Lets Talk Racing! - Car/Track Techniques, Setups, Telemetry, Replays, Help/Advice,Etc

Welcome!

In the early times of my simracing days (F1 Ch 99-02, GTR1, Netkar Namie, young rFactor 1, etc.) maybe 2004-2008-ish, forums were packed with people talking about the pure racing itself - how to gain some time on this corner, what to do to make this car drive good, advice on setup adjustments, comparing each other's telemetry, posting videos and sharing replays for comparisons, asking for advice, giving advice, etc. etc.. It was just all about pure racing. Now, it's like everyone is a game developer rather than a racer; 90% of threads are about physics arguments, stupid complaints about "shiney" graphics and all that bull****, this video game does this better but this one does that better, etc. Well...

This is a thread to discuss pure driving. No bull**** about graphics, bugs, UI, sounds, PC hardware/software, MP system, etc. Just driving/racing.

From the least experienced to the most, from the slowest to the fastest, treat this thread as a hangout for all of us. This thread is for the pure "driver" in us all, and absolutely everyone is invited! So go on, trade and discuss setups, telemetry files (eg. motec), replay files (great help, even more so thanks to tools like VCR Merge), and so on. Post videos of your laps to get help with them or to give help to others. Post links to sources about driving techniques, car setup, whatever. Go crazy!

 

I'd like to start off with a general question regarding the preload diff setting. I've read a few times about what it does, but I just have a real hard time in-game feeling the differences, where as coast and power are very easy to feel and work with. Doesn't really matter which car...Anyone good with adjusting diff preload?

Does it have to do with how quick the car transitions from the power diff setting to the coast diff setting? Or does it come into play when you are neither accelerating or decelerating but just holding neutral, steady throttle and/or speed?...

 

good thread Spinelli

yes your right we do spend to much of our time trying to force opinions & dev demands lol

right now I'm spending what time I can with the formula ISI on Indianapolis 2007gp
inspired by FSR's recent league race, it's a great combo & a nice use of Indianapolis road
( real world f1 used it in 2007 ....thus it's inclusion ) )

not easy when aiming for the FSR league's lap times ( & not much idea of this car setups )
but enjoying it all the same, there's a real art to driving those cars fast

give it a try if you get a mo

I need to get into car setups & testing but I'm jumping around a bit without a league in rf2 + the odd week in Iracing
(on the SRF's depending on the track as certain friends favour certain tracks etc)

 

I can see myself having a few questions for this thread mainly on car setup as I`m a bit of a noob in that department...



I`ll wait till I`m back at the sim rig though as still away on holiday at the mo.

 

I would like some clarification on this as well, does this setting make any sense for sim racing? I can't feel any difference when changing this setting so I just leave it. Maybe in cars with setting from 1 to 9 you might feel it but the cars Ive been driving lately only go 1 to 2 or 1 to 4.

If I think about it (as I wrote the above) I would assume you would want a responsive feel from braking to acceleration so a low preload setting would be best?

Cool thread btw

 

Regarding setups

http://www.racingonthecheap.com/recommended-reading/carroll-smiths-handling-guide/

AFAIK preload regulates how hard the diff kicks in from braking and accelrating and vice versa.


Very cool channel. A must

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PQ6oKidE20

 

I hope to get some reading in on this, it's old but I think it's all still valid

http://gridmotorsports.com/forum/league/723889049/595195175/rfactor-f1-setup-guide.pdf


edit : re. preload diff

read 7.4, nice little explanation -I understand it as how firmly the drive is to the (powered) wheels & what point the power overtakes the point of available grip (causing spin)

 

From What I've read elsewhere it has to do with the transition from braking to accelerating in regard to stability. A high setting will make the car 'nervous' in transition but a lower setting will make it more stable.
I'm only going off what i've read, I really haven't sat down and tried to feel the difference for myself. Hope this helps.

 

Ok so let's say you have a very extreme coast-diff setup, very, very nervous on off-throttle. Can the preload be used to affect how long it takes for that nervousness to kick in? So for eg. it may take 0.5s for the low-coast-nervousness to kick in rather than, let's say, 0.2s because of a different pre-load setting?...

By the way, thanks for the links and guide! Very useful.

 

You want to less preload to have a stable car under braking and a slightly understeery car on brakes if you prefer so. When you release the brakes you want it immediately to turn in. However if you set it to low it might result in a sudden oversteer when you release the brakes. It basically regulates the car behaviour when you are releasing the brakes. Pfuh ...english lol.

 

Great stuff! Thanks!

 

Last week I had the pleasure to meet Oscar Larrauri. We had a three hours conversation about Porsche 962, World Sport Cars and IMSA races from early 80s to 1991 and some other races at Japan and Italy with Ferraris, Lancias and Porsche 911. The crazy thing about all this, was the coincidence in lot of driving manners. He talked about tires a lot, but one of the biggest coincidences I never hoped to hear, was the use of the differential.

When he said that the idea was to use the power of the differential, the most open possible I thought (WTF I do the same!)

 

Great, I've had this issue often due to, i'm assuming, the style of setup I used. The point where I lifted off the brake resulted in oversteer even though the setup generally was more understeer oriented. It drove me crazy but I didn't want to mess with my setup too much because I liked it for the most part. I'm going to experiment with it in a bit.

 

Can someone explain tire temps? What should I be looking for (inner, middle, outer)? Is there a simple formula to get optimum temps?

 

I think you should first look and change the "camber" to get a good grip, and then, later take a look to the tires to check they are not so different.

Tires with low pressure get you more grip, but this cause a raise in the tire's temp.

 

ya buddha, the general concensus is that you want, at most, a 10 or so degree C spread between your inner and outer temps (inner-warmer, outer-cooler).

Pressure - raising the tyre pressure will make the middle bulge out more, this will make the middle hotter and the outsides (inner and outer) cooler. Lowering the tyre pressure will have the opposite effect.

Camber - the more camber you pump into the car (negative camber obviously - top of tyres leaning towards eachother) the more you will raise the inner temp, and possibly cool the middle and outter temps.

Changing suspension settings will affect the temp and temp spread too, so re-check your temps if you decide to make a suspension adjustment (like anti-roll bars).

Sometimes I setup my temps and pressures purely on trying to get a 5-10 degree C spread, rather than trying to achieve a specific optimal pressure or temperature. Don't forget though, too low/high pressures, too little/much camber will affect the handling of the car, so it's not always about chasing those perfect tems if it requires a bad setup that you don't like.

 

Maybe the next update will address the obnoxious crowning, there could be a big change on setups on pressure and camber especially. Such a huge issue.

 

To understand differential preload, check this: http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/248-Differential-Preload

 

No idea how the simulation works, I myself haven't really tested, but as far as I know preload is to a certain degree a possibility of speed balancing between the wheels, similar to a locked differential in it's effect.

Up to a certain torque input ( can also be generated by the road ) of the main shaft the velocities of the wheels are quite balanced, and when the input torque exceeds the resistance the core values ( setup, typ ) of the differential come to the use, which may vary in it's effect according to the setting/typ of the differential.

 

endless testing, analysing data & online reading.

@ Guimengo - I really hope your right.