Forza 2 Upgrading and Tuning Guide: Tuning can make the critical difference between your car acing the opponents on Hard difficulty, or straining on Easy. There are several ways to make sure you've got the best car for the race. Since, at this point, every race has been completed by anywhere from 2,000 to 300,000 racers online, it's a safe bet that the best racers have completed each race with the best car. If you have Xbox LIVE, you can view the leaderboards before the start of each cup and see what car the leaders where using. You can even download their setup, if they opted to allow that. When you go to Tune Car at the main Career screen, you can apply that saved setup, and it will tell you which parts where different on that person's record setting car than on yours. Once you have all the parts the same, you can apply all of their settings that they used to your car. However, keep in mind that many of those people at the tops of the leaderboards are there not because they are great tuners, but because they're great racers. If you study their tuning setups, you'll find that many of them don't even take the time to tune their cars. This guide can show you how to make your car potentially better than theirs, so that you have a better opportunity to finish the races with a faster time. Before you can tune, use the following instructions to help you make the right decisions for upgrade parts. These instructions are meant for those tuning their cars to the max, with a specific performance index (performance index is the number that increases your class rank) or horsepower limitation: Upgrading: Engine and Power Upgrades: These are the upgrades you should discriminate the most when applying, that is, only apply the what's best for what your limitation on the current race is (Class rank or horsepower), if any. Engine upgrades do the most to increase your class and performance rank of your car, so don't overdo it. Powertrain Swap: Depends on the car, but this can do a lot, if you have the cash to back it up. The powertain swap can convert front-wheel-drive cars to rear-wheel-drive cars (such as the Mugen Civic), it can increase your peak hp and torque ranges, it can increase your redline, it can even balance out the car and decrease the weight. If you have the cash, the powertrain swap is rarely a bad choice. NOTE OF CAUTION: just make sure you do it before adding any other engine upgrades, because all engine upgrades made before the swap won't apply after, and vice versa (you're essentially starting a whole new engine, although this is reversible). Intake and Exhaust: These are basic, these affect all RPM ranges, are cheap, and are often the best performance increase per performance rank gain to your car. Ignition and Fuel System: Fairly small boosts to all RPM ranges, most of the time. Not generally the first choices when trying to stay in a certain class. Generally a worse value than the airflow upgrades. Cams and Valves: Potentially huge performance gains. Not only boosts hp and torque at high RPMs, but also increases your RPM redline and peak RPM range. Easily one of the best overall performance upgrades you can do, but at a hefty CR price and performance index increase. Engine Block: Decent mid-high range hp and torque upgrade with mild performance index increase. Good value. Intercooler: Only works if your car has a turbo or supercharger. If it does, the intercooler can add a mild performance boost at a relatively same performance rank index increase. If your car is naturally aspirated (no turbo or supercharger), adding the intercooler can add to your rarity and thus grant you a slightly larger prize at the end of the race with no performance index increase at all (only worth it if you already own the intercooler). Turbo: Biggest power gains of all, but only good at mid range RPMs (does absolutely nothing off the line) and great at high RPMs. A great choice for Nissan speedway, where you're aiming for constant top speeds, not a terrible choice for the tighter, more technical races. Adds a very large performance index increase. Superchargers: Two kinds here, centrifugal and positive displacement. The centrifugal sc's imitate turbos, with boost at mostly higher RPMs, but add less boost than turbos, as well as less performance index increase. Positive displace superchargers add boost through all RPM ranges, but are generally the weakest of all. If you need to pick one of the three aspiration boosters, for tracks with long straights, the turbo is probably your best best. Sometimes it's not available, so the centrifugal supercharger will be the #2 option. For tight, technical tracks with very little in the form of straights, go with the positive displacement supercharger, if available; if not available, and under a performance index limitation, make this your last option. Platform and Handling upgrades: These are far better performance per performance index upgrades than the engine and power upgrades. Many of these won't even increase your performance index more than a few, if at all. Most of these should be chosen first, before the engine upgrades, especially on tighter tracks with lots of turns. Brakes: Always, always, always a good choice. Especially on heavy cars. Does only 2-4 performance index increase (whereas turbo can do over 100), but will cut quite a few seconds off your average lap. Springs and dampers: Not always the first choice on a budget, but critically necessary after you get a few engine upgrades. This may appear to lower your speed and/or acceleration rating, but don't worry too much about that, the handling increase will make you forget all about it (if you don't have to drop your speed as much, you don't have to worry about getting a lot of it back!). Anti-roll bars: If you've got a car over 3,000 lbs (~1,350 kg), don't even think, just get this part. Also, check out the height on the car, if it is fairly large when compared the the base, get this part. For cars like race cars, however, this isn't especially critical. Basically, this part helps to keep even pressure on all four wheels during turns, which is very important on top heavy cars, but not so much on low center of gravity cars. Still, a cheap part, a mild handling increase, and a virtually non-existant performance index increase. Transmission: The tranny can help in speed, accelerating, and even braking. Since you use your engine to some degree to slow your car, having it at high RPMs at all times increases the drag when braking, thus slowing your faster. However, I wouldn't recommend this as one of your first upgrades. The addition of the 6th (and possibly 5th) gears can be detrimental to your acceleration if you have a weak car because it's compression just isn't powerful enough, and it'll never hit 6th gear. Not only that, but setting your gears really low might sound good because it keeps your car at higher RPMs throughout acceleration, but remember, one of the biggest things that holds you back in a drag race is shifting! More shifting = slower racing. Finding the right balance is key, and luckily, the manufacturer has done that for you! So, until your engine outgrows the transmission, it's probably best to avoid this part. Clutch and Flywheel: These should really be the same part, since they're both traditionally just called the clutch assembly (I recently replaced the clutch on my car, boy was that fun!). Anyway, like I mentioned the the transmission section, shifting slows you down a lot. The biggest thing that slows you down in dragracing is your shifting, and the biggest thing that slows you down in shifting is clutching, not so much the disengaging, but the reingaging. That's why the racing clutch has 3 plates to press against the fly, to get it spinning faster and with more force, and the lightweight flywheel will spin faster, because it is lighter and has less inertia. These upgrades offer a pretty good performance boost, while minimally affecting your performance index. Driveline: Unsprung weight is something you'll hear a lot about here. For those who drive a stick shift, they'll probably notice that sometimes, while accelerating heavily, then jamming in the clutch, they'll keep accelerating slightly. Ideally, if on a flat road, you'll slowly decelerate after jamming in the clutch, slowly because of the inertia of the car and the moving parts. However, everything after the clutch (the driveline, the axle, differential (if app.), and the drive wheels) are not infinitely dense, and have a very small amount of spring to them, that when acted on by, lets say a couple hundred ft-lbs of torque, will twist a bit, finally releasing their unsprung weight after you clutch, thus springing the car forward a bit more. Ok, so that's really technical, but here it is: The race driveline is relatively inexpensive, does a decent job at acceleration increase by reducing unsprung weight, improves breaking but reducing post clutch spring, and helps handling by reducing the weight of the car. Adds 0-1 performance index. Differential: A very underrated product. I'll explain how to tune it in the tuning section, but if you've got a RWD or 4WD car, I highly recommend getting this upgrade, especially if you've experienced oversteer with RWD (stepping on the gas while in a turn and having the back end swing around, spinning the car). 4WD, it's always a good choice. Front wheel drive, however, I would get it if you don't mind spending a little bit of cash for a very mild performance upgrade. A great highlight to this part is that it actually REDUCES your performance index! Weight reduction: This is my favorite of ALL upgrades that you can put on your car. It improves everything, more than any other upgrade. By making your car lighter, it has less inertia, letting it start and stop better. You also put less weight on the tires, making for better handling and top speed. Comes at a reasonably steep performance index increase, though. Definitely consider this over maybe a turbo if you're looking at a race with lots of turns, or get the engine upgrades if it's more of a top speed track. Tires and Rims: these range from the extremely useful to the pointless and cosmetic. Tire Compound: This is probably the second most effective upgrade for your car. Softer tires get warm faster, increase the amount of friction your car is capable of, and will thus increase your acceleration, braking, and handling. You get a wide range of tire brands within each category. Keep this general rule in mind: the better the grip and responsiveness, the softer the tire, therefore, the quicker it heats up and becomes unusable. When racing on most races, anywhere from 1-10 laps, the race tires will be your best option, if you can afford the steep performance index increase. These have a short life span, but should do fine for the race. However, if you're looking at an endurance race, you may want to consider the sport options, which will still have good performance, but will have about twice the life and will hit you with a smaller performance index increase. Tire Width: Don't fear the acceleration drop that it looks like will happen, since increased tire width actually reduces wheel spin off the line and for all you floor it and forget it drivers, this could increase your acceleration. The main draw, however, is the braking and handling. Since this will put more rubber on the road at all times, you have more friction to work with, and will get better traction. An ok performance gain with a small performance index increase. Rim Size: Basically, just cosmetic. You'd think, since the circumference of the wheel increases, the rubber touching the road would increase. But this effect is so minimal, it's far outweighed by the cons, which is lots of unsprung weight. Since you already got the driveline upgrade (you did get the driveline upgrade, didn't you?), the wheel is going to be the only remaining source of unsprung weight to worry about. All of the usprung weight in the wheel is in the thin spokes, which get extended when increasing wheel diameter, adding large amounts of unsprung weight. There is a bright side to increasing the wheel diameter, though: when you have a performance index limitation, you may consider the bigger rims, since the negative effects aren't that dramatic when compared to possibly being able to get a better turbo or weight reduction with the 1-3 performance index points you'll drop with the bigger rims. Rim Style: Manufacturer rims are generally not the highest performance part on the vehicle. Upgrade rim styles can reduce the weight of the wheel, and with that, its inertia, as well as potentially producing a stronger wheel with less unsprung weight. IMPORTANT NOTE: Wheel upgrades are the only upgrades allowed on cars racing in the Factory Spec races! Most people don't know that. Upgraded rim styles can add up to 3 or 4 performance index points. These really aren't important upgrades, and are mostly a waste of money, if you're short on it. But, if you do want every extra bit you can get, several brands have equal, top ranking rims, they are: Enkei, Montegi, Volk, and Work. (with rim styles, as with tire compounds, the best model is on the left and typically lowest on the right). Body and Aero Upgrades: This is a hugely underrappreciated section, especially for rear wheel drive power machines. If you're looking for performance, only get the Forza 2 brand parts, which consist of a couple downforce panels on the front bumper, moving the exhaust up on the rear bumper, streamlining the side skirts, and/or a carbon fiber spoiler. The other brands are worthless for performance, but will look cool. However, last time I checked, this was a driving game, not a looking game! (I partially take that back because of the vinyl customization system.) All body and aero upgrades either increase your performance index very little or actually reduce it. Front Bumper: Something you probably don't want on a front wheel drive car. However, if you're rolling in a 4WD or RWD car, particularly one with a bit of beef under the hood, this is a great part for you. Front bumper downforce puts pressure without actual weight on your front (turning) wheels, which will increase your turning traction and lateral g's at higher speeds, especially when you're accelerating. Don't worry too much about the speed and acceleration loss if you've got power and are doing a turn filled race, because you'll be very happy to have that extra traction. However, on tracks like the Nissan Speedway, you may want to pass up this upgrade. Rear Race Wing: If you're FWD, just keep on truckin. If your hind wheels happen to be drive wheels (RWD or 4WD), then give serious consideration to this product. Although it looks like it might slow you down (you will notice the speed rank drop), it will dramatically reduce oversteer, and will help your all over the track. For cars with oversteer issues, you really can't be without this part. Rear Bumper: Positive effects across the board (except for the possible, very minor acceleration decrease, which you won't notice, especially with the increase of the others). This is a very good buy for all kinds of racing and drivetrains (FWD, RWD, 4WD), and will probably increase your performance index by about 4. Side Skirts: 99% cosmetic. You may see some greens and/or reds on the stats board, but overall, side skirts are more detrimental than anything. However, for a very minimal cost, they do drop 1 off your performance index, if 1 point is that important to you. Tuning: Ok, now you've got the parts you need for your car, now it's time to set it up. Go to Tune Car from the Career menu, then Benchmark. I say go to Benchmark first, because you should write down all your stats before you begin, to compare the car after you tune it with before you tuned it; but keep in mind, the benchmark stats don't reflect all aspects of driving, it's a fairly general guide. Now go to Change Tuning Setup, and press X once inside. It's a good idea to regularly save your tuning setups, which names that detail the setup, such as "Class A Setup" or "Under 500hp", something like that. Ok, lets begin, page by page (switch pages with the right and left triggers): Tires: 30 psi generally is the standard in this game. Reducing it too much will reduce the integrity of your tires, reducing your traction, and causing increased skidding. Increasing too much will cause small rubber to road surface area, resulting in less traction, and possible even "skipping" around turns. One benefit to higher pressure is higher top speed, so maybe turn it up just a few pounds on the Nissan Speedway or New York races, but not too much so you can handle the turns; and possibly turn it down a couple psi on tracks such as the King Cobra with very tight, technical sections requiring increased grippage. Gearing: Now this is possibly the most critical part. If you've only got the sport or street transmissions, you can only adjust the final gear, which is the gear on the driveline side of the transmission. The size of this gear affects the ratios of all the other gears, so when you increase it, all the other gear ratios get smaller, and vice versa. With this, it's important to use the benchmarks when adjusting to get it just right. You don't necessarily want the top of your final gear to be your max possible speed, because that could put the other gears too small and close together. If you've got a very weak car, like under 200 hp, you'll typically want to make that last line on the right (the 5th or 6th gear) to end about a column and a half or so past the 137 middle marker at the bottom. This can be changed around through experimentation and benchmark results. For very powerful cars, they'll typically get peak hp and torque through a very wide RPM range, so you'll want as little shifting as possible, and each of those lines to spread a good range, so setting the final gear to end a little over halfway between 137 and 275 is a good option for cars with 600-1000 hp. Keep in mind this is very general, and you should try a few different options. Now, if you got the race transmisison upgrade, you can adjust each gear ratio, which can be intimidating, but can have great results. Most of the time, the race transmissions come pretuned to do pretty well for a powerful engine, but sometimes they need help. Try some of these tips: - If your car spins out off the line, then the RPMs drop low and the car takes a while to get to second gear, try increasing the 1st gear's ratio, so that red line comes at a lower speed (but make sure to check out what this does to 2nd gear, as it can make it disproportionately long. - If your car never gets past 4th gear, adjust the gears in a steeper slant, so that the final gear range is very small (meaning you'll enter 6th gear only a thousand or two RPMs from redline, right at peak RPM), and on up to first gear, making it an even slant, then adjust the final gear to set the speeds at which each gear's RPMs correspond to; so, after you've adjusted the slant, try it out on the track, if you hit 6th too easily, reduce the final gear, if you still can't hit it, increase the final gear. This should make the gears more accessible. Alignment: This is one of the things that doesn't really need to be adjusted in this game. Adjusting the alignment can negatively impact your handling, and can cause premature tire wear, so best to leave it alone. Anti-Roll Bars: Higher adjustments for heavier vehicles and top heavy vehicles, and keep them around 1/4 for very light vehicles (under 1,800 lbs). If you're driving a big heavy Bentley or Acura RL or something like that, you'll probably want the roll bars to be at about 2/3 - 3/4 of the max. With RWD and 4WD cars, you'll want the rear to be a bit stiffer than the front. You don't want this set too low because this can make cornering very difficult by causing the weight of the car to lag in shifting into the turns, which can also cause oversteer. You don't want the roll- bars too high, either, because the weight will move too much to the outside wheels, possible even having the inside wheels lift off the ground. Springs: You'll generally want your springs to be about 2/3 of the max. This creates a tight, but not too tight, suspension, so that the car will react quickly with the turning of the wheels. Front and back springs should be about the same. You'll often buy the race suspension, but see the front springs tuned pretty low. Increasing them to optimal levels can add a lot of performance to your car. Changing the ride height is mostly unnecessary. Like the springs, the ride height is mostly set optimally by the race suspension upgrade. Too low and the car can't shift its weight and will often scrape the ground. Too high and the car will become top heavy and roll toward the outside of the turns, and then you'll have a bad time! Rebound Stiffness: Rebound stiffness and bump stiffness are minor aspects of the suspension that don't need to be messed with, as the race suspension again does a good job of setting these for us. Aero: Adjusting the downforce depends on the kind of race you'll be running. You can adjust the front bumper and the rear wing's downforce. If you're looking for very high speeds with not so much turning, you'll want minimal downforce on the rear and very little downforce on the front. If you're running a tight race, like King Cobra, you'll want low downforce on the front, and high medium downforce on the back. Tracks with long, high speed turns will be best with medium to high-medium downforce on the front and high medium downforce in the back. Keep in mind, front bumper downforce decrease your turning radius, which is very detrimental at low speeds, which is why you won't want much on tracks like King Cobra. Braking: This is one of the experimental adjustments. It's different for every car. You should compare your experiments with the benchmark. Typically, you'll want between 50/50 and 44% front balance on the brakes. Heavier cars often respond well to moving some of the braking to the back, and increasing the overall pressure. Keep in mind moving the balance toward the back creates instability when braking at high speeds, but can help you get the back around when going into a turn. Experiment and find what works best for you. Differential: The differential is what lets the outside wheel in a turn spin at a higher rate of speed than the inside wheel, since the outer line has a larger radius, and therefore, circumference, than the inside. The settings here adjust when the differential has allowed them to spin at different enough speeds and decides to lock them together. Well, I don't like it too much when it locks them together, so I tend to set mine to a fairly extreme amount. If you're adjusting the Front differential of a FWD or 4WD car, the acceleration ought to be about 1/3 of the max here, with the deceleration about 1/3-1/2. When adjusting the rear differential on a RWD or 4WD vehicle, in order to help prevent oversteer by both the wheels spinning at the same speed around a turn, i tend to put the rear accel at about 1/4 the max, with the rear decel at about 1/3, just in case i have to brake during a turn. If you have a 4WD vehicle, your differential comes with a variable center torque distribution controller, which is a very cool thing. This determines what percent of the torque from the engine goes to the front and rear pairs of wheels. Since 4WD cars are meant to perform offroad, their center differential setting is set to 50/50 as a standard. However, on the track, we don't have to worry as much about towing a truck up a hill, getting out of a huge mud pit, or backing up off a cliff after 1 wheel has gone over the edge. So, since the weight of your car shifts backwards during acceleration, putting weight onto the back axle and lifting it off the front axle, and the variable center controls torque which applies to acceleration, we want to give the rear axle more torque, so it's not wasted on the front. So, the best balance is typically about 40% front/ 60% rear. And there you have it. That is the full guide to tuning your car. Remember to experiment and save your settings. Good luck!