Mazda RX-8 Concept (Type I) road setup

[zeros_and_ones]

I'm new to GTPlanet, so bear with me if I'm posting in the wrong subcat - I just wanted to share my setup for the RX-8 Concept Type I - this is the easy to get version earned for winning the Special Condition: Tsukuba Wet (easy) race.

With only an oil change and state 2 wt reduction I was able to win the RX-8 Championship, but was having a terrible time with the Club "RE" races. This was my first "serious" tunin on GT4 - I spent a couple of hours at the Motorland test track until the car felt right. I think I was able to get a nice baseline car that handles well, and has plenty of room to tighten things up if I decide to jack the power up.

I'd be curious to hear your comments, as well as take a look at other setups for this car. I'm especially interested in learning how to tune the gears to match the engine - I'm just getting the hang of suspension tuning (thanks in large part to reading Scaff's guide here on GTP)

Parts: Race Exhaust, Sports chip, S2 tires (F/R) Race brakes (probably would skip these and save the money if I was doing it again - the car is light enough that stopping is generally not a big problem), Brake Controller, Full custom trans, Race suspension, triple plate clutch, racing flywheel, carbon driveshaft

Here are the suspension settings:

Spring rate (F/R): 10.5/11
Ride Height (F/R): 116/120
Bound (F/R): 5/6
Rebound (F/R): 6/7
Camber (F/R): 2.2/1.5
Toe: 0/0
Stabilisers (F/R): 4/3

Brake settings(F/R): 12/9
Driving Aids: all set to 0
Gears: Auto 9

 

[Scaff]

Welcome to GT Planet and I'm very happy to see that the guides are of use.

I've had a quick drive of you set-up around the Grand Valley Speedway and have to say I like it.

The only two areas I would comment on would be

Brakes - The 12/9 bias I found far to high and was causing the ABS to kick in, running this at 9/7 I found to be a better bet.

Anti-roll bars - I found the car understeered a bit to much in the fast sweepers at Grand Valley (particularly the last corner), as the car had excellent characteristics through the slower corners the ARBs looked like the main culprit here. So I gave a 3/3 setting a try at this suited me nicely without any damage to the slower corners (BTW if you want soem fun a setting of 2/3 had the car sideways through most of the last corner - looked great but not exactly fast).

Now please don't take my comments in a bad light, as I believe some of these issue may well be coming from your choice of testing location. Motorsport Land is great for the slower stuff, but its doesn't punish the brakes and has no high speed sweeper. Also differences in driving style may be a factor here.

Overall I have to say for your first tune this is excellent work, the car rewards a smooth driving style and feels nicely controlled and well-set up for a smooth track.

👍 👍 👍

Regards

Scaff

 

[zeros_and_ones]

No offense taken! One of the things I'm really looking forward to in this forum is the chance to get opinions and advice from others who love GT - I'll give most suggestions a try and see if it works for me.

And by the way Scaff, part one of your tuning guide was genius:idea: , full of specific tuning logic as well as nice background theory to give a "big picture" view. I just downloaded part 2 and can't wait to read it.

I previously owned GT, GT2, and GT3 A Spec but only recently bought GT4 (when it when "Greatest Hits"), so have been away from the game for a while. I've found that, while I never was a terribly skilled tuner before, it was never really necessary. Usually I could adapt my driving style to fit the limitations of the car, make a few minor tweaks here and there (usually limited to tire selection, springs/ride height, and downforce) and could win at most every track.

In GT4 my experience so far seems to be that cars come out of the box a little better than in previous GT games, but quickly hit their limitations and you need to tune the car to be successful with it. So I've decided to put in some serious time to try and get familiar with the cars' settings.

One question I've got, and this is pretty basic so bear with me, where do you go to test your settings? I've been using Motorland at the Driving Park because you can run solo laps there, quit and change settings, then pop right back onto the course with ghosts to help you compare cornering and the like with previous runs. When I take a car to a race it's not as easy to tinker with settings on the fly. Most races don't have practice laps, unless they are championship style which let you qualify. I find myself entering a race, deciding on about the second lap that I want to increase my camber angle and raise the ride height, then having complete the race, exit, enter again, then change settings and go. If I'm still not happy I have to do it all over again.

 

[Scaff]

One question I've got, and this is pretty basic so bear with me, where do you go to test your settings? I've been using Motorland at the Driving Park because you can run solo laps there, quit and change settings, then pop right back onto the course with ghosts to help you compare cornering and the like with previous runs. When I take a car to a race it's not as easy to tinker with settings on the fly. Most races don't have practice laps, unless they are championship style which let you qualify. I find myself entering a race, deciding on about the second lap that I want to increase my camber angle and raise the ride height, then having complete the race, exit, enter again, then change settings and go. If I'm still not happy I have to do it all over again.

In GT mode you can practice on any of the tracks, just go to the right area. I use Grand Valley and Deep Forest a lot, so to find them head down to the bottom right of the map and find 'Original Circuits' enter here and you will be offered all the original circuits in free run and photo mode.

You also have the same for City Courses (top right of the map), World Circuits (left of the map), and Dirt and Snow (bottom left of the map). It works just the same as the drivng park, just with all the other circuits in the game.


Regards

Scaff


BTW - hope you like part 2 of the guide, happy reading and thanks for the feedback.