Special Condition tuning

Recently I've been trying to finish special condition races and I have been having a lot of trouble. I learned about the dodge ram trick after a lot of google searching and tried it too. I just think its unfair to use that trick.

So can anyone tell me how to tune a rally car or a regular car (except for dodge ram) so that I can have a easier time finishing the special condition races?
 
I was hoping for a long list of all the changes you should make to each part of the car but instead I got "try gtvault"

I checked all of the gtplanet tuning section and it wasn't their except for the evo rally car thread but i don't have that car making it irrelevant to me.
I learned about the dodge ram trick after a lot of google searching

I searched for a long time not being able to find anything but thanks anyways now I know where to look.

EDIT- I just searched gtvault and i got a few results
I'll post it here for everyone, the link is http://www.gtvault.com/gt4/tuning-guide/

spring rates- low approximately 5-6 kg/mm
ride height- more than 140
shocks-front bound:5,rear bound:7, front rebound:6, rear rebound:7
camber- 2.0-4.0
toe- (less understeer) front -2, rear -1, (less oversteer) front 0, rear -1
stabilizers- 3 or 4
brakes-12 or less
LSD- low or none
ASM- 0
TCS- 0 or very low
Gears- shift them to the left about 5 steps from the default
Downforce- as much as possible but even on front and back
VCD- start at 30% and reduce up to 10% depending on your driving

Thats all the site says for rally and just remember that it all depends on your car infact i don't even know if he's talking about rally cars or regular cars for special condition. if you have any problem with any of this stuff then remember I didn't make up all of this information and I haven't even tried this setting yet.
 
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I apologize for popping the thread but I couldn't find better place to ask.

I'm going to set few hypothesis regarding the snow or dirt racing in GT4. If someone with knowledge or experience could confirm they validation and provide some explanation, I would be grateful.

Hypo 1:

Higher ride height increases amount of weight transfered to the tires. As a result, higher is better because it pushes more weight towards tires, allowing them to stick to surface easily.

Hypo 2:

Camber on a rally car is not required because speeds are low and tires stick to the surface with full patch.

Hypo 3:

Skiny tires and less weight is the best combination for sliding around. That is why fully tuned Kei cars are potentialy very fast.

Hypo 4:

Softer springs, dampers and stabilizers allows tires to follow the flow of the bumps and curbs but if too soft, even on dirt or snow, a car will roll around, unable to grip the road.

Hypo 5:

Relation between two cars on tarmac in terms of general lap times is identical on dirt or snow.

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Currently I'm trying to prepare few light cars for dirt racing (Sirion CX 4wd, Alto Works) but it is not working as I hoped. If I get over this, I may learn a lot.
 
I apologize for popping the thread but I couldn't find better place to ask.

I'm going to set few hypothesis regarding the snow or dirt racing in GT4. If someone with knowledge or experience could confirm they validation and provide some explanation, I would be grateful.
I'm nearly 10 years late on this one, but you raised some interesting questions here and I thought it'd be fun to answer them.
Hypo 1:

Higher ride height increases amount of weight transfered to the tires. As a result, higher is better because it pushes more weight towards tires, allowing them to stick to surface easily.
Weight would be pushed more towards the front or rear depending on whether you're accelerating or braking, due to more exaggerated weight transfer, so technically there might be a grip increase, but it wouldn't be a flat increase on all four tyres like you describe.

With powerful cars especially, the raised center of gravity from a high ride height can become bothersome and it can make the car feel loose and unresponsive. On dirt, I usually try to keep the front height around 110-125 and the rear as high as it needs to be. Raising the rear makes the car feel more nose-heavy and helps a lot with stability mid-corner.

If you're trying to get a car to apply its weight towards one side on-demand without sacrificing a low center of gravity, it'd be worth seeking a car with a short wheelbase, as they're more sensitive to sudden weight transfer within GT4's physics. One candidate could be the Suzuki Kei Works '02.
Hypo 2:

Camber on a rally car is not required because speeds are low and tires stick to the surface with full patch.
Camber is one of the most important settings for dirt/snow from my experience. It makes a massive difference in terms of mid-corner grip and makes technical tracks like Grand Canyon and Ice Arena far more tolerable. Without camber (especially rear camber), it becomes more difficult to exit out of a slide, and you'll overshoot corners more often and be more prone to spinning out. I tune front camber usually to around 3.0 - 4.0 so the front stays planted without feeling understeer-y, and rear camber to 2.2 - 2.5 so the rear hangs on mid-slide and sticks to the road.
Hypo 3:

Skiny tires and less weight is the best combination for sliding around. That is why fully tuned Kei cars are potentialy very fast.
Yep, pretty much. Wider tyres make the car feel more glued to the road, and encourage grip over drifting. Sliding is kind of inevitable in GT4 though, so wider tyres are generally preferred, especially since they provide reduced braking distances and better traction, allowing the car to apply its power to the road more easily. Most rally cars and sedans have the same tyre width with dirt and snow tyres though, so it's not really noticeable unless you're comparing, say, an Impreza with an Alto Works.

Less weight means that the car has less inertia and is way easier to control while braking into corners and maneuvering mid-corner. It's still beneficial to make a sacrifice by using the ballast to adjust the car's weight distribution to improve rear wheel traction though. Each car has a chassis stat called 'yaw' that determines the car's turn radius and general floatiness, and the ballast doesn't affect it regardless of size.
Hypo 4:

Softer springs, dampers and stabilizers allows tires to follow the flow of the bumps and curbs but if too soft, even on dirt or snow, a car will roll around, unable to grip the road.
To an extent. I would say the downsides of a stiff suspension setup on dirt/snow are less to do with it being unable to follow over bumps and curbs, and more how the car 'locks up' and understeers due to lack of weight transfer. If the springs are too soft though, it'll become more difficult to exit slides, because the car's weight will be stuck to one side while turning and it'll take longer for the car to regain balance.
Hypo 5:

Relation between two cars on tarmac in terms of general lap times is identical on dirt or snow.
There are a few variables that make this very unlikely. First, as mentioned prior, most cars have different tyre dimensions on tarmac than they do on dirt/snow. For example, the Lancer Evo VIII RS has 205/65 R15's on front and rear on tarmac, and the VIII GSR has 235/45 R17's. However, on dirt and snow, they both have 205/65 R15's, so the GSR's advantage of having wider tyres is gone and the RS can benefit from weighing 76kg less after weight reductions without downside.

Second, each car has a chassis stat for front and rear called "performance" which essentially act as grip modifiers, and their effect is way more noticeable on dirt/snow than on tarmac. It outweighs other factors like peak power, so, say, if you're comparing two GT-R R34's and one has a higher peak power but the other has better grip modifiers, the former might be better on tarmac tracks with long straights where it can put its power down, while the latter will be better on dirt/snow because it sticks to the road and is way more controllable mid-corner.

Torque curves are also more important on dirt/snow than the average tarmac track due to the prevalence of tight hairpin turns where you're more likely to be at low-RPM's. A car with decent low-RPM torque will be able to pull out of hairpins much more easily than a car with all of its power concentrated at high-RPM's.
Currently I'm trying to prepare few light cars for dirt racing (Sirion CX 4wd, Alto Works) but it is not working as I hoped. If I get over this, I may learn a lot.
The Sirion CX 4WD and Alto Works both have below-average grip modifiers, high stiffness and narrow tyres, so that's probably why you were struggling to get results with them. Of the 4WD kei cars, the Suzuki Kei Works '02, Alto Lapin Turbo '02 and Daihatsu Move Custom RS Limited '02 seem like the best options, as they have decent grip modifers and should stick to the road more easily. Here's the spreadsheet of stats for every 4WD that can get dirt/snow tyres, for anyone who wants to take a look.
 
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