Is setup so important?

[Heath82]

Hi guys, i love ac but i’m suck at setting up cars, so i just go with default setup (with no traction control), but I can’t deny i have troubles online, especially during qualifying.. i’m definitely slower, even though i do my best, my times are higher and I always start after 10th and this compromises my race.. so i have a one million dollars question: can i be competitive online even with default setup? If you say so, i’m gonna focus on improving myself, if you say that’s not enough, I’m gonna focus on the 3 parameters that make the difference: tyres, gears ratio and wings.. i’m not gonna even try to deal with camber, toe, sway bar, because i spent days to fix a ****ing understeering mid corner reading thousands guides and watching videos, but i just get my car worse, so i gave up on it.
I’m playing on ps4, so i have no add-on for tyres pressure, well I really hope that you’re gonna say I don’t need any setup.. waiting your answers, thank you all in advance

 

[ALB123]

Well, I'm sure an Alien could whoop my arse with the default setup, even if other aliens provided me with "optimal setups". For one, my optimal setup might not be very good for you since we probably have slightly different driving styles....and vice-versa. I'm not great at tuning cars either, but I've gotten better over time.

Go check out this website: http://thesetupmarket.com/ - That website was created by an Assetto Corsa player on the PC platform. So, you can't easily download in setups from this website like I can on my PC, but you can at east read the values and make tweaks to your cars, if you so wish.

EDIT: Click the word Setups in the upper left part of the website to go to the car setup search section. Then, use the drop-down boxes as necessary.

 

[Outspacer]

Tyre Pressures - you can't use the add-on, but you can read its ini file which has all the target pressures (and temps).
https://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/...sure-engineer-also-underteer-oversteer.28841/

For nearly all of the Special Event Hotlaps I've golded so far (mostly on PC, some PS4) I've only dropped fuel, maybe chosen tyre type, and tweaked tyre pressures. But there's the odd one like "New Generation" - Porsche GT3 Cup at Zandvoort - which just took me 120 laps and needed a good setup!

For racing online, I don't know (I haven't). Possibly learn a few simple setup tricks to make sure the car is stable enough for you, but it needn't be more involved than knowing when to change toe and camber a bit (and when to leave them alone!).

 

[lancia delta hf]

Hi guys, i love ac but i’m suck at setting up cars, so i just go with default setup (with no traction control), but I can’t deny i have troubles online, especially during qualifying.. i’m definitely slower, even though i do my best, my times are higher and I always start after 10th and this compromises my race.. so i have a one million dollars question: can i be competitive online even with default setup? If you say so, i’m gonna focus on improving myself, if you say that’s not enough, I’m gonna focus on the 3 parameters that make the difference: tyres, gears ratio and wings.. i’m not gonna even try to deal with camber, toe, sway bar, because i spent days to fix a ****ing understeering mid corner reading thousands guides and watching videos, but i just get my car worse, so i gave up on it.
I’m playing on ps4, so i have no add-on for tyres pressure, well I really hope that you’re gonna say I don’t need any setup.. waiting your answers, thank you all in advance

Watching this could save you two-three seconds a lap.

 

[BrandonW77]

IMO, the best way to improve your lap time is to improve the meat in the seat before worrying about setup. By learning the car/track combo and adapting to it, figuring out how it likes to brake, what line it likes to take through a turn, you can shave seconds off your lap time. Once you've done that enough to where your lap times aren't improving anymore, then you can tinker with the setup to shave off those last couple tenths. I know lots of people do a few laps, then tinker with the setup, do a few more laps, tinker some more, do a few more laps, etc. and think that they're finding lots of time due to their setup but in reality most of that is just coming from seat time. Had they done the same procedure without touching the setup they would have improved nearly the same amount just from learning the car.

I've been a default setup driver for years, rarely do I adjust anything beyond gearing, and I do fine online. Usually not the fastest guy on track but generally somewhere near the pointy end (depending on the crowd) and I've won several races here and there. And in my experience, even if I put a "proven setup" on my car I rarely improve more than a couple tenths over what I can do with some good seat time with the base setup. Being consistent, minimizing mistakes, and anticipating the moves of other drivers will do more to help you win races than shaving those last couple tenths off your lap time.

 

[kikie]

I have always wondered if setups in race sims make a difference. I mean, does it really do something? I remember that in the beginning of AC, a few things were programmed wrong(ly) and some other setup stuff didn't do anything.

 

[BrandonW77]

I have always wondered if setups in race sims make a difference. I mean, does it really do something? I remember that in the beginning of AC, a few things were programmed wrong(ly) and some other setup stuff didn't do anything.

They make a difference, I personally don't believe they make as much of a difference as some people believe though. Back in GT5 I used to dabble with tuning, then I found out most of the stuff was wrong, backwards, or just didn't work and I gave up on trying to figure it out. In PC sims I just can't make sense of the settings, I may know I need to soften the suspension but when I go to the tuning screen I see nothing but Greek and don't have a clue how to soften said suspension. Then switch to another game and you're confronted with different settings options or different terminology for the same options, makes it very difficult to know what's what and I can't be arsed to learn it. Roll bars, wings, and gears are the only things that ever make sense to me.

 

[kikie]

They make a difference, I personally don't believe they make as much of a difference as some people believe though. Back in GT5 I used to dabble with tuning, then I found out most of the stuff was wrong, backwards, or just didn't work and I gave up on trying to figure it out. In PC sims I just can't make sense of the settings, I may know I need to soften the suspension but when I go to the tuning screen I see nothing but Greek and don't have a clue how to soften said suspension. Then switch to another game and you're confronted with different settings options or different terminology for the same options, makes it very difficult to know what's what and I can't be arsed to learn it. Roll bars, wings, and gears are the only things that ever make sense to me.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

The only thing I change is the amount of fuel. It is easy and for hotlapping, it is something useful to go faster.

 

[BrandonW77]

You took the words right out of my mouth.

The only thing I change is the amount of fuel. It is easy and for hotlapping, it is something useful to go faster.

I used to do that but kinda stopped doing it because often times the car can get really sketchy towards the end of the run when the weight of the fuel goes away. I generally lost more time in the last few laps due to it being down on weight than I gained from running a light fuel load, so now I usually keep at least 3-5 extra laps worth of fuel in the tank to keep it from getting dodgy under low weight conditions.

 

[Dani46]

I think setup makes a difference, on some tracks you gain more time and on others you gain less. But as BrandonW77 said, the first thing you have to do is driving as long with the default setup until your laptimes aren`t improving anymore. On tracks like monza for example, a good setup can help you shave off some time, just by adjusting the wings and gear ratio.

 

[th3o]

How can i determine my "driving style"? I would love to get into the setting up of my car, but as i do not know what changes benefit my "style", i can't adjust stuff. So yeah, how do i know my driving style first?

 

[BrandonW77]

How can i determine my "driving style"? I would love to get into the setting up of my car, but as i do not know what changes benefit my "style", i can't adjust stuff. So yeah, how do i know my driving style first?

No idea. Personally I don't think I have a set driving style, I adapt my style to whatever car I'm driving. That's one of the things I actually love about driving default setups, learning the car, figuring out what the car wants and doesn't want, adapting my driving to suit the car and getting the best out of it. It's like solving a puzzle and once you get the car figured out and can really lean into it the feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment is very rewarding (to me). I may not end up being the fastest driver on the grid but I'll have one of the biggest smiles on the grid and that's generally what I care about most. I believe it ends up making you a more well-rounded driver too because if you do that enough then eventually you can hop into just about any car and have it figured out in just a few laps, you know how to approach a car that understeers, you know how to approach a car that oversteers, you know how to approach sensitive throttles and brakes, and when you can do that you don't need to worry about trying to force the car to fit your driving style.

Also, I'm lazy and can't be arsed to learn how to tune.