The Moza R12 wheelbase is the equivalent of a BMW 5 Series or Audi A4 - king of the middle. Neither low-end nor high-end, it’s a touch under £600 and for that you get force feedback that has, in one word, clout. I’ve been using it for the past few months and here are my thoughts to help you decide if this is the wheelbase for you.
Before we get into it, some places to buy the R12 are listed below - they are affiliate links that give me a small commission if you go on to make your purchase after clicking, which helps support the work put into these reviews and videos at no added cost to you, and thanks to all viewers and visitors who do so, it makes a difference. Moza provided this R12 free for review, but be assured this review is my opinion, nobody but me has any hand in what I say and I do make valid criticisms of Moza at times so hopefully you take my words sincerely.
Moza Dealerships:
Sim Demon (UK) 3% off with code DANNYLEE3
First let’s address the main question; is it worth the price?
Well, the answer is rather boring because yes, it is, but by that I mean it’s worth precisely what Moza are charging for it - it’s neither excellent or terrible value, it’s just square on target for the cost. In the UK the 12nm R12 will cost a touch under £600 - for context, an 8nm CSL DD works out to around £400 now, a 10nm Simagic Alpha Mini is £600 so it does beat the Alpha Mini on pure power per pound spent, the R12’s little brother, the 9nm R9 is a touch over £400. So, essentially, the R12 will cost you nearly 50% more than an R9 for around an additional 30% of max force.
Should you aim for an R12, or is it too much? If you want a wheelbase that can cover all varieties of sim racing you might care to dabble in, without spending full premium direct drive money, then the R12 is a good choice, as 12nm or above is the point at which you have sufficient power available for people of all ages across all manner of sim racing requirements. You can go higher and push it beyond all doubt with something stronger and more expensive, but 12 is plenty. If you’re simply all about road and circuit racing with lightweight wheels like the Moza KS seen here, the R9 would be enough, but if you are into all sorts of racing like drifting or rallying, and want to use all kinds of full size wheels, the R12 is a better choice to ensure you’ve got power available to do all things well.
Is Moza a decent choice overall? Well, now that they’ve been around just long enough to see that they are clearly in this for the long term, that question just boils down to ‘do you like the look of what they sell at the price they’re selling it’?
I wouldn’t have touched their earlier designs with a barge pole because it looked like something Mr Tumble would use, but they’ve had a makeover since then, their KS wheel for example is superbly handsome and functional for the money, so they are at least on an upward trajectory if this is a glimpse of the future.
So what about the Moza R12’s entire purpose; its force feedback? It’s definitely strong - what do I mean by strong? Well I’m a guy in my mid-30’s with a large dog and a kid that currently needs throwing around a lot, and I can still have the wheel twisted involuntarily from my hands if it starts to really fight me - such as in big crashes, a fatal kerb strike or a tank-slapper that can’t be caught. That’s not to say that strong force feedback causes crashes, but you do race more diligently when you’re not sure if you’re about to get a stern word from the wheel, and if you ask me, that adds to the immersion factor of sim racing. You enjoy it more if you feel the risk. If you are currently using something like a Logitech G923 or Thrustmaster T150 or T300, the R12 will feel quite unbelievable.
It’s fast and agile - with more force comes an expectation of more agility and responsiveness through the wheel, and expectations are met. It’s sharp and punchy when it’s told to be. Simulators like rFactor 2 and ACC which are capable of a flood of high frequency force feedback signals will treat you well paired with an R12, and to me the wheel feels completely smooth doing it. iRacing pairs very well, and as my racing title of choice, that's a full confirmation from me that it is indeed well matched.
It’s quiet - the fanless design used here is now commonplace amongst direct drive wheels below the top end, and the excellent quick release system means that it is basically silent in operation, that too is normal for direct drives these days. The only thing that’s going to be making noise here is whatever the R12 is attached to as it takes the beating of the forces dished out.
It’s small - The R12 is the biggest of the cuboid wheelbases Moza have made so far but it’s still only a little bit bigger than the R5 which has less than half the power, and the size difference lies only in the length of the mid-section. The smaller the base the better because it makes fitment easier in every way.
It runs cool - having no fan inside, combined with a small size, combined with no apparent ventilation does make you wonder, how does it stay cool? Much like the Fanatec CSL DD wheelbases, Moza’s R12 and below dissipate heat through the casing. Moza’s software has the ability to automatically restrict force feedback strength if heat builds up too much, but during my whole time with the R12 heat has never been an issue nor have I sensed any loss of force feedback at any point, nor has the casing ever been more than merely warm, and I have used it for plenty of rallying and silliness with high forces. So long as you haven’t dressed it up in a tea cosy then you shouldn’t really have issues.
Bad Points
It’s looking good so far, but there are some things about the R12 which do need to be given a second thought.
Firstly, it’s the first of Moza’s wheelbases that uses a purely physical connection to communicate with the steering wheel instead of Bluetooth as has been used previously in the R9 and R5 etc. This is a good move overall for reliability. Wireless can never beat wired, but the knock on effect of making this change is that the R12 is not backwards compatible with the earlier Moza V1 wheels that do use Bluetooth to talk to the wheelbase.
This means that if you were an early adopter of Moza and happen to already have a selection of wheels from the early days - and they weren’t exactly cheap - you may come to find some of them can’t be used with the R12, so to those customers this is essentially Moza saying ‘thanks for being an early supporter but unfortunately we’re going a different direction now. Sorry!’.
You’ll also need to keep this fact in mind if you go scouting for wheels on the second hand marketplace. Don’t accidentally buy a GS V1 steering wheel by mistake, as it won’t work on your R12, only the GS V2 will. Compatibility is fully outlined on the Moza official site, at least. Despite Bluetooth being done away with for base-to-wheel communication, you can still link your phone to your wheelbase with the pithouse app via bluetooth, so that function is still around and unaffected.
When it comes to physical design, I’m not a massive fan of Moza’s cuboid bases. They look a little bit aesthetically unrefined in my opinion - I’m not really a fan of the body shape or the rough matt paint finish, and I don’t like the use of the Moza parent company logo on the body - I realise it’s Moza’s original logo and therefore they're well within their rights to hail back to it, but the full Moza Racing logo is a lot more relevant to what we have here. Maybe I’m just clutching at straws and being mean! At least it’s all-black, understated and doesn’t take styling liberties like their larger black-and-orange or black-and-green wheelbases do, it’s always a good move to leave the visual statements to the customer.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the R12 is maybe the most boring wheelbase Moza has made yet, because it’s priced exactly correctly and doesn’t really have any distinct weaknesses. It’s as powerful as any normal sim racer has any real need for, the price is neither a bargain or ridiculous, it’s neither a premium product nor a slapdash knockoff, it’s just smack bang in the middle in terms of value for money. Because it covers everything well, I doubt you’re likely to upgrade from it for any reason other than change for change’s sake. There’s no real call for glowing praise, sharp criticism, jokes or interesting side points, but when you’re spending real money, sometimes that’s exactly what you want to hear.
Moza Dealerships:
Sim Demon (UK) 3% off with code DANNYLEE3