Question about tuning a rally car.

[XxThePiff]

How does one tune a rally car? If I have a tuned Subaru for nurburgring can I take that to the dirt and will it perform well?

 

[danardif1]

How does one tune a rally car? If I have a tuned Subaru for nurburgring can I take that to the dirt and will it perform well?

Not really. Though you might have softer suspension settings to cope with the undulation and bumps of the ring, you really need to loosen the springs and dampers up to rally with the same car.

Rally cars need to be compliant with the road, as they don't have the consistent grip and unbroken surface of tarmac. They have the springs really soft so that for every little bump or dip the car goes through, each tyre can still be in contact with the road. In corners rather than leaning on one side of the car which you tend to do with a stiffly sprung track car, you need all 4 tyre working hard, so with softer dampers you get the road contact you need.

I've never found camber than important on gravel, as I'd rather have the tyre flat on the road for maximum contact. ARB's are driver choice I find, as it's a question of feel and style, though going for a medium setting is good as you can still carry good corner speed without losing momentum from body roll.

 

[XxThePiff]

Danardif1 - Thank you for the explanation. It really helps out a lot. And I greatly appreciate it.

 

[CyKosis1973]

How does one tune a rally car? If I have a tuned Subaru for nurburgring can I take that to the dirt and will it perform well?

I recently had some experience with rallying in GT5 whilst participating in ZedTunes' Autumn/Fall Rally Shootout. Whilst everything danardif1 says applies in terms of building a car for gravel and snow, you also need to know how to drive it.

My entry into the event was this Pug 206 S16 '99. During my reading up on how to build FWD rally cars, I came across the below extract. It's worth reading the Source linked at the bottom too, it'll give you more hints on how to get the best from your car.

Regarding your comment about a car built for the Nordschleife working off road, it's unlikely to work well, as danardif1 said. However, a car that's built for and works well on snow and gravel will work well at the Nordschleife. For the Rally Shootout we had to build our cars to work on all three surfaces using a single tune. On Sports Medium tyres, my Pug work surprisingly well on tarmac and even more so at the The Ring. You can really throw the car around and it'll soak every bump you throw at it. Flatter tarmac tracks it suffers on, because the suspension is soft and the car is jacked right up in the air, but it's a pure joy at the Nordschleife.

You can build the car yourself, or send me an FR on PSN as I still have the car shared. Try some of the others cars submitted for the Shootout as well. Desperado's Evo is a very good example of a 4WD rally car.

{Cy}

FRONT-WHEEL DRIVE: I’ve left discussion of this until this point because you need to understand left-foot braking and handbrakes to understand an interesting aspect of FWD rally cars and why they can be very fast: with FWD, left-foot braking can work like a handbrake, without the disadvantage of not shifting weight forward. Confused? Think of it this way: using the throttle and brake at the same time on a FWD car is exactly the opposite of doing a brakestand with a RWD car: with FWD you can keep the front wheels spinning (with the engine overpowering the brakes) and slow down or lock up the rears. So as you enter a corner and want to initiate a slide, you can turn the direction you want to go and then apply the brakes while you hold the throttle – the weight will transfer forward (better than with the handbrake, as the front wheels will slow down a little) and your left foot now has control over the speed differential between the front and rear wheels. You can pretty much make a FWD car turn around its nose this way, and this is the reason that no FWD rally car should ever have to worry about understeer. With my ex-factory Lada, you would basically never lift the throttle and just use the brake according to how tight any corner was. It was fantastic. And it’s why many front-wheel drive cars from the Saab 96 to the Mini Cooper to the VW Golf have been great rally cars, and on slippery surfaces far superior to their RWD competition. Now you know.
SOURCE

 

[XxThePiff]

Thank you for the major help. I'm not great at tuning but I'll give it a try. Would you guys know of a good tuner that publishes rally tunes?