 Hello everybody, I'm EvilRabbit and today we're going to give you my honest review on the Mazda RS steering wheel and Mazda R9 wheelbase. So if you guys are looking to pick up your own Mazda racing equipment, make sure you use the referral link down below in the description. If you guys follow me on all social media, I'll just find the description box below. So without further ado, let's get to the review. So with first looks at the Mazda R9 wheelbase, I was pleasantly surprised with the size of the base. It was a super compact design and incredibly small for what I anticipated. It being a direct drive wheel, there's not much moving components inside. So I was pleasantly surprised with how small and the styling that Mazda put into the R9 wheelbase. The aircraft grade aluminum was incredibly nice, super durable and just flowed very well in the wheelbase. The size with the styling combined was going to make it really nice when it went on my rig. So that it would just be super sleek and super clean. The polymer back was definitely a nice touch with all of the plugs and everything on the back. And I believe that also helps with some sort of heat. Now the output shaft with the Bluetooth connectivity, so there's no wires in it, was definitely a huge thing for me. With having broken pins in my fanatech before, it was nice to see something that was not going to have any issues with pins going in and out all the time. Just the overall appearance and aesthetics of it and the size and the compact design of it was definitely something that I was excited when I first opened it up. You know, of course, you get the Mazda racing stickers in the box and everything like that. It's always great when companies give you stickers because I mean, it's always cool to have a sticker when you get something really nice. And as I said, the polymer back combined with the aircraft grade aluminum and all the connecting points and the symbol power button on the back was definitely a huge benefit for the base. And I just couldn't get over how small and compact it was and the aesthetics were amazing. The subtleties going into the RS steering wheel. When I first took a look at it, I could not get over how well the quality of the leather and the stitching was. I could not really find any imperfections in the leather or in the stitching on it. I was looking all over, could not really find any imperfections. The magnetic paddle shifters made out of forged carbon fiber match the front face of the forged carbon fiber front face and the magnetic parts of the shifters gave a nice textile click, which made it very good when you were using it because you could feel it and you could feel when you were shifting gears and it helped prevent bump shifting. The toggles and the dials were very nice when they had, you know, the very good clicks into place. They weren't wobbling around. The textile feel of the keyboard switches for all the buttons was definitely nice because you could really feel when you were using them and the joysticks were a nice touch because looking around and glancing around for drifting or racing is always a huge thing to have on your thumbs. So the quick release on the back, the Mazda quick release, the D1 spec style quick release was definitely amazing. It was built very well, was not going to give any slop in the wheelbase. It was going to make for a very solid connection and limit any type of wiggle or movement or anything like that. Combined with those retractable pins on the inside of the quick release for the Bluetooth connectivity was great. Initial setup of the wheel was so simple. I was very pleasantly happy with pulling up the Mazda app on my computer, turning the wheel on and it recognized the wheel right away, plugging the steering wheel in. It just recognized it right away and it went to as simple as turning my wheel to center, clicking the center button and it was set up and ready to go. It was also very nice that in the software, Mazda has some presets for like GT, for drift, for kart, for formula. And I found those were very good starting points for forced feedback. You didn't have to go searching the internet to try to find some settings. Those just worked. They were very good basic feedback settings. They felt really good when I was racing and felt very good when I was drifting and it was great to see some presets. So people wouldn't have to go figuring out what would, you know, all be on the wheelbase when it comes to forced feedback and settings like that. You could use their presets and have a very good base to tune and fine tune it yourself and make it how you want. One of the biggest advantages I found with this base was that Bluetooth app because of the wheelbase being Bluetooth to the rim, they have an amazing app that you can just download on the app store. Connect to your wheelbase and on the fly, change your forced feedback settings, change your presets, change your parameters, change your lights on your shifting for your RPM lights. Everything like that can be changed on the phone on the fly. You can save profiles, which is really great if you have multiple people and you're going in and out. If you're doing, say, an endurance race like we did with the 12 hour race where we changed multiple times and we all had different driving styles. So hopping immediately into a set of Corsa ACC, I was pleasantly happy and utilizing those dials for traction control and breaking the RPM shift light dialed into how I liked it, tracking from the outsides to the center and then flashing when it was at RPM was super bright and super noticeable. The feedback initially with the base setting only turned up to 900 degrees on the GT setting felt amazing. I really felt that I was able to feel what the car was doing when it needed to when I was locking up the brakes in certain sections. I could feel when the front tire started to slip because the wheel would have a reaction and at the road feel being turned all the way up made for a very good responsive feel of what was happening in the game. And it's very nice that you can fine tune everything to make it feel how you want it to. If you have a real world car, you could tune it to be having such as no power steering or power steering and it just felt amazing. I felt myself after getting used to the smaller diameter wheel being used to a 350 wheel that I found myself running. I felt smoother and faster lap times. Not really sure how much faster it actually was definitely going to be doing in comparison of lap times of my other wheel bases to see if the direct drive system was actually faster and I felt like I could be smoother. The precision of the direct drive was definitely noticeable from my other wheels being able to see one to one in game with my wheel in my hand was really incredible. The feedback when you're hitting rumble strips going into dirt or grass because that did happen. You were able to tell a difference between pavement curbs and dirt, which was just a testament to the direct drive wheel system. And overall the magnetic paddles were great and good for feeling and textile and shifting. And the magnets prevented any type of bump shifting or vibration shifting that I've had before on some other wheels where I'd slap it to shift gears real quick and it would bounce and double shift. There was none of that with the Mazda RS wheel. Those magnetic shifters were definitely very strong and very quick. And I also personally love the really loud clunk they make when you're shifting. It kind of makes you feel like you're actually shifting in a real car because it just has that nice feel, that nice clunk. Just like if you were in a real GT car or something like that and you go into gear, you get that nice feeling, that nice clunk in the seat. This kind of in its own way replicated that for me. So the quick release, there was absolutely no slop in the wheel. I could not find any type of play in it, which was great. I didn't feel any flex in the wheel, nothing on the base. So overall it was a much sturdier base than I was used to. And I feel like that is just also a testament to why I felt like I was driving quicker and smoother than I was prior. So those shift lights being able to be programmed however you want them and every color you want is great for fine tuning it for what you want to be able to see in your peripherals when you're driving. Having it flash either solid red at RPM max or how I have it going blue to pink to red and then the whole bar flashing when I want to shift was definitely something that I found myself enjoying and seeing other than just looking at it on the screen. I could pay more attention to what was going on in front of me and I could just see that out of my peripherals. Something that is incredibly awesome and never realized how much it helps until you have it. So the dials, everything being at your fingertips was great and it just felt so nice in ACC that I can't wait to continue to do more racing on it. I only did try it in ACC but I did hear the Mazda R9 base does work very well in other games such as eye racing. Jumping immediately into drifting because you guys know the base drift setting of the R9 wheelbase on Mazda's app felt incredibly good off the rip. The mechanical feedback and everything that was in the car felt really good. The wheel rotation speed was faster if not about the same speed as my prior wheels, my club sport, but it just felt smoother. It didn't feel like it hesitated, didn't have a weird stepping motion. It was more of a flow wheel rotation which I found was super easy to make for better transitions and smoother transitions. But one of the biggest wins I found when I was testing this was the fact that a factory NRG 2.0 quick release or D1 spec quick release or other quick releases of that size just snap right on. So it's a big win in Mazda's category for drifters who have say a wheel like this, which was my buddy's wheel taking it and just taking it off your real car, throwing it right into on the rig with no fancy adapters. Nothing like that not having to have a specific quick release like the Fanatec ones are buying all these weird adapters. It just fits on and works. The wheelbase works without having a Mazda wheel connected to it. So in my mind that was a huge win for Mazda and their system. It was incredible and I can't get over it enough. It just felt so good out of the box with the presets they have with some fine tuning on it. You can make it even better and it just works, which is incredible that they've spent the time to make those presets and make them work the way they did. And I just had so much fun ripping that thing around with that wheel as well as the Mazda wheel with the shift light flashing in my face, rev banging and drifting. It just was overall an amazing experience. So overall in conclusion, I can't thank Mazda Racing enough for sending out the RS wheel as well as the R9 base for me to get a chance to drive with and make this review for you guys. I'm definitely excited to continue to use this Mazda R9 base and the RS steering wheel in my drifting endeavors with the SDA as well as continuing it on the channel because it's definitely a solid base. So overall my impressions are extremely great base for the buy just coming in over just over $400. The R9 base is a very great ecosystem and like I said before, with the ability to use a quick release style from a standard car or even get this quick release and put it on to a standard wheel is a big win. The feedback feels great. Once again, I can't thank Mazda Racing enough for sending this stuff out to me. A big thank you to them and a big thank you to you guys for coming back and watching more episodes here on the channel. If you guys want to keep seeing stuff with the Mazda base, make sure you subscribe to the channel. I would appreciate support. If you are looking at picking up your own Mazda Racing equipment, make sure you check on the referral link down below. Click on that. It'll take you to Mazda Racing Store. So once again, as always, I thank you guys for coming back and watching. I'm EvilRabbit. I'll see you guys on the track.