Vehicle Dynamics and Set-up guide for the absolute idiot

So I've had a bit of free time with school getting ready to end so I've been finally getting to a few things that I've wanted to do for awhile. One of them is making a bit of a setup guide to share with you guys.

One thing I noticed when I was racing in ISRA and such is that many of the "sim racers" here among us seem to struggle with the technical side of things and that includes how to make a setup. Sure, Branch and a few others have it down but a lot of people are clueless when it comes to all of the various garage settings. I've been asked to go over the subject a few times in the past but I never had the time to get around to it. Finally this week, I caught the bug and just started a little something that hopefully can help better explain some of the more complicated settings to those wanting to learn how to tinker around in the in-game garage. Yes, I do realize that there are other guides out there but most of those I feel are a bit too complicated to the beginner. I'd like to simply write something to give the novice driver some basic insight without going overboard and thus I wanted to throw the idea out there to see what you guys think. I may not be an Adrian Newey or an experienced race tech but I have been studying the topic throughout the past year and have a fairly through comprehension regarding vehicle dynamics.

Right now, I'd just like to guage some interest before getting too involved. A show of hands here, who here would be interested in seeing a basic set-up guide? If so, I'll be more than happy to spost it here after I'm finished with it. I just think it would make a great read and would help a lot of guys around here in their sim endevours.

PART I: Basic Fundamentals/In the Eyes of a Driver

I would. Just so I wouldn't have to fight the push all the time.

this would help me big time

I'd definitely be interested, since I'm working on getting my sim racing career started.

please, please, please, please, PLEASE do this. I need help on my setups. If you do this, i will consider changing my career

Just download a setup and tweak. I say 80% can't build a full setup from scratch, I sure can't.. I tweak to my driving style...that's how it is.

Tweaking's kind of easy, for me at least.

day500champ1 wrote:I would. Just so I wouldn't have to fight the push all the time.

Yes, we all know how much you have to do that...

Anyway, this would help. Do it plz.

Awesome!

So I'll go ahead and get started on that. Hopefully I should have it done in a couple of weeks or so as I am still a bit busy getting ready for graduation and the move to college. I'll see what I can do

So between doing AP tests and placement tests for ODU, I've managed to conger enough time to write Part 1 of the guide. This is basically a introduction for everyone to Vehicle Dynamics and I put it in the perspective of the driver. Not only do I think this will help us understand a bit better (since most of us are sim racers after all), it gives the base for what's to come in the next section when I get into all of the various chassis adjustments that are available.

Also, a lot of this stuff is something you can apply right away in terms of actually driving the car; knowing this will make you a better overall driver if you practice it. If you want to step up your game, it's worth a good look or two.

I'll be transferring it from my paper notepad to MS Word as soon as I can but it's a good chunk of text. As soon as I'm done, I'll post a link. Hopefully this will help a few guys out right now along with serving as a basic intro.

I think what people at ISRA need more than a fancy setup guide is an "Idiot's Guide to Not Hitting the Wall Every Lap"

Actually...I'm on it. We can combine our efforts into one huge "ISRA Guide to Success" Epic.

Nextelracer wrote:I think what people at ISRA need more than a fancy setup guide is an "Idiot's Guide to Not Hitting the Wall Every Lap"

Funny you mention that, that's a bit of a basis for my Part I

By the way, finally got that uploaded. I posted the link at the top of the page.

Comments?

pepsibottle1 wrote:

Nextelracer wrote:I think what people at ISRA need more than a fancy setup guide is an "Idiot's Guide to Not Hitting the Wall Every Lap"

Funny you mention that, that's a bit of a basis for my Part I

By the way, finally got that uploaded. I posted the link at the top of the page.

Comments?

I think it's very good; it's good to start with a very basic, fundamental understanding of forces acting upon the car before you can begin making changes to the car.