guide to creating a GT5 tune from scratch
- Thread starter nomis3613
- 104 comments
- 30,697 views
- 11,921
- California
- GTP_WRP001
Seems to be a very good guide, hopefully it will get sticked so I can find it more easier once i start tuning my own cars .. Will just copy this link into a notepad folder for now
Just add a subscription to this thread? You can then always find it using your "My GTPlanet" link. A lot easier than copying a link from notepad! Even bookmarking the thread in your browser is better than notepad.
- 145
- Germany
- Goldiann
- 11,921
- California
- GTP_WRP001
Well it wasnt realy me being serious, tough yes i will keep track of this topic but not with notepad, its not like im 75 yr old and just discovered a computer with some internet capabilities, im a handsome, athletic, with tons of sex appeal, nerd
OK, I was a little worried you were going to get out pen and paper and write down the http address of this thread by hand and type it in manually when you want to return to see updates.
But now that I know about all your athleticism I can rest easy knowing you aren't struggling to use the forums.
nomis3613
Premium
- 831
Thanks for the kind words, hope it works out well for you.
I haven't specifically tested ride height vs overall grip, but what I've heard is there is a very small increase in mid-corner grip with a lowered car. But the disadvantage is the transients are harder to control (thanks CSLACR for this info) and, for a RWD car, traction is reduced. Rake (front and rear having different heights) has a huge effect on handling. Making the front higher than rear reduces understeer, and the opposite to reduce oversteer (it's a complicated and highly controversial topic, so I deliberately avoided it in the guide).
Tyre pressure monitors? I think you mean either tyre heat or suspension load? Tyre heat is most useful for setting LSD accel (inside overheating = increase, outsite overheating = reduce). Suspension load is useful for ride height (consider increasing height if it flashes red, this means you're bottoming out).
Cheers,
Simon
You're welcome! Glad to hear it helped.
Thanks. However you save this bookmark (from stone tablet to cloud-based storage...), I'm glad to hear you find it helpful! There's some excellent links here if you want to start digging deeper into tuning: https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=204024Seems to be a very good guide, hopefully it will get sticked so I can find it more easier once i start tuning my own cars .. Will just copy this link into a notepad folder for now
- 145
- Germany
- Goldiann
OK, I was a little worried you were going to get out pen and paper and write down the http address of this thread by hand and type it in manually when you want to return to see updates.
But now that I know about all your athleticism I can rest easy knowing you aren't struggling to use the forums.
Remove the sarcasm,
It has been proved that a good regulary workout on the muscles gives more oxygen to the brain wich result in being able to think faster and ****, ah well just stay of the roids!
And OP,
My girlfriend wich is kind of annoyed by this game got slightly intrested when she saw the previous version of the car she has now. ( she has a gold VI GTI) and theres a golf V in the game wich I bought for her to drive ( the VI one is from a pack wich i have yet to acquire). so I bought all parts for the car and used some tune i found it here but i want to be able to tune it myself to make it near perfect for her handling
Wont that be awesome if I can get her int oplaying GT5.. she is a gamer before I met her, but she is not into driving games nor shooters only adventures, mmorpgs, rpgs all that.. so yeah, a man is never happy.. she needs to like the other genres aswell!
I vote to sticky this thread and now ill stay off this thread since im probably considered a spammer already and that is not good since im a new member, I dont want to give a bad first impression altough it is already to late for some among us
) than a thousand stickied threads, so I'm happy how it is. Thanks for the kudos, anyway!
- 39
- GA
- xChrisGTRx
Nice
- 39
- GA
- xChrisGTRx
Great Post For Beginners
nomis3613
Premium
- 831
Thanks, OSgiken.
----------------------
To keep up with the ninja physics edits (
), I've made a new version. This one's for online, at the moment it's just for FR and MR cars. Also, this one is less TLDR 
DIY TUNING GUIDE FOR FR and MR IN ONLINE GT5 v2.07
STEP 0: RAMBLE
Try to focus on the questions in each section, and ignore the rest of the handling characteristics. But of course there are times you will need to fix something drastically wrong before you can continue tuning (eg add rear downforce if the car is totally unstable at high speed).
-------------------------------
STEP 1: INITIAL SETTINGS
These starting settings are not design to be a “good" tune for a car, but they are designed to help you feel the tendencies of a car, so that you can make a better tune in the end.
spring rate: 1/2 of the default settings
ride height: minimum
dampers ext: 1 / 1
dampers comp: 1 / 1
anti-roll: 1 / 1
camber: 2.5 / 2.5
toe: 0.0 / 0.0
LSD: 5 (all)
brakes: 10 / 10
driving aids: all 0*, exepct ABS = 1
downforce: minimum
ballast: 0 kg
* Aids can reduce your laptimes, but you often need them off while tuning so that you can feel what the car is doing without electronic intervention
-------------------------------
STEP 2: BRAKE STRENGTH
Find a long straight and brake from at least 250km/h to a complete stop. Do any of the tyres go red?
Reduce brake strength.
Using the highest brake strength possible without tyres overheating produces the shortest stopping distance. However, the braking force might overwhelm the chassis when you go to turn, so you might need to come back later and reduce braking strength.
-------------------------------
STEP 3: GEARING
Gearing is hard to explain, so I'll just describe a shortcut method which usually gives ok gear ratios:
- decide what maximum speed you want (remembering that higher max speed = less acceleration).
- move the highest gear ratio (5th or 6th) slider all the way to the right
- then adjust the final drive until this speed is achieved at maximum revs in top gear (by testing on the track, often the “top speed” number in the gear settings is wrong)
- set 1st and 2nd gears all the way left, then space out 3rd, 4th and 5th gears evenly in between.
If a gear is causing wheelspin at low revs, then the ratio can be moved left without reducing acceleration, this will allow the other gears to be spaced closer together for better acceleration. For each track, the gears which are used most should be spaced as tightly as possible. For example if a track mostly uses 3rd and 4th gears: set 3rd as far left as possible and 4th as far to the right. Often 1st gear is only used for standing starts, because it just results in wheelspin for slow corners.
-------------------------------
STEP 4: SPRINGS AND DAMPERS
Too much dive under brakes?
Stiffen front and rear springs (by the same %)
If the body movement feels "abrupt" or increasing springs further has no effect, then increase the dampers. Springs and dampers can also be used to tune under/oversteer, but I won't go into it here because it's a grey area and there's already many epic threads arguing how it works in GT5!).
You may be wondering "what about Anti-Roll Bars?". I believe these are best tuned after the LSD so we'll come back to them.
-------------------------------
STEP 5: RIDE HEIGHT
Are the tyre load indicators (the circles in the middle of the screen) flashing red?
Increase front and rear ride height (by the same amount)
-------------------------------
STEP 6: LSD ACCELERATION
If the inside driven wheel is getting hotter (turning white or red) when exiting slow corners, increase LSD Accel. Beware that having the outside wheel turn red first often makes the car harder to control, so you might like to set the LSD to slightly favour turning the inside wheel heating.
-------------------------------
STEP 7: REAR TOE
Is wheelspin out of slow corners a problem or does the car oversteer too much?
If so, increase positive rear toe. If traction is still a problem after this, reduce rear camber.
If not, increase negative rear toe until traction starts to become a problem or the car becomes unstable/twitchy.
For FR and MR cars, higher rear toe increases traction but the downside is increased understeer. Therefore if the car has a tendancy to understeer, it is best to use as much negative rear toe as possible. Often people are scared of big toe angles, don't be! Use as much as you need.
-------------------------------
STEP 8: LSD INITIAL AND LSD DECELERATION
Does the car turn-in sharply but then flop into understeer mid-corner (this could also be anti-roll bars, these two settings are closely linked) or is it unstable while braking?
Increase LSD Initial.
LSD Initial above 30 can do wierd things, so above 30 it's best to increase LSD Deceleration (instead of further increasing LSD Initial). Steps 7 and 8 can mess up the LSD Acceleration setting, so you should go back and check it's still ok (see step 6).
-------------------------------
STEP 9: ANTI-ROLL
Does the car have moments of lurching understeer mid-corner or late-corner?
Increase front and rear anti-roll.
Stiffer anti-roll bars reduce grip over bumps, so where possible it is better to use stiff springs instead. The "lurching" is closely related to LSD Initial, so you need to find a balance between these settings.
-------------------------------
STEP 10: OVERALL BALANCE
If the car is generally understeering experiment with these:
- increase front downforce
- increase front ride height
- increase rear anti-roll
- add ballast at +50
If the car is generally oversteering experiment with these:
- increase rear downforce
- increase rear ride height
- increase front anti-roll
- add ballast at -50
- lower controller sensitivity
-------------------------------
STEP 11: BRAKE BALANCE
Does the rear slide while braking?
Reduce rear brake
Does the car have understeer while braking?
Reduce front brake
-------------------------------
STEP 12: FRONT TOE
In theory, this setting is the balance between more turn-in (positive values) and better exit front grip (negative values). But I find the effect varies a lot between tunes. So have a play with it and see what works best for you.
-------------------------------
STEP 13: CHASSIS STIFFENING (PERHAPS)
If you're struggling to get a car to handle nicely, give the Chassis Stiffening a try (the catch is you can't remove it if you don't like it). Sometimes it can cure nasty handling traits (such as inconsistent mid-corner grip).
Chassis Stiffening has got a bad name in the past for "increasing understeer", but the understeer can often be tuned out with other settings and sometimes there is no other way to remove the nasty handling traits.
-------------------------------
STEP 14: TYRE HEAT
Tyre heat has a big effect on how your car handles, so always watch the tyre temperature indicators when you are tuning. Wait until the tyres are warmed up (white instead of dark blue) before you start judging the handling.
When a tyre goes red, you are losing grip because the tyre is overheating. If you cannot avoid the tyres overheating, try to make the left and right tyres overheat the same. There are many reasons for a tyre overheating. Experiment with springs, dampers, anti-roll bars, camber, toe, brake strength and LSD Acceleration to reduce this.
-------------------------------
STEP 15: TYRE WEAR
I haven't really studied tyre wear much (cos it is very time consuming!), here's some food for thought about tyre wear though.
- The easiest way to reduce tyre wear is to drive slower! Ok, that's stating the obvious, but in my opinion there are only small gains in tyre life to be had from tuning (unless something is very wrong to start with).
- It is more important that the tyres wear evenly than how much they wear. There's no point having rear tyres that last 10 laps if you have to pit every 5 to fix the understeer caused by worn-out fronts. When the front tyres are turning red, it means they are wearing quicker, so try one of these:
- less camber
- reduce brake strength
- traction control
- tune the LSD so both tyres heat evenly
- reduce downforce
- experiment with spring/damper/anti-roll settings
Hope this helps! I'm keen to hear any questions or comments you have.
----------------------
To keep up with the ninja physics edits (
), I've made a new version. This one's for online, at the moment it's just for FR and MR cars. Also, this one is less TLDR DIY TUNING GUIDE FOR FR and MR IN ONLINE GT5 v2.07
STEP 0: RAMBLE
Try to focus on the questions in each section, and ignore the rest of the handling characteristics. But of course there are times you will need to fix something drastically wrong before you can continue tuning (eg add rear downforce if the car is totally unstable at high speed).
-------------------------------
STEP 1: INITIAL SETTINGS
These starting settings are not design to be a “good" tune for a car, but they are designed to help you feel the tendencies of a car, so that you can make a better tune in the end.
spring rate: 1/2 of the default settings
ride height: minimum
dampers ext: 1 / 1
dampers comp: 1 / 1
anti-roll: 1 / 1
camber: 2.5 / 2.5
toe: 0.0 / 0.0
LSD: 5 (all)
brakes: 10 / 10
driving aids: all 0*, exepct ABS = 1
downforce: minimum
ballast: 0 kg
* Aids can reduce your laptimes, but you often need them off while tuning so that you can feel what the car is doing without electronic intervention
-------------------------------
STEP 2: BRAKE STRENGTH
Find a long straight and brake from at least 250km/h to a complete stop. Do any of the tyres go red?
Reduce brake strength.
Using the highest brake strength possible without tyres overheating produces the shortest stopping distance. However, the braking force might overwhelm the chassis when you go to turn, so you might need to come back later and reduce braking strength.
-------------------------------
STEP 3: GEARING
Gearing is hard to explain, so I'll just describe a shortcut method which usually gives ok gear ratios:
- decide what maximum speed you want (remembering that higher max speed = less acceleration).
- move the highest gear ratio (5th or 6th) slider all the way to the right
- then adjust the final drive until this speed is achieved at maximum revs in top gear (by testing on the track, often the “top speed” number in the gear settings is wrong)
- set 1st and 2nd gears all the way left, then space out 3rd, 4th and 5th gears evenly in between.
If a gear is causing wheelspin at low revs, then the ratio can be moved left without reducing acceleration, this will allow the other gears to be spaced closer together for better acceleration. For each track, the gears which are used most should be spaced as tightly as possible. For example if a track mostly uses 3rd and 4th gears: set 3rd as far left as possible and 4th as far to the right. Often 1st gear is only used for standing starts, because it just results in wheelspin for slow corners.
-------------------------------
STEP 4: SPRINGS AND DAMPERS
Too much dive under brakes?
Stiffen front and rear springs (by the same %)
If the body movement feels "abrupt" or increasing springs further has no effect, then increase the dampers. Springs and dampers can also be used to tune under/oversteer, but I won't go into it here because it's a grey area and there's already many epic threads arguing how it works in GT5!).
You may be wondering "what about Anti-Roll Bars?". I believe these are best tuned after the LSD so we'll come back to them.
-------------------------------
STEP 5: RIDE HEIGHT
Are the tyre load indicators (the circles in the middle of the screen) flashing red?
Increase front and rear ride height (by the same amount)
-------------------------------
STEP 6: LSD ACCELERATION
If the inside driven wheel is getting hotter (turning white or red) when exiting slow corners, increase LSD Accel. Beware that having the outside wheel turn red first often makes the car harder to control, so you might like to set the LSD to slightly favour turning the inside wheel heating.
-------------------------------
STEP 7: REAR TOE
Is wheelspin out of slow corners a problem or does the car oversteer too much?
If so, increase positive rear toe. If traction is still a problem after this, reduce rear camber.
If not, increase negative rear toe until traction starts to become a problem or the car becomes unstable/twitchy.
For FR and MR cars, higher rear toe increases traction but the downside is increased understeer. Therefore if the car has a tendancy to understeer, it is best to use as much negative rear toe as possible. Often people are scared of big toe angles, don't be! Use as much as you need.
-------------------------------
STEP 8: LSD INITIAL AND LSD DECELERATION
Does the car turn-in sharply but then flop into understeer mid-corner (this could also be anti-roll bars, these two settings are closely linked) or is it unstable while braking?
Increase LSD Initial.
LSD Initial above 30 can do wierd things, so above 30 it's best to increase LSD Deceleration (instead of further increasing LSD Initial). Steps 7 and 8 can mess up the LSD Acceleration setting, so you should go back and check it's still ok (see step 6).
-------------------------------
STEP 9: ANTI-ROLL
Does the car have moments of lurching understeer mid-corner or late-corner?
Increase front and rear anti-roll.
Stiffer anti-roll bars reduce grip over bumps, so where possible it is better to use stiff springs instead. The "lurching" is closely related to LSD Initial, so you need to find a balance between these settings.
-------------------------------
STEP 10: OVERALL BALANCE
If the car is generally understeering experiment with these:
- increase front downforce
- increase front ride height
- increase rear anti-roll
- add ballast at +50
If the car is generally oversteering experiment with these:
- increase rear downforce
- increase rear ride height
- increase front anti-roll
- add ballast at -50
- lower controller sensitivity
-------------------------------
STEP 11: BRAKE BALANCE
Does the rear slide while braking?
Reduce rear brake
Does the car have understeer while braking?
Reduce front brake
-------------------------------
STEP 12: FRONT TOE
In theory, this setting is the balance between more turn-in (positive values) and better exit front grip (negative values). But I find the effect varies a lot between tunes. So have a play with it and see what works best for you.
-------------------------------
STEP 13: CHASSIS STIFFENING (PERHAPS)
If you're struggling to get a car to handle nicely, give the Chassis Stiffening a try (the catch is you can't remove it if you don't like it). Sometimes it can cure nasty handling traits (such as inconsistent mid-corner grip).
Chassis Stiffening has got a bad name in the past for "increasing understeer", but the understeer can often be tuned out with other settings and sometimes there is no other way to remove the nasty handling traits.
-------------------------------
STEP 14: TYRE HEAT
Tyre heat has a big effect on how your car handles, so always watch the tyre temperature indicators when you are tuning. Wait until the tyres are warmed up (white instead of dark blue) before you start judging the handling.
When a tyre goes red, you are losing grip because the tyre is overheating. If you cannot avoid the tyres overheating, try to make the left and right tyres overheat the same. There are many reasons for a tyre overheating. Experiment with springs, dampers, anti-roll bars, camber, toe, brake strength and LSD Acceleration to reduce this.
-------------------------------
STEP 15: TYRE WEAR
I haven't really studied tyre wear much (cos it is very time consuming!), here's some food for thought about tyre wear though.
- The easiest way to reduce tyre wear is to drive slower! Ok, that's stating the obvious, but in my opinion there are only small gains in tyre life to be had from tuning (unless something is very wrong to start with).
- It is more important that the tyres wear evenly than how much they wear. There's no point having rear tyres that last 10 laps if you have to pit every 5 to fix the understeer caused by worn-out fronts. When the front tyres are turning red, it means they are wearing quicker, so try one of these:
- less camber
- reduce brake strength
- traction control
- tune the LSD so both tyres heat evenly
- reduce downforce
- experiment with spring/damper/anti-roll settings
Hope this helps! I'm keen to hear any questions or comments you have.
nomis3613
Premium
- 831
You're welcome, bs13.
2.5 was chosen as a relatively conservative angle which should avoid problems for most situations. Now that I think about it, it might be better to have separate angles for sports and racing tyres.
A Nissan Fairlady springs to mind as a good starting point. You'll learn more if you leave the aids off (except ABS) and don't strap on racing tyres or a turbo.
All the best for your tuning.
Simon
2.5 was chosen as a relatively conservative angle which should avoid problems for most situations. Now that I think about it, it might be better to have separate angles for sports and racing tyres.
A Nissan Fairlady springs to mind as a good starting point. You'll learn more if you leave the aids off (except ABS) and don't strap on racing tyres or a turbo.
All the best for your tuning.
Simon
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