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Ok guys here is a comprehensive guide to setting up a V8Factor V8 Supercar. While this guide should be used as just that; a guide the settings presented are at least some insite to what to look for and change in the vehicle to achieve better response based on your requirements.
V8Factor Setups HERE drop the settings folder on C\Program Files\rFactor\UserData\Your Name
"NOTE" Vista users copy/paste to C\Documents and Settings\rFactor\Userdata\Your Name
NOTE: I am by no means the greatest at setups, nor am I the fastest driver on the track. Setting up a V8 supercar is as much physological as it is changing settings. As the driver, your style influences much of the setup, so this guide will be slightly different if you use traction control and ABS as it is based on my knowledge without these aids.
Step 1 to any setting up begins by doing laps with the default setup or a setup you have used at other tracks. Doing many laps will give you a clear indication of where the current setup lacks and what might need to be changed. 90% of a poor lap time is made up through correcting your driving faults so untill you can hammer out consistent lap times lap after lap using this setup I wouldn't even bother making changes. This is probably the most important and best advice I can give anyone. If you haven't done a minimum of 50 laps using a known or default setup then don't move onto the next section until you have. Most level 1 drivers can do laps with 101%-103% of thier best using a default setup. The difference between a good setup and a bad setup is only 0.5 to 1.5 second per lap but where a good setup comes into its own is its consistency and that only comes with refinement and track practice. So in conclusion you can see that 90% of a good setup is setting up yourself, not the car.
Refining your setup is about making those small changes that allow the car to do what you want in the difficult or challanging parts of the track. Since this week ends racing will be at Eastern Creek I will use this track as en example.
"What do we need the car to do well at Eastern Creek?"
Well both the final turn and the first turn at Eastern Creek are very challenging and can make or break your lap times. Notice I picked on these two corners, the reason for this is:
1. The final turn is a reasonably expensive turn in terms of time taken, it only stands to reason that a good montion through this turn will yeild good results and major time reductions.
2. Turn 1 can loose you allot of speed if taken poorly and will affect you run down to turn 2. It also eats your front tyre so the cleaner you take it, the longer your tyres will last.
Consentrate your efforts on getting the car through these areas effectively. High rear wing and traction control will absolutely slow you down in these areas as they both encourage understeer. A compremise between these turns and the rest will give you a balanced setup that is faster over race distence. Race distence - The laps after lap 1. yes guys remember we are setting up for around 18 laps, not 1.
So what do we change?
Well this area is where so many of us go wrong and it mainly due to lack of Step 1- Practice laps. A gross reduction on a single lap does not mean a net gain on race distence. Always test your changes on laps 4,5,6 or even 10.
Example: 10 laps at 93 seconds is faster then (3 laps at 92) plus (4 laps at 93) plus (3 laps at 95). Getting it yet?
Ok so here is a basic guide to basic changes and thier effect on the car. We start with a car that is setup rather nutual with everything rather even and medium setting.
Rear Downforce In recent time I don't think I have ever used more then 14 rear wing on a V8Supercar. It produces to much understeer to a car that already has to much. Keep this low from the start and don't spoil yourself with rear wing to hide the lack of setup. Increasing wing will only yeild a good feeling untill the rear tyres go off about 2-3 laps into the race.
Steering lock Up to the individual however to much steering lock will result in you overdriving the car and melting the front tyres. Try to average it out for the tighest corner on the track
Brake Bias Once again this is up to the individual however if your experiencing uneven tyre wear it could be because you have the brake bias set to far to the front. For eastern creek I am using 61/39 and rarely go further forward then 64/36.
Brake Pressure The further forward you take the brake bias the less percentage you will need so as not to lock the fronts up every braking zone. Sometimes 92% is needed while other times I go 100%. As a guide I sometimes use 64/39 and 92% presure and others I use 60/40 and 98% pressure
Front Anti Roll Bar A lower bar will give you better slow corner grip but will hurt you in the faster corners. Higher figures give you better high speed turn but less grip in the slower stuff. I rarely set this below 25N/mm. Lower number here also tend to increase ttre wear.
Rear Anti Roll Bar Lower numbers will give the car better grip out of slow corners but hurt you with more sliding when getting the power down. the advantage of getting this as high as possible is good turn in and out of corners while under power. This is one setting you need to pay attention to for turn 1 at Eastern Creek. The higher the better.
Tyre Pressure Almost never the same on all 4 tyres, special attention needs to be paid in the garage after a practice session to see the state of your tyre pressures. The heat in the tyre should be progressive from the inside to the outside with the inside always a little hotter then the outside due ot camber. To high tyre pressure will show up as a centre heat figure close to or higher then the inside of the tyre. Adjust where needed.
Spring Rate These are not rocket science, they are much harder then that. It goes without saying that the softer the spring the more pressure being placed on the tyre therefore theory has it, more grip however it comes at a price as usual, tyre wear. Higher numbers at the rear will give the car more slide and better turn in but you have to control the slide but the result will almost always be a faster lap time. Higher number on the front will stablize the car in turns.
Fast bump- this is for fast piston and shaft speed and the main thing to adjust for potholes and bumps that unsettle car.Works in compression of shock.
Fast rebound-technically this is what extends the shock back out after bump compression and in real life has to be stiffer than bump so wheel can follow contours of road.
slow bump and rebound-adjusted for slow movements of shock which means not used for bumps and used for eliminating cadillac syndrome where car feels floaty.rebound should always be stiffer than bump.
If car is too stiff with springs/shocks it will skip over bumps and softening does help wheel follow contours
Ride Height Since the 1.1 patch it has been almost impossible to run the car to low, therefore running no less then 6.8 all round will give you good travel. I almost always run the rear at least 1cm high for the added turn in so generally I run the car around 6.8 on the front and 7.8 on the rear, give or take a few turns each way. I have seen good setups running 6.2 on the front and 8.5 rear but they are rare and only for certain driving styles and tracks.
Camber Another black art but whatever bakes ta cookie here. Generally a good race setup will never be overboard in either direction therefore i almost always use -5.0 on the front and -2.6 on the rear. Sometimes -3.0 on the rear but it depends on the track and what tyres it is wearing out the most. once again I rarely have the same camber on all 4 tyres so I increase the camber on the non working side where possible. Testing will teach you the propper camber setup for each track and sometimes you can get aways with increased camber and have a better race time even though your lap times start dropping away towards the end.
Front Toe will give you a better initial turn into corners but will also decrease you mid corner and exit speed. Be sparing with toe in on the front as it can really give you a false sence on speed. Qualify setups can afford ot go high here but race setups should rarely go further then -0.2 at most tracks
Rear Toe Increasing the rear toe will give you that Forklift turning effect. Pivoting on the rear axles and very easy to cook your rears. Once again use it with causion and never more then +0.2
Understeer in medium / high speed turns
-reduce the front ride height
-reduce the rear wing
Spin on corner exit under power
-soften the rear slow bump (over doing this setting will produce understeer)
-loosen the rear anti-roll bar
-decrease the differential lock
-increase the front slow rebound
-stiffen the front anti-roll bar
Car looses grip on bumpy areas of the road
-soften the springs
-soften rear slow bump and fast bump
Understeer on corner entry
-soften the front slow bump
-stiffen the rear slow rebound
Oversteer on corner entry
-stiffen the front slow bump
-soften the rear slow rebound
My tires wear out quickly
-reduce toe in or camper
-soften up the springs
Understeer at low speed / oversteer at high speed
-soften front anti-roll
-increase rear wing
Setting up your car for bumpy areas of the track (riding the curbs etc):
Understeer while going over bumps
-Soften the front fast bump
-Soften the front fast rebound
Oversteer while going over bumps
-Soften the rear fast bump
-Soften the rear fast rebound
If your car doesn't seem to notice the bumps
(if your car doesn't notice the bumps it means your car is not settling down fast enough after the bumps)
-you need to stiffen up all fast bump and fast rebound
If your car skates out from the bumps (neither end first)
-you need to soften all fast bump and fast rebound
The differential lock
A low differential lock will mean the outside and inside tires will lock together much earlier - a high differential lock has the opposite effect
power diff is the diff lock under acceleration
coast diff is the diff lock when off the throttle
camber / tire temperatures / tire pressures
Tire temperatures should be within a range of 10 across a tire (even temps across the tire is better) eg:112 108 103
-more camber will give you hotter inside than outside
-increase the tire pressure to raise the middle tire temperature
Anti-Roll bars
-stiffer front anti roll bar generates understeer
-stiffer rear anti roll bar generates oversteer
-stiff anti roll bars make a more rigid chassi but increase tire wear
-the front anti roll bar should be about 70% more than the rear
So now you've made a setup you like, Stick to it. It won't need changing for each track, whats good at one track will be so close to good at another, a doupt you'll need ot change anything more then a click here or there and your away at the next track. Rule #1 with setups, when your on a good thing, stick to it.
1 more thing need to do a lot of laps & learning breaking markers & top speeds before playing with a setup , just change break bias , ride hieght & gear ratio to start with , also a lot of the top driver don't use more then 17 DF on rear of car , they use touch of throttle to turn car into corners .
V8Factor Setups HERE drop the settings folder on C\Program Files\rFactor\UserData\Your Name
"NOTE" Vista users copy/paste to C\Documents and Settings\rFactor\Userdata\Your Name
NOTE: I am by no means the greatest at setups, nor am I the fastest driver on the track. Setting up a V8 supercar is as much physological as it is changing settings. As the driver, your style influences much of the setup, so this guide will be slightly different if you use traction control and ABS as it is based on my knowledge without these aids.
Step 1 to any setting up begins by doing laps with the default setup or a setup you have used at other tracks. Doing many laps will give you a clear indication of where the current setup lacks and what might need to be changed. 90% of a poor lap time is made up through correcting your driving faults so untill you can hammer out consistent lap times lap after lap using this setup I wouldn't even bother making changes. This is probably the most important and best advice I can give anyone. If you haven't done a minimum of 50 laps using a known or default setup then don't move onto the next section until you have. Most level 1 drivers can do laps with 101%-103% of thier best using a default setup. The difference between a good setup and a bad setup is only 0.5 to 1.5 second per lap but where a good setup comes into its own is its consistency and that only comes with refinement and track practice. So in conclusion you can see that 90% of a good setup is setting up yourself, not the car.
Refining your setup is about making those small changes that allow the car to do what you want in the difficult or challanging parts of the track. Since this week ends racing will be at Eastern Creek I will use this track as en example.
"What do we need the car to do well at Eastern Creek?"
Well both the final turn and the first turn at Eastern Creek are very challenging and can make or break your lap times. Notice I picked on these two corners, the reason for this is:
1. The final turn is a reasonably expensive turn in terms of time taken, it only stands to reason that a good montion through this turn will yeild good results and major time reductions.
2. Turn 1 can loose you allot of speed if taken poorly and will affect you run down to turn 2. It also eats your front tyre so the cleaner you take it, the longer your tyres will last.
Consentrate your efforts on getting the car through these areas effectively. High rear wing and traction control will absolutely slow you down in these areas as they both encourage understeer. A compremise between these turns and the rest will give you a balanced setup that is faster over race distence. Race distence - The laps after lap 1. yes guys remember we are setting up for around 18 laps, not 1.
So what do we change?
Well this area is where so many of us go wrong and it mainly due to lack of Step 1- Practice laps. A gross reduction on a single lap does not mean a net gain on race distence. Always test your changes on laps 4,5,6 or even 10.
Example: 10 laps at 93 seconds is faster then (3 laps at 92) plus (4 laps at 93) plus (3 laps at 95). Getting it yet?
Ok so here is a basic guide to basic changes and thier effect on the car. We start with a car that is setup rather nutual with everything rather even and medium setting.
Rear Downforce In recent time I don't think I have ever used more then 14 rear wing on a V8Supercar. It produces to much understeer to a car that already has to much. Keep this low from the start and don't spoil yourself with rear wing to hide the lack of setup. Increasing wing will only yeild a good feeling untill the rear tyres go off about 2-3 laps into the race.
Steering lock Up to the individual however to much steering lock will result in you overdriving the car and melting the front tyres. Try to average it out for the tighest corner on the track
Brake Bias Once again this is up to the individual however if your experiencing uneven tyre wear it could be because you have the brake bias set to far to the front. For eastern creek I am using 61/39 and rarely go further forward then 64/36.
Brake Pressure The further forward you take the brake bias the less percentage you will need so as not to lock the fronts up every braking zone. Sometimes 92% is needed while other times I go 100%. As a guide I sometimes use 64/39 and 92% presure and others I use 60/40 and 98% pressure
Front Anti Roll Bar A lower bar will give you better slow corner grip but will hurt you in the faster corners. Higher figures give you better high speed turn but less grip in the slower stuff. I rarely set this below 25N/mm. Lower number here also tend to increase ttre wear.
Rear Anti Roll Bar Lower numbers will give the car better grip out of slow corners but hurt you with more sliding when getting the power down. the advantage of getting this as high as possible is good turn in and out of corners while under power. This is one setting you need to pay attention to for turn 1 at Eastern Creek. The higher the better.
Tyre Pressure Almost never the same on all 4 tyres, special attention needs to be paid in the garage after a practice session to see the state of your tyre pressures. The heat in the tyre should be progressive from the inside to the outside with the inside always a little hotter then the outside due ot camber. To high tyre pressure will show up as a centre heat figure close to or higher then the inside of the tyre. Adjust where needed.
Spring Rate These are not rocket science, they are much harder then that. It goes without saying that the softer the spring the more pressure being placed on the tyre therefore theory has it, more grip however it comes at a price as usual, tyre wear. Higher numbers at the rear will give the car more slide and better turn in but you have to control the slide but the result will almost always be a faster lap time. Higher number on the front will stablize the car in turns.
Fast bump- this is for fast piston and shaft speed and the main thing to adjust for potholes and bumps that unsettle car.Works in compression of shock.
Fast rebound-technically this is what extends the shock back out after bump compression and in real life has to be stiffer than bump so wheel can follow contours of road.
slow bump and rebound-adjusted for slow movements of shock which means not used for bumps and used for eliminating cadillac syndrome where car feels floaty.rebound should always be stiffer than bump.
If car is too stiff with springs/shocks it will skip over bumps and softening does help wheel follow contours
Ride Height Since the 1.1 patch it has been almost impossible to run the car to low, therefore running no less then 6.8 all round will give you good travel. I almost always run the rear at least 1cm high for the added turn in so generally I run the car around 6.8 on the front and 7.8 on the rear, give or take a few turns each way. I have seen good setups running 6.2 on the front and 8.5 rear but they are rare and only for certain driving styles and tracks.
Camber Another black art but whatever bakes ta cookie here. Generally a good race setup will never be overboard in either direction therefore i almost always use -5.0 on the front and -2.6 on the rear. Sometimes -3.0 on the rear but it depends on the track and what tyres it is wearing out the most. once again I rarely have the same camber on all 4 tyres so I increase the camber on the non working side where possible. Testing will teach you the propper camber setup for each track and sometimes you can get aways with increased camber and have a better race time even though your lap times start dropping away towards the end.
Front Toe will give you a better initial turn into corners but will also decrease you mid corner and exit speed. Be sparing with toe in on the front as it can really give you a false sence on speed. Qualify setups can afford ot go high here but race setups should rarely go further then -0.2 at most tracks
Rear Toe Increasing the rear toe will give you that Forklift turning effect. Pivoting on the rear axles and very easy to cook your rears. Once again use it with causion and never more then +0.2
Understeer in medium / high speed turns
-reduce the front ride height
-reduce the rear wing
Spin on corner exit under power
-soften the rear slow bump (over doing this setting will produce understeer)
-loosen the rear anti-roll bar
-decrease the differential lock
-increase the front slow rebound
-stiffen the front anti-roll bar
Car looses grip on bumpy areas of the road
-soften the springs
-soften rear slow bump and fast bump
Understeer on corner entry
-soften the front slow bump
-stiffen the rear slow rebound
Oversteer on corner entry
-stiffen the front slow bump
-soften the rear slow rebound
My tires wear out quickly
-reduce toe in or camper
-soften up the springs
Understeer at low speed / oversteer at high speed
-soften front anti-roll
-increase rear wing
Setting up your car for bumpy areas of the track (riding the curbs etc):
Understeer while going over bumps
-Soften the front fast bump
-Soften the front fast rebound
Oversteer while going over bumps
-Soften the rear fast bump
-Soften the rear fast rebound
If your car doesn't seem to notice the bumps
(if your car doesn't notice the bumps it means your car is not settling down fast enough after the bumps)
-you need to stiffen up all fast bump and fast rebound
If your car skates out from the bumps (neither end first)
-you need to soften all fast bump and fast rebound
The differential lock
A low differential lock will mean the outside and inside tires will lock together much earlier - a high differential lock has the opposite effect
power diff is the diff lock under acceleration
coast diff is the diff lock when off the throttle
camber / tire temperatures / tire pressures
Tire temperatures should be within a range of 10 across a tire (even temps across the tire is better) eg:112 108 103
-more camber will give you hotter inside than outside
-increase the tire pressure to raise the middle tire temperature
Anti-Roll bars
-stiffer front anti roll bar generates understeer
-stiffer rear anti roll bar generates oversteer
-stiff anti roll bars make a more rigid chassi but increase tire wear
-the front anti roll bar should be about 70% more than the rear
So now you've made a setup you like, Stick to it. It won't need changing for each track, whats good at one track will be so close to good at another, a doupt you'll need ot change anything more then a click here or there and your away at the next track. Rule #1 with setups, when your on a good thing, stick to it.
1 more thing need to do a lot of laps & learning breaking markers & top speeds before playing with a setup , just change break bias , ride hieght & gear ratio to start with , also a lot of the top driver don't use more then 17 DF on rear of car , they use touch of throttle to turn car into corners .
This post has been edited by EAO KLEANPHIL: 26 May 2009 - 01:34 PM
MultiQuote
