Hi all, RaceRoom newbie here, but I thought I'd share this setup for the FRX-17 that was good enough for P2 on the Amateur leaderboards, mainly as I can't find a better one IMO the car is an absolute doddle to drive - but I'm still eight seconds off P1, and as there doesn't appear to be the option to view ghosts I currently have no idea where to get more than one or two seconds max. Maybe with a few more days practice I'll discover a driving style that loses less time to the traction control - or I'll find a shortcut! Any ideas welcome About the setup: No downforce. Yup, dialled down to the min gave me the best lap times. The car still goes around miss-hit-miss and Pflanzgarten 1 and 2 flat in 7th, so I see no advantage in adding more. Front roll bar max hard, rear max soft, front springs / dampers stiffer than rear. Ride height so it bottoms out at the Foxhole only. Max engine braking. Gearing adjusted so that it redlines in 7th down to the Swedish Cross at ~335 kph, which is the most this car does afaict. Using the longest final ratio with 1st - 6th shortened accordingly and 7th set to give the above top speed. I found this let me down-shift earlier in braking zones than having a shorter final ratio. About me: Crusty old dude with a sofa-sim setup, hence the YouTube handle Sofa Sim Geezer. Can't post a link to a vid as this is my first post here, but my fastest run so far in R3E is posted there. Got into FM7 on the Xbox in 2020 with a gamepad and all assists on, 2021 started using a wheel, 2022 first sub five-minute North Loop (in 2D, with TCS). Got better wheel(s), got a PC and VR, got _much_ faster , got to 7th on the PC2 leaderboards with 4:54 I think before they shut the servers earlier this year, switched to AMS2 and currently 6th with a 4:43. My best in AC is only 5:16 in the F2004, with or without TCS. Yes, I *really* like driving F1 cars around the North Loop. No, you can't do it in real life. That's partly why I like it. And it's just awesome fun in VR A couple of Qs: Are the assists set due to being on the Amateur leaderboards? Even if I turn off TCS/ABS/STM before starting a leaderbaord run they'll be on when I start with no way to disable them. I can't actually drive this car faster without them, but the setting the game seems to use for the 'amateur' leaderboards seems even more aggressive than the 'Factory' setting in practice - which I can, and would prefer, to drive. And if you have to drive on the 'not amateur' leaderboards to have control over your setup how do you get on them - as I don't really do multi-player? Cheers, Paul
Yes, the assists on leaderboards are forced depending on the setting you choose. By clicking on start you can choose between 3 options (novice, amateur, get real). Novice uses all available assists, amateur half of them, and get real only the factory assists, so if a car has abs and tc it uses them and if a car does not have them, they are off. In every other mode, like single player or multi player, you can freely choose your assists and have a custom setting apart from the default 3. So if you want to be faster you need to choose get real when starting a leaderboard and not amateur.
Thanks, that's awesome I knew there had to be a way to get the factory settings. Having just spent three days learning to drive with full TCS again I can now spend the next few trying to learn to drive without it once more! Cheers, Paul
Found it! I eventually noticed that the leaderboard columns are drop-downs, and have found the Get Real option. Finally the car feels like a reasonably real F1 car (not that I'd actually know, of course), e.g. really challenging to drive lol. Seems strange to have every mode as "select your difficulty then get on the leader board" except the actual leader boards, where it's "select your leader board to choose your difficulty", but that's probably just me. If I can manage a sub-five minute lap, or even a top ten time I'll post an updated setup here; I've already had to add back some downforce to make up for the lower traction. Unless someone in the Get Real top ten would like to post their setup and give an old geezer a leg-up?
That vid is amazing, there's no way I can get close to that time, but I'm guessing it pre-dates an update to the game / car, as it's not actually possible to directly copy that setup in my copy of the game (kept up-to-date by Steam). E.g. video setup vs my tuning screen: Rear arb 17.1 (min) -> 22.2 (min) spring 180 (min) -> 240 (min) 3rd spring 57 (max) -> 53 (min) / 107 (max) Front arb 26.5 (min) -> 38.3 (min) spring 240 (max) -> 260 (min) 3rd spring 510 (2/3) -> 400 (max) In the attached setup I've chosen the values closest to those in the video i.e. rear 3rd spring set to 53, which is the closest available setting to the 57 used in the vid, even though 53 is now the minimum setting, and 57 was the maximum setting. The same with the front springs - in the vid they're set to 240 (the max); the closest setting I have is 260, which is now the minimum. I chose these settings as the weight / balance of the car presumably hasn't changed, but I haven't tested it the other way (maxxing everything), so that might be quicker. And then there's the height - as high as possible and as hard as possible would be great instructions for an X-Games athlete, (or possibly a teenager at a festival!), but I haven't in my limited experience seen it used before as the fastest setup for an F1 car on a fast and twisty circuit. Not sure how well it would work IRL, but I'll never know so I don't suppose it matters. The massive ride height does give astonishing downforce for not that much aero, but did make the car feel like it was on stilts. The other attached file is the same setup but with the car significantly lower, so the weight transfer is less dramatic on direction changes, and I have a (small) chance of catching the oversteer Is it quicker? Well, after a day of getting used to it and fiddling I've managed a 5.06.4, a couple of seconds faster than I managed in dummy mode, but still a way off the 4.43 WR. This takes me from 2nd of 40 to 71st of 160 - hardly a promotion! I'd like to think that a sub-five minute lap is within my meagre skills, but that top ten spot might have to wait until I gain a lot more skill. Or age backwards a few decades. Here's hoping And coincidentally I posted a vid of my only run around the Touristenfahten version of Nordschleife only a week ago - a 4:53 bridge-to-gantry is a long way off 4:25, but the F2004 I was driving in AC isn't as quick as the FR X-17, even if it is a bit easier to drive!