Gran Turismo 5 Car tuning enthusiasts

[Lithicon]

Well, for anyone who plays it and actually enjoys and understands tuning the cars, I co... Do spend hours and hours of my day testing and retesting cars with differet suspension tunes.

So how do you get your baseline for testing cars? Driving options are all off, TC 1 and ABS 2-3 depending on how fast the car is. What do you use? What track and tire do you use for a control to measure against? Aside from engine tuning mostly interested in suspension and drivetrain tuning. Share yours, or just inquire about vehicles you're having trouble with.

I'm personally having trouble not destroying the rear tires on the Nascars, as I can generally make them handle very well, aside from the rear tires going out. Only option I've come up with and not tested is raising the Traction Control from 1 in driving options. I'll post my Nascar setup to give an idea.

This is not just for NASCAR, this is for all cars. So share or ask!

[Lithicon]

Ok, as I said all dri ing options are off, with TC at 1, and ABS at either 2-3.
My main test track is Tsukuba circuit with Sports: Soft tires. Since most B-Spec races require either Sports: Hard or Soft tires until the Extreme series. Which require Racing Hard, which I do a lot of testing with now for fun. The reason I base everything off the B-spec drivers is that they drive exceptionally conservative compared to almost anyone actual person. So, if I can put down fast laps they'll uually be able to replicate them within about 4-8 seconds.

Now, as far as cars go, i'll generally try to upgrade all chassis and drivetrain options. Lightening and upgrading components. Most of my touring and race cars don't have all their full engine upgrades or turbo upgrades. Most will have full intake and exhaust upgrades. So for a basis I try to stick with this for aquiring a good working suspension tune before I upgrade the engine and turbos. Then I'll tweak for increased HP.

So from my initial post, how do you get your baseline setups, and tweaks to individual cars?

[jubuttib]

I don't do GT5, but for proper sims I always do it pretty much the same way. I have a few test tracks that load different aspects of the suspension (lots of slow corners with fast direction changes vs. tracks with faster steady state corners and hard braking situations) that I'm familiar with.

I basically take the car out and first try to find the proper gearing. It's pretty easy to do, you just try to adjust the gears so that you stay within the powerband through corners, especially on the exit, don't have to change up right before a corner (unnecessary gear changes eat up time, it's better to make that gear slightly longer so you can push it until you reach the braking zone) and finally set up the longest gear so that you can reach the redline at or near the end of the longest straight (depending on the car you can go faster if you set the gearing a bit longer than that, works especially with cars that have lots of low end grunt put not that much high end power).

The suspension can be a bitch to set up, especially because you often get carried away and make too much and too big adjustments. Always adjust one thing at a time, drive 5-10 laps before changing anything again, unless it's obvious something works or doesn't work. Basic guideline: Softer suspension = more grip, harder suspension = faster reactions. Softer springs = more loading of the tyres during braking and acceleration and more body movement, harder springs = less loading of the tyres and less body movement ("how much the car will lean"). Softer (lower setting) slow shocks = faster body movement when braking or accelerating, stiffer (higher setting) slow shocks = slower body movement when braking or accelerating ("how fast the car will lean." Too stiff settings will cause the tyres to overload and lose grip suddenly because the weight can't shift gradually, but hits a "wall" in the form of shock absorbers. A softer setting allows the weight to move more gradually and gives better grip, but also takes longer to recover from). Fast shock settings are only really for mitigating effects from bumps. So usually if the car leans too much forward when braking, takes a long time to recover from it or is just generally unresponsive when changing directions I stiffen up the front, if I don't get enough grip and constantly lock up the fronts when braking I soften the suspension a bit to see it it helps. Same thing with the back, if I need good traction of the line I go softer and if I need faster reactions I go harder. You can also adjust the balance of the car with this. If you suffer from understeer, it means your rear tyres have more grip than your front ones, and you can either stiffen the rear or soften the front. Reverse for oversteer.

Camber can help with cornering grip, but extreme settings leave very little rubber touching the road surface most of the time. A good way to adjust them is to look at the tyre temperatures. If the outside of the tyre is noticeable colder than the inside and center, you have too much camber. If the outside get hotter than the inside, too little. Your aim is to keep a consistent temperature throughout the tyre. This also includes changing tyre pressure. Too much pressure and the center heats up more, too little and the sides heat up more. Caster will also affect this: More caster angle will give you more camber when turning than you get with less caster angle. So it can help in situations where tight bends demand a higher camber but you also have lots of straights where you want more of the rubber on the road for braking. If you have force feedback enabled caster should also make the steering heavier.

Anti-roll bars will reduce body roll even if your suspension is otherwise softer. Can come in handy. Again stiffer settings mean faster response and lower settings mean better grip. Haven't studied these as much and usually just go by feel.

Adjusting your toe-angle can help if your car feels twitchy on straights and when the front or rear doesn't want to react when entering a turn.

Basically the duty of suspension is mainly to maintain optimum temperature in the tyres. Too hard a suspension will cause abrupt load changes on specific tyres when the car is disturbed, heating those tyres fast. Softer suspension will make these weight shifts smoother and heat up the tyres slower. So try to set up so that your tyre temps remain in the optimal zone, and balanced between the fronts and the rears. More caster and camber usually give better grip when cornering, and are also used to heat up the individual sections of the tyre (outer/center/inner parts) more evenly, along with tyre pressure.

So yeah, that's about all I can say about that. I left out aerodynamics because they're pretty self explanatory. They do very little in slow speed corners but can greatly affect grip, stability and speed on faster corners.

[Lithicon]

Glad to see you're informed, but don't take it the wrong way. As I am a racer so I actually know how it all works, but good to explain it incase others come here looking for help. So thanks for taking the tine to type all that out, as it was quite a bit. I really appreciate long post now because when I post them on my phone, it's not very easy, lol.

But, I was mostly going to start posting individual car setups and get feed back from others about how they tune certain cars. Since each car handles different. Just doesn't seem to be much interest.

•Edit• as of right now I havn't updated my GT5 game online, since I have no Internet right now. But, they didn't allow you to actually adjust each individual gear. You can only adjust the final gear ratio. I believe they changed this in an update? Or maybe scheduled it for later.

[jubuttib]

But, I was mostly going to start posting individual car setups and get feed back from others about how they tune certain cars. Since each car handles different. Just doesn't seem to be much interest.

Oh, specific set ups, gotcha. Can't help you there, sorry. I've never felt a need to adjust the suspension or drivetrain in a Gran Turismo game (1-4) since they've been too easy anyway. I was excited about GT5 but after I got to try it a couple of times I just felt that it still wasn't up to the level of the simulators available for the PC. For some reason especially the force feedback seemed lacking. Have they fixed any of that with updates?

[Lithicon]

Havn't gotten to play it with a wheel yet. You're right though, this just something I do to pass thetime when it's too cold out. I essentially have nothing to do now though nursing my swollen inflamed wrist. Can't work or do much else so. I don't want turn this into a "what's wrong with GT thread" but, their total system is nice. But severely lacking in the difficulty area. They allow so much freedom, or way too little. It's either insanely difficult to progress, "gt 5's Specials come to mind". Or the entire racing section is so easy a five year old, or DGCR could do it. So I completly agree and will have to get back into Pc racing games. As soon as I get a job and can afford to rebuild my gaming pc. Ugh, enough on that! Lol.

•Edit• on the note of not needing to adjust stuff because it's so easy. I try to take slower cars and perform in races well beyon what they should be in by setups. Lol, it's the only way I've found to get much of a real challenge from the game. ;(

[discspeed]

I don't use TC at all unless I'm racing LMPs/group C cars, I think it can mask a lot of subtleties in tuning and I just do abs 1. It's also hard to set the LSD with traction control, and I like to be able to break the wheels free when I need to. I actually just put the game down basically for the first time since I got it. I think the game was hurting my putting because my forearm was always sore from holding the DS3 too tight. Honestly I strongly prefer the road cars with sport tires. I think it's lame that we've had racecars now for 3 seasonals in a row, I just can't get into them. I also think that the racecars seem to be more numb to tuning adjustments than street cars. My favorite tracks for tuning have been trial mtn and the eifel track from the supercar seasonal. For the suspension I first take into account the weight balance of the car and the drivetrain, though I'm no expert. I usually set the springs a little tighter in the back because most cars have more rear downforce, and I lower the car as much as possible as long as I'm not finding it hard to control. Though I find the suspension must be fine tuned according to track...The Nurburgring eats cars up that are set too low...I prefer not to try and create oversteer my lowering the front more than the back, but rather with negative toe settings on the front wheels.

[Lithicon]

Right now I'm prefering the touring sedans and the like. Four door or two door, around 315-350hp. With the right setups I've pushed them as fast as cars twice their power.

My absolute favorite right now is the Toyota ALTEZZA Touring car.
This thing is very nimble. It's extremely light at 990kg, with stock 320hp I turned low 58.0's on Sports: Soft tires. Racing Hards I can shave 2 full seconds off a 320Hp car. I think with proper gearing on Racing Softs I could easily push 54's, but that's another issue. I'm barely turning that in the Super Gt Cars on this track. Managing the horsepower of those cars is the trick. This car just pulls right along and doesn't need the HP as long as you keep the Rpm's in the power band. If they fix, or have fixed the trans tuning options it would help this car tremendously. Since it's a 5 speed even with fully customizable trans, it's either right at the shift point in or out of the corners. So it's shaving valuable time off having to ride the limiter, or shifting at poor times.
I also like this car for B-Spec because you can run it a lot and it only cost around 30k to completly rebuild the engine and re-strengthen the chassis. Compare to around 100k for moat cars around it's power range. Another huge thing is I have gotten tire wear down to nearly nothing, while still maintaining good speed. I can run upwards of 15 laps and barely start showing tire wear. It's a great endurance race car. Too bad none of the actual events utilize this specific car in any of the endurance events.


I usually try to keep the TC off unless I'm running Super GT's cars like that. Tuning it does help settin up the diff, which plays a critical role in turning. It can mask a lot of issues with the car with TC on.

[jubuttib]

•Edit• on the note of not needing to adjust stuff because it's so easy. I try to take slower cars and perform in races well beyon what they should be in by setups. Lol, it's the only way I've found to get much of a real challenge from the game. ;(

Heh yeah, that was fun, especially in GT2. My untuned Mazda Demio against some Skyline GT-Rs and LanEvos on the High Speed Ring, two laps. They flew by on the straights but I caught up in the few corners and managed to pull enough of a lead on the second lap to win by 0.005 seconds. If the track was a few meters longer I would've been fourth. =)

[discspeed]

Since the payouts in the seasonals tripled or whatever I've not had a thought about economics, I just spend freely. My favorite car is probably my Elise 111r RM or '02 NSX type R. I'm a sucker for underpowered MRs eating up faster cars on technical tracks.

[jubuttib]

The NSX-R is dreamy... Does it have cockpit? What about the AE86 Trueno? Those two were always my two favorite cars in the GT-series, along with the Skyline GT-R.

[discspeed]

The NSX-R is dreamy... Does it have cockpit? What about the AE86 Trueno? Those two were always my two favorite cars in the GT-series, along with the Skyline GT-R.

Yes, the '02 NSX-R is a premium car with the cockpit view. That's the best handling car in the game imo. I'm pretty sure the Trueno is in the game, but I've never driven it. There are of course a ridiculous number of different Skyline GT-Rs in the game.

[jubuttib]

R34 Nür in blue or Jewish Racing Gold. <3

[Lithicon]

Yeah, the Standard/Premium bullshit really makes me angry. They should have done a better job there. I have an 01 Nsx I got used and done everything to. It's sad you can't at least see the interior. Or they should tell you whether it's premium or not before purchase. I'd still buy most of them, but I'd be less dissapointed. I'll have to invest in a newer Poduction model Nsx. The Super Gt Nsx is Premium, and I absolutely love it. I think it's one of the best handling cars once you tune it.

And, yes there is definitely no shortage of GT-Rs. I have 6-8 and they're all different, lol. Handling and power. My favorite iste Amuse Carbon-R. It's FR converted, I think it's my fastest tune on a GT-R. The Awd tends to leave me wanting more.

[discspeed]

Yeah, the Standard/Premium bullshit really makes me angry. They should have done a better job there. I have an 01 Nsx I got used and done everything to. It's sad you can't at least see the interior. Or they should tell you whether it's premium or not before purchase. I'd still buy most of them, but I'd be less dissapointed. I'll have to invest in a newer Poduction model Nsx. The Super Gt Nsx is Premium, and I absolutely love it. I think it's one of the best handling cars once you tune it.

And, yes there is definitely no shortage of GT-Rs. I have 6-8 and they're all different, lol. Handling and power. My favorite iste Amuse Carbon-R. It's FR converted, I think it's my fastest tune on a GT-R. The Awd tends to leave me wanting more.

All premium cars are only sold at the dealerships. You'll also be happy to know that each SuperGT NSX is a totally different car with different bhp potential and handling, so when you get bored with the one you are driving it's worth it to buy the other ones.

The Carbon-R is sweet...The other great version of the R34 is the Mine's B.N.P. from the dealership. It is still AWD, but handles like no other AWD car in the game and is still incredibly light for carrying that drivetrain. Also, the NSX '02 is the final generation and wipes the floor with the earlier version...You are going to LOVE it.

In case you haven't discovered them, here are a couple of great places to get tunes and ideas from...GTPlanet Tuning Forumhttp://www.gtplanet.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=236 and the GT5 Tuning Wiki http://www.gt5-tuning.com/index.php?title=Category:Models