Forza 7 Tuning Guide

Part 1 - Forza Tuning Basics

Understanding Car Types and Body Types

When it comes to tuning in Forza the most important aspect you need to understand is the concept of car types and body types.

Car types provide a general classification of all cars in Forza and group several body types. Each car type needs a distinctive way to be setup in terms of tuning.

Generally Forza distinguishes between road and off-road cars.

The following road car types exist in Forza Motorsport:

Utility Cars (vans, SUVs)
Street Cars (sedans, wagons, muscle cars, compact cars)
Sports Cars (sports cars, GT sports cars, rally cars)
High Performance Cars (super cars, hyper cars)
Race Cars (GT race cars, touring cars, NASACAR, V8 Supercars, Formula-E, Formula Mazda, Formula Ford)
Race Trucks
Prototype Race Cars (LMP cars)
GP Race Cars (F1, IndyCar, classic GP cars)

The following off-road car types exist in Forza Motorsport:

Off-road Cars (jeeps, buggies)
Off-road Sports Cars
Off-road Trucks (pickups)
Off-road Race Trucks (trophy trucks)

Now what is a body type? A body type defines the basic characteristics of a car such as suspension geometry and chassis and suspension stiffness. Forza does not simulate cars on an individual car level but on body type level. That means all cars that share the same body type are running on the same virtual representation of the car.

An example would be a classic American muscle car that features a very conservative suspension geometry combined with a soft chassis and suspension setup that gives you that unique "boat like" handling on roads.

In contrast modern F1 race cars features a unique open-wheel suspension geometry along with a much stiffer chassis and suspension characteristics that is suitable for high-speed racing on ultra-flat race tracks.

Body types are similar to the concept of divisions that group similar cars to achieve more close racing but they are not identical. Sometimes divisions contain cars of different body types or cars of a certain body type are spread across several divisions. Think of divisions more of an organizational grouping of cars whereas body types define the physical (or simulated) taxonomy of all cars in Forza.

To further diversify body types with regard to the period of time a car has been built Forza uses an era system:

Modern: cars built 1995/96 or later
Early Modern: cars built 1981-1994/95
Vintage: cars built 1960-1980
Early Vintage: cars built 1940-1959
Pre-War: cars built before 1940

That means the full qualified body type of a 1979 Chevrolet Camaro is a "Vintage Muscle Car" whereas a 1987 Pontiac Firebird TransAm is an "Early Modern Muscle Car".

Now how do car types and body types affect tuning? Generally speaking older cars require a stiffer chassis and suspension tuning and a more conservative alignment and differential tuning than modern cars and race cars require softer chassis and suspension tuning and a more aggressive alignment and differential tuning than production cars.

GP race cars and prototype race cars however don't follow this pattern because they are exposed to extreme forces while cornering so they need very stiff chassis and damping setup to handle those forces.

The following table gives an overview how car type and era affect the different tuning areas:

Car Type Alignment ARBs Springs2 Dampers Brakes Diff

Camber / Caster Distr. / Stiffness Front / Rear Rebound / Bump Front Distr. / Pressure Accel / Decel

Utility Car Low / High High / High High / Low Low / High High / Low Low / High

Street Car | ^ | | ^ | | ^ ^ | | ^

Race Truck | | | | | | | | | | v |

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prototype Race Car | High | High High High1 | | High Low

GP Race Car Low1 High | High High High High | Low High

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Off-road Car | | | | | | | | | | Low

Off-road Sports Car V | v v | v v | | v Low

Off-road Truck High / Low Low / Low Low / High High / Low Low / High Low

1 only rear

2 In relation to car weight

Era Alignment ARBs Springs Dampers Brakes Diff

Camber / Caster Distr. / Stiffness Front / Rear Rebound / Bump Front Distr. / Pressure Accel / Decel

Modern Higher1 / Lower Lower / Lower Lower / Higher2 Higher / Lower Higher / Lower Higher / Lower

Early Modern ^ | | | | ^ ^ | ^ | ^ |

Early Vintage | V V V v | | v | V | V

Pre-War Lower / Higher Higher / Higher Higher / Lower Lower / Higher Lower / Higher Lower / Higher

1 Higher = More Camber

2 In relation to car weight

Mind you these principles only give general guidance and cannot directly be translated to specific values.

For a complete list of cars along with their respective car and body types please refer to Appendix A - Car List.

Understanding Closed Wheel vs. Open Wheel Design

Another important distinction of cars when it comes to tuning is whether they have a closed or open wheel design. Many car types exist in both closed and open wheel designs while some only exist in open wheel design (e.g. GP race cars, off-road race trucks) and others only in closed wheel design (e.g. utility cars, prototype race cars).

Open wheel cars have the wheels outside the car's main body and allow for more precise placement of the front wheels on the race course as the tires are clearly visible to the driver. As a consequence open wheel cars have a wider wheel base with the wheels more or less on the same level as the main body. Closed wheel cars on the other hand have a narrower wheel base and their wheels below the body or inside fenders.

Open wheel cars requires specific tuning techniques to combat inherent understeer due to the car design. Compared to closed wheel cars open wheel cars require an oversteer bump setup (high rear bump) complemented with a general understeer setup and a low accel / high decel differential setup to stabilize the car while cornering for best performance.

The following table depicts how open wheel car design affects the different tuning areas with the closed wheel cars on top as reference point.

Car Design Tires Alignment Dampers Brakes Diff

Front / Rear Rear Camber / Caster Rear Bump Front Distr. / Pressure Accel / Decel

Closed Wheel ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Open Wheel Off-road Truck ^ | ^ Lower | | ^ ^ |

Open Wheel Off-road Car | | | ^ | | | | |

Open Wheel Sports Car | v | v v v | | v

Open Wheel Race Car Lower / Higher Lower / Higher Higher Higher / Lower Lower / Higher

Understanding Drive Types

Besides car and body types another fundamental thing when it comes to tuning is to understand the different drive types and how they effect tuning.

A cars drive type is determined by two factors: engine position and drivetrain. While engine position is a fixed property of each car that cannot be changed, the stock drivetrain can often be swapped and thus changes the cars drive type.

There are three different engine layouts possible:

Front Engine: this is the most common engine layout where. the engine is located at the front of the car
Mid Engine: this engine layout moves the engine between the driver and the rear wheels and is often used for race cars and high performance cars because it moves the center of mass more towards the middle of the car which in turn offers better rotating capabilities
Rear Engine: this is the least used engine layout where the engine is located directly above the rear wheels, it offers the best traction for rear wheel drives because of the added weight on the rear axle but has the worst cornering capabilities due to most of the weight is located on the rear of the car making it prone to understeer

Likewise there are three different drivetrains:

RWD: rear wheel drivetrains are the most common used drivetrains where the rear wheels are the driven wheels and the front wheels are the steering wheels, in combination with front engine layout is this the most common drive type
FWD: front wheel drivetrains are common on many compact and small engine cars as they allow for a more compact vehicle when used in combination with a front engine layout, in front wheel drivetrains the front wheels are used for both acceleration and steering
AWD: all wheel drivetrains are common on most off-road cars and SUVs as they offer improved off-road handling, in all wheel drives all wheels accelerate and the front wheels are also used for steering

The combination of engine position and drivetrain leads to following common drive types:

FR: front engine rear wheel drive is the most common drive type as it offers the most balanced layout with the engine in the front and the drivetrain on the rear
FF: front engine front wheel drive is a common drive type for compact cars as it allows to put both engine and drivetrain on the front of the car making it the most compact and lightest drive type
MR: mid engine rear wheel drive is often used in race cars and high performance cars as the center of mass is more in the middle if the car for improved turning
RR: rear engine rear drive is rarely used for some race cars and high performance cars as it offers best traction for improved acceleration
MF: mid engine front wheel drive is rarely used on some compact sports or rally cars
F4D: front engine four wheel drive is the most common drive type for off-road cars and SUVs
M4D: mid engine four wheel drive is common for all wheel race and high performance cars
R4D: rear engine four wheel drive is common on off-road sports cars or buggies

Now how does the drive type affect tuning? Generally speaking drive type layouts that move vehicle weight more to the front of the car require a more understeer setup to stabilize the car on corner entry and more front camber to compensate higher body roll at the front of the car. Conversely car types that move more vehicle weight to the rear of the car require a more oversteer setup to combat inherent understeer and more rear camber to compensate higher body roll at the rear of the car.

The following table depicts how drive type affects the different tuning areas starting with highest front weight bias down to highest rear weight bias with the common FR drive type being in the middle as the most balanced drive type,

Drive Type Tire Pressure Camber ARBs Springs Dampers Brakes Diff

Front / Rear Front / Rear Front / Rear Front / Rear Front / Rear Front Distr. Accel / Decel

FF Lower / Higher Higher1 Lower / Higher Lower / Higher Higher / Lower Higher Higher / Lower

MF | ^ ^ | ^ | ^ ^ | ^ ^ |

F4D | | | | | | | | | | | |

FR -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

M4D | | | | | | | | | | | |

MR | | | | | | | | | | | |

R4D v | v v | v | | v | | v

RR Higher / Lower Higher1 Higher / Lower Higher / Lower Lower / Higher Lower Lower / Higher

1 Higher = More Camber

So these are the basic Forza tuning principles. With the basics being laid out we are now ready to dive into general tuning.