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I have been a member on GTP for awhile now and the whole time I have been here I have only found a handfull of people that have found FF cars entertaining or fast. During my recent touge setups and testing I discovered something funny. When pitting a 200hp NA Miata up against a 200hp NA Civic the two times resulted in a .2 second difference. The FWD was slower, but both times were astonishingly fast and both cars were equally fun to drive. 👍
So, what I have done here is made up a list of FF specific driving tips/techniques as well as tuning tips, and a list of my favorite FF cars to drive and tune.
Here are some basic driving tips to help you shave those extra tenths or seconds off your laptimes!
Driving Tips
Tip 1: Corner entry in FFs is key. Your line coming into the corner is more important with this drivtrain then any other, because you want to keep the least amount of steering angle input as possible to maximize cornering speed and exit traction.
Tip 2: When cornering in a FF apply the throttle early, but linearly as well. Begin accelerating as early as possible, but gradually to avoid wheelspin. Everytime you spin the wheels coming out you can easily lose tenths of a second. Tidy cornering is very mportant with this drivetrain.
Tip 3: Since most FFs need to be low-powered to be fun to drive, and fast through corners, corner exit speed must be as high as possible to try to make up for the lack of power. Fast corner exit speed can be acheived by following tips 1 and 2.
Tip 4: Braking, Braking, and more Braking! Low powered cars and FFs ecspecially rely on there supurb braking abilities to gain time on there higher powered opponents. FFs are gifted with extraordinary braking power, because of their corner entry speed being less due to less power, and also the fact that the majority of the weight on FFs is over the front wheels giving the front tires excellent traction while braking. Late braking can cut tenths off your lap times. Also, trail braking, or braking while turning, can be amazing helpful as long as you still follow tip 1. When doing this not only will you be able to brake later then any other drivetrain in GT4, but it will aslo help the rear-end of the FF rotate minimizing or even eliminating any understeer at all. Tuning can actually introduce a common oversteer to FF cars.
Tip 5: Be patient with the car, and adapting to driving differently. Like every drivetrain in GT4 the driver must adapt to different behaviors and characteristics, and FF is the most difficult to adapt to.
Tip 6: The sweet spot! Over-driving or under-drivng FFs is very easy to do and is the most common reason people dislike FFs. When under-driving FFs your laptimes are slow. When over-driving FFs,the car handles and behaves horribly and your laptimes are slow. You must find the delicate line between driving too slow and too hard. The easiest way to do so is spend a little time with your ghost and just run some laps. I once was able to pick off 3 seconds on tight little Citti di' Aria in a Civic just by making changes to how I drove resulting in a laptime change from 1:41.3xx to a 1:38.4xx in a 200hp civic on R3 racing tires!
FF tuning and modification is just as important as how you drive the car itself!
Tuning & Modding
Tip 1: Never over power the car! Obviously, the more power you have the lower your laptimes will go on most tracks. However, FFs handle worse and worse with more power. You have to find an amount of power that can be put down to the ground easily with minimal wheelspin. That will not only improve initial acceleration, but also do wonders for the cornering performance of the car. I normally normally do all the power mods, but only do a NA tune-up stage 1 or turbo-kit stage 1, and that generally is a controllable power for the car to handle.
Tip 2: Let it loose! Rear-end rotation is vital for a FF! This not only reduces or eliminates understeer, but can also introduce oversteer. It also raises cornering speed and allows you to get in the throttle earlier.
Tip 3: Keep the suspension soft(springs/dampers). Doing this keeps the tires firmly planted on the ground and keeps the front tires from loosing traction over bumps and elevation changes. It also allows adaquate weight transition to provide better braking and cornering.
Tip 4: Keep the gearing track specific. Most FFs are, to handle well, are low powered. So in order to maximize all the power you have you should always spend some time getting to know your gear ratios and your powerband. For example, I use a combination of 3 different gearing options for slow, mid-speed, and high speed tracks instead of just using one for every track. This allows my car to have optimal acceleration in any track condition and cornering situation by always using the optimal range of my powerband for my specific engine.
Tip 5: Ballast is bad. Although adding rear ballast to the car will essentially even out the weight distribution or get it closer to 50/50 the added weight in the car will offset the aditional handling with slower acceleration times. Also, the car can be made to handle as if it had 50/50 weight distribution by adjusting the suspension.
Tip 6: Stay away from driving aids. Learn to use throttle control. Your lap times will improve. Also, if you use driving aids to control understeer...just stop! That ends up slowing the car down so much and induces akward and unnatuaral handling characteristics into the car.
List of my Favorite FFs to drive and Tune!
Honda Civic Sir-II (EG6)
Mitsubishi FTO GP Version-R
Honda Integra Type R (DC2 98')
Honda Integra Type R (DC5)
Honda Civic Type-R (EK9)
Honda Civic Type-R (EP)
Renault Clio Sport
Seat Ibiza
I hope this guide can be helpful, and I hope more people on GTP can come to accept FFs as at least a decent drive and realize that tuned properly and driven properly can also be fast and a lot of fune to drive!
Here is a link to an example set-up I use:
Touge Civic Sir-II
(P.S. Tire stagger on that setup isn't really necessary.)
NEW!!! LINK TO: TuneRVisioN's GT4 Tips and info!!!NEW!!!NEW!!! 👍
Thanks for all the support TuneRVisioN!!!
Peace,
eg6_dude
So, what I have done here is made up a list of FF specific driving tips/techniques as well as tuning tips, and a list of my favorite FF cars to drive and tune.
Here are some basic driving tips to help you shave those extra tenths or seconds off your laptimes!
Driving Tips
Tip 1: Corner entry in FFs is key. Your line coming into the corner is more important with this drivtrain then any other, because you want to keep the least amount of steering angle input as possible to maximize cornering speed and exit traction.
Tip 2: When cornering in a FF apply the throttle early, but linearly as well. Begin accelerating as early as possible, but gradually to avoid wheelspin. Everytime you spin the wheels coming out you can easily lose tenths of a second. Tidy cornering is very mportant with this drivetrain.
Tip 3: Since most FFs need to be low-powered to be fun to drive, and fast through corners, corner exit speed must be as high as possible to try to make up for the lack of power. Fast corner exit speed can be acheived by following tips 1 and 2.
Tip 4: Braking, Braking, and more Braking! Low powered cars and FFs ecspecially rely on there supurb braking abilities to gain time on there higher powered opponents. FFs are gifted with extraordinary braking power, because of their corner entry speed being less due to less power, and also the fact that the majority of the weight on FFs is over the front wheels giving the front tires excellent traction while braking. Late braking can cut tenths off your lap times. Also, trail braking, or braking while turning, can be amazing helpful as long as you still follow tip 1. When doing this not only will you be able to brake later then any other drivetrain in GT4, but it will aslo help the rear-end of the FF rotate minimizing or even eliminating any understeer at all. Tuning can actually introduce a common oversteer to FF cars.
Tip 5: Be patient with the car, and adapting to driving differently. Like every drivetrain in GT4 the driver must adapt to different behaviors and characteristics, and FF is the most difficult to adapt to.
Tip 6: The sweet spot! Over-driving or under-drivng FFs is very easy to do and is the most common reason people dislike FFs. When under-driving FFs your laptimes are slow. When over-driving FFs,the car handles and behaves horribly and your laptimes are slow. You must find the delicate line between driving too slow and too hard. The easiest way to do so is spend a little time with your ghost and just run some laps. I once was able to pick off 3 seconds on tight little Citti di' Aria in a Civic just by making changes to how I drove resulting in a laptime change from 1:41.3xx to a 1:38.4xx in a 200hp civic on R3 racing tires!
FF tuning and modification is just as important as how you drive the car itself!
Tuning & Modding
Tip 1: Never over power the car! Obviously, the more power you have the lower your laptimes will go on most tracks. However, FFs handle worse and worse with more power. You have to find an amount of power that can be put down to the ground easily with minimal wheelspin. That will not only improve initial acceleration, but also do wonders for the cornering performance of the car. I normally normally do all the power mods, but only do a NA tune-up stage 1 or turbo-kit stage 1, and that generally is a controllable power for the car to handle.
Tip 2: Let it loose! Rear-end rotation is vital for a FF! This not only reduces or eliminates understeer, but can also introduce oversteer. It also raises cornering speed and allows you to get in the throttle earlier.
Tip 3: Keep the suspension soft(springs/dampers). Doing this keeps the tires firmly planted on the ground and keeps the front tires from loosing traction over bumps and elevation changes. It also allows adaquate weight transition to provide better braking and cornering.
Tip 4: Keep the gearing track specific. Most FFs are, to handle well, are low powered. So in order to maximize all the power you have you should always spend some time getting to know your gear ratios and your powerband. For example, I use a combination of 3 different gearing options for slow, mid-speed, and high speed tracks instead of just using one for every track. This allows my car to have optimal acceleration in any track condition and cornering situation by always using the optimal range of my powerband for my specific engine.
Tip 5: Ballast is bad. Although adding rear ballast to the car will essentially even out the weight distribution or get it closer to 50/50 the added weight in the car will offset the aditional handling with slower acceleration times. Also, the car can be made to handle as if it had 50/50 weight distribution by adjusting the suspension.
Tip 6: Stay away from driving aids. Learn to use throttle control. Your lap times will improve. Also, if you use driving aids to control understeer...just stop! That ends up slowing the car down so much and induces akward and unnatuaral handling characteristics into the car.
NEW!!! Additional Tips and Member Tips NEW!!!
List of my Favorite FFs to drive and Tune!
Honda Civic Sir-II (EG6)
Mitsubishi FTO GP Version-R
Honda Integra Type R (DC2 98')
Honda Integra Type R (DC5)
Honda Civic Type-R (EK9)
Honda Civic Type-R (EP)
Renault Clio Sport
Seat Ibiza
I hope this guide can be helpful, and I hope more people on GTP can come to accept FFs as at least a decent drive and realize that tuned properly and driven properly can also be fast and a lot of fune to drive!
Here is a link to an example set-up I use:
Touge Civic Sir-II
(P.S. Tire stagger on that setup isn't really necessary.)
NEW!!! FF Suspension Tuning Guide!!! NEW!!!
NEW!!! FF Brake Tuning Guide!!! NEW!!!
NEW!!! LINK TO: TuneRVisioN's GT4 Tips and info!!!NEW!!!NEW!!! 👍
Thanks for all the support TuneRVisioN!!!
Peace,
eg6_dude
But good advice for newbs & intermediates, I agree with most of it.
Not a big fan of black...it bores me. 
I know it isn't the Spoon, fairly sure it's the DC2 or DC5. I only did HP upgrades with a 2nd stage of the N/A tune because I'm pretty sure it doesn't take turbo...also did the stage 1 weight reduction! Also on R4 tires I think...those are the softs, right? 
). All the setups of mine run racing tyres, as they are designed to be race machines, however the setups seem to transfer reasonably well to sports tyres.
JK
