Tuning heavy cars to be competitive at 450PP

  • Thread starter MrGrado
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Australia
Australia
MrGrado
Well for months now, I have been tuning cars at 450pp for bathurst to see how well heavier cars can compare to lighter ones. I have developed some tricks to get the best performance from heavier cars and I have suprised myself at the small gap in lap times between light cars and heavier ones. Each tune was built to have a weight that is a multiple of 100kg, for example, a car that would ultimately have a min weight of say 1048kg, would get 52kg ballast so it weighs 1100kg, or 152kg ballast so it weighs 1200kg, or less weight reduction and some ballast to make it 1300kg etc. And it would get power parts/engine limiting to make it 450pp. Tunes all have comfort soft tires.

Excluding just one dominant car I tuned, here are the fastest times for tunes of different weights.

1000kg 2:30.006
1100kg 2:29.428
1200kg 2:30.303
1300kg 2:29.364
1400kg 2:30.061
1500kg 2:29.585

So all best tunes for their weight, from 1000kg to 1500kg (excluding one) are within one second of each other! That says something about the integridy of the PP system at 450PP!

Here, I will list the power to weight ratios (kg per BHP) of these tunes...

1000kg 4.46
1100kg 4.54
1200kg 4.44
1300kg 5.00
1400kg 5.28
1500kg 5.00

The excluded tune at 1000kg has 4.00 power to weight..... It doesn't handle bends super great but staight line speed is very, very good. A few other cars might also be dominant at 450pp with bogus power to weight ratios and good cornering, and you would know them from online TT's I suppose...
 
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So, for a heavier car to be competitive with a lighter one, you want to try meet these requirements:
  • fat tires
  • good weight distribution
  • decent power to weight
(in that order)

You also need to drive ultra smooth with a heavy car!

For long cars or cars that are too front heavy, use way less rear toe in, you may even use loads of rear toe out.

For cars that are too rear heavy, use loads of rear toe in and use very high LSD values.

The key to getting a good lap time in a heavy car is, with out a doubt, good cornering! All my fast, heavy tunes are a little unstable on corner entry and during braking.

If there is interest in the thread, I will disclose more info.
 
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Interesting findings good sir.
Now a question is there a way to exclude the dominant car in a lobby with out knocking out the rest of the cars?
 
Interesting findings good sir.
Now a question is there a way to exclude the dominant car in a lobby with out knocking out the rest of the cars?

It's the Stratos tune from my garage. The stratos has a max weight of 1180, so you can set a min weight of 1181kg to exclude it. Keep in mind, at 1180kg, the stratos has a power to weight of 4.2 and not 4.0, so it might not be dominant even at 1150kg - 1180kg. The balast will be less effective as a tune tool also without having high weight reduction first.

Other cars like GSXR and Elise are very light, and would be excluded with an even lower weight limit. I got a time of 2:25.0 with a basic tune on the GSXR. It has extremely good handling and good straight line speed.
 
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It's the Stratos tune from my garage. The stratos has a max weight of 1180, so you can set a min weight of 1181kg to exclude it. Keep in mind, at 1180kg, the stratos has a power to weight of 4.2 and not 4.0, so it might not be dominant even at 1150kg - 1180kg. The balast will be less effective as a tune tool also without having high weight reduction first.

Other cars like GSXR and Elise are very light, and would be excluded with an even lower weight limit. I got a time of 2:25.0 with a basic tune on the GSXR. It has extremely good handling and good straight line speed.
Never thought the Stratos would be the dominant car.
The GSXR is very op in the game, I only used it cause it was the only car that could keep up in TT's for fast lap.
 
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Is it possible for you to list the cars and their times?
Sure, here they are listed from newest to oldest, so possibly some of the older times are a little slow. So not all are garanteed to be tuned and driven to max potential, but most are (to the limit of my ability). Times slower than the 2 tonne silverado were dropped and GSXR time is dropped (thats 2:25 or something). There's a replay available for all of these times, I might get a few up at some point and ofcourse, they could be all compared in Data logger as well.

1400kg 2:33.922 F40 '92
1400kg 2:30.169 Skyline GT-R '03
1100kg 2:29.428 T350C '03
2000kg 2:35.734 Silverado SST '02
0800kg 2:30.884 A110 1600S '73
1700kg 2:31.655 Fairlady Z (Z34) '08
1000kg 2:28.029 STRATOS '73
1600kg 2:33.917 Commodore SS '04
xxxxkg 2:34.081 SOARER 2.5GT-T '97
1500kg 2:29.585 Range Rover Evoque Coupe Dynamic '13
xxxxkg 2:31.385 SILVIA (CSP311) '65
1400kg 2:30.061 M3 '04
xxxxkg 2:31.385 427 S/C '66
1000kg 2:30.006 Tamora '02
1000kg 2:31.584 Griffith 500 '94
1400kg 2:31.275 Camaro Z28 Coupe '97
1300kg 2:29.364 RX-7 Spirit R Type A (FD) '02
xxxxkg 2:35.872 AAR Cuda 340 Six Barrel '70
1200kg 2:30.303 NSX '90
xxxxkg 2:35.299 C3 1.6 '02
1500kg 2:30.961 8C Competizione '08
1500kg 2:33.709 XK Coupe Luxury '07
xxxxkg 2:32.831 Tesla Roadster
xxxxkg 2:34.390 Corvette Z06 (C5) '04
xxxxkg 2:32.125 XKR Coupe '99
xxxxkg 2:35.535 135i Coupe '07
1050kg 2:29.519 MR-S V Edition (6MT) '02 *
xxxxkg 2:35.774 Monaro CV8 '04
xxxxkg 2:35.730 GT-R '07
xxxxkg 2:31.912 IMPREZA Sedan WRX STi '95
xxxxkg 2:33.933 Skyline GTS-t Type M (R32) Version II '91
xxxxkg 2:32.808 GTO SR '96
xxxxkg 2:34.879 Lancer EX 1800GSR IC Turbo '83
xxxxkg 2:33.201 IS 200 '98

* only tune not at an even 100kg and has wing fitted. It was a tune I had already before starting this project.
 
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Sure, here they are listed from newest to oldest, so possibly some of the older times are a little slow. So not all are garanteed to be tuned and driven to max potential, but most are (to the limit of my ability). Times slower than the 2 tonne silverado were dropped and GSXR time is dropped (thats 2:25 or something). There's a replay available for all of these times, I might get a few up at some point and ofcourse, they could be all compared in Data logger as well.

1400kg 2:33.922 F40 '92
1400kg 2:30.169 Skyline GT-R '03
1100kg 2:29.428 T350C '03
2000kg 2:35.734 Silverado SST '02
0800kg 2:30.884 A110 1600S '73
1700kg 2:31.655 Fairlady Z (Z34) '08
1000kg 2:28.029 STRATOS '73
1600kg 2:33.917 Commodore SS '04
xxxxkg 2:34.081 SOARER 2.5GT-T '97
1500kg 2:29.585 Range Rover Evoque Coupe Dynamic '13
xxxxkg 2:31.385 SILVIA (CSP311) '65
1400kg 2:30.061 M3 '04
xxxxkg 2:31.385 427 S/C '66
1000kg 2:30.006 Tamora '02
1000kg 2:31.584 Griffith 500 '94
1400kg 2:31.275 Camaro Z28 Coupe '97
1300kg 2:29.364 RX-7 Spirit R Type A (FD) '02
xxxxkg 2:35.872 AAR Cuda 340 Six Barrel '70
1200kg 2:30.303 NSX '90
xxxxkg 2:35.299 C3 1.6 '02
1500kg 2:30.961 8C Competizione '08
1500kg 2:33.709 XK Coupe Luxury '07
xxxxkg 2:32.831 Tesla Roadster
xxxxkg 2:34.390 Corvette Z06 (C5) '04
xxxxkg 2:32.125 XKR Coupe '99
xxxxkg 2:35.535 135i Coupe '07
1050kg 2:29.519 MR-S V Edition (6MT) '02 *
xxxxkg 2:35.774 Monaro CV8 '04
xxxxkg 2:35.730 GT-R '07
xxxxkg 2:31.912 IMPREZA Sedan WRX STi '95
xxxxkg 2:33.933 Skyline GTS-t Type M (R32) Version II '91
xxxxkg 2:32.808 GTO SR '96
xxxxkg 2:34.879 Lancer EX 1800GSR IC Turbo '83
xxxxkg 2:33.201 IS 200 '98

* only tune not at an even 100kg and has wing fitted. It was a tune I had already before starting this project.
Nice and interesting, I'm interested in your Camaro Z28 setup if you can post.
 
Nice and interesting, I'm interested in your Camaro Z28 setup if you can post.
Ok, tune in my garage! Wheel alignment really maximised the tunes performance with that car. It has a lot more than most people would ever dream of using and probably more than other 450pp tunes of mine even.
 
Ok, tune in my garage! Wheel alignment really maximised the tunes performance with that car. It has a lot more than most people would ever dream of using and probably more than other 450pp tunes of mine even.
Obviously, I've tuned every Chevy in game, some at multiple pp levels. 450 Camaro I have never done. And I am always curious to see how others approach some of them.

:odd: Really!? Never?! :P :lol:

Couple of interesting cars on that list. Might have to try a few too 👍. I see you found Land Rover's secret weapon there, still does the damage at higher PPs as well.

Nice little project @MrGrado 👍:bowdown:.
Yes, really ;):P:lol:
 
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