De Tomaso Mangusta tuning

[Batschisane52]

I just got the De Tomaso Magusta and I would appriciate some tunining suggenstions...

At first I just got some sport-soft tires, just to see how it is runnig with the original set up...it was very tail happy and oversteery, but also easy to catch after I lost control...
Then I got a racing suspension and racing breaks-and i did behave better and was more stable, but it also drives somehow wierd-somtimes when i use the breaks before a tighter turn and i turn in, there is this delay of a split second where it keeps going straight and not reacting at all to my steering input before finally reacting very strong to my steering input...so it is both: untersteery at first, and then after a split second it is oversteery

Does anyone know this behavior(I haven't encountered that before in such a way) and has good set up/ tuning tips how to counter this.. ?

edit:Well I guess I found a solution(put stability on 6/7,got a racing differential and adjust the settings to 15/40/25 and got adjustable breaks to -1), it's still a bit understeery, but it is stable and predictable now,and the oversteer is gone...still hard to drive, but according to what they write on Wikipediea this car isn't supposed to be an easy drive...

 

[demonchilde]

This is my secret new favorite car to play with in game. I've had it for a couple days now and absolutely LOVE it.
But no, it doesn't play like the others. Which is why I love it so much. And also why I think most people will hate it, lol.
If you play it and use slight tail drifts here and there on purpose, it's torque is through the roof. Basically thats what it has over every other car, it's torque overpowers everything else on the track (in its level). I have it's top speed set to 150ish mph. It's top speed isn't going to win you any races..... the fact you GET to top speed in 1/2 the time everything else does is why you DO win.
And again, the way I set it up I utilize a slight "street race drift" routine. Only for certain types of corners. Most people tuning would tune that out as much as possible but in this one case it makes the whole package WAY more fun. Feels like your in one of those car movies 🎬 where yeah they drift a little here and there but 90% of the time they are just racing.
Ive been using it in the GTC 600 world touring car 3 race series, just to run daily miles and grab a little cash here and there.

 

[Batschisane52]

Did you change the tires at all ?

I still got the original tune up as well, but added sports soft...that's great sliding and drifting fun-the great thing is, as I mentioned above,that as easy as it is loosing it's grip, it is as quick in getting it back again...others cars get that quick oversteer and the are out and away in the fields somewhere, but the Mangusta you can catch an stay on the road

 

[GBalao888]

Even with Racing: Soft tires, the De Tomaso Mangusta could really handle like a brick **** outhouse. Still a beautiful-looking classic vehicle though, sad shame it is betrayed by its handling.

 

[demonchilde]

Did you change the tires at all ?

I still got the original tune up as well, but added sports soft...that's great sliding and drifting fun-the great thing is, as I mentioned above,that as easy as it is loosing it's grip, it is as quick in getting it back again...others cars get that quick oversteer and the are out and away in the fields somewhere, but the Mangusta you can catch an stay on the road

Yes, using racing intermediate tires.
I tuned it to use on the WTC600, and that first race has rain. So I just tuned it all around for those tires.
Good thing is the Ri tires have the same PP as the Ss tires, just wider and better handling.
I added this wierd tune to my garage page if you want to try it out.

If your looking for a secret weapon to beat others online with, this isn't it, lol.
If your looking to experience the game and have fun, try things and actually enjoy yourself, this is worth playing around with.

 

[Batschisane52]

Even with Racing: Soft tires, the De Tomaso Mangusta could really handle like a brick **** outhouse. Still a beautiful-looking classic vehicle though, sad shame it is betrayed by its handling.

I never played Dark Souls or Elden Ring, but according to what I hear about those games managing to handle the Mangusta sucessfully and winning a race is a little bit like winning one of them boss fights there...

 

[DjEyeQ]

I bought this amazing car too, and man does it oversteer. Still playing around with the tunes, but at the same time, a car from this time period, shouldn't be easy to drive. Think im gonna reserve this one, for when my wheelbase arrives.

 

[RacingFan1]

The car by default (stock) seems to have a lot of weight on the rear and really poor rear grip so some extreme measures needed here.

Here's my setup

Tires:
-Front: Sports medium
-Rear: Sports soft (yeah, not the ideal thing, but the car feels so much better)

Suspension (totally customizable)
Height 150 - 110
Anti roll bars 10 - 4
Damping comp. 40 - 20
Damping ext. 40 - 20
Natural freq. 2.90 - 1.75
Camber 0.0 - 2.2
Toe -0.50 - +0.50

Differential (totally customizable)
0 - 5
0 - 5
0 - 30

Gearbox (totally customizable) - Need to make the 1st and 2nd gears quite long so the car doesn't spin insanely easily like with the stock gearbox. Having a powerful and torquey Ford V8 engine, you really dont want short gears...
Top speed 270 kph
1st gear 125 kph
2nd gear 150 kph

Brake bias -2

Stock power and stock weight.


Not tried:
-Ballast at the front (adding weight is not the ideal thing for tuning but it would help stability)
-Rear wing (that would surely help but it would spoil car's design)

 

[demonchilde]

The car by default (stock) seems to have a lot of weight on the rear and really poor rear grip so some extreme measures needed here.

Here's my setup

Tires:
-Front: Sports medium
-Rear: Sports soft (yeah, not the ideal thing, but the car feels so much better)

Suspension (totally customizable)
Height 150 - 110
Anti roll bars 10 - 4
Damping comp. 40 - 20
Damping ext. 40 - 20
Natural freq. 2.90 - 1.75
Camber 0.0 - 2.2
Toe -0.50 - +0.50

Differential (totally customizable)
0 - 5
0 - 5
0 - 30

Gearbox (totally customizable) - Need to make the 1st and 2nd gears quite long so the car doesn't spin insanely easily like with the stock gearbox. Having a powerful and torquey Ford V8 engine, you really dont want short gears...
Top speed 270 kph
1st gear 125 kph
2nd gear 150 kph

Brake bias -2

Stock power and stock weight.


Not tried:
-Ballast at the front (adding weight is not the ideal thing for tuning but it would help stability)
-Rear wing (that would surely help but it would spoil car's design)

Just as a side discussion;
When it comes to ballast over 25lbs, I usually go by a simple code;
If I can add weight reduction #1, it frees up usually about 300 lbs. Then I will feel free to ballast even up to 200 as it's still technically under its stock weight. Of course you "might" lose a couple PP on some cars, but in most you actually "gain" negative PP, as the added weight actually brings it down usually farther then the cost of the weight reduction.
If you talking about a car between 52/48 <-> 48/52, then theres really no reason to go that route. But in cars that are ridiculously weight biased like 42/58 (or whatever), I often find using this method much easier to get the car controllable and tuneable without "technically" adding weight (compared to stock) or adding PP.

 

[Lofty L]

Even with Racing: Soft tires, the De Tomaso Mangusta could really handle like a brick **** outhouse. Still a beautiful-looking classic vehicle though, sad shame it is betrayed by its handling.

I struggled with it but I got the stiffen body modification and seemed to help a lot

 

[RacingFan1]

Just as a side discussion;
When it comes to ballast over 25lbs, I usually go by a simple code;
If I can add weight reduction #1, it frees up usually about 300 lbs. Then I will feel free to ballast even up to 200 as it's still technically under its stock weight. Of course you "might" lose a couple PP on some cars, but in most you actually "gain" negative PP, as the added weight actually brings it down usually farther then the cost of the weight reduction.
If you talking about a car between 52/48 <-> 48/52, then theres really no reason to go that route. But in cars that are ridiculously weight biased like 42/58 (or whatever), I often find using this method much easier to get the car controllable and tuneable without "technically" adding weight (compared to stock) or adding PP.

Sure addding front ballast is an easy way to "fix" very oversteery cars like the Mangusta, but you always want to avoid adding ballast if possible because weight is the worst thing in general, it increases the tire wear, decreases grip and cornering speed, decreases acceleration, increases fuel consumption... It will never be as fast as the same car with the least amount of weight (maximum weight reduction), and with online races with tire wear and fuel consumption on, it is definitely bad.

 

[demonchilde]

Sure addding front ballast is an easy way to "fix" very oversteery cars like the Mangusta, but you always want to avoid adding ballast if possible because weight is the worst thing in general, it increases the tire wear, decreases grip and cornering speed, decreases acceleration, increases fuel consumption... It will never be as fast as the same car with the least amount of weight (maximum weight reduction), and with online races with tire wear and fuel consumption on, it is definitely bad.

Very true, but if comparing stock settings to weight reduction #1 and 200 ballast, its actually LESS weight then it started out from.
Which would go along with the idea that less weight is better, as well as having a better front back weight ratio.

And aside from that, there is also the exception cars. While lower weight is usually best all around (basically everything you said) is very true, there are the exceptions to every rule as well. Like the Berlina Ferrari for example, the power to weight ratio is so dramatic that removal of any weight makes the car almost undriveable. It needs a certain amount of weight to support the amount of overpower (from stock).

And honestly, this isn't a car I'd bring in to compete with others anyway, lol. This is actually one of those top 10 cars I would NOT bring to online races, lol.
But theres more to the game then just racing others on channels. And there's ways to enjoy the game and every car in their own way. Some are great for some things but simply suck at other things. But I'm not going to just not enjoy a specific car just because it doesn't do well in 1 kind of race, I'm just going to use it for something else. And 1 by 1, I'm going to try and enjoy every car I can.

I've got my favorites for online racing anyway. And if while exploring new cars I add to that list, awesome, if not... I'm still having fun.

 

[HyperSpeeder]

This car will be overlooked by many people but it's got many ingredients that can make it good despite the terrible base you start with:

• It's light
• It's got a good engine (Ford 289)
• It's got a low CG
• Its problems are relatively easy to fix (poor weight distribution)

Low weight is a priority, but IMO every class in the game has an optimal power to weight ratio. Beyond a certain point, lightening the car may make you unbeatable on tight tracks, but also makes you useless on tracks with long straights, which are abundant in GT7.

I have no idea if it'll be top tier, as I don't race competitively, but the Mangusta is far from useless.

 

[RacingFan1]

• It's light
• It's got a good engine (Ford 289)
• It's got a low CG
• Its problems are relatively easy to fix (poor weight distribution)

Good engine? I think it's way too large in displacement and too torquey for such an unstable chassis... shoulve got a smaller and much more progressive one, straight-6 or so, the car would be a lot more driveable.
The "small european chasis" along with big american V8 experiment didnt really work well for neither the Shelby Cobra nor the De Tomaso's

 

[Batschisane52]

Good engine? I think it's way too large in displacement and too torquey for such an unstable chassis... shoulve got a smaller and much more progressive one, straight-6 or so, the car would be a lot more driveable.
The "small european chasis" along with big american V8 experiment didnt really work well for neither the Shelby Cobra nor the De Tomaso's

It did work for the Pantera...

 

[demonchilde]

Good engine? I think it's way too large in displacement and too torquey for such an unstable chassis... shoulve got a smaller and much more progressive one, straight-6 or so, the car would be a lot more driveable.
The "small european chasis" along with big american V8 experiment didnt really work well for neither the Shelby Cobra nor the De Tomaso's

As much as we can talk about real life and how it "should be" exactly how the game works, it doesn't.
So any facts or opinions on the car "out of the game" really doesn't serve any purpose in game.
And it depends on the driver style. Maybe in most people, and/or in your driving style you dislike this in-game cars handling and abilities. And thats valid, as the car is definitely hard to like, lol. It's a tuning nightmare to say the least, and and there are simple 90 other cars a lot better for It's pp range its in.
But on the other said, the one thing (the engine) you said was the issue is also it's strongpoint. The torque and power, with its size and weight, throw it in a very nice 0-60 vs ai cars. It is almost twice the rate of the ai cars. Aaand it pays for that huge plus by handling like poop, but that doesn't change it. So dumbing down the cars engine to force it into a decent soccer mom car may be possible but that doesn't mean anyone should do it, lol.

I mean, if all people do is play in online races thats one thing. And why in the world anyone who only plays that would ever even bother with a car like this is ridiculous.
But for the rest of us who play the entire game and want to enjoy every car possible to it's limits (be that online racing or ai money racing), this thing is quite the special find in my opinion.
I'm definitely happy we got a chance to experience it. And a week from now noone will ever use it again probably lol.
Just my opinion 🤷

 

[SidsCycleShop]

Not tried:
-Ballast at the front (adding weight is not the ideal thing for tuning but it would help stability)
-Rear wing (that would surely help but it would spoil car's design)

I repainted the car, which also repainted the rear spoiler. Doesn't look half bad, and definitely helps with the rear grip. I've also been experimenting with ride height, rake, frequency and sway bars but have yet to really dial it in. I have a feeling that the best we'll get is predictable oversteer at the limit, which is fine if you like to pretend you're Ken Block.