An Honest Review on the Akina Handbrake by 3DRap
Today, I’ll be taking an in-depth look at it, telling you all what I like, what I dislike, and giving you all my final thoughts on the Akina Handbrake by 3DRap.
A sim racing handbrake is something I’ve never really considered purchasing. Mainly, because I'm not into Rally games and drifting has never caught my attention either. But a few weeks ago, the guys over at 3DRap who produce all types of sim racing mods reached out and offered to send me one. With nothing to lose, I accepted and a few days later, the Akina Handbrake was set up and ready to go on my rig. Little did I know how much I was missing out.
Reviewing a Sim Racing Handbrake
Off the bat, the Akina handbrake comes shipped in sturdy foam packaging which ensured everything arrived intact. The only reason I mention this is because I feel like shipping is such an underrated factor that many people forget to mention. Within it, everything is fairly straightforward. You receive an Akina-branded wrench, the handbrake's handle, and of course the base of the handbrake itself which was a lot lighter than I was expecting.
The handle itself is what you would imagine although its red stitching is definitely a nice touch and just happens to match my setup's color scheme so bonus points for that. Something I wasn’t totally convinced of was the material used to wrap the handle itself. According to 3DRap, the handle has an “Alcantara-like'' feel meaning it's not actually Alcantara, but it's supposed to mimic the feel of it. And while the handle feels fine, don’t get me wrong, I would say it definitely feels more like a stiff foam rather than Alcantara. And I know this because I was comparing it directly with my Alcantara-wrapped wheel.
Taking a look at the base of the handbrake, this is seriously impressive. Its body is mainly composed of satin steel with some 3d printed black components. Attaching the handle to it is as simple as can be. Simply remove the screws, attach the handle, and screw them back in with the included wrench. Whilst you are doing this, you can also mount the handle in a rally-style mode (meaning it sticks straight up), or in the conventional handbrake mode.
The thing that probably surprised me most about the Akina Handbrake was its wide range of adjustability which I’ll walk through right now:
As I just mentioned, you can use it as a rally-style or conventional handbrake. Moreover, you can switch between linear and non-linear signal configurations. A linear signal is used for mimicking how a conventional, real-life car’s handbrake would react whereas using the non-linear configuration will make it behave like a rally car. It also features what 3DRap calls a dual mechanical feeling meaning that you can completely change how the handbrake itself feels from two modes. One that feels linear and another that feels hydraulic to pull. From my experience, it worked just fine. The tension can also be adjusted using this knob in the back. 3DRap’s website claims that the Akina Handbrake comes with a quick guide manual, but for whatever reason mine didn't, which is fine, at the end of the day everything is straightforward and available on their website, but I would have liked to have one nonetheless.
Attaching the Akina handbrake onto my cockpit was probably harder than it should have been. Its default mounting brackets didn’t align with my GT-Track cockpit so I had to slightly jerry-rig it to make it work. Moreover, it didn’t come with any nuts and bolts to screw it into a cockpit so I had to spend a few minutes looking for some that would work. Not a big deal, but it's this small attention to detail that have a big impact on a customer's experience. I would also have loved to see it have some mounting holes on the sides of the base to give more mounting options. The Thrustmaster sequential shifter/handbrake I have does have these mounting holes and it’s made life very simple for me in the past. Also, I should mention that this Akina handbrake is mainly compatible with PC but according to the 3DRap website, you can purchase a separate adapter to make it work on console.
Anyways for the part that matters, how did the Akina Handbrake perform in-game? I’m just not even going to lie, this thing was so fun that I spent countless hours drifting around and playing Dirt Rally 2 before remembering I even had to make this review. I never actually realized how substantial a handbrake was, not only for the immersion side of things but for your performance in games such as these. Tight corners and hairpins seemingly became a breeze to overcome and I no longer had to turn my wheel like 900 degrees and lose a ton of time in the process. The Akina handbrake remained sturdy, allowed me to configure everything to my needs, and gave me a fantastic in-game experience from both a performance and immersion perspective. Moreover, its sleek design blended well with the rest of my rig and it even looks like a little brother next to the Thrustmaster sequential shifter which I thought was hilarious. There are however a few small things I would change. The first is the color of the cable. It comes with a black and red USB cable which although looks cool by itself, when trying to discreetly route it throughout my rig, tended to stand out and be very noticeable whereas an all-black cable would simply blend in. Moreover, the USB cable for some reason comes out from the front of the handbrake rather than the back which is also an annoyance when managing cables. My biggest concern with this handbrake is its long-term durability. As I mentioned earlier, some of its components are 3D-printed and although they’ve been solid and have done the job well from the weeks I’ve had this handbrake for, I worry about how it will hold up a year, or even six months from now, especially under heavy use.
At 180 euros, this handbrake is not cheap and due to its price, is also not for everyone. I, for one, wouldn't be able to justify spending that much for a handbrake under my current situation. Because here in the United States university textbooks alone cost that much. But if you can, and willing to purchase this handbrake, it's a really neat piece of gear which will not only look nice on your rig, but will seriously take your drifting and rally experience to the next level.
Video Review
