Karts - Steering range and spinning easily?

Im having a real hard time getting comfortable in the karts.

The default range is 187, and im finding it so easy to spin, as theres such a tight angle of turn. (ive also tried the slow deg setup). I cant seem to get a good setting for the ISI kart.

My default deg is 540, which is fine for all other cars. I just don't wanna keep changing my settings for every time I use the kart. So is there anything else I can do to the Proper range in the setup?

 

The kart has the steering range of a kart. I really think just more practice... I actually found the newly updated kart a little bit harder than the old one (contrary to what most people said in the forum), but I got used to it after running a race or two. If you've never been good in the sim in a kart then it might take you a little longer to practice but really that's the only thing that will help.

 

yes Tim I agree. One thing I have found easier to drive them, is changing the FOV back to default. I was running 45 on a single screen (for all my sims) but having gone back to default. it feels better. I can be more accurate with the karts now.. also feel this way on gsc too.

 

+1

But can't you override the default and set your own range if you want to? I think yes, and yes, it should be car-specific so if you need to do it for karts, it wouldn't affect any other cars.

Your wheel hardware may be an issue, because you have to get used to turning very little and there is little range for the feedback to operate. If the fidelity is not there for whatever reason...

Like real kart, you almost think the car around corners, meaning you barely have to twitch and the kart reacts. Even a tight corner only takes a small twist of the arms, so you almost try to do it out of instinct and not by thinking about actually steering the way you would in a road car.

 

Use 240 degrees for Karts

 

try steering ratio slow and i had my wheel set at 480 . made a big difference. and as stated practice

 

Tim your right!!! I spent a few hours doing the karts at the new AMP long track... I think why i was struggling at this track was the elevation changes, you really do have to manage your throttle more!

Just want to thank ISI for this great track and the new CPM.

I was playing back to back with the GSC karts for a bit, and wondered what the actual difference is. But when you do more and more laps, rf2 does start to come into its own.

Briliant guys.. just brilliant.

 

You may find that differently to other cars, with the karts, making turn is more about giving little , fast inputs with the wheel than turning it like in a street car.

 

Yeah the way the kart goes light when coming over the highest crest, it feels amazing and demands so much throttle control. Karts on AMP is one of the finest experiences in sim racing at the moment, absolutely brilliant.

 

Are you using the slower karts? The slow ones are amazing as heck to drive, even once you've gotten accustomed to the faster ones...I'd advise on the slower ones first for a few hours/days before moving up to the F1 karts, and doing this same thing for every track.


Anyways, I have some setup tips to turn the karts into some very nice and stable machines which you'll not want to stop lapping for MONTHS, YEARS

- Bring the toe from default -0.5 to 0.0 or -0.1.
Slowly work your way up until you get back to at-least -0.2 or -0.3 (or even back up to the default -0.5 if you like that much toe-out)

- Lower your brake pressure to 75% or maybe 80%.
As you get used to the braking limits and the kart's dynamics under braking and entry, you can slowly increase this but just leave it at 75 or 80 % for now

- Either put the kart's steering speed to "low" in the garage screen instead of the default "medium", OR, keep it at "medium" but disable "vehicle set" and bring the degrees up from 187 (or whatever it is) to somewhere between 210 and 240.
Maybe start at 230 and work your way down to 210?? You decide, but make sure to stick with one for a bit (like every change you make). I prefer the latter method as the steering rack at medium seems to make the FFB feel better. Stronger? More alive and detailed? Something like that.

- Raise the brake bias (only for the faster karts[F1]) from default 63:37 (I think), to 68:32 or 69:31.
Then, as you get a feel for the dynamics under braking and entry, slowly lower this down little by little (0.5-1% at a time) until you settle at around 65:35 or so, I, myself, like 67 if I recall correctly (people online thought I was crazy when I told them to use that much front brake, but I think my laptimes did the talking )

- I think there were a few more little adding-stability-while-still-keeping-the-kart-fast setup tips, but I forgot what they were. I haven't played much with seat stays and all those other kart-specific setup options. Maybe it was pressure and/or camber? I think it may have been camber. Try lowering it all around by about half. So if it's -3, try -1.5. If it's -2, try -1.



Don't worry about the seeming amount of under-rotation or just straight-up understeer from these settings. If you actually give it a chance, and try to turn the kart - make it rotate - by your own feel and technique rather than just relying on an ultra darty setup that will always help you turn-in without the need to learn how to initiate it yourself then - I promise you - those setup tips are capable of some VERY competitive laptimes. Again, you just need to learn to drive it without encouraging the understeer. Change your technique, your line, whatever - even if they're just super minute changes - in order to not bring about any understeer or under-rotation; try that instead of just flying back over to the garage screen for a more-oversteer/less-stability setup in an attemt to make the kart "automatically" turn for you.


Also, use the pedal overlay tool and raise the FFB multi as high as you can without clipping (well clipping on kerbs/bumps is fine but you know what I mean). I'm sure you know this already.

Make sure you're using some steering torque minimum (depending on wheel)


Finally, aim for driving and feel while slowly working up your speed. Literally pretend you're actually in real life at a real track. Working up to entry speeds, to how hard and late your apply the brakes, how risky you drive, how early/hard you get on the throttle, etc. Feel it out, don't just aim for sectors and laptimes . Infact, disable the timing altogether and just focus on consistently feeling the kart's behavior and how that behavior relates to your steering/throttle/braking inputs for a good 20 laps or so.

 

Thanks spin for the detailed post.. I already tried some things you mentioned (brake pressures helped a lot and the slow lock), but all in all it was just down to practice had a great 10 min race at the small kart track at AMP. Love the way the marbles build up and once you go out there..... brilliant.

Its mainly the smaill wheel lock that you have to get used to and using small adjustments in the wheel.

cheers bud.

 

Widen the front track (I forget if you can do that on the kart) then set your steering to medium you might be putting to much input making the kart chassis flex a lot causing it to get super loose once the inside tire lifts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

is anyone finding the caster on the karts better at about 10.0 not 15-16?

 

Could you describe the change that makes on your system (and which wheel you are using)?

For me, the default 19 caster feels great. Any setting below that just progressively removes FFB fidelity and steering weight the farther you go (Fanatec CSW). At 10, there is very little FFB left and the steering is so light it feels nothing like a real kart.

A great test of how our wheels respond differently would be for everyone to try 6 and then 20 caster while keeping all else consistent (your preferred setup). My theory is that it does not have the same effect on all wheels, and certainly not to the same extent.

 

Hmm just thought I've increased the steering minimum torque as I am not happy with the stupidly loose feel all the cars have. There's no resistance and doesn't feel like a race car steering weight. Maybe this effected the karts.
But felt good I prefer the weight
Have a t300

 

One change at a time. What does the caster at each extreme setting do for you?

 

I'm the opposite, dan. I usually run everything at higher than stock caster, or sometimes stock but hardly ever lower.

I once heard that in real-life, pretty-much almost every driver/engineer would prefer the most amount of caster possible but they can't because at a certain point the steering effort will just be so ridiculously high. Maybe it's a load of rubbish, who knows, but I believe it was a racecar engineer or driver talking at some sort of street course. Possibly an 80s or 90s video clip. Real fuzzy but for some reason that caster comment has continued to stick in my mind after all these years. I'll try to find the video one day.

But ya, in-game I generally like at-least the default caster, if not more.

 

Seems I'm in the minority at least.
Fanatec GT2, which is quite a bit heavier and slower than the G27 I had and in most cases I'm dropping caster down to low numbers.
When doing this previously, I'd counter with a higher FFB multiplier but these days I'll, tune it for 100% FFB.

Specifically, when running too much caster, I feel the contact patch reduces during the corner. I say feel because I'm not looking at this scientifically at all but it very much feels like the tires go from U shaped to V so as I turn the wheel there is quite a bit of resistance, then snap, it goes off the cliff.
Back to back testing the other night at indy, showed the higher the caster, the less fidelity there was. Reducing it bit by bit bought out all the high frequency vibrations whereas they were non-existent with the higher rates.

Additionally, I tend to drive from the rear, so a lighter wheel allows easier micro corrections. It seems heavier wheels only slow me down.

 

Drivers in my league generally all race with high caster values on the Formula ISI, not because of comfort but because it's quicker, the car turns in nicely and I find it the same way.

 

this is somewhat what im feeling.. the kart feels very snappy with default caster. Its like graudually turn in and the then the things snap oversteers on you. I have upped my torque min, to get a bit more weight in the steering of all the cars. So this may of affected the karts caster (probably did tbh) but i have a better feel now, with min torque and lower caster in the kart.