What to work on first?

I often get the question, what do I start working on first, second and third etc, when creating a setup. There are many ways to go about building a setup, but here are my guidelines for an approach that works well. These are not hard and fast, but here is the order in which I would suggest you work on your setup.

Pick the wing first

• Pick from the high, medium, or low downforce default iRacing setups based on the track. Clearly tracks like Daytona, Monza or Lemans are going to be low downforce, while most tracks will be high downforce. But there are tracks like Watkins that tend to be in the medium to high downforce range. iRacing provides its own guidelines for which tracks are suited for which downforce configurations in the notes tab of their setups.

• You may want to go up or down on the wing depending on the track. Watkins is a good example where it might need to be between medium and high downforce.

Experiment with rake to get balance in the ballpark:

• Once you have selected the wing you feel is a good start, then start to play with the rake to get the balance you like.

• If you have not changed the wing from the iRacing setup, then you won't want to change the rake much here, as the iRacing setups have a decent rake setting for the wing they have. If however, you have changed the wing, for sure you will want to change the rake. If you went up on the wing, then increase the rake, and if you went down on the wing then decrease the rake.

Experiment with the Spring Rates to fine tune the balance or handle bumps better:

• To better handle bumps or curbs going a step or two softer might help, but the car will feel less consistent, so experiment.

• Tune the spring rates by one or two clicks typically to adjust the balance to your liking.

Experiment with the ARBs to further fine tune the balance

• In general, you will want your ARBs front and rear to not be widely different....such as full stiff on the front and full soft or disconnected on the rear.

• Most iRacing setups have a decent ARB starting point, so going up or down on the bars by one or two clicks is all you will need to fine tune the balance.

Experiment with the rear differential to fine tune corner entry and exit balance

• The rear differential is a power tuning aid and as such it could easily belong higher up the list. But if you are starting with an iRacing setup they tend to have neutral differential settings so that's why I put it later in the list of things to look at.

• Spend some time on the diff to get the balance you like and do long runs to make sure you are not cooking the rear tires with your changes.

Experiment with the Shock Dampening to polish off the balance and handle bumps better

• Dampeners have less impact on blance than springs, ARBs or differential, and as such are more for polishing the balance of the car. However, they have a big impact on how your car handles bumps and curbs.

• I see so many setups with dampeners maxed out which is typically not a good thing to do. There are cases this makes sense but typically these are edge cases.

Experiment with toe - makes only minor differences

• Honestly in 99% of the cases, the rear toe should be -1.5 per side. If you want more stability or generate more tire heat then sure...move that up a little but, if you go with more toe in you might be compromising the rear tire life and masking other issues with your setup.

• The front toe is something that is worthwhile changing, to impact how the car feels at the very initial turn in and middle of the corner. This is the last thing you should fine tune as the impact is still relatively minor compared to the other setup changes listed above.