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Here are all of my thoughts/findings on suspension setup.
2.10 Updated
Ride Height
Lower ride height gives more cornering grip.
A lower rear than front will help the car rotate, a higher rear than front will keep a car from over rotating.
2.09 update
Lower seems to have more grip, but setting it so low it bottoms out is far worse than setting it too high. Find a safe low position where bottoming out isn't an issue on your particular track.
Since 2.09, the greatest effect of ride height f/r relation, is corner entry/exit behavior. A lower front than rear increases entry oversteer, and exit understeer. A lower rear than front will have more understeer on entry, and more oversteer on exit.
Springs
Stiffer front than rear will help the car rotate, stiffer rear than front keeps the back end in line.
2.09 update
Stiffer still has more grip, softer is generally easier to drive.
Like the ride height, raise(stiffen) the front higher than the rear for entry oversteer and exit understeer, lower(softer) the front and stiffen the rear for more understeer on entry and oversteer on exit.
Dampers - Extension "corner exit"
Set about 65% of compression.
The best effect I've found to use this for, is to balance the car while on the throttle. If a car is rotating too much when on the throttle, set the rear higher than the front,(6/7) if it's not rotating enough, set the front higher than the rear.(7/6)
2.09 addition
After testing for months, I've determined that setting the compression higher than the extension feels best to me. I usually aim to run to extension at about 60-80% of the compression.
Dampers - Compression "corner entry"
Set to about 150% of extension.
Same as above, but works on deceleration/braking. Higher front increases rotation, higher rear decreases rotation.
Swaybars
Mostly preference, i.e, how much do you want your car to lean, and how well to absorb bumps? The negative effect of low ARB settings, is your car will become very slow to respond, and encounter a lot of body roll, which is bad for quick direction changes.
The negative effect of a high ARB setting is the car will jump and hop over bumps much easier.
Camber
Classic GT4 2.0/1.0 is always my starting point. Camber affects tire wear, so should be used sparingly when tire wear is a factor, maximum grip/camber depends on tires being used though, I believe. More for racing tires than sports, etc. I typically never run higher then 2.2 on front, and 1.2 on rear, or lower then 1.5 front, 0.8 rear.
Both front and rear camber add cornering grip, and even acceleration traction while turning. The downside, is camber negatively affects straight-line acceleration grip, the higher the camber on the drive wheels, the less straight line grip you'll have.
2.09 addition:
Higher front/rears effects on entry/exit.
2.0/1.0 is still my standard.
Increasing the rear camber/lowering the front, for example, 1.5/1.5, would promote less oversteer on entry and more on exit.
Contrarily, a setup of 3.0/1.0 would oversteer more on entry and less on exit.
*Higher camber settings overall decrease straight-line braking grip, and increase braking grip while cornering.(same as acceleration)
Toe:
Another tire wear factor. I usually run 0.00/0.00 on most cars.
Negative front toe decreases steering response, making a car easier to steer, but can be slow in response.
Positive front toe quickens steering response, but can lose overall front grip.
Negative rear toe decreases rear grip, but allows the car to rotate more freely, too far and it will become very twitchy - be careful.
Positive rear toe increases rear grip, but can quickly kill your tires, and can also make the car difficult to turn.
The greatest effect of rear toe is the "moment of inertia". Negative makes it happen faster, positive makes it happen slower.
2.09 addition (not necessarily new from 2.09 though)
Negative (-) front toe increases rotation on entry, and decreases it on exit.
Positive (+) front toe increases rotation on exit, and decreases it on entry.
LSD
Initial: How quickly the LSD activates once it senses wheel spin, meaning a low setting allows lots of wheel spin before "turning on", and a high setting "turns on" almost immediately.
Accel: Affects on-throttle driving. When you're on the throttle, this determines how much faster either wheel is "allowed" to spin more than the other. A low setting will allow you to bake the inside tire exiting corners, a high setting will bake the outside tire.
Decel: Same as accel, but only works when completely off the throttle. The greatest effect of LSD decel is seen when downshifting hard entering a corner on the brakes, though it affects the car whether on the brakes or not.
Brakes
Higher will stop you faster (with ABS on anyway), but will be much harder to trail-brake into corners, for being so touchy. Lower is better for trail-braking, but will give slightly longer braking distances. I usually run between 2 and 4 for BB settings when tire wear is involved.
ABS 1 is the fastest of ABS settings, though a setting of 2 helped me until very recently as I've started working on my trail braking, but if you're allowed, 2-3 can work very good, and ease on your tire wear.
How I start tuning a car:
Start - To start, I go through available parts and see what is available, based on what's available I'll buy everything I think I want before I hit the track, it's always a pain to have to run back out for an engine stage or weight reduction once you're tuning. Take it online, preferably on a more over-steery course like Laguna Seca, GVS, Nurburgring, etc, for any tunes that I want to work everywhere, these tracks contain certain over-steer inducing corners that will show flaws that will not show on smooth un-banked tracks like Motegi.
Settings - 1st time in...
Aero: Depends on the aero available. If it's a street car running the typical 0-20 or generally any rear-biased down force as usual I'll start with minimum or close to it. It also depends if I'm aiming for PP or fixed HP/WT, etc. If it's fixed regulations max aero is probably fastest, and you'll save lap times by running max aero and doing extra suspension work to make the car rotate.
If it's a race car, I always start at max aero for almost any track when the PP is higher than 620, below that it's more of a guessing game if PP is the regulation, particularly on slower cars like GT300's.
On low powered street cars on PP regs, aero is almost never a good idea, for a rough guesstimation aero only starts to gain value on cars with at least 420PP, even then any possible gains would likely be small. 500PP on SH's is where you'll start to look more seriously into aero, but of course as tires change, aero needs change.
Chassis: I only add chassis stiffening to very loose cars. As a general rule, if a car requires positive toe, I'll install the reinforcement.
On heavily under-steering cars, I'll usually not refresh an old chassis either, the extra rotation gained from chassis flex is beneficial, not harmful to these cars.
Chassis refresh does NOT wear out for 3,000 miles!
Weight: Generally as low as possible, to 900KG's. On very low PP, more weight, allowing more power can be beneficial, but still no more than 1100KG's if possible usually. On some cars the weight might come in at "1037KG", on these I'll usually add a small amount of weight to the light side if they're lopsided, like a FF or RR. 1037 I would add 13KG to the light end, these small amounts play what I find to be a little stronger than they should impact on handling and behavior of the car.
The most critical element to weight is that if traction is an issue, it's never beneficial to remove weight from the drive wheels and add ballast to the other wheels. For example the RUF Yellowbird, one could apply weight reduction and add ballast to the front to make the car stock weight, but less over-steering. It works, but it removes acceleration grip from the rear tires, effectively making the car slower. Anything you gain from it gets cancelled out this way in my encounters. Of course if traction isn't a problem, have at it, just don't add weight unless you're required, or below the 900KG mark.
Engine: RPM adders give the most HP per PP, so I usually start with them. On some cars, high rpm turbos make for a great HP-PP gain as well. I only use engine stages for "maxed out" cars and when needed to reach a PP amount.
On some smaller engines, while the HP will increase more from RPM adders, the weakening of the already-poor power band is too much, and performance suffers. There are engine that yield better acceleration at a given PP using the non rpm adders to help the power band.
Low rpm turbos can be a good option for PP racing is some cases, I'm not sure mid rpm turbos are ever a good idea for PP racing though, superchargers rarely. (Assuming other parts can be used instead)
Transmission: Lower top speed slider to minimum, lower final drive until the gearing is as long as I want it. Sometimes I can't get the gearing long enough this way, so I'll reset to default, and set the top speed slider a bit higher so I have the speed I want when I lower the final drive again.
1st gear: Longer (Usually within 200 clicks of far left)
2nd: depends on first, if first was moved all the way left, 2nd will go about 100 clicks left, if first is shorter, 2nd will be shorter as well.
3rd: Almost always quicker, in the event of a long 2nd 3rd will stay put, usually 50-100 clicks right.
4th: Move until it shows on the graph as beginning at a slightly higher rpm than 3rd.
5th/6th: A little quicker than fourth.
6th/7th: Depending on the power band, if it's narrow the gears need to be specific for top speed, if it's wide I just set it as long (equal on graph) as the gear before it and make sure the car has enough gearing to run most any track.
LSD: I Start at 5/5/5 5/5/5 as free as possible, to feel the natural handling of the car. I'll raise this later once I have the suspension sorted by starting (usually) around 7/10/5 and rising. I usually raise in increments of 1 or 2 on the accel, and occasionally raising the initial by 1 as well.Example: 7/10/5 = Inside wheelspin - 7/12/5, = inside wheelspin - 8/13/5, until it's where it suits me. Generally speaking, if I can't decide between 2 close settings, I decide based on the car. Easy to drive - higher, harder to drive - lower.
The main causes for lower LSD settings are harder tire compound, lower mechanical grip(or massive power) and over-steer.
The causes to raise the LSD are softer tire compound, extra mechanical grip (by downforce or programming of PD), and under-steer.
Torque Dist: Depends on the power/weight, but if traction is needed I'll usually start at 25/75 or 70/30, if not probably 90/10.
Suspension: If I know what to expect from the car, I'll make a few small tweaks off the bat, but the almost "always" settings I start from are these...
Ride height: 0/0
Spring: Generally speaking I set my springs based on weight distribution, for example, a 60/40 balance will have the front springs stiffer than the rear at a 6 to 4 ratio. Maybe 6.0/4.0, or 9.0/5.5, etc. Stiffer on heavier cars and cars with downforce, Stiffer on stickier tires.
Shock - Extension: Lower 1-2 depending if the compression is raised or left put.
Shock - Compression: Usually raise 1, unless it's a high default setting like 7 or 8, in which case I leave it there.
ARB - Between 1/1-7/7 to start. Lighter car, less downforce, stiffer springs, etc, lower arb, and vice versa. The ARB is the most critical part in keeping your car from going crazy when you hit bumps or uneven surfaces, so I start with the lower guesstimate, I'd only start at 7/7 for a very flat track in a race car when I want absolute precision.
Camber: 2.0/1.0 - GT4 default, never a terrible setup. In more extreme cases where I expect under-over steer, 2.0/1.5 or 2.5/1.0, etc might be my starting point.
Toe: Usually 0.00/0.00 is my default. As always, if I expect over/under steer, I'll start at +0.10 or -0.10 on the rear.
Brakes: Usually 5/5, 4/6 or 6/4 if I expect problems.
ABS: Never higher than 1. Set it to off and you'll want to run BB in the 0-4 ranges, with a low rear.
More detail:
Springs
Generally speaking I set my springs based on weight distribution, for example, this VW Golf has a natural balance of 63/37. 6.3/3.7. To increase by 10%, you would add 6 to the front and 4 to the rear. 6.9/4.1. To add 10 percent more, 7 and 4, 7.6/4.5, etc.
the numbers do get slightly skewed making big changes this way, so I'll either go with exact double (12.6/7.4) or 1.5 (9.5/5.6)
All equally balanced setups, different level of stiffness.
Weight balance/ballast
Adding 35KG to the rear, I changed the car balance to 61/39. This changes the original numbers (6.3/3.7) to 6.1/3.9. On the 1150KG setup, balance is up to 57/43. By keeping in line with this principle, I generally make no other changes when adding ballast. Of course depending on the car and nature of ballast placement, you may need to do more to retain the same handling when you add ballast, but this is what I believe is the proper place to start, and it's how I do it every time.
I moved away from this technique while "learning" GT5's tuning, but since I've gone back to it I find it just as good as I did in all previous GT titles.
Actual Spring Rate Used
Different spring rates affect different cars differently. A LOT.
Lighter cars don't do well with overly stiff springs, heavy cars don't do well with soft spring. The same applies with downforce and grade of tires used. An F1 car might use 20.0/20.0 due to RS tires and high downforce, but a stock Elise would bounce around the track despite it's extra weight.
Because of all this it's impossible to make "universal" settings in the line of stiffness. What works great on SS tires at Motegi probably doubles for RS on Nurburgring, but would be too bouncy and harsh if you kept the SS tires.
this is why I have started and will continue to offer different variations depending on weight, tire grade and even downforce.
How to: The tranny trick
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