Car Specific Notes
Camaro GT3 2012
The ISI car with some Apex mod-specific limits (locked gear ratios), it feels kind of silly to talk about setting it up. The chassis is very forgiving of tuning and changes produce only small effects on lap times once camber & tire pressure are set. Mainly, stay away from the differential as the coast side is so strong it just pushes on corner entry. I wish the maximum braking force was a tad higher because the tires have the capability. I tested a spread of wing values and present what was fastest for me; a touch more wing will inspire more confidence if needed.
799R GT3
Such a neutral car on the skidpad! You can dial in all the wing you want, but this is the maximum that I'd recommend as the drag affects acceleration. Tuning the slow rebound, you can feel the chassis demanding things of you, "more of this, less of that". I left plenty of curlicue skidmarks on Silverstone's Maggots & Becketts corners while trying to find the right balance. You definitely have to stop and ask yourself whether it was your fault or the setup's fault each time.
854 GT3
I started on the skidpad with full springs, no swaybars, to balance the chassis and find a camber setting. Add in rear wing and adjust the springs to remove aero push. Testing on the tracks quickly pointed out that the tire temperatures would rapidly spike, suggesting that the shocks couldn't control the maximum spring rates. I dropped the spring rates into the range they're currently at and the magic started happening. Did not take long to find good values for slow rebound. Fast rebound settings eventually revealed themselves while adjusting the brakes at the end of Portugal's bumpy straights.
BMW Z4 GT3
The BMW has lots of aero push, so you can't use much wing. I wasn't totally happy with my first release as it was too nervous and I was chasing my tail (literally!) adding front slow rebound to make the chassis settle after braking. Similar problem with the McLaren, at the opposite end, finally reminded me that I was asking the shocks to do the work of springs, so I threw away the front swaybar and increased the front spring rate to compensate. Tire pressures came down because it was too skittish in my first release. Finally, in an effort to find more front downforce, I first tried closing off the brake ducts, but that didn't show any effect, so instead I closed off the radiator which helped a bit; if you experience overheating with the current release, open the radiator one notch. *** see "15-Minute Exercise for the Reader" on page 2 of this thread***
Corvette Z06-R
Most inviting to toss through turns! But restrain yourself as tire wear will eat away at lap times if you let it slide. Like the McLaren, the Corvette has oversteer that can't be tuned out when you take away the wing on the skidpad. This setup came together surprisingly quickly because the Corvette exhibits little to no aero push, thus it can run as high of rear wing as you dare. The chassis balances between slow speed and high speed no matter how you tune. Quirks of the chassis that had to be worked around are a minimum front camber of -2.0 deg and rear spring maximum of only 971 lbs/in. An experiment worth trying on the Corvette is to find when wing angle produces too much drag.
McLaren MP4-12C GT3
The first wild discovery with the McLaren is that the chassis has massive oversteer that can't be dialed out until you increase wing to 4 or 5! At that point, you can start adding rear spring/swaybar as you add more wing. I made the mistake of trying to use the rear swaybar in an effort to help tire temperatures. The result was a car that didn't have as much aero push as the default setting, but it wasn't really faster because the dynamic handling was no better no matter how much slow rebound I added. The "aha" moment arrived, I minimized the rear swaybar (you can't remove it) and compensated with spring rate. A final tweak, in an effort to ease the outside front tire's burden, was to maximize the caster.
Mercedes SLS AMG GT3
Pigs really can fly! Learning from the BMW, closing off the radiator reduces aero push. Unlike the BMW, you can't use minimum cooling setting. Rear wing is one touch too far for optimum acceleration. However I found I could turn very consistent laptimes, so you might find it useful for tracks with shorter straights.
Apex Modding GT3 v0.935 base setups
updated: 3 Jun 2016
Your feedback is appreciated! Please reply to this thread or send a PM.
Camaro GT3 2012
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9HI-D ... sp=sharing
799R GT3
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9HI-D ... sp=sharing
854 GT3
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9HI-D ... sp=sharing
BMW Z4 GT3
current;
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9HI-D ... sp=sharing
Corvette Z06-R
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9HI-D ... sp=sharing
McLaren MP4-12C GT3
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9HI-D ... sp=sharing
Mercedes SLS AMG GT3
current
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9HI-D ... sp=sharing
Thanks to Apex Modding for sharing their very lively, entertaining, and growing collection of GT3 racecars! In the continued spirit of sharing and enjoying, I offer these setups as an alternative to the defaults. The neutral steering was derived from skidpad tests, adding aero downforce until aero push could not be tuned out, and then shock dynamics & brakes tuned by alternating between Portugal and Silverstone with a spot check at Sebring. Some tracks, like Mid-Ohio (cresting hills in the middle of turns), will likely need alterations to the setups or an adjustment in driving style.
If you wish to further tune the setups:
1) Make sure it's not a driving problem. Primarily, if you're having snap spins at turn-in after applying hard braking, I'd suggest braking a little earlier. Likewise, tire temps will tell you if you're overdriving.
2) Increasing slow rebound will add "liveliness", decreasing slow rebound will remove "liveliness".
3) If snap spins are still a problem for you, increase front slow rebound or add understeer by increasing front springs/swaybar.
4) For more oversteer in medium & fast corners, decrease rear wing.
5) My camber settings are conservative due to the skidpad and my driving style. By all means increase the camber if you prefer!
6) After any spring/swaybar/wing/camber changes, recheck brake balance and maximum braking force.
7) Explore what I didn't visit: adjust rear ride height to dial out aero push at speed due to the rear downforce pushing the rear ride height lower than front ride height. Motec or just watch high speed tire temperatures.
http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/2 ... ase-setups
