RKM Motorsport - Tuned Tuners - May '13

When Emperor IV passed away, V, VI, VII, VIII also died (or were disregarded) and the 5th successor to the throne took over.

I've been looking for a reason to buy an Evo, now I have it. Though that F1 review has to come first.

I tested your R34 and IX tunes Roj What can I say

what can I say The R34 is stable as aound the ring and it was fast great job


the IX is crazy so much grip it is very fast


I will take them around TGTT

Why 261 MPH on your new tune?

Nevermind this question, lol!

Purple Devil Z review: (tested on TGTT)
The Devil Z, a car that was said to have a will of its own. A car that will choose its driver, and is able to destroy GTRs on the highway. Well, in the cartoon it could. In GT5, it has barely half the power of the 600hp Devil in the anime. As a result, this will be left in the dust by the GTR's and Supra's of the world.

You would expect it to do quite well on tighter, twistier tracks. I mean, with its light weight and small body, it should be good at changing directions quickly. But it isn't. The tyres just can't cope with the power, it wobbles and twitches under braking, and well, isn't quite as fast as the 280hp and 858kg weight would suggest. It did a lap of 1:22.847 after a lot of drifting.

Now, before the devil Z set up was even tried, I was already slightly apprehensive about this. Mainly because RJ had said 'The Purple Devil, just as a warning, will be dreadful. No grip, too much power for said grip, and lots of doing everything wrong because it hates anyone who drives it'.
Right. A tune will ruin a car just to stay true to its name. The Devil Z. Well after a short drive with this setup, I can say with relative confidence, it isn't dreadful. Not even slightly. But I can't say it's great as well. It's quite unpredictable if you ask it to do something it doesn't want and will vent its anger on its tyres. On fast corners, if you force it to turn, it will bite, and it will bite as hard as it can.
Fortunately, it's never really capable of doing anymore than bruise your ego slightly. It will give you a lot of warnings, mostly understeer and smoking the front tyres under hard braking. But even if you choose to continue to push it and push it, it will never bite. Oversteer is constant, perhaps due to the diff setting, but controllable. But if anything, it's an encouragement, rather than punishment for overstepping the mark. It did a very oversteery lap of 1:21.367. Which is only 1 second behind a MX5, not bad, considering it's a car from the '70s.

Laptimes
1:22.847 (before)
1:21.367 (after)

I didn't say I was trying to make it worse there... Default is amazingly Porschelike (as is the setup needed to neutralize it a bit. Look at it, now back to the RGT. Look at it, now back to the RGT. Sadly, the Devil Z does not handle like the RGT, but it could if only it had wider tires.), so... Yeah. At least you were able to have some fun with it rather than trying to go constantly flat out after great times (where the Z will always, ALWAYS disappoint).

well the Z is 40 years old now, so what do you expect?
anyways, one more review (not a golf r32, sadly)

Emperor IX review: (tested on TGTT)
Before:
Well, it's feels like the evo X, very understeery, AYC seems to be asleep, and really, not much fun. You really can't drive it fast. If you even touched the throttle mid corner, it would understeer. To correct it, I had to resort to using the handbrake, which slowed it down. It's also amazingly numb to drive. Turn into a corner and you have absolutely no idea if you went in too quickly or far too slowly. When you have 444hp (due to the oil change) at your fingertips, it would be nice to have some feeling, some reaction, when you turn into a corner. But there isn't. It did a lap of 1:19.668. There are cars with half the power that are just as fast, and a lot more fun than this.

After: With the new set up applied, I was hoping for it to be less understeery and for it to learn how to powerslide. But it hasn't. The understeer has been reduced, but the tail is still glued to the track. It grips too much. Even with 75% of the power going to the back, it still can't slide like I want it to. The AYC still doesn't feel like it's doing anything, and it still takes some getting used to. But at least the laptimes have shown what those changes have done. It did a 1:14.813, nearly 5 seconds quicker than it was before, and I couldn't feel any difference.

It's hard to sum up this setting, because what I was expecting it to be was a slightly heavier, less powerful version of the CT230R that RJ tuned for me. That had miles of grip, was very responsive, went like a bolt of lightning and could play some games when you were bored. The Emperor didn't feel like any of these things. Maybe my expectations were too high, maybe I still need to get used to it. But either way, it feels too numb for my liking.

Laptimes
1:19.668 (Before)
1:14.813 (After)

(and don't start accusing me for being bias because I'm an Impreza fan, cuz I'm not)

Speaking of Impreza's is there a WRX 07 tune on the cards at any point? doesn't seem to be one about and i'm sure it has bags of potential, if not how about a Evo RM as you seem to have all the premiums Evo's pretty much nailed now!

(i'm more than happy to donate one of either to you )

I thought RJ said he didn't want to tune an impreza

No '07 or '10 Impreza tune coming. The Kias are fast but insanely boring to drive and trying to make them "fun" slows them down quite a lot.

Evo RM is a maybe as is a VI TME.

Edit: It's not that I don't want to tune an Impreza, it's that I don't want to tune that Impreza.

Both me and RJ tuned the '10 Impreza for the Tuner Challenge Championship. See the second post of the thread. If you'd like to adapt the settings to the '07 Impreza, you're very welcome to. 👍

As for Evo's, I want to do the VI just so we've got all the premium Evo's tuned. The RM will come after I think.

VTiRoj

Both me and RJ tuned the '10 Impreza for the Tuner Challenge Championship. See the second post of the thread. If you'd like to adapt the settings to the '07 Impreza, you're very welcome to. 👍

As for Evo's, I want to do the VI just so we've got all the premium Evo's tuned. The RM will come after I think.

Click to expand...

Rotary Junkie

No '07 or '10 Impreza tune coming. The Kias are fast but insanely boring to drive and trying to make them "fun" slows them down quite a lot.

Evo RM is a maybe as is a VI TME.

Edit: It's not that I don't want to tune an Impreza, it's that I don't want to tune that Impreza.

Click to expand...

Worth a shot eh

I might try the 10 tune on the 07 then, it might be worth a try.

I tried the Lions Den TME Edt as its a stunning premium but I just couldn't get on with it (to much understeer) (altho I really like there RM tune), I'd be really interested to see if you could work you magic with it tho

Anyway keep up the good work, your tunes rock! 👍

So erm it looks like I'm done.

PS3 was bought Dec '09, had been thinking it was Aug '10. This = no warranty... No warranty = no way to fix it or replace it for a few months minimum and I'm not sure I want to bother.

Rotary Junkie

So erm it looks like I'm done.

PS3 was bought Dec '09, had been thinking it was Aug '10. This = no warranty... No warranty = no way to fix it or replace it for a few months minimum and I'm not sure I want to bother.

Click to expand...

PS3 Console giving you problems?

Indeed. Seems to be the laser but not positive because of some of what it does. Oh and the error code that it was throwing isn't exactly specific (some guys have it be hard drive, others have it turn out to be laser, etc etc).

So, you're out?

Rotary Junkie

So erm it looks like I'm done.

PS3 was bought Dec '09, had been thinking it was Aug '10. This = no warranty... No warranty = no way to fix it or replace it for a few months minimum and I'm not sure I want to bother.

Click to expand...

Can't you 'accidentally' damage it and claim on your insurance??

:/

priesty_lfc

Can't you 'accidentally' damage it and claim on your insurance??

:/

Click to expand...

That would a. be fraud and b. impossible. Don't think anything in our house is actually insured in any way.

Rotary Junkie

So erm it looks like I'm done.

PS3 was bought Dec '09, had been thinking it was Aug '10. This = no warranty... No warranty = no way to fix it or replace it for a few months minimum and I'm not sure I want to bother.

Click to expand...

Story of my Fat. Out of warranty just like that when it died. DIY reflow worked on mine for a week. Then I bought a Slim.

Thing is, PS3 Consoles are the same price today as they were 2 years ago. When the laser starts to get nasty, best bet is to save some money and buy another console. Id just reuse the Hard Disk on the new one. IMO

Castrol TOM's Supra review:
Before:
Well, I've had this car for a long time, and every time I drive it, I'm left amazed at how easy it is to drive it fast. It's just past 9:30am here in HK, and I just woke up. Normally, when I drive a car, any car, at this time of day, I would be really struggling to cope, because I'm still half asleep. But In this, it just didn't matter. It was so forgiving and easy that I could really drive it with my eyes closed. But even though it's forgiving enough for me to drive it when I'm basically sleeping, it still has the best qualities of a touring car. The car has almost Go-kart like responses in the turns, and although the car feels a bit floaty in the bends (perhaps due to the low settings for the spoiler), there is no fear of crashing. This is a great car. It did a lap of 1:06.441.

After:
Well, it's still insanely easy to drive fast. I did a 1:05.672 on my first lap. 2 more laps later and the time has been dropped to 1:04.701, putting it just behind the TT-R. And I have a feeling that it can go faster still. This car fills you with a sense of invincibility, and now has the times to back it up. And now I have run out of things to say. I loved this car before, but haven't been using it a lot, now though, I love it even more and it now has the setup to crush any car in its way. Expect a Yellow Hat Supra vs TOM's Surpa review soon.

Laptimes (tested on TGTT)
1:06.441 (before)
1:04.701 (after)

and just in case you didn't see it, here's the Evo IX review:
Emperor IX review: (tested on TGTT)
Before:
Well, it's feels like the evo X, very understeery, AYC seems to be asleep, and really, not much fun. You really can't drive it fast. If you even touched the throttle mid corner, it would understeer. To correct it, I had to resort to using the handbrake, which slowed it down. It's also amazingly numb to drive. Turn into a corner and you have absolutely no idea if you went in too quickly or far too slowly. When you have 444hp (due to the oil change) at your fingertips, it would be nice to have some feeling, some reaction, when you turn into a corner. But there isn't. It did a lap of 1:19.668. There are cars with half the power that are just as fast, and a lot more fun than this.

After: With the new set up applied, I was hoping for it to be less understeery and for it to learn how to powerslide. But it hasn't. The understeer has been reduced, but the tail is still glued to the track. It grips too much. Even with 75% of the power going to the back, it still can't slide like I want it to. The AYC still doesn't feel like it's doing anything, and it still takes some getting used to. But at least the laptimes have shown what those changes have done. It did a 1:14.813, nearly 5 seconds quicker than it was before, and I couldn't feel any difference.

It's hard to sum up this setting, because what I was expecting it to be was a slightly heavier, less powerful version of the CT230R that RJ tuned for me. That had miles of grip, was very responsive, went like a bolt of lightning and could play some games when you were bored. The Emperor didn't feel like any of these things. Maybe my expectations were too high, maybe I still need to get used to it. But either way, it feels too numb for my liking.

Laptimes
1:19.668 (Before)
1:14.813 (After)

(and don't start accusing me for being bias because I'm an Impreza fan, cuz I'm not)

Roj are you still flooded with requests?

Another quick one, this time of the S15 Silvia. Again a DS3, autobox perspective.

As with the earlier Silvia, the extra power of the components seems to initially overwhelm the chassis. The real weakness that became immediately apparent on GVS was the high speed braking stability. Braking into the first corner had the car all over the place and while a steering wheel might make it easier I still felt there was too much concentration necessary and too much time lost here. As the eralier Silvia, there was some understeer at turn in, immediately followed by oversteer as soon as you started applying the throttle. Good for fun (the latter aspect, that is) but not for speed.

My best lap with the stock setup was a 2.05.200 - only slightly better than the S13 with your settings, in spite of extra power and grip. Applying your settings makes the car a more effective ride, quelling some of the oversteer and slightly reducing the turn in understeer, too. Braking stability is somewhat better, too but if there is one area where the car would benefit from more tweaking this is it. Again the real problem is only shown in the first curve but I can imagine shaving an extra half a second off here with a more stable setup. In spite of this the car is faster, allowing me to break into the high 2.03 times.

Overall a solid, easy to drive car that will allow an easy entry into the world of moderately more powerful FR cars and a natural step up from the S13. Somehow it is still significantly slower at GVS that the other cars you two have made in the same power to weight class - but could work better on a twistier circuit, I guess. 👍

Onboy123

Castrol TOM's Supra review:
Before:
Well, I've had this car for a long time, and every time I drive it, I'm left amazed at how easy it is to drive it fast. It's just past 9:30am here in HK, and I just woke up. Normally, when I drive a car, any car, at this time of day, I would be really struggling to cope, because I'm still half asleep. But In this, it just didn't matter. It was so forgiving and easy that I could really drive it with my eyes closed. But even though it's forgiving enough for me to drive it when I'm basically sleeping, it still has the best qualities of a touring car. The car has almost Go-kart like responses in the turns, and although the car feels a bit floaty in the bends (perhaps due to the low settings for the spoiler), there is no fear of crashing. This is a great car. It did a lap of 1:06.441.

After:
Well, it's still insanely easy to drive fast. I did a 1:05.672 on my first lap. 2 more laps later and the time has been dropped to 1:04.701, putting it just behind the TT-R. And I have a feeling that it can go faster still. This car fills you with a sense of invincibility, and now has the times to back it up. And now I have run out of things to say. I loved this car before, but haven't been using it a lot, now though, I love it even more and it now has the setup to crush any car in its way. Expect a Yellow Hat Supra vs TOM's Surpa review soon.

Laptimes (tested on TGTT)
1:06.441 (before)
1:04.701 (after)

Click to expand...

Thanks for the review! Looking forward to the Supra battle. The Castrol amazed me when I first got it, it handled so well out of the box, all it needed was a better set of ratios. After using it in a seasonal event I realised it had a lot more to give so I gave it a quick tune up and it was even better. I revisited it the other day and polished it up to release-standard.

Onboy123

and just in case you didn't see it, here's the Evo IX review:
Emperor IX review: (tested on TGTT)
Before:
Well, it's feels like the evo X, very understeery, AYC seems to be asleep, and really, not much fun. You really can't drive it fast. If you even touched the throttle mid corner, it would understeer. To correct it, I had to resort to using the handbrake, which slowed it down. It's also amazingly numb to drive. Turn into a corner and you have absolutely no idea if you went in too quickly or far too slowly. When you have 444hp (due to the oil change) at your fingertips, it would be nice to have some feeling, some reaction, when you turn into a corner. But there isn't. It did a lap of 1:19.668. There are cars with half the power that are just as fast, and a lot more fun than this.

After: With the new set up applied, I was hoping for it to be less understeery and for it to learn how to powerslide. But it hasn't. The understeer has been reduced, but the tail is still glued to the track. It grips too much. Even with 75% of the power going to the back, it still can't slide like I want it to. The AYC still doesn't feel like it's doing anything, and it still takes some getting used to. But at least the laptimes have shown what those changes have done. It did a 1:14.813, nearly 5 seconds quicker than it was before, and I couldn't feel any difference.

It's hard to sum up this setting, because what I was expecting it to be was a slightly heavier, less powerful version of the CT230R that RJ tuned for me. That had miles of grip, was very responsive, went like a bolt of lightning and could play some games when you were bored. The Emperor didn't feel like any of these things. Maybe my expectations were too high, maybe I still need to get used to it. But either way, it feels too numb for my liking.

Laptimes
1:19.668 (Before)
1:14.813 (After)

(and don't start accusing me for being bias because I'm an Impreza fan, cuz I'm not)

Click to expand...

Ah yes, I did miss this one out. My bad. Thanks for the review. The main thing is that it has bag loads of grip, so it wont slide under normal driving, but that's what I like about it. It's got the capability of using that power without any feeling that it's going to bite you. It wont be anything like the CT230R of course, it doesnt have the downforce for it, but I have a feeling the EvoIX RM will be.

uMadson?

Roj are you still flooded with requests?

Click to expand...

Yes. Trying to get through them 1 car a day.

kingmoshoeshoe2

Another quick one, this time of the S15 Silvia. Again a DS3, autobox perspective.

As with the earlier Silvia, the extra power of the components seems to initially overwhelm the chassis. The real weakness that became immediately apparent on GVS was the high speed braking stability. Braking into the first corner had the car all over the place and while a steering wheel might make it easier I still felt there was too much concentration necessary and too much time lost here. As the eralier Silvia, there was some understeer at turn in, immediately followed by oversteer as soon as you started applying the throttle. Good for fun (the latter aspect, that is) but not for speed.

My best lap with the stock setup was a 2.05.200 - only slightly better than the S13 with your settings, in spite of extra power and grip. Applying your settings makes the car a more effective ride, quelling some of the oversteer and slightly reducing the turn in understeer, too. Braking stability is somewhat better, too but if there is one area where the car would benefit from more tweaking this is it. Again the real problem is only shown in the first curve but I can imagine shaving an extra half a second off here with a more stable setup. In spite of this the car is faster, allowing me to break into the high 2.03 times.

Overall a solid, easy to drive car that will allow an easy entry into the world of moderately more powerful FR cars and a natural step up from the S13. Somehow it is still significantly slower at GVS that the other cars you two have made in the same power to weight class - but could work better on a twistier circuit, I guess. 👍

Click to expand...

Yeah it is meant to be a step up from the S13. It hasnt got the pace of other cars in it's class but it can take them in the twisties so it makes a good suprise entry. Thanks for the review! I will see what can be done with the braking stability. 👍

quick question, how big should the difference in laptimes between the Integra Type R and the Crimson R be?

Roj on your R34 tune I would like to bump the hp up to 525 will it stay the same?

you missed out on my poor reveiws 2 pages back

Camaro SC550 review:
Ok, can I make it absolutely clear, I hate muscle cars. Too unsophisticated, too brash, too showy. Above all, they really were built just for drag racing. Fastest to the end of the road wins. But show it some corners, and it will just fall apart. So, why would I even think of trying this car? Well, it's only for a small shootout which I'll do later. Still, let's see how it drives.
Well, actually, not too dreadful. But then, not great either. It's far too easy to oversteer, the tyres seem to have no grip at all. The brakes only work if you really brake as hard as you can, and if you don't slow down by the time you enter the turn, lift off the brake and nail it, or the brakes will drag you straight off the track. But even if you do nail it and get out of the corner, I can guarantee that the tyres will be completely trashed by the end of the lap. Ok, I'll admit, it was a lot of fun, but it's just not a serious track car. It did a lap of 1:15.337.
After the set up was applied, I was expecting it to feel, well like the XR8 to be honest. Huge grip, huge fun, and very quick. But it falls just slightly short on 2 fronts. It isn't that grippy, it isn't that fast, but it is still huge fun. It at least feels like a normal car to drive, not like a car with its tyres blown. I can't think if much to say, to be honest. It hasn't made much of an impression on me, it's just another car. It did a lap of 1:13.760, which isn't bad, but not as good as it should, and could, be.

Now, the shootout I was on about earlier. It's between this, the Camaro, and the Evo IX I recently reviewed. Why these two? Well, because I remembered seeing something like this on Top Gear a while back. It was between an Evo and a Monaro, and of course the lighter, more powerful and techier Evo won. As a conclusion, Clarkson said that 'If you want to have fun when you are going fast, buy the Monaro, if you want just go fast, get yourself an Evo.' What I want to know is, is that the case here?
The Camaro will replace the Monaro and will attempt to go faster around the TGTT than the Evo, and for the sake of it, I'll just write a little comment about how each car felt.

First the benchmark, the Evo. When I reviewed the setup, I complained that it didn't slide enough and that it couldn't play much. But that was purely because I didn't know what this car was meant to be. It wasn't meant to be fun, it was meant to get each and every one of the 444hp to the ground in the fastest way possible. And on that front, this car has easily surpassed expectations. You could actually see the AYC shifting the power from one end to another as the car rotates through a corner. I take everything I said about this car back. It's actually quite good. It did a lap of 1:14.886.

Now, the Camaro. This should be faster, it has at least 100 more hp, and more torque than the Evo. It also has some downforce to help it keep its tail planted (sort of). So is it? Well, yes. But just. This narrowly beat the Evo with a time of 1:14.085. All that extra power and punch got it no more than a seconds advantage. This is partly due to the fact that the Camaro feels like an elephant compared to the Evo. It's just so damn heavy. It's also partly due to the rather distant feeling of the steering. It doesn't inspire much confidence, the Camaro. But still, it won. Just.

Onboy123

Now, the Camaro. This should be faster, it has at least 100 more hp, and more torque than the Evo. It also has some downforce to help it keep its tail planted (sort of). So is it? Well, yes. But just. This narrowly beat the Evo with a time of 1:14.085. All that extra power and punch got it no more than a seconds advantage. This is partly due to the fact that the Camaro feels like an elephant compared to the Evo. It's just so damn heavy. It's also partly due to the rather distant feeling of the steering. It doesn't inspire much confidence, the Camaro. But still, it won. Just.

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The power to weight ratios are relatively close.
The Evo has .37hp per Kg
The Camaro has .42hp per Kg

And on a track like TGTT, power doesn't really get you much, because you hardly get to use it. The track is so small, tight and flat, heavy with horses seems like a disadvantage.

Furthermore, 8 tenths is not 'just' winning. On a track this small, 8 tenths per lap is huge. In a 5 lap race, that's a 4 second lead. Nothing to scoff at, that's for sure.