Forza 3 tuning guide for a newbie

[Mister V]

Now that im getting into the career mode I thought I would have a look at tuning some of my cars.... Only I have no idea where to start. Normally I just chuck on a load of upgrades however this tends to lead to the car handling like a broken shopping trolley. Are there any hard and fast rules when it comes to upgrading/tuning? It's an aspect of the game I would love to get into but the endless list of sliders is a bit overwhelming...

[WeirdNeville]

As for upgrades, generally go in the following order:
Weight Reduction>Handling (suspension brakes and tyres)> Power and drivetrain

Some upgrades make a big difference but don't increase your performance index much, brakes and suspension fall into this category. Tyres and big power upgrades ramp your P.I. Up and may put your car into a class where it won't be competative.

As for the actual settings - tyre pressures, camber toe and the like, for forza 2 there was a settings calculator that generally made a good fist of things as a starting point. There are some basic rules to follow to dial out specific handling problems or traits, Reading about car tuning and settings in general and applying this to a car is really the best way to learn. You'll probably end up with a few cars you really like and tune to the nth degree.

Gearboxes can make a big difference too. I usually cheated this a bit, basically run the car on a track and note what top speed it gets to. Then use the final drive slider to move the gears to a point where the rev limited top speed is about 10mph above that top speed. Generally that will be a good set up, max acceleration vs high top speed for that track or similar ones without getting into the nitty gritty of individual gear tweaking.

[Mattt]

I generally do that, however sometimes it's fun to try and run a 'POWER' car - e.g. in the A class Championship I ran a Camaro that had 850bhp, with little else done.

It was a case of slowly round corners, POWER, slowly round corners, POWER etc.

[sidaorb]

Ok have a look around the web there are plenty of sites with free tunes to Forza 2, although the upgrades will be different and will require some tweeks the tuning set ups should stay more or less the same.

As a rule of thumb,

1) Tyres
2) Brakes and Suspension
3) Weight Reduction
4) Rest of the 'Platform'
5) Engine mods

Aero can be put anywhere in between depending on the car or your need.

[Mannginger]

My route through is always weight reduction first, rollcage, then brakes, suspension and drive-train and finally power mods.

I do fiddle with tyres as well but find they soon move you up the classes and that's not always desired.