Fanatec CSR racing combo for Xbox 360

I've previously confessed to being a fan of Fanatec's series of racing wheels, I even use its original Porsche 911 Turbo styled wheel, pedal, and shifter combo as my daily digital driver when piloting the virtual cars 'round the tracks of my racing sim du jour.But my now-discontinued Fanatec kit sits at the bottom of manufacturer's line of racing peripherals and leaves much to be desired.The plasticy buttons on the wheel's face feel cheap with vague tactile feedback; the pedals, while accurate throughout their travel, are too light and mushy for furious racing; and the H-pattern shifter's poorly defined gates have cost me more races than I can count. Most of these issues have been addressed with subsequent versions of Fanatec's Porsche wheels and at the core of this kit is a fantastically accurate 900-degree racing wheel with strong force feedback, great sensitivity, and the ability to be customized on-the-fly to the user's needs. I always wondered, what would happen if you took that awesome core steering wheel hardware and upgraded the components and build materials?This is the point in our story where the Fanatec Forza Motorsport CSR wheel and shifter kit and CSR Elite pedal set landed at my desk. These components aim to address each of the issues that I have with my current setup.The Forza Motorsport CSR wheel sits at the center of Fanatec's CSR system and, as racing wheels go, is quite nice. Forgoing the Porsche styling of the rest of Fanatec's line, this wheel sports a universal aesthetic that more barebones racer than German luxury. The Forza logo sits front and center on the wheel, indicating that this product was designed with the Turn 10's Forza Motorsport 4 for the Xbox 360 in mind, but this universal wheel should work just as well with other games, personal computers, and the Playstation 3 console.The wheel itself features a bushed aluminum face littered with buttons. The D-pad falls nicely under the user's thumb while the ABXY bank of buttons falls under the right giving the driver easy access to both without removing hands from the wheel. There are also four red buttons near the top of the wheels face, two that correspond to the Xbox 360's shoulder buttons and two more that come into play when paired with a PC or PS3.