MOZA products have certainly made a name for themselves in recent years, and theMOZA R12 Racing Bundlecontinues that trend. Over the past 2 weeks, I have been using MOZA products for the first time. As a newcomer to the racing setup scene, my situation is probably most related to people who are looking to finally get into racing with a real setup for the first time.
Ever since Gran Turismo 3 on the PlayStation 2, I’ve loved racing games (along with other genres like MMORPGs and Shooters). I’ve dabbled in many racing games throughout the years, but I’ve always used a controller, whether it was on PlayStation, Xbox, or PC. Therefore, you can view this review from the perspective of someone who enjoys racing games, but is setting up a racing rig for the first time, which maybe relates to what you are going through right now!
MOZA Parts
The MOZA Racing setup I’ve been using includes:
Games & Monitors
I tested out the MOZA Racing gear on both my curved 23' Gaming Monitor as well as the Samsung curved 49" ultra-wide monitor. Racing with the ultrawide using the MOZA steering wheel and pedals was immersive and fun.
Most of my time with the setup, I used the smaller 23" monitor, as it was easier to swap to the steering wheel and pedals by keeping them on the left side of my desk. The wires between the wheelbase, pedals, and the PC also made me less inclined to move the wheelbase and pedals over to the center of my desk. I did find that once I finally tried it, it was a lot less work to move the wheel to the desired place on my desk than I originally thought.
Most of my playtime with the MOZA Racing Bundle was with Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon 5. We’ll get a little more into the specifics of each game later in the review.
Initial Setup
As a newcomer to the racing rig scene, unboxing the MOZA gear was initially a little daunting. Everything felt very complicated as I pulled each piece out of the box. After all the parts were out of their box, I looked at the included information for each part and realized the setup was actually very easy.
With a quick slide and snap, the KS Steering Wheel slid easily into the R12 wheelbase. The base easily fits onto the desk clamp with 4 thumb screws. I was able to tighten them with my fingers, and then use the provided hex key to tighten them. The clamps themselves fit easily onto the edge of the desk with just 2 thumb screws in each, and a knob to tighten the clamp itself.
The pedals came apart from the pedal base, with many screw holes available in the base. This meant I was able to choose how close or far apart I wanted the pedal, brake, and optional clutch. After all of these pieces were screwed in, the wires were very easy to plug into the obvious destinations, and 2 USB ports to the PC. The one gripe I have with the wires is that they are too short to be able to use the sit-to-stand function of my desk. This means if I do have my wheelbase and clamp setup, I need to unhook the wires from the wheelbase to set my desk to the standing position. This is probably a very niche issue, but it affects my situation nonetheless.
All in all, after unboxing the parts, the setup only took about 15 minutes and was incredibly straightforward. A+!
The first feelings you feel when gripping the KS Steering Wheel are authenticity and comfort. The rubberized side handled fit well with my hands and felt super smooth while offering great grip. The middle of the steering wheel offers a beautiful carbon fiber finish and overall the wheel just looks and feels great.
Rotating the wheel while driving feels fully natural, and you can also customize the total degrees a turn can take, all in the MOZA Pit House program. I personally used 900 degrees for the wheel for most of my playtime.
The pedals also give a very professional and well-built feel. They are comfortable to use, especially with shoes on, and offer an authentic feel and function that you’d definitely expect in a high-end racing rig.
The Force Feedback of the R12 wheelbase is…insane. Even dialed all the way down to 30%, the force feedback feels great while racing and really puts you in the moment of the race. The customization available in the Pit House allows racers to dial the force feedback exactly to their liking, whether that is intense shaking vibrations, or light reminders to get back on course.
Performance
Every piece of MOZA Racing equipment in this rig performed beyond expectations, right down to the table clamp. With how powerful the R12 wheelbase is at punching out force feedback to the user, I was surprised the desk clamp held it so firmly in place and didn’t damage mySecretlab Magnus XLdesk.
The R12 wheelbase along with the MOZA Pit House program, offer more customization than I could ever dream of. This can be a little daunting for a newcomer, and a bit confusing about what exactly each nob and slider might do. For a seasoned veteran, the options are endless in customization, and for a newcomer to the scene, you may want to limit the amount of tweaks to start with.
I did have some trouble getting Force Feedback to work with Forza Horizon 5. When googling the issue, I found some helpful posts on the MOZA website that offered a few ways to enable the force feedback by altering files. This was a complicated endeavor, and ultimately I never got the feedback to work with Horizon, but the rest of the setup was working fine. As I understand it, this is more of a Horizon 5 issue than a MOZA issue.
Once I booted up Forza Motorsport, I needed to set up the wheel profile properly first. This was another challenge, as someone new to the scene, since the wheel and pedals didn’t just simply work right away. After a few googled keywords, I figured out I needed to go into the controls for the wheel and create a new custom profile. I could then map the appropriate actions to the various pedals and wheel functions.
Conclusion - 4.5 / 5
After getting the bindings set, I was finally able to race with all the parts working beautifully together in unison. Ever since that setup, I’ve put tens of hours into racing and never looked back. Despite the rough time getting the wheel to work properly in specific games, the racing experience has been unmatched.
Feeling the force feedback in your hands while speeding down the raceway, bumping into cars, or skidding around the corners, I don’t think I could ever go back to a controller for a racing game. The MOZA Racing Bundle, featuring the R12 wheelbase and the KS Steering Wheel has changed the way I view racing games. This gear greatly elevates racing gameplay and makes you want to keep coming back to race more every day.
