How do YOU determine your Brake Balance?

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ALB123

ALB123

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So, I've been playing GT6 for over a year now and while I feel like I have improved quite a bit, one very important thing that still eludes me is properly adjusting the Brake Balance on my vehicles. So many of my cars are at 5/5 because I honestly don't feel comfortable adjusting them one way or another. A lot of my cars that do have an adjusted Brake Balance setting probably came from the tuner's recommendation. :O

My question to you is: What do you do to determine whether you should go up a click or down a click on the Front setting and also, what do you do to determine whether you should go up or down a click on the Rear setting?

There are some obvious times where I feel my rear tires skidding around, or my fronts, but that doesn't happen all that much - unless I'm really pounding on the brakes, and chances are that's just because I'm driving poorly.
 
With racing brakes there's not a lot of resolution if I want to use most of my pedal travel. But I don't often have a race car (with RS) so perhaps I'm getting the short end. I did put racing brakes on a road car a year ago when racing on the Matterhorn in career mode.

Standard brakes (and often standard other parts), I go clearly above 5/5 if using something likes SM or SS tyres. For CH I don't feel a need to lower it usually. FWD and to an extent 4WD is a little difficult for me but I have put a rear bias on those often and it doesn't seem to hurt. RWD can have front bias if the weight transfer is something I can handle. That's pretty much all I have gathered on this.

I only do ABS off.
 
ALB123
So, I've been playing GT6 for over a year now and while I feel like I have improved quite a bit, one very important thing that still eludes me is properly adjusting the Brake Balance on my vehicles. So many of my cars are at 5/5 because I honestly don't feel comfortable adjusting them one way or another. A lot of my cars that do have an adjusted Brake Balance setting probably came from the tuner's recommendation. :O

My question to you is: What do you do to determine whether you should go up a click or down a click on the Front setting and also, what do you do to determine whether you should go up or down a click on the Rear setting?

There are some obvious times where I feel my rear tires skidding around, or my fronts, but that doesn't happen all that much - unless I'm really pounding on the brakes, and chances are that's just because I'm driving poorly.
Click to expand...

I usually set brakes to around 7/4 for F/R based on real life behaviour of cars that when braking the weight transfer towards the front of the vehicle increases the traction for the front tyres and reduces the traction for the rear tyres - front disc brake discs are always bigger than rear discs and most braking is done by the front tyres. That's no guarantee that it will always work that way in the game though. 7/4 usually works OK but I might fiddle around with it a bit if I am getting spins when trail braking or not enough braking. My Fanatec pedals have a feature that vibrates the brake pedal when ABS starts to kick in, which makes things easier.
 
Pseudopod
Pedal vibration sounds wonderful. Is this common or is your fanatec ones just very special?
Click to expand...

The pedals are called Clubsport v2. I think they are the only Fanatec pedals with that feature. They also have a hydraulic system that makes the brake feel more lifelike.
 
rixtar
The pedals are called Clubsport v2. I think they are the only Fanatec pedals with that feature. They also have a hydraulic system that makes the brake feel more lifelike.
Click to expand...

:drool:
 
This is my approach:
  1. Select the intended brake kit
  2. Set bias to 6-8
  3. Go to Bathurst
  4. Run a good lap
  5. Save the ghost replay
  6. Delete ghost replay
  7. Repeat steps 2-6 for other brake bias settings I am interested in.
  8. Load data logger and observe wheel speeds vs carmanageable oking for wheel lockup with all the replays saved.
I find 7-10 works well for a lot of cars, there is lockup but it seems managable with my G27 and my driving style.
 
I am a crap tuner, appalling in fact, I choose my BB based on Weight distribution.

60/40 - 6/4
55/45 - 6/4
50/50 - 5/5
40/60 - 4/6
45/55 - 4/6
 
I usually set it so that I can get the brakes to lock when I brake hard. Usually I don't go higher than sport soft tyres so that's what I balance my brakes for.

On most cars I set the front bias one click higher than the rear bias, because I prefer to have the front wheels locking before the rear wheels do (it's easier to recover from front wheel lock than rear wheel lock).

On FF cars I set the rear bias as high as (or sometimes even higher than) the front bias, to help the car to turn around.
 
I am by no means a tuner or fast in this game, but I adjust the brake balance so that I can rotate the car. Typically I balance the brakes to be stronger in the back to decrease the lunging of the nose of the vehicle. The exception to this is MR cars (or 4WD with a mid-engine) where I put as little brake power in the back as possible to prevent brake oversteer.

Something like this:
FF - 4/7
FR - 4/6
4WD - 3/7
MR - 4/2 (3/1 if you are a Stratos)

All aids off with ABS 1.
 
It all depends on the characteristics of the car/setup and how you like to brake. I'll generally take the car out for a spin with the stock 5/5 bias, if I feel like the car is overloading the front tyres on entry or just not giving me enough turning grip then thats a sign that the front bias needs lowering. I will then lower the bias by a click or two depending on how big the initial problem was and test again to see if I've freed up some front end grip and also make a note of what effect this adjustment has had on the cars ability to slow down. If the braking force seems reduced then I will add a click or two to the rear bias and test to see if this has corrected the issue. Thats all it really comes down to, making adjustments to one end at a time and making a note of how this affected the cars performance 👍

A general rule of thumb are that you shouldn't assume that the racing brakes are better, sometimes they are just more prone to locking up and you will get more consistent performance from the standard units, I only tend to fit them if I can't get a suitable balance of front end grip and stopping power.
 
Depends on lots of factors. I run most RWD race cars with 7/6. If you're spinning off whenever you brake, or if your brakes seem ineffective, change them. I also try to think about braking sensitivity at the same time.
 
ALB123
So, I've been playing GT6 for over a year now and while I feel like I have improved quite a bit, one very important thing that still eludes me is properly adjusting the Brake Balance on my vehicles. So many of my cars are at 5/5 because I honestly don't feel comfortable adjusting them one way or another. A lot of my cars that do have an adjusted Brake Balance setting probably came from the tuner's recommendation. :O

My question to you is: What do you do to determine whether you should go up a click or down a click on the Front setting and also, what do you do to determine whether you should go up or down a click on the Rear setting?

There are some obvious times where I feel my rear tires skidding around, or my fronts, but that doesn't happen all that much - unless I'm really pounding on the brakes, and chances are that's just because I'm driving poorly.
Click to expand...

Almost automatic for me as a DS3 is to use 8/5 or 9/6 for racing cars 600pp and up. Some of the odder handling cars like Cobra, Yellowbird, will try others. Sliding the front BB higher makes the cars feel better.
 
Its pretty simple. You have strength and bias you can change. Then you just need to know your tuning goal.


The basics
-------------

Strength - Brake strength determines how quickly the wheels lock. Basically you want to be able to use the full braking ability at all times, so youll want to be able to lock up on the slowest corner. Too much brake strength and the wheels lock too early making the car harder to drive fast. Not enough and youll be slow.

Bias - Increase braking in front to improve straightline braking, but not so much you get understeer. Increase braking in rear to improve turning, but not so much you get oversteer. Reducing front/rear has the opposite effect. The difference between the front/rear brakes affects how quickly the weight transfers to the front. This determines how much weight transfer force you need to apply when driving to turn the car into a corner and make it all the way around without having to hit the brakes again in that corner.

You dont necessarily need to change bias, just how much weight transfer force you apply to turn the car when driving. Change bias to fix cars that are badly out of balance or to get a little extra edge on competition.

Tuning Goal - Your goal is to balance the car and maximise its braking potential. Dont tune brakes to make the car easier to drive, this will make the car slower. If the car is hard to drive, drive smoother and be gentle when braking and steering


What to do
-------------

You tune both strength and bias together to get brakes that do everything well, tuning is always about tradeoffs and finding what works best for the current car/track/tire/race combo. Tune so that the car works well on all corners, but especially the important ones.

For cars that understeer you bias the brakes more to the rear from the current setting. For cars that oversteer you bias the brakes to the front from the current setting. Repeat the process until it feels balanced when cornering. All the time you need to make sure the overall strength is right and youre not locking too soon or too late.

How do you know its right?
-------------------------------
Youll know when the car is balanced because you wont need to make midcorner corrections to make it around corners. Keep in mind if you make any other changes to the car it will change the cars balance point by a little or a lot.
 
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Just by driving, I'll usually drive a few laps and just change the bias until it feels right. I have a few base settings that I work off of depending on the tyres, drivetrain and whether or not the car should use ABS.
 
I generally start with a 7/6 or 7/5 for most cars, (with ABS =1 to compensate for the lack of fine resolution and/or in general, the simulation), then adjust further after driving a bit if necessary. However, 7/6 + abs=1 seems to do the trick for me in most cases) and provides a feel for braking that resembles my real world experiences. I tend to rely more on gearing and generally have a light foot on the brake pedal, so a weaker (but still forward-weighted) bias might be more in tune with a "stomper".
 
I set rear brake bias to 10 on every single car I drive, except one or two loose MR cars where I'll dial it down to 8, front brake bias I usually leave stock at 5, sometimes down to 4. It suits my driving style, I like a car that rotates while trail braking deep into a corner and power out early. I'm also of the belief that this is the quickest method for GT's physics.
 
You all must be running ABS because I can tell you now that it's almost impossible to drive some cars with a BB above 2 or 3, period. I can't even use a Lotus Elise with racing brakes because even dialed down to 0, it locks up almost instantly.
 
KinLM
You all must be running ABS because I can tell you now that it's almost impossible to drive some cars with a BB above 2 or 3, period. I can't even use a Lotus Elise with racing brakes because even dialed down to 0, it locks up almost instantly.
Click to expand...

(Opinion)
ABS off and stock brakes = Fine
ABS off and racing brakes = "WTF is it locking up after 30% brake pressure?"
 
Lewis_Hamilton_
(Opinion)
ABS off and stock brakes = Fine
ABS off and racing brakes = "WTF is it locking up after 30% brake pressure?"
Click to expand...
Some cars (like said Lotus) are hard to brake with even when using stock brakes. Haha.
 
If I'm lost on what BB to use, I start at 5/5 and pull the front down if I need more turn-in. With slower cars on low-grip tires I'll often end up setting the front brake pressure to 1 and the rear to 4 or 5. On tracks with a lot of straight line braking (Fuji for example) I'll set the brake pressure much higher overall to something like 6/7 or 7/8, almost never higher.

If the car requires a front brake bias with ABS, I won't drive it. :sly:
 
KinLM
You all must be running ABS because I can tell you now that it's almost impossible to drive some cars with a BB above 2 or 3, period. I can't even use a Lotus Elise with racing brakes because even dialed down to 0, it locks up almost instantly.
Click to expand...

Depends on the tyres and the car. On sports tyres on most road cars with racing brakes you are correct and the Elise is one of the worst cases for it, really light and runs narrow tyres. On most of the race cars that's not what happens, some you can run up to 8/6 without issues with ABS off.
 
Some very helpful suggestions... I really appreciate those who took the time to offer advice on how YOU determine how you want to set your brake balance. This has been extremely informative for me and I hope maybe someone else learned something new by reading the post. :cheers: 👍 :gtpflag:
 
Thematic
With racing brakes there's not a lot of resolution if I want to use most of my pedal travel. But I don't often have a race car (with RS) so perhaps I'm getting the short end. I did put racing brakes on a road car a year ago when racing on the Matterhorn in career mode.

Standard brakes (and often standard other parts), I go clearly above 5/5 if using something likes SM or SS tyres. For CH I don't feel a need to lower it usually. FWD and to an extent 4WD is a little difficult for me but I have put a rear bias on those often and it doesn't seem to hurt. RWD can have front bias if the weight transfer is something I can handle. That's pretty much all I have gathered on this.

I only do ABS off.
Click to expand...

Why I will want to turn ABS OFF?
I don't think you will be faster... Someone?
 
ALB123
So, I've been playing GT6 for over a year now and while I feel like I have improved quite a bit, one very important thing that still eludes me is properly adjusting the Brake Balance on my vehicles. So many of my cars are at 5/5 because I honestly don't feel comfortable adjusting them one way or another. A lot of my cars that do have an adjusted Brake Balance setting probably came from the tuner's recommendation. :O

My question to you is: What do you do to determine whether you should go up a click or down a click on the Front setting and also, what do you do to determine whether you should go up or down a click on the Rear setting?

There are some obvious times where I feel my rear tires skidding around, or my fronts, but that doesn't happen all that much - unless I'm really pounding on the brakes, and chances are that's just because I'm driving poorly.
Click to expand...
I turn ABS off and brake from 200 km/h (120 mp/h) to 0, I start with a 5-5 balance, if the rears lock up first I click the fronts up, if the rears still lock up I click them down. Same method for the fronts.
 

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