I don't set things up in any particular order. I just change settings that 'feel' incorrect as I am driving. I am only able to do this because making setups has been my passion in LFS for over 3 years now.

It takes a long time to learn how setup adjustments change the feel of the car. Best thing to do is just to start lapping. When you can lap consistenly (to within 1 or 2 tenths at each split time) then you can start making small adjustments and feeling the effect of those changes. Over time you build up experience as to what has what effect. There are no shortcuts.

And no matter how good you are at understanding the dynamics of setup, you will still have to do say 100 laps of a circuit if you want to make a set of any quality.

A lot of the time I think people mistakenly believe that you can learn setup skills by reading simple rules and guidance. It doesn't work like that. Experience is the only thing that counts.

When I test drive, I ask myself these things:

Does the car react slowly or quickly?

If the car is too 'squirrely' you may need to run a generally softer set.

Is the car generally oversteery or understeery?

Oversteery? u need softer rear/harder front or less power diff lock/more coast lock.

Is the car oversteery or understeery over bumps?

Oversteery? u need more front damping or less rear damping

Is the car oversteery or understeery at corner entry?

Oversteery? u need more front bump damping (or more rear rebound but to a lesser extent) or less rear brake or more coast lock.

Is the car oversteery or understeery at corner exit?

Oversteery? u need less rear bump damping or less rear rollbar or more front rollbar or less power diff lock.

When the suspension is fully loaded i.e. mid corner, is the car oversteery or understeery?

Oversteery? u need more front ARB and less rear ARB

Ofcourse if the answer to any of these questions is 'understeery' then just make the opposite change.

Tyres? Simple, make sure the temps are as well balanced as they can be from front to back if you intend to do long runs with the set (less important on quali sets)

Also, The inside edge of the tyre should be 10-15 degrees above the optimum temp, middle should be 5-10 degrees above optimum and outside edge I find works best when about 5 degrees below optimum. If you want more inside edge temperature increase the amount of negative camber. I always leave tyre setup until the end when I am happy with the suspension and aero balance. Ofcourse that doesn't mean I won't change some suspension settings and then need to go back and amend the tyre pressures and cambers.

If you are completely lost and don't know what you are aiming for then why not 'Test Drive' the WR hotlap setup and simply try and make your car feel the same. This has been very successful for me in the past.

These are some general guidelines but as I said before, you need to be able to have driven enough and to have made enough setup changes to know all this stuff for yourself.

Oh, and as far as aero is concerned I generally try and use as little rear downforce as I can get away with. Rear downforce promotes understeer which always equals slower times.

As I mentioned before 46% front aero is about as aggressive as you can go and to achieve that the downside is that you need a lot of front suspension stiffness which can then result in understeer in slow corners where the wings are not having an effect.

That brings me on nicely to another important point. Aero settings have a greater affect in high speed corners and almost no affect at all below about 50mph. Suspension settings will affect all speeds of corner however a high aero setup can mask problems with the suspension settings which will become more apparent in low speed corners.

Hope this helps. If you need more advice then come visit gentlefoot.com#1 one weekend. There are always a few of the GFC boys about to help you.

Last edited by Gentlefoot, Tue 6 May 2008, 14:23.

The GFC is currently looking for new talent to compete in this well established, clean racing league. In particular we are looking to expand the field of FO8 drivers at each race.

Please consider joining us. See www.gentlefoot.com for more information.

I find with the FOX that any more than a 46% front aero balance and it becomes very hard to set up the suspension to give good balance.

Most of my FOX sets are between about 3 degrees front/4 degrees back for low downforce circuits like Aston Historic and about 9 degrees front/13 degrees rear is about as much downforce as I ever need for somewhere like Fern Bay Black.

To understand what downforce I need I tend to watch the WR lap and output the lap data. I then output my own lap data and compare the acceleration, split times and top speeds using F1 Perf View. From this you can see very easily if you have more or less downforce than the WR holder.

You can prove how competitive your team is be entering drivers into the GFC races. The GFC has now been running a team competition for the last couple of seasons.

There is an overall championship and a championship for each class (FOX and FO8).

A team can enter as many drivers as they like into each class but only the top two finishers from each class will score. So a team wishing to maximise their chances of points would enter 4 drivers, 2 in each class.

The competition is becoming more and more competitive.

I look forward to seeing some of you fledgling teams joining the great, clean racing you will enjoy in the GFC.

see www.gentlefoot.com/GFC.html and http://www.gentlefoot.com/LFS/forum/viewforum.php?f=36

GF

Quote from Mackie The Staggie :

Hey pretty damn decent mate, you could proberly get a few sponsourships from some of the tracks like, just one little tiny thing....




.....Where Scotland?

Fife is there because there are a few events at Knockhill.

It was so much fun the other night a few of us are gonna do the same thing again tonight at 21:00 UK time if anyone is up for some more quality racing around this challenging layout.

Quote from james12s :

good idea, also were abouts are you in the uk as from the venues you seem to be in kent, i live like halfway between lydden and brands hatch lol

You guessed it. I'm in Caterham - kent/surrey border but so far found no events in Surrey.

Quote from STROBE :

Brilliant idea - I've recently wished there were something like this when pondering whether I can get to any circuits with my camera.

Bug report: selecting any race types in County Durham returns a result for Silverstone.

ooops - must have entered that data wrong - thx for letting me know.

Nice turnout

A few of us are practicing for an upcoming GFC race but all are welcome. A few extra numbers will really help us prepare. The nurburgring like Fern Bay Black Reverse too

Anyone who wants to join it's Gentlefoot.com#2.

Quote from sinbad :

Looks really handy actually, although it doesn't tell me that British Superbikes are racing at Oulton Park on Monday. It seems to think that because it started (the race weekend) on the 3rd, the event is in the past.
Just a little bug I suppose, never a fan of black backgrounds either tbh but that's just me.

Yeah thanks for spotting that mate. - there is a bug with the event date/now comparison. I noticed that too but thought it was only missing events on the same day. If you uncheck the 'Do not show motorsport events in the past' checkbox you can see the event is there.

I think I need to do some cleverer logic when an event runs for more than 1 day too.

Will get it sorted this weekend hopefully.

I used to have this problem. Me and a mate would decide we wanted to go and watch some motorsport of a weekend and so we would look at the Brands Hatch site, the Goodwood site and maybe BARC.net or the Lydden Hill site to find out what was on and how much it would cost etc. We might even look at Easytrack for trackdays if we wanted some free entry.

It gave me an idea to create a web based database of all UK motorsport events that would allow the user to search by event type, county or all events at a particular venue.

I have now created the http://www.motorsportevent.co.uk website that does just that. I am adding more events all the time. Got all the main events on there now I think. Just need to find some more obscure ones like short oval racing and stuff like that.

Hope you find it useful.

ARBS make most difference to understeer/oversteer when you have the suspension fully loaded up - i.e. mid corner and exit. If you are suffering from corner entry oversteer you should try 1 click more front bump, or maybe even slightly more rear rebound.

Another thing that drammatically effects balance is the diff. Less coast lock = more oversteer at turn in. More power lock and you get that snap oversteer at exit. To tune the power locking listen to the engine revs. If they rise slightly as you put the power on then you have got it about right. If there is no rise in the engine pitch just before the back snaps out on you then reduce the power locking a bit. If you can here the wheels spinning but no oversteer results then you haven't got enough power locking.

Tyre temp balance only becomes really important over a long race where as the tyres temp balance changes over the race you have periods of understeer and periods of oversteer. Changing balance.

I always try and set up my GFC race sets so that the handling balance is consistent over the full heat cycle of the tyres. It's always safer to set the car so that the fronts run a bit hotter than the rears so that if you have a change in balance it is most likely to result in understeer as you over heat one of the front tyres.

If you over heat the rears on something like the FOX or FO8 then this causes real probs as you begin to oversteer more you generate even more heat in the rears and you spiral into uncontrollable oversteer very quickly. It can take as much as 2 or 3 laps of very careful (and slow) driving to get the temps back down again.

This is in contrast to having too much heat in the fronts which means you can still push fairly hard without scrubbing the front. Generally this costs you less time.

Might sound like a stupid question but you are using patch Y of LFS aren't you?

Only 2 or 3 places left on each grid for these two races next Sunday. This is a classic circuit for this dual class format and always proves to be a tough race that favours more experienced drivers.

Entries are still drip-dripping in so get in there quick if you are considering entering

GF

I think these rumours aren't helped by some website running a google adwords campaign with the following ad:

"Want Live for Speed S3?
Download Live for Speed S3 PC Game Only $20/Yr! - Live for Speed S3 PC "

I've seen them appear on my main site, in particular my setups page - www.gentlefoot.com

Haven't clicked thru so not sure why they are saying this.

GF

Entry lists have now been created. About 10 spots left in each race if any drivers/teams would like to be a part of this from the getgo.


Entry List Forum Section:
http://www.gentlefoot.com/LFS/forum/viewforum.php?f=10

Quote from Fuse5 :

baah.
I would love to pick up SS racing, but im not in the UK, so no can do.
The races would start at 10pm my local time, and due to still being a student in school, sunday night racing is not an option for me.

Might be able to join in June for a couple of races, but then again, there is no point in signing up for the whole season when i can only participate in single races. By when the entry list will be full.

/personal rant.

The GTTC events start 3 hours earlier than the GFC so maybe that would suit you better. Although I understand you would prefer the single seaters but there is great racing to be had in the GTRs and TBOs too.

To All:

I'm just about to start putting the entry lists for the first races together so if you still haven't entered now would be a good time.

These successful leagues will get underway again on 16th April. The start of a new seasons are a great time for new drivers and teams to join these competitions and enjoy some of the cleanest racing you'll find anywhere. Not to mention the unique challenge of racing in this dual class format.

Entry for these events will open on the evening of March 30th (this Sunday). I send out an email from gentlefoot.com letting all my forum members know when entry is open. This gives them the best opportunity to get their entries in immediately and avoid missing out on the first race. There have always been at least 38 entrants for the first races of the seasons so it important to enter quickly to avoid disappointment.

I would urge anyone keen on joining this season to sign up to the forum now to ensure you know as soon as entry opens. Here are all the links you need.

Forum registration:
http://www.gentlefoot.com/LFS/ ... profile.php?mode=register

GFC General Info:
http://gentlefoot.com/GFC.html

Forum Index:
http://gentlefoot.com/LFS/forum/

Testimonials: (what do the current drivers think?)
http://gentlefoot.com/testimonials.html

In the forum you can find all the rules, entry and race procedures. You can also view incidents that have happened in previous races and see how they were dealt with. This facility is what keeps the standards in the Challenge events so high.

I look forward to seeing a few new faces this season.

This event is cancelled.

This event is cancelled

Only 1 week to go until this event now.

GF

Thanks mate

Race 5 was again run with no probs between classes. Drivers seem to be relishing this challenge and enjoying the added element it gives the racing now.