Sorry for bothering with this generic stuff but can someone give me a step-by-step route for setting the gearbox? Is there any science involved or it's just gueswork and feel, like matteman said above?
The easiest way is to do it by track, setting your last gear to almost red line at the end of the longest straight, than set your first gear by doing a standing start and make it long enough to chirp your tires at launch....than go through the other gears and evenly spread them out. After that it's just fine tuning each gear
Yes..... But if you have a smart device and can be bothered... HUD DASH is free http://www.barzmobilesolutions.de/en/
no this one is free aswell and you can use anything that can get to the internet on it (laptop, smartphoe, netbook) http://www.simracing-tools.de/simtools/index.php/en/ Andi
I always change the general gear ratio first (Zandvoort, Oschers for example) and after I check out how good the momentum (torque)/ response of the car is (normally while memorizing the track you quickly find "edges" where torque is too high/low and/or you have to shift more than neccessary). Also having a too short gear ratio can be deceiving while the car feels best (good torque and response) but at the end you`re too slow cause you reach the limiter too early - sometimes its just about 50m or so .....
Here these I found a but ago Gtr2 setup guides: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF07598FC82AC0724
Thanx a lot to all you guys - there's a lot for me to figure out! But if there's still some input anyone can provide - I'd love to see this conversation going
Actually it's the other way around. While I did understand the effect of altering the final drive I never truely knew what the final drive was so I googled around and found this very well written and informative explanation on some forum: "A final drive is the last and overall general gear in the gearbox. It is on the end of the shaft and runs against the crown wheel on the differential. While you have all your gears from 1st to 5th these really have no bearing on the actual over-all ratio from engine speed to final wheel rpm. They are more to do with working within the engines power curve at a particular speed. The final drive is the one that takes all this rotation and gearing and slows down the over-all rpm coming out of the gearbox. It applys on all gears including reverse. A common final drive ratio would be about 3:1 meaning that for every 3 turns of the shaft connected to engine the diff will turn once. You can see this is a fair drop in gearing, meaning the rpm is lessened coming out of the box three times, and the torque multiplied 3 times. A shorter or taller final drive will effect things an awful lot. A shorter final drive for example 5:1 will have two effects, it will lower your top speed because the engine now has to spin way faster to hold the same speed and will reach the limiter sooner in 5th gear, and it will also mean the car will accelerate faster to x speed than a 3:1 final drive equipped car. Shorter final drives are used for say fast stage rallies with lots of turns or hills where you spend most of your time accelerating and therefore need the torque. The engine is able to spin up quicker as there is less gearing torque resistance applied to it. A taller final drive say 2:1 will also have the same but opposite effect. It will raise your theoretical top speed but your acceleration will be hurt massively because less torque multiplication exists. The final drive gears are under the most pressure above any others in the gearbox. They are doing the most work and carrying the highest loads per tooth compared to any other gear in the box. The reason being is because of the above, they are the sole 'torque multipliers' . Without this reduction I doubt your car would even pull away. They are placed at the end of the box and the 'final drive' for good reason. If it was placed at the beginning of the box before all the other gears then that would mean that all the gears after it would also have to be of heavy construction to carry the albeit lower rpm, but also 3 4 or 5 times the torque that they currently see in your gearbox normally. That would mean higher gear cost, more bulk, and need for a stronger case. This may not seem obvious at first if you spend time thinking why the diff and crown are at the end of the drive train, well, that is why! Its also why the clutch is at the start of the drive train, its the point of least torque so lower pressure plate clamping force can be used. Generally the shorter the final drive ratio the dearer they are because such great torque multiplication exists within the gear set. Imagine it this way, currently your car when put into first gear will stall if you are climbing a hill and you take your foot of the accelerator. This is because the torque needed to climb the hill exceeds your engines output torque at say 900rpm, the forces acting against each other become the same and it stalls. Now, bang in a shorter final drive and you further multiply the engines output torque, this will now allow you to climb the hill at 900rpm, you will be going slower for sure, but you will get up there. This extra torque multiplication at the final drive does take its toll though and you will often hear of short final drives stripping there teeth on a hard 0-60 sprint. Therefore they are normally made from uber metals, go through more exact heat treatment processes than taller final drives and are also sometimes polished and cyro treated to tooth improve life. Normally, or a rule of thumb for final drive and rpm relation is for every .1 your engine rpm will increase 100rpm. So when doing 60 with a 3:1 final drive your rpm could be say 3000rpm, but doing the same speed with a f/drive ratio of 3.1:1 will leave your rpm at 3100rpm. The final drive is a massively over looked part i feel when it comes to beating others. I mean who needs a top speed of 140mph if the straights are not in it. I have a new vw motorsport final drive here, Ill take pictures of it tomorrow so you'll have a better idea. Brian." Whoever Brian is, thanks for this explanation.
http://www.rapid-racer.com/suspension-tuning.php GregoryLeo suggested to sticky this introduction to suspensions and suspension tuning, so I thought I'll add it in here. The author explains the basic physics behind suspensions in a comprehensive way, it's a worthwhile read. There's other useful pages explaining f.e. the different types of suspensions or the fundamentals of driving in the rain. Check it out. All credit goes to the author of the site.