Motor City Tunes

Review of Murcielago LP 640-4 Superveloce '09 (pdf 8)
Review on v1.09 using Region 4 Playstation and Sixaxis controller. Unfortunately, my LP670-4 (btw, it’s 670-4, not 640-4) already had weight reduction stage 3 and engine tuning stage 3 applied. So it’s a bit underweight and over-torqued compared to Motor City Tunes' spec (I used power limiter to get the right peak power). Also, I preferred to sample the V12 madness untamed, so traction control was off.

“The last of the Big Bangers”. Fans of Australian Touring Cars in the 1980s will immediately think of Peter Brock’s Group C VK Commodore, however it is just as relevant to the Murcielago. Developed without too much interference from Audi’s fun police, history will perhaps note the Murcielago as the last supercar to be innocent of stability control. The irony continues with a 1960s design V12 pushing an advanced AWD system which is surrounded by lashings of carbon fibre and other space-age materials. But what is it like to drive on soft and sticky racing slicks with a mild power upgrade? And how can it benefit from some tweaking by the folks at Motor City Tunes?

Parts only (default settings)
Around Laguna Seca, the first impression was that the chassis is too stiff and unforgiving. Due to the lack of compliance, there is no “flow” through the stages of cornering, it’s very point and shoot. Also, the balance is very understeery, which means the big V12 is actually stable through the infamous corkscrew. Who’d have thunk it?! The upside of the stiffness is that the steering is very sharp and responsive up to the point of understeer (ie mostly during turn-in).

Tall gearing doesn’t allow the AWD system to shine, the chassis and tyres have potential to sprint out of slow corners much faster than the gearing allows. Some power oversteer would come in handy, too, for dialling out the power understeer of the current setup.

Rare glimpses of life without understeer are seen, and unfortunately serve just as a tease of what it should be. Get brave enough and you can incite a bit of movement in the rear, but the real scare comes when it regains grip and suddenly you are understeering towards something big and solid. Adjusting the line mid-corner by applying the brakes will also incite some oversteer, but it’s neither predictable nor pretty.

Laguna Seca lap time was 1:25.3. Despite the negative comments above, I think this car has a lot of potential, and am excited at the possibility of a tuner dialing in a bit of oversteer yet actually making it less scary to drive because of greater predictability.

Enter Motor City Tunes...

Motor City Tunes Settings
Still very...ahem... firm, but much better balanced. To my taste, the suspension still feels very stiff for this track (but this will vary between drivers and tracks). But the extra front grip is just what the doctor ordered and the car is much more “chuckable” than using default settings. Compared with “sane” cars, the Lambo is still quite twitchy, but it wouldn’t be a Murcielago without the danger element, would it?

The combination of tighter gearing and more balanced suspension has suddenly made the right foot a useful tool in adjusting the line in tight corners. Mild power oversteer out of the final hairpin is an excellent example (and much more fun than understeering into oblivion!!).

The shorter gearing also means that 6th gear actually has to earn its keep now, so it’s no longer a wasted ratio. My lap time around Laguna Seca only improved by one second, but the fun factor went through the roof!

Supercar Festival @ Nurburgring GP
Time to see what it does against the competition. Nurburgring GP showed Laguna Seca to be relatively smooth in retrospect. Down the straights, the Lambo was bucking like its namesake. And things got very tense when the undulations happened to be during a corner. Like at Laguna, the improvements to overall balance and the ability to throttle steer were easily seen over the default settings. Top marks there.

Despite rumours of Bugatti Veyrons, McLaren F1s, Merc SLSs, etc showing up to the Nurburgring GP, the best competition present on the day was only a Ferrari California- mere cannon fodder for the Murcie. In the lead by the end of the first straight, Motor City Tunes Lambo was faster between corners and through them. 8 seconds a lap faster, more were it not for some very average driving by yours truly.

The LP670-4 is still a difficult and intimidating car to drive, but Motor City Tunes have made some great improvements in taming the bull.
 
Thanks for the review. Glad you liked the tune. I spent considerable amount of time with the LSD settings. This is what truly unlocked this car's potential.

For anyone trying my tunes, if you like a tune, but wish it fit your driving style a little better, feel free to post or pm me for advice on how to adjust. Let me know what handling effect that you are looking to improve (i.e., loose on exit).
 
I'm thinking of trying your Murcielago SV tune, but on racing hards. Is there anything in particular you would suggest I change or should I just give it a go as posted? I must say the center diff has me a bit sceptical, I usually run 30/70 or 35/65 on the lambos. :)

Cheers
 
I'm thinking of trying your Murcielago SV tune, but on racing hards. Is there anything in particular you would suggest I change or should I just give it a go as posted? I must say the center diff has me a bit sceptical, I usually run 30/70 or 35/65 on the lambos. :)

Cheers

As long as you change to racing hard, front and rear, I would run the tune as is. If you were going to change to sport tires, I would soften the springs and dampers a bit. Other than that, run it.

I did start this car at 35/65 on the center diff, but it got faster and faster in the corners with each amount that I moved to the rear. The car had aweful understeer until I got nearer 20/80.
 
Trying to decide what to tune next. Have a whole stable of Ferarris. Could do the Minolta Toyota? Have almost all of the premium Hondas, including the new CR-10. Own all of the premium BMW's. Could mess with something small like the Fiat 500 or Mini Cooper S? Or should I go old school; 60's British, American muscle, old super car?

Decisions, decisions, decisions...
 
Trying to decide what to tune next. Have a whole stable of Ferarris. Could do the Minolta Toyota? Have almost all of the premium Hondas, including the new CR-10. Own all of the premium BMW's. Could mess with something small like the Fiat 500 or Mini Cooper S? Or should I go old school; 60's British, American muscle, old super car?

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

Just out of curiosity, have you either the Premium Lotus Esprit V8 or the standard Lotus Esprit 350??

I used your guide for my Premium Esprit and changing the LSD settings transformed the car.

I run a road car race series for my friends (384bhp & 522bhp max), and I've been lucky enough to have people from GTP, GTDrivers, GTSC, GTRP and PureGT come in every now and race. The Lotus Esprit 350 is very competitive in the 384bhp class (1100kgs and sports soft tyres - no limit on tuning) but the Premium V8 struggled for pace, until I used your LSD guide. Now (on A spec at least) it's running very close lap times to the top cars and drivers in the 384bhp class.

I know it's a bit cheeky, I just wondered whether it'd be possible for you to maybe have a go at tuning either Esprits, or maybe both, sometime soon??

They really are very good cars and I'd love to see what their true potential is from a recognised tuner. I tried a tune for the Premium V8 from another tuner in the tuning section, but I didn't like it at all, far too stiff and the car just bounced like crazy whenever you touched a kerb.

I've managed to get it to feel very good and put in some impressive times but, like I say, I'd love to know the car's true potential.

Obviously, you don't have to, but I just thought I'd suggest it as I couldn't see it on your list already and these cars seem to be not very popular, but, the people who do use them rate them very highly.

Hope you don't mind me suggesting.

Best regards.
H
 
Just downloaded your data sheets. A BIG THANKS 👍 for taking the trouble to do this. You have certainly helped me with my game and I shall be adjusting my cars accordingly.

:cheers:
 
New to GT5, read your thread and enjoyed the information.

Have a max moded Esprit V8 premium that I love. Very high top end, but I can't seem to get it to grip on tight corners the way I'd like it to. Hope to see your take on this soon.

Also wonder if you only tune high end cars as I have a couple of cheap cars I'd like to see how fast I can get around Nurbergring (the big track).:crazy:
 
Also wonder if you only tune high end cars as I have a couple of cheap cars I'd like to see how fast I can get around Nurbergring (the big track).:crazy:

Welcome to GT5.

It looks like about 1/4 of my tunes are on cars with 250hp or less. All tunes posted on page 1 of this thread.
 
Funny you should ask that. I am currently tuning ALL classic muscle cars in my garage for the latest seasonal events. I have done the Shelby Mustang and 1969 Corvette. Need to post these. Worked on squeaking every bit of corner speed out of them, then detuned the engine to make it so that I could just barely win the events. I am having the most fun with Indy Road Course right now. I will post the two that I have done and get to the rest in my garage. 70 Challenger RM next.
 
Added three new tunes for the online seasonal Muscle Car challenge. See the pdf in opening post.

Shelby GT350R '65
Corvette Stingray L46 '69
Challenger R/T RM '70

I added trans, LSD, suspension and sport tires to these. Tuned them at their stock horsepower, then applied the power limiter to make it so that I could beat the fastest AI on the last lap.

Plan to tune all of the classic muscle cars that I have in my garage.
 
what about the premium or standard 07/05 Mustang GT and also the cobra R you plan on tuning any of them anytime soon ???
 
Just read the opening post-Weight has a huge effect on handling.do you think ballast could be used to tune.I havent tried it yet.On indy with the fast LM cars raising the front to 10,then raising the back in between 0 and 5 makes them fly.You can then trim downforce two thirds and she flies.not all the quick LM's,just some.Strange is the C60 hybride's rear suspension.it goes from -20 to -40 i think.

"Who&#8217;d have thunk it?!" <--- I would get banned for that.be carefull
 
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Just read the opening post-Weight has a huge effect on handling.do you think ballast could be used to tune.I havent tried it yet.On indy with the fast LM cars raising the front to 10,then raising the back in between 0 and 5 makes them fly.You can then trim downforce two thirds and she flies.not all the quick LM's,just some.Strange is the C60 hybride's rear suspension.it goes from -20 to -40 i think.

"Who’d have thunk it?!" <--- I would get banned for that.be carefull

Ballast can have an affect. I use it to balance front/rear grip. I tend to only use it if I need it. I have only used ballast on MR cars like the McLaren and the Yellow Bird.
 
When driving the Ferrari F1 cars i use the view that shows none of the car and is at ground level because it pitches forward and back but the real F1 cars dont virtually at all as seen 18 minutes 13 seconds after the start of last sundays Barcelona GP in Mark Webbers car.When i saw it it looked so familiar but it didnt pitch forward at all or any roll when turning.I love the feel of the G25 steering wheel,its weight is good,a little heavy at times around Cote d'Azur.Back to pounding the track...

Watching Mark Webbers on board if i focus on the replay label up where the laps to go counter usually is i can see a tiny bit of body roll...hmm
 
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How about a fully loaded mustang gt?

What ones are in the game - just these? I think I own all of these?

Mustang V8 GT Coupe Premium '07
Mustang GT '05
Mustang SVT Cobra R '00
Mustang Mach 1 '71 - tuned and posted
GT350R '65 - tuned and posted

Should I do the '07?
 
Yeah the 07 is the one I meant. Lol
But id also like to see what u can do with the Cobra R. Its the closest to what I drive in real life
 
I love this garage. Detroit Muscle is where my love for cars began. I was in Detroit in the 90's working on some sick muscle with my Uncle. Just learning off him and his buddies working on Mustangs, Fairlanes, Thunderbirds, Novas, it groomed my love for everything automotive.

This garage pays homage to my automotive roots. Keep it up. I only wish their was more Premium Muscle in the game.
 
My time available to tune is kinda short right now. Wrenching on the real race car. Gotta get my Spec Miata season started. I love days when new parts arrive.

Did spend some time this weekend with the Mustang GT '07. Stock, the car isn't too bad - some flaws to fix. I put a mid level tune on the car and at 308hp on sports softs, the car handles much better - a dream to drive. Lastly, I maxed out the Mustang with everything you can buy. Completely changed the car. Thought it was going to be an easy tune, but fighting some high speed push issues. Mostly worked out. Can easily spank the current super car seasonal. Want to fine tune the maxed out tune a bit more before posting.
 
Something I thought would fit nice in here

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It's a beautiful day round-hear and the Cars are coming out for Summer :)
 
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