HKS CT230R
Default...
This car sucks. Sorry. I was quickly reminded why I've sold this car twice before. It seems as if it has potential, I suppose, but with the stock setup underneath it, the understeer is absolutely horrendous. My Enzo handles better than this car, which is crazy. My first 3 laps at Deep Forest was getting situated. 6 of the next 7 laps, were all 1:08.xxx. I was getting all there was to get from this car. My best 3 laps were as follows:
4) 1:08.576
7) 1:08.581
9) 1:08.576 (Yes, identical)
Clearly, it's time to move on. I'd say there was about 2 tenths to be gained on the default tune, but honestly, no one should care, because I can't imagine anyone wanting to drive it that way.
I'll be going through the tunes as they roll in, so obviously that puts
Assassin's tune up first. Right off the bat, Assassin's tune frightens me. Each setting that I'm changing, is probably the opposite of what I would have personally done. A car that already understeers, increasing rear downforce? Leaving Positive Rear Toe? Stiffening the LSD up on 5/6 of the settings? Higher front brake bias than rear? The only things I actually agreed with, was the stiffer 'front' sway, and lower rear ride height and a slightly closer to 50/50 torq dist. I've always been in the belief that if you aren't using 50/50 you're leaving something on the table, by using the Torque dist as a crutch to reduce understeer, rather than the suspension. But... I've been wrong before, so I applied everything and hit the track, side by side with my default ghost.
On the track, I couldn't really feel much difference between Assassin's tune and the default tune. Due to the above comments I made, I feel like Assassin has some contradicting values in his tune. The only slight difference I could pick up on, was that on corner exit, this tune had a touch better angle into the straights.
Best 3:
7) 1:08.500
9) 1:08.099
10) 1:08.268
Next in line is
Praiano.
Praiano's tune also has a few values I find odd for a car that naturally understeers. Again with the positive rear toe, he's using level ride height, matching sways, again a ton of downforce on the rear of the car and the LSD seems to be started in the right direction, but I still disagree with the Initial and DeAccel Values. I've got a bad feeling this may understeer the worst of the 3 so far, but at least the brake balance and - front toe will help the car enter the corners.
The entry advantage kind of played out here for Praiano. I was able to dive into the corners and then it helped me stay tight through the center and gave me a decent run on exit. It didn't get off the corners quite as well as Assassin's, but through the first 2 sectors of this track, there's barely any straight away speed, meaning that entry wins out. But on the 3rd sector exit speed shows it's strength. Twice I was 2 tenths ahead of the Assassin ghost, but screwed it up on the second to last turn, sliding off into the grass on exit, because of this car's understeer. Eventually I got the car to stuck and pulled the best lap to date. I'm confident this is the fastest of the 3 so far, but the lap times won't really show it, with the exception of 1 lap, due to driver error (I blame the car).
Best 3:
1) 1:08.720
4) 1:08.585
9) 1:07.839
RKM...
I've heard rumors about the oversteer, I really, really hope they're true. As mentioned earlier, a few things struck me as odd about RKM's tune, but overall it visually appears to have the best handling ability of all 4 tests. I immediately notice that finally someone didn't use some crazy high rear downforce on this car. Thank you! Negative Rear toe, another plus for this car. On the other hand, the sway bars seem extremely odd and RKM has gone with a super stiff spring setup, which in recent tests has been the opposite from what I've gotten from them. As expected, since he is the one who showed me the light, RJ has gone with a 50/50 split. I think that anytime you use a 4WD car, you should aim to keep the split as close to 50/50 as possible without sacrificing handling abilities. The LSD is pretty extreme, but this car seems to have plenty of grip, so why not exploit it. I did the same thing to the FTO ST car, so I assume it will work well here as well. Although, the initial still seems a bit high, about double what my first guess would have been. The 3rd most exciting thing about this tune, is the LSD DeAccel at 5. Why in the world, anyone would have it higher than 5 on this car, is beyond me. I have my own thoughts and theories on LSD's that I won't get into, but in short, for this car, the lower the better. Enough speculating, lets see if RJ kills me on the first lap as he's threatened. Doubting my skills to handle a loose car, I'll be eager to prove him wrong!
Looks can be deceiving... To be brutally honest, it feels as if RKM has forced rotation into the car, by just removing rear grip, rather than trying to increase front grip. The rear wan't to slide around, but at the same time, the nose is still plowing on throttle. I've consistently run into understeer on exit from RKM, which can usually be traced to RJ's tendency to focus on corner entry. Now, in online races, I think this is a benefit to a tune, but in time trails, focusing on exit is where the best laps will come from. And some may think it's odd to use a slower driving style, to benefit you online, but online driving into the corner harder and deeper than your opponent is what will end up winning most of the time, despite the fact that it's actually faster to enter slow and exit faster. Anywho, back on topic. RKM tune will easily put you into a 4 wheel slide, rear end first. Unfortunately all this does, is seem to drag the front tires in the same direction, and even when used in moderation, it visibly over stressed the outside front tire. Which brings me back to my main point, that it feels as if rear grip was just sacrificed to simulate front grip. However, pay attention boys, RKM's tune easily had the best 'center'. This is where I feel the LSD DeAccel comes into play. The RKM tune could easily coast through the center of the turn and stay tighter than any of the other tunes. But, that was short lived, because as soon as you get to the gas the nose starts plowing and the rear no longer feels like it's going to swing anywhere, it's just playing follow the leader. Adapting your style to accommodate the RKM tune, you can back your corners up, enter easier, roll smoothly through the center and then get a solid exit. Doing this is what resulted in my best lap time for this tune, but not of the entire session. The only 'oversteer' that I really felt this tune had, was on hard entry, the car felt like it wanted to spin, but you could tell that it wasn't actually going to come around, it just tosses you into a small drift that's easily manageable, but kills corner speed and forward momentum.
Best 3:
1) 1:08.397 (Yes RJ, my first lap was one of the fastest 3)
5) 1:08.102
10) 1:08.265
I'm gunna spend about 15 minutes, trying to make a tune, not for this shootout, but just to see if my above complaints, hold any truth to them. If I can run a decent lap, I'll shoot them over to Onboy, and let him take my version of 'loose' for a spin and see what he thinks.
