Default setup no good for club racing?

[Ernest Aubert]

Does it go without saying that in order to be competitive at the club level you have to go beyond the default setup?

 

[Deleted member 151827]

I run the club races with default. Don't claim to be fast though. lol

 

[Frank]

As far as I know a lot of people drive with default setup with minor changes, even some of the quick ones.

 

[Georg Siebert]

No small chances, all custom on my end.
you may look here: link

 

[Ernest Aubert]

Thanks, Georg... I've already seen that, and have it bookmarked. Not that I really expect to study it extensively; that would be a career!

 

[Stelios]

I can safely say that even small changes make big differences.
So whatever people say, if you want to be fast-er you need a good setup.
Edit: Not to be misunderstood, when i say faster i mean you can easily find 2 to 3 seconds by using a good setup !

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

In the GT3 race last night I was a little less than one second faster using a custom set than using the default..When we run street cars the only thing I change is fuel.

The only track that you will run 2 or 3 seconds faster with a custom set than with default would be Monza IMO.

 

[djkostas]

I would say it heavily depends on the car, the track and your driving style!!

On Nordschleife for example with MP4 GT3, I can be just as fast with the default as with my super tuned, everything changed setup!!

 

[Georg Siebert]

I would say it heavily depends on the car, the track and your driving style!!

On Nordschleife for example with MP4 GT3, I can be just as fast with the default as with my super tuned, everything changed setup!!

I can't believe that this is true. What lap times are you driving? Do you have assists on? The Nordschleife demands a highly tuned car setup, because of its uniqueness. Just the default wing settings and gear ratios are horrible - you loose seconds down the long straight, not to mention lack of braking and straight line stability on that track.

 

[djkostas]

@Georg Siebert I was even more surprised than you
Dunno, maybe my super highly tuned setup is not as highly tuned as I'd like to think!
I can do 6.52 which is far from the 6.40 WR but to each their own.
Oh and no assists.

 

[Bokonon]

In the GT3 race last night I was a little less than one second faster using a custom set than using the default..When we run street cars the only thing I change is fuel.

The only track that you will run 2 or 3 seconds faster with a custom set than with default would be Monza IMO.

I don't know if you could say that about the formula cars though, setup makes a huge difference track to track with those beasts.

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

I didn't think about the open wheel cars,probably because I try not to drive them. LOL

 

[djkostas]

Tried again!
6.53.8 with 100% default setup, 6.50.8 with mine, which is still pretty good for a default setup!
I should also mention that my setups are race oriented, which means they first have to be stable enough to get me through a race and then fast.

 

[Raig Strehlow]

really depends on the car.
MP4 GT3 just spins on highspeed corners without setup changes

 

[InsaneOzzie]

I feel that driver style has much to do with how well a default setup works. An aggressive style tends to need a more refined setup IMO to balance the car, compared to a smooth flowing style which would probably be as quick or even quicker with default settings.

 

[Duco Jansen]

You'll be surprised how little time you can actually lose with an unbalanced car, like the default setups or when your tyres go off. You just have to adjust your driving. It's true that some setup settings can give you more grip, but generally, of you're not withing 1.5s of the best time, than setup is not your problem.

Ofcourse a good setup that allows you to drive your natural style makes things much easier.

 

[Adria Perez]

Default set ups are good, but if you manage to mess everything by changing random set up parameters here and there (as I do most of the time) you might end with a car very difficult to control. The other day after spinning n times under braking I moved the brake balance 3% to the front and the car became so much easier to drive that I quickly shaved nearly .5 seconds per lap and no more spins.

More interestingly, the other day I spent nearly 1 hour setting up a car for a specific track. At the end, with the fine tuned set up I was around 1 sec faster than at the beginning of the session. However I loaded the original set up again and I managed to nearly equal my best times... Conclusion: At least at my level (and I have a few thousands kms on that car/track combo) you will improve more by practising and learning how the car will react than by fine tuning your set up.

 

[Ernest Aubert]

Yes, I agree with that. I've been driving in sims since 1998 (with Grand Prix Legends at first), and I opine that the time to start experimenting with setup changes is when you've gotten so consistent that you can't lower your lap times any more. It takes a lot of laps at any given track to achieve that. And as an aside, I've found that with a car I haven't driven yet at a track I've never driven, I'll have learned the car way before I've even learned the track, much less learned how to drive that track optimally. (Of course, I only mean optimally for me, not absolutely optimally.)

 

[Bokonon]

Yes, I agree with that. I've been driving in sims since 1998 (with Grand Prix Legends at first), and I opine that the time to start experimenting with setup changes is when you've gotten so consistent that you can't lower your lap times any more. It takes a lot of laps at any given track to achieve that. And as an aside, I've found that with a car I haven't driven yet at a track I've never driven, I'll have learned the car way before I've even learned the track, much less learned how to drive that track optimally. (Of course, I only mean optimally for me, not absolutely optimally.)

Agree, I think what happens is that you find a setup that suits your style around a track far quicker than you find the setup that is the quickest around the track. With any luck the two meet in the middle. Just look at F1 drivers that suffer when the rules change, and their driving style is no longer the optimum. You know who I mean

 

[Chris]

Just look at F1 drivers that suffer when the rules change, and their driving style is no longer the optimum. You know who I mean

You mean, a highly talented, blonde haired, World Champion?
Kimi right?