Gear Ratios

[phil_75]

There should be a point at which HP available should equal HP required to overcome drag and rolling friction. And increasing the slider to show more speed should be counterproductive it should actually reduce the HP available at the wheels. To get maximum speed, you would need to adjust the slider to somewhere a bit above the maximum speed. That would require trial and error.

But on a racecourse, I think the answer is a lot simpler. First, figure out your maximum speed on the track and set the speed to a bit above that. Second, figure out the speeds around the corners. Third, adjust the intermediate gears to develop somewhere around the maximum torque at those speeds.

The point is there was no/very little difference, even when all the way over and not even hitting 6th gear!

Try it, I think people make things more complicated than than they really are!

You will find 3 times more time perfecting your line and racing consistantly than you will with 95% of tuning! Imo

 

[praiano63]

You will find 3 times more time perfecting your line and racing consistantly than you will with 95% of tuning! Imo

I agree with you, totaly right.. There is no magic, but it's better to do the sum of both things. You need the good tool to practice and progress.

 

[niky]

At high speeds, the importance of good gearing is lessened, but it's not totally absent. On a long straight, gearing can account for a 10-20 km/h difference in top speed.

Again, if you see absolutely no difference from optimizing your gearing, you're either not doing it right, or you simply aren't consistent enough to see the differences.

 

[No_OBsT33R]

If tuned right gears are crucial. The problem is that it's very time consuming to tune a gear set for each track, and with only one tune slot per car even more so to use them.

I try to tune a general gear set with what I consider good spacing of the gears and a FD that can be adapted to Track, it won't be perfect for all corners but a medium can be found, this way you only need note the optimum FD for the gear set at any specific Track.

 

[praiano63]

If tuned right gears are crucial. The problem is that it's very time consuming to tune a gear set for each track, and with only one tune slot per car even more so to use them.

I try to tune a general gear set with what I consider good spacing of the gears and a FD that can be adapted to Track, it won't be perfect for all corners but a medium can be found, this way you only need note the optimum FD for the gear set at any specific Track.

Absolutely right, that's the only way to do in GT5 . Looking at the past GT4 had 2 tune slots , it helped a lot, for me things like that more some others littles details ,are showing a regression in the GT series. Obviously, the technologic progress help to make better physics , but the game himself have a lot of "blanks" or "gaps".

 

[phil_75]

At high speeds, the importance of good gearing is lessened, but it's not totally absent. On a long straight, gearing can account for a 10-20 km/h difference in top speed.

Again, if you see absolutely no difference from optimizing your gearing, you're either not doing it right, or you simply aren't consistent enough to see the differences.

I am very consistant, especially at Fuji, hence the times being almost exact!

In a race all I would do is higher top speed slightly to take advantage of slipstream in case I'm behind!

I win around 33% of all races if the the room is good drivers and around 65 % in random open lobbys so I'm doing something right!

 

[niky]

Back to the first response: Then the original ratios were right, already.

 

[AlphaGnomeo]

If tuned right gears are crucial. The problem is that it's very time consuming to tune a gear set for each track, and with only one tune slot per car even more so to use them.

I try to tune a general gear set with what I consider good spacing of the gears and a FD that can be adapted to Track, it won't be perfect for all corners but a medium can be found, this way you only need note the optimum FD for the gear set at any specific Track.

Yes, it can be a bit tricky if you are racing online and you have to switch cars and tracks. So the most serious racers will probably have a "cheat sheet" listing the max and min speed for each course for their favorite cars. You may not have much time to do more than make sure that the other gears are not in dumb places. But, especially if you have a car with 5 or fewer gears, it is wothwhile to at least make an effort since 1-2 seconds of improvement in a lap can add up to lot of seconds at the end of 5 laps.

 

[phil_75]

Back to the first response: Then the original ratios were right, already.

So why was I neither faster or slower when I moved them?

 

[niky]

Because on a race car that powerful, you have a broad enough band of torque that it matters very little. And you have more than enough grip on race tires not to mind having too much torque.

When you downgrade in terms of tire compound, or when you have a higher strung (non-turbo) car, gear ratios matter a whole lot.

 

[nomis3613]

I'm late to the party here, just want to say it's great to see people playing around with "area under the HP curve" methods of setting gears and shift points.
👍

It's inspired me to come up with my own spreadsheet calc. I'll be back in a few days to post a slightly different slant on this method.

*EDIT: I've just had a look at the spreadsheet working properly (eg in Excel, not Open Office) and it's amazing! Great work with all the graphs etc.