The hardest part of getting into a new simulation title is making sure all the settings are perfectly curated for your sim rig and PC. The wrong settings can severely limit your experience, either due to the game running roughly or not feeling good due to your force feedback wheelbase not being set up correctly.
Assetto Corsa Rally is one of the most exciting sim racing titles on the market at the moment, primarily as it’s being positioned as the modern equivalent of the beloved Richard Burns Rally. It’s currently in the early stages of its Early Access programme, so Coach Dave Academy decided to put together a beginner’s guide to ensure you can enjoy getting dirty as quickly as possible.
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1. Before You Begin
Due to AC Rally only being in the early throes of its Early Access period, there are no DLCs currently available, with all the content coming as part of the purchase price. That said, the level of vehicles and rallies is rather limited right now, though more is currently in the process of being cooked up by developers Supernova Games.
Content
AC Rally is being envisioned as something of a rallying encyclopaedia, with the world’s most revered rally cars and routes being targeted for inclusion into the game as development continues. Supernova’s approach is clear from the outset, as the 11 vehicles currently included in the 0.2 build of the title illustrate.
From contemporary Rally2 machinery like the Hyundai i20 N Rally2 to WRC heroes like the Citroën Xsara WRC, and from WRC stalwarts like the Alpine A110 to Group B legends like the Lancia 037, there is truly something for every rally enthusiast. Check out Coach Dave Academy’s full AC Rally car list to see what is currently on offer.
While this varied selection of cars isn’t exactly new for a rally game, AC Rally’s approach to stages very much is. Supernova is using laser scanning technology to create 1-to-1 replicas of real-life roads, in a similar way to how most modern track racing games capture racing circuits. This offers a level of authenticity never before seen in a rally title, with all the dips, crests, and unevenness of the roads being perfectly recreated in-game.
Three environments are included in the 0.2 build of AC Rally, though Monte Carlo is set to arrive in the 0.3 build. Refer to Coach Dave Academy’s full AC Rally track list to find out which rallies and stages are included in the most up-to-date build.
Offline Game Modes
In its Early Access build, AC Rally has three different ways of enjoying the tracks and vehicles it has to offer while playing offline.
AC Rally’s Events mode presents you with a range of scenarios that you have to clear to move up to the next category. It works like a form of licence progression, with three medals being awarded depending on how quickly you complete each stage.
You’ll be placed in a vehicle and on a stage with a variety of conditions, and you’ll simply have to clear the stage faster than the target time. Gold represents the hardest time to beat, whereas Bronze is the easiest. Just scoring a Bronze medal will allow you to progress to the next challenge.
Rally mode allows you to set up a full rally with multiple loops like in a real-life rally event, and allows for the use of AC Rally’s extensive weather system to mix everything up. With all the stages per location used, you can easily eclipse the 60-mile mark for a full event. These rallies are staged against AC Rally’s AI opponents, and full damage capability can be used to raise the stakes.
Free Practice affords you the chance to run whichever stage in whatever weather conditions, and in whichever car, you want, without any time pressure. This mode is ideal for getting used to a particular car or surface, as well as dialling in your settings. If you’re brand new to AC Rally, this is the best place to start — pick a shorter stage, choose a slower car, and use it to find your feet before committing to a full event.
Online Multiplayer
AC Rally doesn’t currently feature any synchronous multiplayer system that allows players to compete in real-time rallies with one another. Supernova has confirmed that such a system will arrive later in development, though, so stay tuned. For now, the only online-based mode is Time Attack.
This allows you to set leaderboard times for each stage, car, and weather combination. You’ll be able to see where everyone else who has completed that combination stacks up, giving you the chance to score some worldwide leaderboard-leading times.
Getting the Right Steering Wheel
AC Rally is a simulation-focused game, so sourcing a force feedback-equipped wheelbase will allow you to get the most from it, as well as make you feel like Oliver Solberg as you snatch that first stage victory. Coach Dave Academy’s guide to the best Direct Drive wheelbases is a good place to start if you fancy picking one up.
Should you want to work your way up to these more detailed but expensive components, then opting for cheaper options like the Logitech G920 or Thrustmaster T248 is well worth consideration.
PC Hardware Requirements
AC Rally runs on Unreal Engine 5, which, when combined with its detailed cars, tracks, and weather, means it requires a powerful PC to run it properly. You’ll need an Intel Core i7-10700K or Ryzen 5 3600X processor to run it at the bare minimum, as well as an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 or AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT graphics card. Both of these utilise 8GB of VRAM, showing just how much grunt AC Rally needs just to run at lower graphics settings. Alongside these components, 16GB of RAM is also needed to run the sim at a good level.
To run it at a higher level, you’d better invest in some more upmarket equipment. Supernova says that you’ll ideally need a more modern Intel Core i5-12600K or Ryzen 5 5600, as well as an NVIDIA RTX 3070 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 graphics card to get the job done effectively.
2. Initial Start-Up
Having got the game downloaded and your equipment all set up properly, you’ll then need to get the game configured so that you can head out on stage and start sliding.
AC Rally Graphics Settings
When tearing through the Welsh forests at breakneck speeds, you’ll want your FPS to be running as smoothly as possible to ensure that you won’t be distracted at a crucial moment. At the same time, you’ll want to enjoy the gorgeous visuals that the Supernova team have cooked up. A range of graphic presets is available so that you can quickly set the game up to match your PC’s power capability. To find them, select the ‘Settings’ tab from the main menu, and then click ‘Video.’
From there, you can tune the game’s visual settings to your liking. Separate ‘Display’ and ‘Graphics’ tabs will be visible at the top of the screen, so run through the menus to make sure each setting matches your PC and monitor. The ‘Video’ tab allows you to tweak each graphic setting individually, which will come in handy if you’re finding the presets too far one way or the other.
Nailing a consistent frame rate is even more important in a fast-paced rally title than a track racing sim, so getting it right is crucial. Otherwise, you’ll soon find that a quick bit of lag will have you tasting some French vegetation well before you reach the final stop control.
AC Rally Audio Settings
Getting your audio set up correctly is easy to overlook, but genuinely important in a rally title, where hearing your co-driver clearly can be the difference between a clean stage and a trip into the scenery.
Head to ‘Settings’ and then ‘Audio’ to find the relevant sliders. It’s worth balancing your co-driver volume so their calls are clearly audible above the engine and tyre noise. If you’re using headphones, ensure your audio output is set correctly so you benefit from the directional sound cues the game provides.
AC Rally Control Settings
Dialling in your FFB wheel is important, so to get started, make sure the base is connected to the PC and switched on, before clicking the Settings tab in the main menu. From there, click ‘Inputs’ and then ‘Change Wheel Assignments.’ This sub-menu will allow you to bind various car systems, such as the windscreen wipers and brake bias increments, to whatever wheel buttons or keyboard keys you fancy.
To tweak the force feedback values, select the ‘Force Feedback’ tab from the ‘Inputs’ menu. AC Rally relies on an internal FFB system that is mostly set up under the bonnet, so there aren’t many things you can change. The two settings you’ll need to worry about are ‘Gain’ and ‘Damping.’
Gain controls the amount of power channelled through your wheel. Too much can cause clipping, while too little won’t send enough information through the wheel, making it tough to feel and understand the car. Lower-end wheels will tend to need higher values, with more powerful wheelbases needing lower numbers. While feel is important when changing this setting, be sure to make sure your wheel isn’t clipping in-game.
Damping adds a deadzone to the middle of the wheel and essentially strips away detail. It’s used to prevent the wheel from oscillating as you’re driving along, which can be dangerous. Ideally, use as little as you can get away with, as the higher it is, the less detail you get.
Add Damper only if you’re suffering from oscillations, or are struggling with the wheel feeling too light in the centre.
Leave ‘Minimum Force’ at 0.
If you’re tackling AC Rally with a controller, Coach Dave Academy’s extensive Controller Settings guide will come in handy.
AC Rally View Settings
Another key value to get right is your view settings. Firstly, use an FOV calculator to make sure you have the right Field of View value for your sim rig, as it’ll depend on how far your eyes are from your screen, as well as how large your display is. Once you’ve got that, you can start dialling in your camera settings.
To do so, choose whichever car you want and head out on stage. Once there, enter the pause menu and click ‘Camera Customisation.’ This will present you with a range of settings, such as FOV and all the different camera values, like height, pitch, and how far forward and backwards you want the seat. Make the changes you need, and then hit back and confirm to save them.
You can also bind wheel or keyboard buttons to changing the camera location, but this will change it globally. As a result, you’ll likely have to alter them whenever you change to a new car, so using the menu method will save you time in the long run.
3. Understanding the Co-Driver & Pace Notes
One of the most important things that separates rally from circuit racing is the co-driver. Unlike a circuit, you cannot learn every corner by sight — you rely on your co-driver reading pace notes to warn you of what’s coming up ahead.
Pace notes follow a consistent format. Corners are given a number rating, typically from 1 (very tight hairpin) to 6 (fast, open bend), along with a direction — for example, “4 left” or “2 right tightens.” Additional calls like “don’t cut,” “jump,” or “crest” warn you of specific hazards on the road.
As a beginner, the most important thing is to trust the calls and not second-guess them. It takes time to build that trust, which is why Free Practice on a short stage is invaluable before committing to a full event.
In the Audio settings, make sure your co-driver volume is set high enough to hear calls clearly above the engine noise at all times. You may want to either speed up or slow down the pace notes coming at you as well.
4. Understanding Car Setups In AC Rally
Now AC Rally is ready to go on your PC, it’s finally time to start scoring scratch times out on the highly detailed stages it has to offer. To maximise the speed that your virtual chariot has to offer, though, you’ll need to get your head around the various tuning options you have at your disposal.
Here are some of the most important elements to consider before you cruise towards the stage start.
Assists
Like most simulation titles, AC Rally comes loaded with a range of assists used to help less experienced drivers find their feet in the world of rallying. Automatic shifting, traction control, and ABS are all available, as is the automatic engine start and clutch. Shifting fully manually will allow you extra control and make it easier to get the car to listen to exactly what you want it to do.
The same goes for TC and ABS, as these can be intrusive when you start getting more confident. When this becomes the case, play around with turning them off, and you may be able to find more pace. TC is a good example, as it could cause the car to understeer on power.
Tyres
AC Rally offers the chance to use a few different compounds of tyre. As in most motorsport disciplines, the soft offers the most grip but degrades faster, and the hard boasts the least grip but lasts the longest. The medium sits in the middle.
AC Rally doesn’t have tyre wear engaged as of the 0.2 build, so your best bet for now is to just run the soft. Once this feature comes to the sim, taking the surface and stage length into account will become crucial to success.
You can also choose to mix the tyres around the axles. This is ideal if you have to enter a loop with mixed condition stages that demand a mix of rubber. Monte Carlo will prove a good example of utilising this approach when it arrives, as you’ll want studded tyres on some stages, but standard snow or tarmac rubber on others. Being able to bolt on two studded and two snow/tarmac tyres will thus offer you a decent compromise across the loop.
You’ll need to bear in mind the kinds of corners you’ll be tackling in each stage, as you’ll want to prioritise having the grippier tyre for the conditions on the loaded wheels for longer to make the most of the extra traction.
It’s also worth noting that in real-world rallying, road position (running order) plays a significant role in grip levels — earlier cars sweep loose gravel off the road surface, giving later runners more grip on gravel stages. While this may become a more prominent feature as AC Rally develops, it’s a concept worth understanding as you get deeper into the sport.
Saving Your Car Setups
Once you’ve dialled in a setup that suits a particular car or surface, make sure you save it and give it a clear name — for example, “i20 N Gravel Soft” or “Alpine Tarmac Wet.” This will save you a great deal of time when returning to the same combination, and allows you to build up a library of setups as your experience grows.
In-Car Electronics
Newer cars in AC Rally will come with adjustable TC and ABS settings. Binding a button on your steering wheel is recommended, as you may find that some stages in the loop are drier and require lower settings, while some are wetter and demand higher and stricter settings to prevent wheelspin or locking.
The weather can also change while you’re navigating a stage, meaning the best TC/ABS settings for the start of the stage may not be the best later on, once things get more or less slippery.
In-Depth Settings
Aside from these settings, you’ll also have the more generic setup options that can be used to alter the mechanical platform of the vehicle. Sometimes you’ll suffer from too much oversteer or understeer when using the base setting, and you’ll fancy making some tweaks to improve the balance.
Suspension stiffness is a key tool in your arsenal, as stiffer settings are better for dry roads, and softer tuning will afford more grip and feeling on wetter surfaces.
The same goes for the anti-roll bars, though they are better used for tweaking the balance of the vehicle. Soften the front to reduce understeer, and stiffen to increase understeer (the opposite applies for the rear).
Differential tuning is also important, as this will dictate how much rotation your car has mid-corner, or how much traction you’ll get to use.
Power/Acceleration: Higher settings afford better traction, lower values increase rotation.
Coast/Deceleration: High values increase corner entry stability, lower ones improve corner-entry rotation.
Preload: Higher values improve stability, lower values increase rotation.
There are plenty of other things you can tweak, but the above attributes offer the best way to mould the car to your driving style and different conditions.
Repairs
AC Rally also offers an in-depth damage system. When activated in the settings, pretty much every element of your vehicle can be damaged, making the car slower and harder to drive the more you throw it at the scenery. Like in other rally titles, such as the Dirt Rally series, you’ll have a set time limit in which to make repairs.
If you keep the car in one piece, you’ll need to make minimal repairs and can sail onto the next stage with a healthy car.
Different elements of the car will take varying amounts of time to fix, so you’ll have to choose wisely depending on how much pace and drivability each component will compromise.
If you crash continuously, you’ll find you can’t get the car repaired properly for the following loop, which will compromise your speed and controllability.
If you exceed the repair time limit, you’ll be hit with a time penalty.
A Note on Early Access
It’s worth remembering that AC Rally is still in Early Access, which means features, content, and settings are subject to change as development progresses. Some systems — such as tyre wear and synchronous multiplayer — are not yet fully implemented but are confirmed to be coming in future updates. Treat the current build as an exciting glimpse of what’s to come, rather than a finished product.
Now It’s Time To Hit the Stages
Now you’ve got the basics of AC Rally, you’ll be able to throw yourself headfirst into this brave new world. The title has the potential to be the sim rally title of choice for the next several years, should Supernova be able to continue delivering the way it has so far.
With the right settings, a better understanding of your co-driver’s calls, and a bit of practice in Free Practice mode, you can focus on keeping your car on the right road and the right way up to start competing for top results.
One Subscription For All
Unlimited setups for Le Mans Ultimate, iRacing & ACC. AI Coaching, Pro Reference Laps, Telemetry & Leaderboards for 7 different sims. Everything you need to win.
