RKM Motorsport - Tuned Tuners - May '13

Do you think the M3 CSL will work well at 500PP? I'm participating in a race tonight, and I always use your tunes so I will try and make it work. Shouldn't be that different...
 
Do you think the M3 CSL will work well at 500PP? I'm participating in a race tonight, and I always use your tunes so I will try and make it work. Shouldn't be that different...

It'll work, just make the final gear shorter depending on how much less power you'll be using.
 
Integra! Integra! Integra!

Fresh out of the Dealer: 210 HP, 1180 kg, 415 PP, Comfort Soft Tires
Best Lap Time: 1:47.454
Thoughts: Not a bad car, the Integra is pretty steady all-around. The big weaknesses I saw were on corner entrance, where I felt the car couldn't turn in at speeds which the car could handle through the rest of the corner, and a bit of high-speed instability, where the car felt like it was bouncing and shaking down the last third of the back straight.

Crimson R
IntegraCrimsonR.jpg


Parts added, no settings changes: 243 HP, 999 kg, 448 PP, Comfort Soft Tires
Best Lap Time: 1:45.478
Thoughts: The only way the parts improved this car is on a straight line. Without tuning, the hp and weight combined with the tighter transmission killed this car in the corners. Even worse on the entrance, and now the tires can't handle the drive out either, giving me understeer in two phases of the corner. The high speed shakes persist as well, and the braking seems to take forever given the higher speed and the tire limits.

Parts added, RKM Tune, 5 lap first impression:
Best Lap Time: 1:43.655
Thoughts: And just like that, most of the problems just melt away. The car still seems to want to drift a bit on the brakes going into a corner, but the exit understeer is a ghost of what it was previously. The car feels like it's now reached a happy agreement with the Comfort Soft tires, and although it feels like the car's on the edge of overpowering the tires, it doesn't cross the line.

After a couple more races: Final HP: 245 Final PP: 449
Best Lap Time: 1:43.561
Thoughts: There's really nothing wrong with this car that can't be easily explained by the limits of the Comfort Soft tires used. The tires probably couldn't handle much more applied power, and the tune really does feel like it's found the limit of what this car can do with the available traction. As someone who races tire restricted rooms online, I look forward to seeing how this car competes against others with the traction limit. I still found the car to be a little unresponsive going into corners, and there was understeer present on the power through the corner exit, but neither of those should be surprising given the platform. Truely, it feels like even those negative aspects have been reduced greatly through the tune. It may leave a driver feeling like there was something missing, but mostly if that driver is used to the traction of Sport Soft or better tires.

Integra Type R
IntegraTypeR.jpg


Parts added, no settings changes: 317 HP, 999 kg, 493 PP, Sport Soft Tires
Best Lap Time: 1:35.289
Thoughts: Most of the time, when you add on a bunch of random parts then hit the track, the car gains in speed but suffers greatly in handling. This is really not the case here. On-throttle understeer was very minimal, the braking was sure and strong, and the car handled fairly well overall. Honestly, my only complaint about this version would be the horrible gearing on the untouched transmission. Let's see what the tuned version does to the car to fix the problems I'm really not seeing.

Parts added, RKM Tune, 5 lap first impression:
Best Lap Time: 1:35.130
Thoughts: Not much improvement in lap time here. The cars feels a little more responsive throughout the corners, but it was already a nice ride to begin with. The transmission gearing also feels like it helps, but it's a little too tall for this track, so the improvement there is marginal as well. It seems like the big difference is in tire wear. I'm seeing much less tire smoke / red tires, and although that doesn't do a lot for a short race, it could be a difference maker in a longer online race. I'm sure I can knock off a couple more tenths, but since there wasn't a whole lot wrong with this car to start, I'm not sure how much faster I can get in it.

After a couple more races: Final HP: 319 Final PP: 496
Best Lap Time: 1:34.223
Thoughts: I guess the initial problem was that I wasn't pushing the car hard enough. The car is able to take corners much quicker, and get on the gas a bit earlier, than I had expected. It doesn't feel like I've hit "the wall" yet with this car. It's very gentle on tires outside of 2nd gear, which is a very nice feature on a front wheel drive car, and certainly helps it maintain a line while on the gas on corner exit. Although the character of the car may not have changed much, the limits have certainly been pushed out quite a bit. Just as nice of a drive without the tune, only with a nice ration of speed mixed in.

Integra Type R Turbo
IntegraRM.jpg


Parts added, no settings changes: 386 HP, 950 kg, 534 PP, Sport Soft Tires
Best Lap Time: 1:33.143
Thoughts: It looks like a race car. It sounds like a race car. But this is not a race car... at least not until they find a series that requires pit stops every three laps. The front tires were lighting up and smoking from 2nd thru 4th, causing massive understeer on corner exit and painfully slow exit speeds. The braking was average, but contributed a bit too much to the front tire problems. When people talk about how bad FF cars drive with decent HP, this is what they talk about. It was barely a second faster than the Type R, and I think over a 5-lap race or longer, the Type R has the advantage as long as the course has turns.

Parts added, RKM Tune, 5 lap first impression:
Best Lap Time: 1:32.000 (yep, a perfect 1:32 flat)
Thoughts: That's more like it. Great corner speeds, fairly stable on corner exits, solid brakes. The extra HP, especially when the turbo spikes the power band, causes a bit of understeer, but the only time it really feels like it hurts is in the S-turn transitions while on the throttle. If you push the front a bit too hard you'll light 'em up and lose a fair amount of grip, but being a FF car with decent power, that's really not surprising.

After a couple more races: Final HP: 389 Final PP: 539
Best Lap Time: 1:31.439
Thoughts: I had a hard time pushing the car to go much faster, as it seemed the front tires would protest any time I tried to brake any later or gas any earlier, so it seems I'm pretty close to my limit in this car. The car's only weakness, for me, is that it feels a bit mushy in transitions, and will oversteer a bit if you try to push too hard on exits. Other than that, the car is very strong. Mid-corner speed is the car's strong point. The straight speed was OK, as the transmission was geared much too tall for Trial Mountain, and I never had to shift to 6th gear. I wouldn't want 2nd or 3rd to be much shorter than they are, but it seems like some high end acceleration could be had by shortening the top half of the gearbox.
 
Integra! Integra! Integra!

Combo x3 bonus - 500pts!

:lol:

Thanks for the triple threat Integra review! :D:tup: You're right about the Crimson R. A lot of it's faults can be pinned on the tyres and the driver if they're too used to grippier tyres. The idea behind it was to get people noticing the potential of the comfort tyre, even if it's 10 seconds behind a car with sports tyres.

The gearing of the Integra Type R tune is a bit tall, but it does help if you're going to take it to tracks like Grand Valley Speedway or Special Stage Route 5. I don't mind using 5 gears on Trial instead of the full 6, simply because I dont find any benefit to doing so.

The Turbo has the same theory behind the gearing again, especially since it has nearly 390bhp so it does have the potential to reach high speeds. I think most of the problem with it comes down to the power and how badly it wants to light up the tyres. But as you've shown, it's still very fast for what it is. Hell, it's faster than a lot of 4WD and RWD cars here. :lol:

Again, thank you for the review. It's good to see how each tune stacks up against it's siblings. :cheers:
 
Do you have anything for a Fiat 500 1.2 Lounge. This car looks amazing....And its a fun car to drive

Not specifically for the 500 no, but I find our Toyota Vitz settings work quite well on it. Apart from the gearbox it should all work. 👍
 
Time for a back-to-back review for the same car I can't get enough.

The R34 Black RKM edition: another marathon in the car of my dreams.

Well, yeah, I'm getting addicted to one car yet again. Don't give me that evil stare this time.

Part 1: Cote d' Azur

So here I am, aimlessly wandering around Cote d' Azur in my R34 which is painted Arancio Calipso Metalizzato. The streets are empty giving me yet another opportunity for a flying lap. So I cruised Boulevard Albert ler and then gunned the throttle. Off we go.

Through the first corner, 4WD understeer got me. As usual, being a gear higher would solve this issue. Probably because of little high-end torque? I dunno. The orange R34 then stormed through Beau Rivage with much force, 'till I braked. It would understeer too much if I stomped the brakes there, so I just pumped it like 3/4ths or something. Apparently, improper throttle control would lead to the outside wall here, so I kept at 1/4th to half throttle all the way, then released the gas for the next corner. It doesn't feel mushy though, but it would hit the inside wall if I throttled away too early. It's too responsive at low speeds.

At Mirabeau Haute, oddly, what I'm fighting for isn't the understeer that pushes me all the time, it's oversteer that tries to keep the car glued to the inside wall, so I tried to keep acceleration at minimum here. At low speeds, it's extremely responsive. Maybe that's why it aced Eiger.

Through the Grand Hotel Hairpin, the car perfectly clips the apex when you grasp the exact braking point. Strangely, there's no wheelspin at corner exit. None. There's virtually no way of getting this car to spin out. The car slipped a bit at Mirabeau Bas, but it helped me rip through this corner with ease. The R34 also got through Portier with zero drama.

Through the famous tunnel, I released the accelerator a bit at its turning point, but in fact, I could have left my foot all the way down, dammit. The R34 clocked around 207 km/h on the speed trap, pretty good for this track. The Right at the Nouvelle chicane, the car cruised through with much accuracy. I don't know at all how the car managed to do so. It was extremely easy to get this corner, not like in the other cars I've driven here.

I thought 4WD understeer would get me in Tabac... I was wrong. Then through the poolside section, everything was okay until slight understeer messed up my line exiting Piscine. At least it wasn't mushy at the right-left transition at the chicane going out of the poolside area. The car slipped out a little again, even at half braking, before La Racasse. But still, it doesn't get unsettled. I cleanly went through that area and Anthony Noghes without any scratches.

The car was understeery, but at least it ain't like an FF. Understeer happens at high RPM's only maybe because of the lack of torque there. Maybe because of the stock turbos? I didn't notice properly the understeer at the high RPM range, but I can feel it at the high-speed corners. Oh well, hope that explains everything. But the car shines at the low-speed corners. Good responsiveness would let this car trump over everyone else.

And oh, when lap times do the talking...

Pagani Zonda R - 1:43.389 (this lap time was actually messed up with a bazillions of mistakes)
RKM Skyline R34 - 1:43.402
RKM RE Amemiya RX-7 - 1:44.057
Amuse 380RS (without RKM tune-up) - 1:46.898
RE Amemiya RX-7 (without RKM tune-up) - 1:47.706, 1:47.946 (apparently, there was a duplicate time the last time I checked)

Who's your daddy now? :sly:

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Ummmm, I'm not really in the mood to write a detailed one about my lap in Nordschleife, but all I can say is that it ran in 7:26.887. The car also topped at 285 km/h at the long straight before going downhill, reaching 290, and braking hard for the next sequence of corners. Took 30 minutes (still) of getting invalidated laps before I could get this. The car was blistering quick, it's just when understeer got me, I screwed up pretty easily. On the last lap, it wasn't me that was driving the car, it was my anger over invalidated laps. 🤬 you, GT5, for invalidating laps over a mistake.

But whenever I screw up once, it seems like the car just tells me to keep pushing. I didn't want to damage my car, but it seems like it's meant to be abused. I always tried to hold on to the kerbs even though I'm aggressive enough, but it always says to me to keep pushing no matter what. This car is probably someone who always takes risks just to get the prize.

I wasn't able to cover up the whole lap around, and I also failed to make a clean lap for once, but both of us are starting to have a mutual relationship or something, just like Akio and the Devil Z. (Whoops Onboy123... :guilty:)
 
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Subaru STi S400 review-

Before-
It’s a good car, as RJ said. With 410hp (all the listed modifications were done and an oil change was made as well, car was not run in yet) and only 1152kg to luge around, it can flow through any turns you dare throw at it with ease. Which is a good thing, because all the time, you have to keep your eyes on the rev counter. It’ll lose power at anything pass 7000rpm, and if you’re ripping through the gears on maximum attack, it leaves you with a very small sweet spot. But this isn’t some gimmick RJ came up with to put you off, it really does work. I did a test, starting from one end of the TGTT back straight, I would launch the car from zero rpm and see what speed I could reach at the white line in front of the Hammerhead. On my first run, I would just rev the engine to the redline and then shift, and the top speed achieved is 147mph. On the second run, shifting within the 6000-7000rpm range, I topped out at 151mph before braking. And if you think it’s going to distract you from driving it properly, let me assure you, it won’t. In fact, it adds to the experience of driving it, and you spend your time constantly trying to aim for shifting at 6500rpm, just for the sake of it. But there’s more this car than a fancy way of driving. The car handles very nicely, with a lot of grip and just enough oversteer to keep you entertained. Sure it rolls around a bit, and yes if you pay too much attention on the shift points and forget about the cornering it’ll understeer. But those aren’t things that are that surprising. What is surprising is the laptime. A 1:13.082, which to put it into perspective (because RJ has no clue what a ‘fast‘ lap is around there) is faster than a 531hp Ruf RGT.

After-
It’s a good car, made better. Despite the rather awkward logics of raising the car rather than dumping it on its suspension, and despite stretching the gears to a top speed of 261mph, it’s faster than before. And it handles better, and is just so much more planted. All the roll has been removed, and while it may affect cornering on bumpier tracks, it means this can give you so much more confidence on a flat track like this. Just don’t think it’ll accept you driving like a lunatic though, it doesn’t. If you throw it off-road in an overly aggressive move, you have no chance in hell of catching it, because all there will be left of the fantastic handling when you pull out of the grass is miles of understeer. But if you don’t go mad, stick to the tarmac, and drive smoothly, it can hang with the best that RKM has to offer. A 1:11.978, just a second off the NSX and the RX-7, and just a hair behind the Nissan R35. Oh, and don’t be put off by the gearing, as I think I’ve found the logic behind the madness. What I think RJ was doing was trying to maximise the 6000-7000rpm ‘sweet spot’. As for the suspension though, I think that should be left to RJ to clarify. And since I’m unable to gain access to GT5, I think this will be the end of my review.

Laptimes: (Tested on TGTT)
1:13.082 (before)
1:11.978 (after)

But before I hide this car away in my garage, there’s one more thing to do, to do what I bought this to do in the first place. To take on Noobster’s 22B.
 
The suspension and diffs are pretty much carryover from a purposely fat and overpowered non-Spec C from GT4.

Reason being it was a complete riot to drive. You could drive it like a normal person and be rewarded with a fairly average AWD driving experience... Or you could chuck it into corners sideways and come out on the other side with huge trails of smoke behind you and a gigantic dopey grin on your face. I'm happy to report all that behavior has stayed intact. It's noticeably faster with a bit stronger of a front diff and more forward bias (and some suspension tweaks to go with it) but the epic slides come at more of a penalty to front tire wear at that point (though I'll be updating to these settings + new gearing when I can).

Gearing was actually required to get anything resembling a reasonable top speed out of it and it's still if anything too short in 6th. That said optimum shift point is around 7000 rather than 6500 (as peak power hits at 6500). Ah well, nice to see it put up a fight at a track that it should be terrifyingly poor at. :lol:
 
Well, with that in mind, do you anything needs to be changed on the tune aside from adding more power for it to keep up with the 22B?
And speaking of Noobster, what happened in the end? I was asleep so can you fill me in on the details? I thought there was more to your fight with him than that one page…
 
Hey Roj, would the Evo IX take say...500hp?
It might do but it'll understeer a lot more. The Evo IX RM takes 515bhp pretty well but it's got mad downforce yo.
The R34 Black RKM edition: another marathon in the car of my dreams.

Thanks for another R34 review! :P Part of the reason why you're getting understeer at high RPM's is partly because of the torque but mostly because of the 4WD system the Skyline has. It's RWD until the rear loses grip so it turns to 4WD. At high RPM, the power going to the front is probably doing nothing because there's not enough torque up there, but at low RPM it's got enough torque to move the front of the car.

I can see why it would beat the RE Amemiya on Cote d'Azure, but it's still funny to see that. :P
 
Thanks for another R34 review! :P Part of the reason why you're getting understeer at high RPM's is partly because of the torque but mostly because of the 4WD system the Skyline has. It's RWD until the rear loses grip so it turns to 4WD. At high RPM, the power going to the front is probably doing nothing because there's not enough torque up there, but at low RPM it's got enough torque to move the front of the car.

I can see why it would beat the RE Amemiya on Cote d'Azure, but it's still funny to see that. :P

I knew it. I peeked at the power curve before asking you, guess I'm right about understeer because of the lack of high-end torque.

What's next? I'll see if the RKM R34 can beat this car's lap time in this video:



EDIT: TARGET TIME - 1:58.04X
TARGET TOP SPEED - 276 km/h (171 mph)
 
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Ok, hopefully that's enough power for what I'm planning...
And Roj, I don't mind the Prius. I don't mind it. Nor do i mind that lovely yellow Spoon CRZ. Why? Because of the monstrosity I saw just now. A Prius, painted in a dayglow orange or that HEMI orange with blue wheels. I nearly vomited on my dinner when I saw it.
 
I knew it. I peeked at the power curve before asking you, guess I'm right about understeer because of the lack of high-end torque.

What's next? I'll see if the RKM R34 can beat this car's lap time in this video:
Easy. I reckon the Black Edition will do better than 171mph as posted on the video too. :P
Ok, hopefully that's enough power for what I'm planning...
And Roj, I don't mind the Prius. I don't mind it. Nor do i mind that lovely yellow Spoon CRZ. Why? Because of the monstrosity I saw just now. A Prius, painted in a dayglow orange or that HEMI orange with blue wheels. I nearly vomited on my dinner when I saw it.
Oh I see you've met the RKM Ricer's best friend. :lol:
 
Best friend?!?! Relatives are much closer! And they are partners in crime. The crime of having no taste AT ALL!!! They have ruined the eyes many drivers, and they shall pay dearly for it!!!
 
Best friend?!?! Relatives are much closer! And they are partners in crime. The crime of having no taste AT ALL!!! They have ruined the eyes many drivers, and they shall pay dearly for it!!!

I'm not sure a Civic and a Prius with 12 years of an age gap can be relatives. :P
 
I'm not sure a Civic and a Prius with 12 years of an age gap can be relatives. :P

Or it must be in the blood. :P

Say, I've replaced the RE-MG's of my orange R34 with that other BBS rims that's also on the 380RS, dunno what's the name though. Can I paint it blue to match that Prius and to make Onboy123 puke even moar? :P
 
I am thinking of making all of my cars one colour and putting their complementing colour on their wheels (all because of that orange and blue Prius). ie: White car, Black wheels. Dark Blue car, Light Orange wheels. Dark Green car, Light Red Wheels.
 
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Or it must be in the blood. :P

Say, I've replaced the RE-MG's of my orange R34 with that other BBS rims that's on the 380RS, dunno what's the name. Can I paint it blue to match that Prius and to make Onboy123 puke even moar? :P

Hmmm…you could try, but it could turn out quite well if you pick the right blue. But if you do make me puke, the next time we do some online shootout, the first thing I'll do is ram you off at the first corner like Senna did :mischievous:
 
Hmmm…you could try, but it could turn out quite well if you pick the right blue. But if you do make me puke, the next time we do some online shootout, the first thing I'll do is ram you off at the first corner like Senna did :mischievous:

Well, why can't I trail yer arse and do a P.I.T. maneuver? Or lemme push your RKM Prius to over 250 km/h. :P
 
No, 400km/h in a X1 :D and then send the Prius crashing head first into a wall, or even better, head the Prius at 200km/h plus into the ramp thing at the Trial Mountain chicane :D
 
That would be hilarious to see.

And even funnier would be to try and think what the driver (not me, the guy in the car) will be saying/screaming. Probably something along the lines of 'AAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! ****!!!!!!!! *Crashes and dies*
 
That would be very funny to see on those marks. Thanks to GT5 Physics though, they don't die. Another death saved :D
 
That would be very funny to see on those marks. Thanks to GT5 Physics though, they don't die. Another death saved :D

Yea, I guess voice overs from a terrified guy on a rollercoaster would be an essential in that case. And ok then *crashes and dies from looking at horribly rendered crash*
 
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