Drag tuning tips:


You have choosen your car you want to tune, but how? 
I'm going to use the Premium Nissan Skyline V spec R34 nur as an example in this tutorial,
because it has been there with me from day 1, the very first time I started drag racing.
Back then, I knew nothing, I was lucky to get times below 9.650 (0 - 400 meters). That is extremely slow
for an R34, considering mine now runs 9.274.
So how do you archeive such times? Well, its all down to experiance. I've been drag racing now for quite a fair while,
and I have learnt a lot since I first started.


First thing you have got to find before tuning up your car is find its max speed across the line.
You will use this to set the max speed of your transmission, set the max speed to its final speed across the finish line
plus about 10-15km/h

E.G if your max speed across the 400m line was say, 250km/h, make sure your max speed is 260 - 265km/h.

Go and give it a run, make sure it redlines in the last gear right on the 400m mark or slightly before, but not too far before.
If you are using the roadcourse - Indy to set up your max speed, it would be a good idea to try not to let it
redline before your car reaches the "Shadow".

Although, there is anouther thing you should do before setting the max speed for your new tune.
You need the final gear to be as low as possible. In the case of the skyline, set the final gear to 2.000.
After you have done that, then set up the max speed again. Now, give it a run, did it go any faster?

Now, I am using the skyline as an example, It has a lot of torque. So, try lengthening off the first gear all the way.
Drag the gear ratio all the way over to the left. Give it anouther run, listen to the engine in 1st.
The RPMs do not drop too much(The engine doesn't bog down), so the launch will be very quick.
If you have the standard model Lancer Evo III '95
do the same thing to the transmission, then listen to the engine,
the RPM drops way too much (The engine bogs down), so the 1st gear shouldn't be made long.
Now your skyline launches fast, and with a low final gear, will have a faster overall time. 
What if thats not fast enough?

Pro transmission tuning:

For more professional tuners, or if you are just plain desperate, there is anouther way of tuning.
Combining the tip mentioned above and this new way I'm going to show you will have you making great base tunes.


Okay, so do a basic setup on your transmission. Right now you need to find your max speed over
the finish line.

Once you have done this go back to your transmission.
Now if you're in a car like the Skyline R34, it has a max speed of about 240km/h at the 400m mark.
So what you want to do is set the final gear (FG) to 2.950 if you're in an R34 (Different for
other cars). By increasing the initial FG, the end max speed will also be increased. Same thing
if you decrease your initial FG, the end max speed will be lower.
Try to keep it so that the end result is 10-15 km/h HIGHER than your speed across the line.
But so far you don't know how to get the end result do you? So just guess the final gear
for now, and keep reading.

After you have done this, Reset your max speed to the minimum.
What I mean by this is, set your max speed as low as possible.
For the skyline, it is 180 km/h. If you already have it at 180km/h click it up to 190, then set it back to 180
to reset the ratios.

Now we focus on the last gear on the transmission, for the skyline, its 6th. What you need to do
is make the ratio number as big as possible, which is shortening off the gear. 

Okay, so you have completed all those steps, its now time to set the Final gear (FG) back to the minimum.
For the R34, its 2.000, it depends on the car as to how low and high it goes, just like it does
with max speed.

Now check the Max speed on the top right hand corner (On the right hand side to the Gear Ratio Graph).
Again, if you're in an R34 Skyline it should be around 250-255km/h (10-15km/h high than its finish
line speed).

Now If the max speed is too low, or too high, try with a slightly different initial final gear.
Increase if the max speed is too low, or decrease if it's too high.

Once you have gotten the transmission to the perfect max speed, make the gear you launch in
really long (Make the ratio number set to minimum). In the skyline you launch in 1st, so make it long.
IF your car bogs down (RPMs drop too far and the engine struggles) then set your launch gear back
how it was.

Give it a run, notice anything?

Why would this do anything? 

Well the ratios are much better, why you may ask?
Well, when your moving the ratios up and down,
you probably noticed there are limits to how high and low you can set each gear.
By doing this, it gives you better limits, allowing a faster tune.

Now, see the graph on top of the ratios.
Look at the bottom of each line, see how the bottom of 6th gears line is much higher than 5th?
You have gotta try evening it all out.
Don't touch the last gear, It doesn't need to be moved.
Try and get the bottom of 5th gears (Second last gear for the skyline) line very close to the one of 6th (Last gear
for the skyline), but slightly lower.
Then do the same for 3rd and 4th, don't try and do it on 1st and 2nd, because it wont work.

Look at the picture below, this is how it should look when you are done, this works on all cars:



If you are launching in second make 1st and 2nd really long. If you launch in 3rd make gears 
1-3 really long. Remember though, if you engine bogs down on launch, keep shortening off the launch gear 
and testing untill it sounds/launches okay.

The picture above is the graph from my refined base tune that makes 9.290 (I'm talking about my R34 skyline), 
so I guess you could try making yours look
close to the picture, and you will run similar time, that is assuming you have your other parts of your car tuned well too.

Torque distribution
Anyone who has speed test should know, having torque distribution set to 45:55 on AWD cars is generally the best way to go.

Suspension
Don't have speed test, well, It shouldn't matter too much here.
Ride height, lowest at the front, highest at the back.
Heres where speed test would be handy.

Spring rate
Most of the time, maxed out is the best way to go.
Not all cars like this however, look at the skyline r34, it likes its front and rear spring rates at 15.
As for the ZZII fully soft is the way to go.

This also has to do with drivetrain. A RWD car will prefer soft on the front hard on the back, vice versa for FWD.
AWDs have all 4 wheels driven, so  hard suspension for front and back.
Just keep in mind, you want soft suspension on non-driven wheels, and hard on driven wheels.


Dampers extension and compression

Play with it. Usually, the higher it is, the more inconsistant your times will be, which is bad, because it usually runs slower.
A good setting for front and back for compression and extension is 5-6, this works well with most cars.

Anti roll bars have no effect.

Do not ever put on camber, its effects are only negative.
I see some people driving around in RWD cars with full camber on the front wheels.
Tried it, has no effect apart from making your car almost undrivable.

Toe angle
MOST cars like no front toe, and 0.20 on the rear, some like a little more, some like a little less.
0.2 on the rear works best for most cars, AWD cars prefer 0, RWDs generally like 0.2 +.

If you have speed test, when tuning your RWD, always test it with 0.50 toe on the driven wheels (Rear wheels for RWD).
After you have tested that, then cranck it up to 1.0 and see. Some cars prefer 0.5 toe over 1.0, some also prefer
1.0 over 0.5.

If you don't have speed test, I'll recommend based upon experiance, you only set rear toe to 1.00 on RWDs with less
than about 800hp. Or cars that usually pull about 9.5 seconds plus (Ask a mate about the general time of your car
if you don't know).

Any non driven wheels on a car should have a -1.00 toe angle, EG. A RWD car would have -1.00 toe angle on the front wheels.

Aero

Different cars like different amounts.
A way to think of it though is burnouts are your friend.
A little bit of smoke coming off your tyres on launch is not bad, and probably gets better times in most cases.
The only time you should put on a ricer parkbench spoiler and cranck the downforce is when your car
is seriously creating a rather large smoke cloud.
Most RWDs do this, so max downforce is usually needed for those cars.
If you have a FWD car,
I doubt putting a rear spoiler on your car is going to help the issue.
If anything a rear spoiler would just slow you down.

To the new comers, for some reason online most of the time you can't see burnout smoke in a drag
so don't think that everyone has managed to eliminate all smoke on launch. On cars like the Dodge Viper and 
the Ferrari Enzo, there is always going to be lots of smoke on launch.

Some settings for cars:
The ZZII likes quite a lot, front 15, rear 55.
where as the skyline likes a little, 8, but any less than 8 is bad.

Guys, if you have found this website your self or on youtube, don't forget to send a thankyou
message to HeylonNHP on PSN!