Build Your Perfect Simracing Rig For Under 300€

Do you want to build your own driving simulator, but can’t decide between premade and DIY structural rack constructions? We think the latter is almost always better! This guide shows you exactly what you need to buy, what to consider, and how to assemble your new rig.

DIY vs Premade Rigs

In our opinion, a good rig should:

• Not lock you into an ecosystem, and instead support mounting hardware from as many brands as possible.
• Offer basic ergonomy features like a heel rest, as well as reasonable seat height for easy ingress and egress.
• Make ergonomy adjustments easy so you don’t hurt yourself because you’re too lazy to fix a compromised seating position. Longitudinal distance between seat/wheel/pedals, transverse distance between pedals, and steering wheel height and angle would be examples.
• Be perfectly rigid so you never have to replace it, no matter the FFB strength or braking forces supported by your new gear.
• Be extendable so you never have to replace it, but can simply add parts, no matter if you’re getting a shifter, handbrake, button box, or anything else.
• Offer easy solutions for little issues you might not think about now, but will notice down the line. For example, being able to more easily reach your PC peripherals while driving, or reducing noise due to vibrations from your wheelbase that your neighbours are complaining about.

Based on this, we believe that any rig not based on standardised aluminium extrusions is a tough sell. 8mm or 10mm wide slottings in 40×40 and 80×40 profiles are simply the most customisable base setup. A rigid rig should use 80x40s instead of 40x40s in places where there’s significant load that would bend the profile and cause noticeable deflection. In places where extrusions are under longitudinal tensile load only, 40x40s are almost always completely fine.

The cheapest premade rigs that offer all of this start at around 450€ including delivery, excluding a seat and some things not everyone might need, like a screen holder. We can do the same for 275€ including delivery.

The Setup

Here’s the optimised base rig that we’ll be building. The main ground frame is spaced transversely to exactly accomodate the mounting pattern of the pedal base plate we’re using. Even the seat can be mounted to this same frame, as we’ll explain later! This means that we’re saving a bunch of profiles and angles, and therefore cost. The basic setup consists of the following:

Do you already have a pedal base plate, or are using a pedal set that has an integrated base? Consider the following:

Skip on our pedal base plate, saving you another 49€ and bringing the total down to 224€. Instead, adjust the size of the transverse extrusions of the list above to fit the width between the mounting holes of your base plate. As a reference, this is 324mm on our plate, which results in 284mm length for the two 40×40 transverse extrusions, and 364mm length for the 80×40 transverse top wheel stand extrusion.

Then, measure how far apart the mounting holes of your seat are in width, and do the math: Our seat mounting adapters allow for up to 85mm of offset between the slottings of your rig, and the mounting holes of your seat, in each direction. If your seat’s mounting holes are 345mm apart, then our adapters will make it fit with any pedal base with a mounting width between 260mm and 430mm. This should cover most pedalbase-seat-combinations you’ll find, but you should do the math in advance to be safe.

And the seat?

For most people, the best way to acquire a seat is from a scrapyard or second-hand offers for seats from random cars around your area. You might have to give it a good clean, but should find a usable seat for less than 50€ without any issues. You won’t have to spend much more to get a seat in near-perfect condition that is also very comfortable.

If you want something that makes your simulator look like a racing simulator, our suggestion is to look specifically for seats from 2000s affordable/common sports cars, of which a lot have rusted away by now, or have gotten stripped for parts due to other longevity/reliability issues that have nothing to do with the seats. This usually means that there’s much more supply than demand for those seats in particular, and you’ll still spend less money than for an entry-level ‘racing simulator seat’. Depending on where you live, cars to looks out for could be: Nissan 350Z / 370Z, Mazda RX-8, Porsche Boxster, Chevrolet Corvette C5 / C6, seats from various hot hatches, or others.

The Assembly

To start assembling, you need the parts listed above, including whatever additions and changes you’d like. You also need size 3 and 4 hex (“allen”) keys. Use the drawing at the top of this page as a reference.

The angles allow us to connect profiles at a 90° angle. Standard Bosch or Item angles look a bit different to the ones we have here, and might not have countersunk holes and therefore require different screws, but apart from that, usage is the same. Slide a T-nut into each profile, then screw into them through the angles.

Assemble the main ground frame as shown above. When tightening angles, always ensure that the profiles are pressed fully against each other to minimize play in the fastened connection. Sometimes it’s practical to leave connections slightly loose, then position them against each other properly, and then tightening them.

Next, assemble the arch that will hold your wheelbase. Once the three 80x40s are connected to each other, put them over the ground frame and connect them to each other on both sides. If you bought EPDM tape, this is a good opportunity to flip the rig upside down and cover all ground surfaces with EPDM.

The seat is next. This rig design doesn’t need any additional extrusions to mount the seat and pedals. Instead, connect the seat adapters loosely to your seat, and position the seat on the extrusions. Loosely connect the other end of the adapters to the rig. Shift the seat in place so the angle of the adapters is mirrored both front-to-back, and left-to-right. Tighten the adapters to the profiles. Then, flip the rig upside down and tighten the adapters against the seat.