Hi everyone. Pretty new to tuning. I just can not figure out gear ratios. Is the a formula or anything like that to figure out the ratios?
I am wanting to tune a drag car. I have tried tuning thw gears, but have had no luck. I turn final drive to speed and change gears.
More towards speed. Longer and slower for drags.
More towards acceleration. To much acceleration and not enough power.
I have tried to balance it out, but i can’t figure it out.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
I want to tune/build my own drag car, and have satisfaction knowing that i did.
I don’t want to have every body else’s tunes that are on the store front. To many people with the same tunes.
I have never, and will never tune a drag car because I personally do not drag race. However, tuning is tuning!
FIrst thing I do is adjust the final drive. I slide it about 5 clicks at a time until I see the best 0-60 & 0-100. After that, I simply tune the rest of the gears individually. Don’t be afraid to only use a few of the gears. I have seen a lot of people tune just 3 of the gears out of the 6. This helps get rid of that time in between shifting from 3rd to 4th, 4th to 5th, 5th to 6th…
After that, it is all about accelerating in the car and feeling out each of the gears. Adjust them one at a time. It is monotonous, but well worth it. I take my car hard in to corners and see how the downshifts feel, and then figure out the ratios on corner exits. That doesn’t help with drag, but you see how time consuming it really is! LOL!
Good luck, man. Hopefully there are some Drag Kings (not a joke) in here that can give you some detailed drag tuning tips!
I’ve written some drag tuning guides that also go into some detail on gears and what I do/did in FM6. For Horizon it’s a bit different due to no slicks or drag track.
I am hoping you’re going for RWD, I personally can’t stand that AWD is king in Horizon. To me it ruins so much. Either way, tbat just how I feel about that.
As far as gearing goes, NightDriver is right about tire size playing a role. I’m not real sure how big a role in Horizon, but this is part of how I do things. After I get my build where I want it, I use a website that has all the calculators you’d need and then some.
You will need the drive tire size, for example, 346/45R15. This is a common muscle car tire size. Grab the ol’ smart phone or computer and head to Wallaceracing.com. there you will find tins of automotive calculators, most I have no idea about. What you are looking for is the, well I can’t accurately tell you as my internet is not being cooperative. Here is a link to the thread I wrote up a long time ago. The gearing info is in there.
I will never say what I do is “the way”, there tons of faster guys. I learned from some of the faster guys from Motorsport 4-6. Im just trying to pass it on. I will be writing sometjing up for Horizon at some point but like I wrote earlier, I really don’t like AWD or the mile drag anyway. I’m a 1/4 mile guy. Hope that helps some.
Thank you. I have found what you’s have said very helpful, and have helped me in understanding it more.
But my main issue now is wheel spin. Im using a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 RWD. And i have way to much spin.
I downloaded a tune with the same HP and same class, yet i get a little to no wheel spin with there tune.
How do i combat the wheel spin.
I am using the widest tyres and Forza horizon race tyre.
FR 395/35R17…R 345/30/18… Highest it goes
Power 1130KW(1515HP)
Torque. 1494N.m(1101 ft-lb)
Weight. 1261KG (2780lb)
I know i am most likely asking a bit, but i would rather know what to do now, then every few days ask more questions and help.
Everyone has to start out one day with tuning and unfortunately i am one of those uggh noobs to tuning.
If you could help out with stopping wheel spin. It will be very helpful and learning for future references.
I just had a feeling i may have to much power and torque. But i just used a tune with the same class same power. And get virtually no wheel spin.
Horizon is a tricky animal. No tire will flat out grip and 1500hp doesn’t help. I combat the wheel spin with tire pressure, I drop my drag cars to 15psi in the rear. I also keep working with the gearing until there’s less and less spin. I prefer and believe that you want the slightest bit of wheel spin, its more a matter of throttle control and shifting at the right point. The diff setting will help for sure, however, I prefer to have accel at 100. In my mind, both tires grabbing will give you more than just one. That’s where personal preference comes in, a great thing about Forza! One can do what works for them!!
Like I said, I don’t go for the full mile, I just like lining up 1/4 mile from the speed trap and going for it from there. I like my cars to be able to get a good burn out in 1st. I launch usually around 4000rpm, try to keep the throttle where the tires sorta squeek, not just light 'em up. My gears are set to a good 1st gear launch, shift into 2nd around 60-70mph and continue the same level of tire grip/squeaking. I doubt any of that makes sense, sorry. Basically, I like having the ability to do a good burnout when I want and to me, it comes down to “driving” the car. I prefer having to peddle a little or use the throttle to get down the track as opposed to just holding the gas and going. It’s more challenging and real, to me anyway.
If you’re looking to learn what your doing and what each little adjustment makes, have patience. It takes time to figure out what will work for you. I’ll have to mess with some of the V12 swaps to see what’s what. I really don’t like the V12 sound (in the game) and I really don’t do may of those swaps. Probably why I’m still an amateur tuner, lol!! So just take your time, don’t over think anything or let yourself get frustrated. You’ll get it down. The more you do it, the faster you’ll get.
^Use the diff. Lower the % value in tuning to allow for less wheelspin. Drop it all the way to 10 or 20 and take it as high up as you can from there.
For comparison you are going to raise these values to 100 for a drift car because you want wheelSPIN. In drag racing you exactly don’t want that. The trade-off for lowering the value is you get less pull because you are constraining the speed at which your wheel can take you forwards.
You will have to learn through Trial and Error…I tune my cars mainly for top speed but I also want a good 0 to 60 mph time too…I usually shorten the final drive gear between 350 to 380 , I lengthen my 1st , 2nd , and 3rd gears…if possible…4th and 6th but I only lengthen that by two points or degrees…every car is different…especially now that there are cars with 7 or 8 gears…it is a neverending process, you will tweak constantly and even make alternate tune versions…I never tuned a car for just dragging but I like for my cars to start off with decent speed when it’s go time…I use the airport car meet to drag race my cars and make adjustments…I also use the runway to see how I can improve on my tuning…just have fun with it.!
Its pretty simple and takes me 15 minutes to a half a hour to get them right. You need to understand how a transmission works to understand how to tune them right. People kepe trying to give you examples, when its just learning how a car transmission works, and your all set. You can see my offical post on this topic here (highly recommend).
A smaller gear ratio (moved towards accelration means the gear is smaller. It moves faster, so it will have a better accelration, but less top speed.
A bigger gear ratio means that your gear is bigger, so slower acceleration, but higher speed.
The more HP a engine has, it can push bigger and bigger gears. That is how it goes faster. Now if you spread this across 6 gears in a transmission, you can have the gears set at different gear raitos depending on how much power the car has that has.
The final drive is the gear ratio of the gear that meets your differential. This is connected to the shaft that comes after the transmission. If that gear is bigger your overall speed of your car is higher, but slower acceleration. Vise versa. The gear ratios of your transmission is how fast the car accelerates that shaft at different speeds given from the output of the engine. Its like life.
You can see more about differentals here, the incoming shaft is the same shaft the leaves the transmission, in the previous video.
Hopes this helps. When you reach the final top speed of your car while tuning, it should stop just as it hits the red line (when the engine and shaft are spinning so fast they might break). When your doing your 1-6 gears (most cars have 6 gears) they should shift and not red line, because that means you have too much acceleration and not enough speed, vice versa. Make your first 3 gears quick, as they should be their to launch you. The rest should be for speed, or to lead you to your final gear, which is common for where your top speed is reached.
Some drag cars in FH3 have 3 gears to eliminate loss of RPM while shifting.
You can see how a engine works here, as it will help.
Not saying your wrong, however I do believe that you are backwards with your “big/little” gears. As you raise your final, “bigger” or taller gears, you will increase acceleration and loose top end. Conversely, by reducing the final, “smaller” or shorter gear will increase top end at the loss of acceleration.
In drag racing, most cars don’t use all 6 gears as you suggested. I know some prostocks run a 5 speed, i think top fueel is a 3 or 4 speed. A lot of the street racer, no-prep drag guys usually run 2-3 speed trans. Normally the final will be 5.something with 1st gear being around a 1.80-2.00 or that neighborhood. And the 2nd gear closer to a 1.00. Lately my approximate gear range, for drag, is a 3.05-3.20 final. Lower than I like because of the lack of grippy tires. 1st is around a 1.65-1.80, 2nd 1.35-1.45, 3rd between 1.00 and 1.10.
For track racing you don’t want to use the same gears as you would for drag racing. It would be very troublesome coming in and out of the corners. Track/road racing is when a smaller, lower final drive is better suited. Depending on the car you really don’t need all 6 gears again, however having all the gears can help if it’s a heavier car.
The biggest thing, in MY opinion is regardless of final drive, when you set your gears, if you plan to tune them, watch where the HP and torque rpms end up. It’s very inefficient to have 2nd or 3rd engage at the lower end of the powerband. If you look at your telemetry you can see what rpm the torque tops out as well as the HP and tune each gear to stay within the powerband.
I have tried since Forza 4 to work out how real life works in Forza. Unfortunately real life doesn’t necessarily have a lot of rule in Forzaland. In some instances things work to an extent, but there are many real.life factors that aren’t in the game or even taken into consideration.
Like I said, I’m not saying you’re wrong at all, other than MY interpretation of your “big/small” gears. Forza let’s each individual do things the way they see fit, what works best for them. Trial and error, experiment, see what works to give YOU the result YOU are looking for.
Best way to avoid confusion is to refer to “tall” or “short” gearing. Tall gearing (which is a low number for final drive) is for top speed, short gearing (with a high number for final drive) is for acceleration.
And Top Fuel/Funny Car dragsters don’t have any “speeds”, they have a fixed gear ratio with a progressively locking clutch. It’s the lower classes like Doorslammer, Pro/Modified and Pro/Stock that use Powerglides, Lencos, C4s etc
Why are people teling the OP to lower the accel diff for drag? The way I worked accel diff settings in Forza (which is compliant with other games as well) was, the higher you go, the more traction you get, but the car will bite more when it does lose traction. The lower you go, the easier it is to lose traction, but the grip loss is more progressive. Since losing traction is easy, you have to be more careful with the throttle, as the car is too vulnerable to speed loss when losing traction.
I’ve always thought it was the other way around, you use more lock for drag and less lock for drift. When racing you need a balance between traction and predictability. I mean, in a 911 I always lower the accel lock almost to the minimum because all the weight is in the rear so it doesn’t need much lock to hug the tarmac. In a front-engine, RWD car I’ll lower it as much as possible depending on how comfortable the throttle oversteer on corner exit is, as you definitely want traction with just a little hint of oversteer to help the car exit the corner.
My biggest wish, and I understand some of you guys aren’t big drag fans, is for Forza to add something better than the generic AWD, V12 mile long runway. I firmly believe that if there were some specific upgrades for drag, drift, off road, things that work ONLY for those things, that more folks would enjoy learning and driving each of these different types of cars.
I also believe that, in Horizon more so, that it would be very cool to jump into a public lobby or in with some friends and see big tire drag cars cruising around with cambered out drift cars along side cars and trucks with lift kits and 44 inch murder tires. Sorry, kinda got lost for a minute, lol.
I guess I’m just saying, better upgrades, more options would certainly help. As I’ve said, I don’t think I’ve got everything figured out, tons of faster folks. I don’t really even enjoy the actual drag event in Horizon. I build and drive my drag cars at that 1/4 mile mark, keep them RWD and none have the V12. Maybe I might build a couple, its just not really my thing. I build 'em to feel like I imagine the would feel like for real. Scary and hard to drive, but fast when you get it right!!