12-06-2020, 12:24 AM
I'm going to resurrect this old thread to throw in my setup for Le Mans 67 used in the 2020 Mazda 787b 1 hour series (here's a link to the race series discussion for that series' thread, just in case its needed sometime in the future as a reference if this car is used in a new series https://www.simracingsystem.com/showthread.php?tid=9816). I've attached a txt file of my setup to the end of this post, just convert it to an .ini file to use it in AC (I can't upload a .ini file here). I managed to hit a 2:58.459 in qualifying on softs in Saturday's race with it. I could hit laps in the 3:00.XXX in practice on a full tank with hards, I think my best was a 3:00.25 during that practice session.
The setup I attached uses Patrick Brown's Monza setup as the base, which is in the zip file he put up earlier in this thread, with some edits by me for Le Mans. I've adjusted the gearing and tyre pressures, to better optimise them for this track. My setup's tyre pressure are designed for hard tyres, so when using softs lower the psi of all 4 tyres by 1 click (maybe 2 clicks for the right rear tyre). Tyres are very cold due to the long time gaps between braking zones, but the pressures are in the optimal range for the contact patch which from my understanding for AC is more important, I don't think you can avoid cold tyres on this track anyway.
Le Mans is all about top speed, so I reduced the rear wing from 6 to 2 which meant I could hit 350 km/h in free air on the straight. I have not been able to drive the car with RW=0 over a couple of laps, so I had to accept a RW=2. The race is an hour long so I really prefer to have confidence in the car, rather than use something that might be potentially quicker but is one I am very likely to spin out and crash. A RW=2 meant I could take the high speed corners of turn 1 and the last two turns (that S bend) pretty much flat out, maybe a very brief lift if I didn't feel I had the exact right line or balance. I'm pretty certain others have been able to figure out the RW=0 setup, which I'm sure they will share after Sunday's race (or else you're dead to me.... just kidding
). A RW=0, gets about 353 km/h in free air on the straight, so a car with RW=2 can still keep up and even do some coasting in the slipstream as they can gain that extra speed in the draft. The additional downforce of a RW=2 allows for better exit speed on the corners leading into the straight. This was very helpful on the first few turns before the Mulsanne Straight, so I could get very close to the car ahead and begin slipstreaming right away. It also allowed me to take the right hand before Indianapolis, and that corner itself, at higher speeds so I could catch up again to a car with RW=0 (by 1-3 tenths maybe) and regain the slipstream if I lost it slightly just at the end of Musolanne. The one problem with my setup is, if I mess up a corner badly and lose the slipstream by more than those few tenths, I was unlikely to catch up enough to a car with RW=0 by the time I got to Mulsanne, which is basically game over unless they make a mistake. This might sound like a risky strategy, but for me it wasn't as big a risk as using a RW=0 in my setup that would most likely result in a high speed crash due to the rear getting loose and spinning me out.
I actually used to struggle with RW=2 earlier this week and used more rear wing in my first two races due to that. But I played around with the ride height and packers. I found raising the front height (while keeping the rear very low) and lowering the packers really helped with stability. I also softened the rear suspension slightly, but that was already very soft so I'm not sure if it helped much. Perhaps I should raise the front ride height even more in the setup, maybe then I could use a RW=0 and still have stability in the high speed corners? Maybe I should try something with the bump stop too. Let me know if there is a change I'm missing that could be useful.
(As an aside, Tadej created a setup thread for a Mazda 787b setup he has used in this 2020 series, but that thread had Nordschleife in the headline so to me it sounded confusing to have non Nordschleife setups posted in it. I wanted to put my Le Mans setup here instead since this thread had a more universal title, and since I based my setup off Patrick Brown's, which he posted earlier in this thread. To tie this setup thread with Tadej's one, I'll insert a link to it so it doesn't get disconnected or forgotten about. It seemed quite a few people liked Tadej's setup and set some very good times around the Green Hell with it, so it shouldn't be left out. Link: https://www.simracingsystem.com/showthread.php?tid=9890 )
The setup I attached uses Patrick Brown's Monza setup as the base, which is in the zip file he put up earlier in this thread, with some edits by me for Le Mans. I've adjusted the gearing and tyre pressures, to better optimise them for this track. My setup's tyre pressure are designed for hard tyres, so when using softs lower the psi of all 4 tyres by 1 click (maybe 2 clicks for the right rear tyre). Tyres are very cold due to the long time gaps between braking zones, but the pressures are in the optimal range for the contact patch which from my understanding for AC is more important, I don't think you can avoid cold tyres on this track anyway.
Le Mans is all about top speed, so I reduced the rear wing from 6 to 2 which meant I could hit 350 km/h in free air on the straight. I have not been able to drive the car with RW=0 over a couple of laps, so I had to accept a RW=2. The race is an hour long so I really prefer to have confidence in the car, rather than use something that might be potentially quicker but is one I am very likely to spin out and crash. A RW=2 meant I could take the high speed corners of turn 1 and the last two turns (that S bend) pretty much flat out, maybe a very brief lift if I didn't feel I had the exact right line or balance. I'm pretty certain others have been able to figure out the RW=0 setup, which I'm sure they will share after Sunday's race (or else you're dead to me.... just kidding
). A RW=0, gets about 353 km/h in free air on the straight, so a car with RW=2 can still keep up and even do some coasting in the slipstream as they can gain that extra speed in the draft. The additional downforce of a RW=2 allows for better exit speed on the corners leading into the straight. This was very helpful on the first few turns before the Mulsanne Straight, so I could get very close to the car ahead and begin slipstreaming right away. It also allowed me to take the right hand before Indianapolis, and that corner itself, at higher speeds so I could catch up again to a car with RW=0 (by 1-3 tenths maybe) and regain the slipstream if I lost it slightly just at the end of Musolanne. The one problem with my setup is, if I mess up a corner badly and lose the slipstream by more than those few tenths, I was unlikely to catch up enough to a car with RW=0 by the time I got to Mulsanne, which is basically game over unless they make a mistake. This might sound like a risky strategy, but for me it wasn't as big a risk as using a RW=0 in my setup that would most likely result in a high speed crash due to the rear getting loose and spinning me out.I actually used to struggle with RW=2 earlier this week and used more rear wing in my first two races due to that. But I played around with the ride height and packers. I found raising the front height (while keeping the rear very low) and lowering the packers really helped with stability. I also softened the rear suspension slightly, but that was already very soft so I'm not sure if it helped much. Perhaps I should raise the front ride height even more in the setup, maybe then I could use a RW=0 and still have stability in the high speed corners? Maybe I should try something with the bump stop too. Let me know if there is a change I'm missing that could be useful.
(As an aside, Tadej created a setup thread for a Mazda 787b setup he has used in this 2020 series, but that thread had Nordschleife in the headline so to me it sounded confusing to have non Nordschleife setups posted in it. I wanted to put my Le Mans setup here instead since this thread had a more universal title, and since I based my setup off Patrick Brown's, which he posted earlier in this thread. To tie this setup thread with Tadej's one, I'll insert a link to it so it doesn't get disconnected or forgotten about. It seemed quite a few people liked Tadej's setup and set some very good times around the Green Hell with it, so it shouldn't be left out. Link: https://www.simracingsystem.com/showthread.php?tid=9890 )