Is sports suspension option generally always better than stock?

[B80]

Hi all

Quick (and somewhat basic by many of your standards perhaps...), but frequently these days im very pushed for time.

I'm thinking, if I just want to get in a car quickly without copying an experts tunes and drive a few laps or race against easy ai (don't care about challenge or lack of) and want to enjoy decent handling, on top upgrading and brakes, woukd whipping on fixed suspension generally make most/all cars feel better than stock?

In this instance im not intereted in buying anything customizable... and im clueless anyway with tuning myself, so want something plug n play.

Probably not as simple as what i want, but thought I'd ask!!

Also, is sports suspension opymtimzed more towards sport tyres? So if car is upgraded sports suspension and uses sports tyres stock, would race tyres/handling suffer?

Cheers

 

[Arkseven]

Anything is better than stock

I don't know much either, but I can write my experience racing at Tokyo 600.

My main problem with cars using stock suspension is the first turn which completely kills my front tires and can make me lose control while braking (it was a nightmare updates ago). The stock setting is too high for such an aggresive track and I can feel the car "wiggling" everywhere, even when I try to be as smooth as possible.

Recently I was trying to create a custom "sports tuners" grid. Only sports bolt-on parts allowed and I went with sport suspension for every car. It was quite fun to drive them, quite pleasant, so I thought "maybe I should take them to Tokyo...?".

Using the sport suspension I got a much more enjoyable race. Easier time controlling the car and tire wear got more evenly distributed. More control means smoother turns which means more faster lap times which means easy win

So yeah, I say if you want a quick way to decent handling, sport suspension is a good option! If you have the time, take the Supra 98', the BMW M3 07'/BMW M4 and the Evo Lancer V to Tokyo. Do 1 lap with stock suspension and do another one with sport suspension. I think these cars can show how helpful a few milimeters down can improve handling, especially the Supra!

 

[DefInfinity]

If it has the values I think it has, it should. A car is a system, and the suspension is just one (albeit a very important one) part of that system.

Generally, the natural frequency will give you a good idea of what type of tires the car should be running. I would say somewhere between 2 - 2.5 Hz springs are ideal for sports tires. The harder the springs, the softer the compound you should use.

If the car produces downforce, you will need to have harder springs to resist the compression caused by it at speed. If the car has an OEM rear wing, for example, you will probably want to increase the frequency in the rear to compensate.

 

[benjoi84]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but does anyone have any useful insight into the way aftermarket tuning parts work in GT7? My question is if I buy the fully customisable transmission (for example) in a 97 Supra am I effectively installing the same piece of kit as I do when I buy it for a Mazda Roadster?

The greater scope of the question is, should I fully tune up 2 different cars, are they much more similar to each other than they were at stock?

 

[Tommy_D]

I always put on the full customized suspension, unless Im going some sort of challenge where its not allowed.

Anyway, I have a quick and dirty tune I put on pretty much all the cars I drive for the suspension, depending on the tire compound. Setup takes only a minute and then I'm off to driving. I usually make another quick adjustment to rebound and compression and sometimes to the anti-roll bars. After that its done. I don't try to go too deep into the suspension tuning as it can be a huge waste of time.

 

[B80]

I always put on the full customized suspension, unless Im going some sort of challenge where its not allowed.

Anyway, I have a quick and dirty tune I put on pretty much all the cars I drive for the suspension, depending on the tire compound. Setup takes only a minute and then I'm off to driving. I usually make another quick adjustment to rebound and compression and sometimes to the anti-roll bars. After that its done. I don't try to go too deep into the suspension tuning as it can be a huge waste of time.

Would you mind posting them here please mate.

 

[Tommy_D]

Well, if I'm running sport hard tires, I will first turn the natural frequency to 2.4-2.5 both front and rear. Sport Mediums move that number into the 2.60's. Sport softs about 2.8 f/r.

Then I take a look at the ride height. I like to get the front about 10-15mm above bottoming out. Any lower and the front tires can't turn full lock. Rear is usually 5mm higher than front unless in testing the car is super lethargic on turn in.

Next I move camber to 1.8 f/r for pretty much every car no matter what tire setup I use. It seems to keep tire life in good shape and works well under hard braking. I may make adjustments if I'm still getting excessive tire wear. You really won't be able to tell that on a shake down lap though. Lower camber numbers gives better tire wear, better braking and more traction on acceleration. You sacrifice some cornering grip, I suppose.

Then I tinker with sway bars. Usually I'll up them both to 6 or 7 and based on a quick test drive I'll adjust f/r ratios to help the car track well through the turns. Too much understeer, drop the front and increase the rear. Too much oversteer, drop the rear.

Compression and rebound only get adjusted after a test drive. If the car has issues with weight transfer and transitioning from left to right, I'll lower the values a couple points down until the car can hold a more controllable line.

For toe angle I usually like .05 out on front and .20 in on the rear. That's almost universal for all cars. I think the only car I needed to really adjust this on was the Porsche 959 with its fat ass engine hanging off the back of the car.

The ride height, natural frequency, sway bars, camber and toe angle all get adjusted before I've even driven the car. After the shake down drive you should know if the car has weight transfer issues (adjusted rebound and compression), if it can or can't hold a line through the turns ( adjust sway bars) or is twitchy or lethargic on turn in (adjust rear ride height).

That's basically it. It's quick and dirty and by no means is it the best setup, but it's close enough to go out there and beat the AI on hard difficulty.