Downforce - not always the best mod...

[mrdpunto]

Basically, here it is. Too much downforce is not a good thing but neither is too little!

Now, I will probably get a lashing for this but this is why. Downforce is caused by air flowing over a car and pressing the vehicle onto the road. As downforce is only really effective at great speeds (70mph +), drag is a by-product (wind resistance) and as a result the car will become slower at top speed. A rally car with no downforce (or as little as the game will allow) will be quicker and faster than a fully downforced one in a straight line - FACT! It will be a pig to drive around the twisties though.

For example, try a max speed challenge with say a GT-One race car and I guarentee that if you keep identical settings (apart from downforce obviously), your top speed will be less!

So, for those of you who want to improve the race cars with downforce, bear in mind that too much will make you slower and too little will make you slower too (but due to lack of highspeed handling). On courses like midfield where there are many long straights and long fast corners, increasing downforce will benefit you but will hinder you also. Try it on full and adjust it downwards to a minimum of standard downforce ("factory specs") - there will be a happy medium for each and every driver.

Just my 2p for those who dont have the knowledge and choose to use other peoples settings...they may not always suit every driver.

Lecture over....Have fun
Chris

 

[ExigeEvan]

I thought everyone (who needed to know) knew this already...

Also if you use other people's settings it is normal to fine tune them to your own driving style/preferences.

 

[mrdpunto]

Everyone needs to know this, cant let the oldies have all the secrets can we...
Chris

 

[ExigeEvan]

But seriously...Is it a secret?

Well done for typing it, I'm sure it is a valuable resource to those who are really new to racing and tweaking of setups. But this is really basic stuff.

 

[mrdpunto]

It will be useful to somepeople at least.
Cheers for the reply
Chris

 

[daan]

Basically it goes along the lines of...

Test course = Minimum downforce
Every other track = Max downforce (Maybe knock the back down a bit on the quick tracks, but front is always at max)

 

[Iceman]

The small time you gain at any other track besdies the test course in the straights with low dowforce is easily made up in the corners with high downforce.

 

[HareTurtle]

The small time you gain at any other track besdies the test course in the straights with low dowforce is easily made up in the corners with high downforce.

An exception might be some of the low powered (without hp upgrade) race cars. On some tracks, like maybe SR11, where a little looseness in the rear end is useful, too much rear downforce can be sub-optimal. Of course, there are other ways to loosen the rear, so it depends a bit on the other settings. My impression, from fooling with downforce on 400m, is that the downforce curve does not intersect the origin; there is still some effect from the downforce setting at unrealistically low speeds.

 

[Sohcahtoa]

Is there a way to have my spoilers actually point UPWARDS and produce UPFORCE?

There was a NASCAR game for the N64 that allowed me to do that. It was sort of entertaining. My car was a good 30+ MPH faster than everyone else on the straights, but cornering was impossible. I'd have to slow down more than everyone else.

 

[daan]

Is there a way to have my spoilers actually point UPWARDS and produce UPFORCE?

There was a NASCAR game for the N64 that allowed me to do that. It was sort of entertaining. My car was a good 30+ MPH faster than everyone else on the straights, but cornering was impossible. I'd have to slow down more than everyone else.

That game's physics were completely loopy then. Wings produce drag no matter which way they're pointing.

Downforce = drag = less top speed = more corner speed

"Upforce" = drag = less top speed = less corner speed