I was wondering what other people do different as far as build and tune if they were building a car for a tight, curvy track vs a track with Long straights and wide corners vs tracks with long straights but mostly really tight corners? Just in general, no specific car in mind. I do mostly race A class FYI
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There are several threads that have been posted for both FM6 & FM5 in the respective Tuner’s sections that have basically asked the same question, thus, I’d recommend to do a quick search on both areas.
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Car builds and tunes will vary from track to track depending on layout.
We’ll I wasn’t asking for specifics. Just trying to start a conversation about mostly how people tend to build a car for different tracks. General what they lean towards doing. I don’t have the time on my hands to build a car for every track so I have certain things I lean towards doing for types of tracks
I firstly go for acceleration, then speed, and finally handling. My favourite drives in S Class are:
Caterham (acc: 9.7, spd: 6.2, hdl: 5.9)
Porsche GT2 (acc: 9.4, spd: 7.7, hdl: 6.1)
And when I really need some handling
Ferrari F50 ( acc: 9.2, spd: 7.6, hdl: 6.5)
So you go for engine upgrades first and then suspension and tire ect? How do you decide you’ve done enough engine before you put some handling in?
I always put spring, ABRS, brakes all race and then as much weight reduction I can and then I do tire compound(sport is usually my minimum for a class), skip width and then do engine and width if I decide I have extra PI.
It all depends on your driving style, but when building a car to see if i can beat or match a downloaded tune, i would have the same 3 cars with different builds, ranging from high power/low grip, to low power/high grip. I just continue to free lap and tune, until i find a build/tune that i can consistently run fast times, or give up and use a downloaded tune. The key word is being consistent over multiple laps, and not necessarily the fastest on a single lap, unless you are building for hot lapping.
My primary race focus is to get through that 1st corner without getting collected , and then race clean. That’s why i use the 4wd caterham and porsche gt2, as there isn’t much that can out drag them to 140mph, but then they have sufficient handling/acceleration to hold off, all bar the very best of racers.
I keep three different builds for each car I use for each class I run it in. I typically use a balanced build, less frequently a grip prioritized setup, and even less frequently a power/speed focused build.
If I’m tuning for grip at lower speeds I prioritize weight upgrades because they enhance both low speed acceleration, grip, and braking. If I have PI to spare what I choose depends on what the car needs to take advantage of its strengths and where I intend to use it.
If I plan to use the car on tracks with a high average speed I prioritize horsepower upgrades to enhance high speed acceleration. At high speeds horsepower and aerodynamics mean more to acceleration than weight does.
more power and less handling for power tracks and the oppsite for handling tracks, the key is knowing what tracks are what and by how much.
And yes a track with a narrower width is more towards power and accell than handling.