Will it make me slower?
Only if the settings get too exciting.
Turn it up too far and it starts influencing your steering, your pedals, or just your focus.
The wheelbase has to be the loudest voice in the room, always.
A JACKZER Guide
Simracing motion.
A month later.
Circuit One sent me their DF1 motion system to test. It's the first time I've had motion on my own rig, and this is where I stand after a month with it. I can't afford one, and I know it's out of range for most people reading this, so this isn't a price-to-performance piece. It's what motion is actually like to live with.
8 min readHardwareCircuit One D Force 1
The short version
I expected a roller coaster and got a tool.
Set up soft, it costs you nothing in lap time and gives you information about the car that didn't exist before. The only argument against it is the price.
Where I started
I didn't want to like this.
Every time I'd tried motion before, at expos mostly, it overwhelmed me. The systems were set so aggressively they felt out of phase with the driving. You'd turn in, get tossed, then something else would happen and you'd start wondering whether you needed to correct for it. I don't blame the hardware. They were turned up to show what they could do, which is not how you'd run one at home if you want it to blend into the rig and be forgotten.
Then there's the price, and the bracket that puts motion in. It's the thing you nod at from the side of the road. Nice Ferrari. Good luck doing the IKEA run in it. Somewhere along the way I'd decided motion wasn't for me, even if I could ever afford it.
On top of that I had the practical worries. Four actuators hooking into the sim sounded like four new ways for the PC to fall over. I'm a terrible passenger (motorways make me nauseous when I'm not driving, yet I've raced real cars without a problem), so motion sickness was a real question. I didn't know how loud it would be, or what the maintenance looked like on something that moves this much.
And the big one: pace. I like racing as well as I can and knowing whether I did a good job. Anything that gets in the way of that gets the chop. If motion was fun and immersive but my lap times took a hit, that would cancel out the fun and then some.
What I walked in worried about
Expo motionOut of phase, overwhelming
PriceThe nod-from-the-road bracket
Four actuatorsFour ways for the PC to fall over
Motion sicknessTerrible passenger
Noise and upkeepNo idea
PaceThe big one
On the rig
What it actually feels like.
Before, the conversation was between me and the wheelbase. It talks to me, I talk to it, and that's how I manage the car. Motion turned out to be a third person in that conversation, and it joined without any friction. It was like someone turning up late to an orchestra, sitting down and just playing. Within a session I'd stopped noticing it was there.
Delay, the thing that ruined it at expos, isn't there. Turn in and the weight moves across instantly. Get more roll than you expected and you feel the car starting to step out at the same moment the wheel tells you. The two agree with each other.
Kerbs make more sense than they ever have. You're looking at the apex and the exit, and on the left side of the car you can feel the moment you touch the kerb, climb it, go over the top, slip off and reach the grass. I used to listen for the sound of grass to know I was using all the track. Now I can feel the paint on the edge.
Trail braking and car balance come through in real time. You feel the car pitch under braking and settle as you come off the pedal, and harsh inputs feel wrong, so it pushes you towards smooth driving. Get on the power too early, lift, and get back on, and the rig throws you forward. You feel the time being lost. It doesn't make you faster. It makes mistakes much easier to spot.
Something I only realised later: the DF1 has haptics built into the actuators, and I'd been feeling them without knowing. When I went over kerbs I assumed it was the actuators bouncing. It was the haptics, which run at a frequency you set yourself. Motion and haptics blend like two colours of paint; you can't find the join. My one wish is for the kerb feel to come from the same telemetry the wheel gets, so each individual kerb in iRacing comes through rather than a fixed buzz.
The clearest sign of how well it fits: when I describe any of this to people, I say “the car”. I can feel it in the car when someone bump drafts me. Not the rig, not the motion system.
My brain filed it as the car.
What comes through, set up soft
01
Weight transfer
Turn in and the weight moves across instantly. Get more roll than you expected and you feel the car starting to step out at the same moment the wheel tells you. The two agree with each other.
02
Kerbs
On the left side of the car you can feel the moment you touch the kerb, climb it, go over the top, slip off and reach the grass. I used to listen for the sound of grass to know I was using all the track. Now I can feel the paint on the edge.
03
Trail braking and balance
You feel the car pitch under braking and settle as you come off the pedal. Harsh inputs feel wrong, so it pushes you towards smooth driving.
04
Mistakes
Get on the power too early, lift, and get back on, and the rig throws you forward. You feel the time being lost. It doesn't make you faster. It makes mistakes much easier to spot.
Checked off
The worries, one by one.
Every practical worry I walked in with, and where it landed after a month.
Software
Plug in, pick corners, doneI can only speak for Circuit One, and theirs is still in beta, but I installed it, plugged in, told it which actuator sits in which corner, and that was it. It looks like any other simracing software. Sliders for gain and force on pitch, roll, heave, suspension and gear shifts. You can shape it to a driving style: feel the brakes hard on turn-in but strip out the roll, or the opposite.
Motion sickness
None whatsoeverI'm a terrible passenger. Motorways make me nauseous when I'm not driving, yet I've raced real cars without a problem. A month in, nothing.
Noise
Your shifters are louderA slight contact sound from the actuators and that's it. I'm on the ground floor, so take that into account.
Reliability
No issues in a monthThe dev team are easy to reach and active in their Discord, and when I sent them a list of feature ideas they engaged with it. The one I want most is telemetry playback: press a button, the rig replays a recorded lap with nobody in it, and you stand beside it checking for cable movement, contact and loose fixings.
Pace
Set up soft, no impact at allI like racing as well as I can and knowing whether I did a good job. Anything that gets in the way of that gets the chop. Set up soft, it hasn't.
Open items
What I'm still watching.
Cables
No problems since, keeping an eye on it
They were designed to be plugged in and left alone, and now they move with the rig. I had a disconnect early on, but that was a powered USB hub mounted on the rig. With that moved off, one cable with plenty of slack runs to the rig and barely moves. I'm clamping each cable to the frame near its connector so a bracket takes the wiggle rather than the plug.
Throttle sawtooth
Went away within a week
Leave a corner with all four wheels on a kerb (think Red Bull Ring) and the bounce can come through your foot, so you end up at 98% throttle without meaning to. It mainly happened when the settings were too high, and it went away once I learned to work with it.
Maintenance
Don't know yet, haven't asked
Most sim gear ships with a “do not open” sticker, but anything that moves this much surely needs something eventually. For now it's kept clean and dust-free and seems happy out.
Is a month enough to know?
For 90% of it, yes, because I set it up simple and soft and it just works. Years of messing with force feedback settings meant I could dial it in fast. The last 10% comes from living with it. The hardware is finished; the software is in beta and will keep being built on, and in simracing the software is usually what gets the most out of the hardware.
The only question I cared about
Will it make me faster?
Will it make me faster?
Set up properly, it won't slow you down.
And things in simracing that don't slow you down add to the package that lets you go faster. Pedals, wheelbase, cockpit: none of them makes you quick on its own.
This is the most natural addition to a rig I've felt in years.
Quick answers
Does a motion system make you faster in simracing?
Not on its own. Set up soft, the Circuit One DF1 cost me nothing in lap time and gave me information about the car that didn't exist before, so mistakes are much easier to spot. Pedals, wheelbase, cockpit: none of them makes you quick on its own either. Turn motion up too far and it starts influencing your steering, your pedals, or your focus, and then it will slow you down.
Does the Circuit One D Force 1 cause motion sickness?
Not for me, and I'm a terrible passenger. Motorways make me nauseous when I'm not driving. A month on the DF1 and there's been none whatsoever. The short travel and the lack of delay are the reasons: the rig moves at the same moment the wheel tells you something, so your body never has to wait for the picture to catch up.
How loud is the Circuit One DF1?
Your shifters are louder. There's a slight contact sound from the actuators and that's it. I'm on the ground floor, so if you're upstairs on a wooden floor take that into account.
What software does the D Force 1 use, and does it work with iRacing?
Circuit One's own Circuit Manager on Windows, still in beta. You install it, plug in, tell it which actuator sits in which corner, and that's the setup. It has sliders for gain and force on pitch, roll, heave, suspension and gear shifts, and the haptics run at a frequency you set yourself. Everything in this piece was driven in iRacing.
Is there a discount code for the Circuit One DF1?
Yes. Code JackzerDF1 takes 5% off the D Force 1 at Simshop. It's a product code for the DF1 only, not the site-wide JACKZER code. A Black Friday sale is coming, so it may be worth holding off and checking the price then.
The honest bit
Why I hated to like it.
I never thought I'd have the chance to buy one of these, and I still don't. I got to try it because of the channel, and without that I probably never would have. I'd assumed it would be bulky, with a big power box beside the rig. It isn't. It replaced the feet of my rig with actuators. (For balance, I was in China and saw an AMG GT R with an IKEA box hanging out the boot, and he looked happy enough.)
If this cost €200, everyone would have one. It would be the first purchase after a wheelbase and pedals, because it just makes sense for the car to move. Down the straight at Monza you're gently hopping along with the road and it checks out. Price is the issue, and that's all. Like anything, I hope the price comes down, the quality goes up and the competition gets fierce.
If you can comfortably afford one and you've been wondering what motion would do for your rig, I hope this helps you decide. If you can't, and that includes me, I hope I took you along for it.
Where to buy
Circuit One DF1 at Simshop,
5% off with the code.
Tap to copy
A Black Friday sale is coming, so it may be worth holding off.
JackzerDF1 is a product code for the D Force 1 only. For everything else at Simshop, SIMAGIC included, the usual JACKZER code takes 3% off. The published specs, the install and my first impressions from the first few days are on the Circuit One page.
JackzerDF1 · 5% offBuy at Simshop
Purchasing items through the affiliate links here will provide commission to the channel at no extra cost to you, which keeps the videos coming to the community! Many thanks - Jack
Keep going
The rest of the conversation.
Related guides
The DF1, first impressions
The install, the software and the published specs from the first few days on the rig.
ReadWhat's the right force feedback for you?
The wheelbase is the loudest voice in the room. How to think about what it's telling you.
ReadThe rig the motion bolts to
My Sim-Lab P1X Pro, every piece of it, and why it went together so well.
Read
Gear that matters here
Circuit One
Short-travel, four-corner motion with haptics built in, and the first motion system I've had on my own rig. Code JackzerDF1 takes 5% off the D Force 1 at Simshop.
Read about the DF1
Simshop
A US shop built around SIMAGIC, with Moza, D-BOX motion and Circuit One alongside. Priced in dollars, shipped from the States, and code JACKZER takes 3% off.
Simshop discount code
Sim-Lab
From the GT1 EVO to motion-ready P1-X frames, Sim-Lab kit handles whatever a direct-drive base throws at it.
Sim-Lab discount codeThe Sim-Lab rig I race on
SIMAGIC
The SIMAGIC starter bundle deal. Direct-drive base, wheel and pedals, a permanent $599.
SIMAGIC discount codeThe SIMAGIC lineup, explained
Before you go
- The DF1 is on loan from Circuit One to test and feed back on. I didn't pay for it.
- This isn't a paid piece. Circuit One had no say in what's written here.
- The Simshop link is an affiliate link. Code JackzerDF1 takes 5% off the DF1, and a small commission comes back to the channel at no cost to you.
- I've had motion on my own rig for one month. Read everything above with that in mind.
The full picture on affiliate links and channel partners is on the disclosure page.
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Written by
Jack Wynne / JACKZER
Irish simracing content creator and SIMAGIC ambassador
I'm Jack. I race, I make videos about it, and I've spent years in the simracing community watching the hardware market grow up around it. Before any of this I was an electrician, so I've always been a tinkerer. I like taking a product apart in my head and asking how it could look better, work better, or just make more sense.
I also studied psychotherapy, which helps me understand what's going on in my own head when I drive, and sometimes helps me explain it in a way that's useful to you too.
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