I like racing but don't have time to invest in understanding each car/track combination. In fact, I can only find about 1 hour a week to race online.

I think LFS is the most realistic sim and wish to enjoy it more when I have the time. I understand that setup is part of real world racing, but I wished there are servers that let racers compete on driver skill alone.

I wish there are servers that restrict cars with the standard setups only. It would provide long time races to race using driver skill only. But more importantly for causal people like me, I don't need to invest time with setups and can have competitive races and enjoy my LFS time more online.

Are there such servers? Anyone else feel the same?

there was a road going standard setup race thing going on REALLL long ago, featuring XRG and XFGs, and it was great fun.
I'd like another

To be quite honest, with about 1 hour per week practice it is not the setup that makes you uncompetitive. In general I support the option for fixed setup races, but you will find that even with them turned on you'll get your butt handed to you. Setups can definitely help, but it's all about what the driver is capable of doing with that set. Drivers that are fast now will still beat you even when they race with the default or any other fixed setup.

dude.. getting my butt kicked is not a problem. there are always going to be better and faster drivers than me.

i am a competent driver and during many races on LFS, others have told me my setup is slowing me down. people can see i am good driver and shout things like "your gears are too short" and stuff.

being a casual racer, i just want to have a better experience without putting in time with setup.

I can understand that, though considering how quickly useful features get implemented in LFS (read: not quickly), it might be worth spending the 30 seconds to learn what the final drive ratio slider does, or maybe 10 minutes to understand the setup basics (tyre camber, tyre pressure, final drive and maybe downforce if necessary).

That way you can make sure the setup doesn't limit you in absolutely basic ways like having too short gears, all the while taking less than one minute to set up. You don't even have to come near the suspension or steering tabs and you can ignore pretty much all but 3-4 sliders. Actually just the final drive ratio is probably enough for what you want.

Just saying because it's much more likely you can enjoy your LFS session more by investing this little bit of effort rather than waiting for a feature that might take months to implement.

If your just looking to have the same setups as most other people that are fast, just go to the two sites below and click the links to download "All Setups". Extract them into your setup folder within LFS. Then you will have a set for most combos that is fast and good enough for the average pickup race without having to know anything about setups

http://setupfield.teaminferno.hu/
http://www.setupgrid.net/

thanks for those links. i have seen them before and there are alot of setups to try. like i said, i don't have the time to test different setups to see which car/track/setup works best.

i am looking for a baseline or benchmark (or however you want to call it) racing. ie. i find that i have a 1 hour time slot, go onto such a server and no matter what car/track comb, i can just click and go in the though that all is equal. if i do well, then great! if i get lapped by everyone then i know i need to work at my skills on that combo.

i am simply enquiring to see if such servers exists(ed) and if anyone else has similar wishes.

i have no idea of the architectural design of LFS servers so please excuse me if its impossible.

i just think baseline racing would cater the causal racer and beginners very well.

Well such servers have existed in the past, but were based on gentlemanly agreements as there currently is no way to enforce a specific setup on a server. This has been a feature that has been suggested many times though and I think it's quite possible that it will happen at some future point.

As for now, you don't have to spend alot of time trying all the sets, just pick the most current set for the combo your on and go racing they are named accordingly...

You don't really need a good setup to be competitive with most people unless the server is for only one car/track combo. I've been using basically the same setup (pretty crappy one at that) since I started but I still post basically the same times as everyone else except for the top few drivers.

I agree untill you are getting within 103% of WR times I would just recomend staying with a set you find gives you the most confidence and consistency.

Server-side fixed setup racing would be a great addition to LFS, and has been suggested many times.

Here's hoping the devs get on it eventually.

Just grab your set from there and it's all good:
http://setupfield.teaminferno.hu/

Quote from Technique :

've been using basically the same setup (pretty crappy one at that) since I started but I still post basically the same times as everyone else except for the top few drivers.

Word - I also usually keep the same setup on servers with rotating circuits and I'm usually able to be at least within the top 5. Obviously the gear ratios will need a bit of tweaking at times but that's about it - it really comes down to having a good base set that you're supremely confident with.

I think people are getting a bit too dependent on the setup field.

What I do: select a car with rallycross setup, change tires for tarmac ones, and you have the more pleasant setup you can make (not the fastest of course)

And of course play offline.

Quote from steviemax :

thanks for those links. i have seen them before and there are alot of setups to try. like i said, i don't have the time to test different setups to see which car/track/setup works best.

i am looking for a baseline or benchmark (or however you want to call it) racing. ie. i find that i have a 1 hour time slot, go onto such a server and no matter what car/track comb, i can just click and go in the though that all is equal. if i do well, then great! if i get lapped by everyone then i know i need to work at my skills on that combo.

i am simply enquiring to see if such servers exists(ed) and if anyone else has similar wishes.

i have no idea of the architectural design of LFS servers so please excuse me if its impossible.

i just think baseline racing would cater the causal racer and beginners very well.

I know what you mean by not having the time to find the best setup for each combo. But almsot any of the sets on any of those sites are better than the stock sets. If your racing.....XRG at BL1, just go download any of the numerous sets for that combo, then just change the tire pressure. Done. Of course there will be better ones for your driving style, but for just a pick-up race it will do you wonders.

EDIT: Oh...and +10000 for the idea of one set races / stock set races. I think it would be fairly easy to implement and create great racing.

Simpler setups is something that I've wanted to see for a long time as well. I'm a decent racer, but I don't have a lot of free time. That makes working on setups, testing different track combos, etc. difficult. It's just too time consuming.

I would really like to organize a "super stock" type of race where everyone has essentially the same car. Something akin to the Spec Miata or Spec Solstice series (Spec XRG, anyone?). I think that some of the most fun races (both as a participant and as a spectator) are the ones where the cars are virtually identical and have little leeway in modifications.

Personally, I think that if the cars were given only realistic setup options this wouldn't be as big of a deal. There wouldn't be millions of different setup combinations for each car, so getting a decent setup would be more of a compromise (and therefore, much quicker and simpler). Imagine how much less setup time would be required if the road cars had standarized transmission ratios and maybe a half dozen rear end gear ratios to choose from. The same could be said for suspension. The average track day car and even most "spec series" cars have a pretty limited range of suspension adjustment. You might have 5 or 6 rebound and damping settings and two or three ARB choices.

Bottom line: Limit the road car setups to realistic levels and server side or "locked" setups probably won't be necessary at all, racing will be much closer, and drivers can spend more time driving and less time messing with sliders.

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

Server-side fixed setup racing would be a great addition to LFS, and has been suggested many times.

Here's hoping the devs get on it eventually.

it is something thats needed imo...would be so much fun

Even if it was just forcing hard track for now...hard track is way more fun to drive than any of the hotlap/faster race sets I have

Got to say that LFS is most flexibile with setups. Mostly everyone share setups, even in leagues and specially on public servers. Just ask others for setup, winner or someone who you know that makes good setups. Also only LFS has such a good setupfields.

1) Download all the setups from Inferno.
2) Go online and race anywhere and expect to be on the pace unless you don't have a setup anywhere near appropriate for that combo (unlikely)

That's what I do these days - I don't have time for more than 1hr a week either.

One important point: Don't race at Aston National in the GTRs, or Blackwood in the FBM or FOX, or SO Classic in the XFG. Those guys will probably have raced that same combo thousands of times and their performance will be abnormally good on that one combo - most of them will suck everywhere else. If you can find a race with an unusual car and track (LX4/6 anywhere, MRT anywhere) you'll be on a much more level playing field.

Speaking of playing fields: Awesome second half in the Turkey / Czech Republic game tonight.

If you are nice and clean as you say, you should try Dead men racing on Sundays. They race Race_s sets only and do team racing. They are clean and fun .
They also have good strict rules against dicks and kick them quickly

I don't really know why people are arguing against you steviemax, I understand where you're coming from. I've spent hours trying to get a setup that's fast, then it doesn't work for the next track. I've tried the setups available online, and I usually find them to be way too stiff and not fun to drive. I just want to race. And when things get close, and I'm battling the same guys each race, I like to know that it's skill, not setup.

I DID make a Spec XRG and XRT setup, based on Race_1 with modifications to make it work for any track. It's also soft and easy to drive (IMHO). It's what I race all the time. While there's usually someone (or a few people) that will beat me when I go out to CTRA or similar large servers, they're good enough for me to have a good race.

I ran a Spec server for a little while, had trouble finding enough people who would actually show up, and lost interest. If we've got a handful of people now and could agree on some times, I'd be happy to set it up again.

http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=26027

Feel free to try out my setups in the meantime, you'll definitely want to change the steering lock to whatever you usually use:

hi ecpreston - thanks for your acknowledgment on this and also for sharing your sets of general setups.

i really don't see any point for argument. some people like to race with a combination of setup and driving skill. thats great and they can do it with LFS until the cows come home. if you have the time, setup knowledge and driving skills then great, you will be the cream of LFS racers.

but for me, i don't have the time (haven't had the chance to play for three weeks now), i just want to enjoy more of LFS when i do get the time to play. like ecpreston so rightly acknowledged, it takes a great deal of time to get one car setup well on one track.

anyway, its nice to see others that feel the need to do some standard setup racing. i would not request any initiatives for this type of racing because i really don't race very much, but if this type of restricted style of racing is available in the future, i think it would be well received.

must admit i'm with you on this too steviemax as i'm a pick-up-and-play-occasionally player too.. it would at least remove the "do i suck ?" or "does my setup suck?" uncertainty from my racing !!
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(I know its the former but meh)

Since Cue-Ball wanted a Spec Miata I build this setup based on the RAC. It's a little light but its close. In the actual class only things like toe, tire pressuer and camber are allowed to be changed. The ARBs, shocks, springs and gear ratios are fixed.