What's better - Weight Reduction or Engine Tuning?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Samareye
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Tastes great vs. Less filling. You can make a case for both, but its the application that matters.
 
Surely it depends on where you'll be racing. Monza? Lots of power please, Top Gear test track? Make it light so it will corner better.
 
I personally always reduce weight first because it improves many aspects of the car, such as acceleration, braking, cornering, tyre wear and (probably not in GT5, but...) fuel economy. Adding power probably does more to improve your power to weight ratio but increases wear on the tyres and does nothing to help cornering. Then again, the tyres probably make the single biggest difference, but I prefer to keep the tyres appropriate to the car unless I'm being very lazy.
 
neema_t
I personally always reduce weight first because it improves many aspects of the car, such as acceleration, braking, cornering, tyre wear and (probably not in GT5, but...) fuel economy. Adding power probably does more to improve your power to weight ratio but increases wear on the tyres and does nothing to help cornering. Then again, the tyres probably make the single biggest difference, but I prefer to keep the tyres appropriate to the car unless I'm being very lazy.
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Do heavy cars actually wear tyres faster in GT5 though?
 
Yes they do Phil, I was racing around Madrid yesterday and I could get 13 or so laps from a set of racing softs with the formula gran turismo. With 936bhp and weighs 550kg

I went out in my audi lms race car, with considerably less power and more weight. The tyres were gone within 5 laps.

The cars are completely different I know, but why else would the audi kill its tyres other than the weight
 
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phil_75
Do heavy cars actually wear tyres faster in GT5 though?
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Yes, definitely.
I've a V8 vantage and an SL600 that weigh 2 tonnes and only get a little more than one 'ring lap on S/H rubber.
Most cars half the weight can go two laps easily.

To answer the OP, depends how handy you are at tuning.
Weight reductions mess with suspension dynamics, i guess anything with stage3 weight reduction will need a race suspension tune as sports and height adjust suspension are too bouncy.

Engine mods are more straight forward, i think they move the redline and give better response. If you engine mod a car and tune it back down to the original PP i think the car could still pull harder than before you modded it.
(not 100% sure about that tho)
 
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I'd rather have power, even if the car is a cow, like the Maserati Gran Turismo, it would still handle fairly well as a cow. Power is more beneficial for my driving style, as I tend to counter understeer with more purposeful understeer and gunning it. Works... Most of the time.
 
I say lighter weight is a bigger advantage than more power. More power will help you accelerate faster and get a higher top speed. Lighter weight will help you accelerate faster, stop faster, and turn better. The only exception being if you are on a track with long straights, you may be better off with more power. Just my opinion.
 

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