rec.autos.simulators

Does anyone know where I can find a good and easy to understand setup guide
for GPL? For the Ferrari in particular. I've downloaded setups already but
none of them have worked well for me. I want to learn how to set up the cars
to my liking.

Thanks,

Mike

If you ask your questions regarding the setups here, we should be able
to answer them.

The most basic of rules regards the fuel and tires. The more fuel you
have in the car, the heavier it will be and so the slower you will
travel. So for hotlaping, leave a very little in the tank. However,
having more fuel in your car can also help, as the extra weight can
make taking corners easier, especially when you're new to it.

And as for tyres. The softer they are, the more grip they will have.
However, softer tyres will also burn out more quickly.

What else do you want to know?

The Excelsior

"ICQ #40620378"

Hi!

Click to Alison Hine's Website:
http://simracing.com/alison/gpl/
There you will find what you're looking for.

Bye!
Crash
--
"...on our home, third stone from the sun." Metallica

MC schrieb:

Hi,

Joachim is right. For setup info Allison's site is THE place. When you get
there go to table of contents and look for the section called "setups". Well
explained with links to other information as well.

Zubcut

Last time I looked, a choice of tire compounds was not an option in GPL.

www.theuspits.com is another EXCELLENT (perhaps the best of the lot)
simulator site, with everything from N1 to GPL!

The Excelsior

"ICQ #40620378"

Tyre wear is not a factor in GPL temperatures are. In 1967, it was not
uncommon for a set of tyres to last 2 or 3 meetings without being changed.

Mark

I have been driving GPL since the demo was released early last year. Then I
bought the sim when it was released and have been driving it since. I have
been sticking to the default setups just to get used to the cars but it has
been thousands of laps and countless hours. Don't get me wrong, I can drive
the car well and I can drive it to its limits. My lap times at various
tracks are consistent and I can drive without ending up in the trees at
every corner.

The problem I'm having is that I don't understand how to set up a car to
make it run faster or make it handle better or brake a little deeper in the
corners... I'm just not sure where to start on a setup. Yeah, I know
everyone says to adjust only one thing at a time. That's just fine and dandy
if you know where to start and what to do. I don't understand how far you
should to go with certain settings.

I guess for me to learn I need someone to say start here, do this, this, and
that, then go to this part of the car adjust this until this or that
happens...you get the picture. I hope someone out there understands where
I'm coming from.

Thanks,
Mike

BTW, I like to run full races. I'm not really into hot lapping.

H'mmm, try Alison Hines GPL site, she has some excellant Ferrari set-ups + for
most other chassis.....  If you can't drive Alisons set-ups, you really should
examine your driving technique....before making your own set-ups
(IMHO)http://simracing.com/alison/gpl/ferrari.htm
Graeme Nash has some 'low rider' set-ups on his site, fast, but they are
somewhat less forgiving and harder to drive (IMHO ;-)
http://www.karisma1.demon.co.uk/gpl/contents.htm
Best of Luck

Dave Hawnt UK-GPL

Hi MC,
I'm no expert but these steps will help bring your laptimes drop in the
short term.
1. Gearing. Set up your top gear so that you are just below the redline at
the fastest part of the track. Other gears should be optimised for greatest
efficiency in respect to cornering. People will debate whether you go
through the lesmos in third or second gear for instance but you shouls be
able to drive most corners holding a single gear. Ghanging up or down mid
corner can have a destablising effect on the car. Try not to set ratios
where there is too big a gap between gears.

2. Brakes. I set the brake bias as far back as I can handle. Typically, this
is about 52 -55%. I have gone as low as 49% in F3 setups. The further back
the bias goes, the quicker the car will stop but it becomes more tail happy.

3.Tyre temperatures/ pressures. You should have even tyre temperatures
across the width of the tyre as far as practical (within a couple of degrees
is easily achievable). It is often best to balance temps in such a way as to
have the inner part slightly warmer on many tracks, particularly fast ones
like Monza. Do this by adding more negative camber to heat up the inner part
of the tyre, more positive camber for the outer tyre and increase / decrease
tyre pressure to get more / less heat into the middle.

4. Steering ratio. Set this number to as high a value as possible. By doing
this, you get less scrubbing of tyres in corners, hence less speed wastage
and heat build up.

I consider these changes to be the basic ones to go for first if you are
looking at chopping off large lumps of time at this stage. Following on from
here, Chassis/drivetrain setup becomes more subjective, opinions will vary
and driving style will become a factor.You should find 1.5 secs playing with
these basic ones first.

Mark
BTW. Don't forget to make your setups ride height compliant for 1.1.
That is to say, make your setups Y2K compliant <subtle eh> hehe

I've been trying Alison's ferrari setups for the last few days now, and
I'm finding that, although easy to drive if you're taking it easy, it's
very difficult to get down to the sort of laptimes that are possible
using an ultra-aggressive low-rider setup like Wolfgang Woeger's Lotus.

When I first tried WW's Lotus setup at the Glen I was squirming all over
the track, but once I got used to it I found that I could brake much
later and (most importantly) turn in at higher speeds.  I never matched
his 1:03.61 world record, but was pretty consistently in the 1:06s and
did manage a 1:05.4.

With Alison's setups I'm finding it very hard to get the car to turn in
- I have to use a lot of trail braking and it's very difficult to do
this consistently - sometimes the car heads straight for the apex and I
have to swerve back out again, and sometimes I carry straight onto the
grass on the outside (this happens a lot at Silverstone).

Is this just because WW's setup is a low-rider (ie. cheat) setup, and I
need to learn how to drive properly?

Firstly, Alison's setups are designed to be used with trail braking in
mind, which means that they are supposed to understeer.

Secondly, its not the ride hight that makes Wolf Woeger so fast. At
least not exclusively that. His use of the throttle and how his car is
geared and where he shifts have a lot more to do with it. Take a look at
one of his replays from Watkins Glen (or anywhere else for that matter),
and pay special attention to these things.

Thomas JS Brown

Mike,

    Go to the eaglewomens site. Alison Hine has it all.

Joel Willstein

You do better than most folks!

Best thing to do is ask us! Choose one of the setup options, choose
your question, and ask it... we'll be only too happy to help. :-)

I'd be happy to do that. If you like, you and I could begin some 'GPL
Tutorials'? I'm no quite an expert in GPL, but I do know how to drive
the cars pretty darn well, and I'm also no expert at the setups
either, but I'm certainly not bad at them. :-)

E-mail me know if you'd like to do this...

The Excelsior

"Second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning..."
Captain James Kirk [William Shatner], The Undiscovered Country

On Thu, 17 Jun 1999 08:57:01 +0100, "Mark Seery"

Remember that as you brake, the car is forced to lean forward, and so
more weight is on the front wheels. This effects breaking.

The Excelsior

"Second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning..."
Captain James Kirk [William Shatner], The Undiscovered Country