Welcome to the NASCARXBL360.com Setup Garage. In the coming weeks tools will be provided to you to better understand how a setup works, whats working for you, what isn't, and how to get the maximum out of your setups.
We will start with some basic knoweledge. First off, you have to have an understanding for the track before taking to the garage and tweaking the mechanics.
Tires: Vital to your sucess.
This is one of the biggest reasons guys lose races and aren't around come the end of the race. Make your tires work for you and make them work only when they have to. By putting a setup in your car that will allow you to essentially drives itself. We run long races so it is usually essential your setting up your car for long runs. I woud rather be 2 tenths slower of the guy ahead of me, who is only going to get 25 good laps out of his tires, where as I will be able to run 35-40 good and consistent laps. The time is made up and your set can show just how good you are, based on how much you fall off throughout the coarse of the long green run, which is usually equal to a fuel run. Only a few tracks won't allow you to run a full gas run because tire wear is just so bad.
Tire Pressures and Tire Tempetures: These are good indicators for alot of things, and it also can show you what adjustments you need to make, even if your happy with the way your car drives.
The lower the tire pressure, the faster the tire will heat, the hotter the tire will run, and the faster the
tire will wear. Note, that the more laps you drive impacts tire pressure as well as temperature.
For tracks with banked turns, the optimum tire pressure and temperature are different for the left and
right side tires as per the table below. Optimum tire pressures are usually achieved for the main part
of each fuel run and it is normal for tires to operate below the optimum tire pressure and temperature
listed in the table below for the first and last few laps of each fuel run.
TRACK TYPE OPT. PRESSURE (LEFT SIDE) OPT. PRESSURE (RIGHT SIDE) OPT. TEMP.(LEFT SIDE) OPT. TEMP. (RIGHT SIDE)
Short Track 25-30 psi 40-45 psi 210-225°F 230-245 °F
Speedway 30-35 psi 55-60 psi 210-225 °F 230-245 °F
Superspeedway 30-35 psi 55-50 psi 210-225 °F 230-245 °F
Road Track 25-30 psi 25-30 psi 210-225 °F 210-225 °F
When driving, for each tire, the greatest difference in temperature of any two areas (Inside/Middle/Outside) for that tire will ideally be <= 15 °F.
For Short Tracks, Speedways and Superspeedways where you always turn left, a NASCAR setup
typically has Left Weight set to 54.2%, Nose Weight set to >=50% and stiff front springs with the front
right spring being the stiffest of all. Generally, the front right tire carries the most load in the turns and it may very well overheat.
In the case that your setup feels good but the front right tire is overheating, Wedge can usually be
decreased to 47.5-50% so as to decrease load on the front right tire and thus prevent that tire from
overheating.
To Break things down; RF is Right Front, RR is Right Rear, LF: Left Front, LR: Left Rear.
Keep these in mind as well, while racing, as to what adjustments you may be able to make throughout a race.
Tire psi synopsis:
Higher psi in RF will loosen the car.
Lower psi in the RF will tighten the car.
Higher psi in RR will loosen the car.
Lower psi in the RR will tighten the car.
Higher psi in the LR will tighten the car from the middle out.
Lower psi in the LR will loosen the car from the middle out.
Higher psi in the LF will tighten the car.
Lower psi in the LF will loosen the car.
The lower the psi in a tire the hotter it will run.
The higher the psi in a tire the colder it will run.
Excessively low front tire psi will create a push.
Excessively low rear tire psi will create a loose condition.
Increasing the split (more RR psi than LR) increases stagger, helping the car to turn in the middle of a corner.
Increasing the split of the left & right side psi (more psi on the right) increases the pull to the left.
Tip: Make small adjustments, it sometimes doesn't take much to make things work better. Large adjustments could throw you off completly.
Camber and Caster Adjustments: The Need for speed
- Take the Time to Read this and have a proper understanding for the information. This is a Guide, not a get fast quick scheme.
While stiffer springs will be required for banked tracks, it is not normal to increase the stiffness of
each spring by the same amount. Usually, your car will have Nose Weight set above 50%, dictating the use of
stiffer springs at the front.
The general rule is that the faster the cornering speed, the greater the amount of Nose Weight, and the stiffer the front springs.
Rear spring stiffness is greatly impacted by cornering speed. For example, a fast Speedway and slower Short Track with similarly banked turns may use almost the same spring stiffness at the front while the rear will vary greatly, the rear being much software for the Short Track because the higher speeds achieved at the Speedway generate a lot of aerodynamic grip (down force) resulting in increased vertical loading on the springs and tires, which ultimately dictates the use of stiffer springs at the rear to avoid bottoming out.
In addition to this, for tracks with banked turns, the right side springs are typically a little stiffer than those on the left. This is to account for weight transferring to the right side when turning left. In this case, the stiffer right side springs stop the right side from bottoming out through a combination of their increased stiffness and the softer left side springs allowing the car to compress more toward the apron. As a general rule, the steeper the banking, the greater the difference between the left and right spring stiffness.
On Road Tracks where you must turn both left and right, the left and right sides spring stiffness is usually identical or symmetrical. The stiffness of the spring at each wheel may be adjuste.
Front spring stiffness is most often between 500 and 1500 lbs/”, while rear spring stiffness is usually between 200 and 750 lbs/”.
Make changes in increments of no greater than 100 lbs/” and use Testing to drive as many laps as you need to validate whether any changes you make are for the better.
The right rear spring especially may be used to increase or decrease over-steer and the ability of the car to turn. With any of the default race setups, you may generally increase the right rear spring stiffness to increase over-steer and decrease it to reduce over-steer.
Bump and Rebound control the rate at which the spring is allowed to compress (Bump) and
decompress (Rebound). Restricting the rate at which the front springs are allowed to Rebound at the
faster tracks with banked turns, such as Atlanta, can help to increase down force and grip in the
turns.
The higher the setting for Bump and Rebound, the greater the resistance of the damper to the
spring—i.e. If Bump/Rebound is set to 5, the spring will compress/decompress much more slowly
than it will with Bump/Rebound set to 1.
Note that rear springs Bump and Rebound are locked for Superspeedways, as they are in real life so
as to prevent drivers from exploiting the benefits of setup changes in this area, and to keep the
competition closer.
Camber is usually adjusted to help the car turn. At all of the banked tracks where you must turn only
left for a Qualifying setup Front Left Camber should most often be set to 8.0°, the Front Right Camber
set to -6.0°, the Rear Left Camber set to 1.8° and the Rear Right Camber set to -1.8°. For a race
setup, Camber should be decreased because too much Camber increases tire temperatures and
wear.
The front left and front right Camber may also be decreased a little for Qualifying at tracks with very
steep banking, such as Bristol, where the banking is so steep that you don’t need as much Camber
for the car to turn as desired.
For Road Tracks, the Front Left and Right Camber will usually be set to –X.X° and the Rear Left and
Right Camber set to -1.8° to allow the car to turn equally to the left and right.
Finally, the Caster and Track Bar may be adjusted in regards to the suspension.
Increasing the Caster angle generally decreases the turning circle of the car, while increasing oversteer
and making the car looser when turning.
Increasing the Track Bar will generally create more over-steer and make the car looser. Assuming that the right side is set higher than that the left side, then the greater the difference, the looser the car will be when accelerating and negotiating fast banked turns, and the tighter it will be when braking.
Sway bar Information:
When the setup seems pretty good and you are looking to increase or decrease over-steer/understeer just a little, adjusting the F. Sway Bar may be a good idea.
Increase the F. Sway Bar to decrease over-steer and tighten-up the car a little. Decrease it to increase over-steer and make the car a little looser. The rear sway bar is rarely used in reality except for on the road tracks. Theoretically, using a R.
Sway Bar allows for flatter cornering with less body roll. Adjustments have the same effects as those of the F. Sway Bar. Increase the R. Sway Bar to decrease over-steer and tighten-up the car a little.
Decrease it to increase over-steer and make the car a little looser.
When all is said & done, knowing how to read & understand tire temperatures will be the determining factor in how much camber to set in your wheels. In fact it's the only way to properly adjust for correct amounts of camber.Here is a synopsis of what Camber Adjustments do to the cars handling.
More negative RF camber allows the car to turn into a corner quicker & will loosen up the chassis.
Less negative RF camber takes away some of the pull to the left. The car won't turn in as quick into a corner & will tend to tighten the chassis.
More negative LF camber will reduce the pull to the left while tightening the chassis from the middle out.
More positive LF camber will increase the pull to the left & allow the car to turn into a corner quicker loosening the chassis.
More positive camber in the RR will loosen the car from the middle out.
More negative camber in the LR will loosen the chassis entering a corner.
CASTER Adjustments: Tire roll over
Caster is the leaning forward or back of the tire at the top of the wheel. Do not confuse this with camber which is the inward or outward tilt of the wheel at the top. Positive caster is when the wheel is tilted back toward the rear of the vehicle. Negative caster is when the wheel is tilted forward toward the front of the vehicle.
Caster is used to provide directional steering stability. When thinking of caster, think of a tool box, TV stand, chair, or anything else that has 4 wheels on it that swivel to help you move it across the floor. When you push an object like this across the floor you'll notice that the wheels will swivel back allowing you to push forward with ease. This is positive caster. Now take those 4 swivel wheels & turn them forward 180 degrees. This is negative caster. I'm sure you know how difficult it is to push something with the wheels in this forward or negative position. Besides being difficult to push, it also has a tendency to take off in an unwanted direction until the casters spin in a positive direction. For the same reasons we want our chair to slide across the floor with ease, we want our race car to do the same. When setting your chassis you'll want to tip the top of the wheels back adding positive caster to provide you with that straight ahead directional stability. There are NO circumstances where negative caster is preferred, even though adjustment range in NASCAR Racing is from -2.0 through +6.0.
Proper caster adjustments will vary with each track & individual driver as well as the steering device you maybe using. (i.e. force feedback) The more positive caster the more feedback you will feel as a driver. More caster can also provide a more difficult steering effort, especially with a force feedback wheel. More positive caster will also give you a better feel for the car. More caster will allow you to make better decisions on the track about how the car is handling.
So why not crank the caster positive as far as it will go? Because too much positive caster also has it's drawbacks. When you turn a car left with positive caster the LF rises while the RF drops. This changes the weight on all 4 corners of the car. In effect you're taking cross weight out of the car the more you turn the wheel. The more positive the caster, the more cross weight there is being removed. The more cross weight you remove the looser the car will get.
In general, you'll want to run higher positive caster settings on a short track with tight corners, over a larger track with long, wide sweeping corners & long straight-aways. +4 to +5 on the RF isn't uncommon for a track like Martinsville. For Michigan or California a setting of +2 or +3 would be preferred. Higher caster settings allow you to ‘catch’ power slides on exit a little bit easier as well.
Another element that must be considered is the caster split or caster stagger as I like to call it. Caster stagger is simply using different settings on the LF wheel than the RF. When caster settings are different, your steering will tend to pull toward the side with the least amount of caster. On tracks where your only turning left, you would want a higher positive caster setting on the RF than the LF. This more positive caster on the RF will make the car pull to the left entering the turns, which is the preferred setup for entering the corners. The higher the caster stagger you run the easier the car will turn itself into the corner. Higher stagger will also take some feel out of the car & also force you to hold your wheel to the right down a straightaway.
Caster stagger will also affect braking. If you run too much stagger at tracks that require heavy braking such as Martinsville or the road courses, you may have to add brake bias. Although a better trade-off would be just to even up the caster allowing you to brake harder without causing the car to pull to the side with the least amount of caster.
Caster synopsis:
More positive caster will loosen the chassis the more the wheel is turned through a corner.
More positive caster will allow you to catch slides on exit a little easier.
Caster adjustments are better felt through a force feedback wheel.
The car will pull to the side with the lower amount of positive caster.
The higher the caster stagger, the easier the car will turn into a corner.
The higher the caster stagger, the easier the car will break loose braking into a corner.
The higher the caster stagger, the less steering effort required. This will tend to give you a loose feeling upon corner entry.
Wedge and Weight Adjustments: The weight around your car also affects tire wear, and which tire is going to work the most. Going up on the wedge will add weight to the right front and left rear as well as take it out of the right rear and left front. Wedge is also called Cross weight. In most situations, you want the car to be balanced, with the Left Bias always being at 54.2. It helps the car travel, or roll through the corner. Increasing wedge, will tighten the car, making it push. Reducing or taking out wedge will looosen the car, allowing it to be come more free through the corner, allowing you to keep your speed up while you turn.
Wedge synopsis:
Increasing wedge tightens the chassis.
Decreasing wedge loosens the chassis.
Again, Make the car work for you. As a Driver you should be able to put your car where you want it. Knowing what your car is doing and knowing its streangths and weaknesses will allow you to become a better driver.
Aerodynamics: Speed or Grip?
For all Short Tracks, Speedways and the Road Tracks you should use no less than 4.50" on the Splitter, and always set the wing degree angle to 16*.
For Super Speedways the Wing angle is locked at 10*.
The Splitter can be adjusted to be between 4.00" and 6.00". The higher you go, the more turnability you will have in the car, and it allow for more movement of the cars when running in packs. When lower, the splitter will not provide the down force needed to turn the car up front. Other means will be needed to help the car turn. The lack of down force up front will allow for more speed down the straights.
The Wing Angle determines downforce on the rear of the car. More angle is more down force, and less angle is less downforce, making the rear end of the car looser. I higher wing will give you more grip and a tighter condition.
Grille tape is also a contributor. The more tape you run, the more downforce you will have. The less tape, the less Downforce. Tape also will control how much air is getting to your engine. More tape will have your car run hotter, while less, will keep it cooler.
Ideal engine temps for race trim are between 220 and 235* on the Oil. Anything higher than this will cause your engine to expire. These are optimal engine temps for getting the most out of your engine package. Water Temps are usually a few degrees lower than that of the oil, which is normal.
Brake Bias Information: Setting up your brakes.
Wieght Distribution: Balancing the Car, for Maximum Performance.
Generally speaking, the faster a turn, the slower you will need to turn. One way to influence the rate
at which a car turns at speed is to adjust Nose Weight.
Increasing Nose Weight naturally causes a vehicle to turn more slowly, and so long as the Brake Bias
is increased proportionally towards the front, as Nose Weight is increased it will also help to stabilize
the car during periods of deceleration.
Increasing Nose Weight also moves your center of gravity forward, making it easier to ‘catch’ the car
in the event that you get ‘loose’ at any time. The less Nose Weight, the more difficult it is to ‘catch’ the
car in the event you get ‘loose’ because there is more weight at the rear to ‘catch’ and control.
On the flip side, increasing Nose Weight decreases the efficiency of the front tires. Too much Nose
Weight will introduce under-steer.
Increasing Nose Weight can also increase wheel-spin, but at most speedways and all
superspeedways the turns are so fast that you never shift down from 4th gear during braking, and
acceleration is such that less rear weight is unlikely to induce wheel-spin.
Before we move on to suspension you should also note the following:
· For all Short Tracks, Speedways and Superspeedways where you only need to turn left, Left
Weight should be increased to place the maximum (54.2%) amount of weight possible over the
left side wheels.
· For Road Tracks, where you need to turn both left and right, Left Weight should be set
symmetrically (50%) to distribute weight evenly over the left and right side wheels.
· If a Road Track is heavily biased towards left or right turns, you may try moving a little Left
Weight to the left side or right side to see if you can gain any benefit by making the car turn
better for the left or right turns while compromising the turns in the opposite direction.
· For Short Tracks, Speedways and Superspeedways where you always turn left, a NASCAR
setup typically has Left Weight set to 54.2%, Nose Weight set less than or equal to 50% and
stiff front springs, with the front right spring being the stiffest of all.
· Generally, the front right tire carries the most load in the turns and it may very well overheat.
· In the case that your setup feels good, but the front right tire is overheating, Wedge can usually
be decreased to 47.5-50% to decrease load on the front right tire and thus prevent that tire
from overheating.
Engine Tuning: The Essential for Powering you to victory lane.
Increase or decrease your 4th gear ratio so that the RPM warning light in the cockpit (also indicated on the HUD via the numbers highlighting in Red) comes on just as you lift off the gas at the end of the longest straight to prepare for the turn ahead.Having set 4th gear you should now set 1st gear to peak at approximately 80 MPH and space the 2nd and 3rd gears evenly between 1st and 4th.
To avoid wheel spin when accelerating through the lower gears, you must ‘short shift’ just as a real NASCAR race driver must. The phrase ‘short shift’ implies that you shift up to the next gear before reaching maximum RPM in your current gear. In NASCAR 09 you should ‘short shift’ up when you reach approximately 4,000 RPM in first, 5,000 RPM in 2nd and 6,500 RPM in 3rd.
As far as differential gears or Rear End/Final Gear goes, this is what drives your car, how much power it puts out and the amount of fuel its going to burn. While every track is different, For Superspeedways you can run between a 3.07-2.86 Differential and be safe. For Intermediate banked tracks, running a 3.25-3.50 Gear package is going to provide you with good horsepower and Fuel milage. You never want a Final gear of over 4.75 at any point. Your engine will not last the amount of time your going to need it to. The only circumstance for such Rear End gears would be Bristol or Martinsville, Where its required for acceleration.
I hope that this turtorial has helped you in some fashion. NASCARXBL360.com will also be providing drivers with a section detailing as to how they want to set their cars up for specific tracks, or a certain group of tracks.
Stay Tuned for more information!