With the release of EA’s WRC rally game last year, more people might be dipping their toes into the wild world of driving very fast cars very fast down narrow dirt roads. One piece of hardware that can make the experience more immersive is a sequential shifter. It might be a bit of a one-trick-pony compared to some more expensive offerings from other brands, but the quality for $130 price tag, the Moza SGP Sequential Shifter seems to be a sweet spot for those looking for something specific. I’ve been slamming through the gears so be sure to hit the video below and see it in action.
A quick note on availability – Moza announced this SGP Sequential shifter on Jan 25 and is taking pre-orders but shipping isn’t expected until Feb 20th. And judging by how slow the Moza website is currently, there will be quite a few pre-orders.
If you’re looking for a sequential shifter, it’s probably for a very specific use-case. There are shifters from Fanatec and Simagic that can switch between h-pattern and sequential modes but those are often quite a bit more expensive.
Moza SGP Shifter: Design & Build
Getting the shifter out of the box, immediately I was surprised by how heavy and durable the Moza sequential shifter felt. It weighs just over 3lbs or just under 1.4Kg and feels like it would fit perfectly in an actual race car.
Internally it’s using contactless hall sensors that should last long-term.
Getting the shifter set up is simple as well. It comes near fully-assembled and just requires the shifter knob to be screwed on the top. Then, just mount the shifter on your rig and it is ready to connect to the Moza Pit house app.
Moza SGP Shifter: Video
The shifter comes with both a USB and data cable to connect to the back of a compatible wheel base or directly into a PC. Moza has been redesigning some of its older wheelbases and including accessory compatibility on the back of the base which will expand compatible platforms in the future. Unsurprisingly, it worked perfectly when connected to my R16 wheel base.
Under the shifter are a few mounting options with threaded holes and larger holes at the extremities. While all of the holes didn’t line up perfectly on the GT Racer shifter mount, I was able find some that worked.
Besides the shifter clicking forward and backwards, there is a lever on the front of the shifter arm and two additional mappable buttons on the base of the shifter body.
In my somewhat limited understanding of sequential shifters, the lever on the handle is typically intended for shifting a car into reverse or neutral but of course can be mapped to something else if needed. The two buttons on the body have the same look and feel as the buttons on the GS V2P Wheel which is to say that they feel incredible. The color and brightness can also be customized from within the Moza Pithouse app.
The height of the shifter arm is adjustable with two bolts. From the bottom to the top of the shifter knob it can go from 11 ⅝ inches to 15 ⅛ inches. On the Next Level Racing cockpit that I am using, I found having the shifter as tall as possible to be the easiest to reach and operate.
Moza SGP Shifter: In-Use
While I haven’t done a whole lot of rally racing, I’m having a blast using this shifter.
My only compliant is that it makes me want a more sturdy cockpit. While it works on the GT Racer from Next Level Racing, there is a fair bit of movement when pulling the shifter back to shift up a gear.
Despite that movement, it is a very immersive and fun experience to slam through gears while accelerating down a dirt road and then back down as you approach a hairpin, pull the handbrake to get some rotation, and then zoom off again.
It’s not a quiet shifting experience – it’s like a blue clicky switch in a gaming keyboard but large, metal, and you just want to smash it. For me, that adds a fun immersive experience to sim racing, though.
Paddles attached to a racing wheel are still probably going to be a faster way to shift but when a wheel is moving around like crazy on a rally course, the sequential shifter is very fun to use.
A quick note here, if you’re interested in seeing how crazy rally racing can be, EA’s WRC has a 5-hour trial for EA Play members. If you have an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate account, EA Play is also included in that.
And beyond WRC, this also works with other games, titles, and modes. While not always the case, some drift cars have a sequential shifter. And in Forza Motorsport, anytime you fit a race transmission into a car, it is effectively a sequential transmission. When in manual & clutch mode, the clutch isn’t even needed to change gears. I was using this setup in one of our recent YouTube live streams.
What the competition?
There are cheaper options out there and there are much more expensive options out there when it comes to sequential shifters. You should also take into consideration what type of sim-racing you plan on doing the most.
That’s where shifters like the Fanatec Clubsport Shifter SQ V1.5 and Simagic DS-8X come in handy as they can be swapped between H-pattern and sequential modes with the flip of a switch.
Additionally, if you already have the Logitech H-pattern shifter, there are mods to turn it into a make-shift sequential shifter.
Electronicsforward’ Take
At $130, this might be a fairly specific need for sim racers but If you are dead-set on adding a dedicated sequential shifter to your sim rig, the Moza SGP is an absolutely blast to use. I’ll be using it more live on stream if you ever want to hop in and check it out. It’s well-built and both sounds and feels great.
Currently, Moza has the SGP shifter available for pre-order with shipments set to start at the end of February.
Preorder Moza SGP Sequential Shifter
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