Lexus LFA
Road Course - Indy
Due to 2 separate personal requests, I've finally got around to testing out this LFA. I've had a bad history with this car, but I believe some of it stems from my extensive racing of Race Cars, where I get spoiled with downforce. Over the last week I've been spending a large amount of time with the RUF Yellow Bird, so if there was ever a time, that this LFA was going to be enjoyable, it's directly after, lol.
For this test I wanted to stick to a smooth, flat and open track. This car doesn't like bump or jumps, so I'm avoiding them at all costs. Two of the tuners posted lap times at Road Course - Indy, and I have some friends online who love this course. I'm not really a fan personally, so I figured I'd put some seat time into it, and try to learn the course better, so that I can be more competitive online, where I'm bound to end up there if either of them hosts the room.
8th
Default
So, as usual we'll start of with the car in stock form. I ran 5 laps of warm up to get familiar with the track, and then 10 laps of testing. Overall the car didn't feel nearly as horrible as I remember. It still lacks the agility of most cars of this caliber and just seems to lack overall grip. One friendly thing about the car, is that it's rather low torque output makes it much easier to control compared to other cars in the HP range. The default transmission wasn't quite cutting it here, as you bump the rev limiter down the back stretch, but I just left it. This car is very balanced in stock form. Someone who wants just a stable, easy to drive cruiser, keep the stock settings, add some camber, zero out the rear toe, lower it to -10 / -8 and you should be good to go. Maybe soften up the front spring 10%. If you want more oversteer, up the rear sway 1 notch. LSD 15/25/10.
Of the 10 laps ran, the 3 best were as follows:
1:28.422
1:28.335
1:28.077
7th
Moose Knuckle Tuning
The first tune to be tested, will be the first requester. Sanmusa from Moose Knuckle Tuning. While installing all of the settings, the first thing I noticed is that... Not much is changing; numerically. Of the 20 settings available, MKT left all but 9 of them at the original value. More than half of this car, is at it's stock setting. I guess... if it's not broke, don't fix it? But results are all that matters, so lets move on.
Similar settings, similar lap times. I'm not sure if it's the camber or front toe, but it seemed to help the car rotate through the center, just slightly better than the default set up. Unfortunately it also added some understeer on corner exit, so the gains were lost. It seems that this one made it through the very tight ess turn better that default, but struggled on higher speed sweeping turns, like the last one leading into the straight. This could have been caused by the higher initial on the LSD, which also helped stabilize the car on hard acceleration out of tight turns as well.
Best 3 laps:
1:27.915
1:27.800
1:27.727
3rd
Red Valley Racing
Via PM, this was the second garage to request a review of the LFA. Therefore they're second in the line up. A rather new Garage to the forums, eager to be competing with the veterans of the forum. Right away I could feel a difference with this tune. The car is much easier to turn, rotates pretty well, in fact, it has a bit too much. It definitely has oversteer tuned into it. When diving into corners, you'll notice the back end of the car 'hang out'. Don't get it confused as the car isn't quite 'sliding' yet, but it's on the edge. This makes you a bit more conservative on entry, and I didn't realize how much harder I was driving MKT's tune in, until I was in this tune against the previous ghost. This is a good feel, for sweeping turns, where it allows you to keep a higher speed, without worry, which is verified by the large jump in Sector 1 times. But once you get to the tighter turns of Sector 2 & 3 you start losing time, to the car that can be much more aggressive without worry to a spin. When on the throttle, the RVR tune has a tendency to burn up the outside rear tire. This only really seemed to be an issue when exiting corners in 2nd gear. In my experience, this could be in part due to two things. An LSD issue, or in this case, what I feel to be a ride height issue. Running the car with a lower rear ride height than front, is a quick trick to force oversteer into the car. Do it in reverse (rake) and you gain forward bite, but force understeer into the equation. If I were to fine tune this car to my liking, I would level out the ride heights and re-test, to check for overall balance, as well as outside tire spin. If the tire spin is still there, I'd lower the LSD Accel setting, and possibly turn the initial up a few clicks.
Best 3:
1:27.303
1:27.299
1:27.294
9th
High Quality Performance
Funny that RVR and HQP got tested one after the other. As above I mention the effects of using ride height to achieve certain goals. RVR used a lower rear ride height to induce oversteer and here HQT did the exact opposite. With quite a bit of rake in this tune, the understeer on a car that's already as stable as the LFA, is what I would consider crippling from the center out. The plus side of this choice is that you have tons of traction on corner exit. You can safely go full throttle at pretty much any gear other than 1st without fear of any traction issues. If you are the type of driver that brakes early, sets up quickly, and then accelerates off hard from an early apex out, this tune will probably suit your style. Unfortunately for me, I drive the exact opposite. I drive hard and deep into the corners, coast through the apex and then accelerate out as soon as I see the car set. This tune simply doesn't fit my style, at least not on a flat track like Indy Road course. Perhaps results would differ on a track with intermediate levels of banking. Another thing I noticed, not that it seemed to cause any handling issues, is that when on part throttle, through a turn, the car seems to 'wobble' from corner to corner. It looks like it's on hydraulics almost, as the outside front kind of bounces up and down, as the opposite corner opposes it. I'm not actually sure what causes this, but I have seen it with a few other tunes I've reviewed in the past and I can't remember what the tuner said it was from, or how to fix it. It's almost as if the weight of the car is oscillating on the springs. Maybe just too stiff of a front spring, as it is the stiffest spring of all the tunes I've driven? I'd start by evening out the ride height and re-testing, before I got into shocks and springs.
Best 3:
1:28.651
1:28.609
1:28.020
5th
Deep Forest Tunery
budious never actually finished this tune and to be honest, it's rather noticeable. This was the... not hardest, but... took the most work, to get around the track. I felt like I was babysitting. I had to be overly focused, up on the wheel at all times and just had to try too hard. It ran some very quick laps, but in all honesty, I'd take a slightly slower tune, just for the peace of mind. Lose your concentration on this one and you'll pay for it. It has a very loose feel around the entire track, it looks like it really just wants to slide around. It's rather difficult to get the gas peddle down, it lacks forward bite and rear traction. Although I do think that 'soft' is the way to go with the springs on this car, but I think this was a bit too soft. Lack of camber and toe, no LSD or tranny gears due to the incompleteness, but I wanted to include it anyways. I'd encourage budious to come back to this tune, as he has a solid platform going, it just needs to have some rough edges smoothed out and completed.
Best 3:
1:27.831
1:27.719
1:27.536
4th
niigma
There's not a whole lot to say about this tune. It was pretty balanced overall. Sometimes, but rarely I'd get a bit sideways on entry(could be the brake balance?), but my main issue was that it was a bit tight on exit. I was actually beating the ghost when I crossed sector 3, but I couldn't keep the car low enough on the long sweep to the straight and ended up trailing at the line. This could easily be fixed with a shock adjustment, or maybe even some front toe, even upping the camber could be good. This is probably the tune I would say I can recommended to most, despite not coming away with the best lap, it's the one that I expect to work best universally for the masses.
Best 3:
1:27.919
1:27.789
1:27.365
2nd
RKM Motorsports
I saved this one for last, because I assumed it was going to be the worst. This one is designed around Sport Softs, less power and has had consistent reviews from people trying to use Race Softs, with zero success, including myself. Okay... what the hell just happened. Unless RKM ninja-updated their LFA tune, I'm not sure what's going on. It just ran the fastest lap, and then immediately after, beat that one too. I absolutely hated this tune the first time I tried it. Although, even though RKM had the fastest lap, I have the most complaints about this tune. First, it;s unstable on corner entry. Probably in part to the LSD DeAccel being so low. It lacks forward bite and acceleration traction out of corners, and when traction is lost, it burns up the outside rear and only the outside rear, the inside never seems to lock up and help out. It had a slight understeer in the medium to high speed corner exits, but did well in the esses. I think the gearing is the strongest part of this tune. I'd be interested to use RKM gearing on the RVR tune to see what happens.
Best 3:
1:27.146
1:27.049
1:27.035 (I WAS GUNNA RUN A 26!!! But I rubbed the wall coming to the line!)
6th
GT_God
Well, after the RKM surprise, I decided not to skip this one as planned, just because they aren't active anymore. Also the Laguna Lap time posted with the tune, made me quite curious, because I don't remember my FTO Super Touring Car even running that fast there. One thing to note, i ignored the listed transmission, because the default redlines set at 205, so 180 is ridiculous. These settings are all pretty damn extreme, so I have no clue what to expect from these next 10 laps. Well... it feels pretty normal. The only thing that stands out, is it doesn't like to rotate under braking or coasting, but under throttle, it seems to do okay. This would be another tune for people who brake early, but get back to the throttle really early, but lightly, using the throttle to help steer the car out of the corner. So not quite the same as the HQP tune, same style, different approach I'd say. With an LSD upgrade this could be a solid contended.
Best 3:
1:27.979
1:27.884
1:27.672
1st
praiano63
A late entry arrives, last to the show, but not last on the track. I used the 'suzuka' version, as I felt it best related to Indy Road Course. As soon as I crossed the start finish line, this car started pulling on the ghost(1.27.0xx) which is a good sign for the gear set up. Through the bends the car feels pretty solid and stuck right with the RKM ghost. This tune doesn't quite roll through the center as tightly, but it didn't seem to have any noticeable effect. What was noticeable is that on corner exit, the car has a slight amount of understeer. I would classify is as very 'stable' for most, just not as free as I prefer for most cases. When trying to compensate this understeer with throttle, I noticed the outside wheel tends to burn up which can catch you off guard from time to time, but once you get use to it and ready for it, it was no longer an issue. I wasn't able to hold the car quite as low as I like through the medium to high speed sweeping turns of the track. I'd say the weak point of the tune overall, was the hairpins, as that's where I struggled most, both with tight turns, as well as safely acceleration out of the turns from a lower speed/gear. You might want to adjust the 2nd gear ratio, to help increase traction for low speed corners. I can safely say that this is probably the tune I would recommended everyone to use. The only issue of real concern is the outside wheel spin. The corner exit understeer is nice for overall control and would only be experienced by drivers pushing the car to the absolute limits.
Best 3:
1:26.964
1:26.909
1:26.721
Conclusion...
I think praiano's tune will be the most user friendly overall, stable and quick. RVR's is great for people who like a free car. RKM's is fast, but has it's issues that would prevent me from using it for a longer race, with tire wear. RKM and RVR with some minor changes could give praiano a run for his money. DFT is quick, but more effort than it's worth when you have better options. For different driving styles, GT God and HQP could provide the feel you're looking for. Unfortunately MKT's is the only one I would recommended to avoid, not because it's bad, but because it really doesn't offer anything. To be blunt, it looks like it was just half-***ed. Anyone who plans to do serious online competition with this car, would be recommend to take the top 3 tunes and test them on 2 other tracks of your choice. I may do this at a later date, for only the top 3, as I have no desire to run 9 tunes, 10 laps each on 2 more tracks
Part 2:
Took the Top 3 tunes out for a cruise at a new track. I wanted something, smooth, flat and semi open, but something that will differ from Indy. I decided on Tsukuba because it fits the bill and is a much smaller track which can help magnify any issues the tune may have. After running 10 laps each, I can easily say that praiano's tune is by far going to be your best bet for a wider range of tracks. My best lap was 51.600, dead on the money.
A hint of understeer, with the tendency to snap loose, the outside wheel spin is much more prevalent on these tighter turns where you do a lot more accelerating on exits, but overall the car has much more grip, is far smoother, stays tighter through the turns and is very controllable. Whereas RKM and RVR showed to have issues beyond what was seen as the larger track. My closest lap was still 3 tenths off of praiano's tune and was extremely less consistent.
Not once we step out of my comfort zone (road cars on S3s).
