Can You Use a Shifter in Assetto Corsa? Hell Yeah!
As an avid sim racer and content creator, one of the most common questions I get asked is whether you can use an H-pattern shifter with Assetto Corsa. The answer is a resounding yes! Assetto Corsa fully supports both H-shifters and sequential shifters on PC and consoles for vehicles with manual transmissions.
Shifter Compatibility in Assetto Corsa
Out of the box, Assetto Corsa works with all major racing wheels and shifters including:
- Logitech Driving Force, G25, G27, G29, G920
- Thrustmaster T150 RS, T300 RS, T500 RS, TMX, T-GT
- Fanatec CSL, Clubsport, Podium series
Simply connect your supported racing wheel and shifter setup to your chosen platform, calibrate everything in the game settings, and you‘ll be rowing through virtual gears in manual cars in no time.
Pro tip: on PC, you can use standalone USB shifters too! This allows mixing and matching wheels and shifters from different brands. For you hardcore sim nuts out there, this opens up near endless hardware combinations.
Manual vs Semi-Auto: When You CAN‘T Use a Shifter
There‘s a catch though. You can only use H-pattern or sequential shifters with cars that have a manual transmission. If the car has a semi-automatic gearbox or uses paddle shifters, your shifter will be automatically disabled in Assetto Corsa.
This makes sense when you think about it. Road cars with dual clutch gearboxes or race cars with paddle shifters don‘t have a clutch pedal or H-shifter in real life. The game forces you to drive them realistically with the in-game paddle buttons.
So check for a third clutch pedal and H-pattern shifter inside the cockpit before assuming your shifter will work. As cool as it sounds, you can‘t yet shift that Pagani Huayra or Ferrari 488 GTE!
How to Setup Your Shifter in Assetto Corsa
Since not all cars support shifters, you have to enable it on a per car basis:
- In Options > Controls > Shifters, check "Use Separate Shifter"
- Click Assign Buttons and map each gear to your shifter
- Hop into a manual car (see list below)
- Get shifting!
You‘ll only need to map the shifter once globally. After that it‘ll work automatically with all manual cars.
Suitable Cars for Shifter Use
Here‘s a starter list of cars with manual transmissions where you can use H-shifters:
- Lotus Elise SC
- Audi Quattro S1
- BMW 1M Coupe
- Alfa Romeo MiTo QV
- Ford Escort RS Cosworth
- Any vintage F1 car
And here‘s some cars with semi-automatic gearboxes where paddles are your only option:
- Most modern road cars (Ferrari, McLaren, etc)
- Recent F1 cars and prototypes
- GT3 and GTE endurance racers
Check out this Steam guide for a more complete vehicle compatibility list.
Shifting Tips for Faster Laps
Smooth shifting technique is vital for quick lap times in Assetto Corsa. Here‘s some tips:
- Clutch before shifting – this allows smooth gear changes without shocking the drivetrain
- Heel-and-toe on downshifts – blipping the throttle matches revs for seamless downshifts
- Shift when the light turns green – use the visual shift indicator in the HUD
With practice, you can bang through the gears incredibly fast. Compare your shifting to real onboard videos and learn from the pros!
The Joy and Realism of Shifters in Assetto Corsa
While paddle shifting certainly has its place, for the ultimate in realism and driver connection, nothing beats the precision control of an H-pattern shifter.
The excellent physics modeling in Assetto Corsa translates your physical shifter movements into dynamic changes in speed and engine tone. Grab another gear mid-corner, feel the weight transfer, and hold on!
Combining the unmatched handling physics from the genius devs at Kunos Simulazioni with the precision control of high-end sim hardware, shifting gears in Assetto Corsa is as close as it gets to real race cars short of getting on track yourself.
For sim enthusiasts, nailing a perfect heel-toe downshift with a loud "blip" of the throttle, mated to a smooth clutch release as you precisely slide the shifter into the next gear is extremely rewarding. When you get into that Zen state and everything clicks, it‘s driver bliss!
So if you weren‘t already obsessed with sim racing, hopefully the ability to shift manual cars has you now hooked on the digital crack that is Assetto Corsa! Gotta go, time to turn some hotlaps…
