Setup Dev 01 - Introduction
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I have spent my fair share of time researching the dynamics of a race car setup over the almost two decades of my simulated racing career. While my knowledge should not be taken as 'set in stone rule', it is my hope that some of my knowledge can be used by the less experienced racers in their setup development processes. The information in these articles are not geared towards any particular sim or racing type. The knowledge is valid for your rFactor setups, GTR2 setups, GTL setups, RACE setups, or just about anything else one 4 wheels. My setups have rarely been designed to 'hot-lap'. While they can be hot-lapped when needed, I have found stability will result in a much better finishing position over barely-controlled speed. The longer the race, the greater the demand for a stable and comfortable setup. Every spin or off track excursion you have during a race due to a difficult setup is equal to adding a quarter-second per lap, every lap, over the course of a race. Have a couple spins and you may as well have not bothered showing up to the race at all. Prevent those spins and you will finish higher up in the order, it's that simple. Something that I have done for many years is to not develop setups to infinity. I use the same setup per car at nearly every track. They all require some minor changes, of course, but the baseline setups stay the same and evolve slowly over the course of many races. The benefit to this is that your setup and car react the same at every track. This cuts down the development time significantly as you already know the main characteristics of the car. You have a new track to learn, or relearn, and overcomplicating it with a new setup only makes things harder and more time-consuming. As-is, that one setup may not be 'best' for any individual track, but it will be stable and predictable over the distance of any race and get you to the checkered flag, which is the 'best' way to finish. - Tim McArthur
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