On diff settings:
Road cars use "zero" lock: the power is applied always to the wheel that has less resistance. Race cars use Limited Slip Differential. This allows torque to be applied more freely between the rear tires. During cornering, wheels rotate different amounts: inside wheel travel less distance. At the same time body roll gives outside wheel the most amount of grip. You can see that this is not a good thing, with "zero" lock diff, the inside has less grip, less resistance and thus would spin out very easily limiting acceleration forward. But you can go fast around corners since you're outside wheel is basically free wheeling and has maximum grip.
There also the other alternative, 100% lock. This situation gives outside wheel ideal torque but would make inside wheel to push the car forward while outside wheel is dragging: horribly cornering abilities follow. 100% lock has the maximum straight line acceleration. Both extremes cause excessive tire wear on top of all bad things.
So we have LSD. This dictates how much power is applied on both wheels. If we have 50% then at least half of the torque is applied to both wheels. Very much a theoretical optimum between cornering. In practice, this is usualy the top limit, no one uses 50% as this still makes outside wheel to loose grip (with F1 thing are a bit different as those things reach closer to theoretical limits on everything..) What i've seen in F3000 and other series too, is that 30% is typical, some using as low as 5% and some as high as 40%
But it isn't over yet... We got power (pump) and coast... (pump is not available in Race07 F3000, it has power and coast only, i think it's LSD type 1.5)
Power: the amount of torque always applies to inside while while accelerating. Basically all that above was power side of the differential. Lower this if you push out of corners but be careful of not exceeding the limits. Once the inside wheel loses grip, it gains a lot f rotational energy and it keeps spinning even when power is applies evenly: tire that exceeds grip and rotates faster than ground speed has less grip than a tire that moves with same speed relatively to ground.. So you got less grip on one wheel, differential lock applies all the torque i can according to LSD setting.. On track this happens when you think you are free to accelerate, late or even after corner exit and the car just keep spinning out. You have to first gain traction back and then go back on power. This can happen without you knowing that you've exceeded the grip, it's slow gradual process. Too high power lock is easy to notice, it spins immediately at the exit or even at the apex, it's violent and fast.
Coast: The amount of torque applied to both wheels while decelerating (and i think during steady pace, no acceleration or deceleration). This usually is higher than power side, more lock stabilizes the car but has worse turn-in capabilities. Too low and your car moves under braking, too high and it will push straight forward.
Pump: It's used on some cars.. It's amount of torque that is applied while pumping the throttle, ie your vehicle speed doesn't change a lot but your accelerating/decelerating in small amounts quickly. It has the possibility of changing behavior during apex. Since F3000 has only power and coast, pump is the same as power diff.
Pre-load: how the transition between power/coast happens. Higher preload starts using coast side of differential much "earlier" while decelerating and vice versa on power. This is very much driver preference. On lowest setting the transition is very gradual but it can be too slow to pick up changes. Too high and it becomes unpredictable. If you got even setting, for ex 30 on power and 30 on coast, preload can be anything (in theory, it could be that there are small modifiers so you never get identical power and coast.) Maximum preload is basically on/off.
EDIT: i use almost always 10-15% power, 20-40% coast with 2-4 preload.
Road cars use "zero" lock: the power is applied always to the wheel that has less resistance. Race cars use Limited Slip Differential. This allows torque to be applied more freely between the rear tires. During cornering, wheels rotate different amounts: inside wheel travel less distance. At the same time body roll gives outside wheel the most amount of grip. You can see that this is not a good thing, with "zero" lock diff, the inside has less grip, less resistance and thus would spin out very easily limiting acceleration forward. But you can go fast around corners since you're outside wheel is basically free wheeling and has maximum grip.
There also the other alternative, 100% lock. This situation gives outside wheel ideal torque but would make inside wheel to push the car forward while outside wheel is dragging: horribly cornering abilities follow. 100% lock has the maximum straight line acceleration. Both extremes cause excessive tire wear on top of all bad things.
So we have LSD. This dictates how much power is applied on both wheels. If we have 50% then at least half of the torque is applied to both wheels. Very much a theoretical optimum between cornering. In practice, this is usualy the top limit, no one uses 50% as this still makes outside wheel to loose grip (with F1 thing are a bit different as those things reach closer to theoretical limits on everything..) What i've seen in F3000 and other series too, is that 30% is typical, some using as low as 5% and some as high as 40%
But it isn't over yet... We got power (pump) and coast... (pump is not available in Race07 F3000, it has power and coast only, i think it's LSD type 1.5)
Power: the amount of torque always applies to inside while while accelerating. Basically all that above was power side of the differential. Lower this if you push out of corners but be careful of not exceeding the limits. Once the inside wheel loses grip, it gains a lot f rotational energy and it keeps spinning even when power is applies evenly: tire that exceeds grip and rotates faster than ground speed has less grip than a tire that moves with same speed relatively to ground.. So you got less grip on one wheel, differential lock applies all the torque i can according to LSD setting.. On track this happens when you think you are free to accelerate, late or even after corner exit and the car just keep spinning out. You have to first gain traction back and then go back on power. This can happen without you knowing that you've exceeded the grip, it's slow gradual process. Too high power lock is easy to notice, it spins immediately at the exit or even at the apex, it's violent and fast.
Coast: The amount of torque applied to both wheels while decelerating (and i think during steady pace, no acceleration or deceleration). This usually is higher than power side, more lock stabilizes the car but has worse turn-in capabilities. Too low and your car moves under braking, too high and it will push straight forward.
Pump: It's used on some cars.. It's amount of torque that is applied while pumping the throttle, ie your vehicle speed doesn't change a lot but your accelerating/decelerating in small amounts quickly. It has the possibility of changing behavior during apex. Since F3000 has only power and coast, pump is the same as power diff.
Pre-load: how the transition between power/coast happens. Higher preload starts using coast side of differential much "earlier" while decelerating and vice versa on power. This is very much driver preference. On lowest setting the transition is very gradual but it can be too slow to pick up changes. Too high and it becomes unpredictable. If you got even setting, for ex 30 on power and 30 on coast, preload can be anything (in theory, it could be that there are small modifiers so you never get identical power and coast.) Maximum preload is basically on/off.
EDIT: i use almost always 10-15% power, 20-40% coast with 2-4 preload.
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