Back before camber was fixed, I always set the LSD 1st then camber at 0.2 or 0.3 when tuning, I intentionally reduce the grip slightly and give the grip loss more progression so I can tune the rest of suspension more aggressively. If I was building a replica with real life alignment, then I set the toe and camber first, then build the rest to accommodate that. More often I set the springs initially using real life coilover kits recommended rates, also taken into consideration any unique traits like wheelbase, motion ratio/wheel rate and preferred setup for track use or Auto X. Hakosuka for example, most owner IRL would set the rear springs a lot stiffer than the front - usually close to double the value of the front rate, as the car has tendency to hit the bump stop easily at the rear due to low motion ratio + wheel rate and requires quite a lot of travel - high ride height + stiff springs. This approach also works in GT6 - I built a Hakosuka grip/drift replica with similar setup.
With camber working, I may set the springs first with soft dampers and ARB, neutral toes and zero camber. Then the lengthy process of testing and tweaking, usually I will also tune the LSD to complement the springs, find a balance that I like or I wanted to aim ( replica ) when camber and toe still zero. Once I got the springs and LSD spot on, then on to dampers for entry grip and traction on exit, I may still tweak the LSD, but usually only change the initial slightly. I almost never touch the springs and LSD again, unless the car is a bad boy
When dampers are done, I get nice entry and exit traction, then I fine tune the balance further with ARB, with camber working, lower ARB should work better than before ( more effective ) I usually set the ARB to maintain stability in mid corner while giving good steering response. By this time, one click of ARB change can ruin the car balance or improve it
Last are camber and toe, toe mainly used to stabilize the car under heavy trail braking ( rear toe in ) and better steering ( front toe - neutral, in or out, depend on the car drivetrain, weight balance and purpose - race with tire wear or not ) For camber, I used it to
polish the car overall handling and not to improve lap time like it was in pre 1.09 when zero was the quickest/highest possible lateral grip and I can use high camber to make the car a lot slower around corners due to the lack of lateral grip
. I increase front or rear or both to smooth things out depend on the tires used, how stiff the springs are set, weight and distribution, drivetrain layout, amount of roll and how the car behaved on the limit ( twitchy, sharp steering, or lazy to change direction/heavy cars ).
I used mainly real world track for testing, Bathurst, Silverstone GP, Brands Hatch GP, Tsukuba, Willow Springs, Fuji Speedway F, Nordschleife and Suzuka. About 300-400+km are usually spent for testing and fine tuning on each car. I have logged close to 50,000km distance, over 9000km at Tsukuba, over 5000km at Bathurst, and at least over a thousand at Silverstone GP and Brands Hatch GP.
I talked too much.
Leave weight and distribution stock, no ballast, stock power, just suspension, stock LSD ( to remove variables - camber could make better use of high preload and lock LSD )
