I love driving. Like really, really love driving. It’s a big part of my day, I’ve done track days in Supercars, and I play a lot of racing games in my downtime. But one area that I’ve wanted to get into for a long while has been sim racing. The opportunity to finally give this a go has now been thrust upon me with the arrival of the VelocityOne Multi-Shift and Wheel set from Turtle Beach.
Building upon the already excellent wheel and pedal set, the shifter itself is a highly customisable and solidly built piece of kit with Hall-effect sensors as standard, ensuring that this should last a lifetime of aggressive gear changing. Smooth in operation and a piece of cake to set up, it feels premium straight from the box. With options provided for either a long or shorter throw shaft, as well as an H-gate or a sequential shift knob, it’s very easy to have exactly the knob of your dreams in hand, with all variations feeling great in the grip.
The H-shift or sequential modes on the VelocityOne Multi-Shift are simple to access with a single slider on the right of the body allowing for adjustment of modes on the fly. A High/Low button below the stick extends the range of gears available, seemingly perfect for games featuring more unusual vehicles such as tractors or heavy tonnage vehicles, both of which can have up to 10 gears or more, as well as having a dedicated reverse gear.
Another button option is the hand brake, turning the shifter into a dedicated unit for initiating donuts. I can easily envisage a situation of having two of the Multi-Shift units, one either side of the wheel, to have access to a dedicated handbrake for say a Rally game, where it will be in use far more often than during a track racer or farm simulator.
Attached to the wheel itself via a single provided USB-C cable, the VelocityOne Multi-Shift is a plug and play experience, the wheel instantly recognising this extended peripheral and displaying feedback on the race management display. Playing some Assetto Corsa and Euro Truck Simulator 2 on PC, the shifter was recognized as a further input option from the VelocityOne system and it was a very straightforward process to add these as custom button presses into my already customised input setups meaning that I was up and running in a matter of moments.
The H-Shifter, the more classic option for those used to driving with a manual gearbox, feels solid and direct with no slippages or mis-gearing in my time with it. The Sequential mode simplifies the process, requiring only a forward or backward motion to switch gears, more aligned to use in high powered racing cars or rally monsters, where swift shifts are essential.
Overall, it’s a natural and obvious addition to the VelocityOne wheel and pedal set. Whilst by no means an essential purchase (the paddles on the VelocityOne wheel itself feel fantastic and perform more than well enough for the average user), the added immersion of a separate gearstick (or shifter for our over the pond cousins) is the perfect cherry on top of an already delicious VelocityOne shaped cake. I’d be hard-pressed to go back to a sim racing rig without one.
Extremely sturdy and highly customisable, it’s a great addition to your home sim racing setup being amazingly versatile and a fantastic value purchase at just over £100. Now excuse me whilst I get back to driving 15 tonnes of fish fingers from Dover to Calais.
