What has changed is the size of the partner list. Thrustmaster joins Moza, which became an Official Partner in July and then revealed its first three PlayStation wheels at Tokyo Game Show. Two years ago a GT7 player shopping for a licensed wheel had a fairly short list. Heading into Spec IV there are now three manufacturers with an official relationship to the series, all competing for the same PlayStation money. That competition is good news for anyone buying a wheel this winter, whatever brand they end up with.

Thrustmaster and Gran Turismo go back 16 years, and Polyphony bills the T-GT III as Thrustmaster's fifth officially licensed GT7 wheel.

The T-GT III: the pedals are the real story

Polyphony's announcement leads with the motor. The T-GT III uses Thrustmaster's Direct Axial Drive, rated at 5 Nm of constant torque with an overshoot of up to 10 Nm. That places it at the entry level of direct drive, which is fine for a bundle aimed at people upgrading from a gear or belt wheel.

The bigger change is in the box. This is the first Gran Turismo bundle to ship with a load-cell pedal set, and for lap time that matters far more than torque. A load cell measures how hard you press rather than how far the pedal travels, which is how your leg naturally judges braking. That makes trail braking repeatable, and repeatable braking is what separates a driver who sets one good lap from a driver who sets ten in a row. More torque makes a wheel feel better, but a load-cell brake is what actually makes most people faster. We made the same argument at length in does an expensive wheel make you faster, and nothing about this bundle changes our view.

The haptics are newer. Thrustmaster's Harmony technology adds two GT7 effects: GEAR JOLT, a kick through the rim on every shift, and ENGINE ROAR, which vibrates the base in time with the engine's revs. Both are immersion features rather than information you can drive with. Whether they help or distract on a long stint is something we'll judge once we have one on the rig.

Our question about heat

When we tested the Thrustmaster T598, Thrustmaster's first Direct Axial Drive base, our biggest complaint was that it got extremely hot and the force feedback faded as it did. Thrustmaster now says the T-GT III's power reserve prevents saturation. That is a claim about peak output, though, not about how the base behaves an hour into a session. Until we can run a full race on it, consistency over a long stint is the first thing we want to see proven.

Thrustmaster has also committed to firmware and software updates that keep pace with Gran Turismo's Spec updates. Spec IV arrives this month and brings the Xiaomi Vision Gran Turismo with it, so that commitment will be tested quickly.

Thrustmaster and Gran Turismo logos marking the World Series Official Partner announcement

Final Thoughts

The partnership is a branding story. The T-GT III could matter more, because a direct drive bundle with load-cell pedals in the box is exactly what a joypad or entry-wheel GT7 player should be looking at when they upgrade. Price will decide whether it's a good buy, and Thrustmaster hasn't announced one yet. Neither has it said whether the heat problem we found on the T598 has been solved, and that matters more than anything on the spec sheet. More details are promised in the coming months, and we'll test it as soon as we can get one.

Thrustmaster Joins the Gran Turismo World Series

Thrustmaster Joins the Gran Turismo World Series

Revealing the T-GT III GT7 Bundle

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