Race Pro's tuning advice (in multiple posts)

**Avanti 63r1025** Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:51 am

I plugged in Race Pro and spent time copying that game's text. There are bits of advice in Race Pro which don't apply to Forza Motorsport and you'll notice them, though the principle remains the same. What follows are posts of what Sim Bin has to say when it comes to tuning various parts of a race car. Hopefully these help you now and in the future.

Brakes

Brake Pressure:
This setting affects braking efficiency: 100% means that all available braking torque is applied to the wheels with full compression of the brake pedal. This may be desirable for single qualifying laps, but you may want to reduce this setting to preserve your brakes in longer races or to improve the control of cars generally unstable under braking.
Brake Balance:
Brake bias is the distribution of pressure between the front and rear brakes. Since the weight of the car shifts forward under braking, cars are usually set up with some frontal brake bias. Cars with their mass concentrated in the rear may require less frontal brake bias than cars with more mass in the front.

Brake bias settings may vary from track to track and depending on driving style. If your car is unstable and wants to spin under braking, you might need to move brake bias further forward. On the other hand, if the front wheels are locking up easily under braking, try moving the brake bias to the rear.

Since a car’s balance may change during a race as fuel is consumed and tires and brakes wear down, drivers can adjust the brake bias from inside the car while out on the track. You may have to change it back and forth as necessary. (Forza Motorsport does not allow us a brake balance controller inside the car. This is a moot point.)

**Avanti 63r1025** Sat Mar 17, 2012 1:10 am

Suspension

Anti-Roll Bar:
Also known as stabilizer bars or just roll bars, this torsion device connects to the suspension on both sides of the car in order to control its roll, or its tendency to lean in a corner. The stiffer the anti-roll bar, the less the chassis will roll thus generating less lateral weight transfer when cornering.

Most cars have anti-roll bars in both the front and rear ends of the chassis that are adjusted to control the car’s balance. A loose rear can be addressed by adding more anti-roll bar to the front of the car, or by taking away some anti-roll bar in the rear.

Generally, the anti-roll bar is set very stiff on tracks with lots of fast corners. They are usually set softer on tracks with tighter corners, and may even be disconnected altogether on very twisty tracks like some street circuits.
Spring Rate:
Springs are an essential component of the suspension since they support the chassis’ mass. They play an important role in controlling lateral and longitudinal weight transfer when a car is accelerating, braking, or cornering. They also affect the car’s dynamic ride height and how well it can ride bumps and curbs.

The functionality of spring settings is complex as it interacts with all the other elements of suspension setup. Basically softer spring settings maximize weight transfer, potentially improving tire adhesion mid-corner and while accelerating. If the springs are too soft however the car may react in a sluggish manner and also bottom out. Stiffer springs, on the other hand, makes a car more responsive to steering input and may be desirable for high speed corners and sections with quick changes of directions.
Fast Bump: (Technical term aside, this is where Race Pro discusses shock valving. Race Pro has more tuning options than F.M.)
Dampers are devices that control the rate at which the springs travel up and down during lateral and longitudinal weight transfer as well as on bumps and curbs. Dampers can be adjusted both in the bump direction (when the spring is compressing) and rebound (when the spring is extending). Most modern race cars also allow for two damper settings, slow and fast.

In setup, the damper settings are referred to by the action performed.

Adjust slow bump to fine-tune the chassis weight transfer rates laterally (when cornering) and longitudinally (when accelerating or braking). For instance, if the front end of the car is diving too much under braking, you can reduce this by increasing the front dampers’ slow bump values and/or increasing the rear dampers’ slow rebound values.

Adjust fast bump to smooth the car’s ride over bumps and curbs. If the wheels are locking up in a bumpy braking zone, it might help to decrease fast bump settings on the wheels that are locking up.

Race Pro also lists: Slow Bump, Fast Rebound, and Slow Rebound, though the text is the same as Fast Bump.

**Avanti 63r1025** Sat Mar 17, 2012 1:20 am

Aerodynamics

Wing Angle:
Wings and/or splitters are aerodynamic devices mounted in the front and rear of the car in order to generate downforce—the downward pressure that helps the car stick to the ground for negotiating corners faster. Increasing the wings’ angle of attack generates more downforce, but a side effect is increased drag, which slows the car down in the straights.

Adjust these devices according to the track: increase the settings for circuits with lots of corners, and decrease them if the track features long, straight sections. The wing settings can also be used to help balance the car’s handling—for instance, if you are getting high speed understeer, you can either increase the front wing/splitter or decrease the rear wing.

Race Pro also lists: Splitters, Engine Cooling, and Brake Cooling, though Forza Motorsport doesn't have these.

**Avanti 63r1025** Sat Mar 17, 2012 1:25 am

Wheels

Tire Pressure:
Tire pressure is important to maximize the tire’s contact patch to the road. A tire with a temperature reading higher in the center indicates over-inflation. A tire with a center temperature lower than the inside and outside of a tire indicates an under-inflated tire. A slightly over-inflated tire may decrease rolling resistance, but a slightly under-inflated tire may increase grip.

A tire must be hot when measuring the temperature as heat expansion within the tire significantly increases pressure.
Camber:
A wheel's angle relative to the wheel center on the vertical plane is called camber.

When the car is under hard cornering, the outside wheels come under heavy load and tend to lean outward (positive camber). To counteract this tendency and maximize the tires’ contact patch on the road (and thus the grip they can provide), race cars are set with a certain degree of negative camber—the wheels lean inwards when static.

Use your garage tire temperature readings to adjust camber; an inner reading 5° to 10° C hotter than the outer reading usually indicates suitable camber values in dry weather. In wet conditions the difference should be smaller, but temperatures on the outside should never be higher than those on the inside.

It’s also possible to play with camber settings to alter handling reactions for a single lap, but extreme values can lead to negative long term side effects such as uneven tire heating and wear.
Ride Height:
The chassis ride height is the clearance between the floor and the ground, and can be adjusted in all four corners of the car. Keep in mind that the setting in the garage reflects the static ride height—things change quite a bit when the car is in motion, when the suspension becomes subject of violent G forces!

Generally, you want the lowest ride height possible since this lowers the car’s center of gravity and reduces drag, which affects straight-line speed. In cars equipped with an aerodynamic device along the undertray such as a diffuser, lower ride heights also maximize efficiency and apply greater downforce.

However, the chassis has to be set high enough to prevent it from bottoming out (to prevent the undertray from hitting the ground), which leads to scrubbing off speed or in worse cases, sudden loss of control.

Smooth, flat tracks like Valencia allow for lower ride heights than those used on more undulating tracks with sudden elevation changes like Brands Hatch. The car is usually set up slightly nose-down to maximize aerodynamic efficiency.
Toe-In/Out:
Toe-in and toe-out refers to the front side of the wheels relative to their rear side; if the front of the wheels point towards each other, the car uses a toe-in setting; if they point away from each other the car uses a toe-out setting.

Some toe-out can be useful in the front when going around tight corners, and some toe-in can aid stability when going down a straight.

Most cars are set up with a little front end toe-out and rear end toe-in. Too much toe either way will increase scrub, which heats the tires and causes uneven wear. Therefore, extreme values are usually not recommended.
Caster:
Caster angle is the angular displacement from the vertical axis of a steered wheel in the longitudinal direction, and is part of the front wheels’ self aligning torque—in other words, the tendency to point itself straight when going straight. Think of the wheels in most shopping trolleys as an example of positive caster angle.

In addition to aiding straight-line stability, positive caster can make the front wheels more responsive mid-corner and makes catching slides easier.

Asymmetrical caster (different caster angles between the left and right wheel) is not recommended for road courses. (Forza Motorsport cannot adjust the suspension asymmetrically anyway, so this doesn't apply.)

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Race Pro's tuning advice (in multiple posts)

Race Pro's tuning advice (in multiple posts)

Re: Race Pro's tuning advice (in multiple posts)

Re: Race Pro's tuning advice (in multiple posts)

Re: Race Pro's tuning advice (in multiple posts)

Re: Race Pro's tuning advice (in multiple posts)