GT Omega Prime Review
Do you like sim racing? chances are if you're looking at this post then the answer is a "Hell yeah I do".
So here we go then, the new GT Omega Prime cockpit. I recently purchased one of these for myself. Here is my review: Having been into racing games and sims for quite a few years now, I started off with a Logitech G27 clamped to a desk, then upgraded that to a G29, after that I bought a Playseat Evolution, this suited me fine for the last 3-4 years, but then earlier in 2021 I upgraded the trusty Logitech G29 to a Thrustmaster TS-XW, with this upgrade I found the Playseat just wasn't cutting it anymore due to too much movement on the chassis itself. So what do you do? Of course look at something more substantial, which is what I did, I had been looking at these aluminum profile rigs for quite some time. In the end I opted for the GT Omega Prime cockpit for a few reasons:
I like GT Omega products, I previously used their Pro Chair for many years until it was worn out, I now use their Pro XL (Lockdown hasn't been kind).
The after sales care from GT Omega is amazing and can't be faulted.
Good reviews, Having watched a few reviews of this chassis it looked a great choice for my needs.
Price!! Coming in at less than the other manufacturers offerings this was a big consideration (The missus already thinks I'm crazy because of how much I've spent on Sim Racing kit)
So with these in mind what do I actually think of the GT Omega prime cokpit?
Let's start off with the sticking point for people looking to upgrade to this kind of chassis: cost! Whilst at £569.95($665.95) for the chassis alone with no seat and £719.95($909.95) with a seat (at the time of my purchase and time of writing all seats are out of stock) is quite a large sum of money, compared to TrakRacer and Simlabs this is still considerably cheaper, also you will find that GT Omega do have sales on from time to time and also if you sign up to their newsletter you get a discount code, I bought mine during the easter sale which brought the price down to £512.95 but then using a discount code that was emailed to me by signing up to their newsletter the price then dropped again to £487.31, so I saved nearly £100 over their standard price.
Do I think it's worth that much money? Well it's value can only be measured by your usage and enjoyment from it right? For me having used the chassis for a fair few hours so far I can honestly say the difference it makes coming from a Playseat Evolution with shifter mount that if I remember rightly cost me about half the price 3-4 years ago and still retails at £302.90* (without shifter mount) although at the time of writing is on sale for £259.50* at the Playseat website and can be found for between £229* and £250* at places like Very, Box and Argos (for the UK market).
*At the time of writing
So what makes this so much better than your previous chassis?
Good question! That I typed myself as if I was some lunatic that asks himself questions to set up the next section!
The 2 biggest things for me with the GT Omega Prime coming from the Playseat Evolution is the rigidty of this thing! Nothing and I mean nothing moves! The Pedal plate on this thing has made my Thrustmaster T3PA Pedals with the conical brake mod feel completely different, no more is there any flex when I'm hammering on the brakes to avoid the Turn 1 crash at Monza,
and I can more accurately brake in normal circumstances too! It's just a sold platform, I mean it can withstand high end Load Cell pedals with no noticeable flex I'm led to believe but they are currently not something I own (not yet anyway, need to keep the missus happy for a few months before I spend more) so it's no suprise they can handle my T3PA set with no issues. The adjustability of the wheel deck is done via 2 bolts into one of the tracks and then bolted to 2 upright pieces that come off your main chassis. I ended up not using the uprights as for me I couldn't get my pedals low enough for myself, so I used 2 of the track nuts that would normally hold the uprights into another track in the profile and bolted it down in there.
The wheeldeck is also really robust, but what do you expect when it is made from steel and bolted into 2 uprights! Once you have mounted your wheel of choice onto the deck (which is pre drilled for the majority of wheels available) there is
nothing but the silky smooth and sometimes chaotic (if you crash) feeling of your force feedback, especially if like me you're coming from a chassis with a single bar support you'll notice immediately how much better it feels without that sway and movement of the wheel base that you inherently get with that type of chassis. Speaking of the wheel deck, it is adjustable to any position and angle you could ever want thanks to it being bolted into the extrusion and the slots cut into it allowing for easy(ish) adjustment.
Now moving on..... The gearshifter mount! This thing is again very strudy and robust with my Thrustmaster TH8 shifter bolted onto it and my home made button box, if You have a strong handbrake on here as well as a shifter then you
may notice some flex of it, but for my uses it is as solid as a rock! It mounts to another piece of the aluminum profile by means of a plate that allow for the adjustment and the shifter mount is bolted to that plate using 4 nuts and bolts, the kit does come with 6 if you want to use them but the instructions say 4, so I only used 4. You have enough adjustability that you can position your shifter wherever you may need (see a theme developing about adjustability yet?).
OK so I think that's the main points covered now to cover the rest! The main chassis and seat mounting: I'll start off with a little caveat here, I'm using the seat from the Playseat Evolution this has replaced due to GT Omega not having any stock of their own seats at my time of purchase.
The Main chassis of this thing is 4 pieces of 160mmx40mm aluminum profile, 2 pieces that are 1370mm long that make up the sides of the chassis and 2 pieces that are 500mm wide that the seat supports bolt onto. These 4 pieces are held together using 8 angled brackets and 16 m8 x 16mm bolts into the track nuts. Once you get these pieces attached the rig already starts to become a bit cumbersome to move around if you are in a small space like myself. Once you do have these together and tightened up though you can already tell how solid this thing is going to be.
The seat supports are another 2 pieces of 40x40mm profile that are 500mm long, these bolt on top of the cross pieces you have previously assembled, and this is where my caveat came in, for me I had to put the angled brackets on the inside of the bars rather than the outside that the instructions show, as the rails on my seat are too wide for me to be able to secure the supports with the brackets on the outside. Once I change the seat out to one of GT Omega's (when they get them back in stock) then maybe the brackets on the outside will work. Once you have measured your seat rails or brackets and set the supports to the right width, attaching the seat is pretty straight forward.
To round this section off I have to mention the final touches you get with this chassis. Every piece of profile that could be on show has a cap to cover it so that a) looks nicer and b) isn't a sharp edge. on top of this you also get some twist in cable tie points and cable ties, this is a small thing that makes a huge difference as it makes cable management a breeze!
Conclusion and Final thoughts:
If you haven't already guessed I'm pretty damn happy with the GT Omega Prime cockpit. The rigidity you get and the adjustability are amazing, this is true of all aluminum profile rigs though and not just the GT Omega offering. The main points for me are it is cheaper than competitors, I know the after sales support GT Omega offer is first class, and well it's anodised black and looks sexy as!
The only negative I can give is that some of the track nuts I recieved were not threaded correctly, but that was only a couple of them, and you get spares anyway so wasn't really an issue.
Build time for me on my own in a small room was about 2.5 hours to build the chassis not including mounting all my hardware onto it. Total time of building, mounting hardware and adjusting everything to where I wanted probably came in at about 4 hours, as to get everything exactly where you want it is a lot of jumping in and out of the cockpit when you're doing it on your own.
Speaking of jumping in and out, this chassis is a hell of a lot easier to get into than my previous one, no longer do I feel like I am practising to be a contortionist when going racing!
Would I recommend this?
Yes if you're budget allows, as stated near the beggining this is not a cheap entry level sim chassis, but at just over double the price of some of the entry level ones I would say if you have the budget, go for it as this type of chassis is superior in every way.
Thanks for reading and until next time, race safe and don't be a Turn 1 hero!
Links:
Abruzzi Racewear (Gloves and boots)