Thrustmaster spent a long time being the brand you bought when Fanatec was sold out. The T598 is the first thing they've built in years that starts from an engineering decision rather than a price point — an axial flux motor, which is unusual at this price.

The motor is the interesting part. The package around it has two holes in it, and one of them is a product Thrustmaster advertises on the T598's own page and does not currently sell.

Straight up: I haven't had a T598 on my rig. Everything below is read off Thrustmaster's own product pages and US store, checked on 9 September 2026, plus racing judgement I can defend from driving real cars. Where I'm giving an opinion rather than a fact, you'll be able to tell.

Thrustmaster's own store shows two prices

The T598 product pages — PlayStation/PC and Xbox/PC — both list $599.99, no discount shown. The Bases category page lists the same PlayStation/PC package at a special price of $499.99, marked down from $599.99. Same store, same day, two numbers. I'm not picking one for you: $599.99 is the list price, $499.99 is what the category page was offering, and you should check what the cart says before you commit.

More useful than either figure: on that same Bases page, the T598 servo base on its own is $499.99. So the bare base is either $100 cheaper than the complete kit or exactly the same money. Unless you already own a Thrustmaster rim and pedals you're happy with, buying the base alone makes no sense.

The box holds the servo base, the Sportcar rim, the Raceline Pedals LTE set, a clamping system, carpet grips, a 98 W power supply and cables. A desk clamp included is more than Logitech manages here — the RS50 base ships with rig bolts and nothing for a table.

Axial flux, and what to believe about it

Most direct drive bases use a radial flux motor: the magnetic field crosses the air gap sideways, out from the shaft. Axial flux turns that ninety degrees so the field runs along the shaft, through flat disc-shaped rotors. It's the layout you find in electric race car motors, and the reason is torque density — more twist for a given mass and depth of housing.

Thrustmaster's claim is force feedback "without cogging". Treat that absolute the way you'd treat any spec sheet superlative. Cogging is the notchy magnetic detent you feel turning an unpowered motor by hand, and it's a function of slot and magnet geometry — a slotted permanent-magnet motor doesn't reach literal zero. The topology is genuinely different; the adjective is marketing. I've covered how drive type shapes what you feel in direct drive wheels explained, and what these motors cost to build in why direct drive wheels are expensive.

Read the torque figure carefully. Thrustmaster quotes 5 Nm of constant torque with an overshoot capability of +100% — sustained force with short bursts above it. Publishing it that way round is more honest than a bare peak number.

Five newton-metres sustained is not much on paper. I'd still take it seriously, because what you read through a wheel is a signal rather than a workout — a real GT3 car has power steering precisely so your arms aren't loaded mid-corner. I've driven plenty of cars with light steering and always knew what the front axle was doing. Resolution beats brute force. Whether this motor delivers that resolution cleanly, I can't tell you without driving it.

Thrustmaster also lists 5 ms latency and HARMONY, described as high-frequency torque so you feel kerbs, tyre scrub and road texture — the same idea as Logitech's TrueForce, Fanatec's FullForce and MOZA's Wheel LFE, compared in wheel LFE, TrueForce and FullForce explained. One precision point: iRacing's release notes give Thrustmaster a manufacturer API without naming a haptics or 360 Hz feature against it, unlike MOZA and Fanatec. The iRacing wheel API support list has the per-brand detail.

Race Dash, and the Xbox asterisk

Every setting lives on a screen on the base. Thrustmaster says more than ten parameters are configurable there, including GEAR JOLT, which puts a shift kick through the rim, plus a race information display for speed, best time, position and flags. Tuning on the base with no software running is exactly what a console owner wants.

Then read Thrustmaster's Xbox page. The key-points bullet reads "Race Dash screen to configure Force Feedback and display game information* (*PC only)", and the Race Dash section repeats that footnote. The PlayStation page carries no such marker.

Update: I went back and read the full product page rather than just the key-points bullet, and the asterisk sits in a specific spot — directly under GEAR JOLT and the in-game race-info readout, not under the sentence that says you can adjust settings and save profiles from the screen. Read that way, it's a per-game telemetry limit (the same reason a compatible-games list sits next to it), not a blanket lock on the screen itself. Dead zones, pedal travel and the EQUALIZER curve are on-device settings and should work from Race Dash regardless of platform. Thrustmaster never states that split in so many words, so it's my best reading rather than a quote — full reasoning and the firmware versions behind the pedal tools are in the My Thrustmaster Panel guide.

I argued on the RS50 that five on-base parameters was about right, because more knobs mean more ways to wreck your own force feedback. Ten-plus is the opposite bet.

The pedals are where this gets awkward

The Raceline Pedals LTE set is two pedals — throttle and brake, no clutch — using H.E.A.R.T. hall effect sensors. Thrustmaster includes different springs and three adjustment notches behind each pedal, plus non-slip pads. Metal, adjustable, and a position-sensing brake.

That matters more than any torque figure on this page. A hall sensor measures how far the pedal has travelled. A load cell measures how hard you're pushing. Your leg repeats a pressure far better than a distance, which is why every serious braking reference is a pressure trace, and why I keep telling people to fix pedals before chasing newton-metres. The full argument is in load cell pedals.

Thrustmaster knows it and sells the fix. The RACELINE LC UPGRADE adds a load cell brake to the LTE and Raceline Pedals III sets — Thrustmaster's listing specifies a 100 kg / 220 lb cell at 24-bit resolution, adjustable from roughly 25 to 100 kg via three springs and an elastomer buffer, shipping with a three-pedal top plate and two extra metal pedal heads. Listed price $179.99.

It is out of stock on Thrustmaster's US store, carries a "New" badge and has no customer reviews, while the T598 product pages still call it "sold separately, available soon". The SKU exists, it's named and priced, and on 9 September 2026 there was no way to buy it. Stock moves — check before you assume either way.

Budget accordingly. A T598 plus the load cell upgrade is $779.98 at list, not $599.99. For a Thrustmaster load cell today, the T-LCM pedals are the existing route; Logitech's RS Pedals make the same case from the other side of the market.

Where it sits

On PlayStation this is a strong package. Fanatec's Gran Turismo DD Pro is also sold as a bundle with a rim and a two-pedal set, so the T598's argument isn't "complete versus base only" — it's the newer motor and, at the $499.99 special, a lower price for a comparable box. Fanatec's counter is the deeper ecosystem afterwards. My direct drive wheels for PS5 guide covers the console picture, and the four-brand MOZA vs Fanatec vs Thrustmaster vs Logitech comparison sets the wider context.

On PC the maths is harsher. MOZA lists the R12 V2 at $399 on sale against a $469 list, for 12 Nm. The T598's answer is the motor technology and the console licence, not torque per dollar.

Above it sits Thrustmaster's own T818 Black Edition at $649.99, PC only. Below it the old guard holds up: the T300RS GT Edition at $379.99, the T248 at $349.99 and the T128 at $229.99. I've mapped every current base side by side in my Thrustmaster wheelbase lineup guide.

The rim swap is real but not free. Thrustmaster's catalogue runs from the $179.99 TM Open Wheel to the $429.99 Ferrari SF1000, and its own footnote says some add-ons need an adapter — quick release parts on the T598 accessory page run $44.99 to $79.99. Budget for one. My gear shifters guide covers building out further.

One caveat on evidence: Thrustmaster's store showed one customer review on the PlayStation version and none on the Xbox one. Thin sample rather than a verdict, but this is a young product with little service record behind it.

Verdict

Consider it if you're on PlayStation, you want direct drive with a rim and pedals in one box, and you'd rather have a well-specified 5 Nm motor than a bigger number from a brand without a console licence. Axial flux at this price is a real design choice, not a rebadge — whether the execution matches the topology is something I'll only know with one bolted to my rig.

Think twice if you're on Xbox and buying it for Race Dash: resolve that PC-only footnote first. Think twice again if a load cell brake is on your list, because the official upgrade is $179.99 on top and you currently can't buy it.

And if you're on PC with no console to worry about, the money goes further elsewhere. That isn't a criticism of the T598 — it's what happens when a product's strongest argument is a licence PC owners don't need.

FAQ

How much is the Thrustmaster T598? Thrustmaster's product pages list both the PlayStation/PC and Xbox/PC versions at $599.99. Its own Bases category page was showing the PlayStation/PC package at a $499.99 special against that $599.99 list on the same day. Check the cart price before ordering.

How much torque does the T598 have? Thrustmaster quotes 5 Nm of constant torque with an overshoot capability of +100% for short bursts, plus 5 ms latency — sustained torque with headroom above it, which is a more honest way to publish the number than a peak figure alone.

Does the T598 have load cell pedals? No. The included Raceline Pedals LTE set is two pedals using hall effect sensors. Thrustmaster sells a separate RACELINE LC UPGRADE at $179.99 that adds a 100 kg load cell brake, but it was listed out of stock on the US store on 9 September 2026 and the T598 pages still call it "available soon".

Does Race Dash work on Xbox? Yes, for the settings that matter most to pedal tuning. Thrustmaster's Xbox page marks GEAR JOLT and the in-game race-info readout "(PC only)" specifically — that's a per-game telemetry limit. Dead zones, pedal travel and the EQUALIZER curve are on-device settings and aren't covered by that footnote. See the My Thrustmaster Panel guide for the full breakdown.

Is the T598 better than the Logitech RS50? They solve different problems. Logitech quotes 8 Nm peak for the RS50 and its TrueForce implementation is the more mature one, though pedals are always a separate purchase. The T598 quotes 5 Nm sustained and arrives complete. On PC the RS50 gives you more torque for the money.