Asetek La Prima Pedals are the New Standard on a Budget?!
These are the Asetek SimSports La Prima sim racing pedals, and they promise to be some of the highest quality and top-performing pedals with a somewhat entry-level price tag. Asetek sent these out to me close to half a year ago, and since then, I have consistently run them as my main set of pedals, not necessarily because I loved them, but because I really wanted to put them to the longevity test before giving you all my final thoughts.
So, now that time has come, and after literal months of constant use, I’m ready to tell you all the good, the bad, and whether the Asetek SimSports La Prima pedals could be for you. Keep in mind that if you are interested in purchasing these or sim racing products from nearly all the mainstream brands, discount codes, including a 5% off code for Asetek SimSports products, can be found here.
5% off Asetek code: OCRACING
Specs/Features
Competitively priced at $335, the Asetek La Prima pedals represent the company's most entry-level pedal set, and for their price point, they are strikingly good-looking. They don’t try to be flashy and loud; rather, they are sleek and conservative in design while maintaining a professional look and feel. With regards to their feel, they are quite slippery unless you’re using shoes, and the heel plate certainly doesn’t help people like myself who primarily just wear socks.
This is because, made of black anodized aluminum with several indents on the baseplate, you do feel them when just wearing socks. Conversely, when using shoes, I did find my heel getting stuck on the large groove near the start of the pedal arms, a problem I also heard many other people complain about at the Sim Racing expo a few months ago.
At its $335 price tag, the Asetek SimSports La Prima Pedals come with only the brake and throttle, with optional accessories and a clutch pedal sold separately. On one hand, this is a good thing as it means you get the basics of what you need at a competitive price with options to upgrade in the future. But on the other hand, it means you’ll also be spending more later down the road. I, for one, would definitely be buying the optional clutch pedal, as I tend to love cruising with H-pattern shifters more often than not.
Connecting with a single USB cable to your PC and not being compatible with Xbox and PlayStation, the setup of these pedals is straightforward. After downloading the Asetek RaceHub software, they're recognized on all sim titles, and in that sense, they're essentially plug-and-play. It's worth noting that you'll need to have these pedals hard-mounted on a dedicated sim racing cockpit or wheel stand, and I'll also go ahead and not recommend them for entry-level sim cockpits—more on this later. Hard mounting is facilitated with several mounting holes for you to attach using nuts and bolts, so no complaints there.
Specs and features aside, let’s start by talking about the throttle.
Throttle Pedal
Made with a die-cast aluminum pedal arm, no side-to-side movement or flex is found here, and to be fair, that’s not surprising considering the very little force needed to push them down.
Unlike the brake, the throttle pedal uses a 16-bit magnetic hall effect sensor to register input, which is great as it takes on no mechanical wear and is extremely precise out on the track. Talking about being out on the track, I know many people criticize the La Prima throttle for being too light, and to be fair, it is. However, this is 100% a subject of personal preference, as I myself prefer a throttle that feels like this, whereas the larger majority of people I’ve spoken to prefer more stiffness to the throttle. So, while this is a downside to many, it’s not so much for me.
What is a big downside for me, though, is the slippery nature of the pedal face. Made to be completely smooth, it won’t eat up your socks by any means, but what it will do is feel quite slippery and, occasionally, and especially when heel-toe downshifting or driving passionately, will slip out of place. This, of course, won’t be a problem when wearing shoes, but conversely, what may be a problem when wearing shoes is how close these two pedals are to one another.
While this wasn’t a problem for me when wearing socks, every time I put on shoes to race, I felt as if my feet were mere centimeters away from each other, and that’s because they practically were, and honestly, it didn’t feel too comfortable. A big downside of these pedals, and I believe all three Asetek pedals, is that they are uniform to the base and as such cannot be independently adjusted side by side. What can be adjusted is also quite minimal, with just subtle changes to the throttle’s travel via the pedal stop.
All in all, while the throttle found here isn’t groundbreaking by any stretch of the imagination, it is very good looking, and for someone like me, does do the job, albeit I wouldn’t say I’m impressed by it either; it’s kind of just satisfactory.
Lots more is to be said with regards to the brake pedal, which depending on what you’re looking for, will either make or break this pedal set… no pun intended.
Brake Pedal
Similar in design to the throttle, the brake pedal features a smaller but textured pedal face, further accentuating this product's sophisticated look.
Again, a die-cast aluminum pedal arm is found here, but unlike on the throttle, the non-flex nature of it is really put to the test. This is because, using a specially designed load cell system, the load cell sensor here can, according to Asetek, sense up to 180kg or 396 pounds of force, which is ridiculous. What I can confirm with confidence, though, is that no matter how badly I was trying to push this brake pedal to the extreme, I found literally no flex anywhere, and that is very impressive.
With regards to this pedal's performance, I reckon you can get an understanding of how they are. Simply put, the Asetek SimSports La Prima pedals are some of the stiffest I’ve ever used, and that’s done on purpose. You see, designed to closely mimic a GT3 or other high-end track-built race cars, the Asetek brake pedal, no matter the adjustments you make on it, will always be, at minimum, very stiff. This is done in order to help with your leg's muscle memory, as you’ll be relying on consistently putting down the same amount of force rather than trying to make the pedal travel the same amount of distance. Consequently, this also helps with trail braking, and most sim racers will tell you this is the preferred setup for maximum consistency and on-track performance.
Now, what do I say? Well, I know this is a hot take, but I prefer being comfortable on my setup above anything else, and I personally don’t like to feel like I’m doing leg day whenever I want to hop into a race. So, while most people do prefer and use a very stiff brake pedal, I almost always run a much softer configuration that, without a doubt, helps with my comfort far more than it does with my performance, a sacrifice I’m willing to make as I’m not a competitive esports driver by any stretch of the imagination.
Unfortunately, for someone who prefers what I like, these pedals, no matter the adjustments you make on them, will never give you a soft, road-car type feel, which again is what I like in my rig. With regards to the adjustability you can make here, it again is fairly subtle with the initial preload and maximum/minimum stiffness being adjustable, but again, at all points, it is still a very track-focused set of pedals.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Asetek SimSports La Prima pedals are very capable, but they are also very limited in their use. For many sim racers who want ultimate on-track performance and care for nothing more than to be as quick and competitive out on the track, I can easily recommend these. However, for people like myself who want a third pedal and who prefer a more comfortable, less intense experience, you may find these pedals to be somewhat lacking.
While they offer great build quality, impressive performance, and a sleek design, their lack of adjustability and comfort for more casual racers can be a downside. The need for hard mounting and their specific compatibility with PC only further narrow their appeal to a more dedicated sim racing audience.
It's clear that Asetek has targeted the La Prima pedals at the serious sim racer looking for high-end performance without the top-tier price tag. However, the overall experience can feel limiting if you're not in the market for such a specialized product.
Ultimately, whether the Asetek SimSports La Prima pedals are for you depends largely on what you seek in a sim racing setup, and I hope that this review gave you a good understanding of whether they are a good choice for you or not.
OC SCORE: 7.9
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