Car tuning
From ArticleWorld
If you want to tune your car, you must be a licensed Driver's Club member. You can become a member by purchasing a license at the counter. You must also agree to the car tuning agreement presented the first time you try to tune your car.
A member of the Driver's Club can have one individually tuned car for each track. Each track has a different car, allowing the driver to set the car up just the way he or she likes it for that track.
When tuning your car, avoid making large adjustments to multiple parameters at the same time. It will be hard to determine which parameter is having which effect, and you can really mess up your car. Instead, starting with the default car, make fairly small adjustments to just one or two parameters. Drive the car, and see if you improved things. It may help to take notes, and you can look at your race results to see if your lap times improved. The tuning options for the default car on each track are marked by an asterisk (*) in the first column. Here are the various car parameters that can be set up, along with hints for each parameter:DRIVER AIDS Traction Control
Traction Control is turned on by default. To turn it off, clear the checkbox on the tuning form. When Traction Control is turned on the car senses whether the rear tires are spinning too fast for the car's speed. If the tires are spinning too fast, engine power is automatically reduced until the rear tires hook up again. This makes the car easier to drive by preventing you from breaking the rear end loose by stomping on the gas too hard.
Traction control can reduce acceleration and can prevent you from using engine power to bring the rear end around, but be careful if you turn it off. It will be hard to keep the car going straight when accelerating in low gears, unless you use a light touch on the throttle. Anti-Lock Brakes
Anti-Lock brakes are also turned on by default. To turn off antilock brakes, clear the checkbox on the tuning form. Anti-lock brakes work in a similar way to traction control. The car senses if the wheels are locked, or turning too slowly for the car's speed when braking. If the wheels are turning too slowly, the car reduces the braking force until they start rotating again. This allows you to steer the car even with maximum braking.
Anti-lock brakes don't reduce the car's braking performance much, but real NASCAR drivers don't get to use them. If you want maximum realism, turn anti-lock brakes off. You will need to learn to pump the brakes to keep directional control during hard braking.AERODYNAMICS Spoiler Angle The spoiler angle affects both the aerodynamic drag and downforce on your car. As you increase the spoiler angle, you increase the aerodynamic force pressing your car down onto the racetrack. This extra downforce allows you to corner at higher speeds. Increasing the spoiler angle also increases the drag on your car, requiring more engine power at a given speed.
On a low speed track with tight corners such as Richmond or Bristol, you might as well go for the maximum spoiler angle. Your car can't get up to a high enough speed where the aerodynamic drag is much of a factor, and any downforce you get will help you in the turns.
On a track like the original Daytona track, where you have limited engine power, go for the minimum spoiler angle. Your top speed is controlled by aerodynamic drag, so you want the drag as low as possible. The banking on Daytona is high enough that your tires aren't near their limits.
On lower banked, high speed tracks such as Lowe's or Atlanta, spoiler selection becomes more critical. If you want to improve your car in the turns, go for a higher spoiler angle. For maximum speed in the straights, go for a lower spoiler angle. If you change the spoiler angle, you may need to fool with your rear end ratio to get the maximum benifit. Steering Ratio The steering ratio is the ratio between the number of degrees you turn the steering wheel, and the steer angle of the car's front wheels. With a low steering ratio, the car will turn sharply with a small steering wheel movement. This can be good for tracks with a lower top speed and sharp turns. A higher steering ratio allows for finer control . This is valuable on high speed tracks such as Daytona, where there are no sharp turns.
A linear steering ratio means that the same steering wheel motion gives you the same front wheel effect all throughout the steering travel. A progressive steering ratio has a higher ratio in the center, changing to a lower ratio when you have the wheel hard over. This allows you to have fine control while going nearly straight, but allows you to turn the front wheels enough to catch a skid or get out from bumping into the wall. Try different ratios to see what works best for you on each track. Front Anti-Roll Bar Changing the stiffness of the front anti-roll bar allows you to control the balance of your car. As you go faster and faster around a corner, your car can act in three different ways: 1. If your car pushes or understeers it will tend to require more steering input to keep you on the same driving line as you accelerate. Eventually you will not be able to keep your car on the line and it will head to the outside of the corner. 2. If your car is neutral, you won't have to adjust the wheel as you head around the corner faster. Eventually your tires will run out of grip and you will head to the outside of the corner. 3. If your car is loose, or oversteers, it will require less and less steering input to keep it on the line as you accelerate. When you reach the limit, your rear tires will run out of grip before your front tires, and your car will spin out. Changing the stiffness of the front anti-roll bar allows you to control this behavior. With a stiff front anti-roll bar, the outside tire will have a much higher load than the inside front tire in a corner. In this situation, the outside front tire is overloaded and the inside front tire is only lightly loaded. This pair of tires will generate less side force than the more evenly loaded rear tires, and thus the front end will stick less well than the rear, making the car push or understeer.
If, on the other hand, you have low stiffness anti-roll bar on the front than on the rear, the front tire loading will be more even. As you approach the limit, the front tires will generate more total side force than the rear tires. This will make the rear end break loose and your car will spin out.
The default car is set up with a fairly stiff anti roll bar in the front, and with a lower stiffness anti-roll bar in the rear. This makes all of the default cars push. Cars that push are much easier and safer to drive than cars that are more neutral or oversteer. However, since you are not using all the available side force from the front tires they are also slower in a corner than a car that is neutral. Experiment with reducing the front anti-roll bar stiffness and making your car more neutral. Be careful of going too far; there is no advantage to having your car be oversteer, and even a neutral car can be a handful when you get on the power, since asking the rear tires to accelerate you will reduce their available side force and will tend to make your car spin out.POWERTRAIN OPTIONS Motor There are currently 3 different motors available for your car. The Original Engine is based on some generic racing V8 power curves. It is the default for most tracks. The Ford NASCAR motor is based on actual dyno test results on a real NASCAR motor. It has a more realistic torque curve and slightly more power. It also has a "rev limiter" that drastically reduces torque above 8000 rpm. The Restrictor Plate motor is only available (and is required) on the Daytona original and Rookie Challenge tracks.
You probably want to switch to the Ford NASCAR motor, but note that it reaches its peak power at a lower RPM than the Original Motor. You may have to adjust your rear end ratio (see below) to get the full benefit from using it. When you change the motor, the displayed torque curve changes, and the gear tables are updated for the motor's peak power RPM. Transmission
You have a variety of different transmissions available for your car. The ratios for these transmissions are taken from real racing transmissions available to the NASCAR community. The transmissions are arranged from close ratio at the top to wide ratio at the bottom. Close ratio means that the gear ratios are close together, with smaller gaps in ratio between the gears. Wide ratio transmissions have a larger gap between each gear. All the transmissions have a 1.00 ratio in top gear, making top speed in fourth gear only a function of the rear end ratio (see below).
On a short track or a road course where you need to shift, you might want to use a close ratio transmission. This would allow you to match your gear to your driving speed. On a high speed track such as Daytona you are going to just sit there in top gear. Under these conditions, you probably want a wide ratio transmission to help you to accelerate quickly to top speed.
Rear End (Ring/Pinion) Ratio Since fourth gear on all the transmissions has a 1.00 ratio, the rear end ratio of your car is critical in getting the top speed from your car, especially on tracks like Daytona. If you pick a ratio that is too high, your engine will reach the peak of its power curve at a low speed and your engine will "hit the rev limiter", preventing you from accelerating. On the other hand, if you pick a ratio that is too low, your engine won't have enough torque to accelerate you up to the RPM where it will produce its peak power. This will reduce your top speed as well.
The numbers in the box i.e. 40/14,2.86 mean that the ring gear in the differential has 40 teeth, and the smaller pinion gear that drives it has 14 teeth. Dividing 40 by 14 gives you the rear end ratio of 2.86. These gear ratio combinations were selected from choices available in a NASCAR racing differential.
The gear table on the page gives you the overall gear ratio (combined transmission and rear end ratio) for each gear, as well as the approximate speed you would achieve at the peak power RPM for your engine. Your car may not be able to reach this speed if aerodynamic drag (see the spoiler section) is too great. Experiment to determine the best ratio for your track, spoiler angle, and driving style.OTHER CONTROLS
Load Track Default This button will load the values for the track default car into each of the tuning parameters. Use this button if you have messed your car up and want to go back to the standard values. You can then make whatever modifications to the standard values you want. Remember to save your car back to the database or no changes will be made.
Reload Saved This will load the last car you saved. Use this button if you want to go back to your last saved car, discarding any changes you have made in the current tuning session.
Save and Exit Use this button to save your tuned car to the database. Unless you save your car it will not be available when you next race on that track.
Exit Without Saving This button exits from your car tuning session without making any changes to the database. Any changes made in the current tuning session will be discarded.
Car Name You can enter a name or comment about your car into the box at the bottom of the form. This can help you remember what you were trying to do with your car setup. This name or comment will be available in the tuning log. Car names or comments must contain at least one alphabetic (a-z) or numeric (0-9) character.
View Log This button on the login form will allow you to view your car tuning history.
Disable Car Tuning This button will completely disable all car tuning for your Driver ID. Any saved cars will be retained, however, and you can re-enable tuning by trying to tune your car again and hitting the "I Agree" button on the form.