Rally traction. Please help

[Hes]

Hi guys, I'm a first time poster. I did a search, but I couldn't find the specifics of what I'm looking for.

I bought this game on street date, and always tinker with it. Mostly now, I just do time trials on tarmac just to try to beat my best times, but I decided I want to try to shoot for 100%.

I'm almost 92%. The main thing I'm having problems with are the hard rally races. I have all the Easy and Medium ones knocked out. The tarmac and rain ones are a breeze. But the HARD level dirt and snow ones are simply killing me.

Anything over 400HP, and my car won't hook for crap. Its a constant battle with partial throttle. Anything under 340HP, and my junk is way too slow.

I've tried Evos, Subies, anything I can get my hands on, but I just can't make it happen, nor can I win. I'm a solid 7-8 seconds off the pace at the end of the race.

On to my question:
***What car would be best to use, and would you please share all the settings I can use to get the best possible traction with the least oversteer and shooting all over the track?

This rally stuff makes the game almost not fun. I've never encountered a rally type game that I see as undrivable as this. That sucks for me, because I believe GT4 is by far the best tarmac game, but I really need some help with thes level: hard dirt and snow rally races.

If you don't want to take the time for the snow setup, I'd at least like to see a good dirt setup. I find the hard Grand Canyon to be next to impossible.

Thanks very much for any help you can offer, and sorry for the long winded newb-ish post!

 

[jedi09]

I agree that the rallies suck in the game. now, i used to use the subaru rally car but got sooo pissed off tha i spent 1,200,000 approx. on the evo rally car thingy . It was a major improvement. I was able to beat the mediumm and hard rallies in one day.

If ur still having problems(u probably are) , you can swing out the rear end of the car to hit the walls which is sort of wall riding without getting a penalty which really helps on the ice rallies. try this out, it helps a lot. let me put it to you thisway, i was anle to do one of the ice rallies(the one that goes from tarmac to snow) full throttle for th full lap. You can also keep restarting until you get a crappy apponent with low a spec points. good luck 👍

 

[Mt. Lynx]

The rallies are really very much depending on you drivingstyle. I found that the 206 rallycar suited me like a glove, and I could quite comfortably win the hard rallies with that car (no tuning).
Settingwise, go for TCS 7-8 and soft springs (5-8). Have the rideheight as low as possible, without the suspension hitting the inside of the "mudguards" (or fenders or whatever). After that, my tip is; brake really early!!! Thats is surely the best way to get a fast time on a rally. And a nother tip is to try to gold the licenses that are rallies. That really makes you have to learn to rally correctly for the game.

 

[MoAK]

I find that adding another +5 for LSD Accel both front and rear, can help stop the wheel hop. This works especially well for the ICE races

And depending on how you drive and what you drive adding 1-3 to initial torque helps. As Increasing helps traction but weakens turning, but in rally turning is easier because of the natural loss of traction due to dirt

I am not too sure on the +/- affects on rasing rear/front over each other

 

[AlfaAlfa]

If you watch the demos it seems like the driver is going really slow. Although I've never been able to get my car to drive exactly like the demo, I learned to try and keep it as under control as possible. Don't slide wildly, and HIT YOUR APEXes! Earlier in the thread, Team666 said to brake really early - that is essential for hitting your apexes. Sacrifice speed in favor of keeping a very tight line. Overpowered cars are tougher to use than those with around 300-400hp. Keep the ride height pretty high (unlike in earlier Gran Turismos). Notice how good the AI times are, I doubt those cars have very altered setups, probably using default settings.

Also pass as early as possible. Scout out a good spot to pass where the AI's line is weak and if you don't get it done, start over. Passing after the first half of the first lap is much harder than if you can get it done right away. The AI is much easier to hold off than to catch. If you can get that pass completed, the overall laptime can be as much as 3 seconds slower than the AI laptimes you have been trying to catch up to. If you want to do the rallies by wallriding, ignore everything I just said :-)

This is my best car for Grand Canyon Hard rallies:

Ford Focus Rally Car '99
319hp / 1230kg

susp:

spring 5.0 | 4.0
height 180 | 180
bound 8 | 8
rebound 8 | 8
camber 2.0 | 2.0
toe 0 | 0
stabilizer 6 | 6

gears:

2.900
2.170
1.688
1.331
1.077
0.888
4.300
auto - 9

LSD:

init 5 | 10
accel 20 | 5
decel 5 | 5

VCD: 40

brakes: 13 | 15

downforce maxed
driving aids off

 

[Luxy]

If you're still having trouble with the ice races, you might want to take a look at this thread, from a recent race OLR race at Ice Arena. All the stuff you mentioned in the post above (slow in fast out and a tight, tidy line) is spot on, and they apply to dirt as well.

Two other things to keep in mind are momentum, and shifting. It's crucial to keep your momentum up. If you slide to an almost-stop, then gun it, you'll just spin your tires. Also, be light with the throttle ... it's easy to spin the tires, which makes the shift light flash and you upshift too early, leaving you without much power, and a slow exit. Listen to the engine, if it bogs down, go easier on the gas. I think it goes without saying too that manual is the only way to go, as the slippery surface and occasional moment in the air wreak havoc on the auto tranny's poor underdeveloped brain

Tuning-wise, keep the car fairly soft. Put all the LSD values to 5, and increase the front and rear accel values until the car stops wanting to spin (the less LSD, the better). Also, someone above mentioned TCS and ASM, which are always off on Dirt or Snow, so don't bother with 'em.

Here're two laps of Ice Arena (forward and reverse) in a Ford RS200 Rally Car, that were the winning runs from the race above. And here are the settings I used.

Hope that helps. It's too bad there's not more good rally info on the site, I had trouble finding much help on rally settings too

 

[FastEddie12]

Don't make too much of these rallies. The physics is actually pretty much spot on, by all accounts. What I found is that if you treat them the same as the tarmac, but allow for less grip, they really aren't so hard. So, if you're not making the corners, BRAKE EARLIER!

And take heart from this: THEY ARE NOT IMPOSSIBLE, YOU CAN DO IT. You just have to find ways of going faster, that's all...

Good luck, bud, when they all click into place, they suddenly become great fun.

 

[Lightsped]

I too have had GT4 since the first day. I have never been able to complete the hard ice and snow rallys or the Grand Canyon rally. I have pretty much given up. I use no driving aids except for +1 on TCS. I may go back and try with the +5 TCS that has been mentioned in this topic....

 

[Rzeractor]

I found just wallride the tracks and its basically easy street.
Make sure the ass of the car hits the wall and you won't get that 5 second penalty.

 

[Aloha62_2]

I too have had GT4 since the first day. I have never been able to complete the hard ice and snow rallys or the Grand Canyon rally. I have pretty much given up. I use no driving aids except for +1 on TCS. I may go back and try with the +5 TCS that has been mentioned in this topic....

driving aids are diabled for the rally races mates.

iam currently using a 800bhp skyline for my rally runs, its taken a lot of tweaking to get the handling close to usable. but GT4's rally physics are a bit off even in 1st gear at 20mph the car will happily shoot sideways in a cloud of smoke failing to find any grip. i did try detuning it in order to stabilize the car but all that meant was that i was a bit slower on the straights while still struggling on the corners.

i know the skyling isnt a good choice for a rally car but funds are limited at the moment.