Hi guys, I've had a lot of questions about using or not using ABS and setting the brake bias in cars you don't own. I did post a brief comment about this here http://www.gtleagueoz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=42&start=10 But here it is again in more detail. To use, or not to use ABS; Con's 1. ABS will induce some amount of understeer just as other assitance does (ASM TSC) 2. It will also reduce your ultimate straightline braking power a little, as maxiumum grip is achieved at ~10% slip. Remember that ABS will actively reduce your effective braking strength to ensure the wheel with the least amount of grip does not slip. Which means your other wheels may not be reaching their grip potential. Pro's 1. Almost 100% guaranteed stability under hard braking and braking over uneven or changing surfaces. 2. Potentially decreased tyre wear as you never have to worry about locking up (and decreased braking distance if you cannot otherwide avoid lock up on smooth surfaces). P.S. Deliberately locking up the front wheels can be an effective method to recover from a spin. Nascar use this tactic. Always set your brake bias; 1. Even when using ABS you should always set your brake bias to achieve maximum effective braking. Consider that the rear wheels generally loose grip during braking due to weight transfer. If you have the front/rear brake strength equal, ABS will be working to stop your rear wheels slipping before your front wheels have reached their grip threshold. So your maximum effective brake strength is compromised, unless you want/need to combat turn in understeer where a more rearward bias can still be more effective. 2. The brake strength and bias can be adjusted in ALL cars, ARCADE garage, Liscense test, Special event cars INCLUDED! 3. Just remember you will have to re-set the brake strength/bias each time you return to the track in vehicles you don't own i.e. Arcade garage, as they will always revert back to default (F5 R5). Using the RA menu IN CAR! 1. First, go to your GT life settings menu, and controllers, then assign buttons for the 'RA' (Race Adjustments) menu. 2. RA menu allows you to adjust basic settings WHILE YOU DRIVE! The menu appears in the centre of your driving view and semi-translucent and allows you toToggle ASM on/off, Adjust TSC, adjust 4WD torque bias (if equipped for the vehicle), Adjust ABS, and set your Front and Rear brake strength. Setting your brake strength and brake bias 1. Take your car for a drive without ABS and do some brake tests. Watch your tyre indicators and adjust the brake strength using the RA menu down until you don't get too much lock up at full brake. Remember, maximum grip is achieved with some slip, so don't set the brake strength too low. In some of the lower grip vehicles it is impossible to set the grip strenght too low and you will always have to manage some amount of lock up under sustained full pedal. 2. Typically road cars have a front bias of about 70%. Race cars vary anywhere from close to this figure to almost 50%, but a 50-50 brake bias is unusual, and it depends on the amount of front weight transfer that occurs during braking. 3. Increased front brake strength will increase stability (understeer), whle increased rear brake strength will decrease stability (oversteer). 4. Typical settings (with ABS = 0) FR / MR cars - Front 3 - 4, Rear 0 - 2. - NOTE zero setting does not equal OFF! It's just one step weaker than setting 1. FF cars - Front 2 - 3, Rear 2. Formula cars - Front 10, Rear 9. Tom's CASTROL Supra - Front 4 - 5, Rear 3 - 4. Ultimately it depends on personal preference and should be adjusted to suit each car and track on it's own merits. Back to considering ABS 1. Once you have established the best brake balance you can return to using ABS according to personal preference. 2. If you do use ABS you can increase the brakes to be as strong as you like as ABS will prevent lockup for you. But to maintain your maximum effective brake strength try to increase Front and Back by the same amount - *however to counter the understeer inherent in using ABS you may wish to increase your rear bias* 3. With ABS on, increased brake strength will simply adjust how far you have to depress your brake pedal to achieve maximum effective brake strenghth, as the ABS will still kick in at the same tyre grip levels to prevent slippage. This is an ongoing process, you will need to play around each of the settings to find what works best for you in different cars and tracks. Hope this guide helps! :mrgreen: P.S. Downforce is also a factor as it effectively increases or decreases the 'weight' force on your wheels. Increased downforce may accomodate increased brake strength settings front and/or back proportional to your Downforce adjustment. But remember that downforce will only increase your grip at high speed (100 - 150km/hr +)
awesome write kostar, great fun practising with you boys even though evilowner drives a like my grandma lol
Does every change there brake bias? I didnt know about it! Does it make the car more stable under braking when ABS is set to 0?
Definitely. Most cars are almost undriveable at ABS = 0 without at least reducing the rear brake strength. I since prefer ABS = 0 I always adjust the brakes. But to be honest you won't be at a big disadvantage driving ABS = 1 and standard bias which is what most people use.
Great writing on brake bias. I've just joined and was wondering if you knew alot about suspension set up at nurburgring. I only use street cars in particular the GT-R specV 09, I had her doing 6min 19secs but think that i could do better if i knew what i was doing in setting up the suspension ( i know only a little ). If you could give us some tips i would be forever greatful. Thanks.
I guess there isn't really right from wrong with brake bias. It depends what your trying to achieve and also what type of driving style you prefer. Personally i use abs = 1. I tune my bias depending on the track. i prefer to use my rear bias to help the rear turn most of the time. But on a track like monza with 4 huge hard braking zones, i'd use more front bias to focus on shortening stopping distance. so yeah, depends on the track for me. Ps: koastr, how do you go overtaking people on corner entry under heavy braking. eg laguna turn one?
With ABS = 0 there is the potential to decrease your straight line stopping distances. In fact, for gold in some of the license tests ABS = 0 seems essential. But the trade off is less stability when your hard braking zone is not a perfectly straight line, like laguna turn one. But generally I find rather than overtaking under the heavy braking, I am better to use the extra turn in I get from ABS = 0 to pass them on corner exit, so I don't risk over shooting my brake marker or sliding out under lock up. Depends on the car though.
how do you actually set your brake bias in an online race. Every time I try to get into the "settings" section in a lobby, it won't let me. I'm guessing you do it in game, but if you could let me in on exactly how it would make me a happy panda
There's a seperate thread on general tuning here; http://gtleagueoz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=164
i tried this last night, but i couldn't find any buttons to use! tried to use the d pad, but that was a stuff up. any other suggestions for buttons. not all buttons can be used for this. :x
Why couldn't you use D-pad, I thought that would be ideal? I've got a G25 and set up like this; left / right d-pad as RA adjust +/- i.e. adjust setting eg. ABS 1 - 10 up / down d-pad as RA select + / - i.e. up and down the RA menu button just above d-pad (bottom of 4 in diamon config, equivalent to X on DS3) as RA menu i.e. to bring up and close the menu. It's tough to get all the button assignments you need. Don't bother with a button for wipers as they come on/off in the rain automatically, and if you're not driving cockpit view they're redundant.' Use the combination flash lights / toggle beam selection for lights, it seems to work fine as one button for both functions. In addition to driving controls and those mentioned above, I keep look left/right, look behind, change view, toggle ghost, start/pause, handbrake, and horn. Although horn is redundant in the Supra.
d pad gets confused, because up and down operate as exactly that, up and down. i'll try another combo tonight. get rid of light/horn etc.
I was reading an observation on GTP that setting brake strength to '0' is not off but in fact just a unit step less than '1' Has anyone tested this? Could be a good option for those cars you always struggle with lockup in at 3/1 settings and ABS off - giving that extra step of adjustment to say 2/0. I've set the rears to 0 before as a psuedo line locker for some sweet standstills. I was going to try 0/0 to test the theory that 0 isn't off... anyone else tried this already?
