I just have a question that is well not bothering me terribly much, but I think it could make Live for Speed more enjoyable to people. One thing I have noticed is annoying to me is that when I am creating a setup I do not know where to begin. I don't really want to use other peoples sets as I find it rude and I am coming into the age of wanting to learn to do it myself. I've tried other peoples sets but I ussually just look at a it quick, and I don't use it more then a race because I want my set to be created by me.

Please don't flame me for posting this here, I am sure there are other places to find setup tutorials if I had used the search function, however I was rather upset that I couldn't just come into the "Car Setup" thread and not find good information about setting up a car. I know a few of the basic side effects: More downforce can be better handling less speed, and some others but where do people generally start?

Again I just started getting into setting up my cars, and have mostly been starting with the downforce, tire pressure and camber... I've messed with the final drive, but generally don't change the gears much though I know there purposes. I have been reading the one thing I saw on setting up cars in LFS, (a very nice setup manual but I don't know the link - "LFS_Advanced_Setup_Guide".

I was just hoping people were using this section to post ideas / thoughts that have worked on their setups in general. Maybe this post starts that.

Another really quick question. Do you save a setup for each track and direction or just save sets for driving fast, medium and slow? I've been doing sets for each track, but I am starting to think its a bad idea - I posted a suggestion http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=30805 in the Improvement section that may help...

What are some thoughts, hope this sparks interesting convos...

Quote from blackbird04217 :

I have been reading the one thing I saw on setting up cars in LFS, (a very nice setup manual but I don't know the link - "LFS_Advanced_Setup_Guide".

Can be found in the LFS Manual here (and lots of other useful stuff too).

Regarding setups, I almost always take Inferno setups as base, though they're very likely to get modified to suit my tastes, sometimes even without trying the setup beforehand (for example, I generally refuse to drive locked diff setups). The simple reason for taking these sets is that 1) the people gave their sets away willingly, which removes any sense of 'rudeness' for me, and 2) I don't have the time to spend hours creating and tweaking my own set, starting from zero. Usually the Inferno sets have the most obvious things set up quite good and can be tweaked relatively easily to remove the hotlapping instability while at the same time adding a personal touch.

So for the most part I'm changing tyre pressures, camber, toe in, gear ratios and anti-roll bars (and of course removing locked diffs). The suspension is something I rarely touch, as it is IMO the most complex thing to change and very drastic effects on handling can already be achieved by the aforementioned properties, so there's hardly a need to tinker with it.

Me the same...I use Inferno sets as base to save time doing sets from scratch. I mostly do the same tweaks as Android but I sometimes change suspension setting slightly ( making rear softer to fix overster)

Quote from blackbird04217 :

Please don't flame me for posting this here, I am sure there are other places to find setup tutorials if I had used the search function, however I was rather upset that I couldn't just come into the "Car Setup" thread and not find good information about setting up a car.

Well there is a thread for the advanced setup guide but it's not stickied and thus not been posted in for probably well over a year. I would sticky it but it's out of date date and due for a re-write if you ask me. Perhaps when it is back up to date again I will sticky the thread, it could prove useful.

There is also my setup analyser which will help you create/edit sets, but be prepared to be thrown in the deep end. /plug

For me, my approach starts with the ride height and spring rate, moves on to the dampers, the anti-roll bars and tire pressure, then everything else.
I try to develop setups that properly absorb surface undulations while providing me with the kind of characteristics that match my driving style.
The essential thing is having a car that can cope with the requirements of a particular course, in my opinion. I admit that I am pretty lazy though :P

As far as drifting goes, I focus on stability during various conditions, like hitting feelers and grass.

I'd like a two-layered option for easliy and quickly getting a reasonalbe setup from scratch, like EA's F1 method, gears, downforce, ride height, all the main things, then to be able to go a layer deeper for access to all the fancy tweaks I never bother adjusting like sastor and bump/rebound, etc. I think it would help ease new players into experimenting more with basic parameter tweaking then into more advanced ones.

Quote from Bob Smith :

There is also my setup analyser which will help you create/edit sets, but be prepared to be thrown in the deep end.

Downloaded it, and have messed around in it a bit. I will say I fell in and almost drowned. . . I have to give you props that it is very nice that you can calculate a lot of neat things for me... But it is an information overload, at least at first... ; )