Max Tune......Not necessary

[PINION 6]

Back in the day of GT3/GT4 I use'd to max tune all my cars, every car had to have the lott....Max power, Every part on sale, Stiff Setup's, heavy camber angles ect, they all had a similar feeling.
When GTP came out and we could use the cockpit I took a more profesional approach and decided to analize my tune's.
After Time Trialing a max tune all day I decided to see how much I could detune the car and still run the same time's and what I found amazed me.
I could run the same time with 100bhp less, softer shock's/damper's and less agressive camber/toe angles, and with less hard tune parts on the car,
Also it made the car more consistent and more to the point gave it back it's feel and personality.
Besides....a true max tune is specific to a track, [espcialy the gears]
Now my approach to tuneing is to get the car as fast as posible without loosing the orignal feel and sound, they are still very quick but more fun to drive and display thir orignal personality's better than a max tune and perform everywhere.
Some cars have more tuning scope that others, the Susuki Escudo wow's me, this can be a Rally car or a LM car and everything in between, a real tuner's delight.
To those of you who are'nt tuning experts start with a stock car and spend time getting use to it, then buy what you think it need's in small mesure's and you'll realy feel it.

 

[Schadenfreude13]

Trying to tune carefully, retain the cars original "feel", etc. have always been what I was about in the GT series. That, of course was quite time-consuming which is why I didnt do much of it until it became something of a necessity with the competition of the online racing in GT5 (I skipped Prologue).

 

[PINION 6]

Trying to tune carefully, retain the cars original "feel", etc. have always been what I was about in the GT series. That, of course was quite time-consuming

Absolutely......I tend to complete a game as quick as posible then just run Time Trial all day [which is where im at with GT5]
I love to spend time on a car, sometimes 30+ hours and come to a tune I could have done in 5 minuets, but that's part of it for me.
It's nice to hear others tuning this way....

Who else loves Time Trial tuning, and do you have a favorite test track.....

 

[budious]

I like the weightier feel of the exotic sports car without weight reductions. I don't like upgrading the tires more than one or two steps up to improve cornering speed. I like to combine the stock spring rates from the default suspension with the stock weight of the car and then just use dampers, anti-roll bars, and camber to maximize the ride quality. I actually think this works out closer to how the cars should drive from the factory in some ways because the GT stock suspension and fixed sports kit always assume a damper pair with value of 1. Very few cars come stock with a height adjustable kit with the damper pair set to 2. Simply carrying over the stock spring rate and having the ability to raise damper to 2 or 3 makes drastic improvements in most cases.

Clutches and flywheels have more dramatic effects on the handling in some cases then simple power boost upgrades. I leave these stock or test each component individually to make sure the natural balance is not disturbed. I round out a basic light exotic car tune with ECU, sport air filter, sport exhaust, sport catalytic converter; sometimes I add low RPM turbo or engine tune 1 if needed. Above that, I generally go with ECU, race air filter, semi-titanium exhaust; if a little more is needed, then add engine tune 1 also.

 

[PINION 6]

Budious........

I know exactly what you mean about the weight reductions......
Sounds like your another one who tune's for feel and not max figures..

 

[oopssorryy]

I've do a few max tunes and have regretted them. All the extra power and lass weight can really ruin a car (MR2 GTS...). Some cars though are fun at their max, like the little Kai cars, econo boxes, and older cars with no power. I try to get my cars in the range of 450-500. Some cars are ok to 550 but not many.

 

[HKS racer]

I'm not really into soft tuning but I love when I'm able to remove all the boring understeer from my cars. Lancia Delta Integrale with a slightly oversteer setup is a joy to drive, very responsive and precise, exiting turns in power oversteer at deep forest.. I love it. Way more fun than the boring (and unrealistic) stock feel.

 

[Ronald6]

Do you guys find that when you tune for feel you get better lap times. At least anything other than Daytona.

I find that by the time I'm done with a car/track tune I usually have three tunes. One for TT, one for endurance and another for drift. They're not that far off from each other.

I've also found that maxing out a car is not the best way to improve your times. Often more power = less control. Like all things involving driving mediation is key.

 

[oopssorryy]

Do you guys find that when you tune for feel you get better lap times. At least anything other than Daytona.

I find that by the time I'm done with a car/track tune I usually have three tunes. One for TT, one for endurance and another for drift. They're not that far off from each other.

I've also found that maxing out a car is not the best way to improve your times. Often more power = less control. Like all things involving driving mediation is key.

In a way yes. Usually I find that if a car is a very unstable but can take turns like nobody's business I'll be faster than the tune I have for it by about 0.3 seconds. But replicating that time is generally extremely difficult. When tuned by feel, although 0.3 seconds slower, I can reliably produce lap times very close to one another.

 

[Ronald6]

In a way yes. Usually I find that if a car is a very unstable but can take turns like nobody's business I'll be faster than the tune I have for it by about 0.3 seconds. But replicating that time is generally extremely difficult. When tuned by feel, although 0.3 seconds slower, I can reliably produce lap times very close to one another.

That brings up a point I've been thinking on for a few weeks. Tuning for your "feel" of a car is what I call an endurance/comfort setup. If you can drive it predictably then it will win over time.

But each vehicle has a "sweet spot" that is irrespective of the driver. This means that if you have the "perfect" TT setup then you might not feel completely comfortable with the setup and that leads to inconsistancy.

Find a car that your comfortable driving while the car is in its sweet spot and your golden. Just me and my Fireblade baby, yeah.

 

[PINION 6]

I would'nt use the word soft tune......that to me is a Chip and an Exhaust....
I do try to max my cars as much as possible untill I loose the cars personality and they are usualy 4-5 sec quicker than standard per lap on faster cars.
I absolutly agree with former posts, some cars can handle a max tune but to max a supercar and keep it consistent is hard work...

If anyone is interested there is a thread called "Mclaren F1 not stelth" on the 1st or 2nd page.
There is a Max tune there from someone else and a "Feel" tune from me...
See if you like it..........It's got real personality

 

[HKS racer]

I think you can give the "feel" to every car in the game, even a Mclaren SLR and a Viper ACR with 1000hp, it's all a matter of tuning abilities. There is no front downforce in this cars so the tuner need to find other areas to prevent deep understeer at high speed. Of course when you tune a car you can do wathever you want, max tuning doesn't strictly mean max performance, too many torque and the car will spin, too less and the car wont be fast enough. In the end, in every tune and car in the game it's all a matter of balance things up.
Anywat I agree when people say there are some interesting cars with their own natural weight transer and not extreme spring rates values, expecially if we compare GT5's weight transer and suspensions work with Pc sims like GTR2 and rFactor, there is still a lot of work to do in this area by PD.

 

[PINION 6]

In this thread the "feel" is about keeping the original feel and personality of the car but tuning it as much as possible...
you could run a car with 1000bhp and make it feel like a peach but it wont have the same personality of the original..

 

[HKS racer]

In this thread the "feel" is about keeping the original feel and personality of the car but tuning it as much as possible...
you could run a car with 1000bhp and make it feel like a peach but it wont have the same personality of the original..

You can't quantify how much you can tune a car keeping the original feel. Online you need the best performance in a particular class, so I suppose your approach is an offline car entusiast approach, for the "driving experience" right? Maybe the Replica thread could be interesting for you.

 

[PINION 6]

You can't quantify how much you can tune a car keeping the original feel. Online you need the best performance in a particular class.

Absolutly.....If I was tuning for an on line race the feel would be the last thing on my mind, more an ultimate speed tune..
Online Racing also [as you know] is as much about the set up you have at home......If your car's the best and your on a d-pad racing someone with a Playseat and a GT3 wheel with clubsport peddles your already at a 3-5 second loss.
Im all for Time Trial.... Me, Track, Car...Yes I will race but would rather the track to myself most of the time..