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"TIME FOR GRADUATION"
Sections Covered:
- "Pump Me Up" : Springs and Spring Rubbers
- "The Ups and Downs" : Dampers
- "Teething You Way On The Track" : Gears
- "Hug Me, Baby!" : Ride Height
- "Being Proportionate Aren't We?" : Brake Bias
PUMP ME UP
As noted from the "Basic" section on springs, it's basically one of the first adjustments that you do to the suspension. The spring has a lot of influence on the attitude and balance of the car going in and out of the turn. So you really need to adjust this setting according to your driving style and chassis. Be leery of having to stiff a spring, this can cause a degradation in traction, an overall very sensitive chassis. Literally a handful!
Once you have a baseline of the springs, you can fine-tune the spring rate with the spring rubbers. Same principle applies. The higher the numerical value, the stiffer the spring is going to get. And conversely vice versa for a lower numerical value. This setting is referred in inches, as in the thickness of the spring rubber.
Once you have these properly adjusted, there's another fine-tuning adjustment you go onto, dampeners.
THE UPS AND DOWNS
In the "Basic" section of the guide, you were given the corresponding terminology to each part of the dampener. The key here is to picture the weight transfer of the car simulating going "in and out" of a turn. Keep the following in mind when you picture the workings of a dampener:
- Entry: Decelerating into a turn: The front bump (compression) and the rear rebound (expansion) will have more of an effect.
- Exit: Accelerating out of a turn: The front rebound (expansion) and the rear bump (compression) will the more of an effect.
Recall that the higher the number, the stiffer the dampener, and of course, the lower the numerical value, the softer the dampener. Here are some situations to also keep in mind:
- The more elevations, bumps, hills, quick transitions on the track, the softer the dampener.
- The stiffer the dampener, the quicker the weight transfer to the tire. Meaning less traction and rapid tire wear.
- The softer the dampener, the less responsive the chassis, slower weight transfer to the tire. In other words, slightly more traction, minimal tire wear.
- Setting the dampener is done after setting the springs and rubbers. This is fine-tuning the springs oscillations and weight transfer.
TEETHING YOUR WAY ON THE TRACK
This one very important area in setting up the chassis, just because your gearing will dictate exactly where you stand in the engine's power band. You are going to have to gear accordingly to each engine/chassis needs.
Not only the gearset in the transmission is important but so is the final drive. The final drive is the gear ratio that is installed onto the differential or rearend. It's important that you gear the final drive to a track's particular layout.
NOTE: Some tracks you don't have to be using 5th gear!
If you notice in the Garage, there are two other items listed, "Ramp Angles and Clutches". These two items are very important for the balance of the car on and off the accelerator. What are "Ramp Angles"? F1, CART, F3000, Indylights, Trans AM or any racing association that races on road courses uses a "limitied-slip" differential. In order for a vehicle to obtain maximum traction in straight-line, both driving wheels would be locked turning the same amount of revolutions. Basically, both driving wheels connected to a common shaft or axle. If there was only one driving wheel spinning, it would take longer for the car to gain forward motion or traction. Thus, two driving wheels would disperse the load evenly creating a shorter amount of time to gain traction. So in a limited-slip differential vehicle, you would have both axled locked on a straight piece of tarmac. Now for turning, it's another story, you can't really successfully lock the rear axles. The car would "hop" about throughout in the turn. For an open rearend vehicle, just using one driving wheel wouldn't be a problem in the turn. Hence, with that in mind, we need our differential to let the inside driving wheel in the inside of the turn to the drive the car and the outside wheel to freewheel. So what we need to have our differential to slip only in turns, hence the name "limited-slip". Now where ramp angles come into the picture, it's the amount of percentage of slip in the differential with torque in mind. In GPL, the higher the numerical value, i.e. 85/85, the harder and quicker the differential locks both driving wheels. The lower, 30/30, the slower and softer the rate it locks both driving wheels. Pretty easy, huh? The key in setting up the ramp angle is comfortability and how much can you handle. The ramp angles are affected going in and out of turns. If you don't have this setting set correctly, the car is going to be a bear to drive! What about clutches? Clutches are located in the differential. The clutch just fine-tunes the rate in which the differential locks. Simply, the more clutch the harder it hits. And the less the softer it hits, there will be more slippage with less clutch.
HUG ME, BABY!
Today racecars use a lot of downforce or aero help to get those spectacular speeds at the various tracks. But, back in 1967 there was no downforce to help the car stick. The hold tried and true tactic that still holds today is playing with a car's center of gravity, a.k.a. CoG. The lower the car, the more the car handles, hugs or sticks to the road. Pretty simple, huh? This setting also helps the balance of the car in the turns. Keep in mind, that the car can bottom out! So watch out for hilly courses or braking.
TIP: If you want the car a bit looser overall, lower the front ride height. Tighter, go the opposite and lower the rear ride height.
BEING PROPORTIONATE AREN'T WE?
This setting is the function of setting up brake pressure, front and rear in the car, proportionately. A perfectly balanced car in theory is 50%, meaning both front and rear brakes get the same amount of brake pressure. The higher the value denotes more brake pressure to the front wheels and the lower value, denotes more to the rear. The default setting in the simulation is 60%. We know now this setting will most likely cause the front brakes to lock up. The one thing you don't ever want to do is lock up the brakes, not only does it wear out your tires and give you flat spots, but it dramatically increases you braking distances. Your goal here is to set the car so that is doesn't lock up the brakes. Usually the first thing to do is working on your braking, meaning physically. Pump the brake pedal! Don't leave your foot on the pedal for long times mashed.
Though... If you have your car setup correctly, you should be able to floor the brake pedal without locking up the car! There are a number of influences that create brake wheel lock up: - High spring rates. (Weight transfer) - High dampeners. (Weight transfer) - Gearing or engine braking. A steep is more in likely to slow the car quickly. - Improper driving technique.
 
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