Handling Tuning

Once you’ve upgraded your car with new parts, it’s time to fine tune its handling. For beginners, you can adjust the handling style and it automatically adjusts all of the various options for you. Just move the slider either toward Drift or Grip. As you do this, you can see other tuning option adjust, as well. Once you get the hang of this, you can fine tune each option to get the exact feel you want while driving.

Let’s take a look at each of the options that you can fine tune individually.

Front and Rear Tire Pressures

You can adjust both front and rear pressures separately. Changing tire pressure is one way to adjust the grip relationships between front and rear. A looser back end makes initiating a drift easier. For drifting, you want more pressure in the front tires and less in the rear. However, for grip, you would set it just the opposite: less pressure in the front and more in the rear to prevent sliding.

Steer Response

Steer response can be set from faster to slower. A fast steer response enables more reactive, twitchier steering suited to drift. A slower steer response is steadier and more controlled.

Steer Range

Steer range can be tuned from a narrow to wide range. A wider range makes it easier to maintain a deep drift. On the other hand, a narrow steer range produces less lateral slip, making it less likely to drift and instead hold on to the road.

Braking Drift Assist

You can set braking drift assist to either On or Off. When on, this increases the possibility to initiate a braking drift. Turning this off decreases the possibility to initiate a braking drift.

Drift Stability Assist

This option is not affected by the global changes made by Handling Style. Drifting stability assist makes maintaining and controlling drifts easier. Turning this off disables stability controls when drifting. Proceed with caution! This is only for experienced drifters.

Launch Control

Launch control enables stability controls when taking off. It reduces fish tailing and wheel spin. Turn this on for races and off for drifting.

Differential

You can lock your differential or open it up. A locked differential means the left and right wheels consistently spin at the same rate. This results in more wheel spin and, therefore, encourages drifting. This can be adjusted more or less, depending on how you’ve upgraded your differential. Locking it is better for drifting, while opening it up helps prevent sliding while racing.

Downforce

Here you can set the amount of downforce when you equip a spoiler on your car. More downforce enhances the traction of your car at high speeds, encouraging stability when cornering. If you need grip, increase the downforce of your spoiler. On the other hand, decrease the downforce for drifting.

Brake Strength

If you have purchased brakes with some measure of adjustability and installed them on your car, you can set their strength. Strong brakes lock the wheels earlier, producing slip that can encourage drifting. Lessen the strength of your brakes when you want grip as this reduces the slipping of your wheels during a turn.

Brake Bias

Adjusting the brake bias increases the weight transference when braking. Moving this toward the front can destabilize the car more easily, transitioning to a drift. On the other hand, adjust the bias more toward the rear for grip.

Tire Traction

Tire traction depends on the type of tires you put on your vehicle in the Performance Customization. If you use drift tires, you can go from neutral to less traction, while equipping grip tires lets you adjust from neutral to more grip. The higher level of tire, the more you can adjust the traction.

Handbrake Strength

A strong handbrake makes it easier to turn 180 degrees, such as putting your car into a spin. A weaker handbrake can be used from drift initiation with less loss of speed and potentially a method for chaining drifts.

Spring Stiffness

Spring stiffness can be used to tune the squat and dive behavior of the vehicle. If you have an adjustable suspension, you can set your springs from stiff to soft. Soft is better for racing when you need drip, while stiff is best for drifting.

Sway Bars

Sway bars can be used to tune the amount of body roll the vehicle produces. If you have sway bars that can be adjusted, you can tune them for soft or stiff. Soft is better for grip while stiff is preferred for drifting.

Nitrous

Once you equip your car with a nitrous oxide system, you can adjust it for more power or more duration. Tuning it toward power makes the nitrous more powerful, but its duration is decreased. Increasing duration makes the nitrous less powerful, but it lasts longer. This setting really depends on your style of driving. Usually for races with longer straightaways, go for duration. However, if you have short distance between turns, you may want to go with power so you can get a bigger boost in a shorter amount of time.