Asetek SimSports Invicta™ S-Series Brake and Throttle

Invicta™ S Series Brake and Throttle

The Invicta S Series Brake and Throttle are the Invicta Sim Racing Brake and Throttle, as you know them – just separated.

This version of the Invicta Sim Racing Pedals allows you to decide and adjust the distance between the throttle and brake. This feature gives you the opportunity to design your sim racing setup to suit your exact preferences.

Benefits of a Hard Brake Pedal

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.

BRAKE LATER. GET FASTER.

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 gain 3/10 of a second each lap by using a hard brake with minimal travel.

THE T.H.O.R.P.™ SYSTEM

The T.H.O.R.P. (Twin Hydraulic Opposing Rapid Pistons) System is Asetek SimSports’ hydraulic brake cylinder which gives you the ultimate experience of driving a real racecar. The brake cylinder features an automotive grade pressure sensor, which makes it the closest you will come to an authentic brake experience in sim racing. 
 
The functionality of the T.H.O.R.P. System is based on two stages – the soft stage and the hard stage – just like in a real race car.

01. THE SOFT STAGE

Real race car:

When you apply pressure on the pedal, it will move 10-20 mm (measured on the pedal plate), while you build up pressure, while the caliper pistons are traveling to and pushing the brake pads against the brake disc, and to compensate for the small amount of play in all the mechanical parts on the pedal system that is required for them not to seize up.

T.H.O.R.P. System:

Since we do not have a brake disc, caliper and brake pads in a simulator, we made the slave cylinder to mimic this. The slave cylinder is compressing an elastomer, and like in a real race car, it will allow a pedal travel of maximum 20-25 mm measured on the pedal plate.

When full pedal travel is obtained, the slave cylinder will hit a mechanical stop, just like in a real race as described above. We supply different elastomers to mimic different feelings of the “soft stage”, but the different elastomers will not change the pedal travel, only how much force that is needed to fully depress the pedal and engage the hard stage.

02. THE HARD STAGE

Real race car:

When hydraulic pressure is built up, the brake pads are squeezing the discs hard and all mechanical play is compensated. In this stage, your foot is basically pressing against a wall, because now your muscles are pressing directly against the hydraulic forces (the brake fluid). Since the fluid cannot be compressed, you will feel the pedal is hard.

When a racecar driver complains about a “long” or a “soft” pedal, it is typically because there is air in the system, and since air CAN be compressed, the pedal will feel soft and long. The mechanics then bleed the brakes for air, meaning there is only fluid left in the system, and the pedal is once again hard after passing the “soft stage”.

T.H.O.R.P. System:

When the slave system is mechanically locked, you have 100% the same feeling as in a racecar, when the brake pads are fully pressed against the brake disc, and your muscles are pressing directly against the hydraulic forces.

This is NOT simulated, this is the same and identical feeling as in a racecar, and you can keep pressing the pedal up to a hydraulic pressure of 100 bar, which corresponds to 185 kg of pressure on the pedal plate – the same as a real F1 car!