Project CARS 2 Oversteer, oversteer, oversteer (1 Viewer)

Hi all,

Project Cars 2 is my Achilles heel (not that I'm fast in any other game). I struggle racing online with it so I've been trying to race as much as I can offline in career mode. I love the atmosphere, the graphics are fantastic, it's a very immersive game compared to say, Assetto Corsa. However, I find some areas of the physics very odd. Rear wheel drive cars especially confusing. No matter what my set-up, every rear wheel drive car wants to oversteer in pretty much every corner. I run as soft and forgiving a rear end as possible, get heat in the tyres, and run TC as long as it isn't too intrusive. The cars seems to 'pivot' from the centre of the car, there's no rear end/front end difference. Is this just down to driving style, is it that the game just feels that way, or am I doing something massively wrong with my set-ups?

Cheers
Colin

It is hard to diagnose without seeing a setup (feel free to DM me screenshots of a car/setup/track I can see how it feels to me). However, As I've been becoming more comfortable with setup, I've noted that sometimes what I thought was "oversteer" was really me pushing too hard against understeer in a high downforce rear-wing car. As the car slows and the rear tyres lose downward pressure, suddenly it flips to oversteer.

In general "soft and forgiving" needs to be relative to the front of the car. The ratios of front to rear are just as important for: wing, springs, rollbars, tyre pressure (which changes as you do laps), tyre temps. Ensure that your brake bias is not so far to the rear that you are locking the rear tyres during corner entry (and also that you have actually completed your straight line braking before entry unless you are deliberately trying to trail brake). Depending on the car, changing down gears mid corner can deliver too much torque for the grip level, which can put the rear out. Less likely, but possible is that the car is not stable enough during entry based on rear wheel toe-in or something like coast ramp (@Nighttiger , fact check me on that last one???)

If you have not checked out @Nighttiger 's fantastic Project Cars 2 Setup Guide. guide or the Self Improvement Thread, then you should find some great starting points.

And finally, yes there are some interesting physics quirks. Probably the most prevalent of these are a slightly different approach to tyre heating model and that most curbs in PC2 really want to kill you, where in other games you can tolerate riding the curb much more.

hinesy32 said:

No matter what my set-up, every rear wheel drive car wants to oversteer in pretty much every corner

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Well, that's pretty much PCars in a nutshell. PC often defines the limit through the rear.
Assetto on the other hand has a tendency to reach the limit on the front first, especially on standart setups. I remember my first AC race. Mclaren GT3, Nürburgring GP, standart setup. That cars was so stable I literaly hat to Scandinavian Flic the thing to get it into a (half-) spin.
So your issues are quite common among AC players switching to PCars.

Driving style might be a thing too. I belive AC teaches you to be a bit agressive to unsettle the rear a bit to make the cars turn better, which is a recipe for desaster in PC.

Some setup pointers:

• cold tires, unbalanced tire pressures and hard slicks in general will cause problems (see Nighttigers Setup guide)
• generaly a change to more rear camber (or less front) helps stability
• a proper damper setup can sometimes turn a car around. (see Jussis Suspension Calculator)
• 1-2 clicks more rear wing can fix instability at higher speeds or at breaking
• for break oversteer adjust break bias to the front, if that doesn't help raise the engine break maping
• if the car snaps the moment you release the breaks, lower the coast diff setting
• if the car oversteers in tighter corners without throttle or break aplied, try raising the diff preload
• higher positive rear toe can stabilize the car at turn in.

Hope this helps.

Thanks @UnstopaPaul and @Feanor

I will have a read through the guide and see what improvements I can make.

I'm currently racing the Ginetta GT4 in the Euro GT4 Championship. I've softened the rear ARB, lower spring rate and higher ride height.

Rear wheel drive cars are limited from the rear tyres not the front. Pretty much every game in history has got this wrong...(as does pc2 in certain cars 917LH for example) Most have excessive understeer apart from 3 in my opinion. Grand Prix Legends, rFactor 2 and Project Cars 2.
Running fully soft on the rear is probably going to produce some very weird effects. Especially if the car is mid/rear engined. You'll have all kinds of bottoming and excessive roll weirdness happening. Generally in mid/rear engined, rear wheel drive cars you want a stiffer rear end. Oversteer is your friend (almost always) as you can get the power on earlier.

edit: Higher rear ride height will give you more oversteer and more roll.

SBart_uk said:

Rear wheel drive cars are limited from the rear tyres not the front. Pretty much every game in history has got this wrong...(as does pc2 in certain cars 917LH for example) Most have excessive understeer apart from 3 in my opinion. Grand Prix Legends, rFactor 2 and Project Cars 2.
Running fully soft on the rear is probably going to produce some very weird effects. Especially if the car is mid/rear engined. You'll have all kinds of bottoming and excessive roll weirdness happening. Generally in mid/rear engined, rear wheel drive cars you want a stiffer rear end. Oversteer is your friend (almost always) as you can get the power on earlier.

edit: Higher rear ride height will give you more oversteer and more roll.

Click to expand...

^^^ this man taught me how to car.

SBart_uk said:

Generally in mid/rear engined, rear wheel drive cars you want a stiffer rear end. Oversteer is your friend (almost always) as you can get the power on earlier

Click to expand...

Yes, correct. But the game feels like it wants to turn from the rear at low speeds, with minimal throttle. Steering feel is non existant, I can't feel the load from the rear tyres through the ffb.

Are you using one of the default ffb presets? If so they're absolutely terrible. Try using Jack Spades ffb. It made a huge difference for me when I tried it.

Yea I am. I have no clue how to set-up ffb. The only adjustment I have made is the 'strength' of it. I'll take a look at that, thanks.

great shout, that made a massive difference to me.