- 14
- Caerphilly, Wales
- SudSprint_79
Motor City Tunes GT6
- Thread starter Motor City Hami
- 1,109 comments
- 505,747 views
- 92
- Columbus Ohio
- TheOptimusKnight
Awesome, cant wait to try that. Thanks,The NSX comes with sport hard tyres, if you change them to comfort softs on the car settings menu it'll let you enter... well, it worked for me! Make sure you've followed the entry regs you should be golden!
Best of luck with the seasonal, this tune absolutely flies
Love this Forum so much help!!! Much better than others Ive been in.
- 202
- new york
- Hotspac5150
Mazda MX-5 Miata (NA) '89
400PP, 159hp, 874kg
Paint: GT6 Metallic 019
Tuned with G27 with Nixim Brake Pedal Mod
Pit Service
Oil Change
Installed Parts
Rims: 1" up, painted white
Type A Front Aero Kit
Sport Hard Tires
Fully Customizable Suspension
Fully Customizable Transmission
Fully Customizable LSD
Sports Computer
Racing Exhaust
Isometric Exhaust Manifold
Intake Tuning
Weight Reduction Stage 1
Tune
Ride Height 90/95
Springs 6.5/5.5
Dampers Compression 3/4
Dampers Extension 5/5
Anti-Roll Bars 2/5
Camber 2.2/1.8
Toe -0.07/-0.05
Brake balance 4/4
LSD 8/14/8
Ballast 0
Ballast Position 0
Weight Distribution 54/46
Power Level 98.8%
Transmission
1st gear 2.925
2nd gear 1.925
3rd gear 1.425
4th gear 1.125
5th gear 0.940
Top Speed 137
Final gear 4.150
Just finished the one make roadster race with your setup... Awesomeness! the car chased down the ai cars one by one. the setup works & I use a controller. You so rock & Yes, You are the man!
- 1,145
- Lithuania
Thanks for tuning but i have some qustions. Final gear is mentionet two times - 4,300 & 5.500. Which is corect? Max speed i can set only at 200, can't set 124. Gears i also set to left but i can set as you wrote, for egz. 1-sr i can set 3,564, 2-2,613 and so on. What i am doing wrong?NSX Type R '02
470PP, 289hp, 1250kg
Paint: Lime Green Metallic
Tuned with G27 with Nixim Brake Pedal Mod and ABS 1
Tune built for the Acura NSX Super Lap Seasonal at Ascari - January 15, 2014
About the track, I am really liking the Ascari track. It seems to have most corners that you will see on other circuits. This is quickly becoming my favorite track to tune on. I will probably come back to this seasonal this weekend and make effort to drop my times further.
About the tune, I still do not think this tune is perfect. There is more speed there somewhere. In this seasonal I don't get the feel that the car is digging into the pavement. Rather, the car floats across the surface in a light drift. To be fast in this seasonal you are going to have to get accustomed to this drift and tune your car to be in a more controlled slide. If you want to change this drift balance to better fit your driving style, start with moving the ballast. Move to the front to get the front to slide more and move to the rear to get the rear to slide more. If this still isn't enough to fit your driving style, feel free to stop by the garage and ask question. I am always willing to help.
About driving aids, I built this tune without using driving aids then went back with SRF and Active Steering in order to drop my times. Two things. First, the balance of the tune really did not change when I added SRF and again when I added AS. SRF seems to act like the next softer tire. I expected AS to allow for me to build a more tail happy tune and allow the AS to catch it. The issue is that the AS, even set to strong, will catch the car, but little catches seem to be faster than big slide catches. So I went back to the original, no aids tune and went the fastest.
Second about driving aids. Some may try to discredit the tune or my lap time on the basis that I used driving aids. If you do not want to use aids, as mentioned above, the tune balance seems the same no matter which aid I turned on. As for my choice to use them, that is really my choice. I think of it this way. During the traction control era of Formula One, did some teams choose not to use it on the principal of being more authentic? If one team did, how did they perform, how many wins did they get, how many new fans did they acquire? The rules were set for the seasonal and if it is faster to use aids, I am going to do so for the seasonal. When I race online I look for rooms racing on sport tires, a reasonable PP level and only ABS1 allowed.
Pit Service
No Oil Change
Installed Parts
Comfort Soft Tires
Fully Customizable Suspension
Racing Brakes
Fully Customizable Transmission
Fully Customizable LSD
Triple-Plate Clutch Kit
Weight Reduction Stage 1
Carbon Hood
Window Weight Reduction
Tune
Ride Height 100/100
Springs 5.50/7.50
Dampers Compression 2/2
Dampers Extension 3/3
Anti-Roll Bars 3/3
Camber 0.0/0.0
Toe -0.05/0.25
Brake balance 5/4
LSD 14/12/32
Ballast 110
Ballast Position -25
Weight Distribution 48:52
Power Level 95.0%
Transmission
Final Gear to 5.500
Top Speed to 124
1st gear 3.000
2nd gear 2.100
3rd gear 1.645
4th gear 1.355
5th gear 1.155
6th gear 1.015
Final gear 4.300
- 32
- United Kingdom
- TVRFanboy83
- pistonhead83
- 32
- United Kingdom
- TVRFanboy83
- pistonhead83
Great tune for the X-Bow, gold straight off the bat!
- 32
- United Kingdom
- TVRFanboy83
- pistonhead83
OK, I've got a question. I've applied your tune to my Scirocco for the Seasonal event, but before I get to adding ballast or the power limiter, my PP is 461, meaning that if I do the ballast and power limiting as directed the setup comes out at 453PP...
I've triple-checked that I've got the right parts installed etc. If for some reason I can just get away with doing the power limiter at 99.8% to bring it down to 460PP, are there any changes I would have to make to your suggested setup if I'm not using ballast?
Does that make any sense?
I've triple-checked that I've got the right parts installed etc. If for some reason I can just get away with doing the power limiter at 99.8% to bring it down to 460PP, are there any changes I would have to make to your suggested setup if I'm not using ballast?
Does that make any sense?
- 548
- Newport Beach, CA
- TurismoSlayer
Btw, how did you get more than stock HP and 470PP with your tune? I didn't see any power upgrades. Was still able to beat gold time by a few second no problem just so long as I stayed on course (still learning Ascari).
- 9
- Dieppe/France
- Gurney-Halleck
Motor City Hami said
VW Scirocco R '10
Thank you for the quality of your configurations.
Even for a 63 year old grandpa playing with a DS3 contreleur they help me a lot. Thank you again.
VW Scirocco R '10
Thank you for the quality of your configurations.
Even for a 63 year old grandpa playing with a DS3 contreleur they help me a lot. Thank you again.
- 548
- Newport Beach, CA
- TurismoSlayer
- 4,803
- Dearborn, MI
- MotorCtyHamilton
I do almost every gearbox in this way. From my guide:
Transmission – You must add all power parts before setting the transmission. I use the flip trick. I like to set it and forget it. Others like Praiano use a similar method but will match the shift points to the engine’s RPM. It is a bit over my head. I should really take some time to have Praiano build a gearbox for one of my tunes so that I can see the difference. A customized transmission is worth more than adding most power upgrades and it doesn’t cost any PP points. The transmission is a must on a car that I plan to use long term. If I am detuning for the A-spec races I will sometimes run the stock gearbox. Also, I like numbers that end in zero or five simply because they look cleaner and they are easier to type into tuning sheets.
Transmission Flip
1.) Final Gear to 5.000 (all the way right)
2.) Max Speed to minimum (all the way left)
3.) Highest Gear to maximum (all the way right – probably rounded)
4.) 2nd Gear to about 80% left (example: for a range of 1.915 to 2.427 I pick 2.000)
5.) For gears 3rd through highest, make relatively even spacing between gears. I tend to leave a little more space between 2nd, 3rd and 4th than I do between 4th, 5th and 6th. If you look closely at my settings you will see that the gear lines get slightly closer as you move from left to right (1st to 6th).
6.) Set top speed through Final Gear, not Max Speed. Do not touch the Max Speed adjustment at any time past step two. Use the Final Gear setting to achieve just before redline on the longest straight.
7.) Set first gear. If for rolling starts I tend to move this slider to the right and match my even spacing. For standing start racing you will need to test out a few. I have been burned a few times in online racing for having these settings too far left. For standing starts, 1st gear may need to be much further to the right. When you have the launch you are looking for, you will then need to go back and even out all of the gears again.
8.) Further optimize the gearbox for a specific track. You may find that a 2nd, 3rd or 4th gear shift is in a bad spot, mid-corner or right before a braking zone. Re-adjust these gears to optimize for the specific track. For example, if the car wants a 2nd to 3rd gear change just before the exit of a key corner, move the 2nd gear slider to the left and re-adjust the spacing of the other gears. Or, for example, if you are nearing a shorter straight section and find the need to shift from 4th to 5th right before a braking zone, move the 4th gear slider to the left then re-adjust the spacing of the other gears.
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- 1,145
- Lithuania
Yes, I've read thees tips, but there is yours common rules and my question is about your's NSX tune. I instaled all parts, but I can;t set so low gers as you wrote. Also max speed I can set only for 200 (max speed I can't set down in the X-bow and S-2000 settings, but gears in these tunings I can set as ypu mentioned.
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- 4,803
- Dearborn, MI
- MotorCtyHamilton
Mercury1
Premium
- 334
- Sydney
- robmchugh
Us old men have to stick together!
Mercury1
Premium
- 334
- Sydney
- robmchugh
MC, I have read various posts and find your guides invaluable, so I was hoping you could give me a definitive answer on whether the larger rim problem was fixed by the update. There seems to be various theories - yours or Mr P's I would trust. When the problem was first identified there were photos clearly showing rear tyres of the same width, so I am wondering why there are no photos up showing the problem solved. Your views would be greatly appreciated my friend - thank you. 
- 9
- Dieppe/France
- Gurney-Halleck
Mercury1 said
Us old men have to stick together!
Not old, but young elders who always take
much fun to play.
Us old men have to stick together!
Not old, but young elders who always take
much fun to play.
- 4,803
- Dearborn, MI
- MotorCtyHamilton
MC, I have read various posts and find your guides invaluable, so I was hoping you could give me a definitive answer on whether the larger rim problem was fixed by the update. There seems to be various theories - yours or Mr P's I would trust. When the problem was first identified there were photos clearly showing rear tyres of the same width, so I am wondering why there are no photos up showing the problem solved. Your views would be greatly appreciated my friend - thank you.
I thought people had confirmed that tire size is fixed with the 1.03 patch?
I didn't really notice a handling difference. I also did not see any testing posted to show a lap time difference. So was it just cosmetic? I was actually hoping that it would reduce rear grip.
- 1,370
- Laval, Canada
- OutbackV6
Thank you Hami, I've just used this tuning and finished in 10 600 something position, for me, thats really good.NSX Type R '02
470PP, 289hp, 1250kg
Paint: Lime Green Metallic
Tuned with G27 with Nixim Brake Pedal Mod and ABS 1
Tune built for the Acura NSX Super Lap Seasonal at Ascari - January 15, 2014
About the track, I am really liking the Ascari track. It seems to have most corners that you will see on other circuits. This is quickly becoming my favorite track to tune on. I will probably come back to this seasonal this weekend and make effort to drop my times further.
About the tune, I still do not think this tune is perfect. There is more speed there somewhere. In this seasonal I don't get the feel that the car is digging into the pavement. Rather, the car floats across the surface in a light drift. To be fast in this seasonal you are going to have to get accustomed to this drift and tune your car to be in a more controlled slide. If you want to change this drift balance to better fit your driving style, start with moving the ballast. Move to the front to get the front to slide more and move to the rear to get the rear to slide more. If this still isn't enough to fit your driving style, feel free to stop by the garage and ask question. I am always willing to help.
About driving aids, I built this tune without using driving aids then went back with SRF and Active Steering in order to drop my times. Two things. First, the balance of the tune really did not change when I added SRF and again when I added AS. SRF seems to act like the next softer tire. I expected AS to allow for me to build a more tail happy tune and allow the AS to catch it. The issue is that the AS, even set to strong, will catch the car, but little catches seem to be faster than big slide catches. So I went back to the original, no aids tune and went the fastest.
Second about driving aids. Some may try to discredit the tune or my lap time on the basis that I used driving aids. If you do not want to use aids, as mentioned above, the tune balance seems the same no matter which aid I turned on. As for my choice to use them, that is really my choice. I think of it this way. During the traction control era of Formula One, did some teams choose not to use it on the principal of being more authentic? If one team did, how did they perform, how many wins did they get, how many new fans did they acquire? The rules were set for the seasonal and if it is faster to use aids, I am going to do so for the seasonal. When I race online I look for rooms racing on sport tires, a reasonable PP level and only ABS1 allowed.
Pit Service
No Oil Change
Installed Parts
Comfort Soft Tires
Fully Customizable Suspension
Racing Brakes
Fully Customizable Transmission
Fully Customizable LSD
Triple-Plate Clutch Kit
Weight Reduction Stage 1
Carbon Hood
Window Weight Reduction
Tune
Ride Height 100/100
Springs 5.50/7.50
Dampers Compression 2/2
Dampers Extension 3/3
Anti-Roll Bars 3/3
Camber 0.0/0.0
Toe -0.05/0.25
Brake balance 5/4
LSD 14/12/32
Ballast 110
Ballast Position -25
Weight Distribution 48:52
Power Level 95.0%
Transmission
Final Gear to 5.500
Top Speed to 124
1st gear 3.000
2nd gear 2.100
3rd gear 1.645
4th gear 1.355
5th gear 1.155
6th gear 1.015
Final gear 4.300
Also I want to thank you for all the knowledge you share with us, it has helped me greatly in trying to do tune-ups.
Mercury1
Premium
- 334
- Sydney
- robmchugh
Thanks mate. Just cosmetic from what I am getting - I too was hoping for a little more 'fishtail'.
- 14
- Caerphilly, Wales
- SudSprint_79
I golded this in the '91 Acura NSX with a 2.32. Why am i telling you this?NSX Type R '02
470PP, 289hp, 1250kg
Paint: Lime Green Metallic
Tuned with G27 with Nixim Brake Pedal Mod and ABS 1
Tune built for the Acura NSX Super Lap Seasonal at Ascari - January 15, 2014
About the track, I am really liking the Ascari track. It seems to have most corners that you will see on other circuits. This is quickly becoming my favorite track to tune on. I will probably come back to this seasonal this weekend and make effort to drop my times further.
About the tune, I still do not think this tune is perfect. There is more speed there somewhere. In this seasonal I don't get the feel that the car is digging into the pavement. Rather, the car floats across the surface in a light drift. To be fast in this seasonal you are going to have to get accustomed to this drift and tune your car to be in a more controlled slide. If you want to change this drift balance to better fit your driving style, start with moving the ballast. Move to the front to get the front to slide more and move to the rear to get the rear to slide more. If this still isn't enough to fit your driving style, feel free to stop by the garage and ask question. I am always willing to help.
About driving aids, I built this tune without using driving aids then went back with SRF and Active Steering in order to drop my times. Two things. First, the balance of the tune really did not change when I added SRF and again when I added AS. SRF seems to act like the next softer tire. I expected AS to allow for me to build a more tail happy tune and allow the AS to catch it. The issue is that the AS, even set to strong, will catch the car, but little catches seem to be faster than big slide catches. So I went back to the original, no aids tune and went the fastest.
Second about driving aids. Some may try to discredit the tune or my lap time on the basis that I used driving aids. If you do not want to use aids, as mentioned above, the tune balance seems the same no matter which aid I turned on. As for my choice to use them, that is really my choice. I think of it this way. During the traction control era of Formula One, did some teams choose not to use it on the principal of being more authentic? If one team did, how did they perform, how many wins did they get, how many new fans did they acquire? The rules were set for the seasonal and if it is faster to use aids, I am going to do so for the seasonal. When I race online I look for rooms racing on sport tires, a reasonable PP level and only ABS1 allowed.
Pit Service
No Oil Change
Installed Parts
Comfort Soft Tires
Fully Customizable Suspension
Racing Brakes
Fully Customizable Transmission
Fully Customizable LSD
Triple-Plate Clutch Kit
Weight Reduction Stage 1
Carbon Hood
Window Weight Reduction
Tune
Ride Height 100/100
Springs 5.50/7.50
Dampers Compression 2/2
Dampers Extension 3/3
Anti-Roll Bars 3/3
Camber 0.0/0.0
Toe -0.05/0.25
Brake balance 5/4
LSD 14/12/32
Ballast 110
Ballast Position -25
Weight Distribution 48:52
Power Level 95.0%
Transmission
Final Gear to 5.500
Top Speed to 124
1st gear 3.000
2nd gear 2.100
3rd gear 1.645
4th gear 1.355
5th gear 1.155
6th gear 1.015
Final gear 4.300
Because then i tried your tune and got round in 2.25. 7 SECONDS BETTER!! It took 3 laps to get this improvement & one of those was invalid! My current time is 2.23.755 which puts my ranking at 3,032 as of this time. In maybe 2 years of online TTs i've never done this well!
An MR that handles this well and on Comfort Softs at that is amazing, man. Thanks very much for this tune Hami - you're making me look really good!!
My mistake - i meant to say 2.23.084 & 2,466th! This is some HOT CAR!!
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- 636
- Penal
- basswerks1
Thanks for this !! I ran my best of 1:29:802VW Scirocco R '10
460PP, 277hp, 1250kg
Paint: Spirited Green Metallic
Tuned with G27 with Nixim Brake Pedal Mod and ABS 1
Tune built for the VW Scirocco R Super Lap Seasonal at Ascari - January 15, 2014
This tune is a ten minute tune so know that it could be more refined. This is one FF in the game that you can get to rotate, in fact, to over rotate. I tried to balance it for my driving style so if you need help fitting it to yours' I can tell you what I changed to get more or less rotation.
Pit Service
No Oil Change
Installed Parts
Comfort Soft Tires
Fully Customizable Suspension
Racing Brakes
Fully Customizable Transmission
Fully Customizable LSD
Triple-Plate Clutch Kit
Sports Catalytic Converter
Weight Reduction Stage 3
Carbon Hood
Window Weight Reduction
Tune
Ride Height 105/110
Springs 5.50/7.00
Dampers Compression 3/2
Dampers Extension 4/3
Anti-Roll Bars 3/3
Camber 0.0/0.0
Toe -0.08/-0.12
Brake balance 3/4
LSD 11/14/10
Ballast 95
Ballast Position 13
Weight Distribution 52/48
Power Level 99.2%
Transmission
Final Gear to 6.000
Top Speed to 124
1st gear 2.450
2nd gear 1.675
3rd gear 1.295
4th gear 1.060
5th gear 0.905
6th gear 0.790
Final gear 4.500
- 3
- United Kingdom
- Disownedleek
Aweaome tune time to try your nsx tune keep up the good work !KTM X-Bow Street '12
540PP, 279hp, 800kg
Paint: Spirited Green Metallic
Tuned with G27 with Nixim Brake Pedal Mod and ABS 1
Tune built for the KTM X-bow Street Super Lap Seasonal at Eiger Nordwand- January 15, 2014
This is the first time that I have driven the X-bow. It is a really fun car to drive in stock form. It did need some tuning, but in my opinion, not much. You can still lose rear grip in some of the high speed corners, but if you plan ahead and are ready for it, you can really carry the speed through the corners.
Pit Service
No Oil Change
Front aero for looks
Stock rims
Installed Parts
Sport Hard Tires
Fully Customizable Suspension
Racing Brakes
Fully Customizable Transmission
Fully Customizable LSD
Triple-Plate Clutch Kit
Engine Tuning Stage 1
Isometric Exhaust Manifold
Weight Reduction Stage 3
Tune
Ride Height 75/75
Springs 4.25/8.00
Dampers Compression 3/3
Dampers Extension 3/3
Anti-Roll Bars 3/3
Camber 0.0/0.0
Toe -0.10/0.12
Brake balance 6/5
LSD 11/11/11
Ballast 50
Ballast Position -32
Weight Distribution 42:58
Power Level 99.5%
Transmission
Final Gear to 5.500
Top Speed to 112
1st gear 2.850
2nd gear 2.000
3rd gear 1.540
4th gear 1.265
5th gear 1.085
6th gear 0.970
Final gear 4.550
- 160
- Texas
- DJay-Silv3R
Thanks for taking the time to put your knowledge & experience out for us to learn from. Read your full article and I must say, this will indeed come in handy while I'm updating my tunes! Amazing work my friend. Kudos! 👍👍
GT6 Tuning Guide by Motor City Hamilton
Prologue
I thought it would be useful to describe the way I approach tuning. I primarily build tunes for my use and maybe do an occasional request. I have no interest in the tuning garage arms race for having the most cars listed in the garage. I also like to spend time with a car before calling a tune finished and posting it (I have a couple dozen tunes from GT5 that I never got around to posting – may have to do that some day). I don’t know how some of the garages can crank out so many tunes in such a short time. I will give Praiano a break from that thinking because every single car I have driven from his garage is near perfection. A few tweaks for my driving style and I am off to the winners circle. I also have respect for the Clueless garage. They crank out like five tunes an hour our something (<--exaggeration) but they do have more tuners over there than the pizza delivery services. Plus I think they are among the nicest, most helpful people on GT Planet. So, in my long winded way, I am saying that if you are looking for a specific car tune, start with them or any of the other garages that you like. I will not be able to keep up with their productivity.
So why are you here? What can Motor City Tunes do for you? I will continue to post tunes for most everything that I drive and will still do an occasional request tune, but I think my role on GT Planet serves a different purpose. I am satisfied with taking on the role of the teacher. In real life I am a strategist and a problem solver. Solving car handling problems fits with these skills. Whatever tune you are using, it is likely that I can help make it fit better for your driving skills. Don’t be shy about asking for advice.
Tuning Goals
The first thing that I do when I use a new car in Gran Turismo is to think about how I plan to use the tune. I thought about it a bit and came up with four different ways that I use cars in Gran Turismo:
1.) Race online. These tunes are never complete. I will try new things all the time. I will have three or four versions of this car for different tracks. These are the ten or so cars that I love and use most. Still building my list of these in GT6 (Honda S2000 Type V ’03, Mustang Boss 302, Honda Takata Dome NSX '03 and Mazda MX-5 NA and NASCAR are the only ones on the list so far.)
2.) F.I.T.T. tuning competition. I try to wring everything that I can out of these tunes in the time allowed (usually three weeks). I will test between 300 and 1000 miles and change as many settings as I can, looking for a little bit extra for the competition track.
3.) A-spec race to beat the AI. If I do not plan to use the car past getting the awards from an A-spec race or A-spec seasonal, I will only spend ten or fifteen minutes tuning. I am finding that in GT6, I have been de-tuning just to make it any type of challenge. In 600PP A-spec races I am picking cars with 400 to 450PP and using harder tires than the AI. A-spec in GT6 is far too easy in my opinion. I will still add suspension and LSD and tune a little, but I don’t add many parts or spend much time refining the tunes.
4.) Time Trial. On most occasions I will just stop by the time trial long enough to get the gold and gain the credits. I will max out the allowed PP, slap on a base tune, get the gold and out. Every so often, PD will post a time trial with a car that I like. If I am planning to use a car more long term, I will hit that time trial hard.
I encourage you to set goals for the car that you are using. If you are just trying to get by with something temporary, grab a base tune from above (once I finish them) and go get the gold and credits. If it is a car that you plan to use long-term, you will want to read every word of the below tuning guide. Test, find what works for your driving style and ask questions in the garage.
Building A Tune From Scratch
I am just going to lay my approach out there. This is how I work through a tune. I do things in this exact order.
Oil Change – Are you tuning a short term car or a long term car? For a short term car, do not perform an oil change. It robs power at the same PP level. Take any car and note the stock PP and HP levels (example: Scirocco R ‘10 at 438PP/252HP). Next perform an oil change and note the new PP/HP levels (Scirocco @ 445PP/265HP). Finally, use the power limiter to re-establish the car’s original PP level (Scirocco needs 94.5 power limiter to equal 438PP). The new HP rating for the Scirocco is now 250, a 2hp drop from stock (or 0.8% lower horsepower). I have tested this on many cars in GT6 and the average drop is a 1% horsepower loss. If you are using a car for a short period of time, do not perform oil changes. There are more efficient ways to gain power for a PP build. If I were entered into a weekly racing series I might consider purchasing a brand new car for each event and enter without an oil change.
Adding parts – I don’t build very many maxed out tunes. Most of the racing that I do has a set PP level and tire selection so this is how I decide what to add.
Weight
I start with considering the car’s weight. I will admit that I have not done extensive testing in GT6 yet around weight, but so far the theories from GT5 seem to be working. I do not have definitive rules on when to drop weight vs. add power. I would say that my method has much gray area. I try to get into a weight range and then move to power. Weight is always thought about first. When I can get a car into the weight ranges listed below, my lap times are always faster than going only with power. This is what I look for:
- Heavy cars need weight reduction to get them between 1400 and 1450kg
- I prefer average cars that are between 1200 and 1250kg
- Lighter cars in stock form do not always need weight reductions, but 1000kg seems to be the magic number
Power
There are some significant changes to the PP and HP gains in GT6 that are making parts selection much more complicated. In GT5 there were some clear winners (low PP gain vs. high HP gain). In GT5 on almost every car, the first power part that I would add is the racing exhaust. Next were exhaust manifold, intake manifold, air filters and ECU, all being really equal on PP/HP efficiency. The least efficient items in GT5 were the catalytic converter, turbo and supercharger. On almost every car that I tested in GT5, this order was really consistent. Not so in GT6. For comparison, I built ten different cars from FF Ford Focus ST to FR BRZ S’12 to MR NSX R to Honda S2000 to Ford GT to Ferrari FXX to Mustang Boss 302, etc. and every single one had a different list of parts that were most efficient PP/HP. In GT6, racing exhaust no longer won hands down and catalytic converter moves from the junk pile to the most efficient part on most cars.
So how do I choose? Below are two examples of popular cars in the GT series. I have listed all of the weight and power parts and their effect on PP and weight/HP. Note that these are done without oil change for the reasons mentioned earlier in this tuning guide. Most of the columns are self-explanatory. The one that may be confusing is “Gain/PP.” For weight reduction parts I have listed weight loss divided by pp gain. All three stages of weight reduction seem to have the same efficiency value per car (18kg per 1pp for the M3). When you scroll down to the power parts under “Gain/PP,” it gets much more interesting. This formula is horsepower gained divided by PP gained. A higher number is more desirable, more efficient. In the column next to the power part gain/pp I have listed a rank based on this efficiency. Below are results for the M3 Coupe '07 @ 525PP and Ford GT ’06 @600PP.
Choosing Parts and Why - M3 Coupe '07 @ 525PP
1. Window weight reduction and carbon hood. It only cost 1PP for both. I will be adding this to every car I tune in GT6 from here forward.
2. Weight reduction stage 3. This car is just too heavy. Stage 3 takes it down to 1340kg and combined with window and carbon hood the car will now be all the way down to 1325. I will probably add ballast and run this car at 1400kg. Ballast will allow me to play with the front/rear balance during tuning.
3. Sports Catalytic Converter. The winning power part, hands down with 3.25 hp per 1 pp.
4. Engine Tuning Stage 3.
5. Semi-Racing Exhaust.
6. Power Limiter 98.2%.
Build is now at 525PP and 491HP.
Choosing Parts and Why – Ford GT ’06 @ 600PP
1. Window weight reduction and carbon hood. It only cost 1PP for both. I will be adding this to every car I tune in GT6 from here forward.
2. Weight reduction stage 3. This car likes around 1200kg. Stage 3 takes it down to 1204kg and combined with window and carbon hood the car will now be all the way down to 1189. I will add ballast instead of using the power limiter. I want to run this car somewhere between 1200 and 1250kg. Ballast will allow me to play with the front/rear balance during tuning.
3. Sports Catalytic Converter. The winning power part, hands down with 4.25 hp per 1pp.
4. Racing Exhaust at 4.0 hp per 1 pp.
5. Isometric Exhaust Manifold at 4.0 hp per 1 pp.
6. Ballast at 24kg.
Build is now at 600pp and 628hp.
Other parts
If you are PP racing, I would always add the Triple-Plate Clutch, Carbon Drive Shaft and Racing Brakes, if available. If I am on a budget and do not plan to use a car long-term, I skip all three of these parts. They provide minimal gains so they are not really worth the money for a sometimes car, but why not take advantage of every little bit if you are racing online or in a time trial.
Chassis stiffness – I am not a fan of. It adds understeer just as it did in GT5. I would use it as a last resort on very difficult MR or RR cars. The Yellow Bird comes to mind. So does the Enzo.
Wings on street cars – I do not add wings to my street car builds. It adds more rear grip and on most cars in the GT series I am trying to do the opposite, gain front grip. In GT5 it also cost PP to add wings so that just robs from the ability to drop weight and add power. Currently in GT6, downforce does not add to PP. I expect PD to change this in the future, but for now, downforce is simply a grip tool. Only add if you need more rear grip. I have read about a programming glitch with wings, but I have not tested for this yet.
Wings on tuner cars – There are many tuner cars that reveal their front grip adjustments when you add a rear wing. I do add the rear wing if it allows for me to adjust the front downforce all the way up and the rear all the way down.
Downforce on race cars – Since adding downforce does not currently add to PP, use as much as you can on race cars for circuit tuning. I will often reduce rear downforce to improve cornering. Also, if I am racing on a circuit with an extremely long straight, I will lower front and rear downforce to around the half-way point. There does seem to be a top speed penalty for max downforce, but it is worth so much in the corners on most circuits.
Downforce on NASCAR at Daytona – I use min/min front/rear for the straight line speed gain.
Flat Floors – I have not had the opportunity to test. I have read that it slows most down in the straights. Too much downforce?
Transmission – You must add all power parts before setting the transmission. I use the flip trick. I like to set it and forget it. Others like Praiano use a similar method but will match the shift points to the engine’s RPM. It is a bit over my head. I should really take some time to have Praiano build a gearbox for one of my tunes so that I can see the difference. A customized transmission is worth more than adding most power upgrades and it doesn’t cost any PP points. The transmission is a must on a car that I plan to use long term. If I am detuning for the A-spec races I will sometimes run the stock gearbox. Also, I like numbers that end in zero or five simply because they look cleaner and they are easier to type into tuning sheets.
Transmission Flip
1.) Final Gear to maximum (all the way right)
2.) Max Speed to minimum (all the way left)
3.) Highest Gear to maximum (all the way right – probably rounded)
4.) 2nd Gear to about 80% left (example: for a range of 1.915 to 2.427 I pick 2.000)
5.) For gears 3rd through highest, make relatively even spacing between gears. I tend to leave a little more space between 2nd, 3rd and 4th than I do between 4th, 5th and 6th. If you look closely at my settings you will see that the gear lines get slightly closer as you move from left to right (1st to 6th).
6.) Set top speed through Final Gear, not Max Speed. Do not touch the Max Speed adjustment at any time past step two. Use the Final Gear setting to achieve just before redline on the longest straight.
7.) Set first gear. If for rolling starts I tend to move this slider to the right and match my even spacing. For standing start racing you will need to test out a few. I have been burned a few times in online racing for having these settings too far left. For standing starts, 1st gear may need to be much further to the right. When you have the launch you are looking for, you will then need to go back and even out all of the gears again.
8.) Further optimize the gearbox for a specific track. You may find that a 2nd, 3rd or 4th gear shift is in a bad spot, mid-corner or right before a braking zone. Re-adjust these gears to optimize for the specific track. For example, if the car wants a 2nd to 3rd gear change just before the exit of a key corner, move the 2nd gear slider to the left and re-adjust the spacing of the other gears. Or, for example, if you are nearing a shorter straight section and find the need to shift from 4th to 5th right before a braking zone, move the 4th gear slider to the left then re-adjust the spacing of the other gears.
Limited Slip Differential - Through my GT6 testing, I am seeing that the LSD works the same as it did in GT5. Here is the description that I wrote in my GT5 garage. This theory is still working very well for me in GT6. Just thought I would share another perspective.
LSD Accel: This setting has one purpose, to manage inside and outside wheel spin. If the inside wheel spins first, raise this setting. If the outside wheel spins first, lower this setting. Most often the tire in need of help will turn red upon throttle application from the corner apex. Sometimes, a car will get loose on you, but neither tire turns red. In this case, put two or three levels harder tires on the car and mash the throttle in the slow, 2nd gear corners and you should be able to find which tire turns red first. Keep adjusting until both drive tires spin at the same time and this setting will be optimized. On a few cars, you will find a situation where one click higher will make the outside tire turn just a little red and one click lower will make the inside tire a little red. On these rare cars, you cannot fully optimize this setting and will need to choose one.In GT6 I am noticing nearly identical settings as I used in GT5 (8 to 20 - never seen a car need higher than this).
LSD Decel: This setting has one purpose, to manage stability under braking, turn-in and when coasting. If your car is loose (oversteer) in these situations, raise this setting. If your car has understeer during these conditions, lower this setting. Nearly all of my under 550PP street car tunes have settings between 5 and 7. On pure race cars like LMP cars, JGTC, FGT, F1, 2J, etc., I run much higher decel settings.In GT6, the setting works the same way, but I am noticing many cars need higher settings than what I used in GT5. For example, on any Miata in GT5 I used a decel setting of 5. I have tested seven Miata in GT6 and they are ranging from 9 to 22 at the moment.
LSD Initial Torque: This setting determines how much power is needed to activate the diff, to make it lock. What this means in GT5 is that a higher number produces more understeer and a lower number produces more oversteer. It is that simple. Since the 2.09 update this characteristic is more pronounced and even more noticeable from apex to exit.
The LSD does not add or subtract acceleration. The LSD cannot send more or less power to the drive train. The LSD can only distribute the given amount of power to each of the drive wheels. I see many on this site confuse the LSD with slipper clutches. This must come from R/C off road racing where slipper clutches are popular. In R/C racing a sipper clutch is added as a bolt on to the drive train and will actually slip as power is applied and grip in the higher revs to keep the rear wheels from spinning. There is still an LSD in those gear boxes and they are not set up to slip. They are set up to do the only job of the LSD, to distribute power from side to side under acceleration and braking. If you set them up to slip, they melt. Same goes for real world, if your LSD slips, it melts. Heat is the #1 enemy of an LSD. This is why we have traction control in the real world and in GT5. Traction control limits power through the drive train to the wheels, not the LSD.
LSD tuning on 4wd – I am not ready to post definitive testing results yet. These are the settings that I ran in GT5. Front 10/12/7 and rear 8/11/8. Much more testing needed here.
Torque-Distributing Center Differential on 4wd – I need to do more testing with this adjustment but this is where I am currently.
On rally tunes for dirt and snow, 50/50 has been the best. I can put the power down best from mid corner to exit with this high front value. Lowering it on dirt/snow can help corner entry and mid corner rotation, but the loss of exit speed kills the lap time. You will have to find other ways to improve corner entry for 4wd cars.
On tarmac tunes – I start out at 50/50 and try to other tuning adjustments first. If I cannot get the car to enter the corner and rotate, I begin to lower the torque split. I don’t like to go below 35/65 as the car begins to handle much more like a FR drive train. What you lose is that aggressive 4wd jump from mid corner to exit. I cannot find a hard, fast rule for this setting so it becomes a bit of trial and error.
Suspension Tuning
If you started at the top of this post and did every step up to here, you might be totally satisfied with your tuning improvements and choose to go no further. For GT6, the driving physics have improved so much that every car is more fun to drive than its GT5 version. Much speed improvement and balance improvement can come from the items listed above. Some will be content to add the Fully Customizable Suspension and just use the stock settings. You can do that and still be very fast. I think that the current tuning physics model has been reduced so much in GT6 that everything from here down could be seen as fine tuning.
Fully Customizable Suspension - In Progress
Ride Height - I have been playing with ride height a bit. I need to do more wide split testing, but for most tracks, slammed at either end seems to be bad. I have been tuning Muscle Cars lately. I started at the stock height and just started to lower the rear. Rear stability picked up through most of the turn. I kept adding until I had the balance that I wanted (about ten points apart) so then I started dropping the car by five at both ends. There is a point where the rear got too low and I could immediately sense the loss of grip and a kid of snap loose situation. I think that is the point where bottoming out is occurring, though not visible in the replay, so maybe there is another situation. The in-game description mentions that when lowering the car we need to add spring rate to make up for the shorter suspension travel. Maybe lowering the car also shortens the shock throw? This would take away up travel (i.e., hit a bump and the shock compresses, then on extension the tire stops before the chassis does). This condition would remove the tire from the road or at least unload it and reduce grip. So it may work to encourage rotation. Slam the rear of a car super low, drastically shorten the shock throw, stiffen the spring and lose a ton of up travel. That would cause a wheel to unload, especially the inside rear. Do not go too low on ride height.
Spring Rate - Seems to work similar to real world, but has it's limits. What I mean by limits is that if I were to build a Honda Civic with super soft front springs and super hard rear springs, the car would be un-driveable - it would spin in every corner. In GT6, it may still understeer.
Low front rate/high rear rate = more front grip
High rear rate/low front rate = more rear grip
Inconclusive results so far on how high to push spring rates. I have found success staying near stock settings. I plan to do much more testing with spring rates.
Dampers Compression & Extension
Anti-Roll Bars
Camber Angle: Camber in GT6 has been programmed oddly. Zero camber currently has the most grip. I start with zero front and zero rear. I try to use every other tuning tool available, but if I cannot get a car to rotate, I add rear camber. If I cannot get the rear to stay planted, I add front camber.
Toe Angle
Brake Balance
Ballast
- 74
- United States
- coolcurmudgeon
Hello Hami, I have been a follower and user of your tunes since GT5. Could you give me a definition of the word "ROTATE" as applied to the handling of a car.
Thank you for your time
Thank you for your time
- 4,803
- Dearborn, MI
- MotorCtyHamilton
By rotate, I mean to turn. There is kind of a point in the corner where the car has turned far enough that you can begin getting back on the throttle. I hear the term used a lot in racing circles in the States, "my car rotates well around the middle" meaning around the middle of the corner.
- 74
- United States
- coolcurmudgeon
Thank you
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