[HCR] #12 Honda-McLaren MP4/4 -- #1, and some top 5s

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1

Hi all,

I’ve never been so excited for a car pack before and credit is given to Turn 10 for such an awesome pack, and the surprise freebie they chucked in too!

Since I used to hold the only indyCar #1 that wasn’t on an oval, I’ve been looking for an excuse to get my own back on those in the Lotus that sniped it. With this, I got what I wished for. But I sure as hell had to work for it, which makes it better. It’s not like the Sauber on FM4 where the early base tunes lit up every board.

This car seems to be in between the Lotus and IndyCar in a couple of ways, traction is good, and has more front grip at higher speed. But the Lotus is still infinitely faster at the top end. The McLaren also seems to dislike very fast corners like Copse at Silverstone. So to mitigate this issue, I avoided tracks that would hinder it. I’d recommend using it on tracks shown here, or tracks of similar nature, but do experiment:

Sebring Club Wet: 54.283 (#1) !!
Sebring Club Dry: 49.869 (#8)
SIlverstone Natl Wet: 35.135 (#5)
Hockenheim Short: 46.865 (#3)
Brands Indy Wet: 48.487 (#3)

It works well on wet tracks but it requires a lot of finesse and care; perhaps my driving style suits it. It’s quite… fun in the wet, but at least it’s a lot less unpredictable than the Lotus.

TCS is recommended, manual with clutch is recommended.

Here’s the tune:

Tyre Pressures: 30.0/29.5

Gearing: Final Drive: 6.10, then as follows: 1.80; 1.44; 1.20; 1.04; 0.92; 0.84

Alignment
Camber: -1.9/-1.1
Toe: 0/0
Caster: 7.0

Anti Roll Bars: 13.40/13.40

Springs
Stiffness: 400.0/382.9 (lb/in)
Height: (minimum)

Damping
Rebound: 8.3/7.9
Bump: 11.1/4.7

Aero: Max

Brakes: Bias: 44% front; 150% pressure

Diff: 33%/22%

I hope you enjoy the tune. It’s nicer than the Lotus but I’ve found it takes a lot to extract the maximum out of it.

3 Likes
2

You recommend TCS, but based on my experience with the stock version throttle response shouldn’t be an issue.

Given that I could tame your 787B, this should be okay for the Hardcore boards?

3

You should be alright going hardcore. I’d avoid Lime Rock though. I think the tuning is a lot different on that track.

4

I’ve had this tune for a while and started taking it into the Hoppers recently.

I was getting far too much turn-in initially but after lowering the Front Aero by about 20% it was more predictable through the high-speed corners.

At low speed (hairpins, slow corners at Silverstone etc.) the car isn’t rotating much so I’ll need to fix that. As high-speed feels fine I think I’ll have to play about with the Caster settings as adjusting the ARBs might affect my balance too much.

Can’t remember if I adjusted 1st gear myself or used your settings, but I rarely stall the car now.

In any case I’ve been doing well with the car in the Hoppers, snagged a few wins last night as the Lotus E23 drivers struggled to cope with their speed.

5

It was one issue I found after I took it out of Sebring and onto tracks that actually require high speed cornering! Which is why I mentioned what I did about Lime Rock, that was the tune’s undoing, and doing what you did was the only fix that seemed to work.

I was fine going into slower corners, you can chuck it in a bit like you can with the 312P in R class. On my Sebring laps, I certainly pivoted the car in a certain way going into Tower turn. That gained me the time I was missing to take the #1 at the time. It’s not #1 now though, they went back in the Lotus. But I gapped some other VERY high calibre drivers in the same car at the track.

I’m glad it’s working well in the hoppers, you might have had to shorten 1st to get it launching but that’s fine. Stalling in the hoppers sucks, I’d share my leaderboard Can-Am tune if it was geared appropriately for it!

6

One thing I’ve started to notice with this car is that it will start to three-wheel during hard cornering, often lifting the inside front wheel off the ground, which in turn makes the car bounce mid-corner and become more unpredictable.

How would you go about fixing that?

7

After some research these could work as potential fixes (side-note, issue’s happening on-throttle through a turn, when the weight shifts rearward):

Soften Front ARB or stiffen Rear ARB
(To fix: Rear end of the car having more lateral body roll than the front)

Stiffen Rear Springs or soften Front Springs
(To fix: Too much weight transferring to rear of the car)

Increase Front Downforce or Decrease Rear Downforce
(To fix: Too much weight pressing down on rear of the car)

I suspect it’s an ARB issue, and that softening front ARB would be the first thing to try out. Depending on how quickly the car turns at high speed after making this change, the Front Downforce may need to be lowered as it already turns in rather sharply.

8

My first port of call would have been anti-roll bars. I did have to give the front more than maths would suggest because of the way the car behaves. Maybe if I better control how the load transfers then it should be more consistent.

9

I’ll test the ARB changes tonight once I’m done with some League Racing.

In the meantime, do you have an updated Open Source Lotus E23? (I’ll use TCS with it but need to adjust the gearing for Manual/Clutch)

10

Somewhere, I have a more ergonomic setup. Let me dig it out, I have so many setups saved, I might have to do a complete audit and make sure I don’t hit the limit anytime soon.

11

It’s handling well now, still a little bouncy at high speed but better than before: