Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

Srie 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 car faster than your competitor's or taking precious seconds off your lap times. Nor can we tell you what makes your car go fast or how to 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 setup fast isn't just about the components or the settings in your garage menu, it's really about knowing how to adjust those components in such a way as to maximize and enhance your own particular driving style. That's why for all practical purposes setups are as unique 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 rFactor garage menu. We'll tell you what they are and how each parameter will generally affect your car's performance. Once you understand these fundamentals youll have a much better idea of just what sort of changes you can make to your setup in order to fine tune your setup and hopefully improve your lap times. Even though this guide was originally created as a support document for the Srie Internationale Du Mans mod much of the information 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 generous help of a Rolex Series race engineer. Some of the information presented here has been assembled from a broad assortment of setup guides that are already readily available on the web. We just tried to glean the most useful and applicable information as it specifically relates the Srie Internationale Du Mans mod. By the time you finish reading this guide and trying out a few of the concepts on your own our hope is that youll have a much better appreciation for just how good and how realistic the physics of the Srie 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, we can say will ever replace track time. Sure, we can explain what something does and why, but until you actually spend some time on the track testing each parameter for yourself, you'll never have a good enough feel for the car to know what to do in order to improve it's performance. As the old joke goes, How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice man, practice.

Table of Contents
General Aerodynamic Concepts Temperatures Suspension & Advanced Menus
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Camber Caster Anti-Roll Bars

Toe In/Out Tire Pressures Gear Selection

Engine Brake Mapping LM-P1 Boost Options Fuel Loads

Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

Springs Dampers and Springs

Ride Height Packers

RPM Limiter Power and Coast

Pit Stops

General Aerodynamic Comcepts

Unlike some of the other rFactor mods that have been released the Srie 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 Srie Internationale Du Mans mod are among some of the best yet developed because they work and respond in a very real-world manner. For example if you add too much rear wing you can overheat the rear tires because of the excessive down force. And even though you can still drive the car with an extremely low front and rear wing setting of 1F/1R you'll lose so much traction through the corners that any straight line speed gains are immediately sacrificed as soon as you get into the corners. Consequently your best wing choice will usually be a slightly more than mid-range setting, though in many cases you'll wind up turning faster lap times by adding more rear wing because of the added advantage you'll gain in cornering speed. Consider how many mods and simulations you've run where the least amount of wing possible resulted in your fastest lap times. Yet in reality if you were to take two high-performance race cars with equal performance capabilities and then took the wings off one of the cars and then drove both to see which one netted faster lap times it would be pretty obvious that the car with the wing, despite the extra drag, would turn far superior lap times because of the greater stability and significantly better rate of speed through the corners. It doesnt matter how good or how expert some modders may claim their physics to be, if you wind up turning faster lap times by using minimal wing settings then the physics are wrong. Racing isn't just about straight line speed, it never has been. For road racing especially its more about speed into, through and out of corners and ultimately that comes down to the fundamental concepts of weight transfer, traction and acceleration. Think about it, if straight line speed was the only thing that mattered Top Fuel cars wouldn't use wings would they and Funny Cars wouldn't have gigantic spoilers, right? The bottom line is that you can have all the horsepower in the world and no aerodynamic drag, but if you can't put that power to the ground it doesn't mean much. All you'll have is a very powerful, fuel-sucking, heat-generating air pump.So if
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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

your lap times still aren't quite where you think they should be try adding more wing, not less. You'll end up making the car more stable, it will stick to the track better and more importantly it will be faster through the corners plus youll also increase the size and efficiency of the tire contact patch, which brings up another important thought that you should keep in mind as you work on your setups; each change you make to your setup has the potential to affect some other aspect of your car. For example as you increase your wing angle you need to be sure to keep and eye on your tire temps. You may find that you need to add a little air pressure to the rear tires in order to counteract some of the effects of the added down force, which in turn may also stiffen your ride a bit. When making your wing selection something else to consider is the track configuration. Obviously this is something that youll do for every setup your create, but when it comes to tracks with long straights you need to remember that the longer and faster youre traveling the more down force your wings 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 if you make a change to compensate for one feature or section of a track then you may wind up inadvertently making a sacrifice at other sections of the track. So test, and decide what's best for the conditions and be prepared to make a fewcompromises.

Temperatures
As weve already alluded to, temperatures will play an important part of your setup design. In some cases the temperatures are reflective of how hard one or more components are working, however in many cases the temperatures will also indicate how efficient a component make be working. Although the temperature information presented in this guide pertains specifically to the Srie Internationale Du Mans mod knowing and understanding the temperatures at work in any mod can help you get the most out of your car. Brake Temperatures Temperature management will be an important part of your brake setup. The brakes will function best when they are operating within their optimum or 'dynamic' temperature range, which of course will be slightly different for each car, but are generally within a very
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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

geenerous range of 600F - 2000F (315C - 1094C). When your brakes are cold youll experience some fade and they won't stop the car as effectively and as a result the braking distance of your car will increase. Of course if theyre too hot they'll also fade and again you'll loose stopping power and increase the braking distance of your car. And if you continuously run them too hot they will eventually fail because the hotter the brakes are the faster they wear. So naturally the goal is to keep your brakes warm enough to work, but not so warm that they overheat. Therefore your choice of brake ducts will play a far more important roll in your car's stopping ability than they do in other mods. Furthermore you also have three optional brake rotor sizes to choose from. Measured in thickness, these optional brake rotors will help you extend your brake wear on tracks that require lots of heavy braking. - However keep in mind that the increased rotor size will also increase the amount of unsprung weight 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. Lets say youre racing at Le Mans Sarthe and driving down the Mulsanne straight. As your car travels down that long, long straight the increased volume of air passing through the ducts and over your brakes at those high speeds will be cooling your brakes significantly. By the time you get to the other end of the straight your brakes will most likely be too cold to work effectively. Theyll still work of course, but your stopping distance will be greatly increased unless you choose a duct setting that will help you keep the brakes warmer during those long runs. If you keep them too warm however theyll mostly like overheat coming through the Porsche curves and back into the stadium section. So your challenge will be to find a happy medium that works best for you and your car then drive appropriately. This may even include tapping, pumping or even dragging the brakes slightly before the braking zone 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, the dynamic temperature range is very generous. If your brakes get too hot simply adjust your driving style and try easing into the corners for a few laps instead of mashing them at the last possible second. Although each of the four competition classes of the Srie Internationale Du Mans mod has is own set of performance standards, these are definitely not spec-racers. Each car is unique. Therefore its important to be familiar with the individual parameters for the car(s) youve decided to drive.

Tire Temperatures
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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

The optimum temperature for the qualifying tires is 115C (240F) and the optimum temperature for the hard and medium compound tires is 230F (110 C). However these numbers are not an absolute because keeping your tires at exactly 110C will be nearly impossible. In most cases tire temps are taken at the end of a run across the surface of the tire, at the inside edge, the middle and outer edge. Then the average of these three temperatures will be the number youll want to use for comparison. During the course of a stint or even a single lap its not uncommon to see temperatures either below or even well above the optimum temperature. Dont panic though because this is perfectly normal and in fact should be expected. There will always be sections on every track where your tires will run either hotter or colder than the optimum and there will also be tracks where your tires are simply going to be hot or cold no matter what you do. For example at a track like the Indianapolis Road Course or Hermanos-Rodriguez , both tracks that have very long, high-speed curves, the left-side tires and especially the left-rear tire will be taking a heavy load so you should expect to see those tire temperatures start to climb towards the 300F range. However with the proper setup they should cool down once you exit the curve and start traveling down the straight.
Idealliy your tires should be about 7-10 hotter on the inside than the outside with and even gradient across the surface. The average of the three measurements is what you want to use for comparison with the optimum temperature rating of the compound.

If you think about real endurance racing and how the tire manufacturers handle these types of situations, they will typically formulate new compounds just for a specific track or conditions. Obviously we couldnt build in different tires for every track, so instead weve given you two different types of tires that are capable of operating within a fairly broad temperature range, a standard set of 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 compound set of tires has been specifically designed to generate more heat from rolling friction than from cornering friction. Of course you can chose any set of tire you want. However using the LM compounds are a track that has plenty of turns will all but garauntee that the LM 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 else than 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 tire temps 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 are also increasing the amount of force that is being applied to the tires, which in turn increases the level of friction between the tire and the road surface.

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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

Its 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 the tires contact patch, which in turn will increase the friction and cause the tires to build up more heat. Fortunately you can easily manage the tire temps by adjusting your set up and/or increasing or decreasing the air pressure as needed. However in many cases higher 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 youre simply trying too hard . Its 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 only wind up creating unnecessary friction. Naturally if you prefer to drive the car in this manner you'll need to re-evaluate and adjust your setup accordingly, but the smarter choice is to refine your driving style so that you're spending less of an effort driving the car deep into or drifting through the corner and more time accelerating out of the corner. As soon as you do you'll find the tire temperatures 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 will increase the size of the contact patch, which means more friction and higher temps. Also running stiffer shocks can affect your tire temps because of the additional weight transfer to that particular corner. And as weve said before using a higher wing setting can add 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 track conditions. And even though there's no replacement for that eat-of-the-pants sort of feedback, keeping track of your tire temperatures 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 have the best of either but still manage to haul their chassis around the track in good time. But like engines everywhere each engine also has an optimum temperature where the engine works at its most efficient levels. However just like the tires keeping an engine operating at that exact temperature just isnt in the cards. The faster the car moves the more air that flows through the radiator and of course the reverse is also true. The result of this constant change in air velocity as you lap the circuit is going to vary the temperature of the engine. The engine temperature information provided in the specification section of the Read Me page, shouldnt be over analyzed. As in all cases your engine is more than capable of operating at temperatures either above of below the optimum with out too much risk of damage. The most important thing you need to keep in mind is that the closer you let your engine operate near the maximum range of approximately 230F (110 C) the more stress youll put on your engine.

Each engine in the Srie Internationale Du Mans mod has been preset with an RPM limiter setting that is comfortably within each engine's power band. If you decided to make a change to your limiter setting you'll need to keep a close on the temperature and possibly adjust the radiator opening in order to increase the engine cooling.

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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

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 component could affect your car. We say could' because as we stated earlier, each change you make to your setup could affect some other aspect of your overall setup. Remember how higher wing angles can result in higher tire temps? In the following section we'll cover some 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 are mechanical enerngy storage devices, basically colied torsion bars. The amount of energy required to compress the spring relates directly to the stored energy potential of the spring, which is represented by the spring rate and is displayed in rFactor as n/m/s (newton metre second). Technically speaking the rate of a spring represents the the change in the force that it exerts divided by the change in deflection of the spring. That is, it is the gradient of the fource verses the deflection curve. (Uh... yeah, ok, sure.) Simply put, the higher the spring rate the more force is takes to compress the spring conversly the lower the spring rate the less force it takes to compress it. The force or energy that it takes to compress the spring is store within the coils of the spring and is released when the spring rebounds.

Springs come in all different sizes and rates, but generally, and aside from the guage of the wire used, the less coils a springs has the more energy it is capable of storing.

For the purpose of this discussion when we talk about the energy stored within a spring what we are generally referring to is the state of the spring under compression. And automotive springs, once they're installed, are always under some level of compression since 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 the car 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 on the 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 weight dynamically. If the vertical load (normal force) is not increased on a tire through weight transfer, the tire may not be able to produce sufficient grip to obey the drivers control inputs. As a result of this, the tire will begin to slide.
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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

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 to transfer. 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 weight you pile on it, and once you go past that point it will simply slide and chatter. When this occurs, the driver must attempt to recover the tire by reducing the force on it. The other possible consequence of reducing spring rate, without making other suspension adjustments, is a reduction in ride height such that the car will bottom out. The sudden onset of understeer or oversteer from the car bottoming 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 bottoming out. For bumpier surfaces or surfaces where there is a significant increase in the vertical loading, such as the high banks of Daytona for 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 the amount 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 easily lead to a spinout or crash. Therefore the ideal spring combination is one that produces equal amounts of wheel travel at all four corners 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 result in the car bottoming out, plus it increases the amount of body roll through the corners. This can be countered by using a stiffer sway bar or raising ride height of the vehicle. Furthermore, because the use of softer springs will cause the car to roll over more in the corners 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/or rear 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' is actually a misnomer because as we pointed out in the previous chapter on springs, shock absorbers do not absorb shocks, springs absorb shocks. The reason that damper' is the more correct term is because that is exactly what they do. Dampers dampen and control 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 handling traits. It's the role of the damper to convert this stored energy into heat by moving a piston(s) hydraulic fluid where the heat is absorbed. Dampers work in two directions, 'bump' and 'rebound.' The term 'bump' refers to action of the damper being compressed. This compression is typically 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 by the chassis during a turn. The term 'rebound' refers to the action of the damper recovering after being compressed or expanding as the wheel passes over a dip in the road or as the result of the chassis rolling away from the
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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

dampers that are located on the inside of the arch traversed by the chassis during a turn. Dampers are the single most important aspect of your chassis setup. Yet unfortunately they're also frequently the most misunderstood. It's hard to say exactly why dampers are so often misunderstood, but we think part of the reason is due to the fact that people tend to assume that the characteristics and actions described for the bump action of a damper are the exactly same for the rebound. They're not. Though similar in action bump and rebound control different aspects of the damper's travel as a chassis rides over the bumps in the road surface. Because dampers are such an important part of a setup we're going to spend a 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's hard to have a meaningful discussion about dampers without understanding at least a little bit about springs. Hopefully you've already read the previous chapter on springs, but for the sake of review let's cover a couple of fundamental attributes of springs; - Springs are mechanical energy storage devices. The energy required to compress a spring is stored within the coils of the spring and released as the spring rebounds. - As a car navigates a road, or a racecar navigates a circuit, the energy generated by the various pitch, yaw and roll inertia forces acting upon the chassis is transferred into the springs. - A higher spring rate means that the amount of energy required to compress the spring is greater and as a result the amount of potential energy that can be stored within the coils of the spring is also greater. - How fast or how slow the potential energy of the spring is stored and/or released is controlled by the damper. - Higher spring rates generally require a higher damper rates.
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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

- Dynamic weight transfer refers to the change in the weight distribution of the car as generated by the pitch, yaw and roll inertia of the chassis as the vehicle navigates the road.

While front and rear and side to side wieght transfer is easy to remember, it's important not to forget the affect that weight being transfered from one corner to the other can have on the chassis response.

Getting back to our discussion about dampers let's use another simple visual analogy to describe the damper actions of 'bump' and 'rebound' using a common playground item, the see-saw or teeder-todder. The term bump' represents the downward travel of one end of the see-saw and the term 'rebound' is represented by the upward travel of the other end of the see-saw. Both the bump and rebound settings are measured and displayed as levels of force. Within rFactor this force is represented as n/m/s (newton metre second) or displayed as pounds per inch squared depending on your garage display choice. When you increase the bump setting of a damper you are increasing the amount of resistance the damper has to being compressed. Increasing the resistance slows the rate at which energy is transferred into the colis of the spring that is paired with the damper. - Most cars typically have one spring per wheel and one damper per spring, though of course there are exceptions to this common standard. - As you decrease the bump setting you are decreasing the amount of resistance that the damper has to being compressed and therby accelerating the rate of the dynamic weight transfer into the spring. In effect a stiffer bump setting slows the rate of the dynamic weight transfer and the rate of energy that is trnasferred into the colis of the associated spring. However decreasing the bump setting reduces the damper's resistance to being compressed and in effect accelerates the rate of the dynamic weight transfer and the subsequent transfer of energy into the associated spring. As you increase the rebound setting of a damper you are increasing the amount of resistance that the damper has to being expanded. This increased resistance slows the release of the energy that is stored within the coils of the spring.
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By decreasing the bump and rebound settings you are accelerating the rate of energy that is transferred into or away from the springs.

Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

Decreasing the rebound setting reduces the resistance to the release of the energy that is stored with in the spring and accelerates the dynamic weight transfer out of or away from the 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 front towards 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 and deceleration weight is transferred away from the rear of the car towards the front of the car, when this happens the rear of the car lifts 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 of the 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 of the 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 seesaw. As you can begin to see it requires a collbrative effort bewteen the dampers at oposiste ends to manage the transfer of weight to and from 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 have is 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 to the loss of mechanical grip. However a car with insufficient bump and rebound will have a tendency to "float" and wallow after bumps and is generally sloppy and unresponsive to driver input. Even small driver inputs will generate large, mushy and over-accentuated chassis movements and the car will tend to lean over on its outside tires during a turn, which will most-likely begin to squeal in protest.

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/or sliding. 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 like its 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 turn the 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 your transition 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
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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

ground over the various surface undulations while the car is at speed. Traveling over a bump at speed can cause an exaggerated or large and "fast" movement of the damper shaft and hence it's name. If you use too much fast bump at the front, your car will have a tendency to understeer as you transition through the bumpier sections of the track. Conversely of 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-corner transitions such as chicanes. The slow settings control the dynamic weight transfer and overall motion of the main chassis relative to the track surface as the car is turned, slowed, accelerated and deccelerated. These motions cause "slow" and small movements of the damper shaft, hence the name. Your slow rebound settings will generally wind up being higher than 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 used while 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 he or she can. What happens to the chassis when brakes are applied? The weight of the car is suddenly transferred to the front of the vehicle and the nose of the car dips while the rear of the car rises. As this happens the front shocks are being compressed and the rear shocks are extending or rebounding. Generally speaking, this is the exact same thing that occurs to the racecar when it starts braking and enters a corner, though hopfully without any brake lockup. ;-) At corner entry the dampers will be undergoing the same basic process as they were under heavy braking on the long straight therefore if you're having troubles getting into the corner, for example 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 should consider adjusting either the bump (compression) of the front dampers or the rebound of the rear dampers, since those are the aspects of the dampers that are being utilized at the corner entry. - FYI: Too much rear brake bias can also contribute to a loose condition 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 accelerator what happens? The front of the car lifts while the rear of the car squats down. In this scenario the front dampers are rebounding while the rear dampers are being compressed (bump). Of course the dampers are going to react in the same basic manner at the apex of a corner as you begin to accelerate out of the corner. Therefore if you're having problems exiting the corners under acceleration 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 and how and when they perform. The fact is depending on the configuration of the track a racecar may enter and exit a corner with a lot more energy, which dramatically increases the amount of force with which a damper is either being compressed or rebounded. Plus you 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 depending on the layout the circuit and the radius of the turn the amount of weight transferred from corner to corner will come into play as well. 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 left rear. However just like a see-saw this also means that the left front will be dipping further, or will be compressed more that the right front.

under heavy breaking.

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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

Therfore as you study the layout of the track it could be benneficial to consider the possibility of creating an asymetrical setup because 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 adjusted first. The intention here is to adjust the damper's bump setting in order to control the wheel motion over bumps at the critical parts of the track such as the corners and braking zones. With the settings at full soft, you should complete a lap or two before stopping and increasing the bump setting. As the amount of bump increases you should be able to feel a reduction in how much the chassis is being unsettled by bumps. This process should be repeated until the ride becomes too harsh and you start to loose traction and tire compliance. At this stage, the settings should be reset back to the last optimum setting. Once an optimum bump setting has been established, you'll need to turn your attention to optimizing the rebound setting. Do not attempt to set the compression and rebound settings simultaneously unless you are very experienced with setting up dampers. - The intention here is to "tighten" up the chassis. This is what most people understand as "tuning the shocks".
Selecting the right shock package can make all the difference in the world to the way your car responds on the track. The importance of this part of your setup development can not be over emphasized. It's well worth spending a little extra time to make sure your shock settings 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 adjustments should 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 will eventually 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 the corner entry. The typical first step made by many drivers is to make a change to the front anti-sway bar by either increasing or decreasing the size of the anti-sway bar. However the better method for addressing this problem is to adjust either or both your front bump and rear rebound settings. By increasing the front bump setting and/or increasing the rear rebound setting you will reduce the speed of the dynamic weight transfer from the rear of the car to the front of the car under braking. This will help prevent the 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 of the car to the front of the car by decreasing your front bump and or decreasing the rear rebound setting can help keep the nose of the car pinned as you enter the corner. And naturally in a similar manner the proper damper tuning can help control the under steering or over steering of your car at the corner exit. Just be sure to remember that too much bump or too much rebound at either end 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 opposite of what you're trying to achieve.

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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

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 be disguised by problems with your tires, your springs and/or your choice of anti-sway bar. Just remember that dampers are intended to control the energy stored in the springs, they do not control any other aspect of the chassis that may be operating as a spring. For example the sidewalls of the tires or, in a racecar, the chassis itself, which is often regarded as an un-damped spring, hence the importance of chassis stiffness.

Camber
Camber refers to the inward or outward tilt of the wheel at the top of the tire. Negative Camber; Refers to the tilt of the top of the tire towards the center of the vehicle. Positive Camber; Is the tilt of the top of the tire away from the center of the vehicle. Camber adjustments are utilized to help maintain the maximum grip allowable from the surface of the tire through the corners of the track. Proper camber adjustments are critical for achieving maximum cornering speeds. Camber angles will alter the handling qualities of a particular suspension design; in particular, negative camber will generally improve the cars grip when cornering. This is because it presents the tire, which is taking the greatest proportion of the cornering forces, at a more 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 surface of the tire to adhere to the track thus maximizing the tire's contact patch. Another reason for negative camber is that a rubber tire tends 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 the ground, thereby reducing the size of the contact patch. However by applying negative camber this effect is reduced, which allows the tire 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 in determining 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 and springs 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 in your wheels. In fact it's really the only way to properly adjust for correct amounts of camber. Theoretically you should be regularly monitoring 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 or a tire pressure adjustment while trying to find ever-more speed and all the hard work and time you spent on getting those perfect
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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 and not 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. Your times are slower after the spring change so you decide to give up on that spring change because it made you slower. But maybe it wasn'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 top of the tire. Do not confuse this with camber which is the inward or outward tilt of the wheel at the top of the tire. Positive Caster; Refers to when the wheel is tilted back toward the rear of the vehicle. Negative Caster; Refers to when the wheel is tilted forward toward the front of the vehicle. Caster is used to provide directional steering stability and add a degree of self-centering for the steering, to achieve this the wheel casters around so as to trail behind the steering axis. This makes a car easier to drive while improving its straight line stability and in turn reducing its tendency to wander. But like so many other things in life more isn't always better. Excessive caster angle will make the steering heavier and less responsive, although, in some circumstances, large caster angles can be used to improve camber gain 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 to help you move it across the floor. When you push an object like this across the floor you'll notice that the wheels will swivel back away 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 negative caster. Obviously is easy to imagine just how difficult would be to push something with the wheels in this forward or negative caster position. Besides being difficult to push, the object would also have a tendency to take off in an unwanted direction until the casters returned to a positive direction. Therefore for the same reasons you'd want a shopping cart to roll forward with ease, you want your racecar 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 forward directional 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 in mind that more caster can also increase the steering effort, especially with a force feedback wheel, however more caster will allow you to make better decisions on the track about how your car is handling.

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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

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 and too much positive caster has some drawbacks. For example when you turn a car to the left with positive caster the left-front wheel will rise slightly while the right front-wheel drops. This causes the car to roll more at corner entry thereby changing the distributed weight 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 more positive 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 sweeping corners. 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 a pair of wheels are set so that their leading edges are pointed slightly towards each other.

Toe-Out; Refers to when the the leading edges of a pair of wheels are set so that their leading edges are pointed slightly 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 to make those wheels turn into a corner. The sacrifice you make with toe out is that the car will have a tendency to wander instead of tracking straight and true. And nobody wants their car to constantly wander all over the track because it requires a constant barrage of steering corrections that would drive most drivers crazy. But a number of racers are willing to sacrifice a bit of stability on the straightaway 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 to turn into a corner. Why does this happen? Let's use an example where a car with toe-in on the front wheels is about to enter a left turn. As the driver begins to turn the wheel left the left-front tire is pointing only slightly to the left while the rightfront tire is pointing much more to the left.
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The problem with this is that the left-front tire needs to turn with a greater angle than the right-front tire because the left-front tire is on the inside of the corner and therefore should trace an arc with a smaller radius than the outside tire. However, with toe-in, the leftfront tire is actually trying to trace a larger radius arc than the rightfront tire. This makes it difficult for the car to turn in because the left-front tire is fighting the right-front.

With toe-out the opposite is true. The left-front tire is now turning with a larger angle than the right-front and instead of fighting the turn the left-front tire now plays a more prominent role in initiating the turn. However once the car has entered the turn the weight begins to transfer away from the inside tire (left) to the outside tire (right) and diminishes the effect of the left-front tire. It's because of this weight transfer that toe mainly affects the corner entry. As you can see there are plenty of positives and negatives associated with both toe-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 to wander 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
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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

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 as higher temperatures on the insides of both front tires. Whereas excessive toe-in would show higher temperatures in the outsides of both front tires. Excessive front toe in or out will generally cause the same feelings to a chassis as excessive amounts of camber and caster, 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 inside wheel to the outside wheel in a turn. The anti-roll bar increases your suspension's roll stiffness; essentially its resistance to lateral or side-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 the roll stiffness of the suspension increases the rate of weight transfer to the wheels on the outside of the turn. As more weight is applied to the outside wheels, the adhesion of the tires is increased until their limits are reached. If the front and rear weight transfer is 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 the car oversteer.

Understeer: (Tight, Pushing or Plowing) A car handling condition during cornering in which the circular path of the vehicle's motion is of a markedly greater diameter than the circle indicated by the direction its wheels are pointed.

Oversteer: (Loose) A car handling condition describing when the rear wheels fail to track behind the front wheels, but instead slides out toward the outside of the turn. - Too much oversteer can throw the car into a spin.
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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

Another potential problem that can occur when your anti-roll bar setting is too stiff is that you'll tend to lose the independent function of the suspension members on opposite sides of the car. Basically if one wheel hits a bump the force can be transmitted to the other side 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 and less weigh on the inside tires, thereby reducing traction, plus it can also affect your steering because it changes the basic geometry of 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 side to 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 car remains 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 behind the 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 lower the center of gravity, the lower the overall weight of the car is to the ground and the lower the weight, the less weight that is transferred 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 tracks where the centrifugal forces are higher or at road courses where there are dips in the track. If the car bottoms out in the rear you will 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 raise the ride height or run stiffer springs. On paper, the softer the springs and the lower the car, the better off you should be. However this theory depends on a lot of other adjustments set within the chassis, so experimentation is the only real answer.

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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

Packers (Bump Stops)

Packers limit the vertical travel of the chassis and help prevent the car from completely bottoming out. Lowering the ride height lowers the center of gravity of the car, which helps improve cornering ability by reducing the chassis roll. However it also has the side 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 end of their range of movement. This is often referred to as "bottoming out". Once a car's suspension reaches the packers its effective spring 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 to understeer 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 oversteer from 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 that has a lot of vertical changes you car will be subjected to an increased amount of vertical loading and therefore will need a bit more suspension 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 of bottoming out.

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

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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

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 however these factors can provide the tire with more grip. The temperature increase may also be desired if it allows the tire to heat up to the recommended 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 great deal of suspension tuning can be gained with very little effort by simply adjusting your tire pressures. Before making any tire pressure adjustments you should consider the optimum tire temperatures for the tires and remember to adjust your camber as needed in order to properly distribute the heat horizontally along the contact patch. Ideally it should be about 7-10 degrees hotter on the inside than the outside with an even gradient across the surface. One of the more subtle yet important and often overlooked aspects of tire pressure adjustments are the affects that your wing settings can have on the tire temperatures. As your wing generates down force is has a tendency to squash the tires. As the angle of attack on your wing increases it
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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

generates more down force and hence squashes the tires even further. The effect is sort of like overloading the bed of a pickup truck. The bed and rear chassis sag and the tires flatten out. The effect of the tires flattening out is what generates the increase in heat. This increase is due to the increase size and friction of the tire's contact patch. To help compensate for the added affect of the wings you can increase the spring rate, but it also helps to increase the tire pressure. The increased tire pressure makes the tires more resistant to being squashed by the affects of the wing. Naturally the spring rate of the tire also increases, but the effect of a tire pressure increase is generally more subtle than increasing your 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 in equal 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 revs rise very quickly and that rate of climb decreases as you step up through the gears. Therefore if you set your gears with a larger gap between first and second, with increasingly smaller gaps between each set of higher gears, it's easier to keep the engine revving in the power band' as you shift up through the gears. Of course knowing where that power band is and how far it extends is critical to 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 along with the relative RPMs for those peaks. The power band is typically defined as the RPM range over which an engine delivers the most substantial fraction of its power and generally extends from a point just below the engine's peak torque to slightly above its peak horsepower rating.

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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

Typically whenever you change gears your speed drops slightly due to the loss of drive to the wheels and it's important that your gear change drops you back into the power band so that you can reestablish the acceleration as soon as possible. As always, you'll just have to test and see what works best, as this is completely dependent upon your driving style, the track and of course the car you 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. Whereas your first gear should be a compromise between good acceleration exiting the slowest corner and the amount of wheel-spin that's generated 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 the gearbox and a greater chance of wheel-spin and possibly torque-spinning the car under heavy acceleration or potentially overrevving 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 and out of the slowest corner, but you'll have improved acceleration through the rest of the gears and less wheel-spin. Of course some of the 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 medium length straight where you notice the engine is redlining, but there's not quite enough time or distance up shift, consider making that gear 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 as Wikipedia 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 damamging your engine. Yet there may come a time when you will want to increase your limiter setting in order to expand the engine's power band. However there can also be times when you may want to decrease the limiter to help save on fuel. The timing and particular circumstnaces that may lead you to make these sorts decisions is strictly a matter between you and your race engineer. However we'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 the peak horsepower RPM number for the engine. Naturally, just like engines everywhere the peak horsepower RPM number is somewhere above the peak torque RPM number. Understanding the particular specifications of your car will help you make the right decision when the time comes. Although you will find a complete set of specifications for each car on the main 'Read Me' page, you can also find the engine specs for ech car in the rFactor showroom under the 'Vehicle Information' tab. Before you decide to change your engine's RPM limiter setting though it's important to understand that as you increase your limiter setting you will be adding more and more stress to the components of the engine. If your car comes from the factory with a redline of 8000 RPM and you
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rev the engine up to 8500 RPM the chances are you won't be finishing the race. So take care with your RPM limiter settings because like so many 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 race package 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 in synchronization and driving the car forward as a single unit. This is fine if you're going straight ahead, but when you're turning it's not 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't have 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 reaction that 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 drive the 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 it you didn't. But somewhere along the way to adulthood you probably learned a little geometry and learned difference between a small radius and a large radius.
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Looking at the sample image to the right, when a car turns it's only the front wheels that are changing angles. With the exception of some toe-in/out settings the rear wheels are mounted on the chassis in parallel and remain pointing in a forward direction. - Although for many oval racing setups the inside wheel base tends to be a bit shorter than the outside wheel base. As the car follows the path of the front wheels the body pivots on the inside rear wheel, which means that the outside rear wheel has a greater radius and hence more distance to cover in the same amount of time. As a result, in order for both the left and right rear wheels to move from the corner entry (A) to the corner exit (C) the outside wheel must rotate faster than the inside wheel as the car is transitioning through the turn. As you increase the differential power setting you increase the rear wheels potential to drive the car forward at the same rotational speed during acceleration. And while this is good for acceleration it also ends up decreasing the car's ability to pivot on the inside wheel and the resulting effect is that the car wants to go straight instead of turn, which depending on the nature of the track and which part you happen to be on at the time can ether be a good thing or a bad thing. However the more the wheels are locked together the more stable the car is under acceleration and since more acceleration equals better lap times this is generally a good thing. The drawback comes when you find yourself on a track that has more curves than straights. (Think Nurburgring.) The problem on tracks like this is that you rarely have an opportunity to accelerate in a straight line and most of your acceleration is taking place from one corner to the next and that's when less is more because the increased differential power lock also decreases the slip angle of the inside rear wheel and the car will end up pivoting on the inside front wheel instead of the inside rear wheel, which means the car will 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 same rotational speed while decreasing the slip angle of the inside rear wheel. Only this time its taking place when the car is no longer under power, but decelerating and coasting into the corner entry. Again, too much lock diminishes the car's ability to pivot on the inside rear wheel and the car understeers (is tight) at the corner entry. This is why most setups generally use a higher power setting and a lower coast setting. The lower coast setting helps the car turn in at the corner entry, while the higher power setting helps the car accelerate out of the corners.
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Once again it all comes down to testing, finding a compromise and deciding what's best for the conditions, but here's a couple of quick thoughts; If the car is tight at corner entry try decreasing the coast setting. If the car is loose at corner entry try increasing the coast 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 increasing the power setting. However in all cases you can only increase or decrease the settings up to a point and what and where that point is only you can decide.

Engine Brake Mapping

This particular parameter basically controls how much of the available power of the engine is being used to help the car slow down. For whatever reason a lot of people overlook this particular parameter thinking that it doesn't really do all that much, but nothing could be further from the truth. Remember how we talked about more power? Well the catch is more power isn't always better. Sometimes instead of more power what you really need is smoother and more usable power instead of raw unfiltered power. Lower numbers will result in more engine braking, which also uses less fuel. However the trade off is that engine braking only slows down the drive wheels, or in the case of this mod the rear wheels and this can result in a braking imbalance between 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 separation between the lower gears a stronger (lower number) brake map setting could cause the rear wheels to break loose as you start to down 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 more boost on command. If you have the extra buttons available on your wheel this is a good one to have because in a pinch, when you need a little something extra to get you down the straight and around the car in front of you this could prove to be a very handy thing to have at your disposal. Use it as you will, but keep in mind that the more boost you use the more fuel you'll burn and the hotter your engine will run.

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Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

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

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

Just so we're clear, this is not a flaw in the Srie Internationale Du Mans mod. This is the nature of rFactor. You can get an approximate estimate, but there are simply far too many variables to get a perfectly accurate projection. Things like rev limits, tire pressures, 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 as close as you can estimate your final partial lap and multiply that number by the length of the track. Then divide the sum by the amount of fuel you started with and you'll have a pretty good idea of what sort of fuel mileage you're getting with your preferred setup. Fortunately our beta team has developed a fuel mileage calculation chart that they used during their testing. This chart basically uses data that you can supply from your testing and practice to calculate not only the basic fuel mileage, but also the potential fuel usage and 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 Srie Internationale Du Mans mod has an expanded number of pit stop options available for you to choose from. In addition to adjusting how much fuel you take on you can also fix and repair physical damage to the suspension and chassis. So the next time you 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/Setup_Guide.htm[24/03/2010 02:44:06 a.m.]

Srie Internationale Du Mans Setup Guide by Carpe Noctem Design Group

repairs. During our prerelase test races we had drivers who slost splitters and or cut tires and yet after getting repairs in the pits still managed 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 is time. As we stated before, what makes a driver fast isn't some magical setup because even a good setup can result in poor lap times if 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 another driver'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 testing they do covers every aspect of the car from new aerodynamic updates to new tires and of course engine tuning. And for the larger teams there's often testing taking place on one track while the race is being run on another. Unless you have a test driver working with 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 still require 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 to be 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 error method 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 is to 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 sim racing, 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 and computer. Great or crappy setup aside there's no way any setup will ever be able to compensate for a poorly tuned wheel or pedals or a frame rate that is less that satisfactory. We all have different systems and settings that we use for our sim gear. Some like their force feedback settings as strong as possible while others prefer as little as possible. And although few people remember this fact it's one of the primary reasons that one driver's prefect setup may feel like junk to another driver. But hopefully after reading this guide you'll at least know how to tweak that setup enough to make it work to your advantage. Good luck and happy racing! Read Me Painting Guide History

2009

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