So I tried running the CRX simulations in forza 2. I consider it on par with gt4 in terms of realism when it comes to making adjustments and handling characteristics.

Problem is I ran into an issue in forza 2. When I re-calculated for my CRX in forza, weight 1886lbs and weight distribution of 61/39, I came up with (rounded to the nearest 50in/lb) 700lbs f and 800lbs r. When I went to change the spring rates, the game only allows a max of 586in/lbs front and rear.

So I adjusted the spring rates to match but proportionally lower (due to the limited rates in the game). I tried 586lbs f and 490 r with a 22mm rear bar. I then tried 470lbs f and 586 r with no rear bar.

The results were very similar. The car with no rear bar, again I was able to bang off a slightly faster lap time, but the difference was not overly significant.

The fact that they limit the springs rates the way they did makes me wonder how acurate they are with the game in translating the actual characteristics of each car. So are these rates actually spring rates?, or, for simplicity, do they just show the wheel rates and label them as spring rates?

It is for those reasons that I believe gt4 is actually more realistic in terms of vehicle handling and setup. Forza 2 is very good too, though in gt4 the vehicles handling seems to better react to setup changes more realistically...if you know what I mean.

Unfortunately there is no MKI MR2 in forza 2. Would be curious to see how acurate it really is compared to gt4 and real life.



...Just some interesting points I thought I'd share...

 

These are the PIC Selects I have on the Crx with 12k front adn 14k rear.
The are 8 way

Buy PIC Select for 1988-1991 Honda Civic

The have 8 levels of rebound adjustable damping to suit a variety of road and track conditions.

What should I set mine at ? I currently have both the front and rear on the softest setting.

 

Do you find it bounces much? How does it feel/handle?

Basically they should be set so that when you hit a bump at speed, the car does not bounce more than once, or continue to bounce after the bump.

When you push down on the car at rest, it should come right back up to resting position and not continue to oscillate.

Best way is to find a piece of road with 1 significant bump or dip on it and try it at different settings driving over the bump and see how the car reacts.

There isn't one specific setting I can tell you that is the correct setting. That you have to feel out for yourself.

What I can tell you is this rule of thumb I tend to go by, and so far have seen good results from, is that the rebound should be roughly twice the value of the bound setting. This combats the tendency of the suspension to 'bounce' the car up after hitting a bump. But you have to be carefull because if the rebound is too stiff and the bound is too soft, it will "ratchet" the suspension down, not allowing the spring to extend out far enough before it hits the next bump, and you run out of spsnension travel when hitting consecutive bumps.

Does that suspension have adjustability for rebound only? or can you adjust bound as well? What about high and low speed damping adjustability? I'm assuming not.

If all you can adjust is a fixed rebound rate, I'd suggest starting at 1/2 stiff for the front and 2/3 to 3/4 rear and see how that feels.

On our MR2 we just installed 600lb f and 350 r springs (10.7k f and 6.25k r) on koni yellow dampers. We set the fronts at max stiff and the rears at 2/3 stiff. After a quick drive we found that it works almost perfectly as the car had no tendency to bounce at all. It just cycled over the bump and settled imediately. But the real test will be on the track this sunday.

2join, what do you think he should set his rebound at?

I'd guess 1/2 front 3/4 rear to start.

 

The rear is bouncy.
I cannot push down on the suspension cuz it's so stiff.
There's no body roll at all when I rock the car sise to side its that stiff.

 

Looking at the PIC dyno's for your coilovers, it appears in the front the third setting from the stiffest would be best. In the rear, the fifth from the stiffest.

Problem is, that only optimizes the low speed valving, meaning your turns and transitions as well as light elevation changes in the road.

The high speed valving is going to be overdamped a bit. This is going to result in undue harshness and a loss of traction over bumps and dips.

In order to correct the high speed valving in the front, I would to set it to the softest setting, but then you are sacrificing low speed control.

In the rear there is no hope, even at the lowest setting the shock is overdamped in the high speed range.

It's not that bad though in the front. Where they are using about 2500N/mm I would advise 2000N/mm. So only about 20% more resistance then what I would use myself.

That's for rebound. Compression damping looks pretty good and isn't adjustable anyhow.

But that's just my analysis. I'm surprised the vendor didn't tell you any of this.

 

It's partly the spring rate too. Like I said earlier, my own personal preference would be to go no higher then 12K in the rear of a CRX. Heck, I would probably go lower, like 10-11K. So this bounciness is a combination of your high spring rate, and slight overdamping.

Again, in my opinion.

 

yup. The car is overdamped.. :P

 

Good point.

I don't have either of these games, but I imagine they would be using wheel rates. Just thinking about it, it would be a lot of extra work for the coders to implement motion ratios. They probably just set it at 1:1, especially for a game as vast as GT4.

 

Where'd you find the shock dyno charts?

That would definately make it easier to know where to set the rebound to, instead of just guessing. Without that info, you don't know how well matched those damper are to the springs they're mated with.

So basically you're saying it has too much resistance on high speed rebound for the 14k springs? Wouldn't that discourage bouncing? Because it's not allowing the wheel to "spring back" as quickly...


Hey Robb, just out of curiosity, would you be willing to remove your rear sway bar and trying it out? It won't help the bouncing but should help keep the back end more planted over bumps while cornering.

 

The dyno chart is on the manufacturers site. This is it:



Yes, that is what I am saying. Looking at the graph I can't imagine it being underdamped, so I'm drawing the conclusion that "bounciness" in this instance isn't the Cadillac bounciness but rather "skipping" due to the pack down effect of being overdamped.

 

No Im leaving it as is.. It actually corners amazing as it it.

 

ahh...I get it, yeah makes sense.

 

lol, I was partially joking. np.

CRX's are awsome track cars. Have to get one some day...

 

So the first race of the season went extremely well.

I finished with the 3rd fastest time of the day, seperated by the 2nd ftd by only a few 1000th's of a second. Finished 2nd in class as well.

The car that held the ftd was a 1200lb all fibreglass, caged ae86 with a turbo 4age. He only beat me by .7 seconds.

The MR2 handled beautifully with the 600lb f and 350lb r springs. We found the front to be slightly underdamped as even at the firmest setting the koni yellows still couldn't quite conrtol the rebound enough, so the front end was a bit bouncy, but hardly noticable. It definitely wasn't over damped.

All in all, the setup seems to be very good and the results were pretty much what we were expecting. Still needs a little tweaking with toe and camber. Also need to work out some bugs with our current engine tune, was studdering a bit and had issues with throttle response. Could have had ftd if it was running 100%!

Oh well....next time.

 

Congrats on the results! Very impressive. Did you guys have a dry surface to race on?

 

Yep, bone dry. Although we spent about an hour sweeping off the sand from the winter....created a few slick spots.

There was one really fast, long sweeper into a high speed shicane (sp?) where I think I was one of the very few guys with the guts to go flat out and actually got into 3rd gear for a good 5 seconds. probably the fastest track layout I've seen yet with this series. Thing about the MR2 is you gotta stay on the throttle in a corner like that. As soon as you lift off, the *** end will come right out on you. Definitely a white-knuckle experience...

Spectators claimed they saw the inner front wheel lifting off the ground in corners....Who needs 4 wheels on the ground? haha.

The other surprising part is we beat all the regional competitors who showed up with their trailered, purpose built track beasts. Muaaahahaha!

We may do a hada event next, just for fun and practice.