GT DD Pro Wheel Rim Breakdown after many hours of use

I've finally had time to put 50+ hours into my GT DD Pro wheel over the past month, and I've seen so many concerns about the wheel rim itself that I thought maybe a detailed breakdown may be useful to someone.

I am a Fanatec newb overall. The GT DD Pro is my first Fanatec wheel, though I have been using the shifter, handbrake, and V3 pedals for several months prior. I also purchased a BMW GT2 V2 wheel rim to go with my setup which let me do a better comparison to a standard Fanatec wheel.

I have been using the GT DD Pro wheel rim 95 percent of the time so far as I only recently received my GT2 V2 wheel.

The price of the wheel is about $240.00 USD if we subtract the price of the pedals, Table Clamp, and the price of a CSL DD Base from the package, which is the comparable wheel base.

This is somewhat reasonable if we consider the features provided with OLED and Simplified Rev Lights, but the materials are not of the same level as the CSL Elite Steering Wheel WRC or the Clubsport Steering Wheel BMW GT2 V2.

However the GT DD Pro wheel does fall somewhere in the middle of these two wheels in terms of features. The materials consist of plastic, rubber, and the above mentioned OLED screen and simplified REV light parts. 

Sadly, Fanatec doesn't discount for package deals as far as I've seen, which is why I included a price breakdown.

Anyways... Here's a quick breakdown of what I like and dislike about the wheel rim. Some of it I found surprising.

Materials and build quality:

The plastic build is mostly solid outside of the D-Pad. I really don't like the D-Pad cover. It feels and looks cheap.

The wheel rim itself is solid feeling when using it. More than my G920 and surprisingly it's more solid than my GT2 V2.

This is probably due to its simple construction and diameter.

The rubberized rim looks great and feels nice at first, but it's too sticky. It even smells a bit... rubbery? I was hoping that would change after some hours of use, but it hasn't yet.

It's great for driving GT style with Paddle shifting, but it's terrible for drifting and it's OK for Rally Racing.

I really wish this was a leather material or alcantara at the price point, as that would have made this wheel rim great for almost any style of driving.

Wheel Shape and Diameter:

I love a round wheel and have no complaints here. But you might.

The 280mm wheel diameter is nearly identical to my G920, which i found a tad disappointing, however after swapping in the Clubsport Steering Wheel BMW GT2 V2 wheel(320mm), I found that the larger diameter and weight quickly dampens the FFB.

It's still very strong with the 8nm boost kit, but not so much on the 5nm standard setup. The difference between the 280mm and 320mm wheel is enough reason to adjust FFB settings quite a bit.

This leads me to believe that it was part of the reason they went with the 280mm wheel. Personally I think a 300mm wheel would have been ideal, and am looking for the perfect 300mm Round wheel in the future. Maybe that wheel is the Ford Puma Wheel. :o

Simplified Rev Lights and OLED Screen:

I can't tell if it's and OLED screen... It's small It's clear, I can read it and my vision is not great. So it's good. The user manual likes to remind me that it's OLED though.

The simplified Rev lights are good too. Three bar lights and then it flashes brightly when you should shift so it does it's job.

It also flashes much brighter than my GT2 V2 wheel. So that's great, and I can see it without looking at it.

Buttons and Shift Paddles:

I wish the paddles were metal, but I like their shape and thickness. They feel good, but I use H Pattern shifting as often as I can so I don't use them much.

The buttons are mostly great and there are a ton of them. Even better is that they are setup for GT Sport and I would assume they will be for GT7 as well. I only had to map a couple buttons in FH5. And if i want to map more I have so many to choose from and they are all in convenient places. I've yet to get ACC setup right, though I haven't spent enough time in there yet.

But being that these buttons sort of replicate and PS controller, I wish there was some analog buttons. One or two of the sticks could be analog for menu navigation, zooming, rotating view etc.

None of the R2, L2, R3, and L3 buttons are analog either.

But as they are, the buttons and sticks, they almost remove all reasons to even use a controller. Almost... Some analog would fix that for pretty much all games. Missed opportunity.

No Funky Switch. :( Who doesn't want to be funky?

My only serious complaint is that the buttons and sticks are not recessed back from the rim and I have caught them with my hands a few times in rigorous situations, and yeah, a bit painful.

Again, the D-Pad is ugly and it rolls over the switch lazily. Yuck.

Plastic Quick Release:

It's good. It's a snug fit and doesn't rattle on the GT DD Pro wheel base which the QR1 does on my other wheel sadly.

Overall look:

Well it doesn't look like most Fanatec wheels, and I could easily mistake it for a Logitech wheel. It's so similar to the Thrustmaster GT wheels and we know this deign is a Polyphony decision by now.

So while it's not the greatest looking wheel I also don't find it to be ugly overall. The convenience of the wheel kind of supersedes it's appearance.

It's appearance however is the reason i felt inclined to purchase the GT2 V2 wheel already... I mean... Don't we all want something authentic looking?

I intend to use the GT DD PRO on GT7 for a while before trying out my other wheel rim so I don't have to spend ages setting up buttons etc, and eventually I'll set up and compare the GT2 V2 wheel. I'm pretty excited for GT7.

Anyways. I hope someone finds this helpful and not too redundant. But I always find it fun to share new hardware experience.