Sim Racing Setup Guide 05 - Suspension Springs

Welcome to part 5 of my sim racing setup guide. This video is all about suspension springs and how they are an essential tool for maintaining ride height, keeping the car stable and for tweaking the balance of the car. This series of videos is intended to give beginners an overview of how to set up a car in any of the modern racing sims.
Throughout all 12 videos, I have been describing in detail the various aspects of car setup and how to bring all of them together to build a car setup.
The first 10 videos explain the ins and outs of each setup area, trying to explain the how and the why. Then, video 11 starts to bring everything together and talk through the process of building a setup. Finally, I’ve included video 12 as a case study of an Assetto Corsa setup that I created for the Audi R8 GT3.
If you want to skip to any specific sections of the Sim Racing Setup Guide you can do so using the following links:
1. Introduction - • Sim Racing Setup Guide...
2. Tyres - Pressure and Temperature - • Sim Racing Setup Guide...
3. Suspension I - Toe, Camber & Castor - • Sim Racing Setup Guide...
4. Suspension II - Anti Roll - • Sim Racing Setup Guide...
5. Suspension III - Springs - • Sim Racing Setup Guide...
6. Suspension IV - Dampers - • Sim Racing Setup Guide...
7. Ride Height - • Sim Racing Setup Guide...
8. Brake Balance - • Sim Racing Setup Guide...
9. Gear Ratios & Differential - • Sim Racing Setup Guide...
10. Aerodynamics - • Sim Racing Setup Guide...
11. Diagnosing a setup problem - • Sim Racing Setup Guide...
12. Case Study - Audi R8 Case Study - • Sim Racing Setup Guide...
Playlist Link: • Sim Racing Setup Guide
Hopefully this guide will be useful for those looking to improve their understanding of setups in iRacing, Assetto Corsa, Rfactor, Project Cars, RaceRoom etc. If you have anything to add, please leave a comment, and if it’s helpful to others, then I’ll pin I to the top of the page.
#ChrisHaye #SimRacing

[@russellchapman5991]

hello there Chris..just giving you a thankyou sooo much for this 12 pack..im very new to sim racing like 3 months..and yes it's overwhelming the amount of settings and just how quick you can fall down the rabbit hole...these videos have helped me tremendously...and you present and narrate them well..so ya, brilliant and a big cheers you....thankyou

[@badme9684]

Thank you, You have the best video off sim racing on youtube, you are a good teacher. Thumbs up

[@ChrisHaye]

Thanks Crabby!

[@--WalkerGer--]

I'm very glad you are producing this series! The quality is great as always. It's informative but not too blown up with unnecessary information to keep the videos short. Add to that the neat visuals and nice music it all fits together very well. Keep up the good work!

[@ChrisHaye]

Thank you very much, glad you enjoyed the video. Hope you find the series useful.

[@Aja-nt]

I totally agree about the quality of the production and the great information, but could l suggest that you replace the high quality video for stick drawings as l spend so much time oggling the cars that I forget to take notice of what you are saying and have to watch the whole thing 28 times. Seriously though, cheers Chris and thanks for your wonderful content.

[@brechtvalcke6506]

Finaly understand the basic principles of setup instead of just trial en error. This will defenitly help!

[@viperion_nz]

OK so now I have questions :) This video is an excellent description of what the Springs are and do, but how do you know that your springs are too soft? Too hard? How can you actually tell, in game, that your ride height is too high? (Too low is easier to spot, on account of the bottoming out) How can you tell what the weight distribution of the car is (in, say, Assetto Corsa)? If the weight distribution is 60/40 to the front, should the spring rates also be at 60/40, or just "close enough" to it? If you then soften the springs at the front, thus throwing the ration off, should you, as a general rule, also soften them at the back? Apologies for the assault wave of questions but you're getting into the territory of "things I have always wondered about" ;)

[@lingSpeed]

Changing springs has major impact on most of the possible car setup components. But to simplify it, too soft spring will create "issues" like random instabilities, slowness to react, understeer followed by immediate oversteer etc. Thou the best way to gauge it is the laptime itself. If you soften the car and its slower it's too soft. As for the 60/40, trying to match spring rate to weight distribution is like trying to match tyre size to it. There might be a car that actually works well with it, but there is more to it than just weight balance, like: tyre size, how powerful the engine is, drivetrain type, center of mass height, and of course aerodynamics - they all change what could be considered optimal spring distribution. For most RWD racecars often this means front springs should be relatively stiffer than rears, and that's closest to a "general rule" that you'll get. For example: a 50/50 car will want front springs stiffer, while mid/rear engine GT3 car with ~43/57 weight distribution will want the same spring rates in front and rear. But there are exceptions to this too! Lastly what's not noted in this video, is that spring change also influences camber and toe. Usually the softer the springs, the more negative camber you will have because car will run lower (and toe can go both ways or stay in place, every car is different here). Now depending on the actual camber setup, even softening the car equally on all 4 corners, it might result in over or under steer because of camber/toe changes. So the best practice for changing springs is to make sure the car runs the same ride height as before.

[@Analogrebelable]

How have I not found your channel sooner?! Really enjoy the content! Keep it up!

[@flymoferrariracing8332]

Doing a great job helping out your fellow sim racers , Keep up the good work Chris .

[@ChrisHaye]

Thank you very much, hope you find the videos useful.

[@gopherchucksgamingnstuff2263]

excellent explanation, often in IRL i have had to explain the spring rate issue when i build mini trucks and why the bump stops needed to be removed or chopped down. at least till we went to airbags . then c notches , then floor lifting to body drop tubing etc.

[@stevieboymkii]

I think you've done this as well as anyone has if not better - about as simple as it can be.

[@ChrisHaye]

Thanks man. The scripts have been through about half a dozen re-writes. It's a tough subject to make simple... and honestly, if I had more time I'd have probably re-written them another half a dozen times!

[@ballaking1000]

Very good video! Informative, clear and precise. One thing I noticed though is you haven’t mentioned the cars power and brakes. Most of the suspension’s job is in the corners, but how much power (affecting rear susp.) and stopping power (affecting front susp.) also should be kept in mind in order to keep the car stable, responsive and predictable while trail braking and applying the throttle earlier in the corner exits. Thanks again for the video, thoroughly enjoyed it!

[@angryginger791]

Love this series! Keep up the great work!!

[@ChrisHaye]

Thanks TheGreatC81 - much appreciated!

[@olddogg60]

Great series Chris. Thank you for the effort on our behalf.

[@JohnnySnappleseed]

You the man, Chris.

[@ChrisHaye]

Thanks Tequilaisbadmkay #SentencesINeverThoughtI'dType

[@holystone3736]

New sub. The quality Is superb

[@MrTimdtoolman1]

Another great video Chris. Thank you.

[@ChrisHaye]

Thanks Tim, as always. I'm going to have to add you to the Christmas card list at this rate! :D

[@MrTimdtoolman1]

@@ChrisHaye No need Brother, your doing all the work, It's like opening a great Christmas gift every time I watch one of your vids. You have got this YT thing nailed man. HAHA!

[@Khosumi]

"it's easy to start chasing your own tail" is a woefully undervalued comment. Don't tweak setups needlessly.

[@AgentJot23]

Shut up! I'm clicking like button under your videos even before watching them :P

[@Newbieakanoob]

Short and compact, just the way i like it

[@ChrisHaye]

Thanks Moon Glitch - much appreciated.

[@bobjkohneSenf]

One think you may add here is Aero stalling. On some cars the front splitter loses downforce when the front is below a certain ride height, If I remember correctly that height is about 45mm for most GT cars in Assetto Corsa.

[@ChrisHaye]

Thanks Inbekannt - I cover the relationship between ride-height and aero efficiency in video 7 (Ride Height) and video 10 (Aerodynamics). That's the downside of splitting the subject up into separate videos!

[@bobjkohneSenf]

@@ChrisHaye Great, I just saw that you mentioned Ride height here, a whole video about it should be awesome!

[@ChrisHaye]

Yeah man, the whole series works out at something like 90 minutes... so there are some bits that I have to skip over so I can cover it in detail later. Which is fine, but so many parts of setups are inter-related!

[@richysracing9524]

Brilliant mate👍 I'm going to do a setup stream soon, when I can find how to do an intro and thubnail lol, OK with setups but misrisble with pcs lol

[@ChrisHaye]

Thanks, much-appreciated dude. Yeah, streaming's a bit beyond my experience level at the moment as well. Need to get some tech things sorted before I venture into those pastures.

[@chota.cabras]

I'm going nuts here. Nice videos and nice pace talking I know it's hard to make such quality videos. I would like to ask a question about narrow/formula cars. How much bottom out is too much bottom out???? When do you draw the line between an OK amount of sparks and a firework-lookalike-car???

[@eSKAone-]

Thanks♥️

[@pspuser1991]

You're welcome

[@ChrisHaye]

:D

[@oskarr3018]

United Racing Design just released the 2018 DTM Cars !

[@ChrisHaye]

Hey Oskar - yeah, I just saw the tweets (and the ones about the Porsche and Merc GT1 cars!). I'm looking forward to giving them a go.

[@oskarr3018]

@@ChrisHaye The Merc GT1 is already out

[@laggymax]

1:36 That guy didn't set up his springs right.

[@lucianopetroff1822]

Hi! Nice video! I have a question. What should i do with de TRAVEL RANGE in Assetto Corsa? Thanks man!

[@mitchelljosephthompson1ub444]

Hi chris, a few cars in ac i feel have too lighter steering for my liking, increasing overrall ffb or road effect only induces unwanted oscillation, do you know of any adjustment tips to create more " wheel wieght" i.e heavier steering. I find this a common issue in many formula cars. Cheers Mitch.

[@asurada999]

1:37 is that Tracy Krohn?

[@kukkivindu]

Will the rest of this videos be available? See they are private. 😢

[@ChrisHaye]

Hey westworld - the release schedule is in the video description - I'm only uploading them 1 day ahead of the release time, and I've not quite finished the last couple of parts... so there are still few days to go!!

[@kukkivindu]

Thanks you for answering. I clicked at the video about riding heights. And I got a error 400 and it was not available. If I jumped the gun on it and am sorry. But if you have released it. It do not work. Best regards. Good work.

[@2ndLastJedi]

Hey mate at 2:57 your on Sebring, what version is that and is it AC?

[@junkawakami3193]

am i just listening to David Attenborough explaining racing setup?

[@SlashmanG]

Hey Chris, have you seen the Shuto Revival project? its a cool bunch of lads porting all the highways from the wangan midnight game. a super fun drive, kinda similar to the LA Canyons mod. they also have a bunch of high HP tuner cars to hoon in. check out their discord if you get the chance, i know asset flipping isnt the best, but it's certainly fun! discord.gg/rYpyf5V

[@ChrisHaye]

Hey SlashmanG - no, thanks for pointing it out. That's a bit outside my normal area of interest, but that's what I love about sim-racing, it's become such a broad and varied passtime. I'll give it a look for sure.

[@louisschildknegt5165]

But most importantly if it’s red it’s better

[@MotivatedDevilHunter]

1:36 nothing to see here, please disperse

[@caerphoto]

wow, video compression really doesn't do well with closeups of asphalt xD

[@ChrisHaye]

You're not wrong Andy - it doesn't look great in raw footage, but KZbin has absolutely mangled it. Ah well!

[@ST-qh1td]

Me : fails math class Chris : *starts talking about mathematical bullcrap that i dont understand*

[@carstenschluter3446]

so essentially how do we tune them? what should we be looking for in the handling to change the springs? sir, you really haven't explained anything at all "heavier cars generally need stiffer springs" "generally speaking, spring rates should also reflect the cars weight distribution" ok, but why? again no answer if u could pls make a new series I would rly appreciate it, this one isn't very good at all. thank u for understanding

[@addictedtopiano]

This is rather armchair engineering. I suggest reading Milliken instead.