Caterham is a good teacher

[darock]

You know, the Caterham is a pig. OK, maybe not a pig, but an understeering plug that won't put it's power down with any sort of manners.

And I've only been in it once or twice to notice those beautifully fun characteristics and thought how nice it's going to be that nobody is going to want to race the suckers. Wrong.......

I was just in a really big race in the sucker (we need to talk about that race and it's organizers in another thread). And did I learn a thing or two... or four... or eight....... anyway.....

Embarrassment is a strong incentive.

So I've just been working on my Caterham. Applying the things that're supposed to work to cure entry understeer and exit oversteer. And damned if they don't work. Amazing what the real world can tell you and the sim world can replicate.

I did to the shocks what you'd do to speed up the weight transfer on entry. And what you'd do to slow the weight transfer on exit. And it worked some.

And then I maxed the camber in the fronts to give 'em whatever bite camber can give. And that worked some.

And since the fronts were running about 40degrees colder than the max traction for that style tyre, I knocked down the spring rates and that worked some.

And since the sucker can light up the tyres in the lower gears with just a breath on the pedal, I did what works to make the power easier to put down. After all, you don't get paid according to how much you smoke the tyres.

I still can't figure out how RACE07 interprets the brake settings, but I'm working on it.

What I HAVE learned is that RACE07 responds to real world changes very nicely thank you. And it's a real pleasure for sure. I wish GTR2 had the brake-induced-skid-sounds like RACE07 does. But I guess it really doesn't matter, because even without all those GTR2 cars, RACE07 so far is lots more fun to drive. And mostly, only for that added brake sound deal.

Oh well..... time to go mess around some more.

[IcyMind]

when are we going to have a league for RACE07 ?

[d1x1e]

yes please count me in i"ll race anything

[Tommy Trauma]

Well dont be shy, post that setup. True its a great car if you learn it, And I prolly went the wrong way on the setup, gave up on it and I moved on to the open wheelers.

[darock]

I will when I get it worked out.

Until then, anybody can do what I did. Take the shocks for example.

To speed up the weight transfer on entry, you want to soften the front shocks on bump and the rears on rebound. That way the weight can more quickly move off the rear and onto the front. You only change the SLOW shock settings. They are the ones that control weight transfer. The fast shock settings control how the shocks deal with the springs reacting to road conditions.

To slow down the weight transfer on acceleration so that the fronts don't lighten up and add to the car's corner exit understeer, you want to increase the front's rebound setting to slow the front unloading, and increase the rear's bump setting to slow the rear loading. Once again, do this only to the SLOW shock settings.

Everything else is already spelled out in post #1.

It's actually such an evil car that it's easy to choose what settings to start with for the slow settings. Either a '1' or a '10' depending on which way you want to go.

I remember when the 7's came out originally and wondered why anyone would screw around with such. And after driving one in the sim, I wonder even more. Only thing I figure is that either the sim didn't do the car right, or there were a bunch of people who had bought the car to look cosmopolitan while tooling about in the things.

[Bram Hengeveld]

Here is the video of the race darock is refering to:

http://blip.tv/file/510872/

Caterham setup tips:

- reduce brake pressure to 90 procent and set the bias to 63/37
- low powerlock (25) low coast (30)
- create a lot of steerlock to handle it :)

[Gaiajohan]

I do usually have the Caterham at 59% front, but I like quite a bit oversteer before turn in. Like with a Porsche 911 I'm usually ~50.5% front, where most people like 55% front.

[speedysteve]

"I remember when the 7's came out originally and wondered why anyone would screw around with such. And after driving one in the sim, I wonder even more. Only thing I figure is that either the sim didn't do the car right"

Did you mean the orginal Lotus 7 as in 1957 or the 7's in sims?
I'm just starting out with Race07 but with bit of setting up they handle ok.
Try Cadwell park

"or there were a bunch of people who had bought the car to look cosmopolitan while tooling about in the things."

I guess that was how I started out 12 years ago with my first 7. Of course things progressed - on my 3rd now.
A bunch of us race them for real you know:)
What is amazing is that pound for pound or $ for $ they punch way above their weight on track. I've done 7 only racing- bonkers competitive, and mixed it with all comers in club racing.
The 7 is a fast cookie on shorter tracks. Eating up racing M3's on slicks at Lydden Hill or Cosworth Sierra's and Escorts at Brands Indy - top fun.
Mine only has 210+ BHP but feels more like the CSR260 in the game.

Don't forget that on ANY given race weekend there are more Caterham 7's being raced in the world than ANY other make of car:up:

Anyhow - your shocker tips worked a treat. It's much more expensive changing these things in the real world!

[Vetteman]

I'd like to know more of your thoughts comparing the RACE 07 version of the Caterham to yours. The folks from http://www.simracingtonight.com/ seem to think that the Caterham mod for rFactor is more like the real thing than RACE 07's version. I tried it out but they can have it. rFactor to me has too much yaw compared with my experiences on the track and in autocross in real life. Do you guys agree? :zen:

[darock]

speedysteve,
Yup, the thoughts were thought back when the Lotus 7 came out originally. At the time, Elva's, Lotus's, TR-3 and then 4's and Sprites and Spitfires and such were also originating. It really had a rough time fitting into that crowd.

A buddy of mine had an Elva Courier just about ready for SCCA when he traded it for a 7. I was amazed then and still am today. I have no doubt they offer excellent racing. I always thought that was a perfect use for them. One type racing is almost always pretty good.