PC1 Project CARS Setups and Guides

Bram Hengeveld · May 13, 2015

Whether you are new to sim racing on the PC, Xbox One or Playstation 4, or even an experienced simmer, creating your own setups can be a complicated and time consuming process.

Is it impossible to become a setup expert? No! First of all you need to try and understand the basics of how to set up a car and we have some guides available that will help you to understand your car better.

Back in 2008 @Ramon van Rijn released his guide for RACE 07 and until today this document has been used by tenths of thousands of drivers world wide. The basics of this guide fit Project CARS perfectly so if you need a hand understanding setups in an easy way, make sure to download the RaceDepartment Setup Guide here.

A more technical in-depth guide has been written by @Georg Siebert for Assetto Corsa. Although there are some specific parts dedicated to this other beautiful sim the main parts can be applied to Project CARS as well as after all physics are physics. You can read this extensive guide here.

Need more support?
Feel free to create a new thread here with specific technical setup questions and we'll do our best to help you out the best we can.

Dan Allen · May 13, 2015

First of all, I'd like to thank @Bram Hengeveld for making the thread about pCars setups. Funnily enough, I was having a moan earlier that I'm just terrible at setting up the cars not just in pCars, but in all sims.

My problem is, I have this tendency to understeer a hell of a lot (I mean badly!). So I check the guide by Georg Siebert (I think it was him, apologies if it's a different Georg!), and I tune everything I can to get rid of understeer. I'm talking bump & rebound, ARB, cambers, diff settings, brake bias etc and I'm still no closer to having a car which feels nicer

So, the million dollar question is, how do I know which thing to adjust. I'm starting to think that I'm doing *too much* to the car, but how do I know if it's a suspension thing or a brake thing for example. I think that's the only thing I don't understand, what situations call for what adjustments?

Thanks guys, I'd to be uploading some setups myself once I get good at them

Bram Hengeveld · May 13, 2015

Before making any changes to the setup try to find out where the understeer is coming from as in most occassions, especially with starting simmers the understeer is caused by the driver and not the car.

Braking too late
Carrying too much speed into a corner

Try to brake a few meters earlier and as hard as you can. Floor the braking pedal when you start your braking sequence and gradually release it when you enter the corner entry.

By doing so in most occasions the understeer is greatly reduced. Rule of thumb: slow in, fast out.

Only start making setup changes when you master the car and the track after enough practice to lap consistently.

My first adjustment on setups when I run into understeer is bringing the brakebias a few clicks to the rear as most default setups (in almost any game) cause my frontwheels to lock up under massive braking, which causes your car to go straight (understeer).

Find the balance where both the rear and the fronttyres lock up at the same moment.

Dan Allen · May 13, 2015

Thanks Bram. I would say that I'm an intermediate sim racer, I've been sim racing for about 12-18 months now, and I have learned the slow in fast out rule.

Although my driving is far from perfect, I think that it is a setup thing. I've just looked at Georg Sieberts guide again and have managed to dial it out. I think I'm beginning to get it now, but where as I used to get massive understeer it was intolerable, I'm now not understeering enough. I think I know what the problems are, it's just a case of finding the balance.

But what I was really getting at was, if I had massive understeer (or oversteer for that matter) and I wanted to get rid of it, how am I supposed to know if it's suspension or brakes which need adjusting first?

Bram Hengeveld · May 13, 2015

See the guides and ctrl+f for "understeer"

Kentmueller · May 13, 2015

Hello all,

I'm looking for some help with a setup on the Ford Trans Am Car that is stock for an eventual league. I haven't touched any settings because I'm not really sure what to do when it comes to setting those cars up.

If anyone could help me out it would be greatly appreciated and leave your set up down below.

Thanks!

Sele1981 · May 15, 2015

Bram Hengeveld said:
See the guides and ctrl+f for "understeer"

Hi Bram,

just looking for a good setup tutorial, where can I find these guides?

kartel990 · May 15, 2015

hiya has anyone got a set up for the fomula rookie cars

Dan Allen · May 16, 2015

Unfortunately the game won't let you share the setups as files like you can AC, but if you're looking for an Oulton Park Island setup, I'd be happy to type out what I use.

Dan Allen · May 16, 2015

Sele1981 said:
Hi Bram,

just looking for a good setup tutorial, where can I find these guides?

This is mainly for GT cars, but the same principles apply

http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/assetto-corsa-car-setup-guides.99049/

mycustardlove · May 16, 2015

Hello terry

Bram Hengeveld · May 20, 2015

I don't change much on the Formula Rookie other than adding some front camber I believe.

quartelg · May 22, 2015

Hi guys

Can anyone have a good setup for this car in Donington Park? The best lap is around 1.27, but i can only make 1.30.

I'll be very gratefull if someone could share their settings

Thank You!

Frank · May 24, 2015

I don't have a setup for you, but do you currently know where you lose most time and why? From there we can work on a setup that works for you.

Jack van Hees · Jun 2, 2015

Hi all,

I'm new at Racedepartment, and I started racing with Project Cars a few weeks ago. I've always been in to SIM racing, and I love PCars (accept the buggs). The last week I've been working hard to get setups done for the Formula A car. I always share my setups.

I hope you guys/girls enjoy my setups. Have fun with PCars all.

Cheers!

Jack

Andy 'Mars Bar' Graham · Jun 7, 2015

Anyone got a good setup for Spa using the Aston Martin V12 Vantage?

v4ttel · Jun 11, 2015

I have experienced the same thing. I did three things to help and it's more or less resolved the chronic understeer I used to have:

Playing with front tire pressures based on understeer/oversteer is the first. It's a balancing act, and if you get this wrong (either too high or too low) you can lose grip overall. For any cars I know that I experience a lot of understeer with, I usually decrease front tire pressure by 0.1 or 0.2 PSI (a few notches leftward on the sliding scale, depending on how the car is setup by default). This is a tip that occasionally pops up as a tip on the games loading screen.

Make sure your steering ratio is set correctly is the second thing. I know this seems basic, but in many games you can set this globally, but in PCARS it's a per car setting. By default some openwheelers (like Formula A), is set to 10:9:1 or 10:5:1, which is around 270 or 360 degrees of rotation, but say a GT3 car could be 12:X:X. Obviously that means a lot more physical turning of your wheel, and it's hard to maintain consistency if you are jumping between car classes. Make sure that you set this correctly as per your preference. You can change it in your tuning setup in the garage before a session.

I know Bram mentioned this already, but I generally do the exact same thing. I move the brake bias a few clicks rearward, as the default generally gives me front wheel locking, which in turns causes understeer as you aren't full in control going into a corner.

Ramiboo · Jun 13, 2015

Hi Guys, I'm trying to dial a good setup for Oschersleben GP for the RUF GT3 car. I'm lapping pretty consistently in the 1:28's. I'm sure I could get this better but after about 6-8 laps the rear tyres are getting too hot. The car feels like it has a little too much understeer once I start to apply power and at Oschersleben there are quite a few long corners where you build speed up from early in the corner to the exit. I think I'm then being too aggressive with the throttle to get the car out the corner quickly and that is heating the tyres up.

I've already lowered the spring rate of the front springs and can lower some more maybe, but was wondering if upping the sway bar at the rear could give a bit more front end grip, or maybe doing something with the caster or camber. I think it's a bit tricky in project cars to assess the tyre heat as you only get one heat value for each tyre.

Any help is much appreciated. Would be nice to work with someone in a lobby to work it out? I've got the game on PC and PS4.

jever · Jun 15, 2015

Hej guys

I need som help with setups for this car, or the Aston Martin GT3.

I this for a couple of tracks. First race in my series is on wednesday, on the Hochenheim circuit. My times in race are around 1:42:000-1:44:00. Hope there are one who can help me down, to 1:40:00-1:41:500.

Jever