Moza R3 direct

Today, Moza Racing is announcing the cheapest direct-drive sim-racing bundle for the Xbox – the Moza R3. $400 gets you an Xbox-compatible wheel with a new base and pedals. Moza has also nailed the timing of this release with Forza Motorsport set to release in October of this year. While it won’t be available for purchase until later in September, we were lucky enough to get our hands on it, so be sure to hit the video below and see all of the details.

If you’re familiar with Moza Racing, most of this R3 bundle is going to look very similar to the R5 bundle. The SR-P-Lite pedals are exactly the same between the bundles. The ES wheel shares the same bones but has been updated for and officially licensed for Xbox, which is a first from Moza.

The big difference is the brand-new R3 base. While it shares a similar design language to the R5, it’s much smaller but still packs the direct-drive technology that is regarded as the best way to experience sim racing.

Packing a maximum of 3.9Nm of torque, it’s considerably more powerful than the popular Logitech G923 and right on par with the Thrustmaster T300 but offers silky smooth motion, infinite rotation, and silent operation.

Getting up and running with the R3 bundle is fairly straightforward. Depending on how you plan on mounting the base, first, you will attach the desk clamp or mount the base onto a platform. I tried the R3 setup at my desk and mounted it to the Wheel Stand 2.0 from Next Level Racing.

Once again, setting up the pedals can vary a bit. There are rubber pads to use on a bare floor, or the pedals can be hard-mounted to something like the Wheel Stand 2.0.

One note, if mounting the pedals in a rig, save yourself a headache and plug in the connector before mounting it. Otherwise, it can be a pain to get the cable connected under the plate.

With the wheelbase and pedals setup, next, just plug the pedals in the correctly labeled port on the back of the R3 wheelbase, plug in the power, and connect the USB cable from the wheel to an Xbox or PC.

Then comes mounting the ES wheel. There are two sets of ball bearings – one has four and the other has six. To mount the wheel, line up the six bearings on the wheel with the six notches on the base and push the wheel on. The quick-release ring will snap over the bearings when mounted correctly. To remove the wheel, just pull back on the quick-release ring and pull the wheel away from the base.

Since this ES wheel will work both on Xbox or PC, it has two different modes. To change between those modes, just hold S1 and S2 for three seconds until the RPM LED lights start to flash.

Apart from the wheelbase, the big news here is that Moza is releasing an Xbox-compatible wheel with the R3 bundle. It looks nearly identical to the older ES wheel that comes with the R5 bundle but with Xbox-themed buttons.

Upon closer inspection, it also ditches the stitched leather material for something that I can only imagine is a bit cheaper to make while still offering an official Xbox-licensed steering wheel.

In use, though, it’s not that big of a deal. I didn’t notice the material difference at first – it was only when I was directly comparing the wheels afterward that I noted the difference.

Just like the normal ES wheel, the Xbox wheel has 22 customizable buttons. Right out of the box, everything worked well when playing Forza Horizon 5 and Forza 7.

Moza says that the Xbox ES wheel will work with other bases that have pedal ports like the R5 and R12, however, at the time of this review, I wasn’t able to get the wheel recognized on the R5 wheelbase. Considering that this is a brand-new unreleased wheel, I would imagine that support will come later down the line.

Across the top of the wheel are RPM LEDs. These worked perfectly when playing ACC on my PC but not while playing Forza Horizon 5 or Forza 7 on my Xbox Series X.

We’re not going to spend much time with the SRP-Lite pedals because they are exactly the same as what we covered in the R5 bundle review. It’s a two-pedal setup that can be expanded with a $40 add-on clutch kit.

Out of the box, they get the job done but the brake pedal leaves quite a bit to be desired. The throttle pedal is fine but a lack of feedback or progressive load on the brake pedal makes it fall short in terms of brake feel even compared to the Logitech G923.

Just like the R5 bundle, though, the brake pedal can be upgraded with a $30 performance kit that greatly enhances the brake feel.

Rubber pads on the bottom help a little bit for keeping the pedals in place when in use on a bare floor, but I still found that I had to brace the pedals against something to keep them from moving under braking.

When I had them hard-mounted to the Next Level Racing Wheel Stand 2.0, the pedals were solid.

The Moza R3 is the most compact wheelbase I have seen measuring 5.25 inches wide, 4.5 inches, tall, and 5.75 inches from the back to the end of the quick-release wheel stem. On the back are ports for USB, power, pedal, dash, shifter, handbrake, emergency stop, and a power button.

I wish there was a status light on the front of the base. It takes a moment for the RPM LED lights on the wheel to start flashing, and it can be a little confusing trying to figure out if the base is turned on or not.

After using the wheel for three hours straight the base was warm to the touch, but not overly hot.

Tweaking settings on the R3 bundle is taken care of through the Moza Racing app when using it on an Xbox. Via Bluetooth, many of the same settings from the desktop-based Moza Pit House app can be tweaked from a mobile phone.

There are presets for the wheelbase in the app, but I found that sometimes they needed some additional tweaking. On F1 22, for example, I had to tweak the max steering angle from the F1 preset to get it to match up with the wheel of the F1 car.

I was happy to see that everything worked perfectly when firing up Forza Horizon 5 on my Xbox Series X. When I was using the R5 bundle, I had to go to extra lengths to get it up and running in FH5.

Overall the app lacks some polish, at least in the English version, but I was able to navigate and make all of the tweaks that I needed to.

One thing to keep in mind is that depending on what games you primarily play, this wheel and pedal bundle will take some getting used to.

More arcade-focused titles like Forza Horizon 5 are made to work with a controller very well – I often find that I drift better on a controller than a wheel, for example. But it is a lot more fun and immersive on a wheel. And in titles like Assetto Corsa Competizione, a wheel and pedal setup is the best way to play, in my opinion.

While 3.9Nm of torque is the low-end when it comes to direct drive wheelbases, the R3 offered very impressive detail when playing ACC. It felt like the Moza R5, which has up to 5.5Nm of peak torque, just turned down a little bit.

When bombing around offroad on Forza Horizon 5, the wheel offers plenty of powerful feedback. Rallying on a wheel and pedals can be intense but it offers a immersive experience that is just plain fun.

It’s exciting to see more affordable direct-drive bundles coming onto the market – especially for consoles. Fanatec also has some Xbox-compatible bundles with the CSL DD system, but those are more expensive.

Eventually, you may start craving more power but the fun thing with Moza is that everything so far is upgradable. If the ES Xbox wheel does, in fact, work with the R5 or R12, you can swap out the wheelbase in the future with something bigger.

Additionally, the pedals can be easily upgraded. To me, the brake pedal performance upgrade is a must-have.

Moza seems dedicated to the sim world with frequent releases. Along with the R3 bundle, Moza is releasing a 400mm truck wheel, GT wheel, and a sequential shifter. Considering its relatively young age in the sim world, I’m excited to see what comes next from Moza.

Stay locked to 9to5Toys.com for more coverage on the Moza R3 bundle for Xbox as we approach its official release and availability in September.

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