I thought there was a good chance my cheap driving wheel setup would sit unused, given my history of buying such peripherals, but I’ve spent several hours in Forza Horizon 5 with my economy-class setup. Not yet enough to justify upgrading to more expensive hardware, but enough to start thinking about low-budget improvements. I’ve been using the wheel and pedal with my living room couch. The seat cushion is approximately the right height, but the seat back is too far back.

There are vendors out there selling racing simulation seats resembling those in real cars. Some people would actually skip the fakery and go to an auto salvage yard to get a seat from a real car. But I’m too cheap for even that approach, for my first draft I want to spend $0 and use what I already have.

I have an old IKEA chair that has been mostly gathering dust. The seat cushion height is too tall for the steering wheel. While the seat back distance is far better than the couch, it is a relatively upright seating position which is unlike what is found in sporting cars.

Since I had my hand saw (and sawdust cleanup tools) already out for messy teardown projects, I decided to cut down this chair’s legs. For the first draft I’ve taken 10cm off the front legs and, to lean back the seating angle, I took 12cm off the back.

It’s still a little higher than my couch cushion and still a pretty upright seating angle, but I want to try a small step before going further. It’s a lot easier to cut the legs shorter than it’d be to cut them longer.

If the changes are too subtle, here are the two pictures side by side.

The first trial run was promising. It is obviously not a real racing seat, and it is not comfortable enough for long endurance sessions. But that shouldn’t be a problem as I haven’t spent too much time in Forza Horizon‘s Mexico yet. So just like before: this cheapo setup will serve until I actually spend enough time to justify spending more money. Besides, it can be argued that if I’ve been sitting in this seat long enough to become uncomfortable, I should probably get up and do something else.

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UPDATE: After a few hours of testing this setup, I’ve cut an additional 2cm off the front legs and 4cm off the back. (For a total of 12cm from front and 16cm off back.) This felt even better but puts me at the limit of seat angle: my center of gravity is now far enough back it’s too easy to tilt backwards. If I make another change, it’ll be smaller and reduce seat angle. Maybe a single centimeter off the front and nothing off back.