CDA4 Nissan GTR GT3 Release Notes

Welcome to the Nissan GTR GT3 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 Nissan setups. Please carry on reading below to see what our team found:

Brands Hatch

• Using stiff antiroll bars to keep the car stable and provide good rotation in combination with soft suspension. 
• Even with those arbs there was not enough rotation through the high speed corners so the car is also running quite a lot of rake. 
• To keep the car safe on entry to downhill T1 the front slow bump damping has been stiffened. 
• Even with very stiff fast damping the car isn’t very good at cutting T6.
• Nissan gets quite a lot of rotation with a full tank so for the safe setup the rear arb was softened in order to give very manageable handling. 

Misano 

• Very soft springs to increase traction, it is very important to, in order to get the lap time. 
• Maximum wing and low rake to maximise the traction.
• Maximum toe to maximise the rotation.
• Use high gear, for example you can enter T1 in 4th gear and T2 in 3rd gear.
• Come out of turn 5 as tight as possible to prepare turn 6 well, as the car tends to understeer a lot

Nurburgring

• The main focus for the car was stability over the final chicane, enough traction through the last corner, high speed rotation and direction change stability through the Schumacher esses.
• The ARBs are run on the slightly softer side to help with roll compliance through the narrow corners in sector one and also provide a bit more mechanical grip through the high speed sections. 
• The springs are also run soft to add to this mechanical grip and provide enough pitch into corners. Running the front springs too soft however affects braking performance with the current suspension settings so it is not run at the limit. The bumpstop ranges ensure that the car has enough travel range before the stiffness changes. 
• The stiff dampers on the setup help with roll and response through the fast corners and help the car ease into the apex without hitting the bumpstops too hard. Once the bumpstops are actuated the movement is relatively slower and the stiff bumpstop rate helps prevent the car from completely bottoming out the suspension. This is seen in relative performance through the bumpier parts of the track. 
• This same methodology has been carried over to the Oulton Park setup as well.

Paul Ricard

• Running too low wing here will result in a loss of overall stability and grip. The wing is set very neutrally so to give you an option to go lower or higher if required.
• The car is set up to limit pitching whilst still giving enough rotation, however, it can still be easily over driven – especially through the long right at the start of S3. Can be easy to lose the car here when pushing too hard or trail braking too much.
• Throttle management needs careful attention, particularly on low wing setups. Raising the wing will give you stability and grip through S1 and S3 but you will lose 1-3kph down the back straight (depending on how much adjustment you make).
• The safe set is designed to mitigate these issues and could potentially be not that much slower than the fast setup depending on driving style.

Silverstone

• Maximum toe to maximise the rotation.
• Maximum wing and low rake to maximise the traction.
• Increased the rear wheel-rate to increase the rotation on throttle.
• Low ARBs to increase the mechanical grip.
• Low diff to increase the rotation off throttle.

Spa Francorchamps 

• Getting the car setup for Eau Rouge/Radillon is the main goal as the car can be easily unbalanced there with the wrong combination of settings.
• A high front bump stop range is needed but as the car is pitch sensitive, other compromises need to be made with ride height and ARBs to keep the car stable.
• Because the car is pitch sensitive, you need to drive accordingly – smooth and not overly aggressive else the car will bite back.
• Too low of a rear wing and the car will lack stability.

Suzuka 

• Hard ARBs to keep the car stable on throttle.
• Raised front ride height to keep the car stable over Degner 1 curb.
• Feel free to use TC 1 through the Hairpin (T11).
• Low rear bumpstop range to get good rotation through fast corners.
• Harder front spring is used to prevent the car from too much rotation off the throttle.

Zandvoort

• Maximum wing used due to the twisty nature of the track, along with a reasonably high rake (for this car) to aid rotation.
• Soft rear dampers used to try to aid initial traction out of slow turns, along with soft rear springs.
• Bumpstops tuned to give good high speed, high load balance in the final turn.
• Low preload used (moreso on safe setup) to give better turn in and lessen wheelspin on exits.
• The car seems best changing at around 6800rpm, much further past this point and acceleration suffers.
• Safe Setup uses a softer rear roll bar and less preload to maximise traction on the exit of slow turns.
• Rear wheel alignment also adjusted for better grip.
• Quali setup starts with the safe base, but with more aggressive bumpstop and aero settings, along with some damper changes to maximise mid-corner to exit whilst keeping the grip from the safe setup on traction.

Zolder

• Suspension is soft to give good grip and rotation as there are mostly slow corners on Zolder. However, to limit oscillations and risk of scraping or bottoming out, the wheel rates have been slightly raised. 
• To aid traction, the rake is lower than usual. To obtain enough rotation for the flat out section after the second chicane, the rear arb and preload have been adjusted. 
• The car is good over kerbs but you still have to be mindful of your entry into the second chicane. Going too deep can cause oversteer and scraping out on the front.
• Generally it’s important to focus on strong exits as the TC engages heavily and costs acceleration.

Barcelona 

• To get enough rotation through T3, the setup uses a high rear bumpstop rate. 
• To provide stability on fast entries like T1 and T4, the car runs stiffer than usual front bumpstop rate and front slow bump damping. 
• To extract more pace the setup has TC set on 1. It allows a bit of slip and requires some throttle control in the last sector. 
• RS setup focuses on stability over kerbs in T2 and T7. The front toe out has been lowered and the front wheel rate raised. This also provides easier direction changes in the last sector and before T3. 

Donington Park 

• With a full tank, the rotation gets really aggressive on the fast downhill entry into the Old Hairpin. There are a few changes to get the car more stable. 
• Car runs very soft suspension to obtain enough grip throughout the lap. However, to make it stable at higher speed, the arbs are very stiff in front and soft at the rear. Front bumpstop also has been stiffened to eliminate sliding over the inside kerb of the old hairpin.
• Very important setting in limiting the pitch of the car turned out to be the front slow bump damping. Even single clicks make a noticeable difference in the handling.
• For enough high speed rotation and to limit roll, the rear bumpstop range was lowered but it was necessary to bring down the rate as well. 
• The entry into the old hairpin can also be helped by downshifting to 3rd on entry. Nissan has very little engine braking so keeping the car in 4th makes the rear a bit loose. 

Laguna Seca

• Laguna doesn’t have much grip so the setup focuses on giving the rear axle sufficient traction. Apart from the very soft rear springs, the front of the car is a bit stiffer. 
• High front arb gives a sharp turn in for the couple of first corners. It also eases the aggressive direction change before the second last corner. 
• As the car had a slight problem with pitching into T6, the rear rebound has been stiffened. 
• RF setup can be a bit oversteery on a kerb if you touch it with a lot of load on a tire. Therefore the RS setup has a less aggressive rear toe. 
• There is a possibility of locking up the wheels before Corkscrew. If needed, the ABS can be raised. 

Kyalami

• The Nissan GTR has a lot of inbuilt understeer, the aim of the set up is to decrease this, which has been achieved by reducing the rear spring rate, while increasing the preload of the car.
• To further improve the driveability of the car, the traction control setting can be increased from 2, to 3 or 4.

Hungaroring

• Car is traction limited here so you need to be patient on the throttle.
• Two positives about the car, it can take kerbs quite well and you can use higher gears, the torque is very good. For example, using 3rd instead of 2nd in some corners, this also helps with traction.
• The car needs to be driven quite smoothly, you can’t over drive the car.
  

Monza

• The Nissan can run relatively low wing at Monza and still have enough aerodynamic grip through the high speed corners. In order to help with this the ARBs have been set quite soft. 
• Since there is less aero force acting on the car, the roll from the soft suspension does not destabilise the balance mid corner.
• In order to maintain enough grip through Ascari the dampers have been adjusted to maintain pitch control and to absorb kerb impacts. The softer ARBs help maintain mechanical grip. The car is however very sensitive to the line being taken through Ascari so it is helpful to observe the specific entry approach needed for this corner sequence via the video on the channel.
  

Imola

• Although the car behaves quite nicely on everything, including the kerbs, the last chicane is still very line dependent where the right/wrong line can gain/lose you 0.2-0.3s.
• Be patient with the throttle, particularly after hitting kerbs. Although this has been reduced through the setup, it’s a trait of the car.
• Running max wing with relatively low rake helps with stability and overall grip.
• Small changes on the Diff and Rear ARB can result in large balance changes so consider other changes first if the rear of the car is problematic.

Mount Panorama

• Stiffer front ARB to decrease the roll, to prevent the bottoming out of the car.
• Stiff rear wheel-rate to increase the rotation, the car here has a big understeer issue.
• Max negative toe to increase rotation.
• Downshift into fourth gear on the downhill for more stability.
• For Quali if you feel the car is slippery go back to wing 1 and increase by 1/2  clicks the rear ride height

Snetterton 

• The rotation of the car is limited by the front grip. It’s not possible to use very high rake with Nissan as it loses a lot of rear grip and will become very oversteery in mid-speed corners. Instead the front springs and bumpstops are run very soft.
• To obtain better rotation in fast corners like first and second last, the rear bumpstops were set to limit squatting. 
• Front arb is soft to rotate the car well around the hairpins. It’s still stable enough to brake safely after the back straight.
• RS setup focuses on potential exit oversteer due to excessive steering. With a stiffer front spring and different damper settings the car is very easy to manage.
• In T4 it’s possible to just go through in 2nd gear as the downshift to 1st is aggressive and could cause a lock-up. 
• Nissan is also very easy over the exit kerbs so they can definitely be used to extract laptime. 

Oulton Park

• The Nurburgring baseline has been used to develop the setup at Oulton Park. 
• The track however requires much more aggressive front end response and entry stability than Nurburgring and also more exit rotation on high speed. This is why the front springs and rear ARBs have been stiffened respectively.
• In addition to this the rear spring has also been softened with a bit more rear bumptop range to help with the traction, given there are many slippery and off-camber corners at Oulton.
• Minimal changes have been done to the damping to make sure the bump and kerb compliance is not affected too much since the mechanical changes mentioned above did not change chicane stability much.

Watkins Glen

• Car is good over kerbs but the usual soft setup proves very unstable through the Bus Stop. To aid handling, the suspension and arbs were significantly stiffened. Also the front bumpstop range has been raised to avoid bottoming out. 
• For improved stability, the safe setup runs stiffer dampers. This comes at the cost of rotation as the rear bumpstop rate had to be lowered to maintain good traction. Should you look for more rotation with the safe setup, the front bumpstop rate can be lowered by a click.   
• Nissan has very short gearing so you’ll likely use different gears in corners compared to other cars. Staying in a higher gear will allow you to carry good speed into corners like 6, 7 and 9. 
• In the downhill corners there is a small chance of a lockup happening so make sure to start releasing your brakes before turning in. 

COTA

• COTA has multiple off throttle sections which is the reason why the preload has been run quite low. The car also requires more rear traction due to the grip limited/off cambered nature of the slow speed corners in the track. This has been achieved by running a relatively soft rear ARB as it allows for roll compliance over bumpy sections.
• The rotation through the high speed on the other hand has been achieved with both a soft front bump damping value and a stiff front rebound to maintain the weight on the front end post apex.
• The stiff bumpstop rates work well with the current fast damping configuration and have hence been used accordingly similar to other high speed tracks.

Indianapolis

• Very soft setup to maximise grip. To limit bottoming out over chicanes in turns 9 & 10 the front bumpstop range was raised. To allow easy direction changes in these corners, the arbs are set quite stiff. 
• Damping also has been adjusted to aid traction. Mainly by softening slow bump damping at the rear and slow rebound at the front.
• Very low brake bias to shorten the braking distance for T1, T8 and T13 at the cost of some braking stability. Should you oversteer during brake release, you can raise the bias by even 1 percent point. 
• While driving you should pay attention to the bump right at the beginning of the last corner. If you’re already turning a lot and hit the bump, it will likely cause oversteer. Therefore, make sure to get a wide entry and enter a bit later.

Valencia

• Maximum wing and low rake to maximise the traction and the stability.
• Maximum negative toe front and rear to maximise the rotation.
• ARBs are quite soft to increase the grip of the car, medium stiff wheel rate to have more stability in the medium/fast corners.
• If you feel understeer on corner entry, decrease the brake bias.
• Like usual with this track it is very important the trail braking to rotate the car.
• Use higher gear compared to other cars for corner exit, (how you can see in the hotlap video). 

Team List

Please note, sessions with no engineer shown were solo sessions: 

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