This post was about realistic set-up options. It has nothing to do with whats fair for anyone, or who has a lot of money or anything like that.
I recently got a tour of Rahal-Letterman racing (IRL team). I asked him how often they change the differential settings.
He said, "at the ovals, almost never. At the road courses we have about 10 or so different settings to choose from."
I then asked him about changing gear ratios. He gave an example. If the wind changed direction for the race they could change the ratios and often do, but, they only change them if it is a signifigant difference in mph, say a 10mph head wind changes to the opposite direction.
If teams were to spend millions on as many gear ratios as possible (which is still currently less than in LFS), they wouldn't have any money for the car!
LFS is a simulation, it is simulating real world racing. In the real world setup options are not unlimited. But trust me, and I think some people might be missing this point; You will still have more adjustability than you will need.
Some points suggesting that having no limitations on street car settings would realistic are valid, but very weak. If we are going that far, then I should be able to take my passenger seat out,put slicks on my car, or change the track width or put a 6 speed tranny in the XF GTI or blah blah blah.
Yeah sure, that stuff is possible, but when I am tuning a car in LFS, I would like for me to picture someone doing the same thing, with the same car in real life aka...what I'm doing is SIMULATING something not only possible, but FEASIBLE.(not in the same time I do it, but the physical possibility)
-Limit the gear ratio and suspension adjustments on the street cars to FEASIBLE ranges and precision. I'm sure people will still argue what is feasible, but lets be honest, do you see someone in a VW GTI with full interior 140 odd horsepower, street tires, adjusting their differential by 1% at a track day? NO, its not possible or feasible.
The race cars need more setup OPTIONS and more realistic(less precise) ranges of adjustment.
Yes, the "don't stop progress until its bug-free" argument is a popular one and I agree, but these are not only changes in ranges for the options, but new options as well, and with more options comes more bugs. Physics first, everyone says here, well, physics first, differential physics, damper and suspension physics, chassis flex physics, these are integral parts of a racing simulation, they do not need to be done now, but they do need to be done and they should be, in my opinion, not to far down the 'to do list'.
-I love LFS, and everything about it. I love the way the dev's work. I am not suggesting they need to do these now. I am only suggesting that these options/changes should be on the list, for the better of LFS in general, the community and the general idea of a racing simulation.