Advice on fine tuning

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I like to tune & to run my own tunes. I’ve only seriously begun playing Forza since March of this year. My level of competence in the tuning realm has greatly improved since the beginning. I’ve begun scratching the surface of getting the balancing of power to handling correct. What I once thought were EXTREME adjustments, especially springs & sway bars, are no longer extreme & more of the default (softer springs & sway bars).

I feel that there are 3 main elements of the Forza world in terms of gameplay. Those 3 would be: Tuning, Racing, & Painting. I like to fully immerse myself in the game & mainly stick to using my own tunes & paint schemes. I have used others, but that’s mainly using a few paint schemes that others have shared.

In regards to tuning, I just kind of feel cheap & unworthy of any success that I gain on the leaderboards by using a tune that someone else has made. I feel like anything good I do by using someone else’s tune is only 1/2 credited to me. I know that it may seem like a silly way if thinking, but that’s just the feeling I get. I may not get up into the top 10, 100, 500, 1000, etc… but whatever my rank is on a particular track, if I’m breaking into the top 1% or whatever…it has been from my work in tuning & driving. I’m in NO WAY against folks using tunes that they haven’t made…my opinion is for me only & my own preference on how I like to play.

With all of that said; even though I like the “feel” of my tunes & thinking that I’m pretty good at holding a racing line, corner entry & exit, my tunes are stable & can hold the car in the race groove in the middle of the corner, etc… I’m still not satisfied with my results as compared to others. Though I may fall anywhere from the top 1% to 5% within the leaderboards, I’m still on many instances a full 10 sec off the pace of the top 10. I’m not expecting to be within the top 10…BUT…I just can’t figure out how in the world I’m anywhere from 5 to 10 sec off pace when my car’s stats are similar, my tune feels/ drives good, & I’m hitting the marks on the track.

I’m trying to figure out what my issue is, what’s causing me to be so far off pace. The best I figure that I can do to help diagnose the problem is by watching more leaderboard replays & possibly using shared tunes from well-known tuner(s) in order to compare the feel of my tunes compared to theirs.

I know I’ve been long winded, however, I’ve found that Forza is a game that I’m fully immersed in & the only one that I particularly care to play. Any thoughts, discussion, advice, etc… would be greatly appreciated.

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I can’t remember the formula but there is a formula to setting up a good tune someone on Forza4 gave it to me but for the life of me can’t remember where I put it I believe it was OPR THRUST who showed me, but not sure can anyone shed any light on this topic

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What’s up brother. I got a formula for a base tune…but I’ve since went away from it. I’ve greatly improved from where I once was, but, I got more to go & much more speed to find.

BTW; I’ve been at work the past couple of nights & have only played a little bit. I’ll get on that Subaru within the next day or two and put some races on it.

If I were you I’d advertise your paint schemes on the Race Paint thread because your designs are GREAT!!!

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I think you have to separate the seconds that you are from whatever LB you are trying to compare yourself too, into 2 elements, (1) first,use the exact same tune and compare how many seconds you are off against another LB driver…that gives you, as an example, 7 seconds…then, (2) take your tune against the other tune (you driving both) and see what you get…let’s say 2seconds. BTW, this is assuming you are using the same track, AND, most important, how consistent you are driving even with your own tune. If you drive 20 laps at Bathurst, what is your average and +/- seconds per lap!!

So, I know this is a little long-winded, et, it’s hard to compare. I tried to do so months back when I started playing FM5 (1st game ever) and quickly realized that my inconsistency lap-2-lap was too big, thus, I am working on that for now. The good news is that I have improved a lot in my views and no longer compare myself, just try to get better (which I have done). The sequence for me is (1) the build is the most important, followed by (2) driving ability (includes line, consistency, etc…), and then (3) the tune itself.

If you want, check out my '66 Nova speed tune for the September Bounty Hunter and see what lap time you can get. LSR SCH1WO was able to hit a 2:19.747 with that tune. Wish you the Best of Luck!

p.s. I now watch a lot of top driver videos. Ex. LSR SCH1WO, EMW Simmo, General (ONR) Swift, EMW Toffo, Raceboy77, and many others…

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Thanks for the reply & there’s no problems with being long winded…the more info the better!!! Plus, I’m stuck on duty in a Command Operations Center so I got some time to kill! lol.

I 100% agree with your points above. I know that there’s time to be gained on track just by being more consistent & hitting all the marks better than I’m currently doing. I can’t say how much time i can make up by improving driving skill but I do know that improvement is needed. One of the questions I ask myself is if I’m too slow on corner entry & corner exit. Basically if I’m braking too soon & not getting on the throttle soo enough. I know that I had this problem to the extreme months ago, but have since greatly improved my braking & throttle control…especially my throttle control.

I’ll take all of your advice and apply it. Thanks again.

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A good idea to check if it is your driving or your tunes that need to improve is to run the factory specification rivals challenges. Everyone uses the exact same car and you are able to compare your driving skill directly against everyone else. I go back to these challenges from time to time to see if my driving has improved and I can move up a few places. Don’t beat yourself up for not being able to get close to the top guys. They are not human LOL.

Another key factor in running top times is to run without the driving assists. (Except the lines, which don’t slow you down unless you try to follow them religiously) Using manual with clutch is essential to setting competitive times. Good luck and keep practicing!

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Great idea!!! All assist will be coming off the next time I play & I’ll hit up those spec challenges as well…great idea…thanks!

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U r to kind I’ll have to figure out how to do that I’m very new to all this still gotta figure out how to get some credits for designs thanks again bro

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If you don’t want a certified time in someone else’s tune try it in the test section. Then you can see how good or (bad) your own is. Some of the tunes are just phenomenal and very hard to match. Don’t give up on early braking either. I started racing multi player and started to do late braking to avoid the guys that didn’t brake at all, it got me in a rut and couldn’t improve my times. It took a few very fast guys to point out what I was doing wrong. Good luck

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Tuning just takes a lot of trial and error. It takes time and practice in order to recognize the flaws in the tune and what adjustments can correct them. That being said your biggest challenge when tuning is knowing if it’s the flaw in the tune or your driving. You have done yourself a huge service by being self critical of your driving and recognizing those errors. Keep tuning and reading some of the tuning guides and suggestions from the people here. There are a lot of great tuners who have shared a wealth of information witch will speed up your learning process.

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i consider myself to be an ok driver and ok at tuning i get good results with my own tunes, but i sometimes struggle with what to put into the build on certain cars so what i do then i grab one of the top guys tunes for that car and put it on a brand new car and reset to default tune then build the car to the original and tune it to my liking as some of the top tunes are not easy to handle as i find some are to twitchy for my style hope this helps

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Just make sure you buy all the aspiration conversions before you load an unknown tune on a new car, otherwise you will find you can’t reinstall it yourself.

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good point i found that one out shortly after i got the game i had a bmw tune with a turbo and tried to put supercharger in and thats when i found the glitch :frowning: as per fine tuning i tend to not bother so much now i sort of get the values to a base point then run the hell outta the car till i get beaten as i found i think its more driver inputs on my behalf than tuning, as i used a wrx 05 for b class full alps festival i got a 1.52xxx in a lobby and now same tune i cant get lower than 1.53 xxxx in rivals with same tune, so i like the cars to be drivable consistant now than 1 race wonders lol i think its an age thing im going thru…

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I’ve found that the game doesn’t seem to always correctly apply a tune that is on the car when you select it from your garage, so I manually reload every tune before I run it. There is possibly still something going on even though they ‘fixed’ the earlier failure to apply front settings. If you feel a car is understeering a lot or just not gripping as well as you remembered it, reload it from the tuning menu.

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You can check this by looking at the telemetry of the tire heat and the camber. If the back is higher psi and or a lot more negative camber theres a very good chance the tune did not load the front of the car correctly.

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A great driver can take an identical car/tune as me and chop at least 4 seconds off my time so it may not be the tune but just the savagery of those driving it.