Damping

Again and again people ask for this. Setups are getting more and more complex and everybody is learning to set everything up but the damping. These are really a tricky concept, and needs to be fully understood before to playing with them. Our starting point is the current behavior of the car. What is doing the car right now? How I feel it? It is not first time we talk about compression, bounce and rebound, but it is always a welcome tip to every simracer.

Troy Eddy had a brilliant explanation a few years ago:

It all depends on what you mean by making the affects of bumps and curbs less dramatic. What is the car doing now? Does it bounce when it hits the curbs? Does it bottom out? Does it oscillate after you hit the curbs? It all depends on what the car is doing compared to what you want it to do.

If the car bounces or jumps as soon as you hit the curb, that would be the compression damping set too high. If the car bottoms out when you hit the curb, that would be compression damping set too low.

If the car handles the initial hitting of the curb ok, but then bounces up after, that would be the rebound damping set too low. If the car handles the initial hitting of the curb ok, but then seems to lose traction, that would be the rebound damping set too high.

The high speed compression damping affects the wheels when they hit the curb, too high and the car bounces, too low and the car bottoms out or feels mushy.

The high speed rebound damping affects the wheels after they hit the curb, too low and the car will bounce or skip, too high and the car will drop down faster than the wheels causing a loss of traction.

There needs to be a balance in both settings. If both are set too high, the car will feel too stiff and jump or skate around. If both are set too low, the car will continue bouncing or pogoing after you hit bumps or curbs.