Question: No TCS - how to get the power down

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Mulsanne

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I have a Jaguar XJR-9 Group C car that I plan to use for the Le Sarthe II 24 Hours race. I consider myself a "purist" in that I'm keeping power at stock level and not using TCS or ASM. (The originals didn't have 1200 bhp or driver aides, so mine won't have them. That and I would like a challenging race with a bit of an underdog car.)

Out of the slow corners, the car spins the wheels uncontrolably through 1st, 2nd and 3rd gears. It's so bad I can barely control the car out of the corners, as it either spins or when I steer into the slide, the front tires catch and I go head-first into the wall on the opposite side of the circuit. Plus spinning the wheels wastes time and wears the rear tires.

So my question is this: how can I get the power down smoothly while not using TCS? Is there something in the gearing or downforce or weight transfer that I can do to get it to accelerate smoothly?

My humblest apologies if this has been discussed before, but I did not see it when I searched. Thanks for your help.
 
my simple soution is to change up a gear (or even two) early for the slipery bits, this way I still have forward momentum to keep me on line. Acceleration is obviously reduced, but what time you lose here is often won back by the resulting smoother line out of the corner.

I use this technique especially on that high speed wriggly section on Nurburgring prior to the second karousel - if I keep the car in 4th it gets too much traction and the back, which causes the back wheels to dig in and wanting to oversteer as it pushes the car around the bend, resulting in fish-tailing. If I change up into 5th (or even 6th depending on the car), it becomes much more stable and easier to keep on line without sliding out.

The same technique used when exiting slow to mid speed corners greatly reduces wheelspin on the inside wheel (if the LDS is weak) and helps stop the car bogging down as it lights the tyres up.

hope that's of some help to you, I don't think there's any magic solution as at teh end of the day it's down to driver control and how far they are willing and capable of pushing their car to the limits.


edit: I'm talking from experience with my mildly modded rwd street cars, I haven't driven your Jag yet (but it sounds like a real driver's car and I can't wait to!)
 
The feedback and control of a PS2 controller and TV screen just arnt enough to get a good feel of when the tires will break loose, so I think a TCS of 1 is rather pure in all fairness.

Alot of serious flight sims for the PC will have things like labeling of all planes withing 5 miles of you, since in real life you can see alot better than on the flat screen. This is usually accepted by most of the hardcore enthusiasts, so think of it like that... just an aid to help compensate for the game not being real.
 
My advice. Do what they did back then. Give it less gas. You do know the buttons on the DS2 are presure sensitive dont you. Or are you using a wheel? if so, even better.
 
If you really wan't more traction on the rear wheels, what you should do is set your weight ballast position fully to the rear... and add some ballast weight. If that car is an FR layout adding more weight on the rear will help it keep traction. If you add too much weight in the wrong position of your car however, it can greatly upset it's balance and comletely change its characteristics.

So add some weight to the rear of your car, if it FR, im not sure of that car, and you will see how better your traction is, especially on takeoff.

I hope this helps,
goodluck
 
I think he really dosn't like traction control, like myself, im very much the same. I found that if i set it to 1 it's ok, but anything more and the revs and slip of the tyres become really strange and twitchy. It basically cuts power to the engine so it feels like you loose speed sometimes.

GT3 has always felt very slippery to me, especially with FF layout cars. GT4 has improved but still feels fairly slippery.
 
Thank you all very much. I will try those settings this weekend, play around with it a little more, and perhaps (grudgingly) take the suggestion of the TCS setting of 1. :)

I didn't know the DS2 was pressure-sensitive. I just figured it would be "touch the button, get 100% throttle."

I know it sounds a little screwy, wanting to know how to get traction without using traction control, but I really appreciate your suggestions.
 
Mulsanne
Thank you all very much. I will try those settings this weekend, play around with it a little more, and perhaps (grudgingly) take the suggestion of the TCS setting of 1. :)

I didn't know the DS2 was pressure-sensitive. I just figured it would be "touch the button, get 100% throttle."

I know it sounds a little screwy, wanting to know how to get traction without using traction control, but I really appreciate your suggestions.
Click to expand...

I own the Jag too. It's a beast, and it's harder to control than some other Group C cars, but I find it ok. The main difference is that I use a DFP.
If, like you said in your first post, you're a purist, I would really advise you to buy one, it's really great, and you get a much better control over the car, especially on throttle and mass transfer. If you can afford it, buy it, or else, try it at one of your friends ?
It worthes the money, this game was made to be used with this wheel.

Regards,
 
I would try these, in order.

-Practice your thottle control. Be gentle with your inputs and never simply mash the pedal.

-GEARING. Adjust 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear to be 'taller' (numerically smaller), this will reduce the amount of torque you put to the ground in the lower gears. It may take a few tries to come up with ratios that work well if you adjust each gear independantly, but if you make them tall enough, it should reduce the severity of the wheelspin.

HOWEVER, making them too tall will hurt acceleration. Be careful with this trade off as you may end up trading speed for stability.

You can also use the AUTO feature to adjust all the gears at the same time. OR you can simply make the Final Drive gear taller. But this will affect the other gears as well. Be sure you don't make 5th or 6th so tall that you hurt your top end acceleration as it is very important on the Mulsanne.

-As others have suggested, choose an aggressive LSD accel. setting like 60. Make your inital somewhere between 25-40.

-If all else fails, you can try reducing your rear shock BOUND/BUMP setting. This will help to the keep the rear end planted better under strong acceleration. However, you may notice some handling balance changes, so be conservative with this setting.

-Don't bother with downforce. It is not effective at lower speeds and will only hurt your top end, which is critical at Le Mans. Run as low drag as possible while keeping average corner speeds up.

-Same goes for weight balance. This feature should be avoided with pure racing cars like the Group C Jag, which are already designed with very good balance. Any tinkering with this will more likely slow you down overall.

Hope this helps.


M
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I had tried "blipping" the throttle (touching the throttle button a couple of times) in the middle of the corner and that helped a little to smoothe the exit, but not enough of a help. The car is okay to drive for a few hot laps, but I do not want to drive 12 hours like that. (12 hours a-spec, 12 hours b-spec is what I plan on doing. I may be stupid, but I'm not crazy.) From what real-life drivers have said, the key is to make the car comfortable to drive first, then make it fast.
 
If your DS2 controller is equipped with, you can also use the analog sticks on it. That's what I used when I didn't have my DFP wheel, and I found it helped a lot to control the throttle.
Of course it takes a few hours to get used to it but it can be efficient. The only disadvantage of this, is that you can't accelerate and brake at the same time if you only use the stick.
But you could try to use on the 1st 2nd and 3rd gear when accelerating ?

nevertheless, nothing will be better than a wheel and 2 pedals !

Hope it helps,

Regards,

Snypa
 
I agree with Snypa. I don't always tune up my cars with tons of racing parts. Thus, I use the right analog stick for accel and braking. Once you get used to it, you will see that it works quite well and if you like to left foot brake, just switch the BRAKE button from "back" on the stick to R1. Good luck 👍
 

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