Simagic P2000 Hydraulic Pedals | Long Term Review

Simagic has redefined the sim racing experience for many of you watching right now. In fact, I think they changed my outlook on sim racing too. We have all been eagerly awaiting these pedals since they were announced all the way back in 2020. It has taken a while but here they are in all their glory. Was it worth the wait, and what do these pedals give us, if anything,  that we can’t get from similarly priced competitors?
Thanks so Simwear.eu, one of Europe’s largest carriers of Simagic stock, I got to test and review these pedals for the past few weeks and today I’m delighted to be able to share my thoughts with you. I’m Laurence, welcome to the channel

Simwear.eu: https://www.simwear.eu/webshop/product/simagic-pedals-p2000

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1. 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.
Just 2 years ago, Simagic was a new name on our lips when they made a huge impact on the direct drive wheelbase market. They really made a name for themselves since then releasing several other DD wheelbases and an innovative sequential shifter. Doing one thing well is difficult, but creating an ecosystem which lives up to the standards set by the products that made the brand so popular, is very difficult.

2. First impressions

These pedals are absolutely stunning. If they perform as well as they look then they will definitely be worth the investment.  The level of detail and machining is top class and the minimalist design makes them look incredible on a rig and also relatively easy to keep clean. Adjustments require minimal amounts of tooling and the software is really really good. I’ll cover that in more detail later.
The diamond cut finished pedal faces are mesmerizing to look at and the hidden bolts makes them feel a little different to other pedal sets. In fact, the whole design of these pedals is extremely minimalist as far as the shapes are concerned. However, the bright colours and almost sparkly CD-like effect on the pedal faces and the pedal arms shows that these pedals were made with intent and personality but may not be to everyone’s taste. The pedal faces feel comfortable under the foot whether you’re wearing shoes or not. They’re also adjustable in height but they don’t go as low as someone with smaller feet might want.  The pedal faces, other than the brake, cannot be moved left or right independently of the pedal. However each pedal requires only two easily accessible bolts so moving the pedals left and right on the rigid baseplate is surprisingly easy. Initially I worried that the minimal design would lead to structural issues but other than slight lateral movement in each of the pedal arms, it’s all quite sturdy. This lateral movement is actually not an issue for me while actually driving and is not caused by the two bolt mounting solution. It is actually caused by the high tolerance or clearance in the pedal mechanism. Tightening these bolts also wouldn’t help because they’re already at their tightest. I would like to see them address this play though as it seems like it could be a simple quality control issue. Although all three of my pedals have it, there are mixed reports from users that some don’t have it at all, or maybe just in one or two pedals. It also seems that the latest batches of these pedals have an upgraded mechanism which eliminates the issue completely.
Finally on the pedal faces, there’s a nice balance of grip and slip on them. They’re not too slidey and not too grippy. This makes for a nicer driving experience, especially for longer stints.
This is a hydraulic brake, which gives it a slightly different feel to traditional non hydraulic brakes. The main difference of note with hydraulic pedals is usually the speed at which you can press or return a pedal. It’s ever so slightly slower and more predictable with a hydraulic pedal set. This is more noticeable, the more travel you allow in your pedal. It sounds a little counter intuitive to have this dampening on the brake, but in the same way we don’t want our brake to be a simple on/off switch, hydraulic systems give us slightly more confidence and control. I’ll go into more detail on this later.
These pedals felt intuitive, even on my first drive. The software blew me away and is a very welcome addition. I had no calibration or compatibility issues in any simulators that I tried. The faces of the pedals are a little small but are extremely nice under the foot, even when not wearing racing shoes.
The base plate is simple but effective. there are loads of mounting holes and there’s enough pedal adjustment to get the pedal spacing the way you’d like. One thing of note is that there’s little or no forward or back adjustment on these pedals. I didn’t notice this to be an issue as such, but it’s just something to be aware of as you do have this adjustment with many other pedal sets.
Other than the little reservoir and cool spring setup, you wouldn’t know that this is a hydraulic setup at a glance. It’s very clean and compact. The hydraulic system is sealed and should require no real maintenance. The braided hose is not too long and even the brackets look really tidy. This system was designed for sim racing. It doesn’t look DIY in the slightest, which for a set of pedals is a difficult thing to achieve.

3. Price

As these pedals are hydraulic and aimed at the high end sim racer, they’re also priced accordingly. They start at €799 in europe and around $780 in the USA. For that reason, people who are in the market for these pedals will be looking to buy once and never need to upgrade again. There are some different options and configurations that you can get with these pedals. For context, the set that Simwear.eu sent me is the base model with no added extras. It’s even the 100kg sensor model and I purposely requested this.
for €50 extra, you can get a 200kg sensor in the brake. Honestly, if I was buying these before trying them, I would have gone for this option as it’s relatively affordable and great for pub talk. In reality, the 100kg is plenty for me. I’m a big guy with plenty of experience with loads of different pedal sets. I can reach the full 100kg limit of the sensor but for the type of racing I do, 200kg might be overkill as I rarely braked at full force during this review. If you are using this as a training tool for real life racing, I would recommend the 200kg just in case.
Other options include a longer throttle pedal which looks excellent. I did not get the chance to use this but again, if I was buying this set, I would go for this option as it would not only make for a more comfortable pedal, but it would also help out with heel-toe.
There is also a slightly raised carbon heel plate, but it seems that this is not listed on most reseller websites. As well as being an aesthetic piece, this raised heel plate can give additional comfort and ergonomics, especially for those with smaller feet. That said, I’m not sure if I would buy that upgrade myself.

4. Installation – Hardware

Installation was super simple. The pedals come preassembled other than the face plates and only require 2 bolts each to mount to the baseplate. I did worry at first that these two bolts would cause issues but as the forces we put on the pedals are not lateral forces, this was probably less of an issue that I originally anticipated.
The base plate allows 4 lateral throttle position adjustments, 4 lateral clutch position adjustments and 7 lateral brake position adjustments. Having these mounting positions as holes rather than slots allows for simple alignment and extra rigidity. There is however, no ability to mount pedals closer or further away from you. This may be a consideration for some people. For me, this wasn’t an issue.
I did initially wonder how the hydraulic cylinder should be mounted but there’s a handy little bracket which allows you to tuck it out of the way. Some have mounted it vertically and that can look very cool too. I was worried about this configuration as I’m pretty sure you need to keep the cylinder below the reservoir for the best performance with any hydraulic system. Simagic does actively promote this mounting solution as an option, so I tried it and although there was no noticeable functional performance difference, it does look nice.
There are 8 mounting holes in the baseplate so finding a pattern that suits you is especially easy on a profile rig. The baseplate is extremely strong, albeit slightly longer than anticipated. I’m not sure why it needs to be any longer than the outermost bolt. This could cause some mounting issues for some users.
The control box for the pedals feels a little bit like a spare wheel. It’s just slightly out of place on this pedal set. I would have loved them to take a cleaner approach and try to build these electronics into the baseplate or one of the other pedals. If and when you do hide it, make sure to hide it well because it has a very bright green LED on it, similar to the one that shines brightly on the front of the alpha wheelbases. I understand the need for an LED but it definitely doesn’t need to light up the floor under my rig.

5. Installation – Software

This was the biggest surprise with these pedals. I expected the hydraulic pedal system to be good, I expected the overall product to be in line with the quality of other simagic products. What I wasn’t expecting was this super simple software. Calibration is simple as can be. I didn’t notice any signal fluctuations or calibration issues after my first calibration. One major thing of note here is that the pedals software is not the same package as the simagic wheelbases use. It’s a standalone package which does not need to be running while the pedals are in use, unless you’re actively tuning them.
The Simagic P2000 software is simple and highly effective. I first saw software like this when I reviewed the Heusinkveld sprints 2 years ago. I remember it being very useful and one of the biggest selling points of those pedals. You see, high end pedals are usually super sensitive, highly customisable and as a result can require quite a bit of knowledge to calibrate and tune. Software like this makes life so much easier. It is also quite technically difficult to achieve, and even many other high end pedal manufacturers don’t provide software like this with them.

6. Throttle

This throttle is a thing of beauty. At first it seems like there’s not much adjustment on this pedal and that worried me. You can adjust the throw of the throttle within a certain range. This is quite easy, however I do recommend tightening this bolt once finished adjusting. You can further adjust the throw and weight by adjusting the angle at which the piston attaches to the pedal arm. There are 4 adjustment heights but strangely enough, I liked the lowest setting the most. I would have assumed that I would go for one of the higher ones. I think that I like this lower setting because of the incredible damper on this pedal. The damper adjustment is just really really nice. I’ve never seen adjustment like this on a pedal and it’s just so so easy to change the weight of the throttle pedal. However, once you go towards the larger numbers, the damping becomes so stiff that the throttle actually becomes a little slow to move and return. I run mine at 4 and it feels fantastic. When I first got into high end equipment, I didn’t really care too much about the throttle but once you drive cars that are sensitive to throttle inputs or traction control, having a smooth and controllable pedal is absolutely vital. This pedal delivers above and beyond my expectations. It has gone straight to number 1 as the best throttle I have ever used.
As said, I would probably get the longer throttle pedal option as it’s just a bit more comfortable to use, especially when using heel and toe techniques.

7. Clutch

The clutch on this pedal set is unlike other pedal sets that I have used. at first when I took it out of the box, I didn’t even realise it was the clutch pedal. The mechanism is innovative in that the bite point is simulated by this bolt depressing into this notch. There are 4 spring options available . I love the look of this pedal but as far as clutches go, this one disappointed me a little at first. I don’t expect a sim clutch to be as realistic as a real clutch, but I do expect the mechanism to just be a little bit more subtle or engaging. I spent many hours trying lots of configurations and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why this clutch didn’t feel right. I would imagine though that a bump stop at the end of the clutch travel would make a huge difference as right now, it gives a huge clunk which is pretty annoying when you’re banging through the gears. However, eventually this configuration clicked for me. It was only really when I experimented with the software that I built in a deadzone for the clutch engagement and then it really felt a hell of a lot better. It actually feels very like a heavy road car clutch now. I would still like to see that bump stop at the end of the clutch travel though, but what initially seemed like a poorly designed clutch actually turned out to be quite nice.

8. Brake

When you go for a hydraulic brake, it comes with HUGE expectations. Usually you pay a fortune for it and at €799, this 3 pedal set is priced at the entry level pricing for hydraulic systems. Interestingly, Simagic have gone for a spring system here rather than an elastomer system. And even though there is a hydraulic system at play, ultimately it uses a load cell sensor rather than a pressure sensor.  None of these things have noticeable drawbacks. In fact, I was able to make this pedal set feel really good with the various spring combinations. Springs will stop deforming when compressed, unlike elastomers. I’m pretty sure that this is why simagic chose this design. If you like more of a long travelling softer road car pedal, you can easily set that up using the softer springs. However, I’m quite partial to a very stiff pedal these days and the setup I am showing here, is my preference. The amount of travel is small, but enough for me. The weight of the pedal is beautiful and predictable in any sim I tried, and in every single car. Once you lock up a car’s wheels, it’s like your foot remembers that exact point. This gives great confidence and coupled with the throttle, it really makes this pedal set a very attractive option in this price range.
As you set the brake stiffer though, you do lose some of the feeling of hydraulic brakes. What I mean is that when there was lots of travel in the brake, I could feel the fluid compressing and it felt very much like a road car. For a stiff brake setup, I can’t tell you for certain whether I’d be able to tell this hydraulic solution apart from another high end non hydraulic setup.
I also opted for the 100kg load cell. I was actually offered the 200kg load cell but specifically wanted the 100kg so that my mind wasn’t influenced by the impressive numbers. Honestly, I think that Simagic are well aware that 100kg is plenty for most consumers. The 200kg sensor exists for pub talk, for the prosumer market and of course it also makes it slightly easier for people to consider these pedals based on the spec sheets alone. In my opinion, you don’t need the 200kg load cell. BUT, me being me, I would have bought the 200kg model ‘just in case’ the 100kg wasn’t enough. I have used 200kg pedal sets in the past and this set with 100kg performs just as well as any other set, if not better.
The brake pedal face also has additional mounting holes at the back should you wish to use them. However, as the pedal is quite easy to move in its entirety, I don’t really see the need for these holes, but it’s always good to have options. I also found that the springs in the brake were prone to making some noise if they were not seated properly. As with any high end pedal set like this, they do tend to make noise and need some lubrication.

9. Baseplate

The baseplate is functional. It’s thick and sturdy and everything you’d want from a basic base plate. As it’s a solid sheet of metal, there’s no assembly required which is a bonus if you want to get going quickly. There are plenty of mounting holes for my needs. For mounting the pedals, you have 4 positions available for the throttle, 4 for the clutch and 7 for the brake. However there’s no ability to mount individual pedals further away or closer. Honestly, I don’t see this as an issue for most sim racers. There’s an optional carbon foot plate which I haven’t used. It looks great but I’m not sure how much it will add to your experience. It will bring your feet a little closer to those pedal faces and again, it does look pretty good.

10. Final thoughts

My hopes were high for these pedals and in many ways, they have delivered exactly what I expected and even exceeded my expectations. The throttle and brake are amazing and as a combo they rank up there as possibly the best I have ever used. the throttle is almost definitely the best feeling throttle I’ve ever used. This again is highly subjective but the fact that you can adjust this pedal set to be quite light, in a tool-less and user friendly way, is really great to see. However, the clutch in its default configuration is the weakest link in this chain. It didn’t feel great to me and it’s quite noisy for me due to the mechanism which although innovative, doesn’t quite hit the mark for me.
As said, adjustments are almost tool-less. This makes them inviting and approachable. When you spend €799 on a pedal set, you want to know that you can tweak them to your own liking. Adjustments are somewhat limited compared to some other pedal sets that I have reviewed, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing as I still found that there was a large range of adjustment to allow me to test out different driving styles and configurations.
Do tighten up those pedal faces well when you first install these pedals. I found that out the hard way and had them come loose during a championship race on a live stream. Heel and toe is manageable but slightly uncomfortable unless you’re wearing shoes. I expect this to be less of an issue if you buy the longer throttle pedal.
The control box is a little awkward and doesn’t really fit in with the clean look of this device. It looks like one team started designing the pedals and another was responsible for the electronics and they met a week before production started. Having said that, it’s quite easy to hide this control box. Out of sight, out of mind. It also means that if something goes wrong, it’s very easy to replace.
It’s interesting that they went for springs instead of elastomers for the brake. They also opted for a load cell rather than a pressure sensor. In practice, these things make very little difference to most users and the springs definitely look nicer than elastomers do. The springs stop deforming once they have done their job, whereas elastomers would require a cup system or something to limit their travel to achieve similar. Simagic offers a 200kg load cell but I don’t think you need it unless you’re a real life racer or want to brag to your friends about your load cell size.
There’s a breather hole at the top of the reservoir and when using softer spring setups, this can ‘wheeze’ a little and is quite audible. It’s less noticeable for shorter brake travel. It also suffers from a little bit of spluttering, especially when you move the pedals around. Be careful as they do contain real brake fluid and you don’t want to get that on your floors or anything else really. I’d like to see a little hat on that breather hole and I’d like to see a less toxic fluid being used. I did experience some spilled fluid from this breather but did not experience any leaks elsewhere in the system.
If you already own a Simagic sequential shifter, your pedals will have to fight it for the sole USB slot exposed on your wheelbase. Luckily, unlike Fanatec and some other brands which allow peripherals to plug into the wheelbase, you can also just plug them directly into a USB hub or your PC without the need for additional hardware.
Quality control does appear to be an issue with these pedals currently. The throttle pedals have been reported to have issues but I also understand that after sales service from resellers is exceptionally good. Please find a full list of authorised Simagic resellers in the description below. The wobbly pedals as discussed earlier are an area of concern, although they don’t affect the use or performance in a noticeable way. I understand that the latest version of these pedals no longer has this issue that I experienced. I do hope that any other quality control issues are also fixed as soon as possible.
The software is a breath of fresh air. It’s the thing that makes great pedals, excellent. There, I said it. These pedals are excellent. I’d like to see the clutch being improved upon but that doesn’t mean that it’s a bad clutch. It just doesn’t live up to the throttle and brake. Other things I’d like to see would be the elimination or integration of that control box, an adjustable heel plate for comfort and a slightly shorter base plate. Other than that, the aesthetics and functionality of these pedals are world class. They were intuitive to use and set up. They’re utterly beautiful and quite possibly the best looking pedals I’ve had on my rig.
If you’ve enjoyed this review, do please consider giving it a thumbs up as it helps to suggest this video to others like you. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my journey with these pedals and they may even find a permanent spot on my rig. I’m Laurence, and I’ll chat to ye later