New Players Guide
This is your one stop guide to everything you need to know about tuning cars in Midnight Racing: Tokyo. This guide will explain each tunable aspect of a car, what it affects, and what is the best course of action to make sure you have the best tune possible!
Active Codes
- secretcode – 1 Million Yen.
- 100ksocial – 1.5 Million Yen.
- challenge – 2 Million Yen.
- DataRecover – This will overwrite your current vehicle configurations. Type ‘drconfirm’ to proceed.
- SH1R4K4W4 – This unlocks the Shirakawa Touge course. You need a ‘???’ code to access it.
How to redeem codes:
Gearing
In short, gearing can drastically change how the car feels in the way it delivers power. The combination of ratios from the Final Drive and the number of gears the car has will determine the speeds the car is capable of, and how quickly it will get there, and how short or long the gears are.
Final Drive: (FD)
The Final drive is the final gear set that is on a transmission that transfers to the driving axle(s), because of this, it has an effect on all other gear ratios on a transmission. If you adjust the final drive ratio, it will either extend, or shorten the gear ratio length.
- High Ratio: Results in shorter gears, reduced speed; increased acceleration.
- Low Ratio: Results in longer gears, increased speed; reduced acceleration
Individual Gears: (1-9)
Individual gears are the other gears inside the transmission before the final drive. These allow for more precise changes to how long or short the gear will be.
- High Ratio: Results in shorter gear, reduced speed; increased acceleration.
- Low Ratio: Results in longer gear, increased speed; reduced acceleration.
Important note: Individual gears do impact other gears, for example, if you make second gear longer, it will make the third gear shorter, due to the fact the minimum speed required to be in third gear has increased.
Other:
Another important thing to look at is the engine itself. A engine with more low end torque can get away with longer gears with minimal reduction in acceleration, especially at lower speeds, but a engine that has doesn’t have great low-end torque would benefit more from shorter gearing off the line to help improve acceleration, this could also work for turbo cars as boost is rpm based, so the shorter the gear the sooner the turbo would reach higher boost levels faster.
Finally, A-chassis 1.5 gives cars lots of torque, so a long first gear is something you can get away with in a lot of cars due to the chassis’ script in nature.
Coils
Coils will change the way the car interacts with the road and the car’s overall characteristics through the tires when driving. It can be used to reduce body roll, increase responsiveness, improve mechanical grip, and change how the car rides over bumps or uneven surfaces. The two values you can adjust in Midnight Racing Tokyo are the coils stiffness, and dampening.
Stiffness:
Stiffer coil settings will reduce the body roll a car has from weight transfer, it can increase the cars responsiveness to driver input.
- Increasing front stiffness: reduces oversteer; increases understeer
- Reducing front stiffness: increases oversteer; decreases understeer
- Increasing rear stiffness: increases oversteer; decreases understeer
- Reducing rear stiffness: reduces oversteer; increases understeer
A coil setup with a stiffness bias to the rear will increase oversteer, making the car more responsive and less prone to understeer, but can lead to the car being more snappy and harder to control.
Vice Versa:
A coil setup with a stiffness bias to the front will decrease oversteer, reducing responsiveness and make the car more prone to understeer, but will eliminate the issue of snap oversteer.
Important note: Keep in mind gravity, A stiffer suspension will be more resistant to gravity, increasing the ride height of the car. A softer suspension will be less resistant to gravity, reducing the ride height of the car.
Dampening:
Dampening changes how quickly the wheel moves on a y axis. This is really useful for making cars more controllable over bumps.
- Increasing dampening: Reduces oscillation speed of a wheel over a bump
- Reducing dampening: Increases oscillation speed of a wheel over a bump
Ride Height & Camber
Ride Height: (ex. -0.5 → 0.5)
Ride height will lower or raise the car’s height, you can raise or lower from the front or the rear axle. This can also be used to reduce the car’s center of gravity, increasing handling slightly. The ratio between the height differences of the front and rear axle is called a rake.
- Increasing front height: raises height, increases the center of gravity
- Reducing front height: reduces height, lowers the center of gravity
- Increasing rear height: increases height, increase center of gravity
- Reducing rear height: reduces height, lowers center of gravity
Camber:
Camber is the angle at which the wheels sit on the front and rear axle, this can be used to increase grip and at what point the car has grip.
Increasing camber: Peak grip happens at a higher speed, less grip available at lower speeds
Reducing camber: Peak grip happens at a lower speed, more grip available at lower speeds
Important note: Always give your front axle more camber than the rear, this is because the front tires also move left and right, and because of that, the more your front wheels are turned away from the car’s body the more positive angle the tires will be.
This is why you see drift cars often running lots of camber, since they run angle kits designed to push the wheels out farther from the body of the car, more camber is needed to keep the wheels straighter sideways, this is an extreme example, but shows the purpose of why camber is needed.
Offset
Offset changes how close or far away the tire is inside the fenders. This can be used to increase stability, and change how the car handles through oversteer or understeer.
- Higher offset: pulls the tires outward
- Lower offset: pushes the tires inward
Important note: Offset can also be used to change if the car understeers or oversteers more.
Making the offset higher in the front relative to the rear will reduce understeer or increase oversteer, and Making the offset higher in the rear relative to the front will increase understeer or reduce oversteer.
Steering
Steering can change how sensitive the car is to driving input, and steering angle.
Steering Aggressiveness:
Steering aggressiveness changes how quickly the cars front wheels react to steering input
- High steering aggressiveness: quicker steering
- Low steering aggressiveness: slower steering
Steering Ratio:
Steering ratio is how much angle you can get the front wheels to turn.
- Increasing steering ratio: less steering angle
- Reducing steering ratio: more steering angle
Important note: A- Chassis 1.5 generally gives cars bad steering angle, so running a lower steering ratio will help with the turning radius of your car, a good general range of steering ratios is around 22:1 to 24:1 (the default steering ratio is 27:1, excluding the Toyota GT4586 Drift car).
Brakes
Brakes change how quickly the car stops, and how the brake pressure is split between the two axles.
Brake Stages: (0,1, 2, 3)
Increasing the brake stage means the car has more braking force, increasing how quickly the car can stop.
Important note: ABS (Anti-lock brakes) when applied with stronger brakes sometimes isnt fast enough to deal with them, so if your car’s ABS light pulses lots and you notice the cars wheels locking up, it means the brakes are too strong for the ABS system.
Brake Bias:
Brake bias changes the split of pressure between the front and rear brakes, this changes how much pressure is sent to the front and rear brakes.
- Front bias increase: More pressure sent to the front brakes, increases stability under braking, but there is more understeer braking while rotating the car
- Rear bias increase: More pressure sent to the rear brakes, reduces stability under braking, but there is less understeer braking while rotating the car
Important note: When adjusting the brake bias, make sure to keep in mind the weight distribution of your car.
C1 Tuning Tips
Here are some tips for tuning suspension and stance on cars for C1 (Shuto).
Stiffness
Stiffness controls weight transfers and the force required to extend / compress the suspension. Stiffer setups are generally better for stability, while softer setups allow more bodyroll but less stability. Having a stiffer front than the rear reduces oversteer, however too soft of a rear decreases stability. Recommended values for most cars are from 5500 to 7800.
Dampening
Dampening controls the rate at which your suspension compresses / extends. For most cars, having a higher dampening helps with grip. Having a higher dampening slows down your corner entry and exit speeds which is useful for cars that tend to oversteer. You might have your rear dampening higher than the front dampening, as it increases rearwards grip for most cars. Recommended values for most cars are from 400 – 900
Stance
Stance controls the ride height of your car, camber and offset control the fitment of your wheels. Lower ride heights lower your centre of gravity which helps cornering and stability. Though having your car too low can cause the car to spin out due to instability. Recommended values for most cars are from -0.05 – -0.25.
Camber controls the angle (or tilt) of your wheels. Having negative camber increases cornering grip, but reduces straight line grip. Your tire deforms as you corner, and it helps keep your tire’s contact with the road. A bigger contact patch allows your car to grip the road better, however having excessive camber can lead to stability issues. Recommended values for most cars are from -1 – -4.
Offset controls how far out your wheels are. Having higher values allows more grip. Having more offset at the rear increases rearwards grip. With camber, you should also adjust offset to give more grip. Recommended values for most cars are from 0.05 – 0.25.
Of course your setups will be different depending on your car’s layout and drivetrain, keep this in mind.
How to Drive GT4586
The GT4586 is a marvel of disastrous monstrosities in MRT driving experiences due to its difficult handling.
Tapping the throttle
Keyboard drivers aren’t really on the lucky side of the spectrum due to the lack of full throttle control, but this does not mean you cannot handle it. Tapping the throttle gently and continuously, you can minimize the risk of fatal wheelspins that would lead to an imminent skill issue.
Uphill corners are your nemesis
You really have to be very gentle at uphill corners because the wheelspin factor is amplified a lot when you enter such a section of a course.
You’re not fast, bro.
You’re on drift tires, man; you’re not overtaking anyone in the corners anytime soon. However, that does not mean you can’t, because I believe in you.
Preventing lockups
This car has no ABS in the first place, unlike its stock counterparts, so please be gentle on the brakes and tap instead of fully pressing them.
Lift off oversteer, oh dear…
Don’t corner too fast without throttling or braking; you’re still handling a GT86 after all.
Four is your lucky number
The 4th gear is where you’re unlikely to wheelspin, and even then, you still need to watch your tail from flicking.
You’re only competitive in the South Wangan sprint
Self-explanatory: don’t crash on the corner after the tunnel.
FAQ
What do I have to do when all 4 wheels slide?
It depends on when and how, in many cases times its honestly a matter of driver error, people driving the car way past its limits.
In rarer cases (but not likely in MRT) it can be cause by the whole suspension being too stiff.
My advice is:
- Just try to drive more smoothly when you’re at that grip limit, utilize a better racing line, make less aggressive/sudden steering inputs.
- See whether its your front or rear tires that break loose first before all 4 tires go (because it normally doesn’t all happen at the same time), then try and treat it as a problem of understeer (if front tires slide first) or oversteer (rear tires slide first)
What differences should I expect between AWD and RWD cars?
Keep in mind that AWD cars will always suffer from understeer, like FWD cars, just due to physics;
It’s easy to go too far trying to make them oversteer the way you want in certain situations, which will compromise how they handle elsewhere.
The biggest advice I can give is that; try driving them more like a FWD car. AWD/FWD cars rotate the most under braking and when off the throttle, and will understeer the most when you’re on the throttle, experienced FWD users take advantage of that by using the throttle to stabilize the car when needed. try changing your driving style so that you brake deeper into corners, and wait till you’re closer to corner exit to get on the throttle.
If you’re still having big understeer problems, then start using the tuning tips found in this guide.
Is softer suspension good for Ichikawa? What would be soft suspension?
There is no such thing as soft suspension, because that’s relative, and depends on the weight of the car! Think in terms of “Is this soft-er” (than what I have) instead of “is this soft”.
How to check HP?
Go to the gearing section in the tuning shop. You can see a dynamometer graph that shows you the power of the car. Though, last I heard, it only shows the naturally aspirated horsepower of the engine, so it’s inaccurate for turbocharged cars. But for newer, retuned ones, you can see a little HUD element in the bottom right showing you accurate power numbers if you’re on PC.
How to get fast with any car?
- All you need right now to get good is to brake before turning and turn without braking.
- Then learn when to accelerate while turning.
- Every other skill doesn’t matter.
- Have this one rule that in the future you try to break, but right now stick to it like glue.
- If you need to brake during a corner, you are doing it wrong.
- No, you don’t need any kind of tuning or body kit. What you need is to learn to press ‘s’.
- I don’t care what your friends say or what your mom says. Follow that one rule, and you will be faster than any other newbie in this game.
- And you might also figure out something advanced, like what speed you need at maximum to turn smoothly and when to accelerate, etc.
- But first, learn to press the ‘s’ key.
- Respect the braking, and it will provide you with plus ultra grip.
Extra rule: if you hit the side of the road or guardrail, go start again until you stop hitting them.
How to fix the M3 GTRs wheelspin?
Whenever someone upgrades their M3 GTR’s weight reduction and ECU to Stage 3, the car becomes nearly impossible to drive. It will experience wheelspin up to 6th gear (for reference, 6th gear is typically when the car reaches speeds of 260+ km/h. It is incredibly difficult and almost impossible to manage). It is impossible to achieve grip, drift, or even use the car humorously online in this state. It’s simply undrivable.
So, how do we fix this? Simple: acquire BMW’s 2004 engineering documents and move the wheels further outward. Sure, the car looks unusual, which is one of the reasons why I have been requesting an M3 GTR race body kit – it’s to accommodate my tires, but at least it becomes more stable. Steering becomes heavier, but that can be addressed by increasing the steering ratio and aggressiveness.
Pros:
- Car is generally more stable
- Car is less prone to sliding
- Car will not wheelspin while accelerating (you would need to perform a 180° turn to induce wheelspin)
- Car is more predictable
Cons:
- Car is less prone to sliding, so when you want to slide, it sometimes just doesn’t work.
- Car has heavier steering
- Car is slower to accelerate due to wheel fitment
Sure, this setup makes the car more stable. But it doesn’t negate the fact that this car can be challenging to handle. It doesn’t matter how precise your throttle control is or how skilled you are at driving; this car remains inherently unstable. But hey, if you’re as persistent as me, have a strong appreciation for the engine sound, or are simply a devoted Need for Speed: Most Wanted fan, hopefully this setup helps you endure the difficulty this car presents.
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