seeking advice....

[sharpshot]

hello all. i had great fun at our last race. my car was strong. during the qual though i oversteered some where so i ended up in 8th on grid. when the race started i was stuck in traffic. but aside from that, my real problem was that i could not manage the final corner on the track. in one weeks worth of practice (200-300 or so laps) coming into the final turn i was generally understeering and yet in the same instance if i pushed in hard i would oversteer into pit lane or pit wall. i feel my mechanical grip was pretty much on the mark considering my 1st corner grips. but still if i added another 2deg of rear wing the cars max speed into the bus stop would not make 200 or over. granted these are new cars but generally in the clear i was only 1.5 secs off the leaders. note that areo also determined fuel consumption at wg. my setup that was able to go 16 laps and leave me coasting into pit lane or to finish was not even in the 57sec ranges. so i did a 2 stopper and then spun out while exitting pit on 2nd stop forcing a 3rd stop for repairs.

now here we come again to a candy bar of a track in birmingham.
so far i've quite a few laps here in the irl car( ok a lot ). i'm down to 12s consistently on a med + downforce car. how can i get this car faster in a technical way. i dont want a copy of some ones car i would like technical advice. my mech grip here is perfect holding me inside the white line everywhere with no over or under steer any where. honestly my rear wing is all but maxed. i really dont care to adjust my suspension especially in the rear. this leaves only front wing, frnt camber, maybe a little weight ballast and mainly gearing. now i'm about to do some laps, my runs will mainly focus on frnt wing, front camber, maybe front susp, maybe weight ballast, and of course gearing. also tire pressures are not factorable. again to u more experienced drivers, i'm approaching this as a drivers ed thing. i'm asking for imput based on what i find comfortable driving, using the adjustable factors mentioned.

again congrats to podiums. this track(birm) ranks as one of heats jewels. i hope this thread inspires an informative thread that we all can improve our forms further.

[Mustangman]

your gearing would set your cars acceleration and top speed. and your wing i think

[oldnslow]

there are several different ways of going about getting a setup. Birmingham is a rather technical track with combination turns. Getting into a practice with other drivers may suggest some different lines. look at your tire temperatures and try to keep a balance between left and right sides and keep temp differences between front and rear relatively the same. this keeps the handling in left and right turns relatively the same and tends to also maximize how long the tires last. i.e. one doesn't go away too quickly and you have to drive to what the most worn tire will do. Adding more (negative) camber will increase the cornering power on the front; but, increases wear and tire temp so that the added grip may not last as long as you would like. specifically, try things on corners that you have problem with and see when you find something that helps can you live with it in other parts of the track. Always consider which turns are more important. Turns leading on to the longest straight are more important for lap times than turns that a fast exit only help for a very short time.

[Cholerix]

Another point to become faster is by optimizing gears.

You'll have to find out what optimimum rpm range for these cars is = where acceleration is best. Most often the best shifting point is not sam as max rpm, but somewhat lower. Once you have figured that out, you should try setting gears, so that you enter and exit turns at optimum rpms

Usually you can save some time by rather revving low in turns, but you have to take care not to revv too low, but still within optimum rpm range = max torque at best. Doesn't work if you use gearbox as additional brake though ;D so you have to decide if you rather go a brake-as-late-as-can-be or a more smooth style

Optimizing gears usually is worth about 0,5-1sec per lap

[sharpshot]

well so far so good. havent heard from the sharpest edge of the feild yet. but we middies will evolve. i dropped another sec off my avg lap t of a race distance(26 laps yes, no big deal in irl) with out moving rear wing or rear susp. i did adjust weight, did remove front sway, did increase front wing so more, and generally played with front susp and camber, also played with gearing a little lowering f g and raising 1-6. really superb handling now. but stil shy of 10sec and under for the avg lap. aside from rear wing theres room to increase everything. but i feel at this point i may have to reduce r wing and compensate with other variables. i probably will not touch the rear suspension as its track is perfect for this circuit. believe it or not but it may boil down to using some arcade-ish settings like abundant neg/pos camber and very low steering lock along with other settings factored in that would not really work in a real environment. well lets see if any other weigh in on this.

[Deleted]

Front and rear sway bars are a major factor aswellas rear bump and rear rebound.

[Cholerix]

if you wanna tinker on suspensions, check out the "setup Guide" on Speedsims' front page, bottom left menu. That guide shows what's affected which way by what setting

Comes down to checking 3 different phases: entering a turn (braking + turning in), mid-turn (no braking, no accelerating), end of turn (= accelerating while still turning)

Car can (and should) be set specifically to each of these 3 phases.

[Crash]

Jun 24, 2010 14:23:38 GMT 2 sharpshot said:

well so far so good. havent heard from the sharpest edge of the field yet. but we middies will evolve.well lets see if any other weigh in on this.

I'm not very good on the technical side of things, I just drive.

But I'm sure Dave will be able to point you in the right direction, he's the best there is, on & off the track.

He is the complete package, knowledge & skill.

Cheers...

[sharpshot]

as i have your attention, lets talk about the pit scenario. it seems to me that as u exit the final turn one literally has to make a diagonal to enter pit lane and that brings you very close to the pit wall. exitting isnt much more spacious either.

[DaveO]

Jun 24, 2010 15:38:17 GMT 2 Crash said:

Jun 24, 2010 14:23:38 GMT 2 sharpshot said:

well so far so good. havent heard from the sharpest edge of the field yet. but we middies will evolve.well lets see if any other weigh in on this.

I'm not very good on the technical side of things, I just drive.

But I'm sure Dave will be able to point you in the right direction, he's the best there is, on & off the track.

He is the complete package, knowledge & skill.



Cheers...

Thank you Crash for the kind words , but I humbly disagree. Each and everyone who has posted in this thread is VERY knowledgeable about setup building, and also has given great insight to different areas.

First of all one guys winning setup could be another guys piece of junk. One person might like there setup loose, one guy might prefer there setup tighter .The list is endless So it all comes down to your own personal preference.

This is what I do and I strongly encourage this to everyone.

First of all setups tend to feel differently between offline VS online. IMHO. I've always found that. This maybe a myth to other drivers, but I've always felt the difference.

Basically I try to learn the track first offline, and get a base set going offline.

When doing adjustments, ALWAYS do one adjustment at a time, DON'T do 3 or 4 adjustments at once. If you do more then one adjustment you won't be able to pinpoint where the cause and effect happened.

So everything time you do a few laps do one adjustment at a time so you know exactly how the set is reacting to it.

Also I do strongly advise this. Get yourself a buddy to practice with online, to where you can do short runs, adjust your set, and while your together you can also discuss what is going on with your sets. It can also be great fun when doing this.

I think the guy who I tend to do this with already knows this, and he knows we have a great time doing this when we find the time to get online.



I always enjoyed doing the above, it can be great fun while practicing.

[Deleted]

Dave, IMO tight and loose is different in Indy because it seems more like "grip","slide","or a rock that slides"

Grip is the perfect balance. Slide is overly "loose" that it turns a bit too much in in turns (kinda feels like its catching). And "rock" is so tight that when you turn in it just glides.
Then theres just regular old "tight" where the car is hard to turn.


Thats my philosophy... doesnt really make sense but you just need to experiment and balance it mainly.

[DaveO]

Jun 25, 2010 3:47:54 GMT 2 @bmxtwins said:

Dave, IMO tight and loose is different in Indy because it

Bmx, if you read what I wrote again, I was talking about how some guys like to setup there cars in GENERAL.. and about guys personal preferences. It had nothing to do with any particular mod. It was given as an example.