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Racing Simulator

Tuning Guide
For all your game tuning enjoyment!!!

by Vyssion

RACING SIM TUNING GUIDE - IMAGE LIFTED FROM HTTP://WWW.CARADVICE.COM.AU/

Suspension!
Front Anti-Roll Bar!
Front anti-roll bar settings are increased to do the following:!

Causes outside front tyre to heat more rapidly than inside front tyre !

Provides slightly more heating to the inside rear tyre !

Should induce understeer on most cars. Affects turn-in the most and may improve

grip at the apex!

Earlier front brake locking into turns !

Coupled with a reduced rear anti-roll bar, understeer is strongest at turn

exit!

Tyre Pressure!
Tyre pressure is increased to do e following: !

Reduce tyre heating and peak temperature !

Reduce rolling resistance!

Reduce contact patch (grip) !

Note that greatest changes will be observed in the middle of the tyre !

Spring Rate!
Spring rate settings are increased to do the following: !

Reduce suspension travel and motion!

Reduce grip slightly!

Reduce relation response time !

Increase tyre heating and peak temperature!

Note that springs only determine how far the suspension will move in relation to the
chassis under a given load; that in turn, affects other components such as dampers and
anti-roll bars. Generally, softer springs will allow the suspension to work better as long as
the car does not bottom out due to aerodynamic or braking forces. Spring rates have a
limited effect on tyre heating and oval tracks may require stiffer springs on one side to
manage the tyre heating.!

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Slow Bump!
Slow bump settings are increased to do the following:!

Increase tyre heating and peak temperature!

Slow suspension motion due to g-forces!

Increase initial grip slightly!

Reduce reaction response time!

Note that dampers only determine how fast the suspension will move. In the bump
direction the tyre is being loaded so higher settings will slow the distribution of loading
the other tyres; response of the loaded tyre is a little crisper initially but may lose grip as
the end of travel is reached as the weight is unloaded. Due to this increased tyre loading
however, tyre heating will increase in some cases significantly. Slow bump is a good way
to equalise tyre heating because if does not need to be matches on axles (although it has a
cross corner relationship to slow rebound)!

Fast Bump!
Fast bump settings are not always needed or even used. Road bump loads are much
more severe than g-force loads and can create enough pressure to blow the damper apart.
For that reason there are pressure valves inside the dampers that pop open at pressures set
by "fast bump". Slow settings are simply orifice sized holes to constrict flow. Fast settings
should be lower than slow settings but how much depends on the track. Too low of a
difference can allow pressures from the fast settings to "override" the soft. Generally a
good starting point is to set the fast bump to 60-70% of the soft bump and note the track
conditions. Hard bumps on a straight may not cost too much time where riding curbing
through turns may require very soft settings to fast bump and rebound.!

Slow Rebound!
Slow rebound settings are a little more complicated because the weight transfer
actions are somewhat paired to the tyres on the opposite axle differently, depending on
lateral and longitudinal forces. The effects are transitional meaning the effects listed below
will react on the paired corner rather than the corner that is being adjusted.!
Slow rebound settings are decreased at the rear to:!

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Reduce apex and exit understeer; particularly useful when an entry oversteer

changes to understeer between the apex and exit!

Slow rebound settings are decreased at the front to:!

Reduce apex and exit oversteer; particularly useful when an entry understeer

changes to oversteer between the apex and exit!

Fast Rebound!
Fast rebound settings are similar to fast bump in that not all cars utilise them and
they are more for road shock than g-force loads. Fast settings should be lower than slow
settings once again due to the possibility of overriding the soft ones. As before a good
place to start is at 60-70% of your slow setting.!

Packers!
Packers provide an extra spring setting with super stiffness; they are to cushion the
end of the suspension travel. The thicker they are, the more progressive they are being
softer at first and then increasing rapidly. Generally, if you run the ride height low,
packers can be your best friend. Typically a ration of 30% packer stack height to ride
height is a good starting reference point. Once you have lowered the car to where it just
clears the track at quarter to half a tank of fuel, if it begins to rub with a full tank, increase
the ratio up to 50%.!

Ride Height!
Ride height is a key setting that changes the roll centre and suspension geometry
and can improve grip through turns. Relative to roll centre the lower the car is the better.
Suspension geometry may not work well with a lowered ride height however. Also
dependent on the effect is the rake angle; the stagger between front and rear heights.
Generally the rear should be about 18-20mm taller than the front. Increasing rake angle on
most cars will improve exit grip under throttle and increase downforce (and drag).!

!
!

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Camber!
Camber allows angling the tyre such that it maintains a flat contact patch though out
cornering. As the car rolls through a turn, the physics of the tyre and suspension
movement tend to shift the contact patch forces to the outside of the tyre. Having a
negative camber on a wheel compensates for this. However, as negative camber is dialled
in to improve lateral grip, it begins to diminish longitudinal grip. Those losses may be
amplified, for example, when the front suspension drops under braking, negative camber
increases. Generally you want a temperature difference of 7-12C between the inside no
outside of the tyre.

Front Toe In!


Front toe in preloads the front tyres to compensate for slip angle grip. Put simply,
the tyre needs some twisting distortion before reaching maximum lateral grip. While
anything but 0 will add to the rolling resistance, the added resistance is minimal at lower
speeds (under 150km/h) with fractional amounts of toe.
Front tyres favour about 0.1-0.2 toe out for most cars. As the tyre steer, the inside
tyre has a slightly reduced turning radius that requires it to steer "faster" than the outside,
hence, toe out.

Add positive toe to improve front turn in grip particularly on slower tight turns !

Most cars begin to drop performance after 0.5 toe out !

On higher speed tracks toe out may need to approach 0 !

Rear Toe In!


Rear toe in preloads the tyres to compensate for slip angle grip.While the front tyres
favour toe out, rear tyres favour toe in. The rear tyres point straight ahead while the front
tyres steer so toe in properly preloads the slip angle.

Rear tyres favour about 0.5-0.15 toe out !

Add negative toe to improve rear turn grip on any type of turn. !

Rear toe in is more sensitive than front toe !

Increasing rear toe can help stabilise any transitions to oversteer during light

braking or decelerating. !

On higher speed tracks, rear toe may need to approach 0 !

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Caster Angle!
Caster allows the front tyre to change camber proportionally as they are steered.
Even better, the camber changes more directly follow the changes to the contact patch.
Caster also shifts weight from the outside front tyre to the inside front tyre.
Because caster requires the tyres to be steered to have an effect, the more of a
steering angle you have during a turn, the more effecting caster is. However, on tracks
that have mostly high speed sweepers and fast straights, caster will make the car twitchy
and less stable.
After getting camber right, begin adding caster in increments of 1 at a time while
adding +0.5 (not negative!) camber to each front tyre. This may allow the contact patch to
be optimised for both braking and turning.

Rear Anti-Roll Bar!


Rear anti-roll bar settings are increased to do the following:!

Causes outside rear tyre to heat more quickly than inside front tyre !

Provides slightly more heating to the inside front tyre !

Should induce oversteer on most cars and may improve front grip at apex of

corners !

Earlier rear brake locking into turns which can be managed on downshifts with

settings to engine braking !

Coupled with reduced front anti-roll bar settings, added oversteer is strongest at

turn exit. !

May require lighter exit throttle application.

Note that this works well with increasing differential pump and differential power
settings !

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Aerodynamics!
Aerodynamic settings will only gain decent efficiency at speeds above
approximately 100km/h. Higher downforce will increase turn speeds on turns above
160km/h at the expense of drag. If the track has top speeds above 220km/h, the majority
of the time, a lower downforce setting will be faster. You'll have to evaluate the segments
where turns above 200km/h and the subsequently following short straights will benefit
from increased downforce, then weigh those benefits against the reduced speeds on the
longer and therefore faster ones. Higher downforce settings make the car easier to drive
but may impact it's top end speed.
Unless the car is poorly balanced the front setting should generally be in the same ratio as
the rear. That is, if there are 3 settings at the front, and 15 in the rear, a 2 in the front will
work best with a 6-10 at the rear. If the car is not balanced, wings are a last resort; look at
other suspension or balance settings first.

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Brakes!
Brake Bias!
Brake bias allows dialling the ratio between the front and the rear brakes. Simple
enough, but brakes are quite complex. Usually, brakes have the most friction when they
are warmed already (not too hot). Front and rear brakes heat and cool at different rates.
The intent of brake bias is to balance the braking forces between front and rear so that one
brake pair is not overheating too much whilst the other mains cool. Brake disk thickness,
brake ducting and engine braking all play a part in braking.!

Brake Duct Size!


Brake duct size determines the air cooling to the front brakes. Too much airflow and
the brakes will be too cool on initial application. Nt enough and they fade. Brake ducts
also increase drag and reduce downforce by introducing air underneath the car.!

Brake Pressure!
Brake pressure sets the sensitivity of the pedal. It acts as a multiplier to the axis
control rate. That is, a higher pressure means more braking pressure is applied to the disks
for a smaller displacement of the pedal.!

Brake Disk Thickness!


Disk thickness affects how quickly the brake will hear and cool. Thicker is more
material which heats and cools slowly and has more mass. Balancing the brake
temperatures between the front and rear is essential.
When the brake temperatures are too high, start with opening the brake ducts. If
that cools the brakes too much, then select thicker rotors.!

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Engine
Rev Limit!
The rev limit may have some dire consequences if it is set too high depending on the
car's ability to withstand abuse. You may be able to constrain your foot, but sometimes
downshifts will push the engine right to the rev limit. As such, it is important to log how
the engine revs around a circuit and set a limit that looks after the cars engine whilst not
inhibiting the driver's speed.!

Torque Split F:R!


Torque split is only relevant in all wheel drive cars. This sets the virtual centre
differential rate of torque split to the front and rear axles. Under acceleration, if the car
under steers, shift the torque bias to the rear. If it over steers, shift it to the front.!

Boost Mapping!
Boost simply adds or subtracts power in most games. More power may shorten
engine life and consume for fuel however. Of course in real life, this is much more
complex and boost mapping is a key aspect of car tuning.!

Radiator Size!
Radiator size determines general engine temperatures including oil. You should
have a record somewhere which specifies at what temperature peak power is generated.
Note that larger radiators will increase aerodynamic drag.!

Engine Brake Map!


This is in essence like adding or subtracting engine braking to the drive wheels. This
can be a very effective way to help the driver to control the cars balance under braking. It
takes a feel and no two drivers seem to want identical settings.!

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Gearing Ratios!
If the engine is reaching peak RPM before the end of the longest straight, the ratio
needs to be lowered. If the engine is below peak RPM it could be due to wrong gearing of
the drop in power within the over-rev" zone. Ideally, you want the RPM to match
somewhere between where torque and horsepower falls off. Use the final ratio setting to
adjust top gear only if you can't get the ratio where you need it to be in top gear.
Next set your first gear to as low of a ratio as the track allows; at the slowest point
on the track the engine should be at about 11:00 on the tach needle. This is especially true
with higher powered cars as the available wheel torque is probably enough to exceed grip.
With the top and bottom gears set, space the remaining gears equally between them.!

Differential Pump!
Differential pump is the distance of radial slippage between the left and right drive
wheels before the torque transmitted to them is split 50/50 in effect making them both
rotate momentarily at the same rate. It can add more grip to combat wheel spin but creates
a binding that is not transmitted back to the driver, simply scrubbing on tighter turns.
Nothing is free.
Differential Power!
Differential power is more of how the torque affects understeer/oversteer than
anything else. Increasing differential power tends to increase the propensity to travel
straight ahead under power, that is, understeer. This is actually a good thing if the car
tends to oversteer under power as it balances out.
Differential Coast!
Differential coast does the same thing as differential power does except it only does
it during engine braking or regular braking, hence adding understeer. The term "coast" is
a little misleading; it should perhaps be referred to as "deceleration". On tracks where the
rear end seems to want to swap with the front, increasing the coast setting can solve some
of the trailing throttle oversteer issues.!

!
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Preload!
Preload is kind of the jack of all trades when it comes to the differential. By
increasing the friction between the left and right drive wheels when they rotate at
different speeds. It is the true "coast" factor but it works a little differently.!

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Chassis
Weight Distribution Longitudinal Front:Rear!
Longitudinal weight distribution is an extremely beneficial way to balance the load
on the tyres. Generally, more of the cars weight over a particular tyre, the more grip that
tyre has; but it also alters tyre temperature. Shifting distribution can be used to equalise
tyre temperatures as well as managing some understeer/oversteer. The key is to use is
setting in moderation.!

Weight Distribution Lateral Left:Right!


Lateral weight distribution is almost mandatory on oval race tracks. Sifting weight
to the inside tyres may be the only way they will reach temperature. It can also be used on
normal road courses where one direction is favoured over the other, particularly if the
tyres no one side are not reaching optimum temperature.

Wedge!
Wedge is a type of cross-corner applied bias. If the right front and left rear were one
pair, and the left front and right rear were another, one turn of wedge wild move 1-5% foe
the weight from one pair to the other.

Steering Lock!
Steering lock is the distance the tyres can steer before hitting the steering stops. This
can be tuned to give different amounts of rotation to lock out the wheels or to fine tune
sensitivity.!

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Third Spring!
Conventional suspension systems lack isolation of lateral and longitudinal forces
from tuneable controls. That was a key reason why active suspensions were first designed
and installed on Formula 1 cars. After active suspensions were banned, third spring
systems were developed to add some level of isolation for tuning response to lateral and
longitudinal g-forces separately.
The third spring directly couples both corners on an axle similar to an anti- roll bar.
Spring and damper forces of the conventional and third spring components still have
overlapping effects however the geometry of each system tends to allow for some
independencies.
Third spring systems work mostly on longitudinal forces; the stiffer they are the less
the suspension squats reducing camber action.
Remember that similar rules apply to third spring bump and rebound settings as to
conventional ones.

Spring Rate (Third Spring)!


Third spring rate settings are increased to do the following:

Reduce suspension travel/motion mostly under braking or acceptation. !

This reduces unnecessary camber changed which allows more camber than when

in a detached state !

Increase braking grip !

Reduce reaction response time !

In the real world, suspension geometry will affect the ratio of longitudinal to

lateral overlap. !

Therefore increases to these springs will have the me effect as increasing spring

rates of the conventional springs at 1/3rd the rate. !

This is how they differ; with the conventional spring, an increase of 1 "rate" would

reduce front grip, yet on the third spring, 2/3rd will increase front grip while 1/3rd will
reduce it !

Slow Bump (Third Spring)!


Third spring slow bump settings are increased to do the following:

Increase tyre heating and peak temperature under braking and acceleration !

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Slow suspension motion due to g-forces !

Allow deeper braking into turn (front only) !

Allow earlier application of throttle through turn exits (driven wheel adjustments

only) !

Whilst the springs have a larger effect on the longitudinal forces, dampers tend to

affect the suspension velocities equally for lateral and longitudinal forces. !

Slow Rebound (Third Spring)!


Third spring slow rebound settings are increased to do the following:

Increase tyre heating and peak temperature under braking and acceleration !

Slow suspension motion due to g-forces !

Allow earlier throttle application through turn exit (front only) !

Fast Bump (Third Spring)!


Third spring fast bump settings are decreased to do the following:!

Allow faster motion over bumps and curbing!

Reduces "float" over curbing

If the car is bottoming out over bumps that run across the track, increase the third
spring fast bump
Increase the front third spring fast bump if the rear feels loose over curbing !

Increase the rear third spring fast bump if the front feels loose over curbing

Fast Rebound (Third Spring)


Third spring fast rebound settings are decreased to do the following:

Allows faster motion over bumps and curbing

Reduces "float" over curbing

Increase the rear third spring fast rebound when the front loses grip entering a turn
with road bumps
Increase the front third spring fast rebound when the rear loses grip exiting a turn
with road bumps

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Packers (Third Spring)


Third spring packers can be increased to assist conventional packers to prevent
bottoming to from a low ride height.
Add third spring packers to the front if the car is bottoming out under braking or if
the front is bottoming out from high speed banking.
Add third spring packers to the rear if the car is bottoming out under acceleration or
if the rear is bottoming out on high speed banking.

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