Série Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

Série Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

http://collier-racing.com/ILMS/Setup_Guide.htm[24/03/2010 02:44:06 a.m.]

Série Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide

"Setups are as unique as finger prints."

Introduction

This setup guide is not intended to be the end-all-be-all of setup guides. You won't find any special secrets for making your carfaster than your competitor's or taking precious seconds off your lap times. Nor can we tell you what makes your car go fast or howto make it go faster. The truth of the matter is that no one can tell you how to create a ‘fast’ set up because what makes a setupfast isn't just about the components or the settings in your garage menu, it's really about knowing how to adjust those componentsin such a way as to maximize and enhance your own particular driving style. That's why for all practical purposes setups are asunique as finger prints.

What we can do is provide you with a fairly comprehensive overview of some of the key parameters that you'll find in the rFactorgarage menu. We'll tell you what they are and how each parameter will generally affect your car's performance. Once you understandthese fundamentals you’ll have a much better idea of just what sort of changes you can make to your setup in order to fine tuneyour setup and hopefully improve your lap times.

Even though this guide was originally created as a support document for the Série Internationale Du Mans mod much of theinformation presented in this guide is fairly general in nature and can apply to any rFactor mod or racing simulation for that matter.In fact the basic concepts presented in this guide were derived from real-world automotive physics and correlated with the generoushelp of a Rolex Series race engineer. Some of the information presented here has been assembled from a broad assortment of setupguides that are already readily available on the web. We just tried to glean the most useful and applicable information as itspecifically relates the Série Internationale Du Mans mod. By the time you finish reading this guide and trying out a few of theconcepts on your own our hope is that you’ll have a much better appreciation for just how good and how realistic the physics of theSérie Internationale Du Mans mod are.

Lastly, before we begin there is one very important thing we want you to keep in mind; Nothing, and we really mean NOTHING, wecan say will ever replace track time. Sure, we can explain what something does and why, but until you actually spend some time onthe track testing each parameter for yourself, you'll never have a good enough feel for the car to know what to do in order toimprove it's performance. As the old joke goes, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice man, practice.”

Table of Contents

General Aerodynamic Concepts Camber Toe In/Out Engine Brake Mapping

Temperatures Caster Tire Pressures LM-P1 Boost Options

Suspension & Advanced Menus Anti-Roll Bars Gear Selection Fuel Loads



Springs Ride Height RPM Limiter Pit Stops

Dampers and Springs Packers Power and Coast

General Aerodynamic Comcepts

Unlike some of the other rFactor mods that have been released the Série Internationale Du Mans mod is one of the few mods that‘got it right.' By that we mean the aerodynamic and traction forces at work in the Série Internationale Du Mans mod are among someof the best yet developed because they work and respond in a very real-world manner. For example if you add too much rear wingyou can overheat the rear tires because of the excessive down force. And even though you can still drive the car with an extremelylow front and rear wing setting of 1F/1R you'll lose so much traction through the corners that any straight line speed gains areimmediately sacrificed as soon as you get into the corners. Consequently your best wing choice will usually be a slightly more thanmid-range setting, though in many cases you'll wind up turning faster lap times by adding more rear wing because of the addedadvantage you'll gain in cornering speed.

Consider how many mods and simulations you've run wherethe least amount of wing possible resulted in your fastest laptimes. Yet in reality if you were to take two high-performancerace cars with equal performance capabilities and then tookthe wings off one of the cars and then drove both to seewhich one netted faster lap times it would be pretty obviousthat the car with the wing, despite the extra drag, would turnfar superior lap times because of the greater stability andsignificantly better rate of speed through the corners.

It doesn’t matter how ‘good’ or how ‘expert’ some moddersmay claim their physics to be, if you wind up turning fasterlap times by using minimal wing settings then the physics arewrong.

Racing isn't just about straight line speed, it never has been.For road racing especially its more about speed into, throughand out of corners and ultimately that comes down to thefundamental concepts of weight transfer, traction andacceleration. Think about it, if straight line speed was theonly thing that mattered Top Fuel cars wouldn't use wingswould they and Funny Cars wouldn't have gigantic spoilers,right?

The bottom line is that you can have all the horsepower inthe world and no aerodynamic drag, but if you can't put thatpower to the ground it doesn't mean much. All you'll have isa very powerful, fuel-sucking, heat-generating air pump.So if



your lap times still aren't quite where you think they shouldbe try adding more wing, not less. You'll end up making thecar more stable, it will stick to the track better and moreimportantly it will be faster through the corners plus you’llalso increase the size and efficiency of the tire contact patch,which brings up another important thought that you shouldkeep in mind as you work on your setups; each change youmake to your setup has the potential to affect some otheraspect of your car. For example as you increase your wingangle you need to be sure to keep and eye on your tiretemps. You may find that you need to add a little airpressure to the rear tires in order to counteract some of theeffects of the added down force, which in turn may alsostiffen your ride a bit.

When making your wing selection something else to consideris the track configuration. Obviously this is something thatyou’ll do for every setup your create, but when it comes totracks with long straights you need to remember that thelonger and faster you’re traveling the more down force yourwings will be creating.

As you approach speeds of 200 mph the aerodynamic forces at work will increase in a somewhat non-linear fashion. At those speeds,even a small change can make a big difference. The extended time spent at speed will also cause your tires, especially the rear tires,to heat up more. There are of course adjustments you can make, such as air pressure, to compensate for this effect but ultimately ifyou make a change to compensate for one feature or section of a track then you may wind up inadvertently making a sacrifice atother sections of the track. So test, and decide what's best for the conditions and be prepared to make a fewcompromises.

Temperatures

As we’ve already alluded to, temperatures will play an important part of your setup design. In some cases the temperatures arereflective of how hard one or more components are working, however in many cases the temperatures will also indicate how efficienta component make be working. Although the temperature information presented in this guide pertains specifically to the SérieInternationale Du Mans mod knowing and understanding the temperatures at work in any mod can help you get the most out of yourcar.

Brake Temperatures

Temperature management will be an important part of your brakesetup. The brakes will function best when they are operating withintheir optimum or 'dynamic' temperature range, which of course willbe slightly different for each car, but are generally within a very



geenerous range of 600°F - 2000°F (315°C - 1094°C).

When your brakes are cold you’ll experience some fade and theywon't stop the car as effectively and as a result the braking distanceof your car will increase. Of course if they’re too hot they'll also fadeand again you'll loose stopping power and increase the brakingdistance of your car. And if you continuously run them too hot theywill eventually fail because the hotter the brakes are the faster theywear.

So naturally the goal is to keep your brakes warm enough to work,but not so warm that they overheat. Therefore your choice of brakeducts will play a far more important roll in your car's stopping abilitythan they do in other mods. Furthermore you also have threeoptional

brake rotor sizes to choose from. Measured in thickness, these optional brake rotors will help you extend your brake wear on tracksthat require lots of heavy braking. - However keep in mind that the increased rotor size will also increase the amount of unsprungweight on the car, which can affect your car's handling characteristics.

Keeping your brakes within their dynamic temperature range will be a bit of a challenge on longer tracks. Let’s say you’re racing atLe Mans Sarthe and driving down the Mulsanne straight. As your car travels down that long, long straight the increased volume of airpassing through the ducts and over your brakes at those high speeds will be cooling your brakes significantly. By the time you get tothe other end of the straight your brakes will most likely be too cold to work effectively.

They’ll still work of course, but your stopping distance will be greatly increased unless you choose a duct setting that will help youkeep the brakes warmer during those long runs. If you keep them too warm however they’ll mostly like overheat coming through thePorsche curves and back into the stadium section. So your challenge will be to find a happy medium that works best for you andyour car then drive appropriately. This may even include tapping, pumping or even dragging the brakes slightly before the brakingzone in order to ‘preheat’ them up just a bit.

Although keeping track of your brakes temps is important, try not to obsess about the temperatures. As we mentioned earlier, thedynamic temperature range is very generous. If your brakes get too hot simply adjust your driving style and try easing into thecorners for a few laps instead of mashing them at the last possible second.

Although each of the four competition classes of the Série Internationale Du Mans mod has is own set of performance standards,these are definitely not spec-racers. Each car is unique. Therefore it’s important to be familiar with the individual parameters for thecar(s) you’ve decided to drive.

Tire Temperatures



Idealliy your tires should be about 7-10° hotteron the inside than the outside with and evengradient across the surface. The average of thethree measurements is what you want to usefor comparison with the optimum temperaturerating of the compound.

The optimum temperature for the qualifying tires is 115°C (240°F)and the optimum temperature for the hard and medium compoundtires is 230°F (110° C). However these numbers are not an absolutebecause keeping your tires at exactly 110°C will be nearly impossible.In most cases tire temps are taken at the end of a run across thesurface of the tire, at the inside edge, the middle and outer edge.Then the average of these three temperatures will be the numberyou’ll want to use for comparison.

During the course of a stint or even a single lap it’s not uncommon tosee temperatures either below or even well above the optimumtemperature. Don’t panic though because this is perfectly normal andin fact should be expected. There will always be sections on everytrack where your tires will run either hotter or colder than theoptimum and there will also be tracks where your tires are simplygoing to be hot or cold no matter what you do. For example at atrack like the Indianapolis Road Course or Hermanos-Rodriguez , bothtracks that have very long, high-speed curves, the left-side tires andespecially the left-rear tire will be taking a heavy load so you shouldexpect to see those tire temperatures start to climb towards the300°F range. However with the proper setup they should cool downonce you exit the curve and start traveling down the straight.

If you think about real endurance racing and how the tiremanufacturers handle these types of situations, they will typicallyformulate new compounds just for a specific track or conditions.Obviously we couldn’t build in different tires for every track, soinstead we’ve given you two different types of tires that are capableof operating within a fairly broad temperature range, a standard setof hard, medium and qualifying tires along with a special 'LM'compound set of hard, medium and qualifying tires.

In most cases the standard compounds will work just fine, however on tracks with long straights and few corners the LM compoundset of tires has been specifically designed to generate more heat from rolling friction than from cornering friction. Of course you canchose any set of tire you want. However using the LM compounds are a track that has plenty of turns will all but garauntee that theLM tires will overheat.

No matter which compund you select you still have to drive with an eye to managing your tire temps of course. If for nothing elsethan just to keep the wear rate down and to keep from burning them up too fast, but you can easily drive and compete with the tiretemps either below or above the optimum temperature and not loose much too sleep about it.

Another thing to keep in mind about your tire temps is that your wing settings will also affect them. As you add more wing you arealso increasing the amount of force that is being applied to the tires, which in turn increases the level of friction between the tire andthe road surface.



It’s sort of like an elephant sitting in the bed of a truck. The extra weight will tend to flatten out the tires and increase the size of thetires contact patch, which in turn will increase the friction and cause the tires to build up more heat. Fortunately you can easilymanage the tire temps by adjusting your set up and/or increasing or decreasing the air pressure as needed. However in many caseshigher temps or even lower temps are due to drivers simply either over or under driving their tires.

For example if your tires are running hot then more than likely you’re simply trying too hard . It’s a common problem among drivers,their sense of bravado and machismo gets the best of them and they start trying to drive the car too deep into the corners and onlywind up creating unnecessary friction. Naturally if you prefer to drive the car in this manner you'll need to re-evaluate and adjustyour setup accordingly, but the smarter choice is to refine your driving style so that you're spending less of an effort driving the cardeep into or drifting through the corner and more time accelerating out of the corner. As soon as you do you'll find the tiretemperatures will cool down and more than likely your lap times will drop too.

There are a number of other things that can affect your tire temperatures. For example if you run the pressure too low it willincrease the size of the contact patch, which means more friction and higher temps. Also running stiffer shocks can affect your tiretemps because of the additional weight transfer to that particular corner. And as we’ve said before using a higher wing setting canadd heat as well. Ultimately you'll just have to do your homework and find a balance that works best for you, your car and the trackconditions. And even though there's no replacement for that eat-of-the-pants sort of feedback, keeping track of your tiretemperatures is probably your best method for gauging how effective your setup is.

Engine Temperatures

Every car has a unique engine. Some have more torque,others have more horsepower and still others may not havethe best of either but still manage to haul their chassis’around the track in good time. But like engines everywhereeach engine also has an optimum temperature where theengine works at it’s most efficient levels. However just likethe tires keeping an engine operating at that exacttemperature just isn’t in the cards. The faster the car movesthe more air that flows through the radiator and of course thereverse is also true. The result of this constant change in airvelocity as you lap the circuit is going to vary thetemperature of the engine.

The engine temperature information provided in thespecification section of the Read Me page, shouldn’t be overanalyzed. As in all cases your engine is more than capable ofoperating at temperatures either above of below the optimumwith out too much risk of damage. The most important thingyou need to keep in mind is that the closer you let yourengine operate near the maximum range of approximately230°F (110° C) the more stress you’ll put on your engine.

Each engine in the Série Internationale Du Mans mod has beenpreset with an RPM limiter setting that is comfortably within eachengine's power band. If you decided to make a change to yourlimiter setting you'll need to keep a close on the temperature andpossibly adjust the radiator opening in order to increase the enginecooling.

http://collier-racing.com/ILMS/ILMS_ReadMe.htm



The 'Suspension' & 'Advanced' Menus.

What does all that stuff in there really mean anyway?

Before you grab your wrenches and start creating a setup it helps to have at least a basic understanding of how each componentcould affect your car. – We say ‘could' because as we stated earlier, each change you make to your setup could affect some otheraspect of your overall setup. Remember how higher wing angles can result in higher tire temps? – In the following section we'll coversome of the basic concepts of the various components that you'll be adjusting in the ‘Garage.

Springs

Let's start with a basic desription of springs; Springs aremechanical enerngy storage devices, basically colied torsionbars.

The amount of energy required to compress the springrelates directly to the stored energy potential of the spring,which is represented by the spring rate and is displayed inrFactor as n/m/s (newton metre second). Technicallyspeaking the rate of a spring represents the the change inthe force that it exerts divided by the change in deflection ofthe spring. That is, it is the gradient of the fource verses thedeflection curve. (Uh... yeah, ok, sure.) Simply put, the higherthe spring rate the more force is takes to compress thespring conversly the lower the spring rate the less force ittakes to compress it. The force or energy that it takes tocompress the spring is store within the coils of the spring andis released when the spring rebounds.

Springs come in all different sizes and rates, butgenerally, and aside from the guage of the wire used, theless coils a springs has the more energy it is capable ofstoring.

For the purpose of this discussion when we talk about the energy stored within a spring what we are generally referring to is thestate of the spring under compression. And automotive springs, once they're installed, are always under some level of compressionsince they are the primary support mechanism for the weight of the vehicle.

Springs are for all practical purposes the 'true' shock absorbers for the car. They absorb and distribute the energy generated by thecar as it travels over the vertical undulations of the road sruface, they also distribute the dynamic energy generated by the pitch,yaw and roll inertia of the chassis as the vehicle navigates the road. Together with anti-roll bars, springs have a significant effect onthe feel of a car and its responsiveness to steering input.

Spring Rates

Increasing the spring rate of a wheel decreases the static weight on that corner and decreases that corner's ability to accept weightdynamically. If the vertical load (normal force) is not increased on a tire through weight transfer, the tire may not be able to producesufficient grip to obey the drivers control inputs. As a result of this, the tire will begin to slide.



So the masses cry, "Soften the Springs!"

Hold on there now partners…. decreasing the spring rate too much can also cause understeer by allowing too much weight totransfer. You see, - well you might not now, but you will in a second, - a tire can only handle so much load regardless of how much weightyou pile on it, and once you go past that point it will simply slide and chatter. When this occurs, the driver must attempt to recoverthe tire by reducing the force on it. The other possible consequence of reducing spring rate, without making other suspensionadjustments, is a reduction in ride height such that the car will bottom out. The sudden onset of understeer or oversteer from the carbottoming out because of springs that are too soft can result in a loss of control.

If you lower the ride height of the car, you will need stiffer springs to limit the suspension travel and prevent the car from bottomingout. For bumpier surfaces or surfaces where there is a significant increase in the vertical loading, such as the high banks of Daytonafor example, you should avoid a suspension setup that only has a small amount of travel.

You need a fair amount of suspension travel to absorb the bumps. If you make your suspension too stiff, effectively reducing theamount suspension travel, then small bumps will tend to lift the wheels off the ground instead of being absorbed by the suspension.However is the suspension is too soft then the car will bottom out and you will experience a sudden loss in traction that can easilylead to a spinout or crash. Therefore the ideal spring combination is one that produces equal amounts of wheel travel at all fourcorners of the car.

An overall softer spring package is often preferred over a stiffer setup, although as we said before, a setup that is too soft can resultin the car bottoming out, plus it increases the amount of body roll through the corners. This can be countered by using a stiffer swaybar or raising ride height of the vehicle. Furthermore, because the use of softer springs will cause the car to roll over more in thecorners you may need to use more camber to compensate for the extra chassis roll.

In general stiffer front springs will make the car tighter while stiffer rear springs will loosen the car and of course softer front and/orrear springs will have just the opposite effect.

Dampers (Shock Absorbers) and Springs

Although 'shock absorber' is the more colloquial term, ‘damper' is actually the more correct term. The term 'shock absorber' isactually a misnomer because as we pointed out in the previous chapter on springs, shock absorbers do not absorb shocks, springsabsorb shocks. The reason that ‘damper' is the more correct term is because that is exactly what they do. Dampers dampen andcontrol the energy stored within the springs.

If the energy stored within the springs is not controlled, the springs would oscillate, which in turn would result in dangerous handlingtraits. It's the role of the damper to convert this stored energy into heat by moving a piston(s) hydraulic fluid where the heat isabsorbed.

Dampers work in two directions, 'bump' and 'rebound.' The term 'bump'refers to action of the damper being compressed. This compression istypically the result of a wheel hitting a bump or as the car rolls (as in pitch,yaw and roll) onto the damper located at the outside of the arch traversed bythe chassis during a turn. The term 'rebound' refers to the action of thedamper recovering after being compressed or expanding as the wheel passesover a dip in the road or as the result of the chassis rolling away from the



dampers that are located on the inside of the arch traversed by the chassisduring a turn.

Dampers are the single most important aspect of your chassis setup. Yetunfortunately they're also frequently the most misunderstood. It's hard tosay exactly why dampers are so often misunderstood, but we think part ofthe reason is due to the fact that people tend to assume that thecharacteristics and actions described for the bump action of a damper are theexactly same for the rebound. They're not. Though similar in action bumpand rebound control different aspects of the damper's travel as a chassisrides over the bumps in the road surface.

Because dampers are such an important part of a setup we're going to spenda little extra time discussing the actions and characteristics of the dampers.However before we get started let's talk a little about springs because it'shard to have a meaningful discussion about dampers without understandingat least a little bit about springs. Hopefully you've already read the previouschapter on springs, but for the sake of review let's cover a couple offundamental attributes of springs;

- Springs are mechanical energy storage devices.The energy required to compress a spring is storedwithin the coils of the spring and released as thespring rebounds.

- As a car navigates a road, or a racecar navigatesa circuit, the energy generated by the various pitch,yaw and roll inertia forces acting upon the chassisis transferred into the springs.

- A higher spring rate means that the amount ofenergy required to compress the spring is greaterand as a result the amount of potential energy thatcan be stored within the coils of the spring is alsogreater.

- How fast or how slow the potential energy of thespring is stored and/or released is controlled by thedamper.

- Higher spring rates generally require a higherdamper rates.



- Dynamic weight transfer refers to the change inthe weight distribution of the car as generated bythe pitch, yaw and roll inertia of the chassis as thevehicle navigates the road.

While front and rear and side to side wieght transfer is easy toremember, it's important not to forget the affect that weight beingtransfered from one corner to the other can have on the chassisresponse.

Getting back to our discussion about dampers let's useanother simple visual analogy to describe the damper actionsof 'bump' and 'rebound' using a common playground item,the see-saw or teeder-todder.

The term ‘bump' represents the downward travel of one endof the see-saw and the term 'rebound' is represented by theupward travel of the other end of the see-saw.

Both the bump and rebound settings are measured anddisplayed as levels of force. Within rFactor this force isrepresented as n/m/s (newton metre second) or displayed aspounds per inch squared depending on your garage displaychoice.

When you increase the bump setting of a damper you areincreasing the amount of resistance the damper has to beingcompressed. Increasing the resistance slows the rate at whichenergy is transferred into the colis of the spring that is pairedwith the damper. - Most cars typically have one spring perwheel and one damper per spring, though of course there areexceptions to this common standard. - As you decrease thebump setting you are decreasing the amount of resistancethat the damper has to being compressed and therbyaccelerating the rate of the dynamic weight transfer into thespring.

In effect a stiffer bump setting slows the rate of the dynamicweight transfer and the rate of energy that is trnasferred intothe colis of the associated spring. However decreasing thebump setting reduces the damper's resistance to beingcompressed and in effect accelerates the rate of the dynamicweight transfer and the subsequent transfer of energy intothe associated spring.

As you increase the rebound setting of a damper you areincreasing the amount of resistance that the damper has tobeing expanded. This increased resistance slows the releaseof the energy that is stored within the coils of the spring.

By decreasing the bump and rebound settings you are acceleratingthe rate of energy that is transferred into or away from the springs.



Decreasing the rebound setting reduces the resistance to therelease of the energy that is stored with in the spring andaccelerates the dynamic weight transfer out of or away fromthe spring.

Think about the way a car responds as makes it's way around a circuit. As a car accelerates weight is transferred away from the fronttowards the rear of the car. When this happens the front of the car lifts up while the rear of the car squats down. Under braking anddeceleration weight is transferred away from the rear of the car towards the front of the car, when this happens the rear of the carlifts up and the front of the car dips down. During a right turn weight is transferred from the right side of the car to the left side ofthe car, and during a left turn weight is transferred from the left side of the car to the right side of the car. In both cases the side ofthe car that is on the inside of the turn lifts up while the side of the car that is on the outside of the turn dips down, just like a see-saw.

As you can begin to see it requires a collbrative effort bewteen the dampers at oposiste ends to manage the transfer of weight to andfrom the front to rear, or the rear to the front, as well as from side to side and even from corner to corner. In effect what you haveis a see-saw action of the dynamic weight transfer from one end, side or corner to the other.

If your damper package is too stiff, the car will skate around and crash over bumps and the car will have a tendency to slide due tothe loss of mechanical grip. However a car with insufficient bump and rebound will have a tendency to "float" and wallow after bumpsand is generally sloppy and unresponsive to driver input. Even small driver inputs will generate large, mushy and over-accentuatedchassis movements and the car will tend to lean over on its outside tires during a turn, which will most-likely begin to squeal inprotest.

General Bump Characteristics

Too much bump makes the car harsh riding and changes in attitude tend to be very sudden leading to snap oversteer, skating and/orsliding. Chassis roll is slow to develop and may cause the car to skate in corners.

Too little bump makes the car feel sluggish. The car pitches a lot and rolls to the outside of a corner very quickly. The car feels likeits falling over on its outside front at corner entry and falling over on the outside rear at corner exit.

General Rebound Characteristics

Too high of a rebound setting and the tires won't return to the ground quick enough after the car goes over a bump. During a turnthe inside tires tend to get lifted and on a bumpy track the car may actually sag a bit, plus the car may be skittish during braking.

Too little rebound and the car may oscillate after bumps, sort of like a child's super-ball bouncing (rebounding) off of a hard surface.Under this condition the car will not be able to put the power down very well and some wheel-spin may occur, slowing yourtransition out of the curve.

Both the bump and rebound features of your dampers can be further refined into fast and slow versions of each aspect.

Fast Bump/Rebound

'Fast' refers to the way your wheels respond to bumps or curbs. It's the role of the fast setting to keep the rubber on the



ground over the various surface undulations while the car is at speed. Traveling over a bump at speed can cause anexaggerated or large and "fast" movement of the damper shaft and hence it's name. If you use too much fast bump at thefront, your car will have a tendency to understeer as you transition through the bumpier sections of the track. Converselyof you use too much fast bump at the rear your will have a tendency towards oversteer.

Slow Bump/Rebound

'Slow' settings control what the driver feels during turn-in, at mid-corner and at the corner exit in addition to mid-cornertransitions such as chicanes. The slow settings control the dynamic weight transfer and overall motion of the main chassisrelative to the track surface as the car is turned, slowed, accelerated and deccelerated. These motions cause "slow" andsmall movements of the damper shaft, hence the name. Your slow rebound settings will generally wind up being higherthan the bump setting, but at times a 1:1 ratio may be optimal.

When and Where does Damping and Rebound take place?

Now that you understand the basic concepts of damper compression and rebound it's important to learn how and when they're usedwhile cornering.

Imagine a racecar racing down a long striaght at 165 mph. Now imagine the driver of the car slamming on the brakes as hard as heor she can. What happens to the chassis when brakes are applied? The weight of the car is suddenly transferred to the front of thevehicle and the nose of the car dips while the rear of the car rises. As this happens the front shocks are being compressed and therear shocks are extending or rebounding. Generally speaking, this is the exact same thing that occurs to the racecar when it startsbraking and enters a corner, though hopfully without any brake lockup. ;-) At corner entry the dampers will be undergoing the samebasic process as they were under heavy braking on the long straight therefore if you're having troubles getting into the corner, forexample if the rear of the car feels like it's coming unglued under heavy braking or is loose as you begin to turn in, you shouldconsider adjusting either the bump (compression) of the front dampers or the rebound of the rear dampers, since those are theaspects of the dampers that are being utilized at the corner entry. - FYI: Too much rear brake bias can also contribute to a loose conditionunder heavy breaking.

Now let's take that same racecar and imagine it at a stand still on the starting grid. When the driver steps hard on the acceleratorwhat happens? The front of the car lifts while the rear of the car squats down. In this scenario the front dampers are reboundingwhile the rear dampers are being compressed (bump). Of course the dampers are going to react in the same basic manner at theapex of a corner as you begin to accelerate out of the corner. Therefore if you're having problems exiting the corners underacceleration you should consider adjusting the rebound of the front dampers and/or the bump (compression) of the rear dampers.

Bear in mind that the previous analogies were provided to help give you a better understanding the basic concepts of dampers andhow and when they perform. The fact is depending on the configuration of the track a racecar may enter and exit a corner with a lotmore energy, which dramatically increases the amount of force with which a damper is either being compressed or rebounded. Plusyou also need to remember that as the car begins to turn in the chassis will start to roll from one side to the other. And dependingon the layout the circuit and the radius of the turn the amount of weight transferred from corner to corner will come into play aswell. For example a car that is braking hard and turning sharply to the right will have it's right rear lift slightly more than the leftrear. However just like a see-saw this also means that the left front will be dipping further, or will be compressed more that the rightfront.



Therfore as you study the layout of the track it could be benneficial to consider the possibility of creating an asymetrical setupbecause it can open up a whole new range of options and possibilities for additional adjustments that can produce different results.

Step-by-Step Damper Tuning

Generally compression (bump) damping should be adjustedfirst. The intention here is to adjust the damper's bumpsetting in order to control the wheel motion over bumps atthe critical parts of the track such as the corners and brakingzones. With the settings at full soft, you should complete alap or two before stopping and increasing the bump setting.As the amount of bump increases you should be able to feela reduction in how much the chassis is being unsettled bybumps. This process should be repeated until the ridebecomes too harsh and you start to loose traction and tirecompliance. At this stage, the settings should be reset backto the last optimum setting.

Once an optimum bump setting has been established, you'llneed to turn your attention to optimizing the reboundsetting. – Do not attempt to set the compression andrebound settings simultaneously unless you are veryexperienced with setting up dampers. - The intention here isto "tighten" up the chassis. This is what most peopleunderstand as "tuning the shocks".

Selecting the right shock package can make all the difference in theworld to the way your car responds on the track. The importance ofthis part of your setup development can not be over emphasized. It'swell worth spending a little extra time to make sure your shocksettings are right for the track conditions.

Properly tuned rebound damping will stabilize the car and help reduce the rate of chassis roll. As with bump tuning, the adjustmentsshould be made a little at a time. ontinue until the car becomes skittish and starts to break traction. The front or rear of the car willeventually start to "pack-down" at which point the rebound setting should be reset to the last optimum setting.

One of the more common handling characteristics that is often mis-tuned is the under steering and/or over steering of the car at thecorner entry. The typical first step made by many drivers is to make a change to the front anti-sway bar by either increasing ordecreasing the size of the anti-sway bar. However the better method for addressing this problem is to adjust either or both yourfront bump and rear rebound settings. By increasing the front bump setting and/or increasing the rear rebound setting you willreduce the speed of the dynamic weight transfer from the rear of the car to the front of the car under braking. This will help preventthe car from over steering at the corner entry.

However if the car is tight or under steering at the corner entry then allowing a bit more weight to be transferred from the rear ofthe car to the front of the car by decreasing your front bump and or decreasing the rear rebound setting can help keep the nose ofthe car pinned as you enter the corner. And naturally in a similar manner the proper damper tuning can help control the understeering or over steering of your car at the corner exit. Just be sure to remember that too much bump or too much rebound at eitherend or on either side of the car is not a good thing because if taken too far this can result in an effect that is the complete oppositeof what you're trying to achieve.



A Few Final Thoughts About Dampers

Tuning your dampers will rarely ever be as simplistic as we've discussed here. This is because damper problems can often bedisguised by problems with your tires, your springs and/or your choice of anti-sway bar. Just remember that dampers are intendedto control the energy stored in the springs, they do not control any other aspect of the chassis that may be operating as a spring. Forexample the sidewalls of the tires or, in a racecar, the chassis itself, which is often regarded as an un-damped spring, hence theimportance of chassis stiffness.

Camber

Camber refers to the inward or outward tilt of the wheel atthe top of the tire.

Negative Camber; Refers to the tilt of the top of the tiretowards the center of the vehicle. Positive Camber; Is the tilt of the top of the tire away fromthe center of the vehicle.

Camber adjustments are utilized to help maintain themaximum grip allowable from the surface of the tire throughthe corners of the track. Proper camber adjustments arecritical for achieving maximum cornering speeds.

Camber angles will alter the handling qualities of a particular suspension design; in particular, negative camber will generally improvethe car’s grip when cornering. This is because it presents the tire, which is taking the greatest proportion of the cornering forces, at amore optimal angle to the road and thus increasing it's contact patch.

Proper camber adjustments are achieved by reading tire temperatures. When the camber is set correctly it allows the entire surfaceof the tire to adhere to the track thus maximizing the tire's contact patch. Another reason for negative camber is that a rubber tiretends to roll on itself while cornering. If the tire had zero camber, the inside edge of the contact patch would begin to lift off of theground, thereby reducing the size of the contact patch. However by applying negative camber this effect is reduced, which allows thetire to maintain the maximized contact patch. However running excessive amounts of camber can cause premature tire wear.

As a general rule of thumb, the flatter or slower the track the more camber you'll need on the front tires. Of course another factor indetermining camber is body roll. The more body roll you have in the chassis the more negative camber you'll need at the front.Remember, body roll is determined by how stiff your front and rear anti-roll bars and springs are. The stiffer your anti-roll bars andsprings are, the less body roll, the less body roll, the less amount of negative camber required at the front.When all is said and done, knowing how to read and understand your tire temperatures will determine how much camber to set inyour wheels. In fact it's really the only way to properly adjust for correct amounts of camber. Theoretically you should be regularlymonitoring your tire temperatures during testing in order to properly adjust the camber.

Unfortunately just when you think you have your tire temperatures and camber perfect, you'll make an adjustment to your springs ora tire pressure adjustment while trying to find ever-more speed and all the hard work and time you spent on getting those perfect



temperatures will have to be thrown out the window you'll have to start again. - Keep in mind that adjusting one part of the car andnot readjusting camber could be throwing off your original adjustment.

Let's just say for example that you didn't take tire temperatures after changing the front springs and running another 20 laps. Yourtimes are slower after the spring change so you decide to give up on that spring change because it made you slower. But… maybe itwasn't the spring change that made you slower, it was your camber being off that made you slower.

Caster

Caster refers to the forward or rearward lean of the wheel at the topof the tire. Do not confuse this with camber which is the inward oroutward tilt of the wheel at the top of the tire.

Positive Caster; Refers to when the wheel is tilted back toward therear of the vehicle.

Negative Caster; Refers to when the wheel is tilted forward towardthe front of the vehicle.

Caster is used to provide directional steering stability and add adegree of self-centering for the steering, to achieve this the wheelcasters around so as to trail behind the steering axis. This makes acar easier to drive while improving its straight line stability and inturn reducing its tendency to wander. But like so many other thingsin life more isn't always better. Excessive caster angle will make thesteering heavier and less responsive, although, in somecircumstances, large caster angles can be used to improve cambergain in cornering.

When thinking of caster, think of a tool box, TV stand, chair, shopping cart or anything else that has four wheels on it that swivel tohelp you move it across the floor. When you push an object like this across the floor you'll notice that the wheels will swivel backaway from the direction of travel allowing you to push the object forward with ease. This is positive caster.

Now take those same four swiveling wheels and rotate them 180 degrees towards the direction of travel. This would be negativecaster. Obviously is easy to imagine just how difficult would be to push something with the wheels in this forward or negative casterposition. Besides being difficult to push, the object would also have a tendency to take off in an unwanted direction until the castersreturned to a positive direction. Therefore for the same reasons you'd want a shopping cart to roll forward with ease, you want yourracecar to do the same.

When you're setting up your chassis you'll want to tip the top of the wheels back, adding positive caster, to provide you with forwarddirectional stability. Proper caster adjustments will vary with each track and each driver, as well as the steering device you use, i.e.Force Feedback. The more positive the caster the more feedback and feel for the car you'll have, though you should also keep inmind that more caster can also increase the steering effort, especially with a force feedback wheel, however more caster will allowyou to make better decisions on the track about how your car is handling.



So why not crank in as much positive caster as the chassis will allow? Well like we said before too much of anything isn't good andtoo much positive caster has some drawbacks. For example when you turn a car to the left with positive caster the left-front wheelwill rise slightly while the right front-wheel drops. This causes the car to roll more at corner entry thereby changing the distributedweight at the four corners of the car. In effect you're taking cross weight out of the car the more you turn the wheel. The morepositive the caster, the more cross weight there is being removed. The more cross weight you remove the looser the car will get,though naturally this could potentially be a good thing if you happen to find that your setup is too tight.

In general, you'll want to run higher positive caster settings on tracks with tight corners and less caster on tracks with fast sweepingcorners. There really are no circumstances where negative caster is preferred.

Toe In/Out

Toe settings affect three major areas of performance: tire wear, straight-line stability and corner entry handling characteristics.

Toe-In; Refers to when the the leading edges of apair of wheels are set so that their leading edgesare pointed slightly towards each other.

Toe-Out; Refers to when the the leading edges of a pair ofwheels are set so that their leading edges are pointedslightly away from each other.

Toe is mostly used to change the way a car behaves on corner entry, the more toe-in you have on a pair of wheels the harder it is tomake those wheels turn into a corner. The sacrifice you make with toe out is that the car will have a tendency to wander instead oftracking straight and true. And nobody wants their car to constantly wander all over the track because it requires a constant barrageof steering corrections that would drive most drivers crazy. But a number of racers are willing to sacrifice a bit of stability on thestraightaway for a sharper turn-in at the corners. However the more toe-out you use, the easier it is to get that pair of wheels toturn into a corner. Why does this happen?

Let's use an example where a car with toe-in on the front wheels isabout to enter a left turn. As the driver begins to turn the wheel leftthe left-front tire is pointing only slightly to the left while the right-front tire is pointing much more to the left.



The problem with this is that the left-front tire needs to turn with agreater angle than the right-front tire because the left-front tire is onthe inside of the corner and therefore should trace an arc with asmaller radius than the outside tire. However, with toe-in, the left-front tire is actually trying to trace a larger radius arc than the right-front tire. This makes it difficult for the car to turn in because theleft-front tire is fighting the right-front.

With toe-out the opposite is true. The left-front tire is now turningwith a larger angle than the right-front and instead of fighting theturn the left-front tire now plays a more prominent role in initiatingthe turn.

However once the car has entered the turn the weight begins totransfer away from the inside tire (left) to the outside tire (right)and diminishes the effect of the left-front tire. It's because of thisweight transfer that toe mainly affects the corner entry. As you cansee there are plenty of positives and negatives associated with bothtoe-in and toe-out conditions:

Toe-in front: + Car is stable while going straight. - Car has slow twitchiness under braking, feels odd, and kills the outside edge of tires. Toe-out front: + Car turns in well. - Car is very twitchy under braking and is very sensitive road crown changes, plus the car has a tendency towander on the straights and it damages the inside edge of tires. Toe-in rear: + The car is less likely to suddenly oversteer when throttle is lifted. - Weird slow rocking movement in back, feels slow but still unstable, wears the outside edge of tires. Toe-out rear: + Helps the car rotate, useful on tight low speed courses. - Can cause severe oversteer; car has a tendency to make side-to-side rocking motions in rear and the outside



edge of the tires wear more.

By monitoring your tire temperatures you can tell if you have a toe problem with the chassis. Excessive toe-out will show up ashigher temperatures on the insides of both front tires. Whereas excessive toe-in would show higher temperatures in the outsides ofboth front tires. Excessive front toe in or out will generally cause the same feelings to a chassis as excessive amounts of camber andcaster, albeit to a much lesser degree.

Anti-Roll Bars (Anti-Sway Bars)

The anti-roll bar is a device that helps you control your car's roll couple, which is the rate at which weight transfers from the insidewheel to the outside wheel in a turn. The anti-roll bar increases your suspension's roll stiffness; essentially its resistance to lateral orside-to-side weight transfer in turns and functions independently of the chassis' spring rate in the vertical direction.

In a turn, the car's body rotates around its longitudinal axis. - This is the axis that runs down the length of the car. - Increasing theroll stiffness of the suspension increases the rate of weight transfer to the wheels on the outside of the turn. As more weight isapplied to the outside wheels, the adhesion of the tires is increased until their limits are reached. If the front and rear weight transferis unequal, the slip angles of the end with the greater weight transfer will be larger, resulting in either understeer or oversteer.Consequently a stiffer front anti-roll bar will tend to make the car understeer while a stiffer rear anti-roll bar will tend to make thecar oversteer.

Understeer: (Tight, Pushing or Plowing)

A car handling condition during cornering in which the circular path of thevehicle's motion is of a markedly greater diameter than the circle indicated bythe direction its wheels are pointed.

Oversteer: (Loose)

A car handling condition describing when the rear wheels fail to track behindthe front wheels, but instead slides out toward the outside of the turn. - Toomuch oversteer can throw the car into a spin.



Another potential problem that can occur when your anti-roll bar setting is too stiff is that you'll tend to lose the independent functionof the suspension members on opposite sides of the car. Basically if one wheel hits a bump the force can be transmitted to the otherside of the car as well, which is not what you want.

However using an anti-roll bar that is too soft can make the car to roll too much which places more weight on the outside tires andless weigh on the inside tires, thereby reducing traction, plus it can also affect your steering because it changes the basic geometryof the front suspension.

Ideally what you want is a setting that reduces body roll, but does not hurt the independent nature of the suspension from one sideto the other, yet is stiff enough so that the body of the car remains relatively flat through a turn so that the weight of the carremains evenly distributed on all four tires.

Ride Height

The chassis ride height is simply the distance measured in inches or centimeters from the bottom of the frame rails to the ground.Typically this measurement is taken at all four corners of the car where the frame rails are lowest to the ground. Usually just behindthe front wheels and just in front of the rear wheels.

Ideally you would want to run your chassis as low as possible; the lower your ride height, the lower your center of gravity. The lowerthe center of gravity, the lower the overall weight of the car is to the ground and the lower the weight, the less weight that istransferred laterally towards the outside of the car during cornering.

If the ride height is set too low the car may bottom out on the track. This will more likely occur at high speed high banked trackswhere the centrifugal forces are higher or at road courses where there are dips in the track. If the car bottoms out in the rear youwill most likely get loose. Bottoming out up front will result in a push. If you bottom out you can do one of two things. You can raisethe ride height or run stiffer springs. On paper, the softer the springs and the lower the car, the better off you should be. Howeverthis theory depends on a lot of other adjustments set within the chassis, so experimentation is the only real answer.



Packers (Bump Stops)

Packers limit the vertical travel of the chassis and help prevent the car from completely bottoming out. Lowering the ride heightlowers the center of gravity of the car, which helps improve cornering ability by reducing the chassis roll. However it also has theside effect of reducing the amount of suspension travel available.

When the suspension in a car is fully compressed, it reaches the packers or bump stops which catch the suspension arms at the endof their range of movement. This is often referred to as "bottoming out". Once a car's suspension reaches the packers its effectivespring rate increases sharply because the packers are essentially very hard springs.

Increasing the spring rate at one wheel transfers weight onto this wheel and away from the other wheels, causing the car toundersteer if it is one of the front wheels or oversteer if it is one of the rear wheels. Yet the sudden onset of understeer or oversteerfrom the car bottoming out can result in loss of control.

You choice of packers and ride height settings will mostly depend on the vertical profile of the track. If your racing on a track thathas a lot of vertical changes you car will be subjected to an increased amount of vertical loading and therefore will need a bit moresuspension travel. If you're racing on the flat track then the amount of vertical travel will be limited and so will the car's chances ofbottoming out.

Tire Pressure

Tire pressure can be adjusted to change the handling characteristics of your car, which can be very useful during a race. Byincreasing tire pressure, you cause the tire's profile to become more rounded, which decreases the size of the contact patch. You alsocause the spring rate at that corner of the car to increase since you are making the tire harder and, therefore, “bouncier” by filling itwith more air. Both of these results will reduce the grip of the tire. Here are a few generalized affects that can result from changes toyour tire pressures.

Increasing the front tire pressure will make the car tighter (understeer).

Decreasing the front tire pressure will make the car will be looser (oversteer).

Increasing the rear tire pressure will make the car will be looser (oversteer).

Decreasing the front tire pressure will make the car tighter (understeer).



Lowering tire pressure causes the tire to sag, which tends to increase the heat build up at the inside and outside edges of the tire.This also decreases the effective spring rate at that corner of the car and increases the tire's temperature. The additional rolling drag(or friction) produced by the sagging of the tire is responsible for the temperature change. With a more subtle application howeverthese factors can provide the tire with more grip. The temperature increase may also be desired if it allows the tire to heat up to therecommended operating temperature. However, overheating the tire can lead to loss of grip and faster tire wear.

Tire pressure changes also can affect the slip angle. Higher pressures reduce the slip angle and lower pressures increase it. A greatdeal of suspension tuning can be gained with very little effort by simply adjusting your tire pressures. Before making any tirepressure adjustments you should consider the optimum tire temperatures for the tires and remember to adjust your camber asneeded in order to properly distribute the heat horizontally along the contact patch. Ideally it should be about 7-10 degrees hotter onthe inside than the outside with an even gradient across the surface.

One of the more subtle yet importantand often overlooked aspects of tirepressure adjustments are the affectsthat your wing settings can have on thetire temperatures. As your winggenerates down force is has a tendencyto squash the tires. As the angle ofattack on your wing increases it



generates more down force and hencesquashes the tires even further.

The effect is sort of like overloading thebed of a pickup truck. The bed and rearchassis sag and the tires flatten out. Theeffect of the tires flattening out is whatgenerates the increase in heat. Thisincrease is due to the increase size andfriction of the tire's contact patch.

To help compensate for the added affectof the wings you can increase the springrate, but it also helps to increase thetire pressure.

The increased tire pressure makes thetires more resistant to being squashedby the affects of the wing. Naturally thespring rate of the tire also increases, butthe effect of a tire pressure increase isgenerally more subtle than increasingyour spring rates.

Gear Selection

Seemingly straightforward, but actually gearing is a very fine art. All-too-often drivers simply set the gears between first and sixth inequal spaces. However if you stop to consider what the engine is doing you'll realize that when the car is in first gear the engine revsrise very quickly and that rate of climb decreases as you step up through the gears. Therefore if you set your gears with a largergap between first and second, with increasingly smaller gaps between each set of higher gears, it's easier to keep the engine revvingin the ‘power band' as you shift up through the gears. Of course knowing where that power band is and how far it extends is criticalto understanding what gears you want to select. Fortunately rFactor gives you that information.

In the Vehicle menu of rFactor when you select the Information tab you'll see the torque and horsepower ratings for your car alongwith the relative RPMs for those peaks. The power band is typically defined as the RPM range over which an engine delivers the mostsubstantial fraction of its power and generally extends from a point just below the engine's peak torque to slightly above its peakhorsepower rating.



Typically whenever you change gears your speed drops slightly due to the loss of drive to the wheels and it's important that yourgear change drops you back into the power band so that you can reestablish the acceleration as soon as possible. As always, you'lljust have to test and see what works best, as this is completely dependent upon your driving style, the track and of course the caryou happen to be driving.

Your final gear should be set to redline just about a second or so before your braking point at the fastest part of the circuit. Whereasyour first gear should be a compromise between good acceleration exiting the slowest corner and the amount of wheel-spin that'sgenerated as you exit the slowest corner. And don't forget about the need to get away from the grid at the start of the race.

A lower first gear means better acceleration (especially off the grid), but it also means "longer" gears throughout the rest of thegearbox and a greater chance of wheel-spin and possibly torque-spinning the car under heavy acceleration or potentially over-revving the engine if you happen to down shift a little too early. A higher first gear means you'll be slower away from the grid andout of the slowest corner, but you'll have improved acceleration through the rest of the gears and less wheel-spin. Of course some ofthe excess pin can be controlled by softening the rear dampers, or increasing the front rebound.

As you drive around the track try to pay attention to when and where you're shifting gears. For example if there's a short or mediumlength straight where you notice the engine is redlining, but there's not quite enough time or distance up shift, consider making thatgear just a bit taller (longer) so that you don't over-rev the engine and can ideally keep the car accelerating within the power band.

RPM Limiter

The RPM limiter alows you to control just want the name implies, it sets the uppermost limit of your engine's RPM capability. Or asWikipedia describes it; A Rev limiter is a device fitted to an internal combustion engine to restrict its maximum rotational speed.

Why do we include RPM or 'Rev Limiters' in the cars? Well, first of all it helps protect you from over-revving and possibly damamgingyour engine. Yet there may come a time when you will want to increase your limiter setting in order to expand the engine's powerband. However there can also be times when you may want to decrease the limiter to help save on fuel. The timing and particularcircumstnaces that may lead you to make these sorts decisions is strictly a matter between you and your race engineer. Howeverwe've given you a very broad range of RPM limiter options for you to explore.

All of the engines in our mod have been 'factory tuned' so that the default RPM limiter setting is approximately 200 RPM over thepeak horsepower RPM number for the engine. Naturally, just like engines everywhere the peak horsepower RPM number issomewhere above the peak torque RPM number. Understanding the particular specifications of your car will help you make the rightdecision when the time comes.

Although you will find a complete set of specifications foreach car on the main 'Read Me' page, you can also find theengine specs for ech car in the rFactor showroom under the'Vehicle Information' tab.

Before you decide to change your engine's RPM limitersetting though it's important to understand that as youincrease your limiter setting you will be adding more andmore stress to the components of the engine. If your carcomes from the factory with a redline of 8000 RPM and you

http://collier-racing.com/ILMS/ReadMe.htm#SPECS



rev the engine up to 8500 RPM the chances are you won't befinishing the race.

So take care with your RPM limiter settings because like somany other things in life, as well as this mod, nothing is free.Every change you make comes with a price.

1) Read specs.

2) Note the default limiter setting in the garage.

3) Make an informed decision about how you want to set up your engine for the race along with the knowledge that the default racepackage is the 'sprint race' package.

Power and Coast

“More power, more power, more power!” This might be a great catch phrase for the American TV character, “Tim the ‘Tool Man'Taylor,” but when it comes to your differential settings its strictly a matter of personal choice.

Basically the more you increase the power and coast settings the more the left and right rear tires are turning in locked insynchronization and driving the car forward as a single unit. This is fine if you're going straight ahead, but when you're turning it'snot such a good idea. Why? Because the laws of physics dictate that the outside tire will always rotate faster than the inside tire.

If you're old enough you can probably remember the first time you hear the term "Posi-traction." At the time you probably didn'thave a clue as to what it meant, but whatever it was you knew from your father's or older brother's or next door neighbor's reactionthat whatever it was, it had to be pretty cool and it could make a car accelerate better and give the driver more control.

As you began to learn more about this mysterious feature there came the inevitable revelation that both rear wheels did not drivethe car forward, but under normal circumstances it was only one wheel that did all the work. Naturally your next question was, ‘why?'

That's when you found out that if both rear wheels were driving at the same rotational speed you'd have a hard time turning the car.Plus there was probably a number of other side-bar explanations that were included too, some of it you understood and some of ityou didn't. But somewhere along the way to adulthood you probably learned a little geometry and learned difference between a smallradius and a large radius.



Looking at the sample image to the right, when a car turnsit's only the front wheels that are changing angles. With theexception of some toe-in/out settings the rear wheels aremounted on the chassis in parallel and remain pointing in aforward direction. - Although for many oval racing setups theinside wheel base tends to be a bit shorter than the outsidewheel base.

As the car follows the path of the front wheels the bodypivots on the inside rear wheel, which means that the outsiderear wheel has a greater radius and hence more distance tocover in the same amount of time. As a result, in order forboth the left and right rear wheels to move from the cornerentry (A) to the corner exit (C) the outside wheel must rotatefaster than the inside wheel as the car is transitioningthrough the turn.

As you increase the differential power setting you increasethe rear wheels potential to drive the car forward at the samerotational speed during acceleration. And while this is goodfor acceleration it also ends up decreasing the car's ability topivot on the inside wheel and the resulting effect is that thecar wants to go straight instead of turn, which depending onthe nature of the track and which part you happen to be onat the time can ether be a good thing or a bad thing.However the more the wheels are locked together the morestable the car is under acceleration and since moreacceleration equals better lap times this is generally a goodthing.

The drawback comes when you find yourself on a track thathas more curves than straights. (Think Nurburgring.) Theproblem on tracks like this is that you rarely have anopportunity to accelerate in a straight line and most of youracceleration is taking place from one corner to the next andthat's when less is more because the increased differentialpower lock also decreases the slip angle of the inside rearwheel and the car will end up pivoting on the inside frontwheel instead of the inside rear wheel, which means the carwill oversteer at the corner exit.

As you increase the differential coast setting you're again increasing the rear wheels potential to drive the car forward at the samerotational speed while decreasing the slip angle of the inside rear wheel. Only this time its taking place when the car is no longerunder power, but decelerating and coasting into the corner entry. Again, too much lock diminishes the car's ability to pivot on theinside rear wheel and the car understeers (is tight) at the corner entry. This is why most setups generally use a higher power settingand a lower coast setting. The lower coast setting helps the car turn in at the corner entry, while the higher power setting helps thecar accelerate out of the corners.



Once again it all comes down to testing, finding a compromise and deciding what's best for the conditions, but here's a couple ofquick thoughts; If the car is tight at corner entry try decreasing the coast setting. If the car is loose at corner entry try increasing thecoast setting. If the car it tight at corner exit try decreasing the power setting and if the car is loose at the corner exit try increasingthe power setting. However in all cases you can only increase or decrease the settings up to a point and what and where that pointis only you can decide.

Engine Brake Mapping

This particular parameter basically controls how much of theavailable power of the engine is being used to help the carslow down. For whatever reason a lot of people overlook thisparticular parameter thinking that it doesn't really do all thatmuch, but nothing could be further from the truth. Rememberhow we talked about “more power?” Well the catch is morepower isn't always better. Sometimes instead of more powerwhat you really need is smoother and more usable powerinstead of raw unfiltered power.

Lower numbers will result in more engine braking, which alsouses less fuel. However the trade off is that engine brakingonly slows down the drive wheels, or in the case of this modthe rear wheels and this can result in a braking imbalancebetween high and low speeds.

When you're deciding on an engine brake mapping choice keep your gear ratios in mind. If you've got a fairly large separationbetween the lower gears a stronger (lower number) brake map setting could cause the rear wheels to break loose as you start todown shift for the turn. The more torque your car's engine produces the stronger the effect will be.

LM-P1 Boost Options

The LMP1 cars have the added advantage of being able to apply moreboost on command. If you have the extra buttons available on yourwheel this is a good one to have because in a pinch, when you needa little something extra to get you down the straight and around thecar in front of you this could prove to be a very handy thing to haveat your disposal. Use it as you will, but keep in mind that the moreboost you use the more fuel you'll burn and the hotter your enginewill run.



The LM-P1 boost options are not afterburners so don'texpect an instant surge of power when you add boost. Thisisn't Champ Car racing, with 'push-to-pass' power.However when the time comes for qualifying a full boostsetting can really make a difference in your lap times.

Fuel Loads

If you happen to own a dart board we want you to get up right nowand go pick up a dart and throw it at the board. Even if you didn't hitthe bulls eye, but you've successfully managed to hit the board andnot the cat, the dog, the neon beer sign in the garage or even thewall that the board is mounted on then you have a pretty good ideaof how the estimated laps per gallon works in rFactor.

Just so we're clear, this is not a flaw in the Série Internationale Du Mans mod. This is the nature of rFactor. You can get anapproximate estimate, but there are simply far too many variables to get a perfectly accurate projection. Things like rev limits, tirepressures, engine mapping, throttle input, boost options and aerodynamic drag can all significantly impact your fuel mileage.

Consequently the only real way to know for sure is to load your preferred setup and then fill the car with five gallons, or 20 liters,whatever you prefer, and see how far you can go. Once you run out of fuel take the number of laps, including your out-lap and asclose as you can estimate your final partial lap and multiply that number by the length of the track. Then divide the sum by theamount of fuel you started with and you'll have a pretty good idea of what sort of fuel mileage you're getting with your preferredsetup.

Fortunately our beta team has developed a fuel mileage calculation chart that they used during their testing. This chart basically usesdata that you can supply from your testing and practice to calculate not only the basic fuel mileage, but also the potential fuel usageand distance per tank-full as well as the amount fuel you'll need for the race.

ILMS Fuel Mileage Chart (24 KB)

Pit Stops

The Série Internationale Du Mans mod has an expanded number of pit stop options available for you to choose from. In addition toadjusting how much fuel you take on you can also fix and repair physical damage to the suspension and chassis. So the next timeyou loose a splitter or wheel, as along as you can do so safely, you might consider trying to make your way back to the pits for

http://collier-racing.com/ILMS/ILMS_MileageChart.zip



repairs. During our prerelase test races we had drivers who slost splitters and or cut tires and yet after getting repairs in the pits stillmanaged to finish the race on the podium.

Summary

As you can see there is a lot of information to consider when you're working on your setup. But the single most important aspect istime. As we stated before, what makes a driver fast isn't some magical setup because even a good setup can result in poor lap timesif the driver doesn't know the track or know how to get the best out of his or her car. Plus, one driver's perfect setup can be anotherdriver's piece of junk.

Stop for a moment and consider how many hours and miles are logged by race teams just in testing alone each season. The testingthey do covers every aspect of the car from new aerodynamic updates to new tires and of course engine tuning. And for the largerteams there's often testing taking place on one track while the race is being run on another. Unless you have a test driver workingwith you or you're part of a team there's no one else that can do this for you. And even if someone sends you a setup it will stillrequire some of your own time to optimize a setup to match your driving style. The fact is you don't have to be a race engineer tobe able to go out onto the track make a change in your setup and see what it does or how it affects the car. The trial and errormethod works pretty well and it's the best way to learn more about your car and the way it will respond to certain changes.

The bottom line is that despite all of the information that we've provided in this guide the only real way you'll ever know for sure isto go try it for yourself. Go drive and don't be afraid to get out there and try new things, experiment, go wild & crazy. It's only simracing, it's not like you're going to burn up a fortune in tires, fuel and spares, right?

Finally one of the most important things that we didn't cover was your physical set up. By that we mean your racing gear andcomputer. Great or crappy setup aside there's no way any setup will ever be able to compensate for a poorly tuned wheel or pedalsor a frame rate that is less that satisfactory. We all have different systems and settings that we use for our sim gear. Some like theirforce feedback settings as strong as possible while others prefer as little as possible. And although few people remember this fact it'sone of the primary reasons that one driver's prefect setup may feel like junk to another driver. But hopefully after reading this guideyou'll at least know how to tweak that setup enough to make it work to your advantage.

Good luck and happy racing!

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Documents

Série Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group