Here's just a quick version of what I'd try, especially for a tight-ish track.
Reset to default, top speed to minimum, then final to minimum.
1st as long as possible, 4th, 5th, and 6th as short as possible, 3rd evenly spaced between 2nd and 4th, 2nd left default. Not sure what exactly default final is for the Viper but I'm guessing somewhere around 3.5-3.7, so it should work out quite nicely, though you still won't need 6th at Monaco.
RJ, when you say "set final to minimum" do you mean the smallest numerical value on the display? The reason I ask this is because the smallest number will produce the highest top speed, while the greatest number will result in the lowest top speed. This of course takes for granted the individual gear ratios have not been changed for either condition.
Dissertation on what I've learned about tranny tuning, in GT5 to follow.
Ok, said I'd follow with a dissertation on tuning a transmission. So here for your consideration, amusement and/or derision;
Id like to start this by saying I am by no means an authority on GT5 tuning. Ive only played GT5 a year and a half and my online racing career is only a little over a year old. That being said, also know that my thoughts and experiences with tuning are greatly influenced by the folks here at
RKM (first resource when looking for tunes for offline events),
CSLACR (first resource for online tunes), Owensracing (friend, tuning and testing partner and driving coach), MULE_9242, all the folks at
PURE, Adrenalines site (
Adrenatune) and all the others that have assisted my efforts to eek the last tenth out of my driving. In other words, a bunch of people.
There are several methods for reaching a tweaked tranny setup. The general rule is to make your final drive and first gear(s) as tall (lowest numerical value) as they will go, use the highest gear to adjust your top speed and balance the rest to make as even and narrow a difference between the gears as possible.
The tranny trick, which is used to essentially squash the ratios together, is a quick method to get a workable transmission setup and what I use when I need Bob to go faster, is as follows;
1. Set to default
2. Set top speed slider all the way left (lowest number)
3. Set Final drive all the way to the right (highest number)
a. This process smashes the gears into a tight pattern as displayed in the graph above.
4. Set your individual gear ratios as desired
a. 1st is usually all the way left or a 100 points shy of all the way left
b. 2nd is usually set 100 or 200 points left of where it started
c. The middle gears will usually be slid to the right in varying amounts but a good baseline is as follows;
i. 3rd move 50-100 to the right
ii. 4th 100-150 right
iii. 5th 150-200 right
iv. 6th (if not top gear) 200 or all the way right
v. 7th or 8th, all the way right.
5. Now go back and reset your final drive towards the left until the desired top speed is attained.
An interesting thing to note about this method is while youre moving the top speed slider the individual gear ratios will change. This makes sense, since the program is constrained with the constant final drive value. After setting it and moving to step 3 and adjusting the final drive the gear ratios remain the same, unless, you reset the top speed slider.
To illustrate this do the following;
1. Reset tranny to default.
2. Set top speed slider to minimum.
a. Take note of the lowest value in each gear ratio, excluding the final drive, as its range is fixed for each car.
3. Set the final drive slider to maximum.
a. The gear ratios should not have changed.
4. Reset the top speed slider by bumping it right then back left.
a. You will now have a different, and usually taller (smaller numbers, higher top speeds) set of ratio ranges for each gear.
Im still not sure if using the different ratios is desired, since none of the tuners I resource seem to have noted this, but in some cases the change in ratio ranges is significant and Im sure can make quite a difference in acceleration rates. There was quite a bit of discussion on this between CSLACR and a couple others in CSLs tuning thread and basically starts
here.
A method Ive been using lately is a modification on the basic tranny trick mentioned above. In this method, I follow steps 1-3 above, but when setting the individual gear ratios, I use the graph above to align the gearing in a fashion consistent with the idea that keeping the differences as narrow as possible is better than wider.
Using the individual gear ratios as a means of controlling top speed is much more complicated than using the final drive. Using the tranny trick, setting all the individual ratios and leaving them be, then using the final drive value to adjust your top speed is much simpler, but may not give optimum acceleration.
While neither method takes into account the power band of a particular car, either is still better than the stock gearing.
Luckily we are prepared for such an occasion. Just head over to RKM's Mobile-Friendly Tune List. 👍
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