Who are Cammus Electronic Technology Company?
If you’re like me, understanding who the company is and their history plays an important role in the purchase process of any new product. New companies enter the sim racing market regularly and can disappear just as quickly. This can create confusion, uncertainty, or scepticism with the potential buyer.
Cammus Electronic Technology Company originates from Shenzhen, China and are one of the newer manufacturers in the sim racing market. Cammus first established themselves as an automative electronics developer over 10 years ago including its Sub Brand WINDBOOSTER – a popular electronic throttle controller for many 4WD owners. They have now transferred this knowledge into their affordable and easy to obtain Sim Racing products.
Cammus has warehouses in Spain, America, France, Saudi Arabia, UK and Australia making it easy and fast for delivery. This certainly was true in my experience. I received the C5 products to my Australian residence in 3 working days.
The purpose of the C5 Direct Drive
The C5 is Cammus Racings entry level option in their sim racing product line. The aim of the C5 is to provide an entry level Sim Racer the ability to get their hands on a Direct Drive system. The really impressive thing here is the price. The Cammus C5 is priced to compete with the tried and tested “entry level” products typically found in the sub $500 AUD price category. At this point you would be forgiven for thinking “is it too good to be true?” Personally, I would be asking the exact same question. However, thanks to Cammus we can now get to the bottom of what the C5 product provides and the critical information that a consumer requires starting with the base and wheel.
C5 Specs & Features
The C5 boasts a compact design with a flat-bottomed circular rim. The total diameter is 280mm. The rim itself has a nice leather style finish making it comfortable in the hand through prolonged use. The button box component contains 23 programable buttons including 3 rotary encoders and 2 small shift paddles. The rim also includes an LCD screen which displays the current speed in km/h, miles/h or gear selection depending on your preference. To finish off the rim face is 10 RPM lights which also can be customised through the Cammus Desktop Application.
At the back of the rim is Cammus’ party trick – the Direct Drive motor built into the rear of the wheel rim itself. The unique design demonstrates Cammus’ commitment to its 5 C approach Creative, Control, Change, Challenge and Classic. The motor itself contains 5Nm of Torque to power the feedback in the direct drive motor.
Performance Testing
One of the advantages of the C5 product line is its ease to setup and install. The product is designed perfectly for someone who is experiencing sim racing for the first time. I found setting up the desk clamp, wheelbase, and installation of the software a breeze. If you’re coming from a console gaming background, the prompts, and notifications to install drivers are simple to follow and take a lot of the guess work out of sim racing on PC.
Once I had the unit set up, I was in a practice session in Assetto Corsa Competizione within 15 minutes. As someone who has struggled to stay on top of a lot of the software advances with sim racing of late, this was a pleasant experience. While driving I immediately noticed the resistance and dampening within the wheel itself adding to a “weighted” feeling when turning the rim. This immediately stood out as something you don’t get in a belt and gear driven wheel. The resistance was adequate without being overly noticeable which given the 5Nm rating on the wheel – as expected.
Another added benefit of the direct drive motor was the precise feedback in the wheel. This is what you expect from a direct drive wheel and the Cammus C5 is no exception. The higher detailed feedback comes when experiencing tyre slip, understeer, oversteer, traction control loss, locked brakes etc and provides another layer of immersion that is hard to replicate in a belt driven wheel.
Initial Thoughts
After a few hours use, with numerous Sim Racing titles, the Cammus C5 presented as one of the finest entry level options on the market. From personal experience, I started sim racing using a Thrustmaster T150 & T300 – both belt and gear driven wheels. Whilst I enjoyed those products with base level games such as the F1 series and Project Cars I soon found that they were lacking when I transitioned to iRacing and other online racing titles. The C5 provides the higher level of performance across a wide range of titles whilst keeping the hit to the wallet reduced to $279 AUD. If you are interested in picking up the C5 pedals, then the bundle can be had for $300 AUD.
Who knew getting into sim racing could be so cheap?
The C5 is an excellent choice for entry level sim racers – however it is currently only compatible with PC titles. The button layout on the wheel suggests that cross compatibility would be achievable in the future but there is yet to be definitive support for the C5 on consoles. A full list of the compatible PC titles can be viewed on the C5 product page.
If you’re interested in picking up a Cammus product then Cammus have kindly provided a link to Sim Racing In Focus readers for a 5% off discount when using “simfocus” in the coupon code section at checkout.
