Softening them gave you 2 more laps?
I felt stiffness helped cornering, like having more understeer, maybe cause in front was a bit softer, or maybe it was placebo.
So with anti roll bars not available what would you do with damper? keep it as stiff as possible while maintaining a good tyre wear?
Stiffening the suspension IMO helps with tire wear. But this is completely subjective, and ultimately depends on how PD modeled their suspension characteristics.
The reason I feel going stiffer helps with tire wear, IS because of less body roll. With less compression, you’ll get more body roll, which in turn….in high g-force corners (the kind that kill your tires)…the exaggerated body roll will —> transfer more weight to the tires, increase tire wall flex —-> which increases the contact patch —-> which causes more friction —-> which builds more heat —-> which leads to faster tire degradation.
But like I said, this is all just my opinion.
If I were you, I’d just tune for whatever will make you the most consistent. It’s the small slides over the course of an 8 minute lap that will kill your tires.
Also engine displacement needs factoring into this too.
Porsche is a RR cars so with the engine been over the rear, naturally you will have a more oversteery car. In the Porsche you will probably want a stiffer setup all round to help control that body roll as Yard_sale mentions, but also the cars pitch under braking.
Where as in a FR (Nissan GTR) I’m running a more softer setup in the rear but stiffer front.
Also driving style affect how you setup a car too. People like understeer more, or oversteer.
PD should have really given us the Anti Roll bars & Natural Frequency option to change too. Having those two options just allows you have a little more control on how the car rides.
This is quite A handy guide. Bump/Fast Bump is your Compression and Rebound/Fast Rebound is Expansion on GT7. Spring/Wheel Rate is Natural Frequency.
Dampers/Anti-roll bars
- Bump – Bump (or compression) damping controls how quickly the damper compresses and controls how the wheel moves upwards. The wheel will move upwards during cornering on the outside wheels, under braking on the front wheels and under acceleration on the rear wheels. Soft damping (0) allows the damper to compress quickly; stiff damping (10) resists the damper compressing making it stiffer.
- Fast Bump – Fast bump is the same as high speed bump (or compression) damping. It comes into effect over bumps or kerbs out on circuit and alters how quickly the damper compresses over these sections. Again low numbers make the damper softer and higher numbers make the damper stiffer.
- Rebound – Rebound damping controls how quickly the damper is able to extend. The damper will need to extend after the wheels have been compressed or during cornering on the inside wheels as the car leans, under braking on the rear wheels and on acceleration on the front wheels. Low numbers make the damping soft, allowing the damper to extend quickly with low resistance. High numbers stiffen the damping and resist the damper extending.
- Fast Rebound – Fast rebound is the same as high speed rebound damping. It comes into effect over bumpy sections after the damper has been compressed rapidly and needs to extend equally quickly to maintain contact with the road surface. Low numbers allow the damper to extend quickly and high numbers resist the extension.
- Spring or Wheel Rate – The spring rate is the stiffness of the coil spring. This determines how stiff the ride of the car is and plays a part in the cornering stiffness of the car. The higher the number the stiffer the coil spring and the lower the number, the softer the coil spring. Wheel rate is the effective spring rate present at the wheel. It uses the installation ratio of the spring to determine the stiffness at the wheel. Due to the leverage that the wheel has over the spring, the wheel rate is often softer than the coil spring that is installed.
- Anti-roll Bar Stiffness (ARB) – The anti-roll bar, ARB or sway bar stiffness refers to the spring stiffness of the anti-roll bar. The anti-roll bar only comes into effect when cornering and stiffens the front or rear axle in a cornering situation and prevents roll. The higher the value for the ARB, the stiffer the anti-roll bar is. The lower the number, the softer it is.
They is a lot more details in this article about suspension that’s useful.
https://suspensionsecrets.co.uk/sim-racing-suspension-set-up-guide/
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Just done a quick practice race with R03 as the weather to anticipate any weather for tomorrow.
So I initially went out on softs even thought it was slightly raining as the radar showed it was due to stop fairly quickly. When I hit the Nordschleife the grip just went. Could hardly keep the car going forward. I reset the lobby and went on Imters. The rain stopped as I predicted about 1/4 into my lap, but the track remained wet for 2 laps. Lap 2 was a strange lap as some parts were really wet and some just dipped under the inter line on the track wetness guide. Lap 3 I pitted as it fully dried out.
If it rains tomorrow it’s going to be defiantly the one who is the bravest to gamble on the right tyre.
