PC1 Project CARS Setups and Guides

[Bram Hengeveld]

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.

 

[Jake Fangio]

Hi all.I'm just starting to create my own setups and have a question regarding tire temps.Is it best to take the middle temperature on the tire or just the highest to gauge the best temp.And also,I know all tires are different,but is there an average temp to aim for when getting the best from the tires.Thank you all in advance.

 

[ENDR]

Found out this is in the telemetry HUD! Yay!

There's the telemetry screen, but most of the cars (and all GT3s) have multiple dashboard screens that you can switch between. One of them shows the exact tire temperatures, others have oil temps, brake balance, revs and so on. You just need to bind a key to HUD switching and (obviously) drive using a cockpit cam.

 

[ENDR]

I don't think there is such thing as an "average tire temperature". The road tires on a Caterham work completely different than soft slicks on a F1 car.
The best thing to do is to simply check the optimal temperature on your own, using the telemetry screen - the greener they are, the better.
And as for the "regions" on a tire - my guess is: they should be somewhat even. If the outside of a tire is much hotter than the middle, then you probably don't have enough camber and it's the exact opposite with the inside. In ideal condition, when going straight, most of the stress should be put on the middle of the tire, so that's where the maximum temperature should be.

 

[Jake Fangio]

I don't think there is such thing as an "average tire temperature". The road tires on a Caterham work completely different than soft slicks on a F1 car.
The best thing to do is to simply check the optimal temperature on your own, using the telemetry screen - the greener they are, the better.
And as for the "regions" on a tire - my guess is: they should be somewhat even. If the outside of a tire is much hotter than the middle, then you probably don't have enough camber and it's the exact opposite with the inside. In ideal condition, when going straight, most of the stress should be put on the middle of the tire, so that's where the maximum temperature should be.

Cheers mate.I tend too run them slightly hotter on the inside.

 

[Jason Warburton]

So I'm driving the Ginetta in the ps4 league and it's an absolute nightmare to handle.

I get appalling lift off oversteer, very little traction out of turns and shocking performance in the wet...totally un drivable.

Anyone got any tips or suggestions?

I'm using a T300 Gte wheel setup.

 

[Jack van Hees]

Mod edit. Videos go in the racetube section of the site. This is a setup discussion forum.

 

[Chris Sercombe]

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.

I got a race tonight useing the formula rookie at Oulton Park International, any chance of a few things to change on setup, 20 lap race, cheers

 

[Dan Allen]

I got a race tonight useing the formula rookie at Oulton Park International, any chance of a few things to change on setup, 20 lap race, cheers

Sorry for the late reply, I haven't been coming on RD as often recently. I'll type it up in a minute.

EDIT: OK, so I've copied out my setup. This is for Oulton Park ISLAND, but I'm sure you could use this for International too. If anyone finds a way to make this setup even better again, please feel free to share

All of the Settings listed are tweaks I've made. If it's not written here, just assume that I haven't had to touch it

The setup:

Brake Pressure: 88%
Brake Bias: 60%
Front L+R Camber: -1.0 degree
Rear L+R Camber: -0.9 degrees
Front & Rear Toe: 0.2 degrees
Front L+R Spring Rate: 30 N/mm (very important!)
Rear L+R Spring Rate: 55 N/mm (very important!)
Front Sway Bar: 11 N/mm
Rear Sway Bar: 7 N/mm
Front L+R Slow Bump: 3600 N/m/s
Rear L+R Slow Bump: 3500 N/m/s
Radiator: 0%

With this setup I managed to get a fastest lap of 1:29.694. Considering the RL lap record of Oulton Park Island in a FF1600 is 1:30.594, I don't think it's too shabby

BTW, here is a link to the fastest lap records of some British tracks, including all Oulton Park layouts just for reference - http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=131728

Hope this helps and apologies for the lateness.

 

[Chris Sercombe]

Thx for this, we race that track and car alot, so will come in very useful, cheers, will that setup be ok for most other tracks, i mean be better than the default.

 

[Zz_j0rd6n_zZ]

Looking for a general tuning setup for this car.

 

[Dan Allen]

Thx for this, we race that track and car alot, so will come in very useful, cheers, will that setup be ok for most other tracks, i mean be better than the default.

I think it's only fair to mention that when I made this setup, I made it when I was driving with keyboard & mouse. I've recently got a G27 and I'm about 4 secs slower than I am with KB&M. Take this setup with a pinch of salt!

 

[aTTaX Johnson]

Hey guys,

I created a setup for the BMW Z4 GT3. It was tested on Imola. In addition I uploaded a video on youtube, in which you can see the setup and one lap with me in the car. I didn't really try it a lot. If you are fast, you can beat the world record on PC. With my time I would have been second, but I play on Xbox and unfortunately there are no car specific leaderboards, so I had no real comparison there. I hope you enjoy it.

If you may have any suggestions I would really like to hear them.

In the near future I'll also create new setups. Do you have any special wishes? Just let me know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPalS2bMnHE

 

[Pär Öqvist]

Thanks work well on the Bentley it seems

 

[aTTaX Johnson]

hey guys,

it's time for a new setup. This time I got the McLaren 12C GT3 for you. I tuned it on Spa and reached a really good time there (2:15.256). Hope you like it.

 

[aTTaX Johnson]

Hey guys, I created a setup for the Formula A class. I don't know how it works for PC drivers, because I tuned it on Xbox, but I would say it's pretty fast.

1:27.985 on Nürburgring without cutting. This would have been one of the top places in the last Community Event.

 

[aTTaX Johnson]

hey guys,

I got a great setup for the new Community Event. LiQuiD's time with it: 2:02.514, which is #2 at the moment (Xbox).
Hope you like it.

 

[aTTaX Johnson]

I got something new for you guys! We were having a difficult time to get fast with this one, but we managed it.

 

[Mielxz]

I use the inside to outside temp differential as a way to gauge if I'm running to much camber or not. It is said that the inside shoulder of the tire should be hotter than the outside due to the camber (a higher negative camber will shift more weight towards the inside of the tire and thus more friction over a lap) and that the temperature differential should not be higher than 5 degrees Celsius. The central temperature should be in between.

So applying this, if I have a lower temperature (or not a couple of degrees higher) on the inside I will increase camber. However, there are certain exceptions to this "rule". First, it does not fully apply to drive wheels as higher camber will reduce contact patch on straights and might therefore reduce traction, so be subtle with those. Second, due to tracks not being symmetrical the front wheel of one side will receive more forces, this is the one you should be looking to when doing setups and apply the same camber both sides. I would personally not recommend having asymmetrical camber right/left. Last, be careful of excessive camber as this will affect your straight line breaking efficiency, as higher camber will reduce tire contact patch on straights.

In regards of average temperature, if the green temperature band is between 80-100, for example, I would target to have and average in between 90-95 more or less. You can change this by changing tire pressure. The lower the pressure the higher the temps will be. Here again, I would not recommend having different pressures right/left, go with the one that gets hottest. Alternatively, you could target for the temperature of the tires at the beginning of a time trial session. However, I have found these to be a bit high and in targeting for those I have found myself burning my tires way to quickly.

I hope it helps

Disclaimer: I am by no means an expert, I have just read things here and there and tried different things; its a mixture of "actual" science, bro science and things that feel right when applied. But so far this has worked for me

 

[Sixfootnineuk]

Funny enough this is one of my favourite cars on here....I shall get to work on that one....are you running a wheel or controller

 

[Sixfootnineuk]

If you want a hand in trying to get setups sorted in your man....I'm more of a tester than a tuner...apart from aero and gearing I'd make it worse lol....I did a lot on Forza 4 for my guys on there....they gave them to me because I was quick and I knew what I wanted from the car for each track they were composing for... So would be nice to do the same again.