It may surprise you, but as described above, having a hard brake pedal will help you get around the track faster. It all has to do with muscle memory and efficient trail braking. Having a hard brake pedal will allow your muscle memory to be trained to perfection. Muscle memory is the subconscious telling your muscles just the right amount of pressure, leaving your conscious mind to take care of more important things at that moment – like watching traffic or hitting apex. Your muscle memory system is not wired to remember a position. Try to lift your hand with your eyes closed and reach the same spot within 0,5 mm 10 times in a row, and you will get the point. On the flip side, your muscle memory can memorize a pressure extremely accurately, meaning going around a track, your muscle memory can make you brake the same way again and again. This cannot be achieved with a soft pedal – especially when trail braking.
Furthermore, a hard brake pedal will allow you to brake later. Imagine having a brake pedal with 50 mm (common for many sim racers) of travel versus a brake pedal with almost zero travel. You are going 300 km/h down a straight. With the long travel brake, it will physically take you perhaps 1/10 of a second more to reach full braking power. On the stiff brake pedal, you will reach maximum braking power instantly. If you have three hard braking zones on a track, you will lose 3/10 of a second each lap.
The Top 10 in F1 or GT3 is frequently determined in way less than 3/10 of a second. The conclusion is that we at Asetek SimSports have developed the Invicta pedals to replicate a real racecar. Why? Because it is the fastest but may not be what feels the most comfortable. It is your choice whether to be the quickest or have a brake pedal that feels soft and comfortable.
Using the two thumbnuts behind the elastomer, you can adjust the preload of the system closely mimicking the gap you will experience in a real car (between disc and brake pad). We have made this adjustable, so you can have the feeling just the way you like it – and just like your favorite car. Using RaceHub, you can also adjust your dead zone on the brake pedal. This allows you to rest your foot on the pedal without getting inputs to the game.
See exactly how the 2-stage system works, presented by our CEO, André:
▶ Benefits of a Hard and Short Brake Pedal – The 2-stage System of the Hydraulic Invicta Pedals
NOTICE
Should you wish to change the pedal stops, and thereby the angle of the pedals, it can be done entirely toolless. It will require you to recalibrate the pedals and remove the brake cylinder at the pedal arm and adjust the rod length to prevent any preload on the T.H.O.R.P. hydraulic brake cylinder.