Beginner tuning guide. (RWD/4WD)

[Clank]

This guide isn't super complicated and is just intended to help people drive cars they have trouble with or to drive cars with more of a sideways approach... Yes, drifting will happen, a lot.

----------------INTRO

Cars have tendencies based on their weight(where it is as well) horsepower/torque and the biggest factor, where the power is coming from.

There are two types of steering, simply... Over and under... And the problem with both is they have drawbacks(I'm told)

Understeer with make you go into a wall and you need to be touchy with the brake and throttle at key times to produce good cornering times.

Oversteer will make you lose your grip, spin out and go no where really quickly into a wall. Or will it?

There is a reason I don't tune or drive cars that don't have most of their power in the back and that reason is understeer is useless... End of story.

My tuning won't work with all cars, because it relies on the fact that your car will have more power than it needs most of the time. It will however make any big heavy over powered car that is normally useless for anything other than pile driving into the nearest wall at a million miles an hour go around a corner... Even quickly! And it won't even feel like driving an axe murderer with headlights. It will take little effort even.

Some cars seem impossible to drive because they have lots and lots of power however they just don't do what you want them to do. And it's true, a lot of it is the car, it isn't always the drivers fault and you're not a pansy for not being able to drive it. Proper tuning is the difference between being in a wall and graceful cornering.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!This guide will have nothing to do with a car that is front wheel powered and will not work on them, end of story.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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---------------------First, car choice.

Does it really matter? No not that much, pick your favorite car or challenge the guidelines with a car you've had difficulty with in the past.
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------------------Second, upgrades. (not cheap, money shouldn't be an issue)

You'll need these and not just any.
What type of car is it, rear power only or is it 4wd?

\\\\\RWD///// you'll want a super charger and if it doesn't have that aim for a turbo. If it's a turbo go for the sport cooler.
The reasoning is torque boost, which is a big part of the driving style this guide is tuned for.

You'll want the racing brakes, brake controller(very important), full customize differential/transmission/suspension, exhaust, chip, nitrous etc for horsepower. And you'll want the best(engine response) transmission parts as well..... Triple plate, racing fly, drive shaft...

Lighten the car as much as possible and put a roll cage in it, refresh car to previous state if it is an option.

You'll want racing medium and super soft tires.

Get a spoiler for the car if possible.

\\\\\4WD///// You'll want a turbo charger with sport cooler.... If possible get original turbo kit from tuner village... If no turbo is available, get the super charger.

You'll want the same racing brakes, brake controller(very important), full customize differential/transmission/suspension, exhaust, chip, nitrous etc for horsepower, best(engine response) transmission parts..... Triple plate, racing fly, drive shaft...

Lighten the car just the same, roll cage it and refresh. Buy the available AYC controller and VCD controller. (very important)

You'll want racing medium and super soft tires on this as well.

Get a spoiler for the car if possible.
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-----------------Tuning your parts.

This isn't so bad.
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DRIVING AIDS... These... Are your enemy. Even if you're a beginner you don't want these! So at first chance kindly put the oversteer knob on zero and break it off so it can't be changed to otherwise because you're a man(or woman) and not afraid of a little sideways action on the corners.
Leave understeer where it is, at 10.

TCS, Traction control... Is a little less simple. See... There are numbers from 1 to 10 that have to do with the amount of interference with the power to the wheels.... 10 means you'll likely never get wheel spin and 0 means your tires will spin until they explode if your tires aren't super soft.
So you'll want to base this off your tires and cars power....

Turn it down to 0.... If you don't go anywhere because of crazy tire spin than turn it up a number... Eventually depending on your tires and power you'll reach a point they stop spinning out horrible and you'll move! However, if you keep putting the number up you won't get wheel spin when you need it, which is most of the time... For a very high powered car with medium or soft racing tires 3 will usually do the trick..... under 5 and over 0 is the way to go with most cars.
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SUSPENSION... Spring rate highest, end of story. Ride height as close to 65mm as possible. Shock absorbers(if you have them with original tune) maxed out. Shock bound on 4, shock rebound on 10. Chamber angle for front wheel 3, back wheels between 0 and 2. Toe angle for front wheel 0, back wheel as far negative as you can go. Stabilizers on 1, both of them.
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TRANSMISSION... auto set it between 15 and 22 set the last gear as low as you can make.
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DOWN FORCE... None in the front max on the rear.
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LIMITED SLIP...
\\\\\RWD/////- 30 torque, 45 accel, 60 decel(rear options only)

\\\\\4WD/////- Front wheels... 10 torque, 10 accel, 20 decel. Back 30 torque, 45 accel, 60 decel
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BRAKE CONTROLLER... 5 on the front 15 on the back.
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\\\\\4WD/////... These will have AYC or VCD.... More importantly is VCD... You'll want this set on lowest possible for front wheel.... So it handles like a rear wheel drive car.

AYC isn't super important really for this driving style... But is hugely important for other styles
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-----------------What will these changes do to the car?
Or even, what was the point of all of this?

Well.... When you hit the gas you'll get some slight wheel spin and when you hit the brakes you'll get a slight e-brake effect without the wall crashing. When accelerating the car will be able to corner as needed.

What this does for the car is gets rid of the understeer(when you want to do it) and makes oversteer easily controlled.

Let's say you're going in for a corner without this guide.... Normally you'll brake early inch past the corner staying in the apex and no faster then let loose on the throttle once you can fully catch the corner without understeering.
It's a VERY good way to drive, it takes some patience and skill... But it doesn't work with most cars, they're too powerful and have heavy steering, braking is a challenge for beginners and so fourth.

With this when you brake early and enter at a reasonable speed you'll be able to control a sideways effect on your car as you brake... And once you let off the brake and hit the gas you'll get a nice drift effect.. If you tune your traction control the right way and have the right tires and horsepower you'll carve your way through a track beautifully.

And when you want excessive wheel spin you can hit the nitrous and it's still so controllable.

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-------------------------Will this make you a driving god?
Right away, no.

You'll probably be pretty damn good and quickly too!
Every driver needs to learn braking and throttle control and this isn't a get good quick guide.

This guide is to make drivers able to use cars they'd normally never try to deal with...

Dodge vipers, Shelby cobras, Pagani zondas, CIEN, saleen the list of over powered rear wheel drive cars is endless.
All very quick cars... But they're not easy to control and you'll likely go faster with a Nissan skyline or an Evo or some Japanese tuner car. But with this guide you can REALLY give them a run for their money or even demolish them.

-----------I hope this helps someone enjoy difficult cars and opens up drifting styles.

-Good luck.

 

[Rotary Junkie]

It might fix the nature of some cars but all it's really doing is forcibly reducing the limits of the car to the point you can't go quickly. It might feel better but it's actually slower than the understeering, snap-oversteering pig that was default.

 

[Clank]

Well you can think that as much as you like. =D

The numbers talk pretty nicely, I drive all cars I tune several times tuned different ways and I don't leave unless the laps are having trouble being consistently faster.

It's not really reducing the limits of the car... It's entering a corner differently and braking differently. It's not a "snap-oversteering pig" driving style, although it may look like that if you play with driving aids set on full blast wearing a helmet with a flag on it.

Just try it, it works pretty well when you take the pens out of your shirt pocket.

 

[Leonidae]

Not bad. I recognize myself from that LSD part. I used to have similar diff like that in RUF BTR and Alpine since they tend to swap ends unless you're awake. But now I've learned that I was holding the car back with that kind of stiff-ish differential and changing the suspension setup and brake balance gave better results.

BTW, do you use wheel or DS2? it has big impact on what kind of setups one uses when driving.

 

[Scaff]

To be honest this is more a tune to set a car up for drifting rather than racing, a good number of factors in here will simply slow a car down (as has been quite correctly said).

The main flaw (as far as racing goes) is that more than two types of handling balance exist, yes you do have under and over steer, but a car also has a neutral point in between these. That neutral point, when all four types are at exactly the same yaw rate/slip rate, is the balance that will allow a car to corner the fastest.

Another issue is your use of the brake balance controller, used in this manner is fine for a drift set-up, however a massive rear bias will increase braking distances and that makes you slower around a lap.

The slam it low and stiffen it to hell and back approach will also not work with certain car and track combo's, mainly anything very light on a very bumpy track (a Ginetta at the 'ring would be hell set this low and stiff, as would most TVR's).

The final point I would make is that you are also masking flaws in the set-up in a big way with the use of a driver aid, its no good banging on about how bad they are and then leaving understeer set to 10, the game is doing a huge amount of the work here, not your set-up. In addition the use of tyres that soft will also mask an awful lot of the suspension issues you have built into the car (in terms of racing).

Try getting rid of the understeer setting of 10 and tuning with a set of S2 or lower tyres, that will give you a much better idea of what the car is trying to do and will also allow you to develop a much more balanced approach to race tuning.


In closing comments like this....

It's not a "snap-oversteering pig" driving style, although it may look like that if you play with driving aids set on full blast wearing a helmet with a flag on it.

Just try it, it works pretty well when you take the pens out of your shirt pocket.

...are not going to do you any favours at all here, know the person you are talking to before assuming that they do or don't drive a certain way and make sure you have all your driving aids set to zero (which you don't) before you mock others.

Actually scratch that, don't mock someone again, the AUP doesn't allow it and it will get you in trouble should you do it again.



Regards

Scaff

 

[Clank]

It is a drifting style and isn't intended to be used on a light car.... I'm talking about 6cyl and v10 1000kilo+ weight production cars.

The reason for not changing the cars understeer is because the driver should be doing most of it themselves, with throttle control.

And the reason I don't use it with sport tires is because this isn't a fast driving style with sport tires... You spin your tires too much, brake slower ect... This is mainly for power laps so to be used with lap times with average speeds around 120-180mph.

The basic idea is you'll never hit an understeer problem cause you can change where your front end is facing with more throttle and with the right grip rate you'll not hit the wall either, the suspension being stiff helps in that. You can use that to your advantage, if your traction control and tires are at the right rate for your tire spin it will never get out of hand and you can control it. Unlike drifting the plan isn't to barrel into a corner hit the brakes get sideways and hope you don't go into the wall, when you brake the weight of the car lunges forward instead of being pushed and when you hit the throttle after that you can switch the direction of the car VERY quickly. The effect is more noticeable with a softer suspension.

Of course over steer styles will have problems with slicker tires
and it will always make the car corner much, much slower when you use sports tires.
No where in this am I trying to make a 100 horsepower 500kilogram car drive any easier, they're easy enough to start with and I don't even recommend it unless you can get at least 700-800 horses out of your car.


And I came off on him badly because he called the style "snap oversteering pig" Why doesn't he try this type of setting on a viper or evo and see what it actually does before he comments it.

 

[Clank]

I use DS2 btw.... Power is usually all the way on or all the way off, braking the same and steering. Figure if it was a wheel it would be more controlled but I've changed the settings to work for me, stubbornly really! Could just learn to use the stick throttle but it bothers me a lot.

I never really have a problem with the diff, sure it's not perfect though.... Usually before I have any problems during acceleration in cornering I can fix it with tire spin.

I'll have to try it out with a RUF, never got around to using it... reminds me a lot of a 911 turbo. Mainly I'll use SRT-10, skyline 34 v nur, zonda 7.3liter, they work pretty well... I love the zonda to death but the SRT engine in the front works so much more easily than the zonda with the middle... I can only think the Rear engine RuF would be like trying to manhandle a cow around a corner and I'd have to go easier on the oversteer.

Edit addition: Tried it out... Using the CTR2, I have a yellow bird and I'm going to try that out as well to see if its lower weight helps at all. The weight in the back is difficult with my set-up... Could change it around I guess. The advantage noticed with the Ruf is it's insanely stable during elevation change.

The braking is slower I noticed too, softened the suspension in the front helped a little bit with steering while breaking but it wasn't much, didn't feel like it was doing what I was wanting it to do.

Edit addition: The yellow bird was a whole lot better than the CTR2. It lost its stability but I was easily able to shave second pieces off per lap

The car brakes so much quicker and it doesn't hug the crash zone as much, the only problem at all was once in a while I needed to give the car a shot of nitrous cause the traction control was one notch too high, but easy fix.
I'll have to start experimenting with more cars I don't usually use unique ones.

 

[Smallhorses]

And I came off on him badly because he called the style "snap oversteering pig" Why doesn't he try this type of setting on a viper or evo and see what it actually does before he comments it.

Actually you need to read more carefully what he wrote.
He, in reality, said your setup might feel better, but is in fact slower than the car's default game settings which make it a "underteer, snap oversteering pig".

It's a criticism of the game's default dynamics, not your setup style.
Put your toys back in the pram, and take heed of what Scaff said with regards to the AUP.
I'd also suggest you have a look at Scaff's tuning guides which are stickied with Read This! at the top of this Car Tuning subforum.

 

[Clank]

Will do. XD

 

[Greycap]

You'll want racing medium and super soft tires.

DRIVING AIDS...
Leave understeer where it is, at 10.

Your "guide" could have ended here and you should have improved stock lap times by several seconds already. Because as said before by others, any car will handle well with aids on and R5 tyres equipped. On the other hand, any trained monkey can drive them reasonably well because the car grips like gum in your hair.

I've never seen a car that benefits from the highest possible spring rate. Quite a few that benefit from the lowest possible though. The same (but reversed) goes for the ride height, stupidly low means stupidly short suspension travel. Your rear wheel toe gives oversteer which was probably the idea behind it but then you kill that oversteer by the downforce that causes nothing but understeer. Your differential settings restrict turning as they're too locked for just about anything and the VCD set to 10/90 usually gives worse results than, for example, 30/70 because it'll still send some power to the front causing understeer but the said power still isn't enough to pull the nose out of the corner.

Oh, and if you seriously think anything below 700 bhp is easy enough to drive I invite you to try the previously mentioned Ginetta G4, with full power of course because it still only puts out a "lowly" 234 horses. No aids and sports tyres as that amount of power doesn't need racing rubber. Your eyes will be opened.