Set-up 1:
contestant:
When setting up this car it looked alot like the setup's I use so nothing looked too strange. When driving this car I also found that it tuned well under braking. But the accelertion was not as good because the car had alot more wheel spin. And this also had affected the handling too. Because when I was driving the car it was harder to find the limit of the car. So I found my self spinning out of control when I tried to push the car hard. But it's not to say the car was slow, because it was faster than Setup A. But only because Setup A didn't use the same part's(Racing Flywheel and Racing Brake's). Even though Setup 1 was faster, I fell that if Setup A would have used the same part's as Setup 1 it would have been better and most likely faster as well. At lease that's what I think.
So that's what I think of the setup's. If the part's would have been the same I think Setup A would have been faster than Setup 1. I have both ghost replay's if needed. I also have the lap time's but because we aren't compairing lap time's I will only show the different's between them. Here they are.
Setup A - +0.248 +0343 +1.285
-------------------------------------------------------------
contestant:
Set-Up 1:
* Understeer into turns is significantly reduced. Actually turns in very nice in several turns.
* Oversteer coming out of turns is reduced since the Racing brakes allow much later braking, and the improved turn in characteristic allows you to get on the throttle earlier & more aggressively. Potential to lose the rear coming out of turns is significantly reduced.
* Best Lap: 1'21.334
Summary:
Set-Up 1 is more forgiving & much easier to drive more aggressively & more consistently. Good lap times are possible lap after lap. Set-Up A can give a similar best lap, but only once in a while & requires much more touch & control. Since that difference isn't obvious when simply comparing the Best Laps, I drove each car for a 15 lap session & noted every lap time (Since the car is "Special" & can't be entered into any races. ).
Set-Up A Set-Up 1
21'19.352 21'11.581 Total for 15 laps (7.771 diff)
1'25.290 1'24.772 Average lap (0.518 diff)
2 0 Blown laps over 1'30
Overall, I preferred driving Set-Up 1 since it's more forgiving/consistent & encourages more aggressive driving. If I had to pick one to drive in a race, it would be Set-Up 1 hands down. I think the brakes & gearing are the biggest things holding back Set-Up A. The suspension settings probably aren't making as much of a difference, although being a Development Engineer for Bilstein, I don't like the way the damping looks for Set-Up A.
FWIW, with my typical suspension settings & gearing applied to Set-Up 1, I was able to manage a 1'20.751 within 10 laps.
-------------------------------------------------
contestant:
Setup 1
This setup was much more balanced than setup A. It didn't suffer from much understeer - this setup was more oversteer-biased.
On power, the car had a tendency to oversteer, but it was relatively easy to catch, and bring back in line. Through the esses, despite some oversteer on exit, the car was pretty much neutral (unlike setup A).
There was less wheelspin (than A) on the exit of corners, due to the LSD having a higher initial torque value (10 as opposed to 5); I felt the reduction of the LSD Acceleration effect from 40 to 20 was a bit much, but wheelspin on exit was better controlled than setup A, despite this.
Cresting the hill, a problematic spot for setup A, this setup was much more composed, but still suffered from a bit (read: not a lot, but still enough to be noticeable) of wheelspin on exit. This setup didn't suffer from the twitchiness over the hill that setup A had.
I felt this setup was, overall, more controllable, more neutral and more entertaining than setup A. It also suited my own driving style (brake & turn to apex, full beans on exit) better than A did. It was also easier to recover when oversteer surfaced.
Overall
While both setups left much to be desired, I felt setup 1 was better - it was more user-friendly, more predictable, more controllable and more entertaining.
It also proved to be faster - almost 3 seconds between the best laps of both setups, in fact.
--------------------------------------------------------
contestant:
Setup 1
Lap time: 1'20.997 (T1 – 0'25.544 ; T2 – 0'50.706)
Mileage: 29.1 km
Setup 1 was reasonably well balanced. The car generally had a feeling of slight understeer, but it was okay because it felt almost neutral. The car could be positioned where I needed it to be, and it allowed me to drive reasonably close to the limit comfortably.
However, the high speed right-left ‘flick’ of turns 3 and 4 seemed to unbalance the rear of the car, causing fairly extreme oversteer at times. It was easy to control, though, and the car didn’t do anything nasty like snap back when I applied counter-steer. This oversteer was probably a good thing, as I was able to carry a lot of speed through turn 4 – over 10kph faster than Setup A through turn 4.
The car suffered fairly pronounced understeer on entry to the hairpin towards the end of the circuit. Despite this, the lowest speed it reached during the corner was 63kph – 4kph faster than Setup A through the same corner.
The gearing felt as if it was not tuned for this circuit, 6th gear was too long. It has the advantage of being a more flexible car in different circuits, but I felt the car could have accelerated a little faster if the gears were a bit shorter.
---------------------------------------------
Contestant
Setup 1:
Far superior under braking to Setup A, oversteers enough to allow you to get the car to the Apex of the corner fairly consistantly. This Setup is also alot better under acceleration although it has a tad more wheel spin.
T1/25.013 T2/49.119 Time/1'18.866
Top Speed Across The S/F Line: 146MPH
---------------------------------------------
contestant
Set-Up 1:
This setups only mayor weaknesses was excessive rear traction loss/wheelspin and the very unforgiving nature of the cars wheelspin whilst exiting a number of corners. However, turn #1 was a joy, although there were issues with wheelspin into and after turn #2 that left the driver wondering if it was best to do an early gear change or chance his arm and go for the full monty up to turn #3. Coming out of turn #4 was very unforgiving if the driver’s line wasn’t exactly right and turn #5’s exit was also a battle of wills in trying to keep traction up to turn #6. Again however, this setup boasted more acceleration and a lot less understeer than Set-Up A and thus resulted in much faster lap times. It appeared to me that either the tuners attempt to reduce wheelspin was tampered by the cars superior acceleration over Set-Up A, or the main objective was speed that in turn would result in better lap times, and therefore ignoring any issues with traction.
All in all, this setup was clearly the faster car and no matter how much I enjoyed driving Set-Up A I still have to say that this was also the better car even if rear traction was an issue.
Lap Time 1’18.9
------------------------------------------------
contestant
Setup 1 faired better than Setup A, but I was still dissappointed with it. The car did feel more planted, understeer was less evident and full throttle was attainable earlier. The uphill esses onto the S/F straight were easily flat with this setup. Traction was still broken by the crest, but the resultant wheelspin didn't last as long as it did using Setup A. The car could be driven over kerbs better than Setup A, but care was still required.
The brake setup was vastly superior, and worked well. Late braking was easy to do and didn't unsettle the car for corner entry.
Best lap - 1'20.491
Both setups cause massive vibrations on the DFP in anything other than a straight ahead position, so neither setup gave an easy drive for me.
---------------------------------------
contestant
Setup 1:
T1: 0'24.614
T2: 0'49.017
Total: 1'19.022
The car is stable under brakes, but suffers from turn-in understeer. It also struggles to turn in when off the throttle mid-corner, one needs to apply some throttle to get the rear of the car involved. On exit, there is some power oversteer, which seems primarily to be a result of wheelspin. The car is fast if one can balance it on the throttle and carry a few degrees of drift through the long corners, but this requires a bit of skill and can be hard to replicate. Overall the car feels balanced and progressive in losing grip, but the driver must be very smooth with their inputs.
---------------------------------------------
contestant
Setup 1
Lap time: 1:20.720
V-Max: 247 km/h
Initially feels more like the stock car, a bit understeery, with longer gears than Setup A. Wheelspin is better controlled than stock, despite the shorter gearing, but seems more than in Setup A, likely due to the stiffer rear end and larger camber settings. The upside to this is that it resists throttle-induced oversteer very well. The downside is more off-throttle understeer than Setup A. It’s very stable under braking, and easy to control mid-corner to exit. Snap under braking is good, and it’s easy to point the nose at the apex with the brakes. Requires a more deliberate approach than Setup A, but is ultimately more stable, faster and much better geared than either stock or Setup A, with better punch between 100 and 200 km/h. Only slows appreciably at speeds above 200 km/h, where aerodynamics play a larger role, which is why V-Max isn’t far off from “stock” gearing. No comment on LSD, so it’s doing its job, I guess. Definitely better than stock, in many ways, but the handling advantage is more qualitative than quantitative. Makes for more easily repeatable laps than the other set-ups.
-------------------------------------------
contestant
Setup 1:
My prefered setup. I wouldn't call it brilliant, since it still didn't leave me wanting to continue racing it for days, but it was far superior to the other setup. It felt more 'direct' during cornering, probably because of the added stiffness of the rollcage. Braking was easy and controllable, and enabled the use of trail-braking. Turn-in was sharp, and the exit, as long as it was done smoothly, was very neutral. One flaw of this car was keeping the line in mid-turn, such as during the long left-hander before T2, where it went wider, even when I kept the speed of 110Km/h, which kept the other setup 'in-line'. Oversteer was easy to obtain, and was very controllable, too - especially under the first tunnel, where letting the tail out a little, and clipping the inside was very easy. But more importantly, fun aside, this setup was seriously quicker. With a little courage (from the driver's side), this car was able to produce consistent and quick laptimes - mostly 1.5 seconds quicker than the best lap on the other setup, but the best was even 2.5 seconds quicker.
Times (A - 1):
T1: 0'26.614 - 0'25.883 (+0.731)
T2: 0'52.230 - 0'50.866 (+1.364)
Lap: 1'24.167 - 1'21.448 (+2.719)
Epilogue:
While I was pretty dissappointed with Setup A, and Setup 1 was very good, I felt neither were good enough, and they both lacked a bit. None was a true 'Fireblade'. They both felt a little unfinished, and Setup A could definetely be re-made, because perhaps this style of extreme-settings doesn't work on such a car. Setup 1 felt much more 'polished', but I think it was still not as perfected as one might want it to be. But, this is a comparison and not an objective rating, and therefore Setup 1 wins my vote. After all, a 2.5 seconds lead and better consistency/driveability are very clear - and the better 'feel' only adds to this victory.
-----------------------------------------------------
contestant
Setup 1:
- Showed minimal to moderate understeer under late braking. technically, it benefitted from the racing brake package.
- Wheelspin is a bit more controlled; however, still bothersome and intrusive.
- As with "Setup A", this setup was easy to get back in line when understeering by giving a slight blip of the throttle.
- Nice control under oversteer
quickest lap time: 1'20.503
mileage: 49.9
In closing, i had fun trying out other peoples setups!
------------------------------------------------------
Contestant
Set-up 1:
Splits: 25.864 / 50.683 / 1.21.764
First impressions of this set-up were that it felt much more stable than 'Set-up A'. The car had a little lift-off understeer, but thats no bad thing for such a tail happy car. I found this set-up a little less predictable during oversteer and more prone to initial understeer, often having to provoke the tail out a little to get it through certain bends. The transition of coming off the brakes and onto the throttle could be done much quicker and cleaner than 'A'. The main difference with this set-up was the brakes. I was braking a good 50-60m later into the first turn which gives you a second off your lap time straight away.
This was a much more forgiving set-up for the car in this specification. I felt i could lean on the cars limits more and spent much less time fighting traction with throttle imputs, which naturally leads to quicker lap times. Much more of a race-style set-up than the first one.
).
Lap time was 1'20.750 (nearly a second quicker than what I managed in the faster of the two setups [Scaff's, for reference])
