A1 Racing Gear

The Early Years

Advantage1 wheels and pedals have been available in Australia for over 10 years. The original design came out of Melbourne and I was a reseller of the product. I owned a set of Advantage1 Wheels and Pedals and they still work as well today, as the day I bought them. The design was robust and simple. There were very few options available back then and sim racing was still in its infancy. The controller back then was a Game Port device with a brake and a throttle on a single axis and 2 buttons on the wheel. The options available included 2 additional buttons and chrome plated pedals.
In August of 1999, I purchased Advantage1 and kept the basic design apart from a couple of minor tweaks. I increased the lock to lock on the wheel by about 30 degrees, made 4 buttons standard and included a switch allowing the pedal axis to be split if required. We sold quite a few units and there are a number of them still out there today.

Evolution

With the advent of USB and the slow but inevitable demise of the game port, the writing was on the wall for the classic Advantage1 Wheel and Pedals. Without great urgency, I began looking for a USB solution. I tried a few adapters but nothing was going to satisfactorily convert a game port device to USB. In the meantime, I was reselling racing controllers from Act Labs. Their Act Labs GPL Shifter was a fantastic product and as the Australian Distributor we also sold the RS Wheel and the Performance Pedals. The Advantage1 product was only selling in small numbers and with other controllers in our catalog including Thrustmaster and Logitech, there was no longer any real impetus to create the USB version of the Advantage1 product.
In 2004, Act Labs made the decision to bring the GPL Shifter and the Performance Pedals to their natural conclusion much to my disappointment. However, I felt this was a good opportunity to bring the Advantage1 back to life. I was able to provide Act Labs with an idea for a USB Controller which would suit my plans for Advantage1 and with their development team, the Advantage1 USB Controller was born. It was an 8 bit controller with 4 axes and 16 buttons which would control my soon to be released A1 GT Pedals, followed by the A1 Gearbox and finally the A1 GT Wheel. Through much testing and prototyping, the A1 GT Pedals sold extremely well and exceeded my expectations. My plan was to provide a pedal set using the original philosophy of robust yet simple but with optional finishes and colours to suit the avid sim racer. We were soon selling pedals overseas and they were even rebadged and sold by Act Labs.
Our A1 Gearbox is a great gadget, albeit, difficult to make and had its share of issues but the future looks good for the H pattern shifter. It is extemely tough and rugged and for those who like to change with a manual stick, this is as good as it gets.
The A1 GT Wheel is my attempt to make a wheel that looks and feels like you're driving a racing car. Great feel with a solid and a fast look about it. The lock to lock is variable, the components are all industrial grade and the colour and style options will suit any sim racer for any form of racing.

Where To From Here?

In 2008 I have a different attitude. It is time to put Advantage1 to bed and wake up with a new and shiny outlook. This is A1 Racing Gear. A new name, a new website, new collaborations, a new controller and a bunch of enhancements. The new controller will be smooth and clever. It will allow old equipment to just plug in but it will also provide some nice features for new devices as well as upgrades to existing ones.
We are going to put a lot of effort into sim racing. We will work together with organisations and clubs to maximize the racing experience and to bring new people to the sport. We are going to work extremely hard to make sim racing available to the novice and to enhance the experience of the enthusiast through collaboration, information and innovation. In doing this we must provide equipment and services of the highest quality while maintaining focus with the sim racing community. Exciting times indeed.