
All News: setup guide

Commodore’s Garage #20 – Bumpstops and Crossweight
February 17th, 2017 by Matt Holden
Following our look at the details pertaining to crossweight last week, we’ll now turn our focus to a situation unique to cars with bump stop suspension systems. This is the first concept we’ll look at that will not apply to every car in some way, but while your interests may not fall into a … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #19 – Crossweight
February 10th, 2017 by Matt Holden
Last week we looked at bump stops, but this week we’re going to cover weight distribution, specifically crossweight. Why would we move straight from springs to crossweight? When we dive deeper into bump stops (specifically shims, gap, and contact timing), preloads, and shocks, crossweight is going to come into play a lot. And I … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #18 – Implementing Bump Stops
January 27th, 2017 by Matt Holden
Of all the things available to us in the sim-racing garage, the most confusing thing is typically the simplest component on the car: The bump stop. Ironically, the bump stop is just a tiny version of the one thing that almost everyone understands: springs. The confusion doesn’t come from its characteristics, but instead from … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #16 – Adjusting the Spring Package
December 24th, 2016 by Matt Holden
As we approach the holidays and the close of 2016, instead of putting more information out there, I’d like to send everyone on a mission. It’s pretty simple, and the few weeks we’ll have should be plenty of time: Get your spring package right! In previous racing sims, that was pretty simple, right? iRacing’s … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #15 – Starting Spring Package
December 9th, 2016 by Matt Holden
We now know the basic ins-and-outs of the spring components in our race car, but we need to apply that to the car and get started with our race setup. “Where do I start?” is probably the most common question asked, and in almost every case, the answer is the spring package. We have … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #14 – Ride Heights, Perches, and Deflections
December 2nd, 2016 by Matt Holden
The last major piece of the puzzle we need to look at before diving into building a setup are the three simplest things in the garage: ride heights. Older (and even some newer racing games) have a “Ride Height” adjustment in their setup garages, completely independent of the rest of the car. Anyone who’s … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #13 – Tire Pressures
November 18th, 2016 by Matt Holden
Tires are a racing vehicle’s only form of contact with a race track and, as a result, can be the reason why a car is a race-winner or a mid-fielder. Many factors can determine how well a tire is gripping the track surface, from tire compound, to load, and especially its own behavior when … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #12 – Tire Data
November 4th, 2016 by Matt Holden
Whenever we put a race car on track, be it real or virtual, we have two things that can give feedback on how the car is performing: The driver, and the tires. Drivers are usually very literal when they communicate what the car is doing. If it’s starting to spin, they’ll say it’s loose or … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #11 – Sway/Anti-Roll Bars
October 21st, 2016 by Matt Holden
I had a professor in college say, “Springs for speed, bars for handling”. It’s a short, but interesting statement, and it’s a concept that’s easy to forget and go about things in the other way when tuning a race car, be it real or virtual. Modern race cars, oval cars especially, have seen huge … Read the Rest »

Commodore’s Garage #10 – Track Bar
October 9th, 2016 by Matt Holden
Before moving into initial setup options on our cars and how to go about getting what you need to race, we still need to cover the “bars” in the car. Stock cars typically have a front sway bar and a rear track bar (or Panhard Rod), while road racing cars have a front and … Read the Rest »