in actual race cars, tuning is really important and has a lot of factors. Camber, Toe angle, Spring rate & height, strut damper/rebound, tire pressure, and a zillion other things are crucial in fine tuning a race car to the specific needs of every driver, on every track, on any given day factoring in precipitation, ambient/track temperature, humidity, the alignment of the planets, etc.

In Next Car Game : Wreckfest there are 4 sliders that can go in 5 positions. Suspension, Gear Ratio, Differential, & Brake Balance.

Disclaimer : This guide is made up of advice from me (some guy on the internet) and contains opinions from me (some guy on the internet). This is not guaranteed to be perfect advice for you and is intended as a broad guide for some education value. This guide is not intended to be funny and is super duper serious

In real life, suspension has a zillion different tuning options, Spring rate, damper / rebound, slow bump, fast bump, camber, caster, toe angle, blah blah blah not really important.

In this game it's a single slider to decide how stiff or sproingy the suspension of the car will be. It also changes ride height which is important.

Suspension is typically tuned on a per track basis with some personal preference from the driver.

In general, you want your suspension to be stiff so that you can minimize body roll and change direction without too much drama from the car. However, a stiff suspension does not play well off road as the car will be bottoming out on jumps & bumps and won't absorb impacts as well as it should, costing you traction. AND TRACTION IS THE NAME OF THE GAME!!!

Hard packed surfaces like Tarmac & Asphalt will call for a stiff suspension setup while more mixed surfaces will call for a more middle-of-the-line suspension. and tracks that are mostly dirt or gravel(Especially with lots of jumps!) will call for a soft setup.

I typically never use the maximum setting (all the way soft or all the way stiff) unless I really don't like how the car handles stock. That's my personal preference, your mileage may vary.

Hard surfaces like the tarmac at Hilltop Stadium usually call for a stiffer race car. On the right you will see a corner worker, who has a horrifying case of the polygons.

Gear tuning in real life refers to changing the size of gears in the transmission (& differential (& also factoring in the size of the drive wheels)) to ultimately change the acceleration and top speed characteristics in a specific gear for a car. (Or all of the gears at once via the final drive or wheel size)

In Next Far Game : Weekfest, we get a slider that changes the final drive of the car. This is the easiest thing to tune in the world because it does not factor in the drivers' preferences at all and exclusively is concerned with the car & track.

Shorter Gear Ratios make the car accelerate faster, giving you those dank zero-to-sixty times and letting you rocket out of corners. They make the car quick. However, it comes at a cost to your top speed, so you're not fast.

Longer gear ratios give you more top speed, allowing you to fly by all the fools who just set the gear ratio to shortest possible and can only drive 75 MPH. They make the car fast. However, it costs you in acceleration and your 0-60 times will require measurement with a calendar, and alas, your car is not quick.

I have yet to drive a car that topped out (reached maximum RPMs in it's top gear, in other words Top Speed) on any track with the standard gear ratio. In other words, you will more than likely never have to use the long side of this slider. Ever. (Maybe a fully-upgraded A class car, on a really long track, might need the fourth blip. But I ain't got that far in the game yet lmao)

Generally the second blip on the slider is the one most tracks will use. Exceptionally short tracks (or exceptionally high-speed cars) can utilize the first blip, and very rarely you will see tracks with extremely long full-throttle straights or not-so-straights (slight turns that are still full throttle) and can use the middle blip.

The goal is to get as close as possible to the car's top speed, at the very end of the longest straight. If you're hitting top speed way too early, it's costing you as you could be going faster. If you never use top gear or barely use it, you could have much better acceleration.

This handy dandy guide is useful for wild guesses while sitting in the multiplayer lobby

Differential tuning is really confusing in real life (I dont understand it but I know it involves power lock and coast lock and a bunch of other goofy stuff that I could never grasp in gran turismo) but basically a differential is the thing at the back (or front or both) of the car that puts power to the back (or front or back & front) wheels and will put more power to the wheel that slips more AKA the wheel on the outside of the corner. A differential that has more limited-slip will keep the inside tire going at a similar speed to the outside wheel, meaning both will have power instead of just one in an open differential.

This means that an open differential allows an infinite difference in wheel speed between the inside and outside wheels, while a welded differential allows zero difference in wheel speed.

Differential tuning in this game ranges from wide open like a stock miata doing peg-leg burnouts to fully welded like a miata owned by an 18 year old from connecticut doing sick skids while vaping (mint) and will be based on driver preference, car, and track surface. Some people like a car that will do hella dank skids errywhere but some would prefer a car that can more easily navigate traffic and don't kick out the rear as much.

Basically in Rear Wheel Drive cars (AKA 75% of the cars in this game) an Open differential is going to oversteer less, because the inside wheel is allowed to slow down more. However, having a tighter differential means accelerating faster, as both wheels will push the car out of the corner rather than waiting for the inside wheel to catch up. (This is probably a bit of an oversimplification)

Same logic applies to Front Wheel Drive cars but backwards, causing more understeer as the differential gets tighter.

Track Surface will also factor into this. A harder track means losing traction less, and as such, you have the freedom to use a more limited differential. Likewise, looser surface means losing traction more often, and that can call for a more loose differential to keep from sliding everywhere.

Much like suspension I don't really recommend using a wide open differential, or a fully locked(welded) differential either. For most cars I keep the differential in the middle blip. in the case of a car & surface where I feel I can keep managed in a slide, I'll choose the 4th blip. For very understeer happy front wheel drive cars (the firefly comes to mind) or oversteer happy RWD cars I put the differential in the 2nd blip.

A Locked differential means moar rikliss skidzz, these may make you slower (depending how rikliss the skid is) but at least you look cool

Perfectly balanced, as all things should be. - Mahatma Gandhi

Brake Balance in real life changes how much of your braking power is going to the front or rear wheels. Conveniently, this is exactly how it works in Neet Car Game : Oktoberfest as well! Albeit not as granular as a proportioning valve in race car allows.

Brake bias in this game is generally dependent on the drivers' preference factoring in track surface and car type.

In general, Front brake bias will cause the car to be more stable and understeery while going into a corner. Rear Brake Bias will cause the car to be less stable and more oversteery going into corners.

Rear Brake bias is worth considering despite the stability concerns, however. As more rear brake bias will allow the car to rotate more, allowing you more flexibility to brake while going into a corner (instead of doing all your braking before the corner) and can also be useful in initiating a drift.

For the record, I can't tell a huge difference between front and rear brake bias (especially not on tarmac). I usually fling this slider all the way to the rear as I don't mind an unstable car and can usually manage any added oversteer, but if you are having car control issues (too much sliding or even spinning out) or just want a more stable car entering a corner, it's worth toying with.

More front brake bias will mean less surprises in the corners, but less dank skids too!
pic not related but look at the size of this lad, what an absolute unit

This guide should function for you as a guide and not as holy biblical paper or whatever which must be followed at all times. Experiment. Try other things that make no sense and are unusual. Also try out different tunes than what I suggest in this guide because what do I know I'm unemployed and play video games practically full time.

I do hope this guide helped you. If you liked it, please leave a comment! If I got something wrong, please leave a comment! If this guide sucks and you don't feel like saying why, please comment anyway!

Also my in game name is Pielikey, if you see me online, feel free to put me into a wall for wasting your time with this stupid guide. Enjoy!


when someone describes me

"I'm in a multiplayer lobby right now and I need a dank setup or the other guy in the lobby with his sunrise super says he's gonna beat me up!"

here's the section for you!

Gear Ratio:
1st (shortest) for really tiny tracks with short straights
standard on tracks with really long straights
2nd (shortish) every other time

Suspension:
2nd (softish) for mostly dirt tracks
3rd (standard) for close to 50/50 tracks
4th (stiffish) for mostly tarmac tracks

differential:
2nd (openish) for FWD cars
standard for RWD cars (4th if you're feeling lucky)

brake balance:
whatever you want lmao