Looking for some advice

So i’m new to Forza 6 and a few of my buddies are quite a bit ahead of me as far as their knowledge of tuning and grabbing every bit of HP out of their cars. We ran a drag build night the other day and until they started tuning their transmissions i was able to keep with them. Once they tuned their gear ratio’s i was left in the dust. Any input and advice y’all may have would be much appreciated.
What im really getting at is we have fun using loaded tunes, but we like to have bragging rights for sitting atop our leader board in a tune we did.

Contact the guys at Maxwell speed shop just below you, they’ll help you. Good luck.

Well hello there! Thank you sincerely for the referral W4RLOCK38!! Means alot, I’m happy to help if I can. As far as gearing goes, there’s a few different ways that I have gone about working out gears for drag.

To start with, sadly the “drag track” test drive for drag racing is absolutely useless in forza 6. The best way to test and tune is select “test drive” which you can select straight from the upgrade or tuning area. Pick the “Air Strip open space” track. Once you can drive, turn to the right, go past the row of planes and head towards the concrete wall. In between the planes and the hangers is the actual drag strip track. Just line up at the start line, watch the timer and launch at the 10’s and just for the time when you cross. Theres the finish line for the 1/4 and 1/2 mile run although trying to stop after the half mile can get a bit tricky be for hitting the wall at the other end, lol.

I have always tried to stick to 3 gears at the most for 1/4 mile. On a couple occasions I ended up with 4 and once or twice 2 have actually worked. Less shifting, more time on power.

Picking the final drive ratio is usually the first thing I do. I used to automatically start with it set at 2.20, which is the lowest setting. I have a few different things i do now, but this will be a good starting point. Next I work on 1st gear based on getting a good launch off the line. If the gear is too low, your launch will be very slow off the line, it will bog down and you’ll go nowhere. Too high of a gear and you’ll either roast the tires or wheelie off the back bumper. So take your time and find a good launching 1st gear.

After you are happy with 1st, to find the rest of your gears, pull up your telemetry, watch your HP and torque. Your goal is when you shift from first to second, you are in or as close to the power band, where HP will keep your momentum and help keep you accelerating. Then work out third the same way once you’re happy with first to second.

The goal is to be hitting redline or real close to redline as you cross the finish line. Thats the same regardless of 1/4 or 1/2.

When I get back on next, I will take a look and post up some ballpark numbers to go by for this. I dont want to throw out numbers without looking first.

Lately I have been trying to put some real world numbers into my tuning. It’s been interesting but mostly successful. Not always, but sometimes it’s taken some guesswork out of the mix. I did a bunch of research and looking on line to find what ratios were in the transmissions I had always read about in Hotrod Mags and whatnot. Like TH350’s and 400’s, Torque flight 727’s, etc. I found a website, TCIauto.com. Under the calculators and specs heading there’s a tab “gear ratios”. There you will find a whole page that shows an abundance of manufacturers transmission ratios. Everything from power glides to Borg-Warner 4spd. These ratios can give you a bunch of options and you can pick and choose. There will be alot of trial and error, finding what fits for each car. Every car will be a little bit different.

As far as finding my final gear ratio, there’s another useful website, wallaceracing.com. This site has a ton of calculators, most of which I have no idea how to use. Lol. What I do use is, first the “tire height calculator”. Put in your rear/drive tire size and get the actual tire height. Once you have that, then select the “gear ratio needed” calc. Enter in the info, for MPH I usually put 155-165, depending on the car and HP. That will give you your final gear based on the tire size that’s on the car you’re tuning.

Hopefully at least something in this helps. I didn’t intent to ramble as long as I have with this. Keep in mind that this is Forza and none of this is set in stone. I use all the info from these calculators and websites as ballpark numbers and adjust here and there until I hit what I’m happy with. Trail and error, spending time finding what works for each car. Testing, testing, testing. A good example of this is a thread that was going the last few days between myself and a couple GOOD tuners about tuning a Challenger Hellcat. There’s some good info on drag tuning on that thread. Granted, it’s specific to the Hellcats, but still some very helpful stuff there.

Again, I hope something in this help out! Happy racing!!

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I leraning how to set up a drag car as well, YEY ME!!! thanks budd for the info.

Oh i forgot, thanks to deadcriminal for teaching of how to set up a STOCK CAR too. (nascar)

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It’s all good, man!! Always happy to help whenever we can. Like everything in Forza, there’s always the element of preference and style to how one tunes a car. There are tons of other, VERY fast drag tuners out there. Hopefully my cars are able to hang with them and maybe even pull out some wins here and there. All about the fun and love of cars!!

Thought I’d throw this in as well, I posted a link on this thread that explains gear tuning pretty well.

gear tuning

Zeppelins got more drag tunes shares than anybody else, im sure he can help ya with just about any car

Oh, just cuz I have alot shared doesn’t mean they’re any good, lol!! I have to give you much credit for sending me in the right direction with the drag tuning Don!! Your gearing/tunes tend to be a tick quicker and more consistant where mine are just tons of trial and error…and error…and don’t error then I get lucky. Either way, hopefully anybody, OP included, can find enough info in this thread to get going. I love to see more people getting into the drag racing. Hopefully it is given a little more love in 7. Hear that, thats the sound of me holding my breath!! Lol. Until there’s another option, I’ll keep on keepin’ on with Forza 6 and FH2 drag tunes.

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Thanks, I definitely take this advice and run with it…I’ll let you know how it turns out soon

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