The great body stiffening debate!

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Body stiffening... it's new in GT4 (no I don't mean body refresh... I mean stiffening of new cars). Now, speaking for myself, I've been hesitant to use this option...

One the one hand, it seems like it could improve the cars... but they warn of "steering problems with some cars" - hmmm...

Then there's the fact that, once used, it can't be removed...

But then... do the cars need LESS body refreshing, if you do put it on?

Pros and cons... cons and pros...

So, what cars should be avoided in stiffening. Is it worth the money? Anyone suffered truly awful handling after body stiffening a car?

All information is welcome... let the debate, begin!
 
I've never done it on a new car. I'm at 98% so I don't think it's that crucial :)
 
kylehnat
I've never done it on a new car. I'm at 98% so I don't think it's that crucial :)
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Ill do 10 laps on Laguna Seca tomorrow with and without rigidity on my M3 CSL, See if there's any marked difference.
 
I did it to an Amuse S2000 , and even though it's already a sweet handling car , it made it stick to the road even more. The only disadvantage I found was hitting ripple strips , the car would really bounce off them and get up on 2 wheels. It definately made a noticeable difference.

I think it would be good for cars that have a lot of body roll like the old muscle cars although I havent tried it on one yet.
 
it reduces flexing and equalizes the amount of grip amounted on each wheel. The only negative effect i can think of is the one state by spinner, that it would make the car bounce more.
 
I fitted it to the Jaguar xj220 road car, and it sent the car into understeer city. :crazy: :yuck: but since that bad episode ive never touched it again, so if you make a list of cars that get better and worse with the stiffening than you can add that to the pants list.
 
why wear pants? crazy pants all the time get some, sometimes parachute maybe clown care, some ants toot.

Clanky.
 
I noticed a big difference when I refreshed the body on the black 787B. It was so terribly twitchy before, then it got a lot more stable and smoother. I haven't really done much with the rollcage upgrade though.
 
From my limited experiences, the rollcage was great for the Group C cars, specifically my 787B that I used to practically destroy the GTWC. It was much more stable (compared to the 787B that would bounce and slide around all over the track) and although it bounced around more, you can somewhat neutralize that by softening up your springs.

I have nightmares about my first Ford GT, though...
 
sprite
I fitted it to the Jaguar xj220 road car, and it sent the car into understeer city. :crazy: :yuck: but since that bad episode ive never touched it again, so if you make a list of cars that get better and worse with the stiffening than you can add that to the pants list.
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I've just done the same and found that it's improved my lap times. Are you sure you wern't trying to corner faster and you were trying to go too fast, because the car will understeer plenty without the rigidity even if you do that. This has been discussed before, and no one had found any car where doing the rigidity option had a negative effect on lap times.
 
@ live, no just driving the same, maybe its just prefrence i duno. but to me it made the car understeer way beyond what it was, so much so i sold it and bought a new one.
 
Sounds odd to me, it's improved mine I only did it to check as well.
 
I've tried it on a Suzuki GSX/R '01 and one with out.
I could not drive the one with the rollcage. To much oversteer.
Now B-spec Freddy,it don't matter to him. And yes I did notice
that the car bounced more when it hit a rumble strip.
 
~Sp33~
why wear pants? crazy pants all the time get some, sometimes parachute maybe clown care, some ants toot.

Clanky.
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Please stay somewhere remotely near the same time zone as the topic. Thanks.
 
what about the rigidity refresher plan? i only used that with one of my 787b's and it seemed to make the car handle better. im scared of increase rigidity though.. are you supposed to use them in conjunction? or just one or the other? once i used increase rigidity on a new bmw m3 just to see and it sent the car into understeer city. i had to sell it.
 
I find using both in conjunction very useful on used cars of any mileage(especially those dern black LMP's - which are heaps without it), and Increase Rigidity useful on new cars if I'm sliding a good bit and/or I have too much oversteer. 👍
 
Duke
Please stay somewhere remotely near the same time zone as the topic. Thanks.
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sorry there duke, someone in the previous replys started talking about pants.. so i thought it was mildly appropriate to enter one of my favorite quotes.

Wont happen again.

Spee
 
hmm..interesting topic. In fact I was surprised that PD has tried to simulate this option for a game. In the real world, body stiffening is very complex and a lot depends on the condition of the car in question. Beside the various methods like fitting strut tower bars and under carriage bars to stiffen the chassis, spot welding which is a seriously hardcore and expensive option there is also chassis balancing. All these have different scales of rigidity effects on the chassis of any car. Also the body type will give clues to how a chassis is likely to behave in the first place. A hatch with a short wheelbase will tend to have sharper turn in and a twitchy tail if a lot of weight is transfered under braking. Sedans with a solid rear construction or full booted 2 doors will behave differently as well. With so many possible outcome on any car at all, it is impossible to really predict how a chassis will respond unless you only take the bare facts of the car type into consideration.

What I am trying to say is that I feel this option could be unrealistic because it is impossible that PD took every model and fully stiffened the chassis. As a result, I would rather work with suspension tuning.
 
Has anyone ever tried this on the Yellow Bird, or Ruf CTR? These cars are some of the worst handling cars I've ever had in GT. Just wondering if this may help them handle the road better.
 
~Sp33~
sorry there duke, someone in the previous replys started talking about pants.. so i thought it was mildly appropriate to enter one of my favorite quotes.

Wont happen again.

Spee
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Thanks for the apology. As an add-on to an actual reply, it's not generally an issue, but for truly oddball stuff we've got the Conversation Forum where you can discuss pants (or pudding) to your heart's content.
👍
On the topic of the Chassis Stiffening, I'm not sure if this has be addressed yet but somebody above posted that they thought it was to fight the aging process. That's the Rigidity Refresher. Chassis Stiffening consists of seam welding the body, reinforcing the suspension pickup points, and adding a roll cage, which acts like a big truss in the car to stiffen the entire chassis.
 
MOTRSPRT
Has anyone ever tried this on the Yellow Bird, or Ruf CTR? These cars are some of the worst handling cars I've ever had in GT. Just wondering if this may help them handle the road better.
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Hey guys,

This is my first post here at GTP. This is a great 'site; I'm a huge fan of the series (of course), and I've been reading up on a couple of really interesting threads -- the fuel consumption one and this one as well.

MOTRSPRT -- About those RUFs, I think if you give them a chance, they'll grow on you. I wouldn't say that they have bad handling; they just handle differently due to their less than conventional drivetrains. There's a lot of weight in the back of these bad boys. They have what's called "Lift Throttle Oversteer".

You'll find that when cornering, during decelration the rear end will easily slide out (only apply the brakes in a straight line); once you apply a little acceleration, the back end will sit down and grab heaps of traction. With practise comes predictability.

Instead of going straight to the Yellowbird, try out the BTR first -- that should be more forgiving.


Sorry about this being off-topic; I kind of went off on a tangent, but I was in a helpful mood.
 
~Sp33~
why wear pants? crazy pants all the time get some, sometimes parachute maybe clown care, some ants toot.

Clanky.
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Sorry to keep bringing it up, but that was one of the funniest posts I've ever read. I'm still laughing.

I tend to think that if stiffening the chassis should make your car faster, even if it does increase it's tendancy to understeer. In theory, at least, it should keep the frame from flexing as much, which should result in more weight remaining on the tires, not less. I may be wrong, but I dont' think chassis flex is exactly a desireable triat, even if it results in less understeer than a stiff chassis. Unfortunatley, that's just my 2 cents, not experience speaking. But it sounds like tests have shown that it actually improves times.
 
I'm in a rut. As soon as I buy a car I always add body stiffening. In real life you always want a stiffer chassis on your vehicle. Takes out that miscellaneous flexing you have no control over. But I wonder if that is true on these sim cars. I'm going to have to buy another Opel Speedster and not put stiffening on it. I know those AI Opels handle differently from my stiffened Opel. In A-Spec I can destroy those opponent cars, but in B-spec neither of my modded Opels handle like the other Opels no matter what I do to the suspension. I'm also wondering if the roll cage stiffening also adds weight. I gotta do some more experimenting.

Someone had said to me not to put stiffening on the Chaparral 2J, but I tried it without stiffening and it still stunk in handling. If think stiffening is necessary on cars running as A-spec since human input isn't as quick correcting, but B-spec can compensate for a flexible chassis and still run well.
 
VGSsnatcher
Hey guys,

This is my first post here at GTP. This is a great 'site; I'm a huge fan of the series (of course), and I've been reading up on a couple of really interesting threads -- the fuel consumption one and this one as well.

Sorry about this being off-topic; I kind of went off on a tangent, but I was in a helpful mood.
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Heh, we try not to be rough about it, but that pants thing was off the wall. Welcome to GTPlanet! And I share your thoughts about the Rufs; I love 'em. You just have to know what you can do and what you can't. They may bite you, but they're always predictable, so if you get bitten, it's because you weren't paying enough attention.

See, I went OT myself (but at least it was about cars).
 
VGSsnatcher
Hey guys,
Instead of going straight to the Yellowbird, try out the BTR first -- that should be more forgiving.

.
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hey the BTR is a great car aint it :D
i Love it more than the yella bird. Its not insanely overpowered and comes in more than just yellow :)
 
Two of the best-handling cars in the game are the Pescarolos, but the Increase Rigidity option made them handle even better. It reduced their slight tendency to understeer.

The Jaguar XJR-9, however, is a bit "drifty" and has a tendency to oversteer. The rigidity option had the opposite effect on that car, and decreased the oversteer. Once again, the option helped, but not the way the scrolling message said it would. Go figure.

I've tested it on several cars. It improved every one of them.
 

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