How to go about tuning?

  • Thread starter 7Sins
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7Sins

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Although I love using cars in their standard form, I am starting to adjust a few settings, but still have not quite got the knack of it yet.

I want to use more RWD cars instead of the Evo/WRX but I find they oversteer quite a lot. Even when I am gentle with the throttle out of a turn, the back-end always breaks loose.

My question is, what is the first thing you change when tuning a car and where do you go from there?

At the moment I am trying to tune the 'Toe' settings. If a car oversteers a lot, the rear toe setting should point inwards??

By the way, I have read, Scaff's thesis :) on suspension (good read).
 
First tune the gears and PP to your likeness. I have found that a lot of wheelspin and acceleration and corner issues can be solved by tuning the gears alone. Next up you want to look at the diff and brake balance, although brake balance may need revising later on after the suspension work, but for the purpose of testing do brake balance now. Then start tuning your suspension, beginning with your spring rates, stabilisers and ride height. Once you've done them move on to camber and toe. Now revise brake balance if needed depending on front toe values.

In some cases you might leave the diff til last, and same with downforce. Depending on a car's initial characteristics is when you tune these first or last. (If they really need it or not). In extreme cases you might do rear toe early on too, that would be if your car is too taily to control and get some clean test results.

Hope that helps.
 
^^
Thanks heaps for that, gives me a better idea already. I think tuning is the hardest part of this game and I never really got into it. I didn't really have the patience initially but now I want to get more out of the game and learn how these settings affect the charecteristics of the car.
On a different note, I did use your settings for the Corvette Z06 and geez what a difference that made. I may how found a new favourite car :) Like you said, the gearing makes a huge difference and that was the first thing I felt.
 
7Sins
My question is, what is the first thing you change when tuning a car and where do you go from there?
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I usually start by bringing the car to the required PP level. Then I give it a few laps to get a feeling for the car, set some benchmark laptimes and determine the car's strong and weak points. The car's strengths and weaknesses determine the strategy to follow. Then I tune the gears to match the track you're tuning for. After that it's the ride height, springs and dampers. Then toe and camber. I usually do the brakes last.
Mind that this is a general flow of working and it's not a linear process. If the brakes (or something else) really annoy me I might tune them first. :) Also note that settings impact eachother, so you might want to go back a few steps to revise some proviously made tuning.
 
How do you know if a car requires more downforce on a particular track?

How do you know how it will handle when you revise the spring rates and on what tracks should should be changing the rates for?

It is not real life, so how do you know the track is bumpy or whatever?
 
GeeUK
1. How do you know if a car requires more downforce on a particular track?

2. How do you know how it will handle when you revise the spring rates and on what tracks should should be changing the rates for?

3. It is not real life, so how do you know the track is bumpy or whatever?
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1. Downforce for the rear presses the back of the car to ground giving the rear wheels more grip. Downforce for front pushes the front of the car down, providing more grip for the front wheels. Higher speeds = more pressure, which makes downforce most effective in high speed corners and straights. So if you have a track with high speed corners and straights (like Suzuka) it's probably wise to increase the downforce.

2. Check Scaff's tuning guides (at the top of this sub forum) for a detailed explanation on spring rates. Basically stiffening means less grip and loosening means more grip. The exact effect is usually not known in advance, which is why you need to test each modification you make to see if it works out the way you want. Be sure to check the damper settings as well.

3. Just drive around the track, you can hear the bumps and see the car vibrate.
 
GeeUK
How do you know if a car requires more downforce on a particular track?

How do you know how it will handle when you revise the spring rates and on what tracks should should be changing the rates for?

It is not real life, so how do you know the track is bumpy or whatever?
Click to expand...

Hey mate,

Downforce: A tradeoff in GT5 for Weight and Power. But indicators of needing (more) downforce are things like the rear sliding out or the front understeering. Essentially when you feel you want more grip, downforce will do this. Downforce increases with speed so you wouldnt rely on a lot of downforce at tracks like London and Eiger but you would get benefit from it at tracks like HSR and Fuji, to a lesser extent Suzuka.

How do you know it will handle with revised spring rates:?
Drive it : ) When I tune a car I will do as above, but follow a process.
Drive the car standard and see how it feels in standard form. Remember you are only tuning to improve something, not for the sake of tuning.
So you may find the front end understeers badly in cornes. You can adjust this with spring and damper settings, so you make 1 change then go and drive the car again and see if it makes a difference. Then repeat until you find that sweet spot.
Suzuka is a good track for testing as it has a combination of everything. The esses really test a cars balance and ability to hold a line. The hairpin will test brakes and stability under brakes, and then you have a couple of highspeed corners.
Tracks to change for are tracks like Daytona Road... go for a drive and pay attention to the way the bumps affect the car when you move from the Oval section into the infield section.. especially the second time.
London is another when really stiff springs are bad cause you are hammering the curbs.

You are right its not real life, but the car will still bounce and react in a faithful manner when you hit the bumps on the track.. just drive and look : )

Hope all this makes sense.. the real critical point is that you shouldnt be making change unless it gives you benefit. 1 change at a time and test every change.


Enjoy !!

** Edit Damn NLxAROSA beat me to it !!
 
Add to that: if you're not sure what a certain setting does: just change it and see what happens when you take it for a test drive.

What I usually do is take the car for a spin at standard settings (probably matched to PP level first). Then I identify what I think is good about the car and what is bad about the car. Usually you want to keep the good things and try to iron out the bad things. And keep in mind that any change is a trade off. Some things can't be gotten rid of completely without inducing some other bad issues.
 
OK cool, thanks guys.

What would happen if you maxed out the downforce on a car? Would it start to understeer?

What about gear ratio's? I could not tell when changing them what RPM they start/end so did not know if the gear changes would keep me within the max torque range.
 
if shifted where the blue line stops (witch is what it dose in auto) the next gear will be at the RPM where the blue line starts. theres no way to tell excatly but it will get you close then just tweak it from watching the tac in car after you shift. If you maxed the downforce on a car it wouldnt nessicarily understeer but it could depends on the car it will for sure lower youre top speed.
 
I am very new here & have, what some might think, a dumb question about GT5 prologue. I have my A license & am now in S class. Shouldn't I be able to change to a different type of tire now? I thought once you got your A license this was possible. When I attempt to select tires, it just gives me that annoying beep. Help anyone?
 
ahh... but you forget that this is not GT4. first of all, there are no licenses (yet?) secondly, you cannot really choose tires in S races. that's only in online or in arcade mode.
that's the reasoning behind your annoying beep.

note: for all aspiring tuners, I recommend arcade mode. It's a place where you can do whatever you want, and even decide if you want opponents or not.
 
Honestly, tuning is something that's different from person to person. You can get a lot of tips from talking to other people, but it's really up to you. For example, I had been tuning for a while until I joined GTP. When I found tuning, I immediately started posting stuff and eventually opened up my own garage. So try some tunes, post them if you want to, and you will get good feedback.
 

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