Anyone who would like to share a setup for an upcoming race: do so here! I will update this first post and eventually we'll have a nice collection of setups for the cars we use. Linking to a setup on the iRacing forum is fine too, just test them first!

• Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS (Late Model):
  • Road Course Baseline

Made a Late Model road course setup. It's even on both sides, and feels pretty nice to drive. Could be improved but it's a decent baseline (posted above). I'm not having much luck with a South Boston setup.

So the GBGT is going to Daytona for the opening round. Here's the setup I used for the 2.4 hour race. That race was at night and we'll be racing in the day, but it shouldn't make much difference. I forget who made it but it came from the iRacing forums.

RUF Track Setup (Daytona):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7bin2o01s9s1864/NB_RUFT_Daytona_Road_R_V1.5.sto

@slowbird: The filename looks like the way Nico Brandt does all of his. His setups are normally really driveable as well, so I'd highly recommend this to anybody unsure of what to do for a setup.

@khann: That sounds about right :D

I posted this in the league thread, but here's a halfway-decent setup for USAInternational for the Late Model:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4psr7n8bj5k5t6j/1hensley_usa_conv_ntm5rideheightfix.sto

So I made a not-half-bad-if-I-do-say-so-myself setup for the Mclaren for Watkins here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9eov3d6uL8Aa01qcU5fM0hPZ1U/edit?usp=sharing

And I just tossed this off in the RUF as a maybe decent baseline? I dunno: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9eov3d6uL8AODJlNGdVRWkyVnc/edit?usp=sharing

If I wasn't driving like a TOTAL dick, I was pretty much unable to spin either of these setups, so I dunno. I'm sure someone could improve on them like @khann or @iron1c

I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing :(

Here's what I made for Dover ---> Late Model - Dover

It sticks to the bottom easily, does't oversteer, and the wall is no threat. Make changes if you want, it can probably be made faster. Also I didn't do a long run, so I have no idea what will happen when the tires wear down.

Gary Hensley has a nice set of updated Late Model setups now, including Irwindale (tomorrow's track). Probably better than anything we could make ----> Hensley Setups

Giant Bomb's Formula Duder Season 3

Round 1 Setup - Summit Point Short

-Travis

@travis_mihm: Thanks for the setup yesterday. I will definitely check out your site.

I know it's early, but I'm already excited for next week's BOMBCAR race at Watkins Glen Classic, so here's a setup! I started with the fixed setup and made a few minor changes, to adjust the gearing for the chicane-free straightaway and try to make the car less scary in the esses.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uc7nyt25nesul9w/BOMBCAR%20-%20Watkins%20Glen%20Classic.sto

Giant Bomb's Formula Duder Season 3

Round 2 Setup A - Watkins Glen Boot

-Travis

@slowbird: Oh, I thought the whole season was going to be fixed setups, is that not the case?

@travis_mihm: Thanks for posting your setup Travis, I'll post up mine too as it's very different from yours. I'm running way less downforce and lower ride height for speed in the straights. It's taken a bit of work to learn how to control it in the turns but it's surprisingly stable if you are smooth on the steering. I looked in Ispeed and I'm 0.188 faster in sector 1, but I lose it all and more in sector 3 being too timid (braking hard and early) into Turn 6 (the "Chute"?) I've managed to do that sector better in some laps but putting it all together has thus far eluded me.

SebW's Watkins Glen FD setup

@sebw: Sorry for the confusion! I set fixed setups at Daytona to keep everyone bunched up in one big pack and prevent anyone from making a bad decision with grill tape.

Open setups will be the norm, but in most cases you should be fine with the standard iRacing-provided setup. I plan to use them without any significant changes for most of the season.

That's a quick lap, @sebw! I shared the Suzuka set pretty much specifically due to the higher downforce. It is very easy to put the car where you want it and duplicate the lines you need to run under race conditions, and with aero wash from the cars ahead etc. With a Watkins Glen-specific setup I've been working on this morning, I got down to a 1:44.4 early into the run, and I think high 43's are achievable with a little massaging of the dampers. Will have the lap guide up today, and a more aggressive setup. The initial setup is quite conservative, but I think it be quicker over the long run for most guys, since it's substantially easier to un-FUBAR yourself if you happen to lift mid-corner behind traffic or something. The SM with low downforce and high cornering load is not a happy camper when you make adverse pedal or wheel inputs.

-Travis

You guys are using the boot with the bus stop, right? I don't understand how I can be nearly 3 seconds slower after putting in what I felt was a killer lap.

Edit: Just looked tried @travis_mihm's setup at the "Classic Boot" and got a 1:44.094. I have a feeling that we're confused about which configuration we're running. See my post in the main thread.

@thesupernatural: You should get iSpeed. If/when you do, you can go in and see Travis', Khann's and my laps and compare lines and braking/throttle on points and see which sectors you are losing the time in. The first thing I noticed when I looked at Travis' laps in iSpeed is that he throttles on really early in the corner (compared to me). I tried this myself (you have to just trust in the wings to hold you down enough) and after a messing it up a few times I had an "Oh!" moment and suddenly my laps are close to a second per lap. It's also really handy for the live HUD for timing and better fuel calculations, especially if you have a second (third? fourth?) monitor.

So fixed setup for Talladega as well, and open setup for everything else?

@maxx77: yep!

@thesupernatural Yes, the 44's were in the correct Boot configuration w/chicane, proper weather etc. I second the iSpeed vote haha. It will blow your soul right out the back of your mindpants, and you will find it crazy useful.

-Travis

@thesupernatural said:

There's no confusion, just look on the League Sessions page: "Boot." I did a bit of practice in that configuration and I'm in the 1:44 range. I feel like a few of the turns just need a lot of finesse if you want consistency; it's really easy to overdrive the boot. It's a really enjoyable lap though!

I guess I just can't fucking drive. I've spent at least 3 hours now testing at this track and can't even get within 3 seconds of you guys

Edit: And after another hour, I managed a 1.45.7... which is still over a second off the pace. Worse though, I can't keep it out of the wall for more than two laps at a time. My choice is basically between running 47-48's, or spending my race in the pits.

@thesupernatural: Haven't done any practice laps myself yet, but my advice would be to wait for the practice session and just spectate one of the fast guys and learn. Also iSpeed. Really.

Don't stress out about it. We have a very wide range of skill levels among the members of this league. You're going to have competition no matter where you place on the grid. The times people are posting aren't even necessarily the kind of laps they're going to get in the actual race with traffic, weather, and other conditions factoring into it.

When it comes time for the practice session to start, be sure to show up if you can. Just watching how others are getting around the track helps me immensely. You could be making mistakes you don't even know of until you see how someone else is driving the course. The practice session is also good for getting setups and good advice from the faster drivers. If you're struggling with a section of the track, just say so. There's usually at least someone who will chime in with some good tips. It definitely helped me out in last night's race. I could barely do a single lap without going off track in the practice session. Khann, Ironic, and maybe someone else (sorry if I'm forgetting someone), spoke up and told me where the braking points were. When the race finally happened, I finished with only a 1x incident (which was easily avoidable, but ultimately didn't slow me down). I would have had a much worse race if not for their advice.

One other thing, don't focus on being fast, just focus on racing cleanly. I don't know how long you've been into iRacing, but if you're new to the Star Mazda (a lot of us are), just work on making sure you can do an entire race without crashing. If you're just focusing on chasing the perfect lap time, you're probably not going to survive the race itself. That's my mental approach to these races anyway. I'm not the fastest driver so take that all with a grain of salt I guess.

@maxx77 nailed it. If you look at the Star Mazda official series, you'll see quite a huge variance of lap times. The faster you go with open wheelers, the wider the split gets. I have a hard time staying within 2.5 seconds per lap of the fast guys in the FW31 on most tracks. We had a good grid last time, and there was action everywhere. We'll get a bit more spread out at the Glen, but you're still likely to find somebody on your pace that will make things rather interesting. If you'd like to improve, I'll be happy to assist in any way I can. But the best advice I can give you is to disregard lap times at the top of the charts, and lap times in general. Focus on consistency. If a line is faster but inconsistent and hard to replicate, screw it and do the slower one you can nail every time. Get a consistent line down, and then focus on making up small bits of time in specific areas of the track. You'll get yourself in trouble if you say "I need to drop a second!" and then go out on track and wildly attack. If you take the approach of analyzing your super-consistent lap and instead say "I can shave two tenths in T6 just by changing my braking point a little". Do the rest of the lap the same, but focus on improving there specifically until you see the times drop. Then focus on something else.

iSpeed and MoTeC are huge helps for this. iSpeed will let you load up a lap from someone who's similar in pace but just edging you out a tad. You can grab your lap and then overlay data from a lap maybe a second faster, and then see which sector you're losing the most time. Figure out what parts of that sector you're losing the most time on, and why. Then go try and make an improvement there. Even if it's a tenth, if you can do it consistently that tenth of a second is good for one and a half seconds over a 15 lap run.

-Travis

@travis_mihm: I got iSpeed and I've been comparing our laps, and I think I'm losing about 4 tenths in the bus stop, 3 tenths on the final turn, and about 5 tenths overall in the straights. The rest are just tenths here and there. The boot is really difficult for me, as more than half my crashes end up happening in the chute and toe of the boot. I'll be sure to attend the practice session. Hopefully it helps

Please do, I'll make sure to attend the practice session, too. Let me do a little lap analysis quick...

You lose the most time in sector 3. This sector is the introduction to the boot; the sector starts just after you exit the carousel, and it's important to nail the carousel to get good exit speed and carry it through the Chute, down the following straight, and into the Toe of the boot. The Chute is a flowing corner much like the carousel, but you must bleed some speed on the downhill setup to the corner. I typically brush brake to bleed a bit of speed when the color of the pavement changes, quickly grab fourth, and control the rotation of the car with the steering pre-apex and throttle through the rest of the corner. It's important to be smooth on the throttle here. My traces aren't that great (I think the pots on my pedals are actually starting to get rather notchy...) but try and avoild huge dips in the throttle. It will snap the balance of the car and you'll be forced to make a quick correction to arrest the rear end, bleeding a bit of speed. The Toe of the boot is a weird corner, because it's increasing radius but the quickest way around it is to take a line similar to a decreasing radius corner due to the huge loads the car sees climbing up the hill. Try and bleed speed in a straight line, and then feed the car in. Your line shows you did this well, but you pinched the exit; keep that late apex, but allow the car to drift right up next to the grass. You have so much more load on the tires that you can afford to be a bit aggressive, so don't be afraid to really push hard on exit. Looking at your speed delta, you lost out on the exit of both corners. Corner entry on the Chute was just marginally slower, but that big lift on exit killed your speed down the straight. Your entry speed at the Toe was nearly identical, but you bled off a bit much speed by apex, and then pinching off the exit of the corner again killed your run up the hill, which is hugely important in a car that relies on RPM for torque.

Get that sector down just a tenth or two, and then Sector 2 will be the next most profitable area of improvement!

-Travis

@travis_mihm: Thanks, I'll be sure to work on that during practice!

Here's a mediocre Bristol setup I made for the Star Mazda. Give it a whirl, if you like!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dkfeb0nv7g29n8g/Bristol%20Decent%20Setup.sto

I just made the rear springs a bit tighter 700 to 800 and I dropped from 14.9 to a 14.6. The track is tricky though... you can drop a tire onto the blacktop going into a turn to gain about 3 tenths but if you go too far the car will spin out.

Here's a BOMBCAR setup. Contrary to the file name, you may find it to oversteer a bit at the start. https://www.dropbox.com/s/pqjzbt0ff9p4f01/Charlotte%20-%20needs%20less%20understeer.sto

FDX 2014 Season Setups

Race #1 - Auto Club Speedway

Notes: All Ovals will use fixed setups, so the setups posted here are just if you want to practice earlier because you can't make the actual practice session or whatever. When practicing locally, your setups are of course NOT fixed, so while you can change stuff, don't play around with anything and get used to it. This includes the weight-jacker.

hey this setup might be useful for people tonight! But also, here's this slightly crazier setup:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d2ffvc89ziljthj/Charlotte%20-%20loose%20in%201%20and%202.sto?dl=0

Edit: Here's a better version! https://www.dropbox.com/s/9dda2dvvb15jdm8/Charlotte%20-%20stable.sto?dl=0