Twizzled it a little, BF1, no TC. It's certainly different, but I'm not feeling it completely. Anyone have an explaination that may help us who aren't too slick to use it more effectively?

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http://www.lfsforum.net/showth ... 831&highlight=preload

The more preload you add, the more the car will behave like with a locked diff during the change from being "on power" to "engine braking" (or the other way round). A clutch pack LSD without preload completely opens up (read: it's like a open diff) if there is no torque acting on it, which can have a very bad effect if you were relying on the stabilizing effect of the LSD.

So, it mainly affects you during the short time after braking for a corner, where you're almost not on the throttle yet (neutral load on the diff). If the car is oversteering in that situation, add preload. If it is too hard to turn and understeers off all the time, remove preload.

Yup, helps the back end from breaking loose when you apply throttle in a corner.. in RWD cars, that is. And I'm the 5th (and earliest!) 2003 so far

Best I can tell preload mainly effects mid corner transient conditions (i.e. were coast and power locking arent in effect or are having little effect) the less preload you have the easier the car will turn but with the possible downside of being less stable. Increasing preload makes the car more predictable in trail braking towards the appex in praticular with FWD/AWD and I would suppose that it would help RWD with getting the power down a little earlier, but I haven't tested it alot yet .

Broke the 2003 trend

Quote from AndroidXP :

The more preload you add, the more the car will behave like with a locked diff during the change from being "on power" to "engine braking" (or the other way round). A clutch pack LSD without preload completely opens up (read: it's like a open diff) if there is no torque acting on it, which can have a very bad effect if you were relying on the stabilizing effect of the LSD.

So, it mainly affects you during the short time after braking for a corner, where you're almost not on the throttle yet (neutral load on the diff). If the car is oversteering in that situation, add preload. If it is too hard to turn and understeers off all the time, remove preload.

Nice explanation Android, Cheers

The following is from testing with the FOX:

The main moment when preload makes a difference is the moment you lift off the brakes while going into a corner. This is when the transition from coast to power begins i.e. the torque at the rear wheels is very low. With zero preload you will experience oversteer at this point.

What I've found is that basically all FOX setups use a brake balance setting that is much further forward than a Formula Renault would use in real life. So my theory is that what you typically do in the FOX is use the front brake bias together with trail braking and lots of coast lock to induce understeer at corner entry to keep the rear end in check.

If you add some preload (100 - 200 Nm) you can take the brake balance back (from 67 % to 63 % in my case), lower the coast locking (30%) and still have a well balanced car at corner entry. In fact I find that with theese adjustments driving the FOX feels a lot more natural and realistic than before and quite a few other LFS relism problems were fixed at the same time:

-trail braking now works as intended, helping to turn in, not induce understeer
-it is no longer possible to catch a spinning car by stomping the brakes
-using ultra quick downshifts no longer improve braking distance
-front tyres don't pop as often in long races due to overloading under braking

So in summary I think that previously the brake balance was being (mis)used to cure turn in oversteer and this can now be done using preload.

I haven't seen anyone else adopt these kind of changes though so I wonder what other people think. I for one like the feeling much more but I didn't get any faster.