Tuning Your Car For the Track - Repost from July 2013

Becoming a good driver is only half the battle. Your ability to recognize, adjust and push a car to its limits depends largely on having a car that can handle the input. If a car is not setup at all, or setup poorly, then even the very best driver will still struggle.

 Being able to setup a car is a very rewarding experience. But in order to do so, you have to know what you want from the car to begin with. Do you want the car to run flat through hard corners? Do you want it to drift the back end out a bit? How much slide is acceptable, or too much? These are the questions you’ll want to figure out before you begin making adjustments to your race car. Let’s look at some of the basic setup changes you can make that will begin to get your car set for racing. Once you play with these settings a bit, you’ll become more adept at making more finely tuned adjustments to fit your driving style.

 Tire Pressures – Often overlooked, tire pressures do affect the cars performance on the track. Generally speaking, the higher the tire pressure, the harder the tire. Less pressure may mean more grip. But it also could wear the tire prematurely in a longer race. After adding upgrades to the car, play with tire pressures first - before making other adjustments. After setting tire pressures and then making adjustments, play with the pressure again to see what fits best.

 Camber – In race settings, typical race camber will be set between -2.00 to -3.00 in the front and anywhere between -0.50 to -1.50 in the rear. This pushes the bottom of the tire out from the car, allowing the tire to plant harder in corners to improve handling.

 Spring Rates – Adjustments to the suspension itself really begin to define how the car performs. Setting spring rates higher allows the car to put more power to the pavement, but too stiff a spring rate can make the car sketchy, prone to spin around corners and the like. Slowing the spring rate too much can cause the car to feel soft and unresponsive. The same is true with Dampening settings. Slowing down how quickly the shocks perform can do much to smooth the car over bumps and apexes. But slow it down too much and the car will wallow around corners inefficiently.

 Sway Bars – Sway bars tie the suspension to the rest of the car. Setting them very stiff can cause the car to stay flat, but may make it prone to sliding out.

 Playing with these 5 settings can do much to improve a car’s performance on the track. Try making adjustments to just one area at a time and see if it makes a difference in track times. The easiest and fastest way to do this is to enter a track via the “Test Drive” section, under the “Upgrades” tab. Once on the track, if something doesn’t feel right you can instantly access the vehicles setup menu and make needed adjustments. Happy tuning!