Watkins Glen Setups

Hi guys, now that some of you have started running at the Glen i was just wondering what your basic set ups are, wings, ride hight, spring rate etc, also what are your diff locks set at, i am having trouble on the exit of corners, spinning out when i put the power down, thanks for your help, Chris.

Well that depends the car you drive. Not sure a McLaren set suits an Arrows

To get more rear grip, set softer rear springs, more rear wing, softer rear anti roll bar and/or lower rear tyres pressure

Perhaps i should have been more specific, whilst i appreciate that a Mclaren will need a different set up to an Arrows is that just fine tuning?, is there a basic set up to suit most cars and then you go from there? This will be my first race on HSO and it is only my third ever online sim race, i am making my debut in a Shadow and i am determined not to make a fool of myself, i think i am setting myself a realistic target by aiming to be within about 10 -12 secs of the pole time, then i just want to keep out of trouble in the race, it would be nice to get to the finish but just getting some miles under my belt is the main aim. I gather that you can get hold of set ups from rfactor central amongst other places and i may well end up having to do that but i would first of all like to work on a set up of my own. Both of my previous races where GP2 and they really have nothing that i can cross over to here, so i am a bit stuck at the moment. The quickest server time in practice is 1.36 at the moment, just running round offline so far i have managed a 1.49 but i can do no more than 4 or 5 laps without spinning, the car feels on the edge of an accident all the time and i am having to be so gentle on the throttle. It did cross my mind that it could be the way my wheel is set up, i have just got a G25 hence my return to sim racing , then again is it just a characteristic of the mod in that you have to be very gentle with the throttle peddle? as i said, the car seems to spin coming out of the corners no matter how gentle i am on the throttle and i am hardly thrashing it. Thanks for any help guys, Chris.

Well basically the Shadow is a tank. It's heavy and not fast. And tricky too. The ground effect is, at best, slight on that car. Whatever you do it will oversteer and/or understeer strangely.

So the car has to be very soft on suspensions and having one click more than any other cars in wings to be drivable. At first just try to make it less imprevisible. Tiago made once a set for the Shadow. But I've loose it. All I remember is that the front suspensions were softer than the rear in bump and rebound. May help

And don't bother doing 1.49..I'm just doing 1.44 myself with the Shadow

Ok guys, i am here asking for a little help again, i dont know if i am at the limit of the car or what, its a Shadow, i can run 1.48s quite regularly in race trim and i have done a 1.44 in qualy but that was only a so so lap. It is quite comfortable to just plod around with it but if i push a little it understeers in most corners and if i really push it can have snap oversteer halfway through some corners. The main parts of my set up are as follows -

Front Wing - 7
Rear Wing - 14

Tyre Pressure F - 125
Tyre Pressure R - 123

Spring F - 120
Spring R - 105

Camber F - 3.0
Camber R - 2.0

Anti Roll Bar F - 50n
Anti Roll Bar R - 30n

Ride Hight F - 2.5cm
Ride Hight R - 3.5cm

Thanks for any help guys, , Chris.

Well 1'44 is certainly not the limit of the car, I think you just need more time to get to grip with it and with the mod. The track and the car are quite hard too, that doesn't help for sure.

Your setup looks ok to me, the unpredictable behaviour is one of the Shadow's caracteristics. Maybe you should try the Fittipaldi, it's a bit easier to drive at the limit.

I will try do give you a replay of a decent Shadow lap tomorrow

Thanks Gui, you are right, i am finding it quite tricky but thats what its all about surely, , it would be nice to have someone to bounce ideas off though, if you could find a good Shadow lap that would be handy, just to know what i am aiming at.

You'll see that the Shadow is always difficult to drive. Sometimes it understeers and others it oversteers with just a little tweak in the setup. Very difficult to get it on the spot. I like unpredictable cars like the Shadow and so far had my best result with it

Tried few laps with Shadow-1.39 something, though my setup was very understeery but maybe you want to check it out Chris?

I don't find the shadow very unpredictable in contrast, it is a very stable car and will allow you to go with the lower wings than you have. It is just damn slow...

Here it is Chris => Replay & setup

The lap is a 1 39 908 with soft tyres and 30L of fuel. There is more pace in the car but it may already give you an idea of where you're losing time

Thanks so much guys, i think if i can get down to high 40's low 41's then i will be doing ok, Gui, what programme do you use to watch replays, i am hopeless with computers so you will have to forgive me, thanks again guys, Chris.

You can watch replays in rFactor. Just put the .vcr file in your rFactor/ReplayFridge/Replays folder and you will be able to watch it ingame (in the same menu where you choose between trainings, race ... there's a replay option).

The .svm file is the setup, put it in your Userdata/YourName/Settings/79Gpcwatkinsglen folder.

Guys, i am really struggling with a set up, i can constantly run around in race trim with the Ensign at about 1.45 - 1.46, i am ok with that but i cant find a Qualy set up for the life of me, slap on Q tyres, trim out the fuel, smaller rads etc and the handling goes haywire, when i did a similar thing with the Shadow it was worth 3 or 4 secs a lap, any ideas? Thanks, Chris.