@GEO147 and for any newbie setup sim racer.
Great advice already given, Craig has already covered tyre compounds and temps
If i may add my bit, never tried “any setup” that has suited me.
( i have tried dozens and dozens ). ( Nissan gtr gt3 )
As a mid fielder i think i am more in the range of average driving ability.
( So perhaps for a beginner these statements are more easy to appreciate. )
What i am hoping to stress, is that a setup will not make you much faster in this sim.
But wrong setups will make you slower and very likely to create an accidents of your
own making. ( AC car setups are initially good )
The important thing for me is to fiddle with traction control, diff, rear and front wing if fitted, toe,
gearing. ( assuming tyre pressures are correct for the circuit you are on ).
Just one note on wings, be carefully not to remove or add wing with out ensuring you are fully
aware of the consequences of aero balance being upset. ( adding just rear wing is usually ok )
Aero understeer is usually easy to deal with.
Then, with your newly acquired borrowed setup, drive the chosen circuit, being very aware
of the cars symptoms , if you find yourself struggling with rear stability coming out of some corners
put diff power down to 10% and sightly increase rear toe in , check with standard setup to
get a ball park figure. if it is still unstable , start to increase traction control until you get
an over stable rear end, then start to reverse some of the adjustments.
you can alway use diff coast or rear wing to stabilise corner entry,
my diff coast is usually set to 60%.
Sometimes i will start to remove coast in an attempt to get the car to turn in better. ( experiment )
When you are happy with that, move to the front , see how it obeys you with turn in.
if it is sluggish add some aero, add or subtract some toe. i am assuming that this setup
has all the main setting already done.
Or try and make the rear less stable , than it’s over stable state that you have created.
Coming off the circuit, in a exchange for any sort of instability is not a good idea when racing.
Until you are fully aware and capable of dealing with the consequences. ( i'm not )
( there is so much you can do but it would require pages of info ). i am mainly
talking about a borrowed setup.
Remember, setup , once everything is about right is for gains of tenths and that tenth
gain is usually lost on anther corner.
The reason i am beaten by the quick driver is that they are just more skill full than i.
If for one moment i thought it was setup, well, i would spend all my spare time on just that.
It’s easy for “paranoia” to set in and think there is some secret , like run with no camber
and woop doop i’m an alien. maybe there is, i have never discovered it.
Or maybe there is a special club for aliens and i have been left out. Op’s my “paranoia”
is taking over again.
Your own personal setup journey will combine with much experimenting and reading.
Rasmus gives really good advice, and really well explained too. So read his articles on
this subject, in these forums. Other people also give there great advice in his articles to.
It is important to concentrate on one car for honing your setup skills, eventually you will start
to understand setups better with respect to the car and yourself.
That is a very simple idea of how to go about setting your car up. As your driving improves,
so the setup will follow your ability.
i realise my setup would be seem laughable to the quicker drivers, there are also a lot of
guys who are considerably more knowledgeable than i, both in driving and car dynamics.
Don’t think that setup and speed on the track are one of the same thing, the best setup
car may be the one driven the slowest.
So i am trying to say :-
You do not need to be an expert on setups, your driving ability and setups should be moving
in harmony with one another, and so will your questions as they should start to become specific
rather than so massively general that they become unanswerable.
Remember, stability, lap times, accidents, skill, these are the things that you are constantly
juggling.
i enjoy setting up my car more than racing, but the racing gives my efforts meaning.
So i have concluded that my setting up ability is, as average as is my driving ability,
so for me personally it’s a good match.
i am sure this article is full of glaring holes, it’s by an average sim racer.
i always seem to be stating the bleeding obvious, sorry about that too.
