wow, you sound like you thrash your wheel worse than me. While i'd agree the FFB is crap and notchy after a few months. my pedals have been fine. My wheel has broken now though so i use a momo, without pedals and plug my DF EX in with the pedals connected since the pedals on the DF don't plug into the momo.
However the momo is broke now too... so i'm looking for a Fanatec carrerra probably next.
No, car selection will be seperate from that event. We will be testing ballast during the test race also. When we have come to a decision on the ballast then the car selection process can begin properly.