heavy. It is easily the nicest-made shifter we’ve had sent here so far and for what it’s worth has immediately replaced my Simagic DS-8X (my prior favourite). The action on the H-pattern reminds me an awful lot of a manual dog box. We had a dog box on the Lotus Elan 26R (my historic Lotus), and they’ve got the feel of the shift absolutely right. This is what a proper racing box feels like.

On the sequential there’s a little more resistance on the upshift than the downshift – I may be imagining things though! If you’re a serious sim racer, especially if you’ve got quite a high-end rig, you’re a serious hobbyist and you’re into motorsport in real life, this is the shifter to own at the moment. It launched on 23 September 2026 at $369 (€308 / £274 before VAT and shipping).

Mine was the pre-release prototype, and its side brackets were a little too wide for the 8020 armrest on my rig. The production bracket mounts across each end of the body instead, which puts the footprint in line with the Simagic DS-8X – if you’re upgrading from a DS-8X you’ll have no problem. Torque the screws up properly, and the shaft extension too. There’s more in my full CHS review.

CONSPIT discount code: use SRC at checkout for 5% off at conspit.com.

Moza SGP – the budget sequential pick

The Moza SGP blew my socks off. You can fit it directly to an aluminium profile (which is what I’ve done on my sim racing rig), it’s very easy to set up in Moza Pit House, and once calibrated it works as any game controller does: you assign upshifts and downshifts in the settings of your favourite sim racing platform.

I must say, I had an enormous amount of fun smashing through the gears in an RX car. The build is very solid and there’s no play in the mechanism whatsoever. The SGP will take some seriously hard driving and feel brand new after the session.

That’s why I can barely come to terms with the price – it’s so cheap you think there might be a catch. I’m happy to report there is no catch. For a budget device the SGP is impeccably made and really is a steal for the money (there’s more in my SGP shifter review). Ideal for a straightforward sequential setup on a budget without budget compromise.

Moza HGP – the budget H-pattern pick

The Moza HGP is a sim racing shifter “built to last”, with a sturdy full-metal construction in black that will stand up to intense use. For the money it’s great, with a few bearable software quirks.

It’s Moza’s budget shifter and it punches above its weight, coming in cheaper than its nearest competitor, the Fanatec SQ 1.5. It features a 7+R H-pattern with a locked R and 7th gear – there’s no sequential feature, so it does what it does and that’s about it.

It’s a very motorsport-inspired design that might satisfy anyone looking for a pure H-pattern shifter with a visible shifter gate; the look of it gave me strong Ferrari vibes. I found it has a high resistance, although I suspect that might get a little looser over time. In real life I’ve never felt a gearbox as stiff as that. It has a very certain feeling to the shift, though, so it’s difficult to miss the shift.

Simagic DS-8X

The Simagic DS-8X offers a full metal chassis: an aluminium alloy housing with a heavy-duty steel-core internal construction. As you’d expect, it’s a solid item and, as a consequence, very reliable. It’s strength-adjustable and has a pull-out gear lock to make sure that gears 7, 8 and reverse are not accidentally engaged. It feels super smooth, and it was the permanent resident on my rig until the CHS arrived.

You can switch between sequential mode and, with 8 forward gears and 1 reverse, a very versatile H-pattern with one lever on the side of the unit. It’s a standard USB games device in Windows and needs no driver software. I liked it because it had the smoothness and resilient feeling of the SQ, and it was very nicely engineered. The one drawback during installation was that the provided bolts were a few millimetres too short to mount directly to the profile, so I found some slightly longer ones. The full review is here, and I put the SQ 1.5, DS-8X and HGP head to head too.

Fanatec ClubSport Shifter SQ V1.5

The Fanatec ClubSport Shifter SQ V1.5 features H-pattern and sequential modes, adjustable resistance, a road car-style reverse gear inhibitor, and when it’s paired with a compatible Fanatec wheelbase, it can be used on PlayStation, Xbox and PC.

To run it on a PC without a Fanatec wheelbase you need the ClubSport USB Adapter. When I first wrote this guide you had to buy that separately; it’s now supplied in the box.

You can mount the ClubSport via the base or on the side, so with the right bracket or mounting plate (supplied with most sim rigs), it’s pretty trivial work to fit.

The SQ was my very first shifter and I’ve used one for years. For the money it feels pretty solid, and it has been for the most part reliable, except for the repair I did (with insulation tape, of all things). It’s a great little unit, feels very certain in the hand and it’s easy to be consistent with it while driving in a hurry.

There’s a slider switch on the side of the unit that changes the shifter from H-pattern mode to sequential. That’s a neat feature – but it’s pretty much where the features end. For the longest time, unless you were ready to part with silly money, the SQ 1.5 was the shifter to have: the right blend of smoothness and reliability, and very easy to avoid mistakes. If you’re looking for a solid-feeling manual shifter for your sim, I’d still look long and hard at it.

VNM Shifter

The VNM Shifter is an all-aluminium dual-mode unit, and it goes about the two modes differently from the CHS or the DS-8X. Rather than a slider, you swap the top plate: an H-pattern plate and a sequential plate both come in the box, so the mode is set on the bench rather than on the fly. Tension is adjustable, there are two knobs (a sphere and a cylinder) to choose from, and at 110 x 260 mm it’s a compact thing that mounts on its side or its base.

It’s a USB device and PC only, and there are no mounting clamps in the box, so it’ll need a bracket or a length of spare profile.

Simagic Q1S sequential shifter

The Q1S is the screenless version of Simagic’s Q1 sequential, built around the same planetary-gear mechanism, with an adjustable damper for the shift feel and a neutral button on the body. There are a few nice details: proper ball-race bearings rather than brass bushes, a USB socket on either side, and an RJ-45 to connect it directly to a Simagic wheelbase.

It’s the simpler of the two Simagic sequentials, and the one to look at if you don’t need the gear display.

Simagic Q1 sequential shifter

The Q1 is Simagic’s flagship shifter, with the same planetary-gear mechanism inside, inspired by a real racing shifter, and the shift feel adjustable from rough to smooth. It adds a gear display, real-time data logging, four programmable buttons on top and a choice of two stick lengths (78 mm and 120 mm). There’s USB on both sides, so you can mount it whichever way round suits the rig.

Heusinkveld MagShift sequential shifter

Heusinkveld’s MagShift is the compact, sequential-only option. The shift is magnetic and the position is read by opto-electronic sensors, so there’s nothing in the mechanism to wear. Shift force is adjustable between 4.5 and 11 kg, with the upshift and the downshift set separately; it mounts on a U-bracket and has three buttons on the body.

At the moment it’s out of stock at Trak Racer, on its own and in every bundle, though Heusinkveld sell it direct.

Pro-Sim H-Pattern Shifter

The Pro-Sim H-Pattern Shifter is the outrageously expensive end of the list. It’s made with Quaife Engineering and draws on a production Quaife H-pattern gearbox: instead of a top gate plate, the shift runs through selector rods and a centralising device, the way most real gearboxes do, and you can watch the rods engage through the clear Perspex cover. It has six forward gears and reverse, with two extra gates beyond the reverse interlock (press the lever down and across to the left to reach them).

It ships with a short lever, Caterham-style, and an optional extension adds up to 150 mm with 70 mm of adjustment in it. The body is solid aluminium and the working parts are case-hardened 835M19 steel; there’s a USB B socket on the rear with a 2 m cable in the box, and it only runs on a PC.

Pro-Sim PSL Sequential Shifter V2

The PSL Lite V2 is Pro-Sim’s sequential, again made with Quaife, with internals in hardened 835M19 steel engineered to mimic a genuine Quaife gearbox, and it weighs 2.8 kg. The V2 is the V1 made quieter – Pro-Sim say it feels the same but without the ring and the second clunk of the claw returning.

You choose between the standard turned aluminium sequential knob and a rounder GT knob, the gear lever extension is sold separately if you feel like going all WTCC for the day, and like the H-pattern it’s PC only.

Sim-Lab Push-Pull Rally Shifter

The Sim-Lab Push-Pull Rally Shifter is a different animal: a sequential that mounts at the steering wheel, so you downshift by pushing and upshift by pulling, the way the sequential in a rally car works. Fundamentally, it’s a sequential paddle shift, and your hands never leave the wheel.

I think it’s a lot of fun having a sequential shift in paddle form, and the concept is, as far as I know, unique.

Which shifter should you buy?

So, which one? If you race for real, or you want one unit that does H-pattern and sequential properly, buy the CONSPIT CHS – it replaced the DS-8X on my rig and I can’t see how anybody improves on it. Beneath it, the DS-8X and the SQ 1.5 are the two established dual-modes, and having owned both, my money was on the Simagic. The SQ still deserves a long look if you’re in the Fanatec ecosystem, particularly if you want to run it on a console.

If the budget is tight and sequential is enough, the SGP is the answer, for the reasons above. If it’s an H-pattern you’re after for the money, it’s the HGP – stiffer than any real gearbox I’ve felt, but very hard to miss a shift with.

Whichever you choose, think about mounting before the box arrives. It isn’t glamorous, but it plays a massive role in usability. Brackets are great but by their nature they flex, which is never good in the sim; if you’ve got some spare profile and slide bolts, do yourself a favour and mount the shifter to the profile, and you’ll get more mechanical detail from it while it’s in use. Once the shifter’s in, the next thing you’ll want is a handbrake – my guide to sim racing handbrakes is where to go next. Enjoy!

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Topic: Sim Racing Shifters