Forgive me for not knowing, but I keep hearing tuners talk about a lobby car tune or a leaderboard car tune. May I ask what the differences are and/or what the goals are for each type of tune? Thanks for any info provided. 
There are many differing opinions on this.
A quote from Worm - a good car is a good car ie there is no difference.
I have downloaded some tunes by Takumi labelled as lobby tunes. My guess and it is a guess is that he means its a car that can do pretty well at various tracks.
If you want to smash a leaderboard then you need track specific tunes.
Now where is my āWhat Swerve said buttonā? I agree most with this statement regarding lobby cars. Most of my passing comes in the corners so it is extremely important the car can handle odd lines.
I personally think a leaderboard tune/car must be capable of reaching the top spot. Whether it actually gets there or not is another story. The leaderboard car set up has to be track specific to get to the top of the boards. For example, I made a top Honda CRX Mugen tune for Bernese Alps Club Circuit. This car is hands down the fastest way to get around this track and thus I consider it a LB car. However, when I took this same set up to the reverse version of the track, I was well off the pace until I adjusted the set up. I do not agree that a leaderboard car has to be on edge or hard to drive which is what I think Wormās quote was referring to in SatNiteās post when he said a good car is a good car. The Civic handles very well and is very easy to drive. Of course, when you get to the top of the boards you have to push the car and be on edge to squeak out any little amount of time you can get. This is a result of circumstance, not the car, in my opinion.
Leaderboard cars or should I replace that with āquick carsā feel different in different classes.
D class minis often feel twitchy because of the nature of the car.
C class xyzās (I have not checked what the latest top cars are lol) but they usually feel quite stable and not twitchy.
The higher class you go, given the speed, the cars often need somewhat aggressive turn in to be quick. Drive them off pace and they feel too twitchy. Get on the right pace and they handle well.
And yep Alps track tunes are quite unique so can be slow and feel wrong when used elsewhere.
One thing is clear in this thread - there are lots of differing opinions. But then I am not sure we are all answering the same question.
Two very different questions:
What is a lobby/leaderboard car? Most opinions seem similar on this.
What is a lobby/leaderboard tune? Different opinions between āthere is no differenceā to āone is stable and one is on edgeā.
Great point Eduardo! I was sort of scratching my head since I was getting confused with much of what I was reading (versus the initial question by OP), and, I believe itās because what you just mentioned aboveā¦basically, 2 different things we are discussing and/or trying to answer. Thanks for highlighting this!
Exactlyā¦ Lobby cars are good all around cars not set up for 1 certain tracks. There are only a few leaderboard cars but honestly i would say its more leaderboard drivers than cars. Normally the top 20 are roughly the same all over the place.
I have a different view from the others.
To me, a lobby car is something that is consistent, stable and predictable. I want my lobby cars to be able to run the same laps over and over as you donāt want glaring errors in a race.
A leaderboard car is a car that is always on the edge, but is more capable of posting that super fast time if you do nail the lap correctly. However, that one slight mistake you make with it can mean 2 or 3 seconds. With a leaderboard car, if you mess up real bad, you just run another lap, so who cares?
Just my opinionā¦
4 Likes
Lou I used to think like that. Some others may say that a lobby tune accelerates better as you need to stop/start to avoid incidents etc. Those people will say the leaderboard car is a momentum car ie you need to keep the momentum up.
I still think some of that but I think you may need to try different tunes. I used to use only my tunes and I still do 90% of the time. But if you try others you will find quick and stable tunes that can do well in lobbies and hotlapping.
1 Like
I could not agree anymore with Lou on this statement. For my only under LB 25, I had to change my tune and race like the police was chasing me down, so one does take a lot more risk and inconsistencies surface like no other time (even for an āeasyā track). Your basically pushing the limits while balancing the risk (of being caught, not by the cops this time, but by the wall)!
I have been there but have now tried different things so here is a scenario.
My lobby tune lap time 1.34
My tweaked tune 1.33 but harder to drive consistently
Me running Takumi tune 1.32 in lobby and hotlapping
Takumi running 1.30.5 on leaderboards and probably in lobbies too
Also my 1.32 might be a high rank on the leaderboards (top 30) but still seconds off the top spot.
I think the summary of the above scenario would be:
mediocre tune
mediocre but different tune
great tune / decent driver (its all relative)
great tune / great driver
In my case, I am a really bad driver starting off on Forza 5ā¦
In some cases a leaderboard car isnāt the best racer out there. If the car is off the line just a bit, it may be a fight to make up whatever time you lost. A lobby tune is a car that may be fast but can be raced with a bit more ease and the car can handle the odd lines and braking points that racing randomly throws at you.
Usually a common theme is that a lobby car is giving up something (build wise or tune such as max downforce) in order to be well rounded and less of a handful.
However, the differences are murky the better you become at driving. Sometimes a lobby car is in reference to a car that runs top 200-400s pretty regularly online and it may or may not be a handful. For guys and gals who want to be competitive online without blowing the doors off everyone, sometimes this is a solid benchmark. In FM4 for example in B class, if you ran a top 250 online you were likely going to win or finish podium. Usually lap times are the only way to substantially prove that the car is a good lobby car since not everyone is going against the same level of competition.
Usually a leaderboard car draws hate from many in the lobbies. Fortunately, in the this game there are a few classes that are so wide open that nobody can really pinpoint what is the best car. In D class for example, the 1965 mini is the obvious dominant car on many tracks and any other car that may grace the top 100 is just an oddball. It is weird how it works sometimes. Some cars that are obviously dominant donāt catch much hate if there is some difficulty involved with the car which kind of brings up the respect factor.
Donāt think I really answered the question because well it varies based on the person.
1 Like
āA lobby car is a car that can hit top 200-400 consistantlyā This statement is exactly why I stay out of the lobbies! I donāt think I have any times in that range on any track.
A lobby tune is possibly detuned to make the car a little more forgiving, is a generic tune, or is just a second or third tier car to start with. Thereās no real hard and fast rule. Some sharply tuned cars are already very forgiving, whereas some cars are a bit of a pain no matter what you do to them. So which of those is a lobby tune? Almost everything everybody has said above is both true and false. Lobby is often code for slow, fun, or ājust a car I want to driveā. At its worst itās something to hide behind as an excuse for being slow. 
2 Likes
Lol so true. Most used excuse when someone thinks there the fastest driver ever and then get beaten badly in a lobby. I was using a lobby tune! Lol my responsr is You lost by 20 seconds lobby tune or not you wont beat me lol
Oh I see, so what youāre saying is that Swerve is just hiding behind the lobby car excuse when I beat him on a track then? Now it makes sense
You canāt honestly expect me to be on my A game everyday. lol. I was only a second or so off in the merc when you were in the Kia. Lets not forget what happened when I brought the T/A out though. lol. Burn! Just kiddin just kiddin.
Didnt your parents teach you not to poke the bear lol.
If you detune your car you donāt know what youāre doing. A leaderboard tune and a lobby tune are the same thing. Why on earth would someone tune a car to be slower? Fast is fast and people at the top of the leaderboards run the same lap times in those cars or close to it lap after lap after lap.
A car comparison is completely differentā¦leaderboard/lobby tune is a huge LOL. Thatās called āexcuse for getting beatā
Iād only donwload a tune labelled āLobbyā if it promised the addition of machine guns on the front and back so I could take out all those corner cutting, t-boning, fish tailing Hopper slags that you find quite often online.
1 Like