| THE BASICS - INTRO |
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| Don’t be afraid to tune. At first it’s all pretty complicated, or so it seems. But it’s not as daunting as it appears to be. You’re here on our site checking out the tuning guide, so obviously you’ve got an interest. Excellent. |
| A few things you should know about tuning are: |
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| 1 - The more you know about real world tuning, the more likely you’ll be able to succeed as a tuner in Forza Motorsport 3. The real world is governed by the laws of physics. It’s these laws of mechanics, dynamics, gravity, force, acceleration, etc. that we draw upon when tuning our cars to go faster. If you look at the artificial world of Forza, there are also physical laws that govern the way the vehicles perform in-game. Those physical laws were created by the developers, but they are laws nonetheless. This is so because the virtual world created is the same for everyone, giving each individual tuner equal opportunity to figure them out. We assume, as a starting point, that the developers based their physics model to most closely replicate earth’s physical laws as they could. So, the more you know about cars in general, the better, which leads me to my next point of interest…… |
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| 2 - There is no silver bullet, super tweak, or magic tune that will make you faster. We live in a world where immediate gratification is king. There is none of this in tuning. There is no such thing as a ‘best tune’. Tuning, by and large, has some hard and fast rules that point us in the right direction, but I have a quote from Carroll Smith, author of ‘Tune To Win’, a book which I have read repeatedly, and a book that (for anyone with an interest in tuning) is an absolute ‘must read’…… |
| "The biggest mistake that racers make is in looking for the super tweak that will produce one large chunk of lap time. Assuming that the equipment is both good and sorted out, that tweak does not exist." |
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| 3 - Tuning is by and large a ‘trial and error’, ‘seat of your pants’ endeavor. I don’t know if you’re into Formula One racing, if so, you know the story, if not, it’s pretty interesting. Basically, between 2008 and 2009 the FIA (Formula One’s governing body) made some rules changes, and as such, the race teams went about their business of building the best cars they could for the ’09 season. When thinking F1, a lot of people immediately think Ferrari. And as such, you’d assume that with all their resources and world class engineers, they’d built a satisfactory car for ‘09. |
| Then there’s the Braun-Mercedes team. They were actually supposed to be Braun-Honda. They built their car to fit a Honda motor, that is, until Honda pulled out on them. So they got an engine from Mercedes and squeezed it in there. You’d think this had the makings of a disaster. So how’d things go at the start of ’09 for both teams? |
| Braun’s Jensen Button won 6 of the first 7 races, meanwhile Ferrari muddled around trying to figure things out and still haven’t won a race after 10 events. Go figure. So what’s the point? Tuning is not an exact science. |
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| 4 - Fast guys are just fast guys. Sounds simple enough, and it is. The top guys on the leaderboard can take a decently tuned apple cart and run a great time in it. Just because a tuning garage is selling a car that ran a fast lap at Road Atlanta doesn’t, and shouldn’t mean too much to you, just the same as if Impala turns a Top 100 with one of our free tunes. That’s like thinking if you buy a Nike 3 wood, that you’re going to hit a golf ball like Tiger Woods. Don’t believe the hype or get frustrated. A well tuned car will get you started in the right direction, but it’s up to you to put in the seat time to drive that tune to its potential. |
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| 5 - Experimentation pays dividends. This is why you should read the info here, get on the forums, ask questions, and buy some good tuning books from the experts. The more you know about cars and tuning, the more creative you can be with your set-ups. |
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| This is probably my all-time favorite Carroll Smith quote, again, from ‘Tune To Win’ : |
| "….go to the race track and find out if it works……If it does not work, do not commit suicide – most bright ideas do not work." |
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| 6 - Good driving lends to good tuning. You don’t need to be the fastest guy out there but you need to be able to run consistent, clean laps within the limits of your ability. It will really, really help. The last thing you need is to go into a corner way too fast, overload the front tires, then start fiddling with the tune to dial out the understeer. Sometimes it’s the car, but sometimes it’s you. Knowing the difference between driver error and vehicle limitations is key to putting together a good tune. |
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| 7 - A loose car is a fast car. There are a lot of different ways to set up a car, and even in the real world, race teams tune on a package that will give the driver confidence. Back in my early days of FM2, I read the propaganda from the developers about building balanced cars for success. So there I was, building cars for B-Class, trying to get speed, acceleration, braking, and handling all close to each other. As such, all my builds had the full Forza aero bits on them. The cars were balanced, easy to drive, and slow. |
| A car that’s too easy to drive, with more grip than available power and requires little to no throttle control is going to be slow. Never forget that elapsed time is the game we play and we’re not going to the store to buy eggs and soda. Being fast is about spending as much time at the limit of tire adhesion as possible. A loose car that turns in well will also require good throttle control and feel on turn exit. It will be harder to keep in line, but it’ll be faster. |
| So when you tune on your package, make the car as loose, if not slightly looser than your skill can handle, and keep pushing the limits of both car and driver. |
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| 8 - Tune the end of the car that needs tuning. If we’re tuning out oversteer / understeer, and one end of the car is giving us trouble, tune the end of the car that needs it. If the front of the car is working well, don’t mess with it to fix the back end. Fiddle with the rear end to find the balance you’re looking for. |
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| GOALS OF TUNING |
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| Before you set out to tune your vehicles, let’s identify, in simple terms, what the goals of tuning are: |
- We want a car that turns in well
- We want a car that allows us to get on the throttle early on turn exit.
- We want a car that is stable in a straight line as well as in mid-corner.
- In order to accomplish the above goals, we need to keep the tires in their ‘happy place’ by maximizing their tractive capacity as much as we can.
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