Great video. I like when you explain specifically what each thing does, instead of just saying "turning up makes it turn more and turning down makes it turn less". It's helpful to understand which things affect which sections of a corner, as well as what effects bumps, straights etc.
Really nice explanation of the basics of the setup parameters, though what will help everyone make more targeted tweaks and get even more laptime on pure cornering conditions (I.e besides for example the effect of spring rates on aerodynamics and bump response), is the balance of the car, meaning the tendency to over/understeer. Let's take for example a slow steady state corner(so that the aerodynamic balance doesnt have a great effect). If in the specified corner your car understeers, you can either stiffen the rear ARB, or soften the front ARB (same for spring rates, though they affect other aspects as mentioned). In the same manner you can tweak your dampers rebound/compression for corner exit/entry respectively. Then, the tire pressure will also affect the stiffness of each axle, so for example after lowering the tire pressure on one axle, you might want to increase the ARB stiffness to counteract. This is just a simple example, but the suspension characteristics greatly influence the effect of load transfer and its distribution and can help you greatly with the setup in corners. I hope this was helpful, if anyone is interested to learn more there is plenty of reading material online about basic vehicle dynamics, or setup.
Thanks for doing this series. Although there are a plethora of them on RU-vid, it’s always great to have setups explained from different points of view and communication styles.
Great that you're covering setups after all these years ^_^ I hope they help people consider open setup racing more... if only more would recognise that until you're in the top 1% setup isn't a barrier to getting good racing and shouldn't add extra time to your practice sessions. For me the only downside to open setup racing is the first few hours driving a car, you have to figure out what your baseline is so you might need more practice time then but even so... it's not like you're going to find a new series with a type of car you've never driven before and be fast within 10-20 laps of practice just because its fixed setup anyway.
Good job! Up until now I had no idea what the purpose of a damper was and now I know it is actually a verb and tells exactly what it does :). I love RBR and this helps a lot with setups there as well
Few things to unpack : The car is almost never going to be perfect all of the time, so it's often a matter of what do you prioritize. The big place to start though with that in mind is where is it twitchy and unpredictable. On the power, into the corner, mid corner, corner exit, high speed or low speed corners? The other is the question of why is the car becoming twitchy and unpredictable. Is it burning off the rear tires faster than the fronts and that is the problem? Assuming that, perhaps driving differently would be the best way to go assuming you haven't totally screwed the pooch setup wise. Just because it's faster lap 5 doesn't mean it will be faster on lap 25. Is the car just too stiff to begin with and once the tires wear in a bit it's just too sharp overall? Might just go softer on the springs by the same amount on all corners. Or is it a case of as the fuel burns off the weight distribution change is causing the issue? Something likes this would go back to working with what you got and figure out what you want to do. (worth mentioning as the ACC 911 GT3s are really fuel load sensitive)
Hi Empty, I appreciate you do this as I think it is good to take some of the fear out of car setup! But I just want to point one thing. 2:12 'ARB typically felt mid corner' really isn't correct. What changes the balance of the car is the front versus rear roll stiffness. Typically this is the combination of springs and bars. The stiffer side takes more of the weight transfer and that side will have the most unevenly loaded tires. If you picture a car from above, you can imagine a side force from the front tires and from the rear tires. If the front forces are higher, you have more oversteer. If the rear forces are higher you have more understeer. Load sensitivity is a wierd tire thing that comes down to the axle that has the most evenly loaded tires, gives the most grip. So a stiff front with the inside tire almost off the ground relies on one tire to provide the grip. One heavily loaded tire has less grip than two tires under medium load. The instant you are cornering, be that trail braking, mid corner or corner exit, the weight transfer is divided over the front and rear axle, and you feel this 'stiff front = understeer, stiff rear = oversteer' balance almost immediately. It isn't 'more so' mid corner. And this stiffness is literally an addition of springs + bars. In some sims literally a spring of 80 and bar of 20 will have the same pure cornering feel (ish) as a spring of 100 with a disconnected bar. We're ignoring many things here but in the simplest view this is true. I did make a rambling video about setups myself that might be worth listening to for viewers and isn't super in depth with scary spreadsheets. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-I8x3ISXSnEg.html But again, good to do this, a few videos like these (Aris does a nice job too) and people might learn something and save some money! :-)
We're on the same page, you are just going further than I want to for these videos. Congrats, you are an advanced learner! lol Yes the ARBs are going to have an effect once you start loading up the car, but on entry and exit you also have the rest of the suspension setup and differential working as well which will arguably have a bigger effect at that phase of the corner short of just throwing all of the ARB in there. It's an intentionally simplistic view: Same way spring splits and rake weren't mentioned at all - topic for something later. Easier to make sense of that once you understand what the heck parts are even on the car for.
@@TacticalCardboard alright, yes the trick with these videos is to not scare people away, but also not leave out too many essential bits, you will always do both regardless to some people. :-) If you want to chat about car setup in general or specifically how to explain something, I'm happy to chat about it. Don't wanna interfere with your plan but in case you want an ear to talk ideas into, mine is available.
I usually never bothered to touch the spring rates, but then I found out that they mostly affect weight transfer. The softer the springs are in the front, the more weight you'll allow to be transferred on braking. Likewise, softening the rear springs will help stabilize the car on corner exit. When you feel like the car is too loose and oscillates too wildly when transferring weight, stiffen up those springs.
Mm yes, I know some of those words. No but seriously, this one is going into my saved videos so I can watch it again once I start understanding things a little more deeply. Thanks for making this kind of content!
Nice approach to setups. Usually it's just "adjusting this will make the car do this", and not about understanding what the parts actually do. Very helpful.
As a NASCAR fan, could you maybe translate some NASCAR terms? Is the "track-bar" the same as the anti-roll bar? Likewise is a "wedge" adjustment the same as the blades? Cheers dude, thanks for the info!
Maybe at the end I'll circle back to some of the oval specific stuff, but that's not something I'm particularly familiar with beyond "more wedge more loose". The track bar is part of the suspension geometry and not an ARB, wedge is spring loading on the RR.
I see, thanks! Hell even caveman terms are at least better than nothing. I remember you suggesting the adjust the spring rate for the GSCE/AMS1 SuperV8. I never fully knew why, but when I did what you suggested, the car would turn better. Now I know lol
I get confused when adjusting front and rear suspension. I am great at making legends cars undrivable by turning them into tractors or amusement park teapots!
This is by far the most informative video I have come across on this particular of suspension setup, so I have commented for viewer engagement =D Thank ye much!
Only having owned a driving wheel for 4-ish months now. And mostly Trial and error'ing my suspension changes in Dirt Rally 2 (XD;.) It's nice to get these videos explaining things so It makes more sense why what I'm doing is affecting things the way they are.
I honestly believe that I've never heard a better explanation about suspensions im all of my years of sim racing. Very good job! Short, easy to understand and yet you didn't leave out anything (at least that I'm aware of).
This was really informative for the newbs. I think its pretty pitiful that people don't know how to set up a car. Once you learn, you can have a competitive car in 10 minutes.
