Ah, the humble handbrake, yes, it’s great for making sure your car doesn’t roll away when parked, but it’s so much more than that. Putting your rear tyres on tea trays and jamming on the handbrake in our front-wheel drive cars was the most fun a 17-year-old could have in a B&Q car park. Nowadays, with CCTV cameras, we’d suggest you do not do it. That's what sim rigs are for.
You can install a handbrake on your sim racer, giving you ultimate control over sharp hairpin turns or drifting. A quick pump of the handbrake to lock the rear wheels, shift down a gear and get the back end to step out, and your drift game will be significantly improved. In rally games, you’ll find that the handbrake is used more frequently than you might think.
A handbrake in a car is a progressive thing. If it’s cable-driven, you’ll know that jamming it on must be done right. Too slow, the wheels won’t lock. Too hard, you’ll find it difficult to control. A pneumatic handbrake solves this, like what Ford did on the Focus RS if you wanted to end up in a hedge with drift mode engaged. A handbrake on a sim is either on or off. It’s not progressive, and the feeling isn’t the same, so you won’t need to pull it off its plate to get the job done. Getting the perfect Scandi flick from your living room.
Let’s look at the best sim handbrakes out there at the moment.
The best sim racing handbrakes
This magic lever from Thrustmaster not only brings about smile-inducing, rear-end swapping drifts, but it will also shift through the gears for you. A switch on the box changes between sequential shift and handbrake modes. You can also adjust the position of the lever to suit whichever style you prefer.
Pros
- Two-in-one product
- Easy to switch between modes
- Easy to install
Cons
- We’d prefer a shifter and a handbrake
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Developed with real-life rally drivers, this handbrake is said to create the perfect length, height and feel of a handbrake for your sim. It is made from steel, 4mm thick, with an added surface treatment to provide durability and longevity from vigorous tugging. The EVO handbrake can be mounted to sim cockpits and has a wide range of adjustability due to the groves in the base.
Pros
- Adjustable
- Capable of handling up to 200kg of force
- Developed by rally drivers
Cons
- High price but has plenty of tech
You might be in the market for a mount if you own a handbrake. This universal mount has plenty of holes of varying length and size, which should enable you to secure it to your sim rig and your handbrake to it.
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If you have a Track Racer cockpit, consider a mount that functions with it. From there, the mount will work with the most popular brand handbrakes, such as Fanatec, Heusinkveld, Derek Spares and Thrustmaster TSS.
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If you have a RaceRoom seat, this bracket will allow you only to fit a Fanatec Clubsport hand brake. It’s height adjustable, helping you to find the perfect position for those short sharp tugs on the lever. This handbrake bracket mounts directly onto the shifter and can be mounted on either your seat’s left or right-hand side.