ASPHALT SUPER LATE MODEL SETUP GUIDE

version 1.1 - Thomas Brandon

When it comes to building setups whether on dirt, asphalt oval or even the road, the
process that I use is basically the same. Now, on the dirt side I will always start with my
base/qualifying setup and then adjust to the changing track conditions. But, on the
asphalt… it’s the opposite.

With the asphalt oval cars, I will always focus on building my race setup first. I will do
this using the default weather, a 50% track state with the marbles and dust, and then
the time of day the race is scheduled. The reason I do this is because I find it much
easier to turn my race setup into a qualifying setup on the asphalt side of things.

This guide is designed to help you adjust, and create your own setups by taking you
through the exact process I use to build my setups.

When making adjustments always remember to make only one adjustment at a time.

I hope this guide helps you create or adjust your setups so you can get the most out of
your car and your driving ability.

THE THREE STEPS TO BUILDING A SETUP

STEP 1: DETERMINED BY TRACK

These are adjustments determined by the track size, banking, etc.
- Gear Ratio *
- Fuel Amount
- Caster

* Consider the long run for your gear choice. A tall gear maybe great

on frest tires, but that may lead to excessive tire spin when they begin to wear.

STEP 2: TIRE TEMPS AND WEAR ADJUSTMENTS

- Camber *
- Tire Pressure *

* Some guides will give camber adjustments as a

way for fixing an ill handling race car. I prefer to set
them to what will give me the greatest contact patch
You may have to revisit these throughout the process
of building your setup.

STEP 3: DRIVE-ABILITY, FEEL AND WEAR

- All other chassis adjustments

BUILDING A SETUP

Track Settings: Time of day determined by iRacing’s schedule, Default weather,

50% track, keep marbles and dust
I find it best to use these settings when building a setup because if I can build my
setup with these settings I can easily adjust it to fit a wide range of track and
weather conditions.

For the most part, the iRacing setup for each track will provide you with a decent
starting point.

Before you start tweaking your setup, you need to first lay down a baseline and see how
you're driving the car. It is important to note whether the problem is the setup or your
driving. Always remember that traction is a balance. If you use up 90% of your traction
because you are braking late,you will only have 10% remaining for turning the car.
The key to a good setup is to have a setup that allows you to get the most out of your
driving ability and the car's capability without wearing out the tires in the first 10 laps of a
run. You want to have a car that you don't have to fight or struggle with during the
second half of a run.

ALWAYS REMEMBER; THERE IS NO MAGIC SETUP!

Step 1: Determining Your Fuel, Gear and Caster

Take the iRacing setup (or any other setup that you have for the track you are at) and
go make a baseline run of ten laps. This run should be at race pace.

After you make this run, determine the following:

Gear Ratio: Does the car pull out of the corner and do you have enough gear to make it
to the end of the straightaway?
Fuel Load: Calculate (starting fuel - remaining fuel) / # of laps run. Then take that
number and multiply by the number of laps in the race. This should tell you how much
fuel you’ll need.
Note: It’s better to have too much than not enough.

Caster: How does the steering feel? Does the car pull too much or too little to the left
when braking?
Increasing caster on both sides will increase stability and feel. Increasing caster split
(higher right side and lower left side) will cause the car to pull to the left more when
cornering.

Toe in/out:Toe in will give straight line stability. Toe out (negative) will give corner grip.
Too much in either direction will cause tire scrub, increase wear and a loss of speed and
lap time.

Short tracks generally use more negative toe, where bigger tracks will use little to no
negative toe.

Sometimes on short tracks I will actually run positive toe in the Left Front and
Negative toe in the Right Front.

Step 2: Determining Camber and Tire Pressures

You do NOT have to do this, but I just want to tell you what I do myself personally.

Before proceeding, I like to engage the shock springs with the packers. I do this
by increasing the LF packer shim until I see the LF ride height increase. Once I
see the LF ride height increase, I decrease the LF packer shim by one click. Then
I do the exact same thing on the RF, by increasing the packer shim until I see the
RF ride height increase. Once I see this happen, I stop increasing the RF and then
I increase the LF packer shim by One Click.

Doing this engages the shock springs. This allows me to run very soft front
spring rates (usually 100 lbs/in on both fronts), while only needing to adjust the
shock springs if I want to make a spring change on the front end.

After doing this, I proceed to my camber settings.

Note: Although I usually run very soft springs on the front, I do NOT always.
There are certain tracks where I run stiffer front corner springs, particularly
bigger, faster tracks. I.e. Bristol, Wilksboro, USA, etc.

Camber: Once you have completed step one, go back out and run 10 laps at race
pace. When finished, check your tire temps.

Adjust your camber so that the left side of both front tires are hotter than the right. The
difference in temps is known as “the spread.” With the current tire model, I find a 10 - 15
degree spread on the Left Front, and a 7 - 10 degree spread for the Right Front to work
well.

You will find that your spreads will vary based on track size, banking, straightaway
length, etc.

Tire Pressures: You want the temp of the middle of the tire to be in between the inner
and outer temperatures.

Note: Tire pressures can also affect the inner/middle/outer wear and temps. Because of
this you may need to fine tune camber after making major air pressure changes.
Step 3: Chassis Adjustments

Once you have completed steps 1 & 2, it’s now time to adjust on the chassis.

I do this in two parts; Handling and then Speed (Aero)

Although Aero affects handling, I find that getting the car dialed in mechanically first,
and then fine tuning the ride heights to maximize downforce and minimize drag seems
to be the best way for me personally.

The order in which I focus on my handling is:

1. Entry
2. Middle
3. Exit

I will always try to get my entry right first and foremost.

Tire Wear Note: If you find that your right side tires are wearing unevenly, you can
adjust your cross weight (wedge), or Ballast Forward. More cross weight will tighten the
car and it loads the RF which will cause it to wear more. Decreasing cross weight will
loosen the car and load the RR, causing it to wear more.

Increasing the Ballast forward increases the weight on the front end, loading the front
tires and increasing wear. Decreasing it will put more weight on the rear.

I personally use cross weight and Ballast to balance out my tire wear and then also for
adjusting to different weather and track conditions.

Major Adjustments for Tuning Your Entry:

● Front Springs
● ARB Diameter
FIne Tuning Adjustments for Your Entry
● Shocks
● ARB Arm Length

Major Adjustments for Tuning the Middle:

● Front Springs
● Rear Springs
● Shocks
● Stagger

FIne Tuning Adjustments for Tuning the Middle:

● Shocks
● ARB Arm Length

Major Adjustments for Tuning the Exit:

● Rear Springs
● Trailing arm mounts

FIne Tuning Adjustments for Tuning the Exit:

● Shocks
● Track Bar Height
Increasing Speed:
Once I feel like my setup is where I want it to be mechanically, I will now work on getting
my ride heights where I want them. Even on a short track I still want to get the nose of
the car down as much as possible.

Although changing my ride heights can alter the handling of my car, I find the changes,
if any, to be very minor.

When adjusting the ride heights, I use a combination of spring perch offset changes and
packer shims on the front, and just spring perch offset changes on the rear.

Keep in mind that aero will play a far bigger role on bigger tracks. When running on the
shorter half-miles, mechanical grip is far superior in my opinion.

Adjustment Breakdowns
 Packer Shims
When it comes to fine tuning ride heights using packers and spring perch offsets,
there is a very specific way that I do this on my setups. The way that I do this,
would take a full page to describe, so you can just watch me do it in this video
below.
Quick Adjustments
Loose on Entry
• Increase Front ARB Size
• Increase RF Spring Rate
• Decrease LR Rebound

Tight on Entry
• Increase LF Spring Rate
• Increase Caster Split
• Raise Left Side of Track Bar

Loose in Middle
• Lower Track Bar on Both Sides
• Decrease Rear Spring Split
• Decrease Rear Stagger
• Decrease RR Compression

Tight in Middle
• Raise Track Bar on Both Sides
• Increase Rear Spring Split
• Increase Rear Stagger
• Increase RR Compression

Loose on Exit
• Increase LR Spring Rate
• Decrease RR Spring Rate
• Lower Right Side Track Bar
• Increase LR Compression

Tight On Exit
• Decrease LR Spring Rate
• Increase RR Spring Rate
• Raise Right Side Track Bar
• Decrease LR Compression

CREATING YOUR QUALIFYING SETUP

After you have built a race setup that you are satisfied with, the next thing to do is build
your qualifying setup. This is actually much easier than you think.

Since you already have a good race setup, all you need to do is tweak it for qualifying
trim. I do this by decreasing the fuel load, taping off the front grill (changing tape
configuration to; qualifying), adding 1lb - 2lbs pressure to the tires, and then resetting
the corner weights and cross weight on the car. Then I will go out and turn a couple of
laps to see how the car feels.

In qualifying, I will usually run the car a little tighter than my race setup because I don’t
care about burning up my tires. After testing the qualifying setup, I will go back and
make changes if I think I need to.

Remember, your only goal in qualifying is to lay down a fast lap. Taking care of the tires,
“need not apply here.”

Usually for adjustments on the qualifying setup, I will focus more on the Ballast Forward,
and Cross-Weight. But, you may find other adjustments work best for you.
 ADJUSTING FOR WEATHER & TRACK
CONDITIONS
Once you have your race and qualifying setups all done, you are good to. But, what do
you do if you get into a race and the track is 20 degrees hotter than when you built the
setup? Or, if the amount of rubber buildup on the track is much greater than your test
session?

When it comes to adjusting for weather and track conditions, I find it’s best for me to
keep things as simple as possible.

My go to adjustments for these situations are…

● Cross-Weight
● Ballast Forward
● Track Bar Height
● Shocks

Now when it comes to which one you should do first, there is no correct answer. You
may find that shocks work best for you, or maybe cross-weight does. You may even
discover that you find better results changing something else, like springs or toe-in. The
best thing to do is experiment with them and see what works best for you.

Remember, there is NO magic setup. At the end of the day no matter what car you’re in
or what track you’re at, you’ll see far better results if you’re comfortable with the car.
That is the most important thing.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This guide was created and edited by Thomas Brandon (founder of The School of Sim
Racing), and is a constant work in progress. As information changes, and knowledge
grows, there may be changes, additions, or revisions to this guide moving forward.
Thank you very much for downloading this, and we look forward to seeing you on the
track.

Please feel free to check out more of our training materials and free content on our
website at: https://www.schoolofsimracing.net/