Trak Racer TR8 Pro | Long Term Review
In a world of ugly and boxy aluminium profile rigs, there’s huge demand for something with similar functionality and customisability, that just simply looks good. Trak Racer has an impressive range of rigs and when it comes to easy to assemble, sturdy rigs, this one intrigued me the most… I’m Laurence, welcome to the channel
Affiliate links for these products:
TR8 PRO Rig (US) https://trakracer.com/search?q=TR8+PRO*&ref=105
TR8 PRO Rig (EU) https://trakracer.eu/search?q=TR8%20PRO*&ref=80
TR8 PRO Rig (UK) https://trakracer.co.uk/search?q=TR8%20PRO*&ref=105
TR8 PRO Rig (AU) https://trakracer.com.au/search?q=TR8%20PRO*&ref=105
TR8 PRO Rig (NZ) https://trakracer.co.nz/search?q=TR8%20PRO*&ref=105
Steering wheel & Wheelbase: https://bit.ly/JB-CAMMUS-WHEEL-PEDALS-BUNDLE (Use code: LDCAMMUS for 5% off)
Shifter: https://bit.ly/JB-SHIFTER
Handbrake: https://bit.ly/JB-HANDBRAKE
- Introduction
On the left you’ll see all the sections in this video. I’ve put timestamped links to each section in the description below. While you’re down there please hit the thumbs up button to help YouTube to suggest this video to others like you. 70% of the people who watch my videos are not subscribed. Please consider subscribing and hit the notification bell if you want to be notified about upcoming reviews.
As an aluminium profile rig owner, my demands for rigidity and customisability are huge due to the range of equipment I need to use and review. In general though, we mount everything pretty much in the same places and once stuff is mounted, most of us rarely upgrade. This TR8 Pro rig seems to tick all the boxes from the included shifter mount to the optional proprietary seat. I also got the integrated single monitor mount and I’ll cover all of these extras in more detail in later sections.
I don’t usually review rigs. They’re a lot of work and take up a lot of space. To really put this rig to the test, I got some of Ireland’s most well known car culture YouTubers and their friends to put it through its paces. Neil, Josh and Flip from Juicebox were over the moon with this rig, but months later, I’ve also gotten their longer term feedback and combined it with my own to give you this review.
All of the products in this review were sent to me free of charge for the purposes of this review and nobody other than me has had any say in the content of this video. This review is of the TR8 Pro rig only, but should you be curious, the other products are the CAMMUS pedals, CAMMUS DDWB 15NM direct drive wheelbase, Aiologs handbrake and SHH Shifter. If my content brings you value, please consider using my affiliate links for these products and their competitors which I’ve included in the description below.
- First Impressions
Even on photos, this is a visually impressive and attractive rig. The curves are nice and it doesn’t look like a bulky heavy mess. This thing was a breath of fresh air to build. Everything was super intuitive and went together pretty smoothly despite all the unorthodox hardware that I put on this rig. I chose all of those components because they’re very good for drifting, which will be the main purpose of the rig for the Juicebox crew. These guys have real drift cars, track only race cars and high performance road cars. If anyone is going to test this TR8 PRO to the max, it’s these guys.
It’s a great rig for normal circuit racing or rally too. I honestly can’t fault the general design and practicality of it. There were lots of things that Trak Racer thought of with this rig that made life a lot easier. From the simple adjustment to the supply of extra bolts to cater for all eventualities.
- Price
Rigs are not cheap, but they’re a buy once, cry once type of purchase. The TR8 PRO comes in at €659 or $693 USD. That’s just the frame though, although you do get a shifter/handbrake support, seat sliders, pedal mount with slider, height adjustable wheel mount and all tools, bolts, screws and nuts included. You do still need to buy yourself a seat which needs to be a side mounting bucket seat. You can replace the supplied side mounting seat brackets with universal base mounted seat sliders and fit pretty much any seat from a road car, but unless you’re familiar with this process or on a tight budget, I’d strongly consider adding a brand new Trak Racer GT seat for €300 / $349. That’s what we got for this rig and it was super easy to install and incredibly comfy and supportive. The final extra that we have here is the integrated single monitor mount which is €80 / $90 extra. To put it through its paces we hung an old heavy 32″ TV off it which definitely pushed it to its limits, but did the job very well.
- Installation – Hardware
As I say, installation was very very easy. We didn’t even need the instructions as there are so few parts that we were able to work out what went where really easily. Most of it is already assembled and very neatly boxed up. They’ve really saved the end user a lot of time when it comes to getting up and running. Any of you who have ever built an aluminium profile rig will know how tedious that can be, so building this rig was a breath of fresh air. I would offer one tip, and that is to offer up all the parts together with loose bolts first and only then tighten everything up.
We did have to do some drilling to install hardware though as it wasn’t all plain sailing. Firstly, we had to ditch the sliding pedal tray as our pedal set had a huge base plate that we didn’t want to loose. This was a pity, and we could have just mounted the pedals directly to the integrated pedal tray on the TR8 PRO but we would have had to do some drilling regardless. This all worked out pretty ok though but we did lose some adjustability.
Installing the shifter was another interesting task because we also had this handbrake to install. We drilled another 2 holes to get it to the exact proximity. The guys build cars for fun, so drilling a few holes in a rig was no problem. I think that unless you’re using very common equipment, there will be some drilling involved for optimal fitment of your hardware to this rig. Drilling a hole into your rig is nothing to be afraid of though. Just measure it plenty of times before drilling and you’ll be fine.
The monitor vesa arms were a tad confusing and we couldn’t find a good guide or image on how to mount it. We eventually figured it out. It only took about 10 of us, but we got there. Once mounted, this old 32″ TV got a new lease of life.
- Comfort and ergonomics
Despite sacrificing some of our adjustability when we got rid of our pedal slider, we still had full range of movement of the wheelbase and the seat. The shifter mount has some minor adjustment and the monitor mount actually does too. So we got a decent configuration here, considering the hardware being relatively large. If you’re a stickler for FOV (or field of view), rigs like this tend not to be perfect. If you don’t know what FOV is or why it matters, don’t worry about it. You can still achieve a great experience with this rig, especially if you use a standalone monitor stand.
The seat is great. Much better than what I expected. The wheelbase adjustability is actually something I miss on my aluminium profile rig, and my personal rig cost me several times what this one costs. The TR8 Pro really does represent good value for money in my opinion.
- Final Thought
This is a great looking rig. It looks like a nice roll cage that was turned into a sim rig by an artist. It’s a lovely display piece and the main frame is very rigid. It even coped well when we attached a huge old TV to it. Of course stuff is going to flex slightly in a rig like this, but the main structure is nice and solid. The heavy old TV does wobble quite a bit. If that’s an issue, Trak Racer also sells standalone monitor stands which offer more range of installation options than the optional integrated mount that we got for this rig.
The seat is surprisingly comfy and it looks like it was lifted straight out of a race car. There’s a seat slider and even a pedal slider. However, we had to ditch the pedals slider as these Cammus Pedals are huge, but also really good.
The shifter and handbrake mount is the weakest point of this rig. I say weak, because it just has a lot of flex. This is unlikely to break over time but I’d love if it just didn’t move so much as it does cheapen an otherwise surprisingly good rig. Maybe it’s the fact that I had real life drivers sitting in it. Josh here has been through 3 gear boxes with his latest S15 build, so maybe it’s the company I keep which is the issue.
I used this rig for a few hours, but I caught up with Neil and Josh from Juicebox recently to see how they were getting on with it long term.
Neil from Juicebox has to say about the rig:
“I love the seating position, the adjustability of the setup. it was fairly straight forward to setup too with a good range of options for adapting to tv’s computer screens whatever you have to make the rig work. It feels fairly authentic to a car as its sturdy, Laurence managed to get it set up nice with a good position for the pedals and shifter, combined with the wheel and pedal combo we have its as close to the real thing as you can get. Incredibly sturdy for all of us plonkers who have been swinging out of it ever since the lads dropped it off, it’s easy to get in and out of too.
We have messed around with different positions for the controls and can easily adapt it to suit who ever and whatever with ease, nothing has come loose everything feels decent and well put together even after the constant use it has received since it arrived. It also looks really sharp so it makes us look very cool, I’ve seen some DIY setups over the years with PVC pipe and that, and the difference it makes have an actually well planned well thought out rig like this bring the whole experience to another level”.
And just the other day, Neil messaged me this:
“Man I’ve fallen in love with the sim rig, I’m already trying to figure out a way to have my own one at home, might be a cool addition to the channel, so good once you get the hang of it. Christ you know its bad when you think about it all week, and then want to get to the shed to have a go.”
Josh Greene also added: “The rig can be moved so easily to suit anyone. Sean our shortest friend just slides the seat forward and he’s good. Flip is the tallest and he slides it back and he’s good. I like to move the wheel further away slightly and that’s easy to do too. Only the shifter mounting bracket is slightly lower than we would like. It’s holding up well! After hours and hours of smashing through the gears we found the shifter bracket arm thingy was getting loose. So just tightened that and it was mint again. The steering wheel sliders aren’t amazing. They don’t lock down fully. You can push the wheel if you really wanted too. But haven’t really found it to move while driving. Which is all that matters.
The seat is super comfortable and fits all the boys. The rig doesn’t really make a sound. No squeaks or rattles. Nothing that can be noticed anyways. And it looks bad ass. Just walk into the office and it looks so so cool. Expensive. Fancy. Like we know what we are at”
That’s great feedback from real customers but finally on a personal note. I haven’t reviewed other track racer rigs but I have used them several times. I even ordered from them several times. I really like their products but they suffer from a similar issue to Fanatec. With huge volumes of sales, sometimes issues arise with the products or orders. What I like though is that the trak racer team seems to be making a great public effort to handle all customer issues to the best of their ability. It’s great to see that even their CEO, Matt Sten takes action to help customers sort their issues out.
I’m delighted to have been in a position to make this happen and we had a tonne of fun making this video. I’d like to give a huge shout out to MiLeX from the Potato Nation who is a huge help behind the scenes.
If this video has brought you some value and should you decide to buy this rig or any of the products shown in this video, I have included links in the description which when used earn some money for this channel. There’s no obligation to do so but your support is appreciated immensely. Details about other companies with similar benefits are also listed.
I stream every Tuesday and Thursday at 9pm UK/Irish time. Thanks again to Trak Racer, Cammus, SHH, Aiologs and of course Juicebox for making this review possible and to you for taking the time to watch, hit the thumbs up or comment with your experiences or opinions. I’m Laurence, and I’ll chat to ye later
