It's more of a high level reminder to help a little really. e.g. reduce the wing, halve the diff clutches etc.... just so people are aware that they should try something during practice. On the flip side, if you find default is pretty decent out the box, then that is also a really nice thing to share.
What I usually do is if I'm not set on a certain car I try out all the cars and pick what just feels best to me which the easiest thing to do. I did so with the LMDh, the Caddis default felt best so I went for that one. This time the Porsche felt a bit better to me but I wanted to do the M4 which meant a bit more setup work.
It really depends on the car and track though. Not sure if default is the same for all tracks in AMS2 or specific.
Usually the defaults in AMS2 feel very understeery to me which I don't like at all so I usually decrease the rear wing, stiffen the rear springs, raise the rear ride height a bit and increase the toe (on both front and rear). I pretty much always end up doing that. Usually it's only a few clicks though, not too much.
I tended to use rather high wing settings but recently try to get used to more low downforce settings to not get overrun on the straights. Daytona and Le Mans are a bit of an exception anyway, I went as low as possible (or handable for me). Generally speaking I try to get the car to as neutral as I can in regard to over- / understeer.
This was the first time I played with the diff clutches as the M4 tended to have a loose rear on power a lot and that helped (reduced to 2), but before I never touched that.
Same is for the gears, I usually leave them as they are unless it feels completely off.
Another setting I adjust is the brake ducts and engine cooling, I try to reduce it as much as I feel it's safe, this time I went with 70% engine as it was rather hot and I wasn't sure what this car can handle but I think 50% would have been fine as well.
The brake ducts influence the tire temp in AMS2 so I keep them at least at 50, sometimes more. Depends on the track, temps, etc., this time I had 55 front 35 rear which was ok during daytime and kept the tires at just about 100°. More than that and they die quickly and it get slippery and you start loosing pace.
Speaking of braking, I usually try to put the brake balance to the rear compared to default, maybe around 53:47 for GT3s. Also track dependend, basically as long as I can slam the brakes and the rear stays for all corners its fine.
I use the SimHub overlays as shown below (older screen from rF2 but the same for AMS2). That tire info should be on AMS2 by default anyway but I'm used to that. I keep track of the tire and brake temps there and adjust accordingly. I also try to have the rire pressure right by making sure the temp diff between left middle and right of a tire is about equal.
As a last resort I used to check the suspension histograms, there was a good video of Nils Naujoks explaining it for ACC
In AMS2 I so far have not felt I have to adjust that as the default seemed to be just fine.
For data I have used Motec for rf2 and Z1 Analyzer for AMS2.
I'd happily share some setups but no idea how that works in AMS2. I could also record a few laps so if anyone is into this stuff can compare and get input from that. Do you know if there is any free tool available to get AMS2 data into Motec?
. Nearly lost it in the pits though, missed my spot and had to reverse twice
