Brake Balance - could use some help

golfer07840

golfer07840

662
United States
New Jersey
So I've been at this now since Christmas, 2017 and have never really touched the brake balance in any car. Basically, I'm new to racing games (sans the 1980's arcade games) and I have never been one to be considered a "gear head". I like cars, I know nice ones when I see them and as I've gotten older and able to afford them, I've come to appreciate driving nicer cars. I went from a Kia Soul to an Audi A4, needless to say, there is a difference. (no offense to any Kia Soul drivers).

So the question about brake balance is probably rather generic and in 2 parts:

1. What is it exactly? The explanation on the game, for this non-mechaincally inclined person, isn't very clear. So can someone explain it to me?

2. Obviously, this is a game and not real life and despite being the "Real Driving Simulator" I'm fairly certain driving these race cars isn't as easy as the game makes it out to be; so the 2nd part of my question is, how does it work with the games? I see people talking about brace balances being one way or another in certain types of cars. Why is this?

Also, having an understanding of this, will it help me have better times? I seem to skid a bit much in certain cars around certain turns, again, I'm guessing, but would proper brake balance help with this?

Thanks
 
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My understanding of this subject is very simplistic.

Brake balance forward = better straight line stopping ability and understeer.

Brake balance rear = reduced straight line stopping ability and oversteer.

Tweak the setting to get the handling that works for you.

Mechanically I think it means the amount of braking applied to the front and rear wheels.

There will be someone along shortly telling you this is all completely wrong.
 
golfer07840
So I've been at this now since Christmas, 2017 and have never really touched the brack balance in any car. Basically, I'm new to racing games (sans the 1980's arcade games) and I have never been one to be considered a "gear head". I like cars, I know nice ones when I see them and as I've gotten older and able to afford them, I've come to appreciate driving nicer cars. I went from a Kia Soul to an Audi A4, needless to say, there is a difference. (no offense to any Kia Soul drivers).

So the question about brake balance is probably rather generic and in 2 parts:

1. What is it exactly? The explanation on the game, for this non-mechaincally inclined person, isn't very clear. So can someone explain it to me?

2. Obviously, this is a game and not real life and despite being the "Real Driving Simulator" I'm fairly certain driving these race cars isn't as easy as the game makes it out to be; so the 2nd part of my question is, how does it work with the games? I see people talking about brace balances being one way or another in certain types of cars. Why is this?

Also, having an understanding of this, will it help me have better times? I seem to skid a bit much in certain cars around certain turns, again, I'm guessing, but would proper brake balance help with this?

Thanks
Click to expand...
Something that may help is knowing that it's not 'break' or even 'brack' :dopey:
 
While under braking, if the front tires lock up you will go straight on. This means there is too much brake power in the front so move it to the rear and test how much. If the rear tires lock up you will likely spin around. Move the brake balance towards the front so the rears aren't having to use as much braking power.

That's the gist of it, but it's hard to tell when wheels are locking up in this game compared to PC2 or AC
 
Sander 001
Something that may help is knowing that it's not 'break' or even 'brack' :dopey:
Click to expand...

OOPS! FIXED!

DesertPenguin
While under braking, if the front tires lock up you will go straight on. This means there is too much brake power in the front so move it to the rear and test how much. If the rear tires lock up you will likely spin around. Move the brake balance towards the front so the rears aren't having to use as much braking power.

That's the gist of it, but it's hard to tell when wheels are locking up in this game compared to PC2 or AC
Click to expand...

Thanks, that actually makes sense.
 
I dont think that you can assume more braking towards the front will make your car stop better while going straight, every car is different. You will need to adjust the brake balance specifically to each car. If you move the brake balance too far either direction most of the time that will result in longer stopping distances because one end of the car isnt carrying its weight so to speak. You can test the brake balance on each car with ABS off to get an idea of approximately where the brake balance should end up, after you get it pretty even then you can turn the ABS back on and tweak it from there. An example would be the GR4 Citroen, it seems the default setting has too much rear brake as the rears lock up very easy.
 
Good info in this thread.

Rearward brake balance equals improved trail-braking... Equals you’re faster with a rearward BB. Isn’t that the money question?

Only run frontward BB on obviously disjointed cars, or, to reduce rear tire wear.
 
I think it’s a personal setting according to driving style.
Personally I leave it alone I like everything neutral.
When I’ve goofed with it seems moving rearward can loosen up some cars and help them rotate by the rear of the car sliding a bit, but for me it’s too sketchy like that. That’s a double 3dged sword for me.
 
I always put it to the front, when I start using a car I put it to -5 and dial it back from there to find the sweet spot, the sweet spot depends on the car. For me this spot is usually around -3 or -4.

I like it at the front because it makes the braking distance shorter and it becomes more stable when transitioning from brake to throttle while cornering. You do get a bit more understeer but that mostly depends on how quickly you come off the brakes when entering the corner. Too quick and the car might snap, too slow and you miss your apex. Your trajectory is super important too. You can still easily trail brake when its to the front, if anything it’s easier since the car feels more stable.

I don’t put it to the rear very much but if I do it’s no more than 2. Too much rear bias and the braking distance gets longer which is slower. It also feels less consistent on corner entry imo.

Not sure what the actual values are for BB though. That’s what I’d like to know, since in other racing sims I always put it between 55-60% forward bias. -5 = 55-60% to the front?

Ok ill stop editing now lol
 
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I leave it neutral unless I'm having issues making the car turn during trail braking. Then I move it forward to -5 which usually causes whip back on the exit from the back end being too loose. So then I move the weight gradually to the middle again until the whip back is diminished. That could all be nonsense though as sometimes I can't tell if I'm just getting used to a car and the brake balance is just a placebo.
 
On most of my car I usually put -2 (more braking force toward the front) right when I get the car, it would seem to improve the overall handling...

On mid engine cars, with a tendency to oversteer I prefer to put +3 (rear bias braking) to make them more stable during cornering...

BB is not the only thing I tweak on a car, but now we are going into personal preference territory...
 
I usually try front and rear biased balance in each car to see how handling vs braking distance changes and choose the compromise i like the most. Most common is slightly front.

Rarely in some fia races i use it to even tyre wear between front/rear.
 
I tried -3 (Front) on both Lexus Gr4 and GR2 (Au Tom) and I couldn't believe the difference in braking, found myself able to brake a little later and get thru some corners quicker because I wasn't sliding to a near halt.
 

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