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GT3 / GT4 Tuning Guide Updated by Fumes 02/22/2006 1:49 AM
This guide has been in the making for months now. It has taken this long due to time constraints on my part. Please note that the guide is based in part on GT3 & GT4, but the theories can be applied to any version of the game.

Weight Transfer

Understanding the simple physics of weight transfer is key to tuning cars. When stationary, the weight of the car is distributed evenly on all four wheels. Where does the weight of the car go during acceleration? The rear wheels, right? Likewise, during braking the weight is transferred to the forward wheels. Also, during cornering the weight is transferred to the outside wheels. That is, in a left turn, the weight of the car goes to the two wheels on the right (when looking at the car from behind).

Understeering and Oversteering

Understeering is the lack of responsiveness of the car’s front in turning into a corner. That is, the car doesn’t want to turn. Generally, FWD and 4WD cars exhibit understeering characteristics.

Oversteering is the tendency of a car’s rear to slip out in mid-corner. That is, the car spins out too much. Generally speaking, overpowered RWD cars exhibit oversteering characteristics. Oversteering is not the be confused with "Drifting" or "Power Sliding". Generally, drifting is induced with wheels losing grip intentionally and should be controllable with the throttle. Whereas, understeering and oversteering is uncontrollable and unwanted.

Our aim is to get rid of understeer and oversteer as much as possible, since it ruins lap times and tire wear. Although in real life, a slightly understeering car (very slight) is always faster than an oversteering car.

Spring Rates

The Spring Rate controls the transfer of weight of the car. During braking and acceleration the weight of the car shifts forward and backward. Softer front springs aid in shifting the weight to the front, thereby reducing understeer. Softer rear springs allow the weight to transfer to the rear, consequently reducing oversteer. Alternatively, to induce understeer or oversteer, do the opposite and stiffen the corresponding spring rates. Keep in mind that spring rates that are too soft produce a car that is not as responsive as one with a stiffer spring rate. So, you have to find a compromise.

Let's use a medium weight FR car (1200kg) as an example. Since you want more grip at the rear during acceleration in an FR car, the spring rates, if hard, resists the weight to the rear, making the rear hard and want to fight back, loosing grip. So we want to make the rear take more weight during acceleration for better grip = reduce rear spring rate from 16 to ... let's try 13 first. Test it again, see how that goes.

FR cars have more varied requirements. FR cars seem to prefer a slightly lower front spring rate to reduce understeer. Set your front springs up to 2kg lower. But if you experience too much oversteer, reduce rear springs.
MR cars prefer a more neutral spring setting, that is, close front and rear settings.

In an FF car, since the driving wheels are in the front and weight goes to the back, during acceleration, we make the rear spring rates as stiff as possible to resist the front wheels from loosing too much grip by reducing weight transfer to the rear while accelerating. However, the front spring rates must not be too soft (low spring rate#) as most of the car's weight is up the front.

So the next big question is how much Spring Rate is not too much or too little?
This question will depend on the weight of the car itself.

Use this as a general guide only.

Light cars 1000kg or less = values of 9 – 12
Moderate weight 1000kg to 1400kg = values of 12 – 15
Heavy cars 1400kg upwards = values of 15 – 17
Rally cars on dirt only = values of 5 - 7

Spring rates also help soak up the bumps and ripples of an uneven road. Take for instance any city track ripple strip riding is unavoidable, a softer string rate will aid in riding over the strips. As a general rule, reduce your spring rate values by two from the above figures on city and any bumpy tracks. It's easy to make your car too stiff. If this happens, the suspension will not be able to deal with bumps and will hop its way around turns instead of compliantly absorbing the bumps and finding traction

Ride Height

Ride Height is the height of clearance the car has between the bottom of the car and the road. The ride height has an impact on the car's centre of gravity, and thus on its behaviour when cornering or braking. Basically any shift in weight.

In general, lowering the Ride Height will bring the centre of gravity of the car lower, making the car more responsive by decreasing body roll because the weight of the car is now lower.
Raising the Ride Height will have the opposite affect, which will increase body roll.

That was the generalised bit.
Like with all parts of the car that you can tune, Over tuning and Under tuning will each have their drawbacks. A lower ride height in the front than the rear will induce weight transfer to the front increasing the load. This may be what is wanted.

Ride height will also impact the available suspension travel rate, so make sure the spring rate is high enough to prevent the suspension from "bottoming-out". Having the ride height too low and suspension won't work very well. The trickiest part is to have your ride height as low as possible, for maximum tire grip and overall neutral handling balance, while still allowing for enough suspension travel. In order to do this effectively, compensate a lower ride height by adding more spring rate.

Examples:
Lower front and Higher rear ride height - the weight of the car is shifted towards the front. Provides more stability while accelerating. Brake response is faster since weight is already where the braking power is highest. Best for FF, FR and 4WD cars. (Be careful though, if it’s too low, you will find the car twitchy and liable to veer off in random directions under heavy braking).

Equal front and rear ride height – weight is distributed equally. Best suited for MR cars.

High front and Low rear ride height - the weight of the car is shifted to the rear, provides immediate throttle response during acceleration. Braking response will suffer, however, since more weight shifting during braking from rear to front is required. As such, this configuration is not used very often. If used, probably only FR cars would benefit.

In GT3 and GT4, try to allow at least 10 points from the minimum ride height. And set the rear about 5 points higher than the front. This allows sufficient suspension travel to keep the car stable under heavy braking and weight shift towards the front of the car. On very bumpy roads like Nurburgring or El Capitan, increase ride height and reduce spring and shocks. This “soaks” up the bumps more effectively.


Shocks

These work in conjunction with Springs and Stabilizers. To dampen the oscillations of the spring after travelling over bumps and dips. When weight transfers from back/front and side/side, or when you go over a bump on the road, the wheels/tires compress (bound), and when you are past the bump the wheel returns to equilibrium after the compression (rebound) basically the suspension movement, right ? With me so far?

Bound damping affects how far the suspension travels up, towards the wheel well. When the suspension is on its way back down, rebound damping affects how far it goes the other way. More precisely, bound damping affects the compression rate, while rebound damping affects the expansion rate.

If you make your bound damping too stiff, your car will be skittish over rough surfaces. Rebound damping also affects your steering as you transition into and out of corners.
In general, stiffer springs are better suited for flat tracks with sharp turns. They prevent your springs from coiling too quickly, which decreases the dip you have when cornering and braking. Softer springs are better suited for winding, coiling tracks, but they’ll also lengthen your braking distance.


Bound is the rate at which the shock compresses. Rebound is the rate at which the shocks decompress. So having bound at 9 and rebound at 2, make the car stiffer when absorbing a bump, compression is harder. The suspension on rebound will not return as fast. This suppresses weight transfer. Not very good because the tire won't make contact with the ground fast enough causing slip = Oversteer. Okay for FF, bad for FR cars. On the other hand, bound at 2 and rebound at 9, absorbs more bumps, but returns the shocks the opposite way fast. You'll find the car literally jump over small bumps. This is also undesirable, as the tire is not in contact with the road. Try this on a Rally car in dirt to see the exaggerated affects, you'll know what I mean. Bound at 7 and rebound at 6, keeps the tires stiff and return to the ground slower. Having bound at 6 and rebound at 7, will result in a good stiff compression of shocks and a higher bound means the tires return a bit faster to the ground but not too fast. This is the ideal configuration, a slightly higher rebound.

Now adjust front bound and rebound to have lower values than rear bound & rebound. This will result in more weight transfer to the front, for example during braking, to provide more grip into the turn.
FR car oversteering? reduce rear bound.
FF car understeering? reduce front bound OR increase rear bound & rebound.
4WD oversteering? reduce front bound AND reduce rear rebound.
MR cars - keep bound and rebound figures the same. MR cars need to be treated a bit like FR but try to keep both front and rear figures the same.


Stabilizers

Controls the roll of the car from side to side and helps stabilise the car during cornering. Stiff makes the car respond well to sharp turns. Ie, when you turn the steering wheel (or PS2 controller) you notice the car react to that quicker. Car feels more stable. Downside to that, is if Stabilizers are too high, it reduces weight transfer to the outside tires, reducing grip during cornering and causes understeer or oversteer. Softer allows the car to lean into the turn giving greater grip. But too soft, causes the car to be unresponsive. Eg, Car understeers too much = reduce front stabilizers or likewise increase rear stabilizers. Make the front value less than the rear to reduce under steer. On lower powered cars, less than 450hp, tire spin is less of a risk, so stabilizers can be increased. Take a Mazda MX5 LS setup for an example. Stabilizers at 7 and this thing flies for a <400hp car. On high powered cars, always start with a value of 4 and fine tune from there.

FF drivetrain cars exhibit a slightly different response to the above, you want a higher front stabilizer setting than the rear. This will have an affect of reducing body roll of an FF car, keeping both tires firmly on the road rather than shifting all the weight to the outside tires and reducing grip. However, don't make stabilizers too high or you run into problems of over tuning.

Toe

Is the angle of the tires, as viewed from the top of the car.
For the sake of the different value notations in GT3 and GT4 I'll use a generic value notation in this guide. So when I say " -'ve one step from default value" take that to mean -0.5 in GT3, and -1 in GT4.
4WD and FF use -'ve two steps from default / +'ve one step from default (front/rear) as a start. FR and RR use 0 / -'ve one step from default. Negative toe in the rear wheels will stop oversteer because the wheels are at this angle /--\ (looking from the top of the car). That's great for corners but reduces acceleration on the exits and straights because there isn't as much tyre contact to the ground as a zero toe like this |--| . So as you can see there is a compromise.

/-\ = negative toe/ Toe In (view from Top of car)

\-/ = positive toe/ Toe Out (view from Top of car)



In 4WDs and FWDs use negative toe in front and positive toe in rear to reduce understeering. Quick physics lesson. Looking at the diagram above ... when going around a left hand corner the weight of the car leans to the right two tires. The negative front toe makes the car turn sharper left, while the positive toe rear swings the rear further out to the right, making the car point left into the left hand corner. In RWDs and MR cars, use neutral toe in front, and negative toe in rear to reduce oversteer. If RWD is understeering slightly, use negative toe front slightly and neutral toe rear.

The compromise of fixing understeering or oversteering using toe adjustments is that tire wear will increase. There is always a compromise in every adjustment, we don't live in a perfect world. Always try to reduce oversteer and understeer using adjustments to springs, shocks and stabilizers first. Only resort to toe adjustments as a last resort, since any toe value added will increase tire wear.

LSD

Unlike TCS, where it reduces power to all wheels equally for traction control, Limited Slip Differential (LSD) keeps tires from spinning by transferring it to the other tires that have grip. Usually during cornering.

Accel = during acceleration, Decel = during braking.

Accel is straight forward. reduces tire spin during acceleration, reducing oversteer in FR cars and reducing understeer in FF cars.

Decel, reduces tire spin during braking. Keep this low at 15 - 20, lest it induces understeer by way of reducing braking power.

Init : the initial strength of the LSD affect.
LSD is useless on cars with less than 450hp. There isn't enough HP in the car to cause wheel spin anyway. So why have it, as it slows the car down and causes extra understeer.

4WD, as little LSD as possible. LSD stuffs 4WD up big time, causing understeer. Think about it. 4WD already has grip to all 4 tires. If LSD is activated, it transfers grip to the other tires, which REDUCES grip to the tire loosing grip. Silly. You'll see a lot of setups here, that use strong LSD on 4WDs. They think this controls understeer, but really what is happening is that they are reducing the power to the wheels = slower car = less understeer. If you are gonna have high LSD on a 4WD to get rid of understeer, you might as just drive slowly around corners. Use TCS to control wheelspin on high powered 4WDs (greater than 500hp).

FF - High init and accel LSD. Decel LSD as low as possible. But most FF cars are very low power, so don't use LSD. Exceptions are the Type R, FTOs, etc with more than 300hp.

MR / FR - Init (depends on Car's HP), Accel higher to reduce oversteer on acceleration. Low decel LSD to reduce understeer on braking.

ASM & TCS

I hate ASM, it induces understeer. Anything above 0, causes the car to behave other than it should and negates the tuning done else where. Without knowing how to tune the car you can use ASM, but if you know how to tune it following the above guide, turn ASM off ! If you change nothing else with the setup of the car, change ASM to 0.

In GT4, you will see options for both ASM Oversteer and Understeer. This still does the same thing as ASM in GT3. The ASM Oversteer will reduce power to the spinning wheels during an oversteer situation and vice versa. Again, reduce these values to 0 before you start tuning.

ASM can be reduced to 0 even on unmodified cars.

Traction Control System (TCS) is where power to the driving wheels is reduced in the event of wheel spin. Unlike, LSD, where power is transferred to the opposite wheel that is not slipping, LSD, reduces overall power to the driving wheels. Effectively slowing the car down to reduce wheelspin.

The main aim of TCS tuning is to use only enough TCS to stop wheel spin and drifting. No more, no less. This has the added benefit of preserving tire wear, but not sacrificing too much power.
Finding the right TCS figure for a car is a bit of a Trial and Error effort.
Light and More powerful cars will require more TCS. Heavier and less powerful cars will obviously need less TCS.

A general tuning technique I use is to start TCS at 0. Then ask myself, is the car spinning around slow corners and at take off?
If the answer is yes, then increase TCS by 2.
If the answer is no, then leave it at current amount.
Repeat. Until wheelspin is nil, then reduce TCS by 1. If still no spin then leave it.
You can use TCS to fine tune at this stage. If you want a car that oversteers, reduce TCS a bit from this figure you just reached.

You want to reach a point where the car is not loosing it’s rear end around slower corners, while still keeping the TCS figure as low as possible to get the most power to the road. On take offs, reduced wheelspin on the spot will increase acceleration.
Fine tuning here can see increase tire wear benefits, but remember the more TCS you use the slower the car is, even if you have better tire wear.

However, when tuning TCS for 4WD cars, it is best to use close to no TCS at all. Since we have 4 driving wheels, there will always be at least one set of wheels with grip even if the other set is loosing grip. By having TCS on at any figure, will just be slowing a 4WD car down.
Always use 0 TCS for 4WD cars.

FR cars benefit the most from TCS.I find anything under 500bhp in GT4 will not need TCS. The weight of the car will also determine the need for TCS. Light cars eg F1, Sprinter Trueno Shigeno, can have TCS at 4 to 6 with great benefit. For heavier cars, start TCS at 3 and tune. You should not need much more than 5, unless you want to conserve more tire wear.
This is not THE rule, just a guide. Tuning is still required.

FF cars benefit from TCS a bit, but not as much as FR cars, since the driving wheels are also the ones that TCS will be affecting. Too much TCS and it slows the car's acceleration and reduces understeer. No TCS and it understeers. So with FF cars, use between 1 to 2 TCS.

Remember, the aim of tuning race cars is to make it as fast as possible, not slow it down with ASM or TCS or LSD. Let the driver do that. Your job as tuner is to get the car to be as fast as possible while still being as controllable as possible.


Downforce

Use as little as possible on tracks like Test course. All other tracks, higher front DF reduces understeer. Helps stabilise the car at high speeds. Keep front and rear close to the same figure, with a slightly higher rear downforce. What I mean is, avoid figures like 0.5 front and 1.2 rear downforce settings. A difference of no more than 0.2 is advisable. Or in GT4 figures, a difference of no more than 20 between front and rear downforce is advised.
Exceptions for FF cars, where I regularly use max front downforce, with little rear downforce. This helps reduce front understeer and induce rear oversteer.

VCD

Only available on 4WDs. The figure in GT3/GT4 is the % amount of power delivered to the front tires. Keep it low to reduce understeer (ie towards 10%). A figure of 10% means that 90% of the power is driven in the rear wheels, making the car almost like a RWD. Except for rally cars. That should get you started.

Brakes

Stronger front brake balance causes the front of the car to dip more than the back, that is, more weight transfers to the front wheels. Apart from having greater stopping power, it allows better tire contact to allow the car to steer into the corner while under brakes.

Stronger rear brake balance, will cause the rear wheels to lockup slightly (dependant on how strong you set balance) when the weight transfers to front during braking. Causing slight oversteer. Not a bad thing, you might want to induce a bit of oversteer in heavily understeering cars.

Too much front brakes and the front tires will lockup, causing severe understeer, which isn't good. And too much rear brakes can cause the back to lockup causing severe oversteer.

As you can see there is a cause and effect for each setting. Too much or too little of a setting will cause undesired effects. eg, too much front brakes and the tires lock causing understeer. Too little, and the car doesn't stop fast enough, causing the car to continue it's momentum straight ahead.

Set brakes up for maximum stopping power without the front locking up. Depending on the car's behaviour, you can induce oversteer by setting higher rear brake balance. Finding the figure for maximum brakes just short of lockup will depend on the weight of the car (excluding speed) and to some extent spring rates. Obviously, a lighter car will reach lockup before a heavier car. OR, you can just use trial and error, watch the screen for smoke from tires during braking in a straight line. If it smokes up, the wheels have locked up, reduce brake balance. In general, finding the front's lockup threshold is more important than the rear. So adjust front balance first while keeping the rear brake low. Then adjust rear after you find the maximum braking figure for the front, usually 1 or 2 less than front will be good enough (because I'm lazy to repeat it again for rear ).

As long as the front doesn't lock up during braking, it won't understeer. Of course you shouldn't be braking while turning into the corner at the same time, that's too late. You should have done the braking before the corner and be at a speed where you can maintain throttle while in the corner and can floor it just after the apex of the corner.

Camber

Camber is the angle of the wheels in relation to the ground. The tire's relationship with the road changes as the suspension moves through its travel.
Ideally, you want a camber curve that keeps the tire straight up and down when you are driving straight, and leans the tire in slightly (1 to 2 degrees of negative camber) during cornering.

So a neutral camber will be |-| (while looking at the car front on),
A Negative Camber will be /-\,
And a Positive camber will be \-/.



(TOP LEFT) Positive camber: The bottoms of the wheels are closer together than the tops.

(TOP RIGHT) Negative camber: The tops of the wheels are closer together than the bottoms.

(CENTER) When a suspension does not gain camber during deflection, this causes a severe positive camber condition when the car leans during cornering. This can cause funky handling.

(BOTTOM) Fight the funk: A suspension that gains camber during deflection will compensate for body roll. Tuning dynamic camber angles is one of the black arts of suspension tuning.

Camber allows the weight of the car lean on the outer tires, providing additional contact in a corner. However, on level ground and straights, the more camber you have the less contact surface area the tire has to the road.

Thus a negative camber in the front tires is always recommended, and in most situations the front camber value should be higher than the rear. Rear camber should be as close to Zero or neutral as much as possible. Thus, providing as much grip to the rear as possible. Unless you are tuning to reduce oversteer, then a little negative camber is okay. On oval tracks, the inner wheels will need positive camber and the outer wheels will need negative camber to counter the angle of the track. Using camber to reduce oversteer and understeer should be treated as a secondary option to adjusting springs and shocks first. Unless you are intentionally tuning for a drift car. 4WD and FWD recommendations, start at default value 2.1 and adjust up to a value of 4. RWD recommendations, start at 2.1 and adjust up to a value of 3.

Using more camber than suggested is unnecessary and will result in reduced grip on flat straights and increase tire wear.

Note: in the GT series, you can only ever select negative camber values. So when the setup screen says front camber is 2.1, that means camber is at -'ve 2.1. Polyphony must have remove the -'ve since you can't set +'ve camber.

Ballast

Ballast is a GT4 specific tuning option. Ballast allows you to add weight to an already light car, with the specific intention of altering the weight balance of the car. This works hand in hand with Weight Balance.

Weight Balance

Weight Balance is also a GT4 specific tuning option and works hand in hand with the Ballast. After adding Ballast to the car, you are able to adjust the weight balance of the car. You can have either more weight in the front or the rear depending on how the car is behaving.

If you find the car oversteering, you could adjust the weight balance towards the rear, giving you more weight in the rear to reduce oversteering. Likewise, if the car is understeering, move more weight balance towards the front.

Gears

I will keep gear tuning to a simplified discussion here. As such we will be using the Auto gear adjustments.

A short gear will result in higher torque but a lower top speed.
A wide gear will result in lower torque but a higher top speed.

With that in mind, tune your gears for each track separately. Using the fastest straight on the particular track as a testing point.

If your revs are not reaching the redline at the end of the straight, you can shorten the gears, until you find the revs just reaching the redline. I find it easiest and quickest to just change the Auto Gears, rather than change the final drive ratio. Changing the final drive ratio does basically the same thing as the auto gear setup, but you could potentially mess up the way the car accelerates if you fiddle with final ratio too much. If you find the gears topping out too quickly on a faster track, just up the auto setting a bit at a time until your top speed just hits the redline.

On some fast tracks like Tokyo, Test track, etc, you can increase the auto gears too, since it's top speed you want more than acceleration. If you find that your revs are topping out on long straights, then increase this auto gear a bit more. If, you are not near the redline at the end of the longest straight, then you have increased the auto gear setting too far, reduce it slightly (towards the left).

Then, on slow tracks, with lots of twisting, like the Cote D' Zor, or Seattle, you can decrease the gearing up to 5 steps from the default auto gear value, since it's acceleration you want not top speed. On the longest straight of these tracks, if you find that you are not reaching the top of 6th, or even lower, decrease the gears until the revs just hits the redline.

AYC

Yaw Control. Similar to LSD, this controls the distribution of torque to the left and right wheels. Seems to only be available on Mitsubishi Lancer EVO cars.
Helps 4WD cars reduce understeer and gives a faster turning ability.
If AYC is set too high there is even a risk of creating too much oversteer, and increases tire wear significantly. Although, the car's turn in ability is tremendous.
Try to keep this figure around 80 - 90 (middle), for the best compromise.


RALLY TUNING

These are theories for RALLY setups only.

Spring Rates

Needs to be low (~5-6kg/mm), to soak up the bumps on dirt. Have spring rates at high and you'll have one bouncy car everytime it goes over a small ripple on the dirt road. Increased ride height will compensate for the low sprig rates.

Ride Height

Needs to be high >140. Reason, on landing your jumps, it prevents bottoming out of the car. A higher ride height also compensates for lower spring rates by avoiding the car bottoming out.

Shocks

These needs to be even on Bound and Rebound. Too much Bound shocks and the tires, don't make contact to the ground as fast after compression. Too much Rebound and the car will bounce upon decompression of the shocks. Now adjust between front and rear for fine tuning of understeer/oversteer control. Softer shocks to remove understeer, stiffer shocks to induce more oversteer. I have slightly, slightly more rebound on front usually, to bring the tires back to the ground a bit quicker after compression of the shocks. Providing better tire contact to the ground and reducing understeer. Eg, front 5/ rear 7 on bounds, front 6 / rear 7 on rebounds.

Camber

To your liking. But too much camber stops the car from drifting properly and reduces your tire contact to the ground, ie, less grip. But no camber is also not good. Drifts will be a bit more difficult to control. Keep it between 2.0 and 4.0.

Toe

Now, I'm not sure how GT3/GT$ treats toe. But in the game, I think, negative front positive rear helps reduce understeer (in GT3 = -1.0 / 0.5 are good figures to start. Or in GT4 = -2/-1). And Negative rear positive front reduces oversteer (0.0 / -0.5 are good figures to start in GT3 and 0./-1 in GT4).

Stabilizers

These will help stabilise the car during drifts. But too much will cause the car to loose too much grip around corners. Have it at about 3 or 4. And remember that a lower value at front will help reduce understeer or likewise a higher value at rear will cause oversteer.

Brakes

To your liking. As long as it's not too high, that it causes lockup. Generally figures up to 12 should be enough in Rally.

LSD

As low as possible or none at all. You WANT the tires to spin, to give you controllable drifts in the dirt. Having LSD turned up will stop the tires slipping and you'll notice more understeer in a corner, especially in dirt.

ASM/TCS

Important, not! As above, you want to drift and you want your tires to slip. So TURN these off (ie 0) ! You might as well play an arcade game with these turned on. Only exception is TCS, which can be used on high powered cars to reduce wheel spin. But use it sparingly, or else it causes more understeer.

Gears

Have it on the lower end, that is, if using the auto gears, to the left. This gives more torque rather than high speed. In most rally courses, High speed is not where you gain time, it's around those slow 180degree turns. Higher torque will get you out of the turns fast. As a starting point, use an auto gear value 5 steps to the left of the default auto gear value.

Downforce

Yes, please. The more the better. However, keep it even at front and rear. Why? Too much rear downforce and you'll find the car's front flying up during a jump. Vice versa, for too much front downforce. During a jump it will go into the ground nose first. You want to land on four tires, not your bumper bars.

VCD

Preferably even to help control drifts. But in practice, I find lower VCD values (ie, more RWD) helps reduce understeer. For Rally, start at 30% and reduce slowly towards 10% to remove understeer as suited to your driving style.

There you all go. May you all go forth and produce awesome rally tunes. Disclaimer - of course, no two cars are the same or behave the same. The theory above is a good starting point. Finding the exact point of setup where the car behaves at it's best is a matter of trial and error and a lot of patience.

Good racing,
Fumes
LeMans race car analysis Posted by Zardoz 10/23/2005 11:59 AM
I must admit, I bought GT4 mostly for the Le Mans "prototype" race cars. Sure, I love racing any class of car in GT4 as long as the AI field can put up a real fight, but for me, the exotic endurance racers hold a special fascination.

That interest led me to conduct a bit of B-Spec testing to see which is the fastest of the lot of the mighty Group C, GT-1, and LMP cars. I B-Specced it so I could speed up the process, while also eliminating the variations in lap times that my erratic driving would create. I trust B-Spec Bob's consistency far more than mine.

I did the testing on Sarthe II (no chicanes), in the 24-hour enduro. No, I didn't put each car through an actual 24 hours. I ran each one for four hours exactly, recorded the laps completed (figuring out the percentage of the last lap it was on by how long it took to get back to the finish line on that lap and doing the math), then extrapolated what the total laps would be for 24 hours.

Obviously, this is not a dead-accurate test of these cars' performance. Various players' B-Spec pilots will get varying results from car to car. However, the results should serve to give us an idea of how these cars stack up against each other. If you don't have all them, and you haven't tested each one, then all you have to go by is varying opinions posted on forum threads asking "Which is the best car for the GT World Championship". Maybe this test will settle some arguments.

THE TEST SETUP:

Every car had stock suspension settings. They all had ASM turned off, and to improve rear tire life they had TCS settings of 7 on cars with less than 1100 HP, and 8 on cars over 1100 HP. Brake balance setting was either 4/1 or 4/2, once again to save the rears. All had Stage 4 power, and all had the "Increase Rigidity" (roll cage icon) option applied.

They all had their transmissions adjusted with the old "tranny trick": Final was slid full right to 5.000 (or 5.500), the Autoset was slid right to 25, then back full left to 1 and left there. The Final was then adjusted for the long, long Sarth II Mulsanne straight so that the red rev-limiter light flashed at the end.

I did some preliminary testing to get the correct final drive gear ratio and the best tire combination for each car. Almost all the cars had to pit for fuel at 7 laps, so I picked tire combos that would last that long.

I also checked to see how many cars Bob could drive error-free on the "4" (Fast) speed setting. As it turned out, only two cars had that advantage: The Audi R8 and the Bentley Speed 8 (which occasionally got slightly off the pavement, but not often). Why Bob could handle these cars at the faster setting, and not others, is a mystery. It may say more about the cars than the B-Spec driver, I would think. (Oddly, the '03 Pescarolo was faster on "3" than it was on "4". I have no idea why.)

All pit stops were "unattended". If you click OK when the pit stop dialogue box appears, the pit crew gets right to work. If you don't do anything, the crew stands there for four seconds before beginning. For the sake of consistency, I never clicked OK on any stop, with any car.

My B-Spec driver has 5,551 points, and his skills are 68/55/52. He had exactly those stats for each test, because during the course of the testing I never once "exited" and saved the game after a 4-hour test. Instead, I just turned off the power on the PS/2 after each session, which not only kept Bob from learning anything and increasing his skill levels from test to test, it also saved four hours of wear and tear on my very expensive Le Mans cars!

THE CARS:

You'll see that one car is missing from this test: The Nissan R89C. That car I don't have because its the toughest one to get. You have to complete Mission 34 to win it, and I haven't pulled that off yet. If somebody out there has the car and would care to test it for us, we'd love to get your results. From what I see the AI doing with it, I'd say its slightly slower than the R92CP, but that's just a subjective guess.

Before I started each test I entered the race, checked to see what the AI field was, then exited and tried again if I didn't like my opponents. I specifically wanted two cars in the race to see how the test car did against them: The Sauber C9 and the Minolta Toyota. I also tried to get the R92CP in there as well. The best field I could get together was the C9, 88C-V, R92CP, R89C, and Jag XJR-9. It sometimes takes over 10 attempts for the program to give it to you. (Keep trying until the GT40 goes away. The game's developers have programmed that historic three-time Le Mans winner to make a full-stop spinout on every lap.)

Note that a few cars went eight laps between pit stops, while most went seven and one managed ten. Each stop costs you about 40 seconds, so the 8-lap cars would gain about a five-minute advantage in 24 hours. Note that the AI competitor versions almost all went 8 laps, which is really cheesy. How could they do it if our B-Spec drivers can't? Worst was the 787B, the AI version of which goes 9 laps between stops!

THE RESULTS:

So here are my test results, starting with the slowest. Lap totals for exactly 4 hours are shown, with the extrapolated theoretical total for 24. The lap times are only what I observed, and mostly when the tires were showing a slightly greenish yellow color. Note that the best laps were always made early, with the car slowing progressively, although in some cases Bob apparently learned something and speeded up a little later on. It appears that lap times of 3:12 or better are necessary for a car to have a chance of winning the Sarth II 24-hour in B-Spec mode.

_

Gillet Vertigo -

DNF

Bob could not drive the Vertigo at all. He wildly overshot the Mulsanne Corner at the end of the straight (hitting the tire barrier very hard) on all settings including "1" (Slow Down) on every lap, so I packed it in after 18 laps. There was just no point in going any further. The last straw was when the car was hit by the turn-into-the-wall-on-the-straightaway glitch on lap 10, then again on lap 18 at the end of the straight, turning left instead of right and sliding along the wall. There is something very wrong with the Gillet in B-Spec mode, I'm afraid.

_

Ford GT40 -

65.49 laps in 4:00 (392.9 pace for 24). Lap 17: 3:30.8, Lap 48: 3:32.5, Lap 65: 3:33.3. Tires: R1/R2. Speed setting "2". Pit stop every 10 laps, 6 liters fuel left. 730 HP, 2.75 final drive ratio, 224 MPH max A-Spec speed. Finished 7.2 laps behind the Sauber. Who knows why PD programmed this car to be so hard to drive, but Bob could not keep it on the road on "3". Only at "2" (Cruise) could he make mostly error-free laps, but even then he occasionally touched the dirt. Of course, this is nothing compared to what the AI does when the GT40 is in the field as one of your competitors: It makes a full-stop spinout on every lap, and often goes off the road four times in a single lap. Why did PD feel they needed to do this to the historic three-time Le Mans winner?

_

Panoz Esperante GTR-1 -

70.05 laps in 4:00 hours (420.3 pace for 24). Lap 5: 3:16.0, Lap 26: 3:18.2, Lap 68: 3:19.3. Tires: R2/R1. Speed setting "3". Pit stop every 7 laps, 5 liters fuel left. 1001 HP, 2.85 final drive ratio, 244 MPH max A-Spec speed. Lapped in just one hour by the Sauber and the Minolta car, lapped by the entire AI field in two hours. 4,500,000 credits for this?

_

Chaparral 2D -

70.56 laps in 4:00 (423.4 pace for 24). Lap 6: 3:14.4, Lap 38: 3:16.4, Lap 66: 3:16.1. Tires: R3/R2. Speed setting "2". Pit stop every 8 laps, 14 liters fuel left. 1041 HP, 2.90 final drive ratio, 274 MPH max A-Spec speed. Finished last, 1.95 laps behind the 88C-V. Nothing can touch this car on the long Sarthe II straight. It hits an incredible 274 MPH in A-Spec (with a 2.55 final), and 244 in B-Spec mode (with a 2.90 final). If Bob could keep it on the track at the "3" speed setting, and if it had a 5-speed transmission instead of that ridiculous 3-speed, it could possibly hold its own with any of the new cars and their AI drivers.

_

BMW McLaren F1 GTR -

71.21 laps in 4:00 hours (427.3 pace for 24). Lap 14: 3:14.9, Lap 38: 3:16.7, Lap 70: 3:16.4. Tires: R2/R2. Speed setting "3". Pit stop every 8 laps, 8 liters fuel left. 910 HP, 2.44 final drive ratio, 242 MPH max A-Speed. Finished last, 1.5 laps behind the 88C-V. Think of this and the Panoz as "project cars". Experiment with chassis setups. See what you can do with them against the AI in various events. Best of luck to you.

_

Nissan R390GT -

72.55 laps in 4:00 hours (435.3 pace for 24). Lap 18: 3:10.9, Lap 40: 3:11.5, Lap 68, 3:11.9. Tires: R2/R1. Speed setting: "3". Pit stop every 7 laps, 6 liters fuel left. 1115 HP, 3.10 final drive ratio, 245 MPH max A-Spec speed. Finished just 14 seconds ahead of the 88C-V, so winning with this car is not at all guaranteed. The fastest non-F1 car in GT3, it turns out to be one of the slower cars of this group in GT4. In B-Spec mode it is questionable that it can win this race, although some chassis tuning will help, of course. Note that the default downforce setting is not maxed, so if you have one of these, check that setting.

_

Mercedes "CLK-GTR" (actually CLK-LM) -

72.90 laps in 4:00 hours (437.4 pace for 24). Lap 12: 3:09.1, Lap 34: 3:10.2, Lap 69: 3:10.9. Tires: R2/R1. Speed setting "3". Pit stop every 7 laps, 10 liters fuel left. 1083 HP, 2.94 final drive ratio, 256 MPH max A-Spec speed. Finished a half-lap ahead of the 88C-V. Somehow mis-named by PD, this car is just fast enough to comfortably win the Sarthe II 24-hour. It was hit with the straightaway wall-slam glitch on lap 15, but I never saw it happen again.

_

Peugeot 905 -

73.05 laps in 4:00 hours (438.3 pace for 24). Lap 6: 3:08.5, Lap 45: 3:09.7, Lap 72: 3.10.0. Tires: R3/R2. Speed setting "3". Pit stop every 8 laps, 3 liters fuel left. 1057 HP, 2.82 final drive ratio, 244 MPH max A-Spec speed. Finished 1.4 laps ahead of the Sauber. Throwing huge showers of sparks as it bottoms out all over the course, and handicapped by the slowest-shifting transmission in the game, the 905 has been essentially sabotaged by the game's developers. This two-time Le Mans winner should be the fastest of the older Group C cars, but it isn't even close.

_

Nissan R92CP -

73.52 laps in 4:00 hours (441.1 pace for 24). Lap 5: 3:07.2, Lap 26: 3:09.2, Lap 72: 3:08.3. Tires: R2/R1. Speed setting: "3". Pit stop every 7 laps, 7 liters fuel left. 1215 HP, 2.69 final drive ratio, 251 MPH max A-Spec speed. Finished one lap ahead of the Sauber. You'd think this fast car would do a lot better, but Bob could not get it to turn a lap under 3:07 on "3", and the "4" speed setting was hopeless. Poor tire wear is a real drawback, necessitating the R2/R1 combo. I'd say this was the biggest surprise of the test.

_

Mazda 787B -

73.61 laps in 4:00 hours (441.7 in 24). Lap 7: 3:07.4, Lap 44: 3:09.2, Lap 70: 3:09.6. Tires: R2/R1. Speed setting "3". Pit stop every 8 laps, 4 liters fuel left. 952 HP, 2.72 final drive ratio, 244 MPH max A-Spec speed. Finished 1.2 laps ahead of the 88C-V. Short of horsepower and carrying a 5-speed gearbox, you wouldn't expect this great car to shine on this track, and it doesn't.

_

Toyota TS020 GT-One -

73.90 laps in 4:00 hours (442.8 pace for 24). Lap 4: 3:06.0, Lap 38: 3:08.8, Lap 72: 3:08.5. Tires: R2/R1. Speed setting: "3". Pit stop every 7 laps, 9 liters fuel left. 1158 HP, 2.80 final drive ratio, 263 MPH max A-Spec speed. Finished 1.7 laps ahead of the Sauber. Super-fast on the long straight, the GT-One was a little slower with Bob at the wheel than I expected it would be.

_

Bentley Speed 8 -

73.93 laps in 4:00 hours (443.6 pace for 24). Lap 21: 3:05.8, Lap 50: 3:06.9, Lap 72: 3:08.0. Tires: R2/R1. Speed setting "4". Pit stops every 7 laps at first, then up to 8, with 3 liters fuel left. 1104 HP, 2.00 final drive ratio, 251 MPH max A-Spec speed. Finished 1.5 laps ahead of the 88C-V. One of only two cars that could handle the "4" speed setting, it started off pitting every 7 laps, then started going 8. Note the virtual three-way tie with the Jag and BMW.

_

BMW V12 LMR -

73.95 laps in 4:00 hours (443.7 pace for 24). Lap 13: 3:05.6, Lap 47: 3:07.9, Lap 68: 3:07.6. Tires: R2/R1. Speed setting: "3". Pit stops every 7 laps, 11 liters fuel left. 1055 HP, 3.02 final drive ratio 248 MPH max A-Spec speed. Finished 1.7 laps ahead of the 88C-V. Bob drives this car on this track better than I do. I find it touchy and unforgiving on Sarthe, but he doesn't. Note that it had 11 liters of fuel left after seven laps, so it should have gone eight, but it wouldn't. The tires were only light orange, so it was the fuel level that triggered the stop. Note also the virtual tie with the Jag and Bentley.

_

Jaguar XJR-9 -

73.96 laps in 4:00 hours (443.8 pace for 24). Lap 6: 3:05.7, Lap 40: 3:07.9, Lap 68: 3:07.5. Tires: R2/R2. Speed setting: "3". Pit stop every 7 laps, 5 liters fuel left. 1168 HP, 2.73 final drive ratio, 251 MPH max A-Spec speed. Finished 1.3 laps ahead of the 88C-V. A pleasant surprise, this car's moderate rear tire wear, allowing the R2/R2 tire combination, served it well, allowing it to virtually tie the BMW LMR and Bentley. In my testing I found that adding the rigidity option seemed to help this car even more than others.

_

Minolta Toyota 88C-V -

74.43 laps in 4:00 hours (446.7 pace for 24). Lap 13: 3:04.4, Lap 40: 3:05.8, Lap 69: 3:06.8. Tires: R2/R1. Speed setting "3". Pit stop every 7 laps, 4 liters fuel left. 1223 HP, 3.07 final drive ratio, 251 MPH max A-Spec speed. Finished 1.95 laps ahead of the Sauber. Seemingly glued to the track in A-Spec, this car is unrealistically fast. It should not be the fastest of the Group C cars, but the developers made it so, at least in A-Spec. In B-Spec, though, its a different story. Bob apparently has a little trouble with this car on R1 Super-Hard tires.

_

Pescarolo Courage C60 '03 -

74.54 laps in 4:00 hours (447.2 pace for 24). Lap 11: 3:03.9, Lap 52: 3:06.3, Lap 73: 3:05.6. Tires: R3/R3. Speed setting "3". Pit stop every 7 laps, 7 liters fuel left. 995 HP, 2.13 final drive ratio, 242 MPH max A-Spec speed. Finished 2.1 laps ahead of the Sauber. No, that isn't a typo. The '03 Pesky can go 7 B-Spec laps on R3/R3 tires, which means this is the best choice of all if you plan to A-Spec part of the race. With this car, you won't have to deal with cold blue R1 super-hards coming out of the pits, which can be a formidable task, at best. Expect to get 6 laps between pit stops, however, when you're driving. B-Spec drivers seem to get better tire life than we do.

_

Sauber Mercedes C9 -

74.60 laps in 4:00 hours (447.6 pace for 24). Lap 11: 3:04.7, Lap 52: 3:06.1, Lap 73: 3:05.5. Tires: R2/R1. Speed setting "3". Pit stop every 7 laps, 4 liters fuel left. 1192 HP, 2.97 final drive ratio. 252 MPH max A-Spec speed. Finished 2.1 laps ahead of the 88C-V. When we were all awaiting the release of the game, the Sauber attained a sort of mystical aura, and the word was that it would be the fastest car in the game. It isn't, but its close.

_

Audi R8 -

74.83 laps in 4:00 hours (449.0 pace for 24). Lap 13: 3:04.1, Lap 35: 3.04.6, Lap 73: 3.05.4. Tires: R2/R1. Speed setting "4". Pit stop every 7 laps, 5 liters fuel left. 1112 HP, 2.02 final drive ratio, 260 MPH max A-Spec speed. Finished 2.5 laps ahead of the Sauber C9. The only car that Bob can drive error-free at the "4" setting, it just relentlessly turns fast laps, as you would expect, even though it needed R2/R1 tires to go 7 laps between pit stops.

_

Playstation Pescarolo C60 '04 -

75.12 laps in 4:00 hours (450.7 pace for 24). Lap 12: 3:02.4, Lap 40: 3:04.7, Lap 74: 3:04.2. Tires: R3/R2. Speed setting: "3", Pit stop every 7 laps, 2 liters fuel left. 1162 HP, 2.00 final drive ratio, 253 MPH max A-Spec speed. Finished 2.3 laps ahead of the 88C-V. Oh, gee, what a shock: The Sony "company car" was the fastest of all in this exercise, due in no small part to its big tire life advantage that makes the R3/R2 combination possible. In the real world, the Peskies are not really competitive with the Audi R8s, but in PD's digital domain, they can alter reality as they see fit. They've ordained the '04 Playstation Pescarolo-Judd C60 as the fastest car in the game in the Sarthe II 24-hour in B-Spec mode. So be it.

_

GENERAL COMMENTS:

If you're planning on running one of these 24-hour races as a co-driver with your B-Spec pilot, keep this in mind: Cars in GT4 wear out pretty quickly, and become erratic-handling pigs that are much more difficult for us A-Speccing humans to drive as the long race progresses. Meanwhile, our digital B-Spec buddies don't seem to have nearly as much trouble with a trashed car as we do. I suggest you drive as much of the early part of the race as you can, and leave the late stages of the race mostly to your B-Spec pal.

Yes, the GT4 B-Spec "speed limit" was in effect throughout this test. Every car was 20 to 30 MPH slower on the long Mulsanne straight than it is in A-Spec. The Audi R8 was typical: 260 MPH in A-Spec, just 229 in B-Spec.

This was not a definitive test of the relative performance of these cars because:

--- It was conducted on just one track, with just one B-Spec pilot. Other Bobs on other tracks may yield a very different result.

--- It was done strictly with stock suspension settings on all cars. Good chassis setups may bring some of the slower cars closer to the top, and may re-arrange the order of the fastest cars.

--- Not all cars were brand-new. Some had as many as 400 miles on them at the start of the event, but those all had the RRP applied just before the race began, so at least they were as fresh as they could be.

--- Some cars, the R92CP in particular, seemed slower than they should have been. It seems to me that Bob should have driven several of the cars faster than he did. Go figure.

In any event, I had fun doing the test. Maybe it will help some players in their car-choice decisions.
GT3 / GT4 Tranny Trick, ..... How To and Why! Updated by BTWhite37 12/31/2007 12:14 AM
The "Tranny Trick" resets the transmission ratios closer together and provides much quicker shifting in the upper rpm ranges. Higher horsepower cars make use of tighter ratios by staying in the "sweet spot" of the horsepower curve more than with stock ratios. Lower horsepower cars, or cars with more torque than horsepower, are best served with stock or wider ratios and do not benefit from the trans trick.


More into it.. (convo between BTWhite37 and Lister-StormV12, 3/9/06)

What's it all about, what does it achieve?

As I understand it............ The tighter ratios allow for the car to not have to "pull the gear" from way down low in ther RPM range. The car "bangs" off shifts much quicker without having to pay the penalty of lugging the engine. The RPM of the higher horsepower cars remain in the "Sweet spot", or just plain screamin' all the time.
Remember, torque (twisting force), is generated low in the rpm range, and horsepower (momentum of the engine spinning), is a product of the rpm at high revs.

The "Tranny Trick" goes like this.

1st,........ Reset your transmission ratios by clicking on default setup for transmission tuning if you've messed with them.

2nd,....... Set the Final Drive to 5.500 or max. setting.

3rd,....... Run the Auto Set to 25, and then down to 1, and then leave it there.

Finally,..... Set your Final Drive for each track allowing for max. rpm, (or just before the rev limiter), in top gear at the end of the longest straight section.
Endurance Race Events: Notes and Results Updated by BTWhite37 08/03/2008 12:43 AM
4 Hour Endurance at Nurburgring Nordschleife

Car: Lotus Elise 111s '03
For my setup used here.............
http://www.gtvault.com/gt4/setup-view/s_sid::4224/Lotus-Elise-111S/

11/10/05 Gave it a whirl,........ 212 hp will not cut it in this race. Changed to Racing Muffler and Stage 2 N/A Tune to get to 246 hp. Gonna go retune to soften the settings and give it a go again. Keep reseting the race until you get the line up with the ASL Garaiya. It's the car to beat here!!!

11/12/05 I'm back, retuned and ready to go,........... all I did was soften the damping a bit and voula! Ran the 'Ring at 7' 38.042 on S3 / S3 tires, Auto set trans at 11 and with a ton more control at the top end.

11/13/05 Update again,.......... Detuned to 234 hp to make it more fair,by loosing the engine chip and going down to a sport muffler. 246 hp made it too easy. Now the ASL Garaiya is much faster in the straights but with carful driving I can catch him in the corners. Good racing that way!!!

11/18/05 Had to drop the HP again. I'm down to 220 hp and going to try it again. The ASL Garaiya is still the class of the of the other cars,..... but if it tries to stretch it's first pitstop to after 7 laps it falls way off the pace, and you have him beat by 3:50.xxx after the next lap. So, in the interest of a good race that I won't doze behind the wheel on, I'm detuning again and starting over. Remember back on 11/10 I started at 212 hp and didn't think that enough,.......... We'll see?

11/22/05 Ok, I finally got this thing done,........ and it was the best race I've ever done in any of the GT Series games,..period, dot!!!

After 3 hours of swapping the lead with the ASL Garaiya in between pitstops, my car was beginning to fade. I found that I was down from 220 hp to 205 hp by the end of the race and my straightaway speeds were down from 150 mph to 135 mph and I was loosing ground to the lead car fast,........... After nearly four hours.... I'm gonna loose this thing.

I've been pitting every three laps on S3/S3 tires and holding my own. At 24 laps I switch to S2/S2 tires and stretch a pit cycle to six laps to match the ASL, but the tires go away at 29 laps and I have to pit at 17 seconds back. After the pit and back to S3 / S3 tires, I'm 43 seconds in the rear and pretty much conceeding the race at this point. I get going again only to figure that if I push very hard I can try to push the race an extra lap by getting to the start/finish line before the 4:00.00 mark and maybe catch him comming out of the pits on fresh tires and make up the rest,............. maybe,.... I keep pushing.

The ASL passes the S/F line at 3:59:45.XXX and forces the 31st lap,......... and get this..... he didn't pit after six laps for the first time in the race,....... He pushes the seventh lap on worn tires and falls way off the pace. I catch him at "Miss Hit Miss" and take the lead with half a lap to go. I won by about 30 seconds,........ Great Race!!!!

Here are the Numbers:
Total time: 4:07'41.508
Total laps: 31
Total miles: 399.59
Fastest lap: 7'44.767
Pit every: 3 laps, S3 / S3 tires
Horse Power: 220, '03 Lotus Elise 111s



Infineon World Sports - 2:45.000 Endurance Event

Car: Nissan R92CP Race Car (Black)
For my setup used here...............
http://www.gtvault.com/gt4/setup-view/s_sid::3541/Nissan-R92CP-Race-Car/

This car did well here. I pitted every 10 laps on R3 / R2 tires. The Mercedes-Benz Sauber Mercedes C9 Race Car and the Nissan R92CP Race Car pit every 14 laps, so ya gotta hustle to keep ahead. I made the mistake of letting "B-Spec Bob" drive for about an hour or so, while I ate some egg rolls. He didn't do so well and I had some catchin' up to do in the last 45 mins, but did so in short order. Ended up winning by around 20 seconds.

Here are the Numbers:
Total time: 2:45' 47.666
Total laps: 116
Total miles: 292.32
Fastest lap: Practice: -
Fastest lap: Race: 1' 17.807
Pit every: 10 laps, R3 / R2 tires
Horse Power: 950 Hp, Nissan R92CP Race Car, (Black)
Gear Ratio: 3.500 gear ratio with the Trans Trick.



Suzuka 1000 km Endurance Event

Car: Ford (AU) 2000 Falcon XR8
For my setup used here...............
http://www.gtvault.com/gt4/setup-view/s_sid::4199/Ford-(AU)-2000-Falcon-XR8/

Just finished the Suzuka 1000 km Endurance Race ..............
100% A-Spec!!

I ran R1 front and R3 rear tires that were good for 11 laps
between pit stops at a 2' 03.xxx pace.

Here are the Numbers:
Total time: 6:02' 48.xxx
Total laps: 172
Total miles: - 620.9 (1000km)
Fastest lap: Practice: -
Fastest lap: Race: 1' 58.583
Pit every: 11 laps, R1/ R3 tires
Horse Power: 639, Ford (AU) 2000 Falcon XR8



Twin Ring Motegi 8 hr Endurance Event

Car: Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT-Apex (AE86) Shuichi Shigeno
For my setup used here...............
http://www.gtvault.com/gt4/setup-view/s_sid::3166/Toyota-Sprinter-Trueno-GT-Apex-(AE86)-Shuichi-Shigeno/

In practice I ran 2' 09.597 on S3 / S3 tires.
Trans ratios set with the "Trans Trick" with the rear ratio at 4.150.

First attempt,........ 315 hp, (stage 2 turbo) is a little too much here. Detuned to 243 hp to make it more fair by loosing turbo and opting for a stage 3 N/A tune. Now the Amuse Honda S2000 R1 is faster in the straights but with careful driving I can catch him in the corners. Good racing that way!!!

Keep reseting the race until you get the line up with the Amuse Honda S2000 R1, It is the class of the of the other cars. He pits every 32 or 33 laps or so, (must be on S1/S1 tires with more power than I have). I pitted every ten laps on S3 / S3 tires. I had to keep my lap times down considering I was eating up so much time in and out of the pits.

I traded off with B-Spec Bob a few times and always got in the hole with him. He's much slower by 4 or 5 seconds a lap. As it is the Corolla is only a half second faster than the Amuse when we're both on fresh tires.

After 8 hours of swapping the lead with the Amuse S2000 R1 in between pit stops, my car was beginning to fade down to 232 hp. I ended letting B-Spec Bob run out the last ten laps with a 1 minute lead or so and won by 35 seconds. Great race, close and interesting the whole way.

Here are the Numbers:
Total time: 8:01' 38.306
Total laps: 211, (50 by B-Spec Bob)
Total miles: 628.78
Fastest lap: Practice: 2' 09.597
Fastest lap: Race: 2' 10.667
Pit every: 10 laps, S3 / S3 tires
Horse Power: 243, Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT-Apex (AE86) Shuichi Shigeno



Tsukuba 9 Hr Endurance Event

Car: Lotus Elise Type 72, '01
For my setup used here...............
http://www.gtvault.com/gt4/setup-view/s_sid::5011/Lotus-Elise-Type-72/

First Attempt: After a test run a while back I'm convinced that the 128 hp on this car is enough to keep up with, and provide a good race with, the Mazda RX7 Spirit R Type A '02 that I met up with at Tsubuka. I'm four hours into it before I find out different.

I started the race on S3/S3 tires and was pitting every 25 laps. The Mazda was pitting every 35-36 laps on harder tires I presume. Here are the time differences to the RX-7

Pit at Lap ...... Time In Pits ..... Time Out Pits
25 .............. (-33.xx) sec
50 .................. 1.25 sec ........ (-23.xx) sec
75 ................. 12.xx sec ....... ( -11.xx) sec
100 ............. (-13.xx) sec ....... you get the picture

By lap 179 my failing pit strategy falls in line with my opponent's even though I'm down 45 seconds or so. I went to S2/S2 tires and adopted the same pit strategy as the Mazda, every 35 laps or so thinking I would make up the time on the track, or in and out of the pits,....... I was wrong. Seems the horsepower dropoff is severe enough with the Type 72 that my lap times begin to suffer my mid race and before I conceeded I was loosing about 5 seconds every pit cycle.

Second Attempt: I've bumped the horsepower to 140, (from 128), with a sport exhaust & intake, balance, port & polish and oil change.

140 Hp is enough to keep up with the 312 Hp Mazda RX7 Spirit R Type A '02 that I met up with. It's the only competetion at Tsubuka.

I am using S3/S3 tires and am pitting every 25 laps. The Mazda was pitting every 35-36 laps on harder tires I presume. Here are my time differences during the race compared to the RX-7.

Pit at Lap ...... Time In Pits ..... Time Out Pits
................... (vs. Mazda RX7 Spirit R Type A '02)

25 ................. 29.xxx ................ 3.5xx
50 ................. 36.xxx ............... 10.xxx
75 ................. 37.xxx ............... 15.xxx
100 ............... 24.xxx .............. (-3.xxx)
125 ............... 37.xxx ............... 10.xxx
150 ............... 40.xxx ............... 16.xxx
175 ............... 16.xxx ............. (-9.xxx)
200 ............... 37.xxx ................ 7.xxx ..... * B-Spec Laps 200 - 225
225 ............... 16.xxx ............ (-10.xxx)
250 ............... 41.xxx ............... 19.xxx .. *1/2 Way! 4:36 '47.xxx, 250 laps
275 ............... 35.xxx ................. 9.xxx
300 ............... 48.xxx ............... 22.xxx ..... * B-Spec Laps 300 - 325
325 ............... 38.xxx ............... 14.xxx
350 ............... 21.xxx ............. (-1.xxx)
375 ............... 52.xxx ............... 25.xxx ..... * B-Spec Laps 375 - 425
400 ............... 35.xxx ............... 13.xxx
425 ............. + 0.xxx ............ + 0.xxx ...* Hit pit lane together. Me just ahead.
450 ............... 18.xxx ............. (-8.xxx) ..... A short fuel refill left me a bumper
475 ............... 49.xxx ............... 24.xxx ..... ahead at just under 8 Hrs of racing!
488 ............... Finish: + 27.127

What a great race. 27.127 seconds after 9 hours of racing. The horsepower dropped off to 233 by the end of the race and turned out to be a perfect match, as you can see from the back and forth nature of the race.

Here are the Numbers:
Total time: 9:00' 14.687
Total laps: 488, (100 Laps by B-Spec Bob)
Total miles: 619.76
Fastest lap: 1' 03.648
Fastest lap: Practice: 1' 03.325 on S3s
Pit every: 25 laps, S3/S3 tires
Horse Power: 140, '01 Lotus Elise Type 72
Gear Ratio: Auto Set 2


Laguna Seca 200mi Endurance Event

Car: BMW M3 CSL, '03
For my setup used here...............
http://www.gtvault.com/gt4/setup-view/s_sid::3523/BMW-M3-CSL/

I use this car for the Laguna Seca 200mi Endurance Race quite often to make a few eatra $$$$. I use the above setup in B-Spec. It is a quick way to make near a million credits, (dollars) and gain B-Spec points to make "Bob" a better driver. I began B-Specing this race with 421 hp,... have won with 401 Hp and even as low as 389 Hp to make it more sporty.

Key here is to pass when needed, acknowledge pit plans as you enter the pits, (dont let them time out), and use the pit/tire strategy below. I've won by as much as half a lap, or even by seconds. And have lost by the same. This is good close strategy driven racing!!!

Pit at Lap ......................... Tires Ft/Rr

0 .... Start use ........................ R3/R3
14 ............................. go to... R2/R2
33 ....................................... R2/R2
52 ....................................... R2/R2
71 ....................................... R2/R2
90 ... Finish!!!

So pitting is essentially every 19 laps except for the start which is 14 laps on the softer tires. B-Spec Bob runs on level 4 , (out of 5) most of the time, is prompted to pass when needed. Don't spend too much time caught up behind slower cars. Good Luck and have fun with this race. I do!!

Here are the Numbers:
Total time: 1:20 xx.xxx (on 3x speed in B-Spec)
Total laps: 90, (All by B-Spec Bob)
Total miles: 201.600
Fastest lap: 1' 28.213
Fastest Practice Lap:1' 23.933, (A-Spec)
Pit every: 19 laps, R2/R2 tires
Horse Power: 421, '03 BMW M3 CSL
Gear Ratio: Auto Set 7, (with rear ratio of 4.000)


Fuji 1000km Endurance Event

Car: Mercedes-Benz AMG Mercedes CLK-GTR Race Car,'98
For my setup used here...............
http://www.gtvault.com/gt4/setup-view/s_sid::6395/postid::14545/highlight::/#14545

This car at 918 Hp is a good match for this endurance race with the setup above. I had just regenerated the chasis at 336 mi on the car. Turned the TCS up to 5 to help conserve the rear tires.

The Competition: ............................ Pits Every
Nissan R92CP Race Car, '92 ......................15 laps
Sauber Mercedes Benz C 9 Race Car. 89 ...... 15 laps
Nissan R89C Race Car, 89 ....................... 15 laps
Nissan R390 GT1 Race Car, 98 .................. 19 laps
Chevrolet Corvette C5R(C5), "00 ............... 20 laps

Pit at Lap ...... Time In Pits ..... Time Out Pits ...Tire Change
................... (vs. Nissan R92CP Race Car '92) .......... F / R

Start ............................................................. R2 / R2 *A-Spec
10 ................. +29 sec ............ (-12 sec) .......... R2 / R2
20 ................. +36 sec ............. +13 sec ............ R2 / R2
30 ................. +23 sec ............. +25 sec ............ R1 / R1
45 ................. +16 sec ............. +18 sec ............ R1 / R1
60 ................. +17 sec ............. +19 sec ............ R2 / R2 * B-Spec Laps 61 - 74 (14)
74 ............... (-12 sec) ........... (-19 sec) .......... R1 / R1 *A-Spec
90 ............... (-16 sec) ........... (-14 sec) .......... R2 / R2
105 ............... +14 sec .............. +17 sec ............ R2 / R2
120 ............... +40 sec .............. +40 sec ............ R2 / R2
135 ............... +55 sec .............. +57 sec ............ R2 / R2
150 ............... +56 sec .............. +58 sec ............ R2 / R2
165 ............... +1 Lap ................ +1 Lap ............ R2 / R2 * B-Spec Laps 166 - 207 (42)
179 ............... +51 sec ............... +52 sec ........... R2 / R2 *A-Spec
193 ............... +28 sec ............... +30 sec ........... R2 / R2
207 .............. (-5 sec) .............. (-3 sec) ........... R2 / R2
220 ............... +17 sec ............. (-10 sec) .......... R3 / R3
228 ............... Finish: + 51.376

I didn't panic being behind at lap 220 because the competition pits every 15 laps like clockwork. Knowing this, I was sure the Nissan R92CP was going to pit at Lap 225 and let me by for the win after over 5 hours of racing.

So pitting is essentially every 15 laps on R2 tires except for when B-Spec Bob runs. He only makes 14 laps on the same R2 tires. B-Spec Bob runs on level 4 , (out of 5), and is prompted to pass when needed. I swaped drivers with B-Spec Bob in order to get him some much needed skill points. My Bob sucks!, but he kept it interesting, bleeding off my lead and make it so I would have to race well to stay in the race,........ Whats a "Co-Driver" for anyway. His best lap was 1' 19.837 on R2 tires.

Here are the Numbers:
Total time: 5:06' 53.743
Total laps: 228, (56 by B-Spec Bob)
Total miles: 622.44
Fastest lap: 1' 14.718 on R2 tires, 1' 13.795 on R3s
Fastest Practice Lap: 1' 11.172 on R3's
Pit every: 15 laps, R2 / R2 tires
Horse Power: 918, At the end of race: 872 Hp
Final Ratio: 3.100, Ratios by way of "Tranny Trick"
Extreme Events Championship Races: Notes and Results Updated by BTWhite37 08/03/2008 12:43 AM
Extreme Events, Gran Turismo All-Stars
Car: Mazda 787B Race Car
For my setup used here.......
http://www.gtvault.com/gt4/setup-view/s_sid::3653/Mazda-787B-Race-Car/

Track (laps) .................... Final Drive ........ Best Lap ......... Tires Ft/Rr .......... Pit

High Speed Ring (7) ............. 3.100 ............ 58.xxx ............ R3/R3 ....... * No Pit Stops
Fuji Spdwy "80s (6) ............. 3.000 .......... 1' 02.xxx ............ R3/R3 .......... Required.
Laguna Seca (7) ................. 3.750 .......... 1' 12.xxx ............ R3/R3
Autumn Ring (9) ................. 4.100 .......... 1' 09.xxx ............ R2/R2
Test Course (3) .................. 2.500 .......... 1' 34.xxx ............ R4/R3
Grand Valley (6) ................. 3.500 .......... 1' 37.xxx ............ R2/R2
Suzuka Ckt (5) ................... 3.500 .......... 1' 45.xxx ............ R3/R3
Infineon, Stock (8) .............. 4.000 .......... 1' 02.xxx ............ R3/R3
Ckt de la Sarthe (2) ............. 2.900 .......... 3' 21.757 ............ R3/R3
Nurburgring (2) .................. 3.000 .......... 6' 03.806 ............ R2/R2



Extreme Events, Premium Sports Lounge
Car: BMW M3 CSL
This car was a good choice as it made
it a fair, close, race series.
For my setup used here.....
http://www.gtvault.com/gt4/setup-view/s_sid::3523/BMW-M3-CSL/

Track (laps) ................. Auto Set ..... Best Lap ...... Tires Ft/Rr ....... Pit

Cote d'Azur (4) .................... 12 .......... 1' 39.xxx ........... S3/S3 ....... * No Pit Stops
Opera Paris (5) ..................... 8 ........... 1' 28.xxx ........... S3/S3 .......... Required.
Hong Kong (5) ..................... 11 .......... 1' 27.xxx ........... S3/S3
High Speed Ring (4) .............. 12 ........... 1' 13.xxx ........... S3/S3
New York (3) ...................... 13 ........... 1' 40.xxx ........... S3/S3



Extreme Events, Real Circuit Tours
Car: Nissan R92CP Race Car
I used this car, and here's how it went.
For my setup used here.........
http://www.gtvault.com/gt4/setup-view/s_sid::3541/Nissan-R92CP-Race-Car/

Track (laps) ................. Final Drive ..... Best Lap ...... Tires Ft/Rr ....... Pit

Suzuka Circuit (6) ................. 3.350 ......... 1' 42.xxx ........... R3/R3 .......... -----
Twin Ring Motegi (8) ............. 3.250 ......... 1' 34.xxx ........... R3/R3 .......... lap 4
Tsukuba (15) ...................... 4.000 ............ 46.xxx ........... R3/R3 .......... lap 8
Laguna Seca (10) ................. 3.500 ......... 1' 12.xxx ........... R3/R3 .......... -----
Infineon SCCA (9) ................ 3.500 ......... 1' 17.xxx ........... R3/R3 .......... -----
Fuji Spdwy 2005 GT (8) .......... 3.150 ......... 1' 21.xxx ........... R3/R2 .......... -----
Ckt de la Sarthe I, (3) ............ 2.900 ......... 3' 17.xxx ........... R3/R2 .......... -----
Nurburgring Nord (2) ............. 3.000 ......... 6' 06.xxx ............R3/R2 .......... -----



Extreme Events, Dream Car Championship
Car: Nissan C-West Razo Silvia(JGTC)
I used this car for the Extreme Events, Dream Car
Championship.
For my setup used here........
http://www.gtvault.com/gt4/setup-view/s_sid::3010/Nissan-C-West-Razo-Silvia(JGTC)/

It was a good slug fest!

Track (laps) ................. Final Drive ..... Best Lap ...... Tires Ft/Rr ....... Pit

Opera Paris (7) .................... 4.500 ......... 1' 20.xxx .......... R3/R3 ........ * No Pit Stops
Tokyo 246 (4) ...................... 3.750 ......... 1' 35.xxx .......... R3/R3 ........... Required.
Deep Forrest (5) ................... 4.000 ......... 1' 13.xxx .......... R4/R4
Seoul Korea (7) .................... 3.750 ............ 55.xxx .......... R3/R3
Hong Kong (7) ..................... 4.800 .......... 1' 18.xxx .......... R3/R3
Test Course (2) .................... 3.000 ......... 1' 50.xxx .......... R4/R4
Beginner Course (27) ............. 5.000 ............ 22.xxx .......... R2/R2
Ckt de la Sarthe II (2) ............ 3.500 .......... 3' 34.xxx .......... R4/R4
El Capitan (4) ...................... 4.000 .......... 1' 42.xxx .......... R3/R3
Cote d'Azur (7) .................... 5.000 .......... 1' 34.xxx .......... R2/R2



Extreme Events, Polyphony Digital Cup
Car: Mercedes-Benz 190 E 2.5 - 16 Evolution II 273 hp.
For my setup used here.........
http://www.gtvault.com/gt4/setup-view/s_sid::3116/Mercedes-Benz-190-E-2-5---16-Evolution-II/

Tranny Trick for Final Ratio settings.

Track (laps) ................. Final Drive ..... Best Lap ...... Tires Ft/Rr ....... Pit

Twin Ring Motegi (6) .............. 4.250 ......... 2' 11.xxx .......... S3/S3 ........ * No Pit Stops
Seattle (7) ......................... 4.250 .......... 1' 48.xxx .......... S3/S3 ........... Required.
Infineon SCCA (8) ................ 4.600 .......... 1' 24.xxx .......... S3/S3
Tokyo 246 (5) ..................... 3.600 .......... 1' 57.xxx .......... S3/S3
Fuji 2005 (6) ....................... 3.650 .......... 1' 57.xxx .......... S3/S3
Motorland (19) .................... 4.750 ............. 45.xxx .......... S3/S3
Ckt de la Sarthe I (2) ............. 3.650 .......... 4' 42.xxx .......... S3/S3
El' Capitan (6) ..................... 4.250 .......... 2' 01.xxx .......... S3/S3
Suzuka (5) ......................... 4.250 .......... 2' 25.xxx .......... S3/S3
Nurburgring (2) ... @260hp ..... 3.850 .......... 8' 07.913 .......... S3/S3



Extreme Events, Formula GT World Championship

Car: 2004 Polyphony Digital Formula Gran Turismo, 904 Hp
For my setup used here.......
http://www.gtvault.com/gt4/setup-view/s_sid::6500/Polyphony-Digital-Formula-Gran-Turismo/

* All races on R3 / R3 tires........... As always with F1 cars in GT4.
* Qualified P1 for each race. I use this for final tuning including development of
RearToe vs Pit Interval for each race. (See below)
* Downforce settings of 65 Front & 95 Rear.

Track (laps) ................ Final Drive ..... R. Toe ....... Best Lap ........... Pit Strategy ............... Total Time

Tokyo R246 (60) ................. 3.100 ......... -5 ........... 1' 13.999 .......... 10,20,30,40,50 ............... 1:21' 41.500

Twin Ring Motegi SS (127) .... 3.000 ......... -1 ............. 24.988 .......... 22,43,64,85,106 ................. 59' 01.364

New York, NY (74) ................ 3.100 ......... -3 ........... 1' 14.180 ......... 11,22,33,44,54,64 ............ 1:38' 23.238

High Speed Ring (77) ........... 3.100 ......... -3 ............. 51.027 .......... 13,26,39,52,65 ................ 1:13' 14.828

Grand Valley Spdwy (62) ...... 3.050 ......... -3 ........... 1' 25.824 .......... 8,16,24,32,40,48,55 ........ 1:38' 32.734

Circuit de la Sarthe I (23) ..... 3.100 ......... -2 ............ 3' 07.540 .......... 6,12,18 ........................ 1:16' 00.737

Cote D'Azur (78) ................. 3.500 ......... -4 ............ 1' 15.457 .......... 8,16,24,32,40,48 ............ 1:47' 00.054
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56,64,71
Seoul Ctrl, Korea (113) ......... 3.200 ......... -3 .............. 43.036 .......... 19,38,57,76,95 ............... 1:27' 38.953

Infineon Raceway (76) ......... 3.450 ......... -3 ............ 1' 09.493 ......... 11,22,33,44,55,66 .......... 1:38' 46.457

Laguna Seca Rcwy (85) ........ 3.400 ......... -4 ............ 1' 05.790 ...... 10,20,30,40,49,58,67,76 ...... 1:46' 02.103

Twin Ring Motegi RC (64) ..... 3.400 ......... -3 ............ 1' 25.739 ......... 10,19,28,37,46,55 ........... 1:41' 18.193

Nurburgring Nord (15) .......... 3.100 ......... -2 ............ 5' 28.476 .......... 2,4,6,7,9,11,13 ............. 1:29' 43.401

El' Capitan (64) ................... 3.300 ......... -3 ............ 1' 17.422 .......... 8,16,24,32,40,48,56 ........ 1:34' 32.790

Fuji Spdwy 2005 (67) ........... 3.100 ......... -3 ............ 1' 17.079 .......... 9,18,27,35,43,51,59 ........ 1:36' 34.128

Suzuka Circuit (53) .............. 3.250 ......... -3 ............ 1' 32.718 .......... 8,16,24,32,39,46 ............ 1:29' 52.888

Notes:

* It seems the key to Pit Strategy is to keep up with adjustment of "Rear Toe". So far I've had different rear toe settings for each race. The more negative the setting the better the slow corner handling, but you sacrifice rear tire wear. The less negative and closer to a zero setting, the more laps you'll get between pit stops.

Circuit de la Sarthe I (race #6) is very bumpy. I softened the springs (17.5/18.5), raised the ride height (53/55). Overall the downforce was a bit less due to the ride height change which allowed the car to top out a bit more on the straights. Toe of -2 allowed the rear tires to last six laps between pits but left it a bit loose on worn tires, beware! I expect the same for "The 'Ring".

Nurburgring Nordschleife (race #12) is even more bumpy. You'll be replacing the skid plates on your F1 after this race, for sure. I softened the springs (17.0/18.0), raised the ride hieght (56/58), softened the shocks (SB 6/7 and SRB 8/9). All this in an attempt to keep the car on the track. I found out that F1 cars have no bussiness at the 'Ring!!

Fuji Speedway 2005 (race #14) was a lesson in fuel management. I'm convinced that the car will run faster on lighter fuel loads, My fasest lap time was when running very low on fuel. Throughout the series I've been refueling every other pit cycle in order to save time in the pits. In this race I began taking on only the fuel I would need to complete the two cycles. My last refuel was on lap 51 where I took on only six (of ten) tick marks of fuel. My goal was to hit the finish line bone dry,......... I miscalculated,....... going into turn one on the last lap I ran out. The car defaults to 50 mph max and limps back to the pits,.or in this case the finish line. I was up two laps on the field allowing me to finish and win,........ one more tick of fuel would have done it,......... Overall time reflects a very slow 67th lap. Good lesson learned,..... Look forward to playing with this some more at Suzuka (race#15).

I recorded the car milage at the start of the first race and end of the last............
Total Milage: 3,222 for the entire 15 race series.
Professional Events Championship Races: Notes and Results Updated by BTWhite37 08/03/2008 12:42 AM
Professional Events, GT World Championship

Car: Nissan R92CP Race Car
For my set up I used here......
http://www.gtvault.com/gt4/setup-view/s_sid::3541/Nissan-R92CP-Race-Car/

Track (laps) ................. Final Drive ..... Best Lap ...... Tires Ft/Rr ....... Pit

Tokyo 246 (10) ................... 3.100 ..........1' 23.xxx ........... R2/R2 .......... -----
Twin Ring Motegi (21) ........... 3.000 ............ 29.xxx ........... R2/R2 .......... -----
Hong Kong (18) .................. 4.250 ......... 1' 10.xxx ............ R3/R3 .......... lap 9
Seoul Korea (19) ................. 3.250 ............ 49.xxx ........... R2/R2 .......... -----
El Capitan (11) ................... 3.450 ......... 1' 30.xxx ............ R2/R2 .......... -----
New York (15) .................... 3.450 ......... 1' 22.xxx ............ R3/R3 .......... lap 8
Opera Paris (18) ................. 4.000 .......... 1' 15.xxx ........... R3/R2 .......... lap 9
Suzuka Ckt (9) ................... 3.500 .......... 1' 46.xxx ........... R2/R2 ........... -----
Grand Valley (11) ................ 3.450 .......... 1' 39.xxx ........... R2/R2 .......... lap 6
Ckt de la Sarthe I (4) ............ 2.900 .......... 3' 20.xxx ........... R2/R1 .......... -----
Japanese Events, GT Championship: Notes and Results Updated by BTWhite37 08/03/2008 12:41 AM
Japanese Events, GT Championship

Car: Nissan Option Stream Z

No downforce on this Z car and tons of power.
Lots of sawing at the wheel.
Be smooth to drive it at the limit.
I used the my setup with the settings posted below.
http://www.gtvault.com/gt4/setup-view/s_sid::3210/Nissan-Option-Stream-Z/

This car was a good choice as it made it a fair, close, race series.

Track (laps) .................. Auto Set ..... Best Lap ...... Tires Ft/Rr ....... Pit

Tokyo Rte 246 (5) ................. 12 .......... 1' 36.xxx ........... R3/R3 ...... * No Pit Stops.
Suzuka East (12) .................... 8 ............. 49.xxx ........... R2/R2 ......... Required.
Seoul Korea (10) ................... 11 ............. 56.xxx ........... R2/R2
Fuji Speedway 90's (6) ............ 12 .......... 1' 25.xxx ........... R2/R2
Twin Ring Motegi Oval (12) ....... 13.............. 35.xxx ........... R2/R2
Laguna Seca (7) ..................... 7 ........... 1 '25.xxx ........... R2/R2
Hong Kong (9) ....................... 3 ........... 1' 20.xxx ........... R2/R2
Twin Ring Motegi (6) ................ 7 ........... 1' 52.xxx ........... R2/R2
Fuji 2005 GT (6) .................... 12 ............. 36.xxx ........... R2/R2
Suzuka Circuit (5) ................... 7 ........... 2' 00.xxx ........... R3/R3
A Guide to Ballast Balance vs Ballast Weight Updated by BTWhite37 04/19/2007 4:33 PM
* Ballast Balance vs Ballast Weight

Check this out,......
This is an interchange between me, BTWhite37 and another member, DTW about this balance/weight deal.

BTWhite37 wrote:
Is Ballast Balance : location?..... and is Ballast Weight: additional wieght, (the kind that is added to even the racing field in Trans Am Championships)?

DTW relpied:
Yes that is exactly what it is.

BTWhite37 wrote:
As a tuner can we use the ambient weight of the car to tune with.
Race car designers move oil tanks, fuel cells, batteries and anything else that isnt nessesary where it is, to move "center of balance". Is that what we're talking about here?

All this moving around can make huge differences in handling without adding any extra weight, and could account for "Ballast Balance" changes in handling without adding Ballast Weight. Just a thought?

DTW wrote:
There seems to be a growing debate about that question. If you ask some tuners (therat1989 we could use some of your input here) they say that it must be possible as adjusting the balance seems to affect the car. In my testing I have not seen this happen. I have tested this on an MR, FF, and FR and have gone from one extreme (full adjust to the front and then the back) and have seen no change in the way the car handles. I suppose only time and more input from others testing this will solve the issue.


* Then our man "Toreno" goes the extra mile and offers some considerable testing to help our Balance / Weight setups.

Ballast Balance for MR, 4WD, FR, RR, FF

The ballast balance without weight DOES make a difference! I did all testing at Suzuka Circuit.

BF= Ballast Front / BB = Ballast Back

FR: Toyota Supra
BF: Added turn-in steering in corners but less traction at the rear, Thumbs Down
BB: Not much over/ understeer difference. Grip is increased, Question?

RR: RUF Yellowbird
BF: More Steering response and more traction in high speed turns, Thumbs Up
BB: High speed steering is almost impossible, Thumbs Down

MR: NSX-R
BF: Same as RR, Thumbs Up
BB: More tail out turns, more fun. Sudden high speed turns can spin you out really badly, Question?

4WD: Mitsubishi EVO VI Tommi Makinen
BF: Acceleration is faster, turn-in more accurate, Thumbs Up
BB: Braking power increased, added understeer, Thumbs Up

FF: Dodge Neon
BF: More oversteer with setting about 20%. Faster acceleration, Thumbs Up
BB: Rear grips in corners, but, added a little understeer, Question?


* Hope this helps wth fine tuning your setups............ Let me know if it does.

If there is any you can add to the post, let me have it. BTWhite37 at Hotmail dot com
Nurburgring 24hr Endurance Race: Notes and Results Updated by BTWhite37 08/03/2008 12:44 AM
Nurburgring 24hr Endurance Race

Car: Alfa Romeo 155 2.5 V6 TI Touring Car, '93
For my setup used here..............
http://www.gtvault.com/gt4/setup-view/s_sid::6409/Alfa-Romeo-155-2-5-V6-TI/

Changes to setup for the Nurburgring 24hr include:
Down Force ........ 35 front / 50 rear
VCD ......................... 10%
TCS ........................... 4

Pos .... The Competition: .................................. Pits Every ........ Dis-Advantage
P-2 .. Toyota, Super AutoBacs Apex MR-S, '00 ............... 7 laps ................... 2 laps
P-3 .. AMG Mercedes Benz 190E EvoII T/C, '04 ............... 6 laps
P-4 .. Nissan C-West Razo Silvia(JGTC), '01 ................... 6 laps
P-5 .. Nissan Falken * GTR Race Car ........................... 5 laps
P-6 .. Opel Calibra Touring Car, 94 ............................. 6 laps


Pit at Lap .... Time In Pits ..... Total Time ........Tire Change ... * Notes
.......... (vs. Nissan Fauken * GTR Race Car '04) ........... F / R

Start .............................................................. R1 / R1 ... * A-Spec
4 ................. + 0' 50 ....................................... R1 / R2
7 ................. + 2' 28 ........................................
10 ................ + 2' 47 ............. @ 1:12' 23 ............ R1 / R1 ... * B-Spec
15 ................ + 2' 39 .......................................
20 ................ + 2' 20 ............. @ 2: 28' 15 ........... R1 / R2 ... * A-Spec
24 ................ + 3' 34 ....................................... R2 / R2
27 ................ + 4' 55 ....................................... R1 / R2
30 ................ + 5' 07 ............. @ 3: 40' 29 ........... R1 / R1 ... * B-Spec
35 ................ + 5' 29 .......................................
40 ................ + 5' 02 .......................................
45 ................ + 4' 44 .......................................... * 6 Hrs (1/4 comp)
50 ................ + 4' 25 .......................................... 49 1/2 Lps @ +4' 33
55 ................ + 3' 57 .......................................
60 ................ + 3' 44 ............. @ 7: 28' 48 ........... R1 / R2 ... * A-Spec
64 ................ + 4' 41 ....................................... R1 / R1
67 ................ + 5' 56 ....................................... R1 / R2
70 ................ + 6' 31 ............. @ 8: 41' 30 ........... R1 / R1 ... * B-Spec
75 ................ + 6' 45 .......................................
80 ................ + 6' 35 .......................................
85 ................ + 6' 10 .......................................
90 ................ + 5' 54 .......................................... * 12 Hrs (1/2 comp)
95 ................ + 5' 34 .......................................... 96 1/4 Lps @ +5' 41
100 .............. + 5' 12 ............. @ 12: 28' 45 .......... R1 / R2 ... * A-Spec
104 .............. + 6' 07 ........................................... * + 1 Lap on lap 103
107 .............. + 1 lap ........................................ R1 / R1
110 .............. + 1 lap ............. @ 13: 40' 51 .......... R1 / R1 ... * B-Spec
115 .............. + 1 lap ........................................
120 .............. + 1 lap ........................................
125 .............. + 1 lap ........................................
130 .............. + 1 lap ........................................
135 .............. + 7' 12 ........................................
140 .............. + 6' 54 ............. @17: 29' 02 ........... R1 / R2 ... * A-Spec
144 .............. + 1 lap ........................................... * 18 Hrs (3/4 comp)
147 .............. + 1 lap ........................................... 145 Lps @ +1 lap
150 .............. + 1 lap ........................................
154 .............. + 1 lap & 3' 15 ...............................
157 .............. + 1 lap & 4' 43 ...............................
160 .............. + 1 lap & 5' 15 .... @ 19: 53' 39 .......... R1 / R1 ... * B-spec
165 .............. + 1 lap & 5' 35 ...............................
170 .............. + 1 lap & 5' 14 ...............................
175 .............. + 1 lap & 4' 50 ...............................
180 .............. + 1 lap & 4' 40 .... @ 22: 25' 37 .......... R2 / R2 ...