Really trying to learn tuning and have a question about tire pressure. Most of what I have read is to set it lower so when it heats up it will reach optimal level. Thing is that most Horizon races are about 2-3 minutes max. By the time the tires heat up the race is already over. I realize this is different if you are running several rival laps but for typical road trip races isn’t setting a lower tire pressure wrong? Would it be better to just set optimal tire pressure?
You want the ideal tire pressure to be between 32 and 33 PSI warm. In FM5 you tune really wonky setups because the races are super short and the tire grip levels are set somewhere to the appeal of “Supercars on Ice”.
In Forza Horizon 2, you still want the ideal warm temperature to be around 32 to 33 PSI. Earlier there was some testing done by SatNiteEduardo to the conclusion that you could leave your pressure at 30 for Storm Island and be just fine. I’ve found that 30 works, but I feel more confident with a set up around 28.0 PSI but it may be due to habit and familiarity and not so much the confidence.
With a SpotTheKitty suggestion, I have also began considering rims and tires more than before. Consider the form of the tire, how much air will be in it, and your contact patch. Little things can change how the car behaves off road and on transitions in Horizon. It also lets you have a very minor tweak to the build that makes a difference to the under/over-steer characteristic of the car.
Try this out in the game —> Take a car, any car you like that is AWD and put on no upgrades.
Now, find a rivals events you enjoy doing. Run it. Then, right before the finish, pause and restart. Before starting again visit the tuning con and change the tire pressure really low. Repeat and the next time do it really high. See what you like and what sets the fastest times in that car - it will usually work across the board.
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Thanks for the advice. I ran the test on 2 different cars and both times 28 psi won in both performance and feel. I also ran 30 and 32. 28 is what I have been using so maybe the fact I am used to that level made it better but the test is good enough for me and I’ll just stick with 28.
Ok, now try these two tests.
Front 25.0 - Rear 28.0
Front 28.0 - Rear 25.0
Do these also in an AWD car. You can even do this with a little more extreme figures as well.
Front 20.0 - Rear 35.0
Front 35.0 - Rear 20.0
See what happens and how it feels.
I’m confused more now than ever! I had a little more time to test today. Yesterday I just did a couple of quick run throughs. Actually I really couldn’t tell a lot of difference other than I think 28/28 and 30/30 are pretty close and that the extreme unbalanced tests tell me I probably like a little higher number in front than in back… Higher in back and lower in front was definitely the worst for me. I will continue to test but so far the differences seem minor but I’m guessing I end up with something like 30 front and 28 back or something real close to that.
I guess it all depends on feel for you and lap times.
I typically end up with the driven wheels at 28.0 or 28.5. Then, if I’m attempting to mitigate understeer, I drop the front tire pressure. If I’d like to get rid of oversteer, I drop the rear a bit assuming other techniques have not worked or do not accomplish the feel I’d like.
I do the opposite to mitigate understeer (if I think its a pressure thing). Increased pressure adds grip to that end. Increased grip at the front mitigates understeer…up until the point where the tyres start to lose grip due to being too hard which is often somewhere over 34psi.
This is very good, educational stuff for the game. Yet, I’m also fascinated that we’ve come this far in video game technology… we have the ability to closely recreate real world racing scenarios by changing the most minute details of a car’s set up.
Thanks again for the feedback! I decided to run some telemetry and it seems like I am in the right spot.
Speaking of telemetry, other than tire heat and pressure I can’t figure out how to use any of that other info. How useful is it to learn and how do you learn? Are there any good discussions anywhere explaining how to fully utilize it?
This may not be helpful for you, as it doesn’t pertain to the immediate topic on hand. I’ve found a few pieces of that information to be useful when I am tuning the gearing of my vehicles.
As I have only been on this forum since January and have yet to see anything mentioned, I have no idea what the general consensus is regarding the “ForzaTune 5” mobile phone app, but I’ve been using this to get a baseline tuning setup for most of my vehicles and thereafter making adjustments to my liking and driving style. The telemetry information that I use when working on the gearing are the maximum RPM (redline) and RPM at maximum torque. This information is also available (although not very well defined) in the power chart shown when doing upgrades on the engine components.
The ForzaTune 5 app works for both Forza Motorsport 5 and Forza Horizon 2. It is a very good place to start if you are unfamiliar with tuning or setting the cars up by feel. If you have an alternate method that works - such as one of Kitty’s base models or the Three Minute Tune or such, those are about the same. In the end, the ForzaTune app is just a fancy calculator that takes the numbers you input and puts them into an equation. If you have your own preference or are used to using Kitty’s equations it makes no difference.
Some of the telemetry stuff is useful, and I’ve used it in the motorsport branch but I don’t use too much of it in Horizon because I don’t feel the need for it.