Race Specific Setups

I see most of the videos are a year old or so, is this Steelcast27 still going ? Could really do with some v1.6 setups.

 

look at his avatar
he is staff member now.
orks for Reiza on the default setups

 

Can someone tell me the logic behind the setup loading? I load LMDh on RA and have interlagos setup loaded? Are setups track specific or generic builds?

 

AFAIK, (and I could be totally wrong), from my experience at least, it loads the most recently used setup. So if you were most recently racing at, say, Long Beach, and then went to another track, either in the same lobby or a completely different one on a different occasion even, the setup automatically loaded would be the Long Beach one.

That's been my experience anyway.

 

yes, and do you see any logic behind that?

 

Yes. Last used setup is the one that gets loaded.

Given, it's not perhaps as logical as loading a setup which relates to the track you're currently at, but in those situations where you don't have a setup for that car/track combo, it does make sense to load whatever the last used setup was, instead of loading the default one.

Perhaps, code wise, it's not something which is an easy fix in the Madness engine, or it could just be (and it almost certainly is the case) that the dev team have bigger fish to fry, so to speak.

 

How do you manage your setups, guys? What names do you give them, and what text do you put in the descriptions? Coming from AC, I often find myself in a situation where the game says that this name is already in use (I used to give some short names like 'q', 'r', '1', '2'), and the description contains some irrelevant track name due to this 'loading a previously used setup' feature.

 

Trackname (or a variant of it) followed by either R, Q or TT, and then a number to designate the version. Have started using a small 't' to designate that it's a Test setup too (usually to just experiement with what might be quite a large setup change) and a small 'w' for Wet setup variations.

For example: 'Kansai Qt' or 'SilvGP R2w' or 'Monza91 TTt2'.

As an additional note, I make sure to have unique track identifiers as well. SilvGP for all of the Silverstone tracks would not work either. I use the years of the tracks, such as '01', '88' or '91' after the track name to achieve this.

Anyway - yes, you'll have to give the setups unique names in order to be able to save several setups per car. R or Q just won't be enough uniquely identifiable information, which I noticed early on hence the new format which includes the track name as well.

 

Not sure if this is the place to ask this but does anyone know how to swap between LSD and Spool in the Group C Porsche?

Maybe I'm just being stupid but I can't for the life of me switch the LSD off or the Spool on in the setup menu.
The option for spool isn't greyed out, just doesn't do anything when I try to use it.

 

It's been a while that I have been struggling with the LMP2 2005 V8 to find a fast and consistent setup for it as it has quite a few quirks, and much harder to drive than the LMP1 2005's and I wanted to share my findings, of which I am quite pleased with.

First of all, the default setups had quite a few flaws:
- under power the rear wants to step out when up-shifting, especially in the mechanical to aerodynamic grip transition between 2-3 and even to 4th gear
- corner entry was often understeery
- Under-steer in high speed corners
- Rear tires loosing traction due to unwillingness to rotate

All in all it felt very nervous going on throttle, and the first step to fix it, and overall most impactful was the gear ratios. By default they are very large in lower gears, and due to the nature of the engine, although horsepower was in the same range, the torque difference was more than 100Nm, more than what the tires can handle. From MoTec data, I'd strongly recommend that you keep the rpm above 9400rpm when switching into a new gear, which is a good compromise between time between shifts and potential torque instability. Use the higher gears to ensure straight line speed, especially 5th-6th gear as on most circuits shifts happen only on straights for these, and tune them with the final drive to adjust to each circuit.

The aerodynamic and suspension setup is the next culprit, and something to notable is the lack of bottoming out even at maximum speeds. The front generally produces marginal down force, and most of it is generated by the rear, even at low wing angles. Ride height should be used to ensure that in high speed corners the rear stays above the front at all times, for that even on smooth tracks, don't aim for lowest ride height possible but aim for correct rake, as the diffuser stall is quite noticeable. Raising the car will counterintuitively have a positive effect on stability and lap times. Use enough wing to not loose the rear in long sweeping corners under power, but without generating excess under-steer.

Noteworthy is that in heavy, high speed braking situations the front will compress heavily but bump stops will barely engage, even at on soft front suspension setups, so to keep a stable rear, keep the engine braking to a more medium setting. Bump stops in the front suspension are almost superfluous as even a combined aero and mechanical load doesn't engage them. Rear Bump stops should be used in conjunction with the ride height, aim for enough ride height to absorb bumps and side weight transfer loads, and then set them to keep the rear above the front on straights

Due to the high amount of down force generated by the rear, the suspension will have to be stiffened to keep it above the front, it might seem enticing to have it soft for better low speed traction, but the car is so light that the trade-off for lower high speed performance is not worth it above 200km/h.
Also trying to soften the front springs to account for the lower down force on the front axle will result in more over-steer on corner exit and in general too much sliding on the rear, which I would advise against. Keeping the front stiffer, but greatly reducing dampers helps with agility but still keeps corner entry and exit stability and overall balance. The rear suspension should have significantly more rebound than bump to keep the tires pinned to the track in low speed situations.

The low weight and high torque differences also require the differential to be adjusted. Instead of raising the preload for more stability, it needs to be more predictable, letting the tires absorb the forces instead of the weight of the car; keep the ramps almost equal to avoid the quite bad diff hysteresis, and by increasing the coast ramp that will solve the initial under-steer. Lowering the preload a bit makes it also feel a bit more nimble mid corner.

Some general recommendations for driving the car would be to try to stay above 3rd gear, only go below in tight hairpins and for engine braking if needed. Around 3rd gear at 100-150kph slightly lift during up-shifts into 4th as the aerodynamics haven't fully developed yet, and it is where you will experience the most slip angle, and will need good throttle control.

Below my setup for Termas de Rio Hondo and Motec telemtry, which I used to tune it as it has a good balance of corners, just like Barcelona, with a smooth surface to isolate issues. Now, I am neither the fastest nor most skilled driver, but it has been months that I have been trying to figure out this tricky car as a challenge and hope it might help out some of you wanting to drive it competitively without frustration.

I'll try to build setups for more tracks in the future, that you will find in time trials hopefully