Asetek Forte S-Series Brake & Throttle

INSPIRED BY REAL-LIFE RACING

As well as being inspired by real-life racing, Forte® Pedals have been thoroughly tested by both racers and sim racers, and with that feedback in mind, the pedals were engineered and designed.

If you have been looking for the best racecar brake pedal feel, without going full hydraulic, look no further! The M.L.C.P.C. brake pedal on the Forte® pedal set can be adjusted from soft to hard and it will stay that way – unlike many other sim racing pedals on the market, where the hardness and feel will degrade over time. It is not a coincidence a race driver wants a brake pedal, when fully depressed, feels like pushing a wall. Furthermore, Forte® while not hydraulic, will still offer you the “hydraulic sensation” of a fully depressed brake pedal, where you can still pressure modulate/trail brake thanks to the 2-stage system inspired by Invicta™. In real life it will feel like the brake pedal when pressed 100% and hard, still will react to further pressure like when trying to compress the fluid in a brake system.

Why does it matter? When applying brake pressure as late as possible you want to be able to use muscle memory to replicate that trail brake feeling going into the corner. By using muscle memory your brain is wired to be able to brake at the same spot over and over on the track.

Conversely, if you use a soft pedal, you will have to rely on foot or pedal position, disallowing your brain the ability to replicate with the same accuracy and you will – guaranteed – lose important lap time. Just consider the fact that on a racetrack with 10 corners, gaining or losing 1/10 of a second on the brake, means 1 second on your lap time….

The design on the Forte® Pedals is engineered with user experience in mind, where all adjustable elements are colored to get you started quickly and to ensure intuitive and mostly tool-less usage. The sim pedals are highly adjustable to help you channel your inner race car driver, by changing the travel and hardness settings to your exact preference.

Our unique industrial design is protected through the EU IPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) by Registered Community Design No. 009148265-0001/0002/0003.

GENERAL TECH & DIMENSIONS

Tech Specs

• Exquisite, radical, and minimalistic industrial Danish design (Registered Community Design No. 009148265-0001/0002/0003)
• Made in Denmark
• Adjustable pedal stops
• Adjustable travel settings
• All-black anodized aluminum pedal base and pedal arms with CNC machined contrast cut
• All-black anodized aluminum smooth and sock-friendly pedal plates allowing hours and hours of comfortable use. The pedal plates can be adjusted vertically
• Pedal base with integrated heel rest and RGB LED that can be adjusted, dimmed, or turned completely off in the RaceHub software
• Calibrations made in RaceHub will automatically be saved in our EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory). This results in calibration (pressures, deadzones, and more) will remain saved for every simulator/game (You do need to set 0 and 100% value in the game)
• Only one USB connection to the PC from the pedal base regardless of 2 or 3 pedal utilization
• All adjustable mechanical features are by default colored orange
• Inhouse-developed electronics with 16-bit resolution
• Designed and tested to +1,000,000 activations, which far exceeds any race car specification

 

Dimensions

• Depth, width, and height: 457 mm x 212 mm x 256 mm
• Weight: 3 kg

Brake System

• The M.L.C.P.C. (Mechanical Load Cell Powered Cylinder) patent-pending brake cylinder gives you the experience of driving a real racecar
• Die-cast aluminum zero play pedal arm with integrated long durability ball bearings and bronze bushing at the clevis rotation point
• Load cell will sense up to 180 kg of force on the face of the pedal plate with hardest elastomer 4000N depressed 12mm / until 2nd stage is engaged
• Geared ratio between pedal pressure and load cell deflection ensuring constant and full resolution to any user independent of elastomer hardness. 4000 points in only 12mm inside the M.L.C.P.C cylinder from released pedal to 2nd stage 1/5th of a human hair
• Two-stage system that mimics the hard- and soft stages of a real racecar
• Two interchangeable elastomers for adjustment of hardness combined with an integrated physical stop and expansion chamber to mimic racecar feel as well as not overloading the elastomers
• Manually adjustable initial touch hardness to mimic perfect brake pad to brake disc distance
• Pedal arm designed for 200 kg of force and a burst pressure of up to 700 kg!

Throttle System

• Die-cast aluminum zero play pedal arm with integrated long durability ball bearings and bronze bushing at the clevis rotation point
• 16-bit magnetic wireless hall TPS (Throttle Position Sensor) with no mechanical wear and zero maintenance
• Custom throttle curves can be adjusted and 100% customized in the RaceHub software to mimic a real race car butterfly opening. For example, a linear curve in dry conditions and a progressive in wet conditions
• Adjustable pedal hardness
• Adjustable pedal travel
• Adjustable pedal stop
• Interchangeable spring for a bigger step in pedal hardness
• Pedal arm designed for 200 kg of force and a burst pressure of up to 700 kg!

COMPATIBILITY

PC
Console support planned in the future

 

Platforms: Windows 10, 11

 

Products

 

Games

• Assetto Corsa
• Assetto Corsa Competizione
• DiRT Rally
• DiRT Rally 2.0
• F1 Series
• iRacing
• Project Cars 2
• rFactor 2
• And many more (all games that accept direct input devices)

MANUALS & BOX CONTENTS

• Forte® S-Series Brake & Throttle Mounting Schematics
• Forte® S-Series Brake & Throttle Manual

 

Declarations

• See our declarations

Box Contents

• Forte® S-Series Throttle
• Forte® S-Series M.L.C.P.C. Brake
• USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable 1.5m
• USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable 1.5m
• Throttle/Clutch extension cable 300mm
• Throttle/Clutch extension cable 400mm
• M6x5 Set screw (x2)
• M6x20 bolt (x8)
• M6 Slot nut (x8)
• Washer (x8)
• M6 Hex nut (x8)
• Allen key, 3mm
• Allen key, 5mm
• Elastomer, Black, Soft
• Elastomer, Green, Hard (pre-installed)
• Throttle Spring, Medium (pre-installed)
• Throttle Spring, Soft

HOW DOES THE M.L.C.P.C.™ SYSTEM FUNCTION?

A hard brake pedal is faster because you can brake later, and it is required to properly trail brake and use your muscle memory to do so, as explained later. You can consider a racecar braking system as 2 stages:

The “soft stage”: When you apply pressure on the pedal, it will move 10-20 mm (measured on the pedal plate), while you build up pressure, while the caliper pistons are traveling to and pushing the brake pads lightly against the brake disc, and to compensate for the small amount of play in all the mechanical parts on the pedal system that is required for them not to seize up.

The “hard stage”: When hydraulic pressure is built up, the brake pads are squeezing the discs hard and all mechanical play is compensated. In this stage, your foot is basically “pressing against a wall”, because now your muscles are pressing directly against the hydraulic forces (the brake fluid). Since the fluid cannot be compressed, you will feel the pedal is hard. When a racecar driver complains about a “long” or a “soft” pedal, it is typically because there is air in the system, and since air CAN be compressed, the pedal will feel soft and long. The mechanics then bleed the brakes for air, meaning there is only fluid left in the system, and the pedal is once again hard after passing the “soft stage”.

Most mechanical sim racing pedals on the market, have an “unlimited” travel, as it is essentially a question about how hard you squeeze the elastomer. Oftentimes, the elastomer is overworked (compressed more than designed for) and it provides a spongy and inconsistent brake feel, and eventually the elastomer will break because of being overworked out of spec. But worst of all: with the long brake pedal travel, you will have to brake earlier to build up full brake pressure!

In our quest to mimic the perfect race car feel, we have implemented a mechanical stop in our M.L.C.P.C. brake system. You can adjust the hardness of the “soft stage”, by changing elastomers, but the travel will be limited to 15-25mm on the pedal plate (around 12mm piston travel in the M.L.C.P.C cylinder) to simulate the “hard stage” where the pressure has built up, and the feeling is like “pressing a wall”. In the transition between the soft and hard stage (when hitting the mechanical stop) we have implemented a rubber damper, which will simulate the fully engaged brake caliper but still enable the load cell sensor to measure additional pedal pressure, which again allows for a perfect trail braking. This is the same feeling you get in a real racecar.

Because the load cell sensor is implemented with a gearing (ratio between pedal pressure and load cell deflection), any user using from the softest elastomer to the hardest elastomer will experience the full load cell resolution of around 4000 points in only 12mm inside the M.L.C.P.C cylinder from released pedal to 2nd stage. That is a resolution of 1/5th of a human hair!

And THAT is the Asetek SimSports Forte M.L.C.P.C. difference!

By adjusting the piston and thumb lock nut in front of the mechanical brake cylinder, you can adjust the preload of the system to closely mimic the gap you will experience in a real car (between disc and brake pad). We have made this adjustable, so you can have the feeling just the way you like it – and just like your favorite car. Using the RaceHub software, you can also adjust your dead zone on the brake pedal. This allows you to rest your foot on the pedal without getting inputs to the game.

It may surprise you, but as described above, having a hard brake pedal will help you get around the track faster. It has to do with muscle memory and efficient trail braking.

Having a hard brake pedal will allow your muscle memory to be trained to perfection. Muscle memory is the subconscious telling your muscles to apply just the right amount of pressure, leaving your conscious mind to take care of more important things at that moment – like watching traffic or hitting apex. Your muscle memory is not wired to remember a position. Try to lift your hand with your eyes closed and reach the same spot within 0.5 mm 10 times in a row, and you will get the point. But your muscle memory can memorize a pressure extremely accurately, meaning going around a track, your muscle memory can make you brake the same way again and again. This cannot be achieved with a soft pedal – especially when trail braking.

Furthermore, a hard and short travel brake pedal will allow you to brake later. Imagine having a brake pedal with 50 mm (common for many sim racers) of travel versus a brake pedal with almost zero travel. Imagine this scenario: You are going 300 km/h down a straight. With the long travel brake, it will physically take you perhaps 1/10 of a second more to reach full braking power. On the stiff brake pedal, you will reach maximum braking power instantly. If you have three hard braking zones on a track, you will lose 3/10 of a second each lap.

The Top 10 in F1 or GT3 is frequently determined in way less than 3/10 of a second. The conclusion is that we at Asetek SimSports® have developed the Forte® pedals to replicate a real racecar. Why? Because it is the fastest but may not be what feels the most comfortable. It is your choice whether to be the quickest or have a brake pedal that feels soft and comfortable. The Forte® will allow both a softer and a longer brake pedal.

 

NOTICE

Should you wish to change the pedal stops, and thereby the angle of the pedals, it can be done entirely tool-less. It will require you to recalibrate the pedals and remove the brake cylinder at the pedal arm and adjust the rod length to prevent any preload on the brake cylinder.