Help needed: how to make a drift tune

[Steve_Rcgers]

So for the first time I’m trying to get the hang of tuning. [Mod Edit - Abbreviated profanity, profanity and profanity that is disguised but still alludes to the words are not permitted - D]
I need some serious help. I searched the forums on here (which ofcourse didn’t show any result, as the thing never works) and found some several pages scattered around the internet.
I went on to follow this particular guide, dated from back in the days from Forza Motorsport 3: http://web.archive.org/web/20120614022743/http://forums.forza.net/forums/1/4869639/ShowThread.aspx.

I’m trying to get a drift build on my Shelby GT500. Which is currently S1 811.
I installed a sport flywheel, went on to install all the ‘platform and handling’ upgrades, all the ‘drivetrain’ upgrades, stock tires, tire width front is stock and rear is max.
Some were optional according to the guide, but none other than the flywheel was necessary from the engine upgrades.

Following the guide, I went onto the tuning part. I literally have no clue what I’m doing here, which is really bothering and frustrating. I feel like I’m solving math formulas without knowing the process behind it and why I’m doing it. So, if anyone could explain the different tuning options and why they’re related/important to drift builds, that would be great. The in-game descriptions don’t explain anything to me.

The guide states the tire PSI should be set to value X, corresponding to PSI 32 front and rear when tires are fully heated. I went out and tried my best matching these, resulting in front PSI 26 and rear PSI 25.
I have not touched the gearing (yet). I wouldn’t know what’s best and the guide doesn’t say much about it.
The camber and caster are supposed to be tuned according to each other, so that while drifting, the camber of the ‘leading wheel’ (I don’t even know what the leading wheel is) is as close to 0 as possible. From the data I saw, I think the outer front wheel is the leading one, but I’m not sure. The camber was continuously changing while drifting, so I don’t know what to do.
Currently it’s set up like this: front -2, rear 0. Toe front: 1,5, rear 0,5. Caster: 7.
Anti-roll bars, springs and damping were all calculated with some formula. Although the formula is outdated (i.e. it says the max anti-roll bar stiffness is 40), I still used it with the new max and min settings. leading to the following settings:
Anti-roll bars front: 36,8
Rear: 28,2

Springs front: 1,301.9
Rear: 1,108,8

Rebound stiffness front: 12,5
Rear: 10,5

Bump stiffness, supposed to be anywhere between 50 and 75% of the rebound stiffness
Front: 8
Rear: 6

Differential is set to 85% accel and 75% decel.

As stated earlier, I don’t even know why I’m changing these settings as I don’t know what I’m accomplishing by doing so. Does this look like a decent drift setup? I have the feeling it could be way better when driving. Yes I can get my car to slide, but sometimes turning in does not result in a drift without using the E-brake (which I guess you’d want to avoid as much as possible). I think my gearing should also be changed. 2nd gear works best for getting the car to slide, but doesn’t grant me much speed. Third however, seems like too much of a step up and makes the car to lose it’s speed and ending the drift. I’m also not able to sustain a proper drift in long, wide-angled turns at high speed, should I be able to do so?

Please help me out here. I’d really like to get this thing working.
Thanks in advance!

[TUS_Curtis]

Here’s a quick guide I made back for FM6, which should work fine on FH3

Tire Pressure
A lot people use weird settings here. For fronts anywhere from 28.0 PSI to 34.0 PSI is plenty and for the rear typically a lot lower, 20.0 PSI to 24.0 PSI.

Gearing
I keep gearing short, I prefer less gear changes so I can focus on controlling the car with less effort. I typically set my gear so that I run the car in 4th gear most of the time (On medium to Large corners) with it topping out at about 110mph to 120mph (In 4th gear)

Camber
Typically you will want anywhere from -3.0 to -4.0 camber in the front to create as much tire contact patch to the ground as possible (While cornering/drifting) in the front wheels and between -1.0 and 0.0 in the rear. Rear tires are almost vertical.

Toe
For toe you want Toe Out at the front (toe out will help your car initiate better by turning in sharper. This makes a big difference when you are trying to feint drift.) and Toe In, in the rear. Adjust anywhere from 0.0 to -0.8 or 0.0 to +0.8 where applicable.

Caster
Caster on some real world drift cars run caster as high at 9 degrees but anywhere from 5.0 to 7.0 can do.

Anti- Roll Bars
I set Anti-roll bars between 20 and 35 with more bias to be stiffer in the front. Too much body roll and the back end drags around too much

Springs
I usually soften the springs by about 100lbs to 200lbs from their stock settings depending on the car weight. When you watch pro drift cars take off you can usually see the gear changes in the slight body roll from front to back as they smash through the gears before hitting their first corner. Drift cars also squat a lot.
I also adjust the ratio of front to rear to match the weight distribution of the car e.e 51% to the front (After car build as weight balance differs from stock obviously).

Ride Height
Drift cars are typically raked towards the front being higher. I use a difference of about 1.0 inch, front higher then the back.

Damping
Adjust to your liking, front stiffer then the rear for both Rebound and Bump. I set Bump low between 2.0 and 4.0 depending on the car weight.

Aero
A lot of people don’t use the aero. Rear aero actually helps quite a bit in giving the car grip while cornering so it’s great for drifting, more grip while cornering means the car can drift faster. I have a 450HP 240sx with rear forza aero that can keep up with 800HP while drifting. Yes it’s slower to accelerate but it slides at the same speed as the bigger faster cars. Running front aero can help to of course. Adjust at your own preference.

Brakes
This can vary a lot person to person. I personally set them biased towards the front. Usually anywhere between 65% and 80%. Using the brakes while still on throttle (Left foot braking in a real car) allows you to slow and control that front end direction more. Brake pressure I set around 140%-160%

Diff
I use the standard drift diff settings most of the time. You can do the Locked diff 100% accel and 100% decel as a lot of low HP cars use wielded diffs in real life. I use 100% all the time on the accel but use between 92% and 98% for decel