Setups 101: A Beginner's Guide to tyres - How to perfect your tyre setup!

Once you've come to terms with how you should go about building your setup, we can take a closer look.

This next step concerns tyres, and what you can do to make them the most effective.

So, let's jump in and take a look at how you too can make the perfect tyre setup for you!

Game specific

Firstly, it's imperative that we take into account the ideal pressures on various sims.

Setups 101 ACC Tyres
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TUNING: Tyres require fine-tuning from sim to sim!

F1 2020, for example, has a general rule of thumb that pressures front and rear should be as low as possible. This is of course due to the nature of the Formula One cars, but the principle still stands.

If you mainly play Assetto Corsa Competizione, your tyre setups will be suited to GT3 cars (generally between 27.3-27.7psi). Make sure you tailor your tyres to the vehicles on your sim of choice, or that you're driving at the time!

What does changing the pressure do?

Changing the pressure of the tyre will in effect stiffen or soften the sidewall of the rubber.

Setups 101 AC Tyres
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SPOT THE DIFFERENCE: Tyre setups will differ between vehicle class often!

With a stiffer sidewall, which is done by increasing the pressure, the car will become more responsive. However, this can easily result in a loss in traction as a stiffer sidewall makes track surface issues more apparent.

When the sidewall is made softer, the rubber 'softens' and is made more compliant, producing more grip. One major issue with this is that the car can feel more sluggish.

Once again, tyre setup is about finding the perfect compromise.

Finding the ideal pressure

Generally, the tyre pressure you should be using is defined by the load, or weight, of your vehicle.

Setups 101 rFactor 2 Tyres
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VITAL: The correct pressures can make or break a good session!

Heavier cars perform better with a higher pressure tyre, as this pressure can deal with the heaver load. This means you'll keep more grip throughout the lap, on average.

With a lighter car, the ideal pressures are often a lot lower. This is owing to the fact that grip is often improved with these lower pressures when a car has a lighter load.

Watching temperatures

Now that you have the ideal pressure in essence, it's time to take a look at how temps affect the pressure.

Setups 101 F1 2020 Tyres
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TEMPS: It's important to monitor temps throughout a session!

Ideally, as your temps increase throughout a session, your pressures will stabilise. As you pull into the pits after your session, your temps should be within 10 degrees of each other.

By this, we mean that the inside to the outside of your tyre should be no more than 10 degrees different. If they are, chances are something is wrong with either you suspension or tyre setup.

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