CDA4 Ginetta G55 GT4 Release Notes

Welcome to the Ginetta G55 GT4 CDA4 release notes blog. In this page you will find the detailed notes compiled by the team after each session when creating the fast and safe variants of the new CDA4 Ginetta GT4 setups. Please carry on reading below to see what our team found:

Brands Hatch

• Setups have low preload to improve rotation on entries into tight corners in S1 as well as T1.
• Should you need more rotation on entry, it’s good to lower front bump damping.
• Low preload also gives the car better traction. However, softer rear bump damping was needed.
• Bumpstops are used to adjust the car’s handling through fast corners. They also stabilise the car during heavy compressions, like in T1 exit. 

Misano 

• Stiff ARBs to have a responsive car in the changes of direction.
• Setup is done with Tc off, but if you struggle you can use TC 1.
• Soft springs increase the mechanical grip.
• Max wing and high rake to increase the rotation and downforce.
• Positive toe on the rear for increased traction.

Nurburgring

• The Ginetta suffers from corner entry oversteer at the Nurburgring. By increasing the front spring rate and increasing the preload, this was eliminated.
• Through the corners, the Ginetta rotates really well, playing to the strength of the car. The dampers have been adjusted to suit the stiffer front end.
• The bumpstop range has been reduced to help prevent the car pitching too much under braking.

Paul Ricard

• The car takes the limiter to 239km/h, so already from the middle of the straight the speed does not increase, so there is no reason to use a low wing.
• Soft ARBs increase the grip of the car, medium wheel-rate doesn’t compromise the stability on the high speed corners.
• Setup is done with Tc off, but if you struggle you can use TC 1.
• Dampers are tuned to increase the stability of the braking zones.
• Negative toe in the front to increase the rotation.

Silverstone

• Low wing, low rake used. The ginetta is very aero and roll-centre sensitive, more so than any other GT4. So low rake is needed to give cornering stability. This is paired with the low wing to try to limit the deficit of its low straight line speed vs its better cornering ability.
• Med-low preload used to try and give entry stability.
• Short front bumpstops to limit pitch on entry.
• Safe setup uses more wing, even shorter front bumpstops and a few other minor changes to make the car as stable as possible.

Spa Francorchamps 

• The car can take an eau-rouge flat out if you do a perfect line.
• Setup is done with Tc off, but if you struggle you can use TC 1.
• Medium springs have better stability in the fast corners like Pouhon.
• In Quali we put more negative toe to increase the rotation.
• Safe setup has maximum wing for increased stability.

Suzuka 

• The Ginetta GT4 rotates really well through sector 1. This is from a medium rake set up and a stiff front end.
• The Ginetta struggles with top speed. It’s best to maximise the cornering ability of the car rather than try to increase the top speed. This is achieved by having a maximum rear wing angle whilst softening the dampers.
• For Qualifying, the front and rear toe is adjusted to help the car rotate even more. This allows for an aggressive, but faster car.

Zandvoort

• The ARBs surprisingly work well with very stiff combinations around despite being a very bumpy track. This is because of the nature of the high speed sections around the track. With the Ginetta being quite agile, too much roll through the higher speed corners can cause destabilisation to its aero.
• In Oulton for example, the ARBs are not run as stiff as the priority was to make sure the dampers worked for the bumpy chicanes and kerbs, meaning they were inadvertently being stiffened to support aero simultaneously. 
• Zandvoort on the other hand has the requirement of a stiff rear rebound for stability but not necessarily front bump, since the final corner requires a lot of rotation. 
• There are of course other ways to go about the process, but the stiff ARBs made the car more responsive in general and hence we decided to stick with this approach for the technical advantages it provides are Zandvoort. 
• Wing levels can be run surprisingly low around Zandvoort with the Ginetta, with the safe variant providing slightly higher stability through the high speed sections.

Zolder

• To get better clearance and avoid collisions on kerbs, setups have high bumpstop ranges.
• This, however, increases roll in the front which lead to issues with oversteer. To control that the bumpstop rate in front had to be adequately raised. 
• Higher front bumpstop range also means more pitch on corner entries. Both brake bias and rear rebound damping have been raised to counter that.
• Even though Zolder is a tight track, the setup still uses medium wing as it allows you to run lower rake which further limits scraping and collisions with kerbs. 

Barcelona 

• Medium wing to gain advantage in acceleration. Also the car only reaches the limiter at the very end of the straight.
• The roll at the back has to be minimised to keep the car front sliding mid-corner. This happens when there’s a lot of load on one tire. For that the car is running stiff rear bumpstops. In order to keep good traction at low speed, the rear bump damping is soft. 
• Front bumpstops have been set so they don’t limit rotation. However, they still control the pitch and roll of the car. They also prevent the front from bouncing over bumps.
• The rear camber is slightly lowered to get more even OMI tire temps.
• Avoid excessive steering inputs on exits as that will cause oversteer. 

Donington Park 

• Rake is needed to provide enough rotation through the Old Hairpin. You can’t get enough rotation from aggressive mechanical grip without causing too much oversteer in slow exits.
• Front suspension is quite soft to give the car enough front grip in the slow corners.
• Preload is raised to give the car a bit more rotation on power but also to avoid one wheel slipping on exits.
• Car is stable through the bump in the chicane. Rear anti-roll bar and soft rear rebound also give the car a good sharp entry. 

Laguna Seca

• The Ginetta has a lot more rotation compared to the other GT4s, so especially in this track where the traction is very important, we put positive toe on the rear to give traction.
• Soft springs increase the mechanical grip.
• High wing to use all available downforce of the car.
• Dampers are tuned to give stability to the car on entry and on traction.
• In T3 make sure to downshift with 0 steering angle, or the rear end of the car will be in danger of locking up, this rule applies somewhat to all curves, but at 3 it is particularly noticeable.
• The car is very easy on traction, so the setup is with TC off, but if you struggle the setup works well also with TC 1.

Kyalami

• Kyalami being a bumpy track uses the Oulton Park setup as a baseline. In theory it should work quite well off the bat but there are a few changes that were needed to optimise the balance further. 
• Firstly the front ARB is kept a bit stiffer as it helps with entry response given the track demands multiple direction changes throughout the sectors. 
• The springs work better being quite soft to provide mechanical grip through the multiple hairpins that the track has in comparison to the relatively lower number found at Oulton. 

Hungaroring

• Setup is done with Tc off, but if you struggle you can use TC 1.
• Stiff ARBs increase the reactivity of the car, since it is very important in sector 2 in all the changes of direction.
• Dampers are tuned to increase the braking stability.
• Soft springs increase the mechanical grip.

Monza

• The car takes the limiter to 239km/h, so already from the middle of the straight the speed does not increase, so there is no reason to use a low wing.
• Dampers are tuned to take the bumps in Ascari and improve the stability on braking.
• Soft springs increase the mechanical grip.
• Setup is done with Tc off, but if you struggle you can use TC 1.
• Positive toe on the rear for increased stability and the traction.

Imola

• At Imola the Ginetta GT4 can suffer from an unstable rear end that doesn’t like to turn into the corners. To combat this, the ride height has been reduced along with softening the rear in relation to the front. 
• The Ginetta is so strong during the corners that it was decided that it was important to maximise the corners, rather than top speed at Imola. By adjusting the preload, the Ginetta rotates really well through the corner, gaining time relative to cars that have a faster top speed.
• For qualifying the toe has been adjusted, along with reducing the rear bumpstop range to make the car stiffer. This allowed the car to be on the limit but fast. TC can be increased if the car is too edgy on the entry phase of the corner.

Mount Panorama

• Low wing, low rake setup to maximise straight line acceleration.
• On conrod straight, once you have reached the limiter, use 50-70% throttle to keep just off the hard limiter and gain a few km more speed.
• Dampers and bumpstops tuned to keep the car in a neutral state on the undulating surface over the mountain.
• Safe setup uses high wing and higher rake to give a more manageable car with a very GT3 like feel due to the downforce produced, also gives a wider operating window if over the limit.
• Quali setup uses a safe base with more aggressive suspension settings to maximise lap time over 1 lap.

Snetterton 

• Running full wing as the straight are too short to gain a straight line speed advantage. 
• The higher wing level gives the car more grip and better braking performance while the car is still able to rotate very well in fast corners. 
• Bumpstop ranges are high to get good handling over kerbs and avoid bottoming out.
• To optimise grip, the car is running stiff mechanical settings with medium rake.

Oulton Park

• Ginetta is quite different on kerbs compared to the previous car which was the Camaro. It’s got more instability on the kerbs but it is also naturally more agile and performs better through the technical sections. Hence this time around the stiff ARBs were not the priority, and the front spring instead was run stiff to help with pitch control.
• The higher preload value ensures that the car has sufficient high speed rotation. 
• The Ginetta also tends to work well with a very stiff damper combination meaning it appears to be more aero sensitive.

Watkins Glen

• Stiffer springs are needed to control the car during heavy compression. They are also essential to control the roll of the car which gives better grip. 
• Gaining more off-throttle rotation is best to do by softening the front bump damping. 
• Race setups use low preload to improve traction. Should you need more rotation on throttle, you can raise it a couple clicks.
• For better rear grip the car is also using low rake and soft rear bump damping. This gives very easy handling in the couple of last corners.

COTA

• Stiff ARBs allow a more responsive car in changes of direction.
• Setup is done with Tc off, but if you struggle you can use TC 1.
• Stiff springs give the car more stability in the medium/high speed corners.
• Dampers are tuned to increase the stability in the heavy braking zones.

Indianapolis

• At this track it is very important to maximise the mechanical grip of the car, so we went with soft wheel-rates and high bumpstop range.
• Stiff ARBs to have a responsive car in the change direction.
• Setup is done with TC off, but if you struggle you can use TC 1.
• High wing to maximise the downforce of the car.
• Positive toe on the rear to maximise the traction.

Valencia 

• Valencia, having many long flowing corners with direction change requirements, uses a stiff ARB combination as well. This has been a common trend in tracks that have high speed corners with variations to the track surface.
• This is because the car is quite sensitive in the aerodynamics department when it comes to chassis roll. 
• In order to maximise the mechanical grip several changes including damper adjustments, a soft bumpstop rate combination and low preload were used for this track. 
• The safe setup uses a slightly stiffer front spring value to ensure that the car has enough pitch control on entry.

Team List 

Track	Driver/Engineer Combination
	Driver	Engineer
Barcelona	Hubert Szymanski
Hungaroring	Amedeo Castorino
Imola	David Pertile	David Skidmore
Kyalami	David Pertile	Saiduth Ramesh
Laguna Seca	Amedeo Castorino
Misano	Amedeo Castorino
Monza	Amedeo Castorino
Mount Panorama	Amedeo Dekeyser	Rob Taplin
Nurburgring	David Pertile	David Skidmore
Paul Ricard	Amedeo Castorino
Spa Francorchamps	Amedeo Castorino
Suzuka	David Pertile	David Skidmore
Zandvoort	Chris Hack	Saiduth Ramesh
Zolder	Hubert Szymanski
Brands Hatch	Hubert Szymanski
Donington	Hubert Szymanski
Oulton Park	Chris Hack	Saiduth Ramesh
Snetterton	Hubert Szymanski
Silverstone	Luka Berk	Rob Taplin
Watkins Glen	Hubert Szymanski
Indianapolis	Amedeo Castorino
COTA	Amedeo Castorino
Valencia	David Pertile	Saiduth Ramesh