This March 2026 marks a special milestone for us. Ten years ago, a conversation between engineers and a passionate sim racer from sim racing community sparked something unexpected.

Today, Simucube powers some of the most advanced sim racing setups in the world.

But the story began much more simply.

In March 2016, Simucube took its first step into sim racing with Simucube 1, a product designed to solve a real challenge faced by the sim racing enthusiast’s community. What started as an experimental project quickly grew into something much larger.

A decade later, Simucube has grown into a global sim racing platform used by sim races, professionals, and sim racing teams around the world. From Simucube 3 wheelbases to Simucube ActivePedals and Simucube Link Platform, the vision has evolved into a connected platform shaping the future of sim racing hardware.

Yet there’s two things that haven’t changed: Simucube 1 is still supported today and Simucube keeps on pushing what’s possible.

Back to 2016: A different sim racing landscape

10 years ago, sim racing hardware looked very different.

Most consumer wheels relied on gear-driven or belt-driven force feedback systems. While they were affordable and widely available, serious sim enthusiasts often found themselves wanting more torque, more details, and more realism.

Direct drive technology existed, but they were rare and often either extremely expensive or lacking the technological maturity enthusiasts were hoping for.

At the same time, a new movement was growing in the background.

Across forums and communities, dedicated sim racers were experimenting with DIY direct drive wheels, combining industrial servo motors with custom electronics to push performance further.

This movement — often known as the OSW (Open Sim Wheel) community — was passionate, technical, and had the desire to make sim racing more realistic than ever before.

But building these systems was far from simple.

“There were only two commercial DD wheels on the market back then. The first was too expensive, and the second was somewhat lacking in technology.”
— Phillip “Beano”, community member

DIY setups required multiple components sourced from different manufacturers, wired together by hand. Enthusiasts often had to deal with electrical complexity, safety considerations, and troubleshooting issues like interference and electrical grounding.

Despite the challenges, the potential of direct drive technology was clear.

What the community needed was a way to make it simpler, safer, and more accessible.

And that idea would soon lead to Simucube.

The community spark

The origin of Simucube is not a typical product story.

“I had this idea to have a simple all-in-one hardware and software solution,” Beano recalls.

It started with a conversation and a shared curiosity about what could be built together.

During one of his visits to Finland, Beano met with members of the Granite Devices team, including co-founder Tero Kontkanen and Senior Hardware Engineer Aki Korhonen.

“I know Finns are innovative and always willing to look at gaps and opportunities in the market. With the Granite Devices team, I found like-minded thinkers.”

At the time, Granite Devices was already known for its servo motor controllers, which many DIY sim racers were using in their projects. The idea was to take that expertise and create something specifically designed for sim racing.

As Aki remembers, the goal was simple but powerful: bring everything together.

For the team, the motivation was also about giving something back.

The sim racing community had already embraced Granite Devices’ technology in their DIY builds. Simucube was a way to support that growing ecosystem and help enthusiasts push things even further.

“What better than to use thousands of enthusiasts across many sim forums to test the market.”
— Phillip “Beano”, community member

Beano became an important bridge between the community and the development team: sharing ideas, gathering feedback, and documenting builds across multiple forums.

From idea to reality

At the time, Simucube 1 was still very much a side project for Granite Devices. Electronics design and enclosure development happened during evenings alongside regular work.

In March 2016, Simucube 1 launched through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign.

The response exceeded every expectation.

The campaign reached its funding goal in just three hours.

Demand from the community was immediate and overwhelming. It was a clear signal that the sim racing world had been waiting for something like this.

“Making dreams possible is basically our business idea.”

—Tero Kontkanen, CTO and co-founder of Simucube

Simucube 1 quickly became a key building block for thousands of direct drive setups around the world.

At the same time, the project began to shape the future of the company itself.

What had initially been a side project alongside industrial products suddenly revealed something bigger: sim racing had enormous potential.

“Simucube 1 is really where this whole journey began. It’s also where the Simucube name came from, and it helped make the company much more widely known within the sim racing community.”
— Aki Korhonen, Engineer behind Simucube 1

From Granite Devices to Simucube

Simucube 1 helped put Granite Devices firmly on the map within the sim racing world.

Within the company, new ideas started to emerge.

Sim racing was growing rapidly. The demand for high-performance simulation hardware was increasing. And the community feedback was constant.

Today, Simucube technology powers a full range of hardware innovations.

Simucube 3, the current flagship wheelbase, represents the latest evolution of that original vision. Building on years of engineering expertise and community feedback, it pushes performance, precision, and responsiveness even further, delivering an even more immersive and refined driving experience for serious sim racers and professionals alike.

Beyond wheelbases, Simucube has continued to rethink other parts of the simulation experience.

Simucube ActivePedals introduced a completely new approach to pedal simulation, allowing real-time adjustment, dynamic force feedback, and levels of customization that were previously impossible.

Meanwhile,  Simucube Link Platform connects devices into a unified ecosystem enabling seamless communication between hardware and opening new possibilities for the future of simulation.

“We do not stand alone — and we never will. Simucube was founded on an open-source project, and we will honor those roots and our community. Our ecosystem is closed only to a point where we can guarantee the quality.”

— Hannu Harju, CEO of Simucube

In many ways, these innovations trace their roots directly back to the same idea that inspired Simucube 1: listen to the community and build technology that solves real problems.

10 years later: Building rock-solid sim racing products

Ten years after its launch, Simucube 1 is still supported and remains an important part of the story of Simucube as a company.

Many units are still in use around the world today, a testament to both the durability of the hardware and the philosophy behind its design.

In an industry where hardware cycles can be short, long-term support reflects something deeper: trust between a company and its community.

“In the industrial world, 7–10 years is about an average life cycle for products. To find this longevity in the commercial space is amazing.”
— Phillip “Beano”, community member

That long-term thinking has remained central to Simucube’s approach. Not only in hardware durability, but also in software support, ecosystem development, and the relationship with the community.

Over the past decade, Simucube has evolved into a complete ecosystem of high-performance sim racing hardware.

Direct drive technology has now become the benchmark for serious sim racing setups and the industry around it continues to grow.

“What started as a simple idea has become a global movement, which has changed the sim-racing landscape forever. Simucube has spawned a massive industry, which without, would have been significantly smaller than it is today.

— Phillip “Beano”, community member

Simucube: creating something exceptional and changing the sim racing industry

Today, Simucube powers some of the most advanced simulation setups in the world from enthusiasts building their dream rigs to professional drivers using simulation for training.

Yet the foundation remains the same.

Listening to the community.
Pushing technology forward.
And building products that stand the test of time.

“Simucube is at its core an industrial company which allows us to create truly high-performance and reliable products, that is where we shine.”

— Hannu Harju, CEO of Simucube

With innovations like ActivePedals, Simucube 3, and  Simucube Link Platform, the ecosystem continues to expand, bringing new possibilities to sim racers everywhere.

The first ten years were just beginning.

Simucube keeps on pushing the boundaries in sim racing.

Watch where the journey began on YouTube

Discover the story of Simucube 1, shared by Simucube co-founder Tero Kontkanen on YouTube.

Join Simucube Discord community

Simucube has an active community in Discord. Join here to be a part of the discussion.