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BRAKES
Max per wheel (Nm)
Maximum braking force. Higher number brakes faster but also locks up the wheels faster. Locked wheels cannot be steered and, like in space, will keep going in the same direction it was before locking up.
Balance rear-front
Allows you to distribute the braking force between the front and rear. When braking, weight transfer to the front makes the rear end lighter and easier to lock up. Generally, FWD cars have close to 80% braking on the front, while RWD cars, mainly because of the better weight distribution from the tranny, can stand more rear bias (0.00 = rear, 1.00 = front)
SUSPENSION
Ride height
Remember physics? Remember torque? A car has a roll axis determined by the suspension. The force is the weight, Cg (center of gravity). The Cg naturally wants to turn around the axis making the car roll in turns. The idea behind lowering ride height is mainly to reduce the force by diminishing the distance (lever arm) between the two which reduces body roll. Theoretically, if the Cg is bellow the roll axis, the car will lean into a turn like a motorbike ! Lowering too much has a side effect of limiting suspension travel and therefore decreasing the grip from your tires. A tire is meant to be on the ground, the more time it spends there instead of in the air, the faster and more controllable your car will be. This also applies to body roll as it unloads the inside tires and ultimately lifts them off the ground.
Stiffness
Spring stiffness. Springs are mainly there to control body height in steady situations. They need to be stiff enough to hold the body up, also when other forces are applied like turning (g-force) braking and accelerating. Springs control how MUCH your car rolls, dives (braking) or squats(accelerating). Springs and dampers need to be matched.
Compression damping
Dampers, shock absorbers. This controls the resistance from the shocks when compressed. Raise when lowering ride height. Damping controls how FAST your car rolls, dives or squats. When rolling, the inside shocks are streched while the outside ones are compressed, same with dive & squat, the front compress while the rear strech under dive, etc.. You want them as stiff as they can be while allowing the wheel to follow the road surface, in other words bumps. Springs and dampers need to be
matched.
Rebound damping
Dampers, shock absorbers. Controls the resistance from the shock when it is streched. Controls how FAST your car returns to it's initial state (dictated by springs btw). Usually rebound is higher (often double) than the compression rate, this is mainly because in rebound, the weight is lifted from the car. It keeps the car from jumping back, rebounding which would obviously upset the car balance and throw you into the woods. You want it high to keep the body movement nice and smooth but not too high because it will make the car 'hook' and slower to react, can you say delay!
Anti-roll
Ah, anti-roll bars, or anti-sway or stabilizer (eeeessshhhh, pretty destabilizing for stabilizers...). I'm not a fan of anti-roll bars, but hey, they are there for a reason. Anti-roll bars do what it says. They limit body roll. They have one major flaw. They make independant suspensions less independant. When taking a bump on one side only, the anti roll bars interpret this as roll and straightens the body. It makes the car more jumpy. Anyways, they can be used effectively to fine tune your setup. I suggest not using them at all and when you have a good setup, use them to dial in a bit of understeer (stiffer front) or oversteer (stiffer rear).
STEERING
Maximum lock
The maximum angle at which the wheels will turn. This is very usefull as I often find myself steering too much in this game. An angle of 30� is plenty and the Turbo can handle as low as 22-23� no problem. In fact, the Turbo is easier to drive that way as you don't get bitten by that 45� countersteer you're holding and waiting to kick in, it always does and never recovers. Driving very slowly around the course should help you find the angle at which the car is more controllable but still takes the turns without going full lock. Also, you should note that reducing the maximum lock also changes the joystick/mous/wheel sensitivity. For the same travel, you have more precise steering.
Caster
This is the steering axis, the axis that the wheels turn on. Caster should be though of like a bicycle. The more you lean it back (positive), the less it turns but the more steady (less nervous) it is. Also, caster will affect camber when turning. Positive caster leans the wheel adding to the existing camber. It can be used to keep close to 0� camber for straight line traction while having negative camber when taking a turn (FWD mostly). Beware of terminal oversteer when setting too much caster...
Inclination
This is quite technical, but here we go. This is the inclination towards the middle of the car of the steering axis (like caster's camber !). I'm not too sure of the effects so i'll update when i'm sure :)
Scrub Radius - Updated!
This is the distance between the steering axis and center of the tire where they meet the ground. Logically, the ideal distance is 0. In practice, it makes the car very nervous and gives no feedback to the driver. Usually, cars have a slight positive scrub radius (steering axis inside of the tires center line). This gives the driver some more usefull feedback (and resistance) and makes the car easier to drive, more forgiving. What it does is force the outside tire to lead the car into the corner, therefor making it feel more stable because there is less weight transfer, however, it also moves the inside front wheel further back, which may hurt the car on exit because if the increased weight transfer to that corner.
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