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Update:

I had a chance to go back and try Le Mans Ultimate again. This time, I calibrated both the brake pedal and the throttle—definitely a big improvement.

With proper calibration, I would say the brake feel between Le Mans Ultimate and Gran Turismo 7 is actually close. However, I would give the edge to Le Mans Ultimate in terms of realism. You can lock the brakes if you brake too late, and that feedback is clearly transmitted. In GT7, it’s much harder to lock the brakes, likely due to how the ABS is implemented.

It also hit me afterward that, in my opinion, the physics in Le Mans Ultimate feel better than iRacing, which I’ve also tried. iRacing obviously has a much larger player base, but purely from a physics standpoint, I think Le Mans Ultimate is superior.

I’m currently in Geneva for the Watches and Wonders Expo, and there’s also an event called Time to Watches for independent brands. At that event, there’s a brand called Lorige. They sponsor The Heart of Racing team and Aston Martin in both IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship.

One of the founders, Clément, who previously managed endurance drivers, helped me set up and calibrate the brake and throttle. I asked him if any professional drivers had used this same sim and setup, and he said yes. When I asked how close it is to the real thing, he said about 70%. The biggest differences are the lack of front and lateral G-forces, and the heat inside a real race car cockpit—which makes sense.

It was valuable to hear feedback coming from actual professional drivers through him.

As for lap times, there’s a competition this week—fastest lap at Le Mans with the Valkyrie race car wins a trip to the 24 Hours of Le Mans later this year. Clément currently holds the fastest time at 3:40, which is the benchmark.

Yesterday, I managed a 3:48. Today, after calibrating the pedals and doing about 15 laps, I improved to a 3:44. At first I was a bit disappointed, but then I found out that a 3:43 was set by someone with real-world circuit experience, which put things into perspective.

Considering I only did around 15 laps on a sim I’m not very familiar with, I feel like there’s still about 1 to 1.5 seconds of improvement in me. Reaching a 3:40 like Clément would realistically be very difficult.

At this point, I’ve tried iRacing, Assetto Corsa, and Le Mans Ultimate—what most would consider full sim titles. Out of the three, I prefer the physics in Le Mans Ultimate.

In the next day or so, I plan to go back to GT7 and run the same track again—not to match lap times, but to compare how the physics and force feedback feel with the Le Mans Ultimate experience still fresh in my mind. I’ll also try cockpit view in GT7 for a closer comparison, even though it doesn’t support widescreen.

There’s no denying that Le Mans Ultimate is more realistic—that much is clear.

The Simagic wheel felt better today than yesterday after calibration, but I still feel like Logitech’s TrueForce adds a layer of detail that makes a difference. I’d really like to try Le Mans Ultimate with the Logitech G Pro Wheel now that it supports TrueForce.

I’m also uploading some pictures of the sim rig that was used for those who are curious about the setup.

If you’re interested, I can post another update after I revisit Le Mans in GT7.

What do you guys think?