I have been having tons of trouble with snap oversteer. Just about all the rear drive cars with the default setups give me trouble, especially the RAC.

On a track like AS Historic Rev. I can get around ok if I go easy, but I have tire noises cranked up all the way and as soon as I hear the slightest faintest beginning of a skid I know I have pushed too far.

I often find myself running waaaay wide right off the road into obstacles or sand traps just to avoid putting that little bit of extra steering in otherwise I will get the dreaded snap oversteer.

So, are the default setups real shitty in that regard or is it me? I have a wheel and everything too....

The answer to your question is default setups but dont think it is much easier to be a great driver. You can download good setups here www.teaminferno.hu

Quote from Kajojek(PL) :

The answer to your question is default setups but dont think it is much easier to be a great driver. You can download good setups here www.teaminferno.hu

most of those setups are wr setups, meant for only 1 lap driving. They are not the best handling, and can be twitchy. I suggest you try to get your setups from other people in game.

do those wr setups shred tyres a lot faster than a race setup?

richy: as a rule of thumb, yes. But some can be modified with just a few changes to last long enough for endurance racing. Cars that are easy of tyres to begin with (e.g. FOX or MRT5) may need no changes at all (if you're smooth).

modenaf1: yeah, they suck - that's why I tried to do something about it

Sometimes when I really want to have a laugh I use the default setups. Just to see how crappy they are. Then I switch back to my normal setup and at once I can take most corners 20km/h faster.
The default setups are nothing but rediculous. They're actually the worst thing about LFS. They make LFS feel horribly twitchy and strange.

Vain

Now that's actually the only car I don't drive.

Vain

Quote from modenaf1 :

So, are the default setups real shitty in that regard or is it me? I have a wheel and everything too....

Default setups are not nice.

Modenaf1, Bob was probably too modest when he said he'd tried to do something about it. Just so there's no ambiguity, I think a very smart move before downloading all the inferno.hu setups (some of which are not suitable for longer races as others have said) would be to get Bob's "easy race" setup pack. These are a great starting point for further setup explorations.

I would defenately go with the bob's easy ride setups and then move to the inferno sets. The teaminferno sets aren't that HL tweaked imho. I have a XRR set for AS5, which I guess is a HL set and I can do 12 laps without being too conservative.

And the RAC certainly has some handling issues in long corners. The nature of the car is snappy, but if you manage to stay on the grip side it's a great ride. Just don't go with the default sets . The long corner in AS4R before the eau rouge section is something I don't want to drive with the RAC.

I think Team Infernos setups are great until the car is RWD without wings. Always I put some more downforce and they are great. I say "Until RWD without wings" because I dont know yet anything about the cars and how they work, I only know how to chnge the downforce. If I dont have a set I usually ask for people who are good.

Have a go at these:

http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=4272

(don't install super front tyres!)

Quote from thisnameistaken :

This is not meant as a criticism at all (it's all down to preference I suppose) but Bob's Easy setups, for the more powerful RWD road cars at least, tend to be a bit too unstable for me under braking. I find cranking up the coast lock on the diff. to around 70% helps them be a bit more trail brake friendly.

You're of course welcome to tweak them however you feel fit. I don't trail brake myself (never could get the hang of it) and I doubt many beginners will be either. By the time you are practising such driving techniques you're probably ready for faster sets.

Hey Bob
Been a while since I logged on etc without going through lots of searches checking out your site, have you upgraded your LFS Gear Ratio Calculator since november?

I'll have to start racing again soon, been away from LFS far too long

my favourite car is the XF GTR and the UFR too but i like the XF GTR a little bit more for its hot hatch feeling.

i find myself constantly thinking of tyre wear in every corner, and it makes your heart sink to see the little puffs of smoke from a lock up.

ive got some fast setups that i use, downloaded and received in the game and i usually tweak them about a bit to suit my braking, because i find that really wears those tyres out fast.

Can i take a setup that has S2 tyres on it, and just swap it straight to S3 or S4? will it completely unbalance the setup ive got?

if i find the setup is wearing the tyres down too quick, other than driving style, whats the best tweak that can be adjusted to save tyres without having to completely mess up the setup??

You can usually take any hotlap set for the xfr, and use r3 tires for the fronts if you're going to run a longer race. Adding tire pressure, reducing the front cambers closer to neutral, and just not driving out of corners as hard will work fine.

Hi ShannonN

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/the ... idget/lfs_grc_devlog.html as you can see, 9th December was the last update. Haven't touched it in ages, about time I tried to finish off my to-do list.

richy: to a certain degree, yes, you can just change tyre compounds without too worrying. Tyre pressures, brake strength (to avoid excess lockups), and to a lesser degree, camber, may well need to be adjusted to keep tyre heating OK.

There are several ways to make a set easier on the tyres - adjust camber for even wear, increase tyre pressures, use softer suspension, ease diff locking (to a point), reduce downforce (not application on the XFR/UFR I know)

note: changing just the front or rear tyre compound will require more work

(edit: beaten to it)

ok ill give you the example that i am thinking of when i said that.

i downloaded the AS nat setup from team inferno which was great cos i was in the lead bunch until i made a mistake or two which would send me to the back

the server i joined was a 7 lapper on AS nat standard, it felt like a long track and with a nice careful race with limited mistakes, by lap 6 or 7 my tyre wear is just creeping in to affect my corners.

the insides of the two front wheels are bright red, and i started noticing that the inside tyre wall was bright red after the first 1 or 2 laps. They hold out for the full race length but i couldnt drive without the tyre monitor on and fear of a puncture (which never actually happened). i think it was affecting my lap times.

i knew that maybe the setup is not for 7 lap races, maybe a 5 lapper would be perfect but its good to know how to adjust it for that extra lap or two.

i have already loosened the suspension a bit, well i think i did! i made the anti roll bars a tiny bit looser and rebound damping a touch softer. it felt like the car did have a tendancy to "hop" about on the road and things like the 3rd gear chicane it felt like the car was bouncing round the corners a bit.

maybe i adjusted the wrong things first, i might redownload it and try again starting at those things first

edit: oh yeah if i adjust the camber of the front wheels does it affect my braking much, AS nat has some long straight parts which go into tight 2nd gear corners so i need to shave tonnes of speed off in places

In the end, tyre wear really comes down to your driving skill and smoothness.

Granted, there are setups that kill the tyres after one lap, but only very few. Setups where most newbies would bet that they wouldn't hold any longer than five laps can be driven 30 laps by skilled people who just have some practice with the setup and know its behaviour. Most heat really comes from unnecessary pushing, sliding and locking up the brakes. If a setup doesn't fit your driving style (or you're unable to adapt your driving style to the setup), then even the most endurance-proof setup will trash your tyres in no time.


You also shouldn't forget that it's quite okay for tyres to become orange-reddish after the first few laps, because they will cool down considerably when the tread gets thinner. Unfortunately you don't actually notice this in 5 lap stints, so many people are unaware of that.

Quote from Bob Smith :

richy: as a rule of thumb, yes. But some can be modified with just a few changes to last long enough for endurance racing. Cars that are easy of tyres to begin with (e.g. FOX or MRT5) may need no changes at all (if you're smooth).

modenaf1: yeah, they suck - that's why I tried to do something about it

That must be it, I don't have any problems with the F0X or MRT5.

Quote from Clownpaint :

Just sling it in and control it. :P

Concentrate more on corner exit speed than entry speed, it sounds to me like you're just going in too fast. The setups on inferno should help too.

Thanks, I usually go with a slow in fast out approach, these cars seem to be very twitchy unless you do slow weeklong smooth throttle changes. Very sensitive to drop throttle.

I can get these cars around no problems at all if I drive within 7-9 tenths of their ability, but once you cross the limit or do just the slightest thing wrong with the throttle they step out at you.

I have no problems at all in AutoXes, in fact in LFS I do a ton of practice in there, an AutoX IMO is all about having the right combination of smoothness and agressiveness. Just the higher speed tracks like Aston can really do some nasty stuff to me.

Oh and thanks for the link to the setups guys!

Quote from Bob Smith :

You're of course welcome to tweak them however you feel fit. I don't trail brake myself (never could get the hang of it) and I doubt many beginners will be either. By the time you are practising such driving techniques you're probably ready for faster sets.

Ah, I am a trail braker. I let off the brakes smoothly as I dial in the steering and sometimes they seem to behave better if I give a little gas mid corner, then start to give it more gas as I unwind the steering. Sometimes as I am coming in I tend to lock some inside tires, not sure if my front, rear, or both. Nasty flatspots....


Anyway, many of these cars even when driven smoothly tend to just let loose with no warnings at all, especially the RAC, it could be a matter of just a degree or two more steering that can send it backwards into a sandtrap.

If I drive nice and smooth and under the limit all usually is well and I don't really have any tire wear problems, but I just get majorly shitty lap times.

Transitions seem to be nasty too, almost feels like these cars start to float once you get them up to speed.


Also, what is with the wheelspin? This seems a bit unrealistic. Many of these cars don't have that excellent power to weight ratios, yet they just smoke the front tires like wicked right off the line, or even if you are already moving 5-10 mph they just smoke em. I drive a car in real life with gear ratios that are about the same, it weighs 2100 pounds and has 110lb ft of torque and 105hp. To smoke the front tires (even with studdes snows on for cryin out loud), I would probably have to rev it up and sidestep the clutch. (In other words, you cant just spin the front tires) Yet in LFS, these cars, the XF GTi and UF1000 can just burn out! In real life, I forget if it was the SRT8 Dodge Magnum or the E55AMG, but one of those cars can be floorboarded from a stop and it doesn't even spin the rear tires, even with TC disengaged.