As the titles states I’m wondering what upgrades others use that they feel are the most important in making a good build-specifically for C-A class.
I generally go for suspension, sport tires, race weight reduction, forza aero, and race brakes before any other upgrades. Whatever PI I have leftover I usually go for power upgrades to bring the car to the top of the desired class.
On Muscle car builds I do the same upgrade path as I stated above except I use race tires and generally run them in B Class.
I agree with your ideas when it comes to career mode; however, for online racing having too light a car is sometimes fatal (crashers)
I usually do race brakes, DRAG TIRES, Rims, wider tires, mid to highest transmission and add exhaust, intake and whatever PI I have left goes to flywheel or driveshaft.
Keep in mind, some cars are way better with the engine swap as well (i.e. I like putting a V8 in the 300zx… it is lighter!)
My go to upgrades are in this order: Race Tires, Brakes, Suspension, Sport Transmission, Race Differential, Weight Reduction or Tire Width. Then I go for engine upgrades if I have PI remaining for whatever class I building towards.
I work right to left leaving out diff, wheels, wheel size, aero, and sways. Then go back over it all using the benchmark chart as a guide. Then tune right to left, test drive and tweek it from there. Im a little ocd though.
chassis reinforcement, arbs, race suspension, diff, brakes, weight reduction, tires, transmission, engine.
In that order, you can cure alot of cars stock handling issues with just race springs and arbs. The first 4 are cheap pi pionts.
I mainly go for suspension, brakes, and spoilers. I’ll go to tires after that because the tires can sometimes push a car to far up, and not actually bring anything to the table. I tend to stay in the base class, and not go any higher. Unless it’s a Viper.
I mostly bias towards handling and weight savings then power. Suspension, brakes, weight reduction first and maybe chassis support. Race differential, tire width most of the time and compound when needed based on handling levels and grip then wheels. Power adders vary obviously like super chargers but anything that can save weight like exhaust, intakes.
I first check for any weird PI glitches (for lack of a better term). For example, a Kia that I built, got a 14 point reduction just by switching to a street trans, and another drop of 10 points for adding the rear aero. IMO, you can very frequently get by with a lower trans, so I will take the PI points if they are available. I look to see what changes are made to the benchmarks by adding the different transmissions and choose accordingly. Most of my cars have either stock or street transmissions. Then its all the adjustables, brakes, springs, arbs, diff. After that, it depends on what’s left, but I will focus on handling and weight reduction before power upgrades. When it comes to power, the first thing I try to do is put a race exhaust on. It adds power and takes a good bit of weight off, its one of the best upgrades. Some cars really need an engine swap too, so I at least look at what’s available. For example, the 79 camaro is absolutely terrible with the stock motor. Once you switch to the 5.7 though, it becomes a very different car. The Rally motor dominates C class now, so I always look for that too.
Grip tunes begins- stock motor
Med and long track -rally motor or 5.7
Must upgrades- brakes, suspension, ARB, races diff, areo… street trans or stock.
I use a combination Cage, weight, tires, exhaust, air filter, centerfugal charger depending on the build.
I try and leave a few points opens for wheels and driveshaft.
I just build 2 C-class cars the past several days in which (after the build) I swapped lesser compound tires for weight reductions and on both cases was able to get PBs on Indy GP. This will not happen all the times, so, you’ll have to experiment with many builds, and, tailored in some cases to a specific set of tracks.
Dropping weight is the best thing you can do for 90% of the tracks. Adding adjustable parts is also a must as then you can actually tune your car. Aero will almost always give you more PI to work with and you can set it all the way down so its not very noticeable speed wise vs no aero.
Handing is more important than speed, the amount you need is track specific but have enough you can drive the car consistently around the track. I’ll often match tire compound with the class. Eg. D = no upgrade, C = street etc. Then add width if I need just a little more.
Gear box varies car to car and I usually try to keep it stock unless the gears aer funny. Look at your gears before and after putting it on and drive it both with and without to see if it improves. Add the tranny last as the amount of PI it costs varies depending on what upgrades are already on your car.
For engine upgrades I always start with race exhaust and look for parts that drop weight as well as add torque not just HP. I’ll rarely use camshaft and avoid the added weight from oil and cooling.
This is pretty much the way I do things. Sometimes I have been unsure just because I’ve had people tell me online it’s more important to do tires before reducing weight, but I have stuck to my guns and always done weight reduction first because it seems to work.
In C class I usually do street tires with full weight reduction, B Class with sport tires and full weight reduction with the exception of a B class muscle car I like race tires with full weight reduction.
Almost always I keep the stock or do street transmission.
I Always go for sport or race exhaust because like you said it reduces weight and adds power.