Internatioal Video Gamers Associations (IVGA)
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We are in the process over the next couple of weeks of adding an review
on NASCAR, this setup information listed below and how to race information
on all 16 Papyrus NASCAR tracks...
Stay tuned it should be fun and we are changing daily!!!!!!!!!!!
Joe Farrs World of Nascar Brings You!!!!!!!
How to setup a car
Overview:
Just for the record, there is no magical settings that will ensure a track
record every time. No setup is perfect! However, you can create a setup that
is very practical. One last thing to consider when designing a setup, what
works for you may not work for everyone or work for anyone. Under each of the
track help guides, you will see some of my personal setups. These may improve
your best time by 3 mph or be the worst thing you have ever driven. Use the
setup guide to help modify one of your current setups or one of mine.
When I design a new setup, I like to jump into pre-season testing so that no
other cars will get in my way. Later when I have a working setup, I will
practice with other cars.
Tires:
Tires are very important to turning fast laps. It's the only thing that
touches the road and tire traction is critical. To improve tire traction, you
must keep the tire temps between 210 to 230. On ovals, the right side tires
are the most important as they will be taking the brunt of the stress. The
left side does not play as big a role in traction through the turns, especially
the left front tire. I have tried everything to heat up this tire with no
success. Below, when I talk about tires, I will normally be talking about the
right side tires.
I normally set all the tires to 50 psi. I will then turn 20 laps (or 10
minutes of track time) and check the tire temps for the 20 laps. You may
notice that the temp will be hottest around lap 5 to 15 and then begins to
cool. It is all right to get the tires over 230, but not for the entire tank
full of gas (unless the outside temp is quite high). Try to keep the tires
over 210 if at all possible.
To increase tire temp, lower the air pressure in the tire. Turn some more laps
to see if there is a difference. BEWARE! If the center temp reading is lower
than the outside temp readings after your 20 laps, you do not have enough air
pressure in the tire. If you need to heat the tires more, you can adjust other
things in the car to bring up the temp.
To decrease tire temp, add more air pressure to the tire. Turn some more laps
to see if there is a difference. BEWARE! If the center temp reading is higher
than the outside temp readings after your 20 laps, you have too much air
pressure in the tire and you may be sacrificing traction for cooler tires.
Sometimes you cannot avoid this. If you need to cool the tires more and adding
more air pressure is not an option, you can make other suspension adjustment.
Stagger:
I have found stagger to be a quite confusing setting. No matter what I set the
stagger at, the car handles the same way. I have made a couple of
breakthroughs in how to use stagger to your advantage. While exiting a turn,
if I straighten out the wheel slightly as the car is still turning, the stagger
helps complete the turn. This is very hard to detect, so you need to pay
attention. I have also discovered that cold tires that lack stagger will not
break loose in the turn and cold tires with stagger will. This could be
helpful when developing a qualifying setup.
Camber:
You can only adjust the camber on the front tires. The game automatically
adjusts the camber for the rear tires. Camber is the pitch of the tire. Your
tire on your car you drive at home may be at a 90 angle to the road. By
tilting the right front to 85 (top of tire toward middle of car) angle to the
road, you have changed the surface contact of that tire. This tire will have
more weight on the inside part of the tire than the outside part when driving
down a straight-away. However, when you take a turn, the weight of the car
will shift to the outside and you will have even weight (surface contact) on
the tire. Use the tire temps to determine if you need to adjust your camber
setting. Set the camber so the car has maximum traction in the turns, not the
straight-aways.
Spoilers:
There are 2 spoilers that you can adjust, the front spoiler and the rear
spoiler. Each plays a significant role in creating the proper car setup.
Front spoiler:
The front spoiler has two important uses, drag and down force. By lowing the
front spoiler, you will increase the drag and the down force on the front of
the car. Down force is needed to get through the turn quickly, however, you
have created more drag on the straight-aways that will limit your top speed.
By increasing the front spoiler, you will decrease the drag and down force on
the front of the car. You may have a harder time getting though the turns as
fast with less down force (except Talladega). You will be able to achieve a
higher top end on the straight-aways. The decision of lower versus higher
front spoiler may be a tough decision for some of you. I will go with a lower
spoiler every time as I would like to keep the down force though the turns and
sacrifice the top speed on the straight-aways.
Lowering the front spoiler will increase the tire temps of the front tires. By
increasing the front spoiler, this will decrease the tire temps of the front
tires.
Rear spoiler:
The rear spoiler also affects the drag and down force of the car. By lowering
the rear spoiler, you will decrease the drag and down force on the rear of the
car. With less down force, you will make your car loose in the turns and you
may find it more difficult to get through the turns quickly. You will have
better top speed on the straight-aways with a lower rear spoiler. By
increasing the rear spoiler, you will increase the drag and down force on the
rear of the car. With more down force, you will tighten the car up and be able
to get through the turns easier. You will lose some of your top speed because
of the increase of drag. Again the question of lower versus higher rear
spoiler may be a tough decision for some of you. I will go with the higher
rear spoiler every time as I would like to keep the down force and handling
through the turns and will sacrifice the top speed on the straight-aways.
If you lower the rear spoiler, your rear tire temps will decrease. If you
raise the rear spoiler, your rear tire temps will increase.
Weights:
There are 3 different types of weights used in setting up your car, left bias,
rear bias, and cross weight.
Left bias:
Left bias is a way of putting more or less weight on the left side of the car.
Since most tracks are ovals in a counter clockwise direction, putting weight
on the left side of the car will improve the handling of the car. I will set
the left bias to the maximum 1900 lbs on almost every track.
Rear bias:
This setting can be very tricky and confusing for most drivers. I have viewed
setups from many drivers and noticed that rear bias and shocks are the two most
varied settings in the car setup. Driving styles, personal preference and a
lack of knowledge (just guessing) all play a part in the setting of the rear
bias. I hope to take some of the guess work out of the rear bias setting.
First off, by putting all the weight to the front, your car may develop a
understeer problem. By putting all the weight in the rear of the car, your car
may be too loose. I like to start off by putting the rear bias at 1750 to 1800
lbs. I will then turn 20 laps and check the tire temps. If the front tire and
the rear tires are similar in temp, then you have set the rear bias correctly.
If the front tire is hotter than the rear tire, you should shift more weight to
the back. If the rear tire is hotter than the front tire, than move more
weight to the front of the car.. Some tracks may call for one tire to be
hotter than the other, so use this as a guide, not a rule!
Cross-weight:
Cross-weight is like sitting on a chair with four wooden legs. By cutting off
one inch off the right front leg and gluing it on to the left rear leg, you
have add cross-weight to the chair. If you were to take one inch off the left
rear leg instead and glue it on to the right front leg, you will have removed
cross-weight from the chair. Cross-weight does not change the weight of the
car, just the way the weight transfers under braking and accelerating.
The more cross-weight you add, the tighter the car is. The more cross-weight
you remove, the looser the car is. You should use cross-weight as a fine
tuning adjustment.
Shocks:
Shocks are very tricky and confusing to most players. I often find myself
confused with this setting but I believe I have a handle on the shock theory.
My rule of thumb is as follows:
1. The right rear shock should be stiffer than the right front shock.
2. The right rear shock should be stiffer than the left rear shock.
3. The right front shock should be stiffer than the left front shock.
In some cases, rule number 3 does not apply, but I almost always obey rules 1
and 2.
By having the right front softer than the right rear, the car will not lose
traction while entering the turn because the shock absorbs the weight before
the car loses traction. With the stiff right rear shock, the car will bite
the track as it exits the turn. If the right rear is too stiff, the car will
be loose.
By having the right rear shock stiffer than the left rear shock, I feel it will
loosen up the car and help it turn left.
By having the right front shock stiffer than the left front shock, when the car
slows, you will feel the car being pulled to the bottom of the track. When the
car exits the turns, it will not push as much as it would if your left front is
stiffer than the right front.
You may find this shock theory to be garbage and I do not blame you. However,
whatever theory you come up with should work for most tracks.
Gears:
Do not take gears for granted. I have won several modem races because my
opponent did not set his gears correctly.
The power range of any gear falls between 7000 to 8700 rpm's. Always try to
keep your engine in this range. I set my first gear to match the pace car's
speed. If the pace car is going 50 mph, I set first gear in such a way that 50
mph is at 6500 to 7000 rpm's. When the race goes green, I can take full
advantage of first gear. Had first gear been set in such a way that 50 mph was
equal to 8000 rpm.s, I would have limited my first gear potential. When you
shift from first to second, the rpm.s should drop to 7000. This will allow
you to take advantage of the full power range of second gear. When you shift
from second to third, the rpm.s should drop to 7500. Fourth gear should
achieve maximum rpm's without blowing up the car. At the end of the fastest
straight-away, the rpms should not go above 9000!
First and fourth gears should be easy to define. You should space second and
third gears evenly. You can set third gear to improve traction and speed for
exiting turns. One good example could be at Michigan. Your fourth gear is to
3.50 and third is to 3.70. As the car slows in turns 1 and 3, you could
downshift to third to increase the torque while exiting turns 2 and 4.
Oil pressure gauge:
Keep an eye on your oil pressure gauge during race. If you redline the car too
much, you may lose oil pressure as the race progresses. Too much oil pressure
loss will cause a lack of horsepower and may result in blowing up the engine.
I had my Atlanta setup at 3.80 for fourth gear. The engine blew up 90 laps
into the race. Shorter gears are good for shorter races. If you intend on
racing 35% or more, you will need to consider a taller fourth gear to prevent
oil pressure loss.
The gears you choose will also affect your gas mileage. At Talladega, a 3.50
fourth gear will give you 49.5 laps per tank full. However, if you use a 3.40
gear, you will get over 52 laps!
The IVGA has brought this information to you as a service and we only hope you
tell your friends to come and visit us, Thank You.!!!!
Sincerly,
Donald Wilshe, IVGA
Joe Farr, IVGA
Dan Haugen, IVGA
