[John Burrowes]

Hi guys,

Dusted off my G27 and re-installed AC recently. I'm again experiencing the frustration of getting nearer to the front of the grid. At Mugello, for example, I somehow managed 2:05:xx but normally I'm in the high 6s or 7s.

Mind you, I did realize just hours ago, that - using Content Manager - I'd forgotten to switch from Gamer to Pro mode and so I was still using 100% Stability Control and maybe ABS and Traction Control. That kind of explains why the car felt different online lol.

What I want to know is whether you guys that are turning 2s and 2:01s are on Pro mode and/or using a tweaked setup?

I was running the default setup and really don't know where to start with setup changes.

Could any of you, for example, come close to those times with default?

[Nick Catsoudas]

I'm no expert simracer and I only have like 200 hours in AC but I did get into the 2:01:xx timings both when practicing and in the race (even had the rare win this weekend!). From my experience (at least), you find the vast majority of time on the brakes, and the acceleration coming out of the corners (good lines would also help with that a lot).

Setups *do* help, but not to the extent some people think they do. Sometimes setups hurt you more than the base if they are not decent. One thing that I didn't expect is how deep the RS500 can go in the braking zone. I was thinking with it being a BTCC car from the 80s that it would be weak on the brakes, but I gained plenty of time when I just started throwing it into the corners, and for the amount of time in the race (20min), you don't really lose time from tyre deg because they don't have the time to degrade much!

As for your question at the end, when I was practicing the combo for the first time with default setups I got into the high 2:02 times but I'm sure I could have got it a bit lower if I stuck with the default.

For setup (take that with a grain of salt, I'm not the best at setups), I added some camber (and reduced tyre pressure a bit, found it a bit high), a bit more wing, moved brake bias backwards, hardened the back suspension a couple of clicks and softened the front one and that's about it. This might look like an unholy abomination to people who know how to do setups right, but what it did was good enough to have a very stable car, nice to drive Didn't really mess with dampeners and stuff, I don't understand quite what their effect is yet.

If I remember correctly someone wrote a whole setup guide and gave it out as PDF to the Project Cars 2 modding community. I used to have it but not anymore, if you'd like to see it I'll try to find it again! For me 80% of the timings I do just come from practicing the track, and I'm sure someone more experienced could have said all of this better and more succinct but here you go, I hope something from all this helps you out!

[John Burrowes]

Hey thanks a lot for taking the time to write all that. Of course I was hoping no one could get much below 2:04 or so with the default lol. Now I know otherwise.

I get what you mean about pushing the braking limit. The car does have ABS so that must be why I can use 100 % braking and not lock up. The difficulty I have braking for  T1 is that I want to do so at about 150 but there's no real clear marker in that area. I just guesstimate but a bit on the conservative side so as not to run wide. And yeah, I need to improve coming out of the corners and get on the power quicker.

Well not it's Bridgehampton. I see the fastest times are 1:35:xx. I'll be pleased to get into the 37:xx consistently. I only have ten seconds to find from the little practice I did before work lol.

Cheers!

[Nick Catsoudas]

"The difficulty I have braking for T1 is that I want to do so at about 150 but there's no real clear marker in that area."

If you mean T1 on Mugello, there indeed *are* markers. They're just not on the ground. You have to look up and you can see them hanging by these pillars (?) of some kind, and you can get away with braking at the 100 meter board. The gravity from the upwards-going T1 helps you stay planted even if you brake late. I'd say 150m is a bit early.

If you're talking about Bridgehampton, T1 is flat out : p Well, maybe a bit of a lift mid-corner. This track is harder for me to parse since it's not designed by modern standards, bit unconventional and is way before my time lol.

[Jason Jones]

I think a properly tuned car should be about 2 seconds faster on a long track like Mugello when compared to the default setup. I would suggest downloading the setup market app and start trying the tunes that are provided. After a while you should be able to discern the differences in handling that different tuners tend to favor - loose rear end, or a car that tends to understeer on corner entry, etc. Then you'll be able to learn how to adjust their "base" tune to suit your driving characteristics.

Generally, I adjust the tire psi's first, set the gearing to hit the redline at the end of the longest straight, I'll add positive toe if I need more midcorner grip. Increasing negative camber also helps with midcorner grip. I usually need to move the brake bias backwards a little bit too to stop the brakes locking up to early. Just doing these things should increase your time quite a bit. To get the last few tenths it'll come down to being consistent (hitting the same braking point lap after lap) and fine tuning the rest of the suspension settings.

Correctly setting your tire pressures will have the most dramatic effect on your laptimes. Turn on the tire app in game and make sure all your tires have green psi numbers when hot.
https://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index...ure.44697/

You should also practice in pro mode and only use the drivers aids that are factory. On most cars a smooth driver can be much faster than the traction control will allow, so its advisable to turn it off as much as possible. Stability control is disabled on most online servers.

[Alex Leif]

Bit late as the track has now changed but I don’t think I changed much from default. Knowing that a 1:59 is possible I am sure that default setup is capable of a 2:00 in the right hands but it kind of depends on if the default setup + car suit your own driving style.

I find that some cars work for me straight out of the box, but with others I would first make a change to the way I drive it before just changing the setup to try and make the car drive like I want it - you need to drive the car how it wants to be driven to get the pace out of it. Then tweak the setup last to find the last few tenths. If you always start by changing the setup first you are not gonna know why you are changing it and potentially harm the pace of the car just to make it conform to how you think it should drive.

This is from early 2019 and I did post it here back then but for this who didn’t see it at the time here is a 2.00.3xx at Mugello set in a race being chased by Gavin Ranson, iirc we were both on medium tyres

[John Burrowes]

Well thanks a lot everyone for the replies.

Awesome lap Alex. I recognized your name from noticing you listed as the winner of at least one of the race results I've looked at.

I'll keep all of you guys' suggestions in mind as I puzzle out each car / track combo. This isn't the first time I've dusted off my G27 after losing interest due to frustration. I intend to take a more relaxed, less obsessive compulsive attitude toward sim racing and, if nothing else, content myself with racing AI at my level.

I guess I should also keep in mind that, at nearly 60, I'm twenty years older than Kimi and even he is showing signs of slowing.

[Alex Leif]

Here is a lap at Bridgehampton I did earlier, love this track!