Downforce

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Tonnie073

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A lot of people say that if you want to reach the top soeed of your car, you have to put downforce on max. But everywhere i look: friends, internet other games my dad, they all say rhe same: more down force sucks you to the road, but makes you slower. Who should i believe?
 
Tonnie073
A lot of people say that if you want to reach the top soeed of your car, you have to put downforce on max. But everywhere i look: friends, internet other games my dad, they all say rhe same: more down force sucks you to the road, but makes you slower. Who should i believe?
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Downforce slows you down (it's aerodynamic drag) but too little downforce and you may fly right off the road.

Like so much in life, the answer is "it depends".
 
Don't try both and see. You wouldn't like that.
 
In the time it took to make this post and wait for answers you probably could have just tested it for yourself on Le Mans or SSR7. Also, it's explained in the in-game help in the tuning menu.

However, charliec gave you the correct answer. More downforce gives you more grip at the expense of top speed. Depending on the track you may want more of one or a balance of both.

As a side note, the balance of front and rear downforce will also impact the handling.
 
Always believe your father, if unsure ;)
Higher downforce gives you higher cornering speeds but lowers your topspeed on the straight. The more speed your car gains and the steeper your wing(s) are angled (=higher downforce), the more engine power your car would need to overcome air resistance. At some time your car will stop increasing topspeed, BEFORE engine power runs out, simply because the downforce generated is too high.
Reversely, with your wing(s) setup flatter (=low downforce) air resistance is smaller. That means you gain higher topspeeds because your car doesn´t have to overcome such high air resistance.

On tracks with many corners, you will more benefit from high downforce settings because you gain more overall time with higher cornering speeds. On fast courses like Monza, a low downforce setting will give you much faster speeds on the longer straights resulting in better laptimes.

Hope I didn´t explain too confusing, all in all, it´s a personal preference :)
 
Downforce slows you down. Want a simple example?



:D
 
Father knows best. 👍
 
your father is right:tup:
 
Downforce makes dramatic different in fast corners. The faster you go, the more traction you have. It increases exponentially. Really starts to play above 180-200 km/h.
However, it does so at the cost of air drag, so it affects high speed acceleration and top speed.

So, you should pump up the downforce on tracks with lots of FAST corners. On slow corners/hairpins it really doesn't make big difference.
You should decrease it on tracks with long straights and slow corners.
Of course, there's no magic one setting fits all. You should look for a balance.
 
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Rarely do you want less downforce than max, except for F2007,F2010, and X2010. For everything else there is just 3 tracks you might want less downforce, Daytona, SSR7, and La Sarthe. For Daytona it is simple, can you go flat out without touching the breaks, then you might want a little less downforce. For La Sarthe, ie Le Mans, it is much more difficult, so you would have to do a couple practice runs in each car to find the sweet spot. If it is with chicanes you will very rarely improve your time with less than max downforce, but without chicanes is a whole other field.
 
Tonnie073
A lot of people say that if you want to reach the top soeed of your car, you have to put downforce on max. But everywhere i look: friends, internet other games my dad, they all say rhe same: more down force sucks you to the road, but makes you slower. Who should i believe?
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Downforce is a aerodynamic technique used to produce more or less lift, thus producing more or less top speed or air resistance at high speeds. Aerodynamic parts associates with this technique, including spoilers and splitters.

Higher downforce = More cornering grip around corners but suffers top speed because it produces drag, or lesser air resistance.

Lower downforce = More top speed because of little drag but suffers cornering speed because of little vertical force on the tires, or in other words, produces lift. Lift also exists as high speeds.
 
So if i want top speed, i sjoildnt use a spoiler
 
chaosdd
On slow corners/hairpins it really doesn't make big difference.
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Sure it does. Downforce also gives you much shorter braking distances. Monaco is F1's highest downforce circuit.
 
Mopatop
Sure it does. Downforce also gives you much shorter braking distances. Monaco is F1's highest downforce circuit.
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Of course the drag and increased traction help slowing down from high speeds, but provides little assistance in slow corners themselves. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough.

You are perfectly right for Monaco since it has a couple of high and many medium speed corners, but almost no straight.
 
The only tracks I can say which do not require maximum downforce are Daytona, SSR7, La Sarthe.

I've also found that you can get faster laptimes at Indy road course with a lower downforce setting, due to the majority low-speed corners and a 2km full throttle section;)
 
As everyone's been saying: more downforce equals less speed but more traction. Additionally, if you increase front downforce versus rear downforce, the car will tend to oversteer; if you decrease front downforce relative to rear downforce, the car will tend to understeer.

So:

High downforce = slower top speed; better traction
Low downforce = higher top speed; less traction
High(er) front downforce + Low(er) rear downforce = oversteer
Low(er) front downforce + High(er) rear downforce = understeer
 
zedextreme8177

I've also found that you can get faster laptimes at Indy road course with a lower downforce setting, due to the majority low-speed corners and a 2km full throttle section;)
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I agree 100%
In addition I'll take 5-10 points off the rear end to help get around the corners. I was grinding Indy using the Ford GT LM/RC Spec II and gained MANY seconds by making downforce as *low* as possible. But since it's harder to keep it on the track, decreasing the rear relative to the front gives you that extra tweak to make the turns. Plus it the tires squeal like a pig on a first date.

Do yourself a favor -- pick one car, one track, and race it over and over, changing ONLY the downforce settings. Within a short time you will be an expert.
 
Tonnie073
So if i want top speed, i sjoildnt use a spoiler
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1) Make sure you understand that there's a difference between a wing and a spoiler. None of the cars I've wanted to add a wing to in GT5 had a spoiler as an option, but rather they've all been wings.

January_Testing_Day_6024.jpg


The car at the top of that picture has a spoiler. The one at the bottom has a very crude wing. The difference is that a spoiler is just a crude wall that the wind blows against, which is a low-tech, low-cost means of getting some easy downforce, but comes with a lot of drag relative to how much drag a wing would get for the same amount of downforce. If you had a spoiler that gets you 1000 pounds of downforce and a wing that does the same, the wing will get you that with less drag than the spoiler.

2) Not having any aero at all isn't necessarily a good thing. If you look at NASCAR, they don't go for a lot of downforce, mainly since they're running on ovals (mainly) rather than weaving through 50-MPH corners, heavy braking, and heavy accelerating, but they still bother running a spoiler. Even though they're not doing anything dramatic out there on the track, they're still turning left, and the little bit of downforce they get from their spoilers helps them keep the cars under control when turning left at high speed. If they were to rip those spoilers off, they might have to slow down a little bit to maintain control.
 
simple-
wing=slower top speed and downforce
no wing= higher speeds without wing
 
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