Lower Lap Time Advice @ Spa

[3GeForce]

Below is a video of the best time I can achieve at Spa in a Maserati Gran Turismo MC GT4. It's a low 2:37. When I did an online race at Spa with the same car the average drivers were around 2:33 and the fast drivers were 2:28 - 2:30.

I have no idea where I can shave 4 seconds off just to be average. Let alone 6 - 7 seconds to be competitive. Any help would be appreciated!

Traction Control: Off
Stability Control: 45%
ABS: On

Fuel: 50 liters

Left Front and Left Rear: 19 PSI.
Right Front and Right Rear: 20 PSI.

Height LR and Height RR: 0 (Front 83 mm Rear 96 mm)

 

[mclarenf1papa]

That would be great. I'm in the US Eastern time zone (GMT -4) and have evenings and weekends free. Let me know what would be a good time for you. I'm doing an online race tonight in the Maserati GT4 at Highlands Drift.

Just to clear up any confusion that may arise, Eastern is GMT -5, not -4.

 

[3GeForce]

Just to clear up any confusion that may arise, Eastern is GMT -5, not -4.

I must have looked it up for daylight savings time. There is a state bill here in Florida to do away with DST. I really hope it passes. The time change is unnecessary and obnoxious.

 

[Mr Deap]

Any improvement or we will never hear the end of it like all other threads?

 

[dud]

Any improvement or we will never hear the end of it like all other threads?

I'm not the OP, but the thread sparked my interest. While I didn't put together a really good lap in Spa I am doing much better with the attached setup.

The original/default setup has a front suspension looking like it is meant for a tank preparing for international deployment by catapult.

It also has an odd weight balance and not-so-well-matching default brake balance. I had that bother me at lowish speeds, so the wing setting didn't play a big role.

Be a bit careful with the rear tires, I did not find a setting giving the grip I wanted and is easy on the tires. They heat. Since setup in this car does not include damper settings that might not be doable.

Curious what other people think.

 

[Mr Deap]

In my opinion...

The setup is a little odd for the mechanical grip. In most scenario I adjust the suspension spring rate based on the G force X weight distribution using inertia newton law(funny it's never mentioned in any setup guide, how fail is that?). The weight distribution of the car is about 50/50.

The spring rate should be more stiff at the front for something balanced to reduce uneven suspension movement from the inner rear & outside front when cornering.

You should use this app to adjust the camber. (that's what make the most difference in cornering speed)
http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/camber-extravaganza.19496/

Because your front suspension is so soft, the front tires aren't performing optimal due to the camber setting.

The default value is about balanced, but for spa you target low drag.

You need softer suspension to promote grip during hard braking & reduce drag for the straight using the change of value of the wings.

ARB is used to sync & compensate the tire load due to the lack of inertia.

I believe if you simply max the front negative camber from your current setup, the lap time will be greatly reduced without even trying.

 

[dud]

I'll try again. I reduced camber because of overheating of the inner third of the tire surface, but that was some time ago.

I have played with variants of this setup some more and right now it is completely useless

I use a camber display app. So far I aimed for having 0 camber as the minimum in the highest g corner of a track. But I guess I need more.

 

[JoelK]

Here's mine from the same night mentioned in the OP. I went 2.28.2 in it if i recall correctly.
Bit wobbly when transitioning from side to side but front end tracks really nicely when you keep your inputs smooth.
I set it up with feel and worked really nicely for me.

 

[PhilS13]

In my opinion...
The spring rate should be more stiff at the front

Because your front suspension is so soft,

You need softer suspension to promote grip.

Sure. Making total sense. As always.

But hey you used words like inertia and newton, smooth.

 

[dud]

Here's mine from the same night mentioned in the OP. I went 2.28.2 in it if i recall correctly.
Bit wobbly when transitioning from side to side but front end tracks really nicely when you keep your inputs smooth.
I set it up with feel and worked really nicely for me.

This setup doesn't work for me either, it is lower than that funny "minimum height" that Kunos has put on the car. If I lift the body to minimum height then the rear gets too loose for me, regardless of whether I put the car even or at the angle you had (rear 20mm higher than front).

Out of curiosity, what speed do you folks have when you enter Raidilon (up the hill after the long downward straight)? In the MC12 I can do 180 km/h, not more.

This car presents a serious challenge for me in Spa.

 

[Amir Vodokotlic]

Your FOV is crazy.

Just use the Kunos onboard camera 2 that brings you right to the dash. (no steering wheel)

Your racing line is fine.
Only issue is braking too early.
Find reference point on track and use it. (most important)
Get better setup. (Check setup market.)

 

[BhZ]

Get better setup. (Check setup market.)

Absolutely not.

 

[Mr Deap]

I tried the setup market, some setups are beyond terrible, but I believe they're done bad on purpose.

 

[dud]

Well, on the bright side I found out what the "MC" in "MC12" stands for. "My Cryptonite".

The worst part is that I see the Ghost car always a couple seconds in front of me and I have no idea what setup I used for that lap. Not that it would help, by now the driving side of my brain is so mushed up I couldn't reverse park that MC12 in Spa.

I better let my wife drive us to lunch...

 

[dud]

I think this game has no realism.

I survived driving to lunch. How can I be bad in the MC12 around Spa?

 

[RasmusP]

Pretty much unrelated to the topic but interesting nonetheless I think:

Car: Mazda MX-5 Cup
Track: Magione
Corner: Turn 2 - Hairpin
Time gained at this Corner: 0.2s
Time gained to next straight: 0.35s

This is how an Alien lap looks like (white) compared to a normal mid-pack to front runner lap. You see that the red line approaches this hairpin a bit wider, trailbrakes deeper, turns the car around and accelerates. A standard "late apex" line.
You see that the apexes touch but then you see the white line being a lot tighter on the exit! So my thought was "yeah the white line is just a bit slower, takes a tighter line and accelerates with a bit less throttle.
Oh boy was I wrong!

In fact the white line has a higher speed until the lines touch again. Less steering, softer and longer trail braking. Front tyres have more "headroom" to turn.

And then the magic happens. After the lines touch the white line is at 100% throttle, the red at only 80%. I looked at the slip angles and the steering input and the white line steers even less, while having more slip at the rear!

So the conclusion is that the white line is drifting a little bit! More throttle induces a little drift while turning less and therefore keeping a tighter line at higher speed.
I'm the red line. Practiced around 1.5h and tried to do everything I've learnt about how to approach a hairpin and my time was "okay".
The white line however is from @BhZ who just beat the pole time of the latest Mazda event by 0.3s.

@JoelK you should install ACTI to be able to compare data

 

[Mr Deap]

The white line look more symmetric & also brake deeper at higher speed.

First you speak about slow in, fast out and then you say "get a symmetric radius for the corner". When you "apply" the slow in, fast out, you won't get a symmetric radius for the corner, as you say. If you do, you are doing something very wrong.
http://www.racedepartment.com/threa...mething-wrong-here.146720/page-2#post-2679486

Data don't lie

​

 

[BhZ]

The white line look more symmetric & also brake deeper at higher speed.


Data don't lie

​

That is not symmetric. You can't see it because there is no track map below the driving lines. I do not apply what you say. I'll also tell you more since you like to remark how right you are. I didn't nail that corner. I've done around 12 laps in total and there were still places where i could gain some time, in fact i was 1 second behind the WR (partly because i was running the default setup). Probably the best line would be a fusion between my line and rasmus'. Next time you want to "demonstrate" properly your statement, bring your own lap with a better laptime and more data, but please don't state you are right using a screenshot and partial data as proof as you just did.

 

[Mr Deap]

I'm currently not playing any racing game. I have like zero interest in proving anything or improving my gaming performance in that specific game. It just caught my interest & I had to quote that part, because it's funny.

 

[Shadowoff]

Youre setup seems really stable, too stable Stability is good but it ends up in understeer if you have too much stability Try adjusting the rear wing, rear camber (less negative) & toe (front to 0 and try to lower the rear until you feel like the car is about to slide) and the ride height (make the front higher, this will also result in a higher mid corner speed). Your line isnt too far off but you could brake later and turn in earlier

 

[dud]

Youre setup seems really stable, too stable Stability is good but it ends up in understeer if you have too much stability Try adjusting the rear wing, rear camber (less negative) & toe (front to 0 and try to lower the rear until you feel like the car is about to slide) and the ride height (make the front higher, this will also result in a higher mid corner speed). Your line isnt too far off but you could brake later and turn in earlier

When you say "lower toe" do you mean negative values as displayed in the right-side "live values" window in AC setup? Meaning you want the front of the wheels further together than the rear of those wheels?

Sorry, I see "positive toe" and "negative toe" and "toe in" and "toe out" used interchangeably all the time.

What do you set the differential to? The default of 30% under power seems awfully low for a car with such a long nose, also compared to most other similar cars.