LSD Setting to extremes

[ampire]

I really don't like over-arching generalizations of optimal tuning settings, but I'd like to share a LSD setting that seemed to improve all my cars by a significant amount.

I set one of my car's limited slip diff to an extreme setting, Initial: 60 Accel: 20 Decel: 60 and I was surprised to find that it handled so much better in the corners, to the point that I gained a second on my lap times consistently.

I tried this setting on other cars with similar results. It seems like the initial setting at the max makes the car more predictable as you are braking to enter a corner and gassing to exit, the accel setting of 20 allows for a balanced (not understeering or oversteering) acceleration from the apex of the corner, and the Decel setting of 60 improved the car's "skidpad" ability.

It seems to work best on high powered light weight mid engined cars such as the Mclaren F1 or the Zonda R (both tested stock besides the differential), but also worked quite well on front engine rear wheel drive cars. I also tried it on a GT-R I had been tuning for 600pp with similar results, gained about a second on trial mountain (test track I use)

5 lap average times:
500PP Nissan 370Z: 1:29
550PP RX-7 (FD) Spirit R: 1:27
600PP Mclaren F1: 1:24
600PP Nissan GT-R 07: 1:24

Each car gained an average lap time increase of about a second on trial mountain over 5 laps against the previous 5 lap average time. The Nissan GT-R is set to 30% front 70% rear.

I use a Dual Shock 3, not a wheel, so it may be that this is beneficial to controller users more than wheel and pedal users because the controller does not give you the same ability to modulate throttle and brakes in the corners.

 

[CSLACR]

Actually this debate has come up a few times in the WRS. What I think it is, is the extra-high lsd settings can make the car much easier to drive, to a point.

Typically speaking, the fastest drivers will go very loose, with very low numbers, slower drivers will use higher. However, DS3 users almost always seem more prone to using higher numbers, presumably because of DS3 limitations, as it's much harder to start progressive throttle or braking with the DS3.

So I guess in short, I'm primarily agreeing with you, generally speaking a DS3 driver will benefit from higher settings, but as always, driving style and driver preference come into play.

On a final note, I believe it works best for you on high powered light weight mid-engine cars because you can literally limit how sharply a car can turn with LSD and the right suspension settings to match.
I also ran much higher LSD settings when I used a DS3 also.

 

[ampire]

Thanks I appreciate the reply. I also found that by decreasing my spring rate and damper settings to extremely low levels on stiff chassis exotic MR cars (Zonda R, Enzo, Mclaren F1), the cars were able to grip the road much much better.

I mean I am running about the minimum in spring rate and a damper setting of 2 or 3 on these cars.

I had no idea that this would make such a difference, I always figured stiffer was better. My current lap times with these exotics mostly maxed out are about 1:21 on Trial Mountain.

 

[esoxhntr]

i think what csl is alluding to is not to confuse faster with easier to drive (which results in consistency thus, being faster)

even with a ds3 (I use one) once you get the hang of brake and throttle modulation using r2/l2 i've found faster to equal lower values when it comes to lsd... typically. my decel setting is almost exclusively 5 nowadays.

in terms of suspension, a stiffer setup will be less forgiving than a soft one. same idea as above.

 

[CSLACR]

Thanks I appreciate the reply. I also found that by decreasing my spring rate and damper settings to extremely low levels on stiff chassis exotic MR cars (Zonda R, Enzo, Mclaren F1), the cars were able to grip the road much much better.

I mean I am running about the minimum in spring rate and a damper setting of 2 or 3 on these cars.

I had no idea that this would make such a difference, I always figured stiffer was better. My current lap times with these exotics mostly maxed out are about 1:21 on Trial Mountain.

i think what csl is alluding to is not to confuse faster with easier to drive (which results in consistency thus, being faster)

even with a ds3 (I use one) once you get the hang of brake and throttle modulation using r2/l2 i've found faster to equal lower values when it comes to lsd... typically. my decel setting is almost exclusively 5 nowadays.

in terms of suspension, a stiffer setup will be less forgiving than a soft one. same idea as above.

Yes.👍

Ampire - What I've found is stiffer can almost if not always be the fastest way to go. However, stiffer requires more precision, I run softer settings on tracks like Nurburgring, Sarthe, TM, etc.

It's all about finding what's best for you and what you're doing, if it's a one-lap game (hotlapping) you'll likely be better off with stiffer suspension, but for an actual multi-lap race where you'll be pushing the envelope for many laps in a row, softer is definitely the way to.
One spin can equal 5 seconds to minutes, depending on damage, tire wear, length of track, among other things.

What I did in previous GT games (with DS3) was fit the sports or semi-racing suspension, to ensure more predictable and reliable handling, which resulted in faster races.

The good thing to take away here is that you've found what currently works best for you, and that's all you need to know come racing time. 👍

 

[ampire]

I reached similar conclusion with suspension. I got the best lap after lap times on trial mountain and tsukuba (tuning online in my private lobby) , which are my two main tuning areas, using stiff suspensions. But once I started racing online, the stiffness made it impossible to react to other drivers and actually hurt my online lap times pretty bad.

 

[DDAAVVIIDD82]

Precision is key. An extreme tune of any sort puts more of it in the driver's hands and can make up for shortcomings that the car possesses. This tactic should be used sparingly, though, as small mistakes can result in big messes (not so much in a gaming environment).