GT4 Tuning Guide

[ford_racer]

This is a kind of indepth tuning guide for GT4. Hopefully from my lobbying and soon to come GT4 postwave, we will get a car games section. I mean, for God's sakes we have a military section on a CAR site. Anyways, here we go.

Chevelle's GT4 Tuning Guide

Upgrades

Air Cleaner/Mufflers
There are 3 types of Air Cleaner/Mufflers, Sports, Semi-Racing, Racing. These upgrades focus completely on horsepower and torque, with the Racing upgrade giving the biggest boost by using a cone style air cleaner and a straight through exhaust system.

Brakes
In this category we have a racing style brake upgrade, and a brake balance controller. The racing brake upgrade helps the car stop faster by allowing heat to disipate faster by increasing the surface area and slotting/cross drilling the rotor. The brake balance controller lets the user increase/decrease the front and rear brakes independently. This is very useful for dialing in under/oversteer while braking.

Engine
This category focuses mainly on increasing the car's horsepower/ torque, with one upgrade increase the revving ability of the engine. There are upgrades such as NA stages 1, 2, and 3, which increase a non-forced induction engine's power greatly. There is port polish of the vehicle's head(s), which only increases the power slightly, but is expensive. There is engine balancing, which increases power slightly, is also expensive, but also increases the revving ability. Next up there is increase displacement, which is only available on a handful of vehicles (i.e. Skyline R34 V-Spec II), and also raises the power slightly. Next up is the computer. This is a very good upgrade for beginners/pros looking for a decent power upgrade for cheap. For only around 1,500 cr, you can increase your power output by up to 25 hp. Finally there is nitrous. This is a new one to Gran Turismo. This nitrous kit costs 5,000 cr and can increase your power by ALOT!!! In the settings section, it allows you to adjust the spray, either for power or duration. This is a very good upgrade for when you want to reach your top speed quickly.

Driveline
In here, there are a variety of uprgrades that allow you to increase your top speed, or decrease your time spent in neutral while shifting, along with upgrades that can help you dial out/in understeer and oversteer. First up are transmissions. There is a Sports, which is a close ratio tranny, Semi-Racing, which is closer ratio than Sports, and there is Racing. This tranny lets you adjust all your forward gears and your final gear independently, or it allows you adjust all the gears at the same time with a preset ratios. Next are the clutches. There are 3 types. There is an upgraded single disc clutch, which improves shift time moderatly. There is a 2 disc clutch, which should be used on high horsepower and torque engines, and there is a 3 disc clutch, which should be used on moderately powered cars ( 250-400 hp). It really doesn't make a big difference with either clutch, so I suggest the 2 disc clutch because it is just as good as the 3 disc, but is cheaper. Next are the flywheels. There are again 3 types, Sports, Semi-Racing, and Racing. All these help the engine rev quicker because they are lighter than stock. The Racing flywheel is the most helpful, and is cheap at around 1,000 cr on every vehicle (except racecars). Next is the carbon driveshaft. This upgrade is fairly cheap and helps the engine rev quicker than the flywheel when the engine is under load (ie vehicle moving). You will want to buy this before the flywheel if you have the money. Finally (except the yaw control, which we wont discuss because it is worthless and rarely able to be purchased) are the limited slip diffs. There are 4 types. The only notable one is the full-customizable LSD, which costs around 6,800 cr (i think). It allows you to adjust torque to the drive wheels, along with acceleration and deceleration properties which we will discuss in the tuning section.

Forced Induction
This category includes 4 turbo kits (5 in tuners village for some cars), 2 intercoolers, and a supercharger ugrade. The 4 stages of turbo boost the horsepower by a good amount, with the lower stages (1 and 2) have the least amount of lag, and the later stages (3,4 and 5) having the most.The 5th stage does not have as much lag as stage 4, its is cheaper than stage 4, but sometime does not have the peak horsepower that stage 4 gives. It is recommended that this be bought if available, and if it gives more peak power. The intercoolers are a cheap way of increasing horsepower with around 4,500 cr being the price for the better intercooler. These work by cooling the gases before they enter the cylinders. The supercharger was a good idea implemented poorly. Only some cars can use them. They are helpful when you want to increase your horsepower/torque, but can't afford the stage 3 NA. The stage 3 NA will give you more power, but costs around 75,000 cr. The supercharger has NO lag.

Suspension
There are 3 types of suspension (imagine that), Sports, Semi-Racing, Racing. The sports lets you adjust ride height and camber (i think, I don't use it). The Semi-Racing lets you adjust spring rate, ride height, shock absorbers, toe, and camber (i think, I don't use this either). The Racing suspension let's you adjust the spring rate with softer and harder limitations than Semi. It lets you adjust the ride height more, the bound and rebound are now independently.The toe and camber are still adjustable, but anti-roll bars are now adjustable. There is ANOTHER type of suspension kit, that is only available in the tuners village. This is the original kit, and I recomemend that you DO NOT buy this. The spring rates are have greater limits, but you CANNOT adjust bound and rebound independently. This ruins the whole kit.

Tires
This is arguably the best improvement for your car, but has somewhat decreased in practicality when Polyphony Digital (PD) introduced the feature of automatically putting medium sports tires on the car when you buy it. There are N type tires (Economy, Comfort, and Road) which are all free and allow you to feel the cars real life (or close to) handling. Economy should be used for low power, econo boxes (i.e.Honda Beat). Comfort should be used for muscle cars and similar cars (Chevelle, Corvettes, Skylines, Evos, etc.). Road should be used for high end, exotic sports cars (i.e. Zondas). There are sports tires (Hard, Medium and Soft). These tires offer good grip for the price, and don't where as quickly as there racing counterparts. Next is racing. The Super-Soft offers the highest grip, but wears quickly. The Hard offers the least grip, but wears slowly. I prefer Medium tires in all but the shorts races with no tire wear (examples are the first 2 special conditions races) and the endurance races (such as the dreaded 24 hours at Nurburgring). Next are the Rally tires, which are required for courses such as Tahiti, Grand Canyon, Cathedral Rocks, and Swiss Alps. Finally are the Snow tires. These are required in races with snow (duh) such as Chamonix and the Ice Arena.

Other
This is the final category under the tuning shops at the manufacturer. This includes the 1,000cr lightening, the 5,000cr lightening, and the 20,000cr lightening. Next is the VCD, or Variable Center Differential. The VCD let the user adjust the percentage of torque that goes the the front wheels from 10-50%. The lightening is very, VERY handy, as it increases acceleration, tire wear and handling. The 1,000 cr lightening is recommended highly when you first buy a vehicle (that is, after oil change, flywheel, and muffler).

GT Auto
This is a place where you can get a carwash, oilchange, new/used wheels, and spoilers. I suggest getting an oilchange when you first buy ANY car, new or used. This gives a horsepower boost on new cars, and restores lost HP on used or high mileage vehicles. The car wash makes your cars shiny, and supposedely reduces drag. The wheels only make your car look good. The spoilers ARE functional. When you buy a spoiler, you get the visible rear spoiler, and an invisible front spoiler. These help with downforce, which helps the car turn better or helps stablize the car.

This does it for the upgrade part of the tuning guide. Soon to come: edits, the actual tuning part, edits, and my own tuning setups.

If any errors are seen, or if you have any questions/ suggestions, don't hesitate to PM me.




PLEASE DON'T POST UNTIL I AM DONE WITH THE ACTUAL SETTING FAQ

[ford_racer]

This is the tuning faq. It will help you with tuning your cars for fast lap times. I am by far not the best tuner this game has ever seen. I know some pretty good techniques (sp?). Here I go.

Note: This guide is mostly for FR, MR, and 4WD cars.

DISCLAIMER: This guide is for GT4 and not real life. Consequences such as death, personal injury or injury to property, criticizm (sp?), STDs, or anything else bad is not my fault. Getting laid, attracting women, good comments, and anything else positive IS my fault and the women should be given my e-mail address available in my profile.

TUNING FAQ

Suspension:

Spring Rate- The springs of the car carry the weight of the car. In order to make the car turn precisely, we need to adjust which spring carry what amount of weight we want. In most cases we want the front tires to carry most of the weight. With the front carrying most of the weight, we allow the front tires (which do the turning, as we all know) to have the desired amount of traction. My settings GENERALLY have the front tires at about 3-6 kg/mm SOFTER than the rear tires. This USUALLY puts them at 5 to 10 kg/mm, with the rear tires at about 8 to 16 kg/mm. Now each car is different, so sometimes the kg/mm will be outside what i just said. Heavier cars generally require the softer springs, with the lighter cars (i.e. full on racers or production cars turned into racers) wanting the harder springs. NOTE ON FF CARS: An extreme rating should be used on front wheel drive cars. An example would be something like 4.5 in front and 13.5 rear is useful. This is so the weight will stay on the front tires most of the time, and is used to dial out understeer.

Ride Height- The ride height is the amount, in millimeters, of space between the bottom of the car frame/ body (which ever is lower) and the ground. When tuning a car, you don't want the ride height to low, or else the car will bottom out and cause undesired bouncing. When testing your settings, check for sparks. If you see sparks on normal asphault, that means your car is too low. If you see sparks on the red and white edges of the road, that means you are a bad driver and you should learn to keep the inside tires only on that part of the course. Generally I have my ride height in the front 5-15 mms lower than the back. This lets the weight transfer to the front while braking.

Bound and Rebound- The bound and rebound is the ability of the car's shock absorbers to compress and decompress, respectively. The ability to adjust the shock absorber bound properties is priceless. This helps you control the amount of understeer/oversteer in the car (to a certain limit). I have the bound of the front shocks about 2 points softer than the rear, which would make it in the 4-7 range. This lets the car take the weight transfer with little resistance. The softer the bound in the front, the better the ability to steer. The rebound is the cars quickness to decompress the shocks after turning. With rebound, I try to keep the front at 8 or 9, with the rear at 10. This helps control the body roll after the initial turning.

Camber- Camber is the tilt of the wheels. Camber is useful on banked turns, but is also useful on level turns when the weight of the vehicle is put on the outside tire. With the weight on the outside tires, they will start to become straight up and down. With positive camber, the left wheels will look like //, and the right will look like \\. With no camber, the wheels would look like l l. When tuning, a number between 1 and 3.5 is best. I use around 2.4 on the front and 2.0. On the back. More information on camber to come.

Toe In/Out- Toe is the direction that the tire points. Toe in of the left wheel would look like this // from the top, and toe out would look like this \\. The effects of camber soon to come. I have my toe set at +1.0 in front and back.

Stablizers- Stabilizers, or anti-roll bars to some, are used to suppress the body roll of a vehicle. The stiffer the roll bar, the less body roll there will be, but the ability to lean to the turn and put weight on the outside tires (used for traction) will be decreased. Will softer roll bars, the opposite will happen. When adjusting the stabilizers, take into account the weight of the car you are tuning. Heavier cars will benefit from stabilizers in the front at a rating of 3-4, and the rear and 4-6. With lighter cars, an even 7-8 can be used. If understeer is present, try making the front stabilizer softer by 1 point. Keep trying until understeer disappears. If understeer is still present, return to normal setting, adjust 1 point softer, than start adjusting the front bound and front spring rates.


Transmission:

Gear Ratios (individual tuning)- Tuning of individual gears is recommended if you want the first 4 gears (in a 6 speed) to be quick accelerating, and the last 2 gears set for top speed. I do this very rarely. This is for people who want extreme customization of the gear box. Remember, the higher the gear, the faster you accelerate and the lower the top speed of that gear.

Gear Ratios (pre-set)- The pre-set gears are spaced evenly and produce quick tuning with either high speed or high acceleration. The farther right the setting, the faster the top speed. The farther left, the faster the acceration. I use this the most because I like even gearing.


Brakes:

Brake Balance- This controls the strenght of the front or rear brakes. If you set the brakes too strong, you will hear the ABS (anti-lock braking system) start chirping. It is recommended that you set the rating of the brakes down 1 point and test until the sound goes away. If you set the front brakes stronger than the rear brakes, understeer during braking will occur. This is good with most tarmac cars, but not all. If the rear brakes are stronger than the front brakes, oversteer during braking will occur. This is good for some tarmac cars, and most rally cars. A rating of 7 is good for most.

Driver Assists:

Traction Control- Traction Control should be used for almost all front wheel drive cars, and all cars with more than 400 horsepower. For those who don't know, traction control controls the throttle so that spinning of the tires does not occur. Traction Control is not used in rallys.

Both of the other assists (forget what it's called, and don't care) should be turned off. All they do is make good drivers slow.


Downforce:

Downforce helps keep the car glued to the ground at high speeds. Without downforce, the front and/or rear end would lift at high speed. Front down force should always be kept at more than the rear, unless there is massive oversteer. You don't want to much downforce, or else the car will eat tires. In order to be able to adjust downforce, you must buy a spoiler for cars that are not race cars.


LSD:

Torque- This controls the amount of torque to the drive wheels. If to much torque is present, the car will understeer. More torque is good for drag racing, or on coursed with long straights or very gradual turns. Less torque will help the car turn better, but the car will not accelerate out of the turn as good as it did. It is recommended that the value should not exceed 10. 5 is the general value. In 4WD cars, 5 should deffinitely be used for both.

Acceleration- This controls the acceleration when leaving a corner. A higher value will help you leave the corner better, and a lower value will increase the power coming out of the corner, which could cause understeer. I usually increase the value to 50. If the car is 4WD, the front tires should have a higher value.

Deceleration- This controls the pace of the inside drive wheel when decelerating. When decelerating, you want the inside wheel to slow down quicker because it has less distance to go. With a smaller value, the inside tire will slow down quicker than stock, but will make the car unstable if adjusted to much. With a higher rating, the car will be stabilized, making it harder to turn.


VCD:

This is the percent of the torque that goes to the front wheels on a 4WD car. The lower the percentage, the less oversteer. The higher the percentage, the front wheels get more driving force and understeer occurs.


Weight:

I haven't quite figured out the relationship between ballast and where it goes. Ballast can be adjusted to 200, but the front and rear get to go to only 50 each, but you cannot have it go to 50 with each, only 1 at a time. Anyways. If your car oversteer when you let off the throttle (i.e. THE DAMN 05 FORD GT), then add front weight. This will help even out the weight distribution of the car. If the car understeers when the throttle is released, try adding rear weight.

That is it. If you have any questions, suggestions, or if you want to ***** at me, PM me. Please post hear only if you have some added tips, or if you want to post your setup for a certain car. IF you post a setup, please include HP, parts added, settings, and any misc items, such as throttle oversteer.

[r34drifter]

LMAO! who's gonna read all of that!, It's easier to just mess around w/ the settings. *I already know all of that tho*

[ford_racer]

Originally Posted by r34drifter

LMAO! who's gonna read all of that!, It's easier to just mess around w/ the settings. *I already know all of that tho*

for people who dont know.... plus i am trying to get tremek to add a games section, which he is already thinking about