First determine your target ride height

The control characteristics of a car can be adjusted to make it easier to drive by adjusting various parts of the vehicle. This is referred to as adjusting the settings or the setup of a car. In mathematical terms, vehicle dynamics represent a high-dimensional simultaneous differential equation with strong non-linear tendencies, extremely difficult to solve analytically. In fact, it is all but impossible to analytically determine the dynamics of a car, especially while it drives at its performance limits; this is what makes setup work for racing cars so difficult.

This section covers basic procedures for setting up a car, described by the producer of the Gran Turismo series, Kazunori Yamauchi, who has experience racing several hundred laps on the German Nürburgring circuit. If you find you are having doubts regarding the setup of your car, read this content and fine tune your car’s settings according to the track and race format as well as your own driving style.

Fig.1-1 A scene from the 2016 Nürburgring 24-Hour Race. The ride height of every car is made as low as possible, while taking into account the bumpy surfaces on some parts of the track

The first thing to do is set the target ride height. You can tell by looking at F1 and Le Mans prototypes that, basically, the lower the ride height the better. The lower the ride height, the lower the center of gravity, increasing downforce while decreasing drag. This will raise the handling performance on a circuit.

However, there are limitations to this. For example, there may be bumps on the road surface which hit the underside of the car. The car may jump or the tires may hit the wheel housings. The operational range of the suspension arms may exceed its allowed range. For all these reasons, it is not realistic to set the ride height so that it is scraping the ground; ride height must be appropriate to the car and the track. You can set the ride height lower on flat circuits and secure a certain amount of height for bumpy circuits. Unpaved dirt tracks require the suspension to be set much higher, while in rain, you must not lower the suspension too much, so as to avoid the car’s underfloor hydroplaning. Considering these factors will help you to determine the proper target ride height.