rec.autos.simulators

  I just thought I'd post a little bragging here.  I actually got
my first GPL race win last night against the AI at Monza.  Admittedly
it was on novice mode with a field of only six cars but I'm still very
pleased.  I also managed to get my first sub 1:29 time around the
circuit.  OK - so everyone else around here is getting sub 1:28 or even
sub 1:27 - but I was still very pleased.

  Several things helped.  I think that it's really important to find a
set-up that suits you.  I'd spent a long time with some very understeery
set ups and I couldn't really get fast or consistent with them.  I
definitely need something more neutral.  The problem is that I really
have difficulty "rolling my own" when it comes to set ups.  I can now
just about decide when I want the brake bias shifting forward or
rearward and I can kind of say that I'd like more understeer or
oversteer and I do manage to get a little understeer oversteer by
playing with toe in/toe out.  But beyond that, I'm totally stuck.  As
soon as I venture into the territory of spring-rates and ARBs it all
goes hopelessly awry.

  Also, I'm beginning to question the wisdom of the manual saying "make
one small change at once" - it seems that if you start to change
something major like diff settings then you might as well throw away
your previous settings and start again.

  Do people have any particular thoughts for set up?  What order do you
dial things in?  My feelings were diff then springs/arb then
toe-in/toe-out then camber.  

--
Richard G. Clegg       Only the mind is waving
    Networks and Non-Linear Dynamics Group
      Dept. of Mathematics, Uni. of York
    www:  http://www.racesimcentral.net/

Inspired by the recent breaking 1:30 thread (I was 1:31.5) I went back to Monza
and finally got to 1:29.12 and also found I can now win at novice level.
It's great isn't it ? winning is winning regardless of what level your on,
and I'm finally having some close racing with the AI.

I am also not a setup guy, and why bother when you can go to Schubi's and
other sites and download setups that are of proven capability.
The two that I've been using with success at Monza recently are the setups of
Ricardo Nunnini and Greger Huttu, totally different feels.
Nunninis are more stable, Huttus are quicker but touchy. My best time are with
Huttus. The only change I made was to balance his unequal left/right camber
settings a bit to make it controlable for me.
It sounds like your a bit quicker than me at the moment but I can say that
progress for me is down to practise in general, and in particular, practicising
trailbraking.

--
Don Scurlock
Vancouver,B.C.

  Actually, I used the GH setups myself.  Shame I can't find them for
all tracks.  For me they're both stable and quick.  But that's the
thing,  I think everyone has their driving style and I wish I was good
enough to actually make my own set ups...  As soon as I fiddle with the
springs to any degree I totally lose my way.  (I think I'm having
trouble envisaging the difference between ARBs and wheel-rates).  Sure,
you can say that they are "proven" set ups - but they're only proven
with a driver of that style - if your style doesn't suit a set up I
don't think you can be that fast with the set up.

: It sounds like your a bit quicker than me at the moment but I can say that
: progress for me is down to practise in general, and in particular
: practicising trailbraking.

  You're absolutely right, the driving practice is the key.  I found
that going around the different tracks picking up a small time benefit.
Shaving a second or two at a track where I'm dead slow often teaches
stuff that helps on the tracks where I've hit one of those barriers at
another track. (I was stuck at 1:31 at Monza for months!)

--
Richard G. Clegg       Only the mind is waving
    Networks and Non-Linear Dynamics Group
      Dept. of Mathematics, Uni. of York
    www:  http://manor.york.ac.uk/top.html

Most of these setups are also at Schubi's page.

I have some other setups on my hard drive, too, but I haven't done
that many laps with them yet so haven't sent them anywhere. I think I
now have v1.2 Lotus setups for all tracks, except Mexico (hate that
one). So if you want a setup for a particular track just ask and I
will send it to you if I have one.

I'm sure you have read Nunnini's setup guide. That's a good place to
start. As Don said Ricardo's setups are very stable, although I think
my setups are very stable, too. <g> Anyway, one thing I *don't* like
about his setups are the roll-bars. I think he uses 180/120 bars. I
like to have them at 150/150, 140/170, 160/180 etc. to give more
oversteer. His spring settings are very good, although for the Lotus
and some other cars I normally use a little bit stiffer springs.

If you have any questions about my setups or setups in general I will
try to answer them.

--
Greger Huttu