detailed setup guide

[garyellis]

I would like to see a detailed setup guide section on the forum.

I've followed the one on UKDirt , and it's helped me out of the " embarisingly slow " catogary into just the " get out my way " category . But It would be good if someone could pick an element of the garage , say wedge or suspension for example , and give a decent explanation of how changes effect the way the car handles and how they use it to cut down lap times .

I've used other peoples setups before but could never get on with any of them and some mods seem to frown on newbies asking for help .

Anyone willing to spend a bit of time explaining the mysteries to those less fortunate

 

[Counter552]

Hi m8

 

This is a really tough one. I've never really tried using anyone else's set ups because I think we all see and react differently. I've just tinkered with one or 2 things to try and get round more quickly.

There's no doubt about it that set ups are more important than ever. In F2, 1 - 2 years ago this approach was OK with only the Superstars really blowing your doors off by 0.5 to 1 secs a lap.

 

Over the last year things seemed to have moved on significantly and I'm now at least 0.5 sec slower than the average and 1.5 to 2.5 secs a lap slower than the rest of the reds and superstars.

 

One of the main differences is that I spend a huge amount of less time in the Friday/Sunday practice sessions.

 

I think you have a really good suggestion here for those of less techie minded where o/s loose, pushing on etc type explanations don't necessarily help.

 

Softer springs makes it grippier, slower and usually more stable.

Harder springs makes it loose, faster and usually far less stable and harder to control.

 

I'm sure there will be many that will say the above has the opposite effect for them !

 

I hope you get some support here.

 

 

[LeeK39]

Not sure if this will be of any help to you or anyone else but I found this kicking around on my PC. Think I found it on another forum and was based on running Nascars so would be more relevant to F1 and F2s. For SSC, Bangers and Hot Rods just reverse the settings really.

 

Tire Pressure:

Lower tire pressures result in a more forgiving car, and result in higher tire temperatures.

Higher pressures allow higher top speeds with less temperature buildup. The recommended pressure

will keep the middle (M) temperature of the tires near the average of the inside (I) and outside

(O) temperatures. Going higher than recommended can result in more speed at a high-speed track,

but the loss in grip can hurt at slower tracks.

Settings

Raise R/F Loosens car off the corner.

Lower R/F Tightens car up

Raise R/R Tighter into corner looser off

Lower R/R Looser on short runs, as heat builds tightens up. (Think of those long runs)

Raise L/F Tightens car up into and off the corner.

Lower L/F Looser off the corners.

Raise L/R Looser off the corners but tighter in the middle.

Lower L/R Looser at start but tightens up on long runs.

 

Shock Bump:

At the front, a lower number (softer shock compression) loosens the car during the transition to

braking, and at the rear, softer shock compression tightens the car during the transition to

throttle. Higher numbers (stiffer shock compression) give quicker reactions during these

transitions, and the opposite effects.

 

Shock Rebound:

At the front, a lower number (softer shock rebound) loosens the car during the transition to

throttle, and at the rear, softer shock rebound tightens the car during the transition to braking.

Higher numbers (stiffer shock rebound) give quicker reactions during the transitions, and the

opposite effects.

Shocks General

Raise R/F Tighter off the corner.

Lower R/F Looser off the corner.

Raise R/R Looser from the middle and off the corner.

Lower R/R Tighter from the middle and off the corner.

Raise L/F Also tighter from the middle off.

Lower L/F Looser into corners if done in combination with raising r/r.

Raise L/R Looser in and off corner.

Lower L/R Tightens car up off corners.

 

Springs:

Softer front springs usually loosen the car (turns better), while softer rear springs tighten it

(less likely to spin). Use the softest springs you can without letting the car scrape the ground.

If the car rolls too much, stiffen the sway bars.

Settings (partial)

Raise R/R Loosens car into corners.

Lower R/R Tightens car off corner.

Raise L/R Tightens car off corner.

Lower L/R Loosens car in the middle to off corner.

 

Camber:

Some positive left side and negative right side camber will help the car turn left. Too much

camber will reduce grip and increase tire wear. Tire temperatures on the edge of the tire leaning

into the turn (outside -O- on left, inside -I- on right) should be 5 to 10 degrees hotter than

the other edge. Negative equal cambers on both sides are usually best on a road coarse, with

inside temperatures 5 to 10 degrees hotter than outside.

 

Front Brake Bias:

If the car doesn't turn well under braking, decrease the front brake bias. If it wants to spin

under braking, increase the front brake bias. Go with the lowest front bias you can control.

 

Front Sway Bar:

Stiffening the front sway bar (larger diameter) tightens the car and reduces body roll when

cornering, which can give better control over the tire camber during cornering. Too stiff a bar

can lift a front wheel off the track when cornering.

 

Rear Sway Bar:

Stiffening the rear sway bar (larger diameter) loosens the car and reduces body roll when

cornering.

 

Final Gear Ratio:

The final gear ratio is used to adjust all four gears together. A smaller ratio allows for higher

top speeds, but produces less torque at the rear wheels, so it will take longer to reach top

speed.

 

Transmission Gear Ratios:

Allows each gear to be individually adjusted. A smaller ratio allows for higher top speeds, but

produces less torque at the rear wheels, so it takes longer to reach top speed.

DON'T FORGET, once you set the individual gear ratio, it will act accordingly to a change in the

final gear ratio.

 

Grill Tape:

More tape reduces air drag and increases front down force, but can cause engine overheating.

 

Spoiler:

Less spoiler reduces air drag and rear down force, giving higher top speeds and a looser car. A

setting of 70% is mandated at the super-speedways.

 

Front Weight Bias:

Shifting weight to the front (a higher front bias) can help the car turn in better, but may give

more mid-corner push. Shifting weight back can stabilize the car at turn entry, but may loosen in

mid-corner.

 

Left Weight Bias:

On an oval, use the maximum left weight allowed. On road courses, it's usually best to keep the

weight equal on the left and right sides.

 

Wedge:

Less wedge will loosen the car, allowing it to turn better. More wedge tightens the car, and can

help in putting the power down. On a road course, use 50% wedge to keep the car from pulling to

the left or right under power.

[psyko75]

its a great idea as me (only one racing on field - see my post in real live racing) got no clue what i´m doing in the setup folder

 

Also there must be a point to start for the pros that we (novices) even don´t know.

 

So it would be interesting to know what to setup to start like everything on 50%, tires on 23 and so on. Most changing part in my view are the weights and the sway bars but most times i thing making this softer or harder should change the car to something but it handles the opposite

 

For example i got no clue why my changing the front sway effects mostly the back of the car (so this is how it feels for me)

 

Also with me not been able yet to be at every racetrack we got in ukdirt it would be good to know what tracks are a bit the same to maybe take a setup over to the other track and just do little changes.

 

IN F2 the setups that came with the game mostly give a good start but sometimes they are that worse that i don´t got a clue where to start the changes to make it better as everything i do still result in a nearly undrivable car.

 

I know the long time players did some hard work seting up there car.. but mostly these guys "moan" about the novice driving to bad... maybe we will get better practicing year for year but till we got to drive a good style you like we may ruin and ruin your races and more and more of you will leave... so please help us novices out

[jonmuz]

Edited October 11, 2007 by jonmuz

[garyellis]

cheers Leek , that's the sort of thing I was on about

 

If anyone else want's to put in a bit about tweaks they've noticed improved their handling when doing setups , the more the merrier

 

 

 

[garyellis]

I've had a search of the forum and here are a few peoples replies to various setup questions -

.......................................

Softer springs makes it grippier, slower and usually more stable.

Harder springs makes it loose, faster and usually far less stable and harder to control.

.......................................

One thing you have to remember this that setups are not crucial to fast laps, they are helpful but not crucial. You need to sort out aspects of your driving aswell to be fast, for example think logically when going into the bends. To go as fast as you can you generally need to use as much track as you can to speed up, so for places like buxton, arena and northampton you would want to be driving near the fence on the straights and cutting into the corners reasonably late. That way you will be braking as you are turning the corner, and you will also be going fast whilst maintaining a tight line. Then accelerate down the straight near to the fence as soon as you feel that doing so won't spin you or drag you into the fence. Then repeat the process for the next bend. Thats the way to do it on most tracks, well it is for me anyway. Setups help alot of course. Start with the 'default' setup and then adjust wheel lock, depending on your controller, you want around 9 or 10 for gamepad, abit higher for keyboard and even higher for steering wheel. Then you want to sort out the weights, mainly wedge as this will affect the over/under steer on the car quite dramatically, then play about with the sway bars. If your using automatic gears then change your gear ratios so that you are only using two gears, and the final gear. Set 3rd and fourth gears 0.50 as this will prevent the car from going above second. Then play with your racing gear (in this case your second gear) and get it so it stays in that gear and does not shoot down to first round the bends, and so that you hit around 7000 rpm at the end of the straights. Final gear will also have the same effect when you adjust it, so you just need to play. Leave shocks and springs until your confident, a simple gears, weights, sway bars and wheelock setup should start you off nicely and get you clocking some near-on-pace laps.

..............................

when in game go to controls and turn down throttle speed, its prob set to max. turn it down so the red bar indicator goes down to quarter or just before the quarter, should help you a lot.

......................

soften the right rear spring and bump and raise the front sway bars and reduce the rear to nothing. to much left handside camber will aslo make your car spin out, reduce this also till your happy with turn in and not oversteering out.

..........................

then you can start playing with the rest. adjusting front and rear shocks making the front harder and stiffer will give understeer, if your fronts to soft and rear to high it will oversteer badly. also make sure you lock isnt set to high also, i find between 5-8 is ok, to high and it,l oversteer again.

 

Try setting the wedge to 50%

 

Set the rear tyre pressures, springs, shocks a rebounds all equal on left and right. Also on more uneven surfaces have larger differences between the shock & rebound. If that leads to understeer then set the right rear slightly higher settings than the left rear or add more left weight or more wedge on left front.

 

You can make it turn in better by setting the right front on higher settings than the left but this usaully makes it oversteer. As such, you need to counteract that with rear wheels settings & weight.

..............................

 

If I've never raced a track before , I usually use the setup exchanger in the MOD LAUNCHER to copy setups from previous tracks and try to find a good starting point for that setup .

 

Hope this post along with LeeK's post helps others

Cheers

Gary

Edited October 13, 2007 by garyellis