Is Coach Dave Academy any good?

Colin Peach · Jan 18, 2022

As a Novice to sim racing (Rfactor2) i can see the benefits of getting a paid setup, I've only been sim racing a year and a half so most tracks are still new to me, starting with a decent setup to start with will give allow you to just keep pumping in laps, with the knowledge if the car spins, oversteers etc. its an error you made rather than with car setup

Frank · Jan 20, 2022

A good setup* will always make you faster, even if you aren't as fast as the top drivers yet. This is simply due to the fact a good setup will exploit the advantages of the car. The defaults, including the aggressive, are very safe and stable, which is the opposite of what you want in most cars.
I am not saying the CDA setups will make you faster, or any tailored setups out there, but they might help you. Like others mentioned before this, it also very heavily depends on the driver, on the way you handle the car and what you expect of it. If your drive style is that much different you either have to adjust, tailor a setup of your own, or just deal with the aggressive setup. Even though the aggressive setups are quite safe, they should enable you to get close to the aliens out there.

*A good setup is a setup that's good for you and the car

Ripp_ · Jan 20, 2022

I'll try one purely as a potential time saving for me. ACC isn't the only PC game I play so my free time is spread thinly what with real life to contend with as well so when I do find some ACC time I always seem to spend it testing band tweaking rather than racing. If CDA setups suit my driving style then great, even if I'm not instantly faster at least I'll know what the setup is capable of so I can just focus on racing and race-craft with my spare time.

Ripp_ · Jan 23, 2022

Well, I subbed to CDA, downloaded a few seups for this weeks Low Fuel Motorsports track (Spa) and spent the day yesterday racing instead of tuning so money well spent IMO currently. I wasn't the fastest but I now know that it's 100% me that needs to be improved and not the setup. The 3 cars I drove (McLaren 720, Ferrari 488 EVO, Porsche 991 II GT3 R) all drove very similar to the default aggressive setups with no extreme bias towards under or oversteer which suited me fine. Taking Au Rouge flat in the Mclaren and Ferrari, the Porsche is a right handfull at Spa so I've yet to tame that one), I missed Qualifying on one race so started almost last (P15) and finished P5 in the McLaren.

For reference I was doing 02:23.xx at Spa with my own McLaren setup (I'm no tuning expert, or even that good at Spa) and I was doing low 02:21.xx with the CDA setup, delta's were sometimes showing I could do 02:20.xx but I couldn't put it together yesterday (that particular setup is capable of 02:16.700 as seen on the CDA YouTube channel which is pretty damn fast). Yes it's impossible to know if the difference was all in the setup and yes many people are faster than me with the default setups but for me personally, having the CDA setup cleared my head of all things setup related and allowed me to just race, each setup comes with a Motec file as well so you can see the data from their fastest lap with that setup so you can see the work thats gone into it (dialling out negative rake on the whoel circuit and dampers and all that. Before if I raced online and got absolutely smoked I'd always wonder what percentage of that was down to the setup so I'd usually end up back in Practice mode tweaking and testing and usually not end up really getting anywhere after wasting hours and hours and then not be in the mood to race online. With the CDA setups you are still tuning your own tyre pressures, TC, ABS and possibly BB and of course you can tweak anything else on top if you so wish so I can still tinker if I feel like it.

Currently I'm happy paying the £9 something per month if it means my spare time is more enjoyable. Anyone who really enjoys the testing and tuning aspect of the game probably won't feel the benefit but right now, I do. All down to personaly preference obviously and what fits your current circumstances. I'm happy I tried them and happy they feel very neutrally balanced.

shurtauren · Jan 24, 2022

Son una muy buena base. Te cuento mi experiencia. Llevo 2 meses con el abono y os cuento los 3 circuitos que he corrido principalmente:
monza; He pasado de 1:50-1:51 de ritmo en carrera (con algún 1:49 muy esporádico) a tener un ritmo de 1:49 bajo en carrera (con unos 48 alto) y 1:48 bajo en clasificación.

Spa:
De ritmo 2:22 a 2:20 bajo 2:19 alto y en calificación 2:18

Kialamy:
Desde 1:45 alto hasta 1:42.

Repito, son una base muy buena y jugando un poco para ponerlo a tu gusto, la mayoría me parecen buenos setups.

Y lo más importante, te dejan más tiempo para practicar en el circuito, que es lo más importante a la hora de mejorar tiempos.