R Factor 2 Driver Academy AKA RFactor 2 Bootcamp Dec 2nd and 11th

David O'Reilly

A bad quali means I can go forwards in the race.
Rfactor 2 Premium Driver Academy –AKA RF2 Bootcamp

Tuesday December 2nd 2014 "RFactor 2 Set-up Bootcamp"

Thursday 11th December 2014 "RFactor 2 Driving Bootcamp"

Its time to impart some knowledge and share the amazing depth of the R Factor 2 simulation.

Have you been toying a bit with Rfactor 2 but not sure if its for you?
Are you perhaps struggling getting the cars set up to you liking?
Have you plateaued and you not managing to get your lap times down to a reasonable level?
Have you been tempted to go premium but wondering why you might?

On December 2nd we will start a pilot program with the first group of students to improve their driving skills and set up knowledge within rF2.

Note that this is by no means a racing event where you must try to win. As a matter of fact there is no racing involved at all. But only a deep focus on improving your setup knowledge and your driving technique.
What is it?
The sessions will be 90-120 minute duration and the intention is to take the same people through both sessions. Please ensure you can make both. Also please give those that really need the extra attention the priority to sign up. When you are already an average or above average sim racer you'll probably won't learn anything new.
You'll learn:
Basics of setup parameters including
Brake balance.
Cooling,
Gearing,
Aero
Diff Lock
and some of the critical but less understood RF2 parameters such as
ARBs
Slow and fast bump dampers
Springs


In the driving session we will cover:
How to brake
How to shift
How to accelerate
How to understand the behaviour of your car
How to prepare yourself
How to corner (line, apex and exit speed)

Requirements:

  • rF2

  • Working microphone, you need to speak and interact.

  • Teamspeak

  • Coffee

  • Premium Membership

  • RD driving license for TS password

  • Essential study below (video)

Information:

  • Server name: RaceDepartment Premium Driver Academy 2014

  • Start Time: 20:00 GMT (21:00 CET)

  • Max End Time: 22:00 GMT (23:00 CET)

  • We have room for four student drivers per session. Only sign up if you are 100% sure you can make both sessions and meet the requirements posted above. Enjoy

Preparation and homework:
Driving: To get Maximum benefit from the session you need to get yourself up to speed at Putnam park GP no chicanes in the ISI 370Z on default setup. This means lapping until your lap time has stabilized at your current best with default setup. You should be within .2 sec lap most laps. From there you can feel and see improvements whether they be from setup or technique.
Load the track with a few AI but private practice activated. Set Real road to x15 do some laps, go and do something else and let AI help rubber it in. Then save the Real road.Load it again with real road set to static and get lapping.

Essential Study: Watch the skip barber video "going faster" in full.



Please ensure you have the time and inclination to do the above before signing up. You instructors will be putting in quite a bit of planning and effort, you need to as well.


Suggested reading

f you are quite keen to learn about set-up before hand there are two documents.

Racer Alex's advanced F1 setup guide

https://www.dropbox.com/s/emsbyvyx2cjnwha/Racer_Alex_Advanced_F1_SetupGuide.pdf?dl=0

Ramon Van Rijn setup guide:

http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/basics-of-setups-by-ramon-van-rijn.84567/

The following guide, although written for F1 2011 has some general information about setup process.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/npftlu4i959f050/F1_2011_Advanced_Drivers_Guide_V2.pdf?dl=0

Signup in the premium section!
 
We are pleased to advise that the pilot program is booked up now with 4 students and we are also taking 3 more experienced drivers for a stand alone setup session.
We will keep you informed as to how it goes.
Thanks for the support and interest.
 
Just been going over the settings from our session the other night and I've now written out all the changes we made as this will now be my basis of any other car setups with RF2. Just one thing, camber I have at 2-2 but that also seems to be the default setup so can someone remind what camber setting we had please. Also, downloading the addons like motec is really confusing lol and doesn't seem to relate to windows 8 so I've given up on those. Cheers
 
Just been going over the settings from our session the other night and I've now written out all the changes we made as this will now be my basis of any other car setups with RF2. Just one thing, camber I have at 2-2 but that also seems to be the default setup so can someone remind what camber setting we had please. Also, downloading the addons like motec is really confusing lol and doesn't seem to relate to windows 8 so I've given up on those. Cheers
Motec works on Windows 8, you are probably doing something wrong with setting it up. I recon it is best you get some help with that via TS. I don't have much time tho, but maybe @David O'Reilly can help you with that.
 
Just been going over the settings from our session the other night and I've now written out all the changes we made as this will now be my basis of any other car setups with RF2. Just one thing, camber I have at 2-2 but that also seems to be the default setup so can someone remind what camber setting we had please. Also, downloading the addons like motec is really confusing lol and doesn't seem to relate to windows 8 so I've given up on those. Cheers
Getting Motec running was a bit complicated for me too thats why I put detailed instructions on the Bootcamp PM.
There is no way to simplify it you have to follow those instructions to the letter.
and use an older version of Motec they are available on the downloads section.
 
Course Notes
Many drivers will not have the time or desire to attend a formal session so for the benefit of anyone who is interested we will attach following our “course notes”

(Edit). these are the notes from our actual "Bootcamp" or beginner setup session in the same chronology as the points were presented on the night. Its not intended to be an exhaustive set of setup parameters but more an explanation of key parameters within a live testing session on-track for people fairly new to set-up.
It takes the form of a theoretical explanation followed by a practical test on most criteria.


A set-up session in R-Factor 2 for the Nissan 370ZGT4 at Putnam Park

Preparation:

Driving:

To get Maximum benefit from the session you need to get yourself up to speed at Putnam park GP no chicanes in the ISI 370Z on default set-up. This means lapping until your lap time has stabilized at your current best with default set-up. You should aim to be be within .2 sec lap most laps. From there you can feel and see improvements whether they be from setup or technique.
Load the track with a few AI but private practice activated. Set Real road to x15 do some laps, go and do something else and let AI help rubber it in. Then save the Real road.Load it again with real road set to static and get lapping.

Essential Study: Watch the skip barber video "going faster" in full. (Youtube).

Suggested reading:

f you are quite keen to learn about set-up before hand there are two documents.

Racer Alex's advanced F1 setup guide

https://www.dropbox.com/s/emsbyvyx2cjnwha/Racer_Alex_Advanced_F1_SetupGuide.pdf?dl=0

Ramon Van Rijn setup guide:

http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/basics-of-setups-by-ramon-van-rijn.84567/

The following guide, although written for F1 2011 has some general information about setup process.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/npftlu4i959f050/F1_2011_Advanced_Drivers_Guide_V2.pdf?dl=0


Initial set-up session at Nazareth Speedway discussed.

We discuss lateral vs longitudinal parameters and testing eg Nazareth. (lateral only). If a car is at a constant speed and dealing almost exclusively with Lateral loads then camber can be more aggressive. However the greater the camber the smaller the contact patch when in a straight line so braking and acceleration will not be as good. We suggest that much time is to be gained using Nazareth speedway as a kind of skid pan to do some initial testing of Camber, Tyre Pressures, springs and Aero. Its a 22-30 sec lap and in 3 laps you will largely know what the change will do and if the direction is a good one. So you can achieve in 1 hour what might take ½ day at a longer track. BUT you need to remember that a road circuit unlike this short oval will introduce longitudinal loads (acceleration and braking) as well as lateral ones so you will need to test normally a slight reduction in what were the optimum camber settings for Nazareth. Nazareth will cook the front right tyre quickly so you need a quick impression over 2-3 laps.

Mechanical advantage.

Why is it nice to get mechanical grip vs aero improvements. Aero is always a trade -off between top speed and grip. Mechanical grip improvements can net greater total grip as well as a change in fore-aft grip balance. Dampers, ARBs and springs are a wonderful set of tools. We discuss how when a driver concentrates on only one or two set-up parameters that the old adage of “when your only tool is a hammer then every problem becomes a nail” can be true.


In this session we will start with mechanical/lateral, then mechanical/longitudinal, finally aero and one surprise parameter.


Tyre Pressures. We have done these at Nazareth and found that moving up or down makes no gains. We are satisfied that the defaults are ok.

Brake Balance: Default is 50/50. We Try it cold @46/54 and warm. Discuss dynamics of grip (temperature-track rubbering in-wet-wear). We conclude that weight shift forward under brakes is greater in optimum conditions and that consequently environments that create low grip including low tyre temps lack of track rubbering, wet and wear all mean that weight and so brake balance balance needs to move rearwards. So its a living thing, over a stint as tyre temps come in and the track rubbers in the brake balance can/should move forwards, then as tyres wear it would normally be moved rearwards again. Faiure to attend to this will result in lockups. We also discuss rearwards brake balance movement to enhance initial turn in as the steering road wheels aren't braking so much so more grip is available to steer the car.

Moving brake balance over 1 lap: We review that for a “Big Stop” eg end of a main straight there is greatest aero load and forward shift of weight. Compared to a tricky turning braking area with maybe a downhill component such as Bahrain T8 and T10. In such corners is almost unavoidable to have some steering lock AND braking effort. The un-weighted inside front would under normal circumstances lock up. To avoid this, brake balance can/should be moved rearwards for such a corner. There are therefore on many tacks where brake balance might be moved one way for a particular corner or sector then back again. If it seems overkill try seeing what a tyre that gets locked up every lap for 27 laps looks like at the end!


Camber: We discuss that as the weight shifts to the outside and the chassis rolls over onto the tyres they roll onto their outside edge. The tyres also distort pulling the contact patch inwards. Negative Camber (tilting the top of the wheel twards the car) means that when its mid corner the tyre contact surface is flatter on the road and a greater area of the tyre is working. The trade-off is that greater camber means less effective acceleration and braking (depending which set of wheels are driving the car, only camber on the driven wheels impacts accelleration!.

Temps normally tell a story as to what is happening but temps vary so dynamically in the RF2 tyre model that at this moment its not easy to give an empirical view on optimum delta between for example inner and outer temps. Certainly the old adage that the middle of the 3 temps across the tyre should be the average (middle) of the outer and inner does not apply. It seems that with good (grip) camber settings the inner and middle temps are quite close and the outer edge temp much lower. The delta across the tyre can often be 30 degrees (mid rubber depth ). So we really are in a “suck it and see” scenario. I would do this at Nazareth to save time then optimise at a road track.

First exercise-Camber:

As a group we all take different camber setting and drive 3 laps and discuss. It is agreed that -2.8 feels good and addresses, in- part the cars inherent under-steer on default set up.. We lock that in as the first change.

Caster:

We discuss the extra feel created by the “mechanical trail” advantage that increased Caster gives to FFB. Also the increase in camber when wheel turned. (Chopper Motorcycle illustration). Next change: We maximise the caster and hit the track. All agree it has instantly much more feel. We lock this in.

Steering Lock:

We discuss that less steering lock means less road wheel steering for a given amount degree of turn at the steering wheel. Some experience better turn in and are surprised that we have, in fact reduced the angles at the road wheel. We postulate that its due to more feel and precision and less “sawing away” at the steering wheel. We are all happy and lock this in.


We agree we still have an under-steering car. So we want more front grip. We decide to have a short experiment with aero. Front wing is not adjustable so we try lowering rear wing 2 clicks to increase front aero balance. Does reducing rear wing (2 clicks) help front end? Yes! Any bad side effects? Yes, loss of rear stability. We put rear wing back to default.


Anti Roll Bars

(ARBs) discussed. Somewhat counter intuitive but if you want more grip at one end you use a softer ARB there. The softer ARB will allow the chassis to roll onto the outside tyre more and give you more ultimate grip. A stiffer one will give you a quicker reaction but less grip. Less grip means more sliding/higher temps/higher wear. We lower the front ARB and raise the rear ARB (stiffening the rear has a similar effect to softening the front so we do both) and hit the track. Its agreed the front end its already starting to feel “stronger”. We are getting a less under-steer and a better line into the corner.


Dampers

control the rate at which the chassis can move freely about as its suspended on the springs. Its sometimes helpful to imagine the chassis hanging from the springs above it. Slow bump dampers control this movement of the chassis and its weight. So to increase its front grip for example we would reduce the slow bump damping at the front. This lets the chassis as it oscillates about the place settle earlier and longer on the front axle. The stiffer, more resistant damper settings at the other end will help it settle on this end. This is why raising one end has a similar effect to lowering at the other end. Fast bump dampers control what happens when the wheel hits for example a curb (a fast shock compared to a chassis movement!). The 370Z only has 2 way adjustable dampers so our slow bump adjustment also means a corresponding fast bump adjustment. Cars with 4 way adjustable dampers can have these done independent of each other. We lower our front dampers as we still want more front grip to solve our under-steer issue. Drivers hit the track and confirm a big change for the better. The author has tested lowering the rear dampers to improve the rear and but it costs us all our gains at the front end so they are set back to default. For the sake of time we don't do this here.


Springs:

The springs have a similar effect to the damper settings. The end you soften will get more chassis weight more of the time so as long as you don't lose the cars directional stability it will normally increase grip at that end by reducing springs. Same with increasing the springs at the other end which we also do. Think on that mental picture of the chassis hanging off the springs and ask what happens as it oscillates if one end has a set that is stiffer? It hangs more on the softer end. The 370Z has a limited range of spring adjustments. We drive again and we like what we have done at the front end but agree that we are having to manage the rear end a little more on corner exit. The grip balance has move forwards and the car is wanting to over-steer on throttle. We want to make the rear end more manageable and reduce throttle over-steer on corner exit. We don't want to reverse our grip changes if at all possible So we will turn to Diff Lock.

Diff Lock:

To explain diff lock consider a car with a solid rear axle and no diff at all (EG a Go Kart) wants to go straight as it won't let the inside wheel turn at a slower speed to match its shorter radius and distance of travel. A differential allows the driven wheels to rotate at these required differing speeds so it turns a corner easier. So a fully locked diff wants to go straight, a fully open diff will allow a complete difference in driven wheel speeds which can result in too much turning (oversteer). Adjustment of Diff-lock allows you to control to what extent you make it like a locked diff. If the car is wanting to over-steer on braking you increase the lock on “Coast” side, if it wants to over-steer on corner exit on throttle you increase it on the “Power” side. Our car shows no bad behaviour under brakes and in fact we are searching for more turn-in so we lower the coast side. Conversely we are getting quite bad over-steer behaviour on throttle so we increase power side to 50% The difference is noticed immediately. We have enhanced turn in (coast side) and can apply throttle earlier and more resolutely (Power Side) without the rear stepping out. Diff lock has worked a treat. Pre Load. Higher number makes the lock kick in earlier whereas a lower number makes the lock kick in later and harder. Can be used as an intermediate setting between 2 lock settings. Excessive diff lock on power side can increase front tyre wear significantly as the tyres have to overcome the diff to turn the car. As the fronts wear and lose the fight lap times will suffer. So don't lean on it more than you need..

Know your engine. This car has a very flat torque curve so more RPM means more power. Use maximum revs. We adjust gearing final drive to achieve this. One driver is hitting the limiter. Normally the goal is to set your gear ratios so that you are hitting the limiter in top gear just at the braking zone at the end of the longest fastest straight.

Set first gear to be suitable for the slowest corner. The longer you can set 1st gear the closer all the other ratios will be thus better exploiting engine power. Setting 1st gear it too low will mean its of limited use (starts perhaps). A standing start vs a rolling start will influence this choice, so will race length. The start being of more importance in a shorter race. The intermediate gears might be fine tuned if for example you find that you are between gears in a critical corner.


Engine cooling: We haven't tasked anyone with checking engine cooling but reveal that Oil temp is fine. Optimal for this car is 100C. Outside optimum there are performance and reliability downsides.


Brake cooling:

We reveal that the brake temps are too low. Optimal for this car is 550 with good performance within 200 deg to 700 deg. We are getting a maximum of 400 deg. Far too cold so we lower brake cooling. We are short of time and don't test this change but the author has found that this alone can yield .5-.7 sec/lap.


General discussion: In most criteria a set-up is never perfect for the whole track. What you are searching for is a change that provides a greater incremental improvement in one critical area than it costs in another. Hence producing a net gain. We discuss a recent example. At Suzuka in a Formula Renault 3.5. More rear camber (lateral gain) nets .9 sec in S1. It costs .2 sec in the back straight (longitudinal loss). Net gain .7 sec. A worthwhile trade-off.


Two and a half hours are gone and we are tired but have a car that has more feel, much better turn-in and stability on turn exit. Hopefully also more understanding of all those tweaks one can do. Most are going a second or more faster on this short track than they were.
Lap times:
Most started their pre-course prep with lap times around the 1:15s area.
By the end of the night people were lapping more consistently and faster.
Most were down to a low 1:13 and one student recorded a 1:11.850 on 54 litres fuel within a 3 lap run.
AND they haven't had any driving tuition yet, that's next week.

Stuff to go:

We explain and recommend;

Deltabest Plugin

Motec

Carstat 2
 
Last edited:
Course Notes


A set-up session in R-Factor 2 for the Nissan 370ZGT4.

Many drivers will not have the time of desire to attend a formal session so for the benefit of anyone who is interested we will attach following our “course notes”



Preparation:

Driving:

To get Maximum benefit from the session you need to get yourself up to speed at Putnam park GP no chicanes in the ISI 370Z on default set-up. This means lapping until your lap time has stabilized at your current best with default set-up. You should aim to be be within .2 sec lap most laps. From there you can feel and see improvements whether they be from setup or technique.
Load the track with a few AI but private practice activated. Set Real road to x15 do some laps, go and do something else and let AI help rubber it in. Then save the Real road.Load it again with real road set to static and get lapping.

Essential Study: Watch the skip barber video "going faster" in full. (Youtube).

Suggested reading:

f you are quite keen to learn about set-up before hand there are two documents.

Racer Alex's advanced F1 setup guide

https://www.dropbox.com/s/emsbyvyx2cjnwha/Racer_Alex_Advanced_F1_SetupGuide.pdf?dl=0

Ramon Van Rijn setup guide:

http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/basics-of-setups-by-ramon-van-rijn.84567/

The following guide, although written for F1 2011 has some general information about setup process.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/npftlu4i959f050/F1_2011_Advanced_Drivers_Guide_V2.pdf?dl=0


Initial set-up session at Nazareth Speedway discussed.

We discuss lateral vs longitudinal parameters and testing eg Nazareth. (lateral only). If a car is at a constant speed and dealing almost exclusively with Lateral loads then camber can be more aggressive. However the greater the camber the smaller the contact patch when in a straight line so braking and acceleration will not be as good. We suggest that much time is to be gained using Nazareth speedway as a kind of skid pan to do some initial testing of Camber, Tyre Pressures, springs and Aero. Its a 22-30 sec lap and in 3 laps you will largely know what the change will do and if the direction is a good one. So you can achieve in 1 hour what might take ½ day at a longer track. BUT you need to remember that a road circuit unlike this short oval will introduce longitudinal loads (acceleration and braking) as well as lateral ones so you will need to test normally a slight reduction in what were the optimum camber settings for Nazareth. Nazareth will cook the front right tyre quickly so you need a quick impression over 2-3 laps.

Mechanical advantage.

Why is it nice to get mechanical grip vs aero improvements. Aero is always a trade -off between top speed and grip. Mechanical grip improvements can net greater total grip as well as a change in fore-aft grip balance. Dampers, ARBs and springs are a wonderful set of tools. We discuss how when a driver concentrates on only one or two set-up parameters that the old adage of “when your only tool is a hammer then every problem becomes a nail” can be true.


In this session we will start with mechanical/lateral, then mechanical/longitudinal, finally aero and one surprise parameter.


Tyre Pressures. We have done these at Nazareth and found that moving up or down makes no gains. We are satisfied that the defaults are ok.

Brake Balance: Default is 50/50. We Try it cold @46/54 and warm. Discuss dynamics of grip (temperature-track rubbering in-wet-wear). We conclude that weight shift forward under brakes is greater in optimum conditions and that consequently environments that create low grip including low tyre temps lack of track rubbering, wet and wear all mean that weight and so brake balance balance needs to move rearwards. So its a living thing, over a stint as tyre temps come in and the track rubbers in the brake balance can/should move forwards, then as tyres wear it would normally be moved rearwards again. Faiure to attend to this will result in lockups. We also discuss rearwards brake balance movement to enhance initial turn in as the steering road wheels aren't braking so much so more grip is available to steer the car.

Moving brake balance over 1 lap: We review that for a “Big Stop” eg end of a main straight there is greatest aero load and forward shift of weight. Compared to a tricky turning braking area with maybe a downhill component such as Bahrain T8 and T10. In such corners is almost unavoidable to have some steering lock AND braking effort. The un-weighted inside front would under normal circumstances lock up. To avoid this, brake balance can/should be moved rearwards for such a corner. There are therefore on many tacks where brake balance might be moved one way for a particular corner or sector then back again. If it seems overkill try seeing what a tyre that gets locked up every lap for 27 laps looks like at the end!


Camber: We discuss that as the weight shifts to the outside and the chassis rolls over onto the tyres they roll onto their outside edge. The tyres also distort pulling the contact patch inwards. Negative Camber (tilting the top of the wheel twards the car) means that when its mid corner the tyre contact surface is flatter on the road and a greater area of the tyre is working. The trade-off is that greater camber means less effective acceleration and braking (depending which set of wheels are driving the car, only camber on the driven wheels impacts accelleration!.

Temps normally tell a story as to what is happening but temps vary so dynamically in the RF2 tyre model that at this moment its not easy to give an empirical view on optimum delta between for example inner and outer temps. Certainly the old adage that the middle of the 3 temps across the tyre should be the average (middle) of the outer and inner does not apply. It seems that with good (grip) camber settings the inner and middle temps are quite close and the outer edge temp much lower. The delta across the tyre can often be 30 degrees (mid rubber depth ). So we really are in a “suck it and see” scenario. I would do this at Nazareth to save time then optimise at a road track.

First exercise-Camber:

As a group we all take different camber setting and drive 3 laps and discuss. It is agreed that -2.8 feels good and addresses, in- part the cars inherent under-steer on default set up.. We lock that in as the first change.

Caster:

We discuss the extra feel created by the “mechanical trail” advantage that increased Caster gives to FFB. Also the increase in camber when wheel turned. (Chopper Motorcycle illustration). Next change: We maximise the caster and hit the track. All agree it has instantly much more feel. We lock this in.

Steering Lock:

We discuss that less steering lock means less road wheel steering for a given amount degree of turn at the steering wheel. Some experience better turn in and are surprised that we have, in fact reduced the angles at the road wheel. We postulate that its due to more feel and precision and less “sawing away” at the steering wheel. We are all happy and lock this in.


We agree we still have an under-steering car. So we want more front grip. We decide to have a short experiment with aero. Front wing is not adjustable so we try lowering rear wing 2 clicks to increase front aero balance. Does reducing rear wing (2 clicks) help front end? Yes! Any bad side effects? Yes, loss of rear stability. We put rear wing back to default.


Anti Roll Bars

(ARBs) discussed. Somewhat counter intuitive but if you want more grip at one end you use a softer ARB there. The softer ARB will allow the chassis to roll onto the outside tyre more and give you more ultimate grip. A stiffer one will give you a quicker reaction but less grip. Less grip means more sliding/higher temps/higher wear. We lower the front ARB and raise the rear ARB (stiffening the rear has a similar effect to softening the front so we do both) and hit the track. Its agreed the front end its already starting to feel “stronger”. We are getting a less under-steer and a better line into the corner.


Dampers

control the rate at which the chassis can move freely about as its suspended on the springs. Its sometimes helpful to imagine the chassis hanging from the springs above it. Slow bump dampers control this movement of the chassis and its weight. So to increase its front grip for example we would reduce the slow bump damping at the front. This lets the chassis as it oscillates about the place settle earlier and longer on the front axle. The stiffer, more resistant damper settings at the other end will help it settle on this end. This is why raising one end has a similar effect to lowering at the other end. Fast bump dampers control what happens when the wheel hits for example a curb (a fast shock compared to a chassis movement!). The 370Z only has 2 way adjustable dampers so our slow bump adjustment also means a corresponding fast bump adjustment. Cars with 4 way adjustable dampers can have these done independent of each other. We lower our front dampers as we still want more front grip to solve our under-steer issue. Drivers hit the track and confirm a big change for the better. The author has tested lowering the rear dampers to improve the rear and but it costs us all our gains at the front end so they are set back to default. For the sake of time we don't do this here.


Springs:

The springs have a similar effect to the damper settings. The end you soften will get more chassis weight more of the time so as long as you don't lose the cars directional stability it will normally increase grip at that end by reducing springs. Same with increasing the springs at the other end which we also do. Think on that mental picture of the chassis hanging off the springs and ask what happens as it oscillates if one end has a set that is stiffer? It hangs more on the softer end. The 370Z has a limited range of spring adjustments. We drive again and we like what we have done at the front end but agree that we are having to manage the rear end a little more on corner exit. The grip balance has move forwards and the car is wanting to over-steer on throttle. We want to make the rear end more manageable and reduce throttle over-steer on corner exit. We don't want to reverse our grip changes if at all possible So we will turn to Diff Lock.

Diff Lock:

To explain diff lock consider a car with a solid rear axle and no diff at all (EG a Go Kart) wants to go straight as it won't let the inside wheel turn at a slower speed to match its shorter radius and distance of travel. A differential allows the driven wheels to rotate at these required differing speeds so it turns a corner easier. So a fully locked diff wants to go straight, a fully open diff will allow a complete difference in driven wheel speeds which can result in too much turning (oversteer). Adjustment of Diff-lock allows you to control to what extent you make it like a locked diff. If the car is wanting to over-steer on braking you increase the lock on “Coast” side, if it wants to over-steer on corner exit on throttle you increase it on the “Power” side. Our car shows no bad behaviour under brakes and in fact we are searching for more turn-in so we lower the coast side. Conversely we are getting quite bad over-steer behaviour on throttle so we increase power side to 50% The difference is noticed immediately. We have enhanced turn in (coast side) and can apply throttle earlier and more resolutely (Power Side) without the rear stepping out. Diff lock has worked a treat. Pre Load. Higher number makes the lock kick in earlier whereas a lower number makes the lock kick in later and harder. Can be used as an intermediate setting between 2 lock settings. Excessive diff lock on power side can increase front tyre wear significantly as the tyres have to overcome the diff to turn the car. As the fronts wear and lose the fight lap times will suffer. So don't lean on it more than you need..

Know your engine. This car has a very flat torque curve so more RPM means more power. Use maximum revs. We adjust gearing final drive to achieve this. One driver is hitting the limiter. Normally the goal is to set your gear ratios so that you are hitting the limiter in top gear just at the braking zone at the end of the longest fastest straight.

Set first gear to be suitable for the slowest corner. The longer you can set 1st gear the closer all the other ratios will be thus better exploiting engine power. Setting 1st gear it too low will mean its of limited use (starts perhaps). A standing start vs a rolling start will influence this choice, so will race length. The start being of more importance in a shorter race. The intermediate gears might be fine tuned if for example you find that you are between gears in a critical corner.


Engine cooling: We haven't tasked anyone with checking engine cooling but reveal that Oil temp is fine. Optimal for this car is 100C. Outside optimum there are performance and reliability downsides.


Brake cooling:

We reveal that the brake temps are too low. Optimal for this car is 550 with good performance within 200 deg to 700 deg. We are getting a maximum of 400 deg. Far too cold so we lower brake cooling. We are short of time and don't test this change but the author has found that this alone can yield .5-.7 sec/lap.


General discussion: In most criteria a set-up is never perfect for the whole track. What you are searching for is a change that provides a greater incremental improvement in one critical area than it costs in another. Hence producing a net gain. We discuss a recent example. At Suzuka in a Formula Renault 3.5. More rear camber (lateral gain) nets .9 sec in S1. It costs .2 sec in the back straight (longitudinal loss). Net gain .7 sec. A worthwhile trade-off.


Two and a half hours are gone and we are tired but have a car that has more feel, much better turn-in and stability on turn exit. Hopefully also more understanding of all those tweaks one can do. Most are going a second or more faster on this short track than they were.


Stuff to go:

We explain and recommend;

Deltabest Plugin

Motec

Carstat 2

You might want to read this too
http://www.racedepartment.com/threa...-guide-for-novice-and-advanced-drivers.87492/
 

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