General Tuning Guide (Updated 1.09)

[DolHaus]

Thanks for your reply

For example this is what i use for my Skyline GTR R33 Touring Car
its fully tuned/upgraded + oil change, except it uses a stage 2 turbo kit, i use racing hard tires
i try to tune them on tsubuka cause thats were the problem really shows itself.
with skid recovery on its not that hard to get really low 0.50.1xx lap times with it, did a few 0.49.9xx aswell again with racing hard tires.
with skid recovery off im using center diff 40 - 60 and it will be around a second slower each lap and alot more tail happy.
also using ds3 cause for now i dont have a playseat for the g27

suspension settings
Front - Rear

ride height 65 - 65
Spring rate 12.33 - 10.14
Compression 5 - 4
Decompression 3 -5
stabi's 5 -4
camber 2.2 - 2.0
toe angle -0.07 - +0.60

Brakes 5 - 6

Diffs (what i did is make sure that in very tight corners the tires heat up pretty much equally while going full throttle out of the corner. its just enough to keep the inside tires from spinning out first. skid recovery on = stock center diff, skid recovery off = 40-60)
initial 5 -7
accel 12 - 17
decel 30 - 5

downforce 350 - 350 (really adding more rear downforce only makes understeer worse)

Ballast 27kg all the way in the back to get a slightly better weight disturbution.

i didnt really tune the gearbox for the track, for the first 5 gear ratios im using the ratio's that OS Giken uses in real life for their close ratio gear set that can be used in the stock 5 speed gearbox. 6th is like just another gear to gain even more top speed.

speed 320kmh
1st 2.695
2nd 1.703
3rd 1.236
4th 1.000
5th 0.826
6th 0.700

final 4.545

the first 2 gears are pretty long but it helps getting 900hp 976nm to the ground.
all other driving aids are off abs just 1

I think you are running too much camber and too much rear Toe In from the looks of things. Both of these things will prevent you from turning in effectively.

Try camber: Front = 1.0 Rear = 0.4
Toe: Front = -0.12 Rear = 0.10

Also try pushing more power to the rear wheels so the front wheels only have to deal with braking and turning. Maybe 30:70

 

[gt4rulez]

I think you are running too much camber and too much rear Toe In from the looks of things. Both of these things will prevent you from turning in effectively.

Try camber: Front = 1.0 Rear = 0.4
Toe: Front = -0.12 Rear = 0.10

Also try pushing more power to the rear wheels so the front wheels only have to deal with braking and turning. Maybe 30:70

Thanks that did actually help quite a bit! got 50.1 on first warm up lap and just hit a 49.466 with no problem backed with a couple of 49.8xx's, i knew it could be improved but was going the wrong way with the camber and toe setttings its funny though that it uses +0.60 toe as default in the rear.

i chose 40-60 with skid recovery off in my set up because it was oversteering like a maniac but with skid recovery on its a beast with 30-70. might even try 27-73 or something, going to try the stock center diff after dinner

so far so good, feels alot more stable while turning in

 

[DolHaus]

Thanks that did actually help quite a bit! got 50.1 on first warm up lap and just hit a 49.466 with no problem backed with a couple of 49.8xx's, i knew it could be improved but was going the wrong way with the camber and toe setttings its funny though that it uses +0.60 toe as default in the rear.

i chose 40-60 with skid recovery off in my set up because it was oversteering like a maniac but with skid recovery on its a beast with 30-70. might even try 27-73 or something, going to try the stock center diff after dinner

so far so good, feels alot more stable while turning in

Since 1.09 most cars run 0.60 rear toe as standard, this is done to make some cars more stable and easy to drive, the same thing is quite common with the camber where cars are running way more at the rear to promote stability. When starting a tune on a car I would always recommend going back to 0.0 camber and 0.00 Toe, this will give you a more honest overview of how the car is working without toe and camber interfering

 

[gt4rulez]

Since 1.09 most cars run 0.60 rear toe as standard, this is done to make some cars more stable and easy to drive, the same thing is quite common with the camber where cars are running way more at the rear to promote stability. When starting a tune on a car I would always recommend going back to 0.0 camber and 0.00 Toe, this will give you a more honest overview of how the car is working without toe and camber interfering

I didnt knew they changed that since 1.09. hmm might want to review some set ups i made earlier. thanks for the help

 

[DolHaus]

I didnt knew they changed that since 1.09. hmm might want to review some set ups i made earlier. thanks for the help

No problem, best of luck, every car is a new experience with something to be learned 👍

Just remember that the stock settings are rarely the best settings, don't be afraid to change them to see what happens. If you're not sure what they do then be sure to only change one setting at a time, that way you know exactly what effect is being altered by what setting, if you start changing lots of things at once then you won't know for sure what changes are helping and which are hurting the car.

 

[turismoslayer]

@DolHaus, I may be thinking too much in to this but, when spring rates are stiffer on one end than the other, are the numbers ever irrelevant? Like on a 60/40 car, same spring rate numbers front and rear, the rear may be stiffer in contrast to the front with the lower weight right? I'm understanding tuning pretty well I think but I'm still struggling with feel. I use a DS3 and try my darnedest to be consistent. Any thoughts on this?

 

[DolHaus]

@DolHaus, I may be thinking too much in to this but, when spring rates are stiffer on one end than the other, are the numbers ever irrelevant? Like on a 60/40 car, same spring rate numbers front and rear, the rear may be stiffer in contrast to the front with the lower weight right? I'm understanding tuning pretty well I think but I'm still struggling with feel. I use a DS3 and try my darnedest to be consistent. Any thoughts on this?

You are correct in your description, if you have a car with a natural 60/40 weight distribution and spring rates set to equal number then the rear will be comparatively stiffer.
The springs have two main jobs, firstly their job is to support the weight of the car, the more weight pushing down on the spring, the stiffer it has to be to resist. Because the static weight of the car acting on the front and rear is generally unequal they have to be different strengths to support the car equally.
The second job of the springs is to resist and control the vertical motion of the suspension in reaction to the dynamic loads being put upon them by the terrain, cornering and linear forces generated by braking and accelerating. This is the part of tuning that will effect how a car handles and feels. It is most important that the suspension can adequately control these exponentially larger loads generated whilst in motion.

The easiest way to see how much stiffer/softer one spring rate is in comparison to the other is to look at the two little blue bars in between the front/rear adjustments on the tuning screen. These give a fairly accurate gauge to the balance of the car and also help you work out roughly how much you should increase/decrease each relative setting to maintain or adjust balance (ie. If I had a car that was unequally weight balanced and I wanted to make it stiffer without changing the handling characteristics, I could work out that if I make the front spring 1kg stiffer I need to make the rear spring 0.6kg stiffer to keep the original balance)


I'm not going to go into the science of roll angles and weight transfer as it is quite complicated and long winded, but its basically about how much the springs resist change when the weight is transferred on to them.

If the rear is stiffer (relatively) than the front then the front wheels will react to change first and use the stiffer rear springs as a leverage point to help point the nose in.

If the front is stiffer (relatively) then the reaction will be slower and there will be a reduced amount of leverage with which to change direction.

If you want the car to turn in faster then stiffen the rear
If you want more stability then stiffen the front​

If you are at a point where the car is starting to feel too stiff at either end but you still more or less rotation then adjust the opposite settings in the same way:-

If you want the car to turn in faster then soften the front
If you want more stability then soften the rear​

Keep playing with these ratios of soft/stiff until you find the balance you want 👍

 

[turismoslayer]

Bam! Awesome! Thanks @DolHaus. Very clear and helpful.

 

[xghosthunterx]

(Important: as of update 1.04, camber is not working properly and serves only to reduce grip, avoid changing unless this is your aim)

Thanks for the tip on banked surfaces Like Apricot hill (Less camber)*

(Important: as of update 1.04, camber is not working properly and serves only to reduce grip, avoid changing unless this is your aim)

 

[DolHaus]

Thanks for the tip on banked surfaces Like Apricot hill (Less camber)*

Its all about finding the perfect angle for the wheels, if the track is also at an angle then this will affect the amounts you need 👍
(your supra is ready as well, I'll post it later when I have some time)

 

[PJTierney]

Hello everyone, first time posting on GTP.

I have a question regarding Camber.
As far as I am aware, there is no way in-game to monitor the contact patch of your tyres through any form of telemetry.

When I used to tune in Forza Motorsport 4 I would use the live telemetry to check the tyre temperatures, and then adjust the Camber settings in order to get an even temperature range across the tyres, thus ensuring I had a consistent contact patch.

Since this isn't possible (to my knowledge) in GT6, is the tuning of Camber in this game merely an art in guesswork and having the right "feel" for a car?

 

[DolHaus]

Hello everyone, first time posting on GTP.

I have a question regarding Camber.
As far as I am aware, there is no way in-game to monitor the contact patch of your tyres through any form of telemetry.

When I used to tune in Forza Motorsport 4 I would use the live telemetry to check the tyre temperatures, and then adjust the Camber settings in order to get an even temperature range across the tyres, thus ensuring I had a consistent contact patch.

Since this isn't possible (to my knowledge) in GT6, is the tuning of Camber in this game merely an art in guesswork and having the right "feel" for a car?

This is indeed the case, we can only use factors such as lap time, changes to lateral/linear G load and "feel" to determine whether camber is having a positive effect.

Its not ideal by a long shot, I would much prefer to have the Forza style banded tyre readout for tuning purposes. As the effects of camber are fairly subtle we are relying on working out which real life theories have been replicated within the physics engine and then developing methods to utilise them.

 

[PJTierney]

Good to know.

Have you got any basic tips/settings for tuning FF cars?
FF was always my weakness on Forza and from what I've raced in GT6 so far I'm not doing much better with them on this game either.

 

[DolHaus]

Good to know.

Have you got any basic tips/settings for tuning FF cars?
FF was always my weakness on Forza and from what I've raced in GT6 so far I'm not doing much better with them on this game either.

Unfortunately FF cars are my weak area as well but a few basic tricks that can bring improvements are things such as running a higher ride height at the front to improve rotation, running low damper extension and high compression at the rear in order to stop weight transferring away from the front wheels under acceleration. Camber can be very productive on FFs if used properly, running higher angles on the front wheels can help the car to maintain traction under high load where you would usually encounter understeer.
The LSD should usually have a low Initial (5-10) and the Acceleration setting somewhere around 25, you can get away with fairly low Decel values as well.

 

[renanma]

Hello, i'm having some trouble tuning Z4 GT3 at Spa you tihnk the ride height: 55 59 is too low?

 

[DolHaus]

Hello, i'm having some trouble tuning Z4 GT3 at Spa you tihnk the ride height: 55 59 is too low?

What is the stock ride height?

 

[renanma]

What is the stock ride height?

I'm not sure maybe 10 points higher

 

[DolHaus]

I'm not sure maybe 10 points higher

If its only a 10mm drop then it shouldn't be causing too many issues. Generally you lower ride height to make the car more stable and running the rear higher than the front will have the same basic effect.

What are you having trouble with exactly?

 

[renanma]

I will post my full setup later, i do not have it now, but i think it's too stiff and low, i'm losing control too easy going over curbs, my damper for example extension is around 8 of 10.
Thanks for the attention.

 

[DolHaus]

I will post my full setup later, i do not have it now, but i think it's too stiff and low, i'm losing control too easy going over curbs, my damper for example extension is around 8 of 10.
Thanks for the attention.

Ok, I'll have a look when you post it. (please remember to post which tyres you are running) 👍

It does sound a little bit like you might be a little bit low and stiff if you are losing it on the curbs but that should be reasonably easy to fix

 

[renanma]

Here i am again. Ok i soften the suspension in general the car gets more stable. The problem was the mid corner speed, with a height in 55/59 the nose goes in but do not stay in. So i raised the rear, and then i get more speed through corners, without doing any more changes, with a height now in 55/63. Maybe i even try to raise it to 55/65.

Here is the suspension tune, running on Soft Race Tyres.

55/63
17,70/17,80 not exactly sure sorry
5/5 Comp.
6/6 Ext.
4/4 Bars
1,0/1,0 Camber

Maybe is a little soft. I get a lap time of 2:13:700 with 500hp and 1220kg 588pp.
If i am doing something wrong i'm all ears
thanks again for your time.

 

[DolHaus]

Here i am again. Ok i soften the suspension in general the car gets more stable. The problem was the mid corner speed, with a height in 55/59 the nose goes in but do not stay in. So i raised the rear, and then i get more speed through corners, without doing any more changes, with a height now in 55/63. Maybe i even try to raise it to 55/65.

Here is the suspension tune, running on Soft Race Tyres.

55/63
17,70/17,80 not exactly sure sorry
5/5 Comp.
6/6 Ext.
4/4 Bars
1,0/1,0 Camber

Maybe is a little soft. I get a lap time of 2:13:700 with 500hp and 1220kg 588pp.
If i am doing something wrong i'm all ears
thanks again for your time.

Nothing looks particularily wrong there, I need to see your Toe settings as well as your LSD and Down force settings though, I can't find a problem unless I can see all the potential causes.

The more you lift the rear of the car, the more stable and hard to rotate the car is going to become. If you want it to have better rotation then you should be lifting the nose instead.

 

[renanma]

Nothing looks particularily wrong there, I need to see your Toe settings as well as your LSD and Down force settings though, I can't find a problem unless I can see all the potential causes.

The more you lift the rear of the car, the more stable and hard to rotate the car is going to become. If you want it to have better rotation then you should be lifting the nose instead.

I think its rotating in to the corner quite well, the problem is the mid corner stability to carry more speed. Thats why when i raise the rear i get fastest lap times.

Toe 0,00/0,30

LSD 27/48/48

Aero in front is stock the rear is a little bit less.

 

[DolHaus]

I think its rotating in to the corner quite well, the problem is the mid corner stability to carry more speed. Thats why when i raise the rear i get fastest lap times.

Toe 0,00/0,30

LSD 27/48/48

Hmmm.... I'm going to have to see if I've got one in the garage and give it a go on your settings. Racing Softs shouldn't be having any problems with stability at that PP level really, the only thing I can think of is that maybe its too soft and the body is moving around on top of the chassis too much perhaps.
I will let you know when I get some time to have a look 👍

 

[renanma]

Hmmm.... I'm going to have to see if I've got one in the garage and give it a go on your settings. Racing Softs shouldn't be having any problems with stability at that PP level really, the only thing I can think of is that maybe its too soft and the body is moving around on top of the chassis too much perhaps.
I will let you know when I get some time to have a look 👍

Thanks a lot i forgot to mention a ballast of 30kg in the middle to have 1220kg

 

[renanma]

DolHaus this is my full setup, i will not disturb you no longer with this. I got a lap time of 2:13:463 on racing soft tyres by doing what i said about lifting the rear. And like you said the car gets more rigidity and reduced capacity of turning in, in contrast gets more exit speed though.
Thanks a lot for discussing this, it really help.

Car: Z4 GT3 500hp / 1220kg / 588pp (ballast 30kg in center)

Suspension
Height: 55 / 66
Spring: 17,74 / 17,94
Comp. 4 / 4
Ext. 5 / 5
Camber: 1,4 / 1,3
Toe: 0,00 / 0,30

LSD
Initial: 28
Accel.: 48
Braking: 52

Aero: 350 / 727

Thanks again.

 

[aboe]

Hi DollHaus,

Thanks for posting this Tuning Guide up - it's been a real help. 👍 I find myself coming back to it quite often when I'm in need of some advice for my setups and it's really helped me to improve the overall feel of the car to suit my style of driving, which in turn, has helped me be more competitive. So thanks.

I was wondering - is it possible that I make a printer friendly version of this guide (text only) so I can print it and have it to hand in paper form?

 

[DolHaus]

Hi DollHaus,

Thanks for posting this Tuning Guide up - it's been a real help. 👍 I find myself coming back to it quite often when I'm in need of some advice for my setups and it's really helped me to improve the overall feel of the car to suit my style of driving, which in turn, has helped me be more competitive. So thanks.

I was wondering - is it possible that I make a printer friendly version of this guide (text only) so I can print it and have it to hand in paper form?

Glad you've found it helpful 👍

You are completely welcome to copy and paste the text into a document for printing if you wish, I have no issues with that at all

 

[aboe]

Glad you've found it helpful 👍

You are completely welcome to copy and paste the text into a document for printing if you wish, I have no issues with that at all

Awesome! Thanks again 👍

EDIT: BTW, because I did the printer-friendly version on GoogleDocs, I thought I'd share a link to it. That way, if you feel printing it is something that people may want to do more often, you can include it on your OP.

LINK

 

[ImmalovemaGTR]

Really impressive and awesome guide. 👍