Post by jack on Aug 24, 2012 13:32:29 GMT 10
Ok guys here is a comprehensive guide to setting up a V8 Supercar. While this guide should be used as just that; a guide the settings presented are at least some insite to what to look for and change in the vehicle to achieve better response based on your requirements. Everyone drives differently and likes the car setup different. However a couple of things are, if you stand on the brakes you will most likely lockup, don't jump on the throttle hard all the time sometimes you need throttle control. Some corners i find carrying the brake slightly past the apex (trail braking) works eg; surfers paradise this works for me on the tight turns, it helps to keep the car off the wall and gives me a better smoother controlled exit speed.
Step 1 to any setting up begins by doing laps with the default setup or a setup you have used at other tracks. Doing many laps will give you a clear indication of where the current setup lacks and what might need to be changed. 90% of a poor lap time is made up through correcting your driving faults so untill you can hammer out consistent lap times lap after lap using this setup I wouldn't even bother making changes. This is probably the most important and best advice I can give anyone. If you haven't done a minimum of 50 laps using a known or default setup then don't move onto the next section until you have. Most level 1 drivers can do laps with 101%-103% of thier best using a default setup. The difference between a good setup and a bad setup is only 0.5 to 1.5 second per lap but where a good setup comes into its own is its consistency and that only comes with refinement and track practice. So in conclusion you can see that 90% of a good setup is setting up yourself, not the car.
Refining your setup is about making those small changes that allow the car to do what you want in the difficult or challanging parts of the track. Since this week ends racing will be at Eastern Creek I will use this track as en example.
"What do we need the car to do well at Eastern Creek?"
Well both the final turn and the first turn at Eastern Creek are very challenging and can make or break your lap times. Notice I picked on these two corners, the reason for this is:
1. The final turn is a reasonably expensive turn in terms of time taken, it only stands to reason that a good montion through this turn will yeild good results and major time reductions.
2. Turn 1 can loose you allot of speed if taken poorly and will affect your run down to turn 2. It also eats your front tyre so the cleaner you take it, the longer your tyres will last.
Consentrate your efforts on getting the car through these areas effectively. High rear wing and traction control will absolutely slow you down in these areas as they both encourage understeer. A compromise between these turns and the rest will give you a balanced setup that is faster over race distence. Race distance - The laps after lap 1. yes guys remember we are setting up for around 18 laps, not 1.
So what do we change?
Well this area is where so many of us go wrong and it mainly due to lack of Step 1- Practice laps. A gross reduction on a single lap does not mean a net gain on race distence. Always test your changes on laps 4,5,6 or even 10.
Example: 10 laps at 93 seconds is faster then (3 laps at 92) plus (4 laps at 93) plus (3 laps at 95). Getting it yet?
Ok so here is a basic guide to basic changes and thier effect on the car. We start with a car that is setup rather nutual with everything rather even and medium setting.
Rear Downforce In recent time I don't think I have ever used more then 14 rear wing on a V8Supercar. It produces to much understeer to a car that already has to much. Keep this low from the start and don't spoil yourself with rear wing to hide the lack of setup. Increasing wing will only yeild a good feeling untill the rear tyres go off about 2-3 laps into the race.
Steering lock Up to the individual however to much steering lock will result in you overdriving the car and melting the front tyres. Try to average it out for the tighest corner on the track
Brake Bias Once again this is up to the individual however if your experiencing uneven tyre wear it could be because you have the brake bias set to far to the front. For eastern creek I am using 61/39 and rarely go further forward then 64/36.
Brake Pressure The further forward you take the brake bias the less percentage you will need so as not to lock the fronts up every braking zone. Sometimes 92% is needed while other times I go 100%. As a guide I sometimes use 64/39 and 92% presure and others I use 60/40 and 98% pressure
Front Anti Roll Bar A lower bar will give you better slow corner grip but will hurt you in the faster corners. Higher figures give you better high speed turn but less grip in the slower stuff. I rarely set this below 25N/mm. Lower number here also tend to increase ttre wear.
Rear Anti Roll Bar Lower numbers will give the car better grip out of slow corners but hurt you with more sliding when getting the power down. the advantage of getting this as high as possible is good turn in and out of corners while under power. This is one setting you need to pay attention to for turn 1 at Eastern Creek. The higher the better.
Tyre Pressure Almost never the same on all 4 tyres, special attention needs to be paid in the garage after a practice session to see the state of your tyre pressures. The heat in the tyre should be progressive from the inside to the outside with the inside always a little hotter then the outside due ot camber. To high tyre pressure will show up as a centre heat figure close to or higher then the inside of the tyre. Adjust where needed.
Spring Rate These are not rocket science, they are much harder then that. It goes without saying that the softer the spring the more pressure being placed on the tyre therefore theory has it, more grip however it comes at a price as usual, tyre wear. Higher numbers at the rear will give the car more slide and better turn in but you have to control the slide but the result will almost always be a faster lap time. Higher number on the front will stablize the car in turns.
Slow bump, fast bump, slow rebound, fast reboundMaybe some more knowledgable suspension experts can help here. however I do know that softer setting produces more grip, tyre wear and sliding. THe front and rear almost never have anything in common.
Ride Height running no less then 6.8 all round will give you good travel. I almost always run the rear at least 1cm high for the added turn in so generally I run the car around 6.8 on the front and 7.8 on the rear, give or take a few turns each way. I have seen good setups running 6.2 on the front and 8.5 rear but they are rare and only for certain driving styles and tracks.
Camber Another black art but whatever bakes ya cookie here. Generally a good race setup will never be overboard in either direction therefore i almost always use -5.0 on the front and -2.6 on the rear. Sometimes -3.0 on the rear but it depends on the track and what tyres it is wearing out the most. once again I rarely have the same camber on all 4 tyres so I increase the camber on the non working side where possible. Testing will teach you the propper camber setup for each track and sometimes you can get aways with increased camber and have a better race time even though your lap times start dropping away towards the end.
Front Toe Front toe will give you a better initial turn into corners but will also decrease you mid corner and exit speed. Be sparing with toe in on the front as it can really give you a false sence on speed. Qualify setups can afford ot go high here but race setups should rarely go further then -0.2 at most tracks
Rear Toe Increasing the rear toe will give you that Forklift turning effect. Pivoting on the rear axles and very easy to cook your rears. Once again use it with causion and never more then +0.2
suspension found that slow bump is for like the final corner of barbagello
and fast bump for like the chicane at hamilton
Back wing if u set the backwing to 1 it's going to be 4 wheel difting into the corner
but if you set it to 3-5 backwing then you will feel more grip on exit to the corner and ur brake distance's come shorter
Tyre pressure:200kpa i found that it's good for only 1 lap for coming up but if your doing a shootlap chance's are u going to spin around the optimal tyre pressure is around 175kpa to 185kpa but if you doing a very very very long stint the have it around 164kpa and the front and and have 154kpa and the rear
Ride height: 6.8 at the front is just before bottoming out and the rear i set it around 8.1 but if bigger the rake the distance of ride heighth between the front and rear which means lots of understeer the closer the more oversteer
Toe settings: well for toe in pointed inwards more straight line the more pointed out wards the more steer but for the rear more inwards equals more traction pointed outwards the more looser i normally have around -1.00 at the front(which is navigate toe=outwards) and the back as 1.00 which is postive and inwards
Camber: it's very important it can shave of a 5 tenth of a second of your peronal best my front camber is aorund navigate 6 which is getting the most of the track and that is less tyre wear as well the back i have it as navigate 2 which is bit of traction anything of more then navigate 2.5 then you would be sherreding ur rears like no tommorrow on the front anything under the 5.5 then you will be having trouble with steering the car later on in the race stint
steering lock: i normally have this setting around 18.0 to 24.0 depends on track but if you overdrive ur car then you will have lots and lots of under steer and lock ups........
Brake bias: well i normall setup this as 90% brake pressure and 52 front and 48 rear or in qualifing i have it as 65 front and 35 rear........
Step 1 to any setting up begins by doing laps with the default setup or a setup you have used at other tracks. Doing many laps will give you a clear indication of where the current setup lacks and what might need to be changed. 90% of a poor lap time is made up through correcting your driving faults so untill you can hammer out consistent lap times lap after lap using this setup I wouldn't even bother making changes. This is probably the most important and best advice I can give anyone. If you haven't done a minimum of 50 laps using a known or default setup then don't move onto the next section until you have. Most level 1 drivers can do laps with 101%-103% of thier best using a default setup. The difference between a good setup and a bad setup is only 0.5 to 1.5 second per lap but where a good setup comes into its own is its consistency and that only comes with refinement and track practice. So in conclusion you can see that 90% of a good setup is setting up yourself, not the car.
Refining your setup is about making those small changes that allow the car to do what you want in the difficult or challanging parts of the track. Since this week ends racing will be at Eastern Creek I will use this track as en example.
"What do we need the car to do well at Eastern Creek?"
Well both the final turn and the first turn at Eastern Creek are very challenging and can make or break your lap times. Notice I picked on these two corners, the reason for this is:
1. The final turn is a reasonably expensive turn in terms of time taken, it only stands to reason that a good montion through this turn will yeild good results and major time reductions.
2. Turn 1 can loose you allot of speed if taken poorly and will affect your run down to turn 2. It also eats your front tyre so the cleaner you take it, the longer your tyres will last.
Consentrate your efforts on getting the car through these areas effectively. High rear wing and traction control will absolutely slow you down in these areas as they both encourage understeer. A compromise between these turns and the rest will give you a balanced setup that is faster over race distence. Race distance - The laps after lap 1. yes guys remember we are setting up for around 18 laps, not 1.
So what do we change?
Well this area is where so many of us go wrong and it mainly due to lack of Step 1- Practice laps. A gross reduction on a single lap does not mean a net gain on race distence. Always test your changes on laps 4,5,6 or even 10.
Example: 10 laps at 93 seconds is faster then (3 laps at 92) plus (4 laps at 93) plus (3 laps at 95). Getting it yet?
Ok so here is a basic guide to basic changes and thier effect on the car. We start with a car that is setup rather nutual with everything rather even and medium setting.
Rear Downforce In recent time I don't think I have ever used more then 14 rear wing on a V8Supercar. It produces to much understeer to a car that already has to much. Keep this low from the start and don't spoil yourself with rear wing to hide the lack of setup. Increasing wing will only yeild a good feeling untill the rear tyres go off about 2-3 laps into the race.
Steering lock Up to the individual however to much steering lock will result in you overdriving the car and melting the front tyres. Try to average it out for the tighest corner on the track
Brake Bias Once again this is up to the individual however if your experiencing uneven tyre wear it could be because you have the brake bias set to far to the front. For eastern creek I am using 61/39 and rarely go further forward then 64/36.
Brake Pressure The further forward you take the brake bias the less percentage you will need so as not to lock the fronts up every braking zone. Sometimes 92% is needed while other times I go 100%. As a guide I sometimes use 64/39 and 92% presure and others I use 60/40 and 98% pressure
Front Anti Roll Bar A lower bar will give you better slow corner grip but will hurt you in the faster corners. Higher figures give you better high speed turn but less grip in the slower stuff. I rarely set this below 25N/mm. Lower number here also tend to increase ttre wear.
Rear Anti Roll Bar Lower numbers will give the car better grip out of slow corners but hurt you with more sliding when getting the power down. the advantage of getting this as high as possible is good turn in and out of corners while under power. This is one setting you need to pay attention to for turn 1 at Eastern Creek. The higher the better.
Tyre Pressure Almost never the same on all 4 tyres, special attention needs to be paid in the garage after a practice session to see the state of your tyre pressures. The heat in the tyre should be progressive from the inside to the outside with the inside always a little hotter then the outside due ot camber. To high tyre pressure will show up as a centre heat figure close to or higher then the inside of the tyre. Adjust where needed.
Spring Rate These are not rocket science, they are much harder then that. It goes without saying that the softer the spring the more pressure being placed on the tyre therefore theory has it, more grip however it comes at a price as usual, tyre wear. Higher numbers at the rear will give the car more slide and better turn in but you have to control the slide but the result will almost always be a faster lap time. Higher number on the front will stablize the car in turns.
Slow bump, fast bump, slow rebound, fast reboundMaybe some more knowledgable suspension experts can help here. however I do know that softer setting produces more grip, tyre wear and sliding. THe front and rear almost never have anything in common.
Ride Height running no less then 6.8 all round will give you good travel. I almost always run the rear at least 1cm high for the added turn in so generally I run the car around 6.8 on the front and 7.8 on the rear, give or take a few turns each way. I have seen good setups running 6.2 on the front and 8.5 rear but they are rare and only for certain driving styles and tracks.
Camber Another black art but whatever bakes ya cookie here. Generally a good race setup will never be overboard in either direction therefore i almost always use -5.0 on the front and -2.6 on the rear. Sometimes -3.0 on the rear but it depends on the track and what tyres it is wearing out the most. once again I rarely have the same camber on all 4 tyres so I increase the camber on the non working side where possible. Testing will teach you the propper camber setup for each track and sometimes you can get aways with increased camber and have a better race time even though your lap times start dropping away towards the end.
Front Toe Front toe will give you a better initial turn into corners but will also decrease you mid corner and exit speed. Be sparing with toe in on the front as it can really give you a false sence on speed. Qualify setups can afford ot go high here but race setups should rarely go further then -0.2 at most tracks
Rear Toe Increasing the rear toe will give you that Forklift turning effect. Pivoting on the rear axles and very easy to cook your rears. Once again use it with causion and never more then +0.2
suspension found that slow bump is for like the final corner of barbagello
and fast bump for like the chicane at hamilton
Back wing if u set the backwing to 1 it's going to be 4 wheel difting into the corner
but if you set it to 3-5 backwing then you will feel more grip on exit to the corner and ur brake distance's come shorter
Tyre pressure:200kpa i found that it's good for only 1 lap for coming up but if your doing a shootlap chance's are u going to spin around the optimal tyre pressure is around 175kpa to 185kpa but if you doing a very very very long stint the have it around 164kpa and the front and and have 154kpa and the rear
Ride height: 6.8 at the front is just before bottoming out and the rear i set it around 8.1 but if bigger the rake the distance of ride heighth between the front and rear which means lots of understeer the closer the more oversteer
Toe settings: well for toe in pointed inwards more straight line the more pointed out wards the more steer but for the rear more inwards equals more traction pointed outwards the more looser i normally have around -1.00 at the front(which is navigate toe=outwards) and the back as 1.00 which is postive and inwards
Camber: it's very important it can shave of a 5 tenth of a second of your peronal best my front camber is aorund navigate 6 which is getting the most of the track and that is less tyre wear as well the back i have it as navigate 2 which is bit of traction anything of more then navigate 2.5 then you would be sherreding ur rears like no tommorrow on the front anything under the 5.5 then you will be having trouble with steering the car later on in the race stint
steering lock: i normally have this setting around 18.0 to 24.0 depends on track but if you overdrive ur car then you will have lots and lots of under steer and lock ups........
Brake bias: well i normall setup this as 90% brake pressure and 52 front and 48 rear or in qualifing i have it as 65 front and 35 rear........