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But don't despair!
There is a default setup, but these don't suit me well.
You can also go to time trial, and pull setups from ghosts by clicking the spanner icon next to their name (unless they used the default)
I'm sure you can download setups from somewhere.
All that said, I can only encourage you to drop the bit about not doing setups and start setting up your own cars. It's better to adapt the car to you than the other way around. And taking the time to learn how it works will pay off not just in AMS2, but every racing sim.
You can download car setups in time trial mode.
Pick the car and track then click on one of the 3 boxes "Add Ghost" then pick from the list. You can pick any player or set the list to friends only if you have some who play the game.
There must be a spanner by the players time (if not they used the default setup).
Start the time trial event and you'll enter a holding screen with the ghost(s) listed.
Hover the mouse pointer over each ghost and a spanner should appear, click this and the setup will be installed for you, the game will also save them for you as well.
Be warned though, many of the top times will have a minimal drag setup with closed radiators, brake ducts, extreme low downforce, and even ultra hard tyres (higher pressure) making them unsuitable for actual races.
Unlike games such as Forza these downloaded setups are not locked so you CAN adjust them, any changes will be auto-saved when you exit the tuning menu, the name will have an * after it.
You may well find a lot of these setups very hard to use, if so delete them and try another, repeat till you find one that suits you and your driving style.
As for the default setups? The man who created the default tunes has set them for mild understeer as this makes for a generally more predictable handling car.
He has a YT channel but as he's working on the game directly he's not posted any vids for quite some time but his latest one he explains what the devs and tuning guys were aiming for and does a basic live tuning guide for the F3 309 car.
https://youtu.be/siuWB3YwjVs?si=iY2tw6u8Y9Ww4_k4
A few issues with the default setups are these:
The brake ducts are ALWAYS set to 50% front and rear which can lead to overheating in hot conditions and on twisty tracks, opening them to 80+ front and 60+ rear can reduce this issue, some may well need to be higher and brake bias adjustments can also b a factor.
Brake Bias can be a bit too far forwards and can lead to front locking up when braking hard, I tend to set the bias to around 59/41 or 57/43 front/rear.
Other than these there's not anything "wrong" with them, they're eminently usable.
Some very simple changes alongside the 2 above can make dramatic changes to the handling, such as:
Front Anti Roll Bars, if the car tends to want to go straight mid corner when on the gas lowering/softening the front ARB can provide more mechanical grip mid corner but lower responsiveness on initial turn in.
Final Drive Ratio, if the car allows it this can make a big difference, e.g. a track with lots of long straights you might hit the rev limiter in top gear, if so lowering the final drive ratio will give additional top speed but will cost a small amount of acceleration performance.
Tyre pressures, if tyres are overheating you can increase the pressure but don't go too far or the area touching the ground can become smaller reducing overall grip.
Downforce, playing with this can also bring handling benefits, lowering it increases acceleration and top speed but you can lose too much grip in the corners.
Ride height, on bumpy tracks like Nordschleiffe or the historic tracks the car can bottom out, you'll hear a grinding sound if they are, too much of this reduces the acceleration and top speed and you'll often see sparks when the car strikes the ground. raising the ride height can stop this happening and reduce laptimes significantly, you want as low as possible without too much grounding out.
IIRC the AI DO use tuned setups but only at the higher difficulty/aggression settings, I don't think the actual level this begins is known though, (I could also be completely wrong here but it's been mentioned in some discussions in the past).
Realistically though, the default setups can be competitive as you'll often see time trial records without a spanner meaning the default tune WAS used by the player in question.
Having said that, many cars allow in car adjustments (ARB's, brake bias, some suspension adjustments) and I'm not sure if these are saved by the time trial servers.
If you want to learn about tuning then I can highly recommend Chris Hayes tuning guide videos, he does a decent job of explaining what does what and how to diagnose problems without overloading you with MASSIVE amounts of information to absorb and remember.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWSWQyqnLDu7tLWE9P35Qog6Z8_xb7l_g
He also has a link to a diagnosis crib sheet which can help with dialling out major problems. That can be found in the vid description of number 11.
I've been using his vids and the diagnosis sheet for a few years now as I only had a very basic understanding of tuning when I got AMS2.
Again you CAN get by and be seriously competitive with the default setups, plus many people run default only lobbies in multiplayer.
So you have plenty of options, do nothing, do minimal tweaks (brake ducts), download time trial setups, or spend the time to master the black magic of in depth setups which cater to YOUR driving style.
The old adages' apply, "If it aint broke? Don't try to fix it" and "K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid!".. If the car handles fine leave it as is, if not make small changes and test each change. The choice is entirely yours.
About the defaults, yeah, they have understeer, which isn't terrible, especially for newer drivers as Rastus pointed out. And for me, especially entry understeer, which is bad for going fast. Slow in fast out doesn't work as well when you're sliding away from the apex.
But the fix can be simple. You need to get more weight on the front wheels, increasing grip and reducing understeer. You can do this with softer front springs or roll bar, trail braking (braking down to the apex), rake and more.
So you start in the default and turn some laps. Entry understeer is the diagnosis (let's say). You come back in and drop the front spring one notch and head back out. Better. Faster. More laps.
And in this way you dial it in to handle the way you want it to, rather than adapting to someone else's car. In the long run it is a more efficient approach in my view. Downloading setups might land you a cracking car, but there's every chance it will not be suited to you, and this pot-luck approach is just burning up your time.
That was about what I thought I'd read somewhere but was thinking 80-90 as minimum is 70, though as I mentioned above, default can be competitive and minor tweaks can compensate for the few issues that can build over longer races.
IIRC correctly THENEMESIS69 was legendary for holding over 200 lap records and used default setups for a fair few of those..
It all depends on skill and being comfortable with the "cars out of the box".
Thanks for that link. I'm just 3 months into sim racing and, like you were, have just a very basic understanding of tuning. I understand what most of the settings do but I'm unfamiliar with how changes will affect the car in practice. I've tried using youtube to search out setup tutorials but unfortunately never ran across Chris Haye's tutorial series. They are short and to the point, unlike other videos that can be an hour long, filled with fluff, just going over one setting. That's a great resource for beginners like me.
I figured that might be the case. I'd found the vids useful and still use them to refresh my head now and again.
The crib sheet was even more invaluable as it's a single page diagnostic/remedy guidesheet which breaks corners into 3 parts and lists most common problems, their best remedies and can save you hunting through vids for ages, you'll find the link to it in the 11th video description.
The biggest problem for me was learning all the terminology, it's nigh on a different language or worse a language you know but nothing means what it used to...
The other guy Tom AKA Steelcast27 goes into more depth but can use a lot of lingo or jargon that he doesn't explain very well, making it difficult for a complete beginner to understand what's meant.
Having said that his previous vids tuning AMS2 cars specifically were fantastic, so much so that Renato hired him and he does all the default tuning setups alongside tweaking the physics engine.
Sadly Toms previous vids are not much use anymore as the default setups have changed so much that they're not even the same anymore because of the complete overhauls the game has had since he posted them.
To expand on my earlier posts, where I am suggesting players set up their own cars.... I know it won't convince many, and players will seek the fast fix. But even then, it is important to be able to dial in the downloaded setup too. Having understanding of what does what, and how changes affect balance, grip and pace can be the difference between a good lap and a great lap.
At minimum I think you should understand springs and roll bars. These are the key settings to alter cornering balance. Things like damper, rebound, differential and rake are a bit more complex. Anyway, folks will do as they please, but if your goal in racing sims is to go faster and more consistently some basic understanding of chassis setup can make a significant difference in my view.
Yeah, definitely agree, that understanding the basics can be essential yet, you get to what's often called "The law of diminishing returns", the deeper you delve into fine tuning the longer it takes to achieve and the smaller the benefits become for each change.
That often puts people off the finer details as the gains reduce.
Some don't have the time, some don't have even the most basic engineering knowledge to understand it all, others just can't be bothered.
The brave will ask for help.
Each to their own I guess...
The number of changes to the underlying physics can be a pain, it's lead to my tuning setups being deleted what? 3 times now since launch??
It's annoying as hell but, on the other hand, I've gone from taking an AGE to tune a car to now, jumping in, driving half a lap, seeing what's borked or what I don't like in the handling and then taking 2 minutes to dial it out.
So whilst frustrating in the extreme it HAS encouraged me to learn and adapt.
Some may choose to avoid as they don't have much time as you noted, but my argument is learning chassis setup is the fast track, not the other way around. It will save time in the long run, make each lap you turn more optimal, net greater gains and drive faster, sooner.
It just takes wanting to do it, and taking the time to figure it out. At that point it's in the back pocket for every car, track and sim you might drive. I've been at this a while, and I know the percentage of players who even want to understand this is low.
That's probably why I know what a lot of the settings are but can't remember how they affect each other. I must say, the new DD wheels are a giant leap over the Sidewinder.
I am also of such vintage. My first racing sim was the first IndyCar from Papy. You joke about driving with a stick, but I drove that one with a Gravis gamepad! Remember those?
Later I graduated to using a Logitech Wingman when I got NASCAR Racing. But I snapped so many of those, especially in Grand Prix 2 lol. But when I got GPL I had to get my first wheel, which was a red Momo, of which I still own three. You never know when this will come in handy haha
With that sort of racing history you just have to refresh your memory and do your own setups.
DD is a better solution than joysticks, I can only agree with that! :)
You can reduce the AI skill level to something like 80, so that they won't tweak their cars.
Does Microprose Grand Prix on the Amiga keyboard count as a sim or arcade lol???
Used a dpad and joystick for that as well.
Then analogue controllers on console then PC from 2003.
DFGT, G27, then T300RS before my CSL DD.