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Wickedneoq's (Leaked!) Car Setups #1: Talladega

I'm about to leak my top secret, awesome and fast car setup for Talladega, which has me barrelling up the stats ladder. All I race lately is Nextel Cup or Busch Cars, and Talladega. Most of the time, I go Nextel->Talladega->Alabama 500, because then it sets up the night race version, which helps you rather than hinders you. I'll explain more into that in a bit.

Talladega is all about speed, and keeping good control on it. With or without driving assists, it's still a challenge to be had. The backstretch is the fastest portion of the race track, yet all 5 corners take patience and timing to figure out the best line, which isn't always the informative one.

Using the default settings, we first experimented with Tire Pressure, and found that 30 psi gave higher top speed than 25, the default setting. So, we boosted that up since no one likes maxing out at 194 MPH down the backstretch and having computer cars draft with you forever. Next, we maxed out the downforce of the wedge, all the way to +4.0. Actually, this was found out by looking at Nascar Thunder 2004 stats and finding this information to work. Our cars were hitting 196 down the back, and 193 all around the corners, so it was nice.

Then, someone found the gold mine of the car setup: Gear Ratios. In default settings, you're started with Gear Preset 10, which was meant for Daytona and Talladega specifically. By altering 4th gear down to 0.80, and 3rd gear to 1.00, guys started hitting 198 down the back, and 194 around the corners! Sweeeeeeet, we got some good speed here. Now, we gotta see if we can keep it that way. The problem with the setup now is we're losing speed off the corner, thus guys are passing us on the inside off turn 4, and in the tri-oval.

Suspension was the last thing we tested. It seems in long races, tire wear was an issue, especially with speed comp (aka Catchups) on using Limited or Full Assists. It's was still an issues after the testing, but with tweaks and a bit of loss of speed, tire wear's not a big deal. With Front Suspension set at 1%, steering becomes much easier to manage. With Rear Suspension set at 100%, there's no fine line between loose or tight when in the corners, and when you leave turns 2 and 4, you slingshot off the corner, making you able to pass on the outside with enough momentum or draft help.

At this point, guys are hitting 199 on the backstretch, which is downright amazing, and 195 at the end of the corners, which is also pretty stellar. Now... the rest of the story.

Drafting is important at Talladega. So important, that without it, you lose with speed comp on or off. With drafting such an issue, you have to learn to give and take Bump Drafts. These get your cars up around 207-209 MPH on the back stretch, and it CARRIES around the corner. Use the Share Draft button to keep from wrecking, as it happens a lot to careless drivers. In a pack of 3 or 4, passing is hard unless you and another guy decide to team up. With a team of 2 against 1 guy, you can pass anywhere given you have room. With a team of 2 against a team of 2, now you've got quite the 2 wide battle on your hands. Good luck passing and blocking, because if you block, you wreck.

Thanks for reading my long spell on Talladega's race setup. It's great and competitive for online play, and it blows the rest away on F2TT mode.

Results of Xbox Live's first NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup promotion!

In the allowed time of 2 hours, NASCAR driver ELLIOTT SADLER (yay, he is so cool) got to compete with the best of Xbox Live's Nascar drivers (most of whom raced Sadler so many times, they bragged about it, and the room was so full it was impossible for people not near North Carolina to get a race in with Candyman38, Sadler's gamertag [no, he doesnt accept friends unless you could beat him]).

Number of times Sadler raced: somewhere between 30-40 races
Places he raced at: Most of the time, Lowe's, because he's there. Other times, Martinsville and Talladega, just to mix it up.
Number of times he DNF'ed: Lots!
Number of wins: 1
Number of guys he beat in that win: 3
Number of Elliott Sadler fans he beat in that win: 3
Number of guys he raced 3-4 times before that let him win one: 3 (sigh, those clowns)

It was impossible to even see him post a race, because by the time you saw it, it was gone.

All well, all in good fun, boosts the popularity of the game a bit, and will send future drivers in on "Race to the Weekend Day" on Xbox Live (Wednesdays mostly).

Thanks for all the info! This should really help me a lot. I just barely got Chase for the Cup, my mom couldn't buy it for me for Christmas. The first thing I did was race the trucks at Daytona, and I was kind of disappointed.

It acts as if they put restrictor plates on the trucks. The trucks should easily be able to get into 4th gear by turn one without the restrictor plates, but instead, I'm shifting to 4th coming out of turn two. And it takes about a full lap to get up to speed, whereas the trucks should be able to get to full speed by the end of the backstretch.

Overall though, I love the tweaks they put in Chase for the Cup. I'm still quite the rookie at it, but it appears I can use similar adjustments from Thunder 2K4. Can't wait to hear more of your info.

It's true though, the setup system is the same as Thunder 2k4 (actually, there's an easter egg in C4TC that involves the Randall Parker #56 car... check out the pitboard wall wink wink ). Just tweak the setup a bit and you'll own at Talladega.

I've come across the best XBL player when the game came out, CCNumber1, and he'll leak me his amazing Bristol setup in due time.

Hey i helped make this game. You can crash the game if you pit at martinsville or something. If two people go in at the same time i think the game crashes. I worked on the NGC version tho so i dont know much about the online. Look for my name in the credits, Joe Callaghan.

Wow, very impressive! Very nice to have an insider into the game xd

Nascarsetups.com is now All systems compatible!

We support Xbox, PS2, PC (SimRacing) and GameCube.
Soon, there will be PS2 leagues and tournaments!

If you join, tell 'em Wickedneoq sent ya.... 3nodding