I've been trying to figure out all of this setup business. I understand some of it, but one thing in particular has me puzzled... and I'm not sure if it's a product of my bad driving, or of some setting on the car.

The attached image shows the "forces" view of me going round a corner in the MRT5. The red indicator above the front left wheel is the trouble. Does that mean too much weight is shifting to that tire, causing it to lock up/lose grip?

I have watched replays of better drivers, and most times, all of those indicators above the tires stay an orange-ish color and rarely turn red. I believe it generally occurs just after braking -> coasting a bit -> power on into a corner.

So, is it something I'm doing wrong with my driving, or is it a setup issue? I've tried changing the damping settings around and it does seem to affect it, but I have yet to "cure" it.

If anyone has suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

The red means the suspension travel has reached it's limit.

Red arrows always mean the tyre has started slipping, but your tyre will never do that because of force from above (that's "good" force, and provides the tyre with more grip).
(Edit: Oh shab - I didn't know that meant you'd run out of suspension travel... )

From your explanation it's probably because you're still turning while trying to put all the power down. Because you're accelerating the load shifts to the rear of the car, robbing the front tyres of grip, but they're still trying to turn the car without having the benefit of all that load pushing them into the road. The consequence is that the front tyres lose grip and you understeer wide.

You can reduce the understeer (I think) by increasing the front rebound damper in relation to the rear compression damper, or by adding some rear anti-roll bar in relation to the front anti-roll bar, but you won't generate much more overall grip from a decent setup, all you'll do it change the way the car reacts when you lose grip in this way. Basically if you can cause the power to the rear tyres to make them spin before the fronts give up, you'll get oversteer instead of understeer.

You can do that dynamically anyway with the right inputs; if you hook the wheel and then floor the throttle in most RWDs you'll get plenty of oversteer. So if it's a circuit where there are just a small fraction of corners where you need the rear end to swing around it might be best not to dial in too much oversteer into the setup and instead just use brute force to make oversteer happen when you need it.

IANASGAIARD (I am not a setup guru and I am rather drunk) but hope this helps.

as already stated, you are hitting the bump stop. you'll need either stiffer springs or longer travel.

Quote from evilgeek :

as already stated, you are hitting the bump stop. you'll need either stiffer springs or longer travel.

Sorry, but to butt in for a moment if I may - How do you increase travel, or indeed decrease it if you are set up for more than you need (or does it have little effect if you have more than is needed?). Thanks.

Quote from EarlHaz :

Sorry, but to butt in for a moment if I may - How do you increase travel, or indeed decrease it if you are set up for more than you need (or does it have little effect if you have more than is needed?). Thanks.

suspension setup screen. ride height reduction settings. slider to the right lowers the car, to the left lifts the car.

before adjusting the ride height, go to your tires setup screen and take note of your live camber amounts. after changing the ride height you will need to return to the tires screen and adjust your static camber settings to get back to the same live camber values.

the advantage of lowering your car is more responsive handling in corners, with less body roll. the disadvantage is being forced to use stiffer springs, which can result in less overall grip. so it's really a trade off between responsiveness and grip, and you need to find a balance that suits your driving style and the track.

Thanks evilgeek - noted