scratch for N2002.
Is this ok for N2003v1.2??
I think that the physics between the N2002s and N2003v1.2 are different.If
so what should be different in that guide?
Now if a setup is made for a certain temperature,what are the consequences
when the temp rises or drops?Does the handling of the car changes much with
temp changes?
Building a Race Setup From Scratch
OK, we've read through the whole guide and we understand what everything is,
how it works, and we can drive consistent laps with the fast setup but where
the heck do we start if we want to build our own setups? First, I have to
reiterate the driving part, please do not waist your own time in the garage
if you cannot drive consistent laps yet. Consistent means you're hitting lap
after lap within a tenth of a second of each other. Next, let's define our
goals; we want the car to be fast, we want the car to be good on (RF) tire
wear, we want the other 3 corners of the car to share as much of the load as
possible, we want the car to be drivable in traffic, and we want the car to
be forgiving enough to get out of bad situations should we mess up a little
like by hitting the apron or having to check up really hard. We've got good
goals; it's now time to start turning some wrenches.
From a clean sheet start here and do the following before you take your
first test spin:
Springs: Start every track with a 700lb LF spring and a 900lb RF spring. At
the back use 350 on the LR and 400 on the RR.
Sway bars: Start with 1 inch sway bars front and rear. This is a little
unrealistic but NR2002S does not take into account roll stiffness from tire
pressures so we have to get a little crazy making up for that by using an
extremely stiff rear sway bar.
Roll couple: If you're building a speedway setup, you're going to want your
roll couple to be in the low 70-percentile range. If you're building a short
track or road course setup the roll couple will be closer to 80%. This may
necessitate slightly different springs ratings and swaybar dimensions from
above. But try to stick with a 200lb split at the front and a 50lb split at
the rear.
Front Bias: For speedways, start at 50.5% for shorter tracks, start at 50%.
The only time you may want to go less than 50% is at Martinsville and New
Hampshire where you may use as little as 47 or 48%.
Left Bias: Always max left weight except for road courses.
Camber: Start with +5.0 on the LF and -2.0 on the RF everywhere.
Trackbars: Start with a 9-11 split everywhere.
Wedge: Start with 0.
Tire pressures: Start with the tire pressures used on the fast setup.
Shocks: Start with the same settings as used on the fast setup.
Spoiler: Start with 65 at Atlanta, Michigan, and Texas, Use 70 everywhere
else.
Ride Height: Start with 4.5 on the left side and 6.0 on the RR. Except for
the roadies where you'll need to start with at least 5.0 on the LF and 6.25
at the back on both sides.
Gear ratios and final drive: start with the same settings used on the fast
setup.
Caster: At the big tracks, start with 0 on the LF and +2.0 on the RF.
Gradually increase that using the same 2 inch split as the tracks get
smaller. Out of all the setup options, this is the loosest 'rule'. Caster is
extremely driver dependent and will vary wildly between different drivers
depending on controllers and your own personal preferences for feel.
Brake Bias: Use as little front bias as possible but enough so I can brake
confidently in any situation. I use 72% as a baseline and try to get it to
67%
Linearity: I personally like to use 85% everywhere. Less linearity seems to
enhance the pull to the left.
Wheel lock: Use as much as you can but still be able to turn the car. Too
little wheel lock (smaller number) will cause the car to be twitchy.
Typically, the wheel lock that is used on the 'fast' setups is about right.
Now you're ready to take the car out for a few laps and will probably think
that the car is a bit loose because you're using far less roll couple than
what we've used in the past. But drive it anyway even if you have to drive
it really easy for about 20 laps. Pay attention to these things: what do
your tire temps look like, what is the middle temp in relation to the edges,
are the edges more than 10 degrees apart and how do the 4 tires temps
compare to each other. See the tire section for help. Don't worry too much
about the handling at this point unless miraculously, your tire temps are
already right. Nah, that never happens the first time we 'rough' a setup in
J. Your tire temps do more to tell you how the car is handling than your
empirical senses do.
As far as tire temps go, my individual testing during beta testing suggested
that the best compromise between wear and rolling drag was a tire that had a
middle temp about the same as the inner edge with the split between the
edges no more than 10 degrees. In other words, your tire temps should look
something like this;
LF RF
195/195/187 220/220/210
LR RR
198/198/192 221/221/215
These temps show a very well balanced chassis although a little bit loose.
But remember loose is fast and better for RF tire wear. But as always, there
is a compromise and we must be able to drive the setup. Especially in
traffic. For qualifying and sprint setups, you'll want to crown the middle
temps slightly.
Go back to the garage and adjust camber and tire pressures to get the temps
right. Don't adjust anything else yet. We're not real concerned yet with the
tires temps in relationship to each other yet.
Go back out on the track and run 20 more laps. Repeat the above step if the
tire temps still aren't right.
Once the temps are correct, you have the middle temps running about the same
as the inner edge and there's no more than a 10 degree split between the
edges, we can start looking at forward bias.
On bigger tracks if you really feel like you can't drive the car in hard
enough, move weight forward. We're still in the roughing in section so we're
still not worrying about what the individual tire temps are in relationship
to each other. Even though moving weight forward is going to put more static
load on the front we can adjust for that elsewhere later on. Keep moving
weight back and forth until the car feels at least relatively close to being
right for entering, holding the middle and exiting. It wont be exactly right
but we have to get the weight close before we can move on.
Once the car feels close we start looking at the tire temps again and how
they compare to each other. For example, if the RF is running 20 degrees
hotter than the RR and the LF is running 40 degrees cooler than the LR, the
car is too loose and we don't have enough load on the LF. We need to move
weight forward and maybe take out some wedge or stiffen the rear springs or
increase the track bar. Or a combination of all the above. At this point, I
don't believe there is systematically correct method for tweaking the setup.
I do believe that we're looking for tire temps that are close to the example
shown above because they show that each tire is handling it's fair share of
the load. There are many ways to get to there from here. To keep myself sane
I use the following guidelines but in no way profess that these are the
right guidelines;
Get the roll couple in the right range.
Make sure camber is correct. (Adjust LS camber so that the car turns in well
but may have to compromise with using less incase we hit the apron)
Make sure tire temps are correct.
Make sure each tire is handling its fair share of the load.
Use enough spoiler to insure the car does not get loose in traffic.
Use the softest springs possible but not so soft the car bottoms out.
Never use more than a 50lb split on the rear springs except for qualifying.
Use wedge to fine tune a loose or tight condition.
After everything else seems to be right, play with caster, you can find big
gains here.
Use the rest of this guide to reach the above objectives. Again, I don't
believe there is only one correct methodology as far as what order or how
much you adjust an individual setting. The tire temps tell all in regards to
how the car is handling and until you get them right, you shouldn't do much
to the car in regards to your personal feel. Once you do have the tire temps
right, play with caster to dial in feel. You can further tweak shocks (very
fine tuning adjustment) and you can mess with the asymmetric's, spring split
's tire pressures, track bars, etc. While the there is definitely a science
to measuring tire temps, there isn't an exact measurement, use the pressures
to fine tune handling characteristics. If you must have some order for
adjusting things, you might consider using the order we used to rough in the
setup for the same fine tuning but with more emphasis on caster. Personally,
I believe the order for adjusting things changes for every track and boils
down to how much you really know about what does what and what affects what.
There is a ton of info in this guide to try and help you do that but at best
we can only hope this will speed up the process of learning things on your
own.
Another question:
Now if a setup is made for a certain temperature,what are the consequences
when the temp rises or drops?Does the handling of the car changes much with
temp changes?