This guide aims to explain the tuning for the forgotten Time Attack mode in CarX Drift.

Why Time Attack?

The time attack mode is an overshadowed mode in CarX Drift Racing Online that was available from the start of this game but is almost never played.

I think this is because of a popular belief that the physics of this game are not suitable for anything but drifting, but this is not the case.

Following this guide will allow you to experience the time attack mode just like in any other racing game without excessive drifting and also prepare yourself for the upcoming CarX Street game, which won’t be as focused on drifting as its predecessor. This guide is useful for keyboard, gamepad and wheel controllers without assists.

In each section of this guide you will find a small spreadsheet with my settings for Voodoo (Viper) tuned for Time Attack mode.

Setup: Racing vs Ultimate

When preparing your car for time attack, your first thought is to compare the stats between the cars in Ultimate and Racing modes.

Racing is better for grip and gives a more predictable handling without excessive sliding. Despite having less power than Ultimate mode, I believe this is actually its main advantage and partially explains why the car spins less. Racing mode also keeps the AWD (4WD) drivetrain for cars that have it by default (in stock mode). The Engine adjustments section is disabled in this mode.

The Racing mode also allows you to make a smaller max. steering angle. I will tell why this is important later in the guide.

The Ultimate mode gives consideraly more power and the ability to increase it even more with Engine tunes. Excessive power does harm performance in time attack mode, as there’s no traction control (TC) and functional aerodynamics in the game to make enough use of it.

So after comparing the two modes, it’s obvious that you want Racing mode only when preparing your car for time attack. It’s also cheaper and is accessible earlier in the game!

Suspension pt. 1

In this section you will find the adjustments for the following components:

• Spring length
• Spring stiffness
• Damper: slow bump and rebound
• Damper: fast bump and rebound

 

Spring length

The spring size determines how low your car is.

Very low settings will not allow your suspension to work properly and you will lose control on weight transfers and when going over bumps.

Very high settings will make your center of gravity higher and increase the body roll of the car in the corner.

When adjusting spring length, you should lower your suspension but make sure that the suspension is still working. Your values will typically range from 7 to 15 cm.

Parameter	Front springs length	Rear springs length
Value	7 cm	7 cm

 

Spring stiffness

The spring stiffness allows you to control how reactive the suspension will be.

Higher values (stiffer springs) mean very fast response but higher chance of losing the car at the same time, this is because you need to be much more precise with your inputs.

Lower values will make suspension’s response smoother and more forgiving.

As the majority of cars in CarX have their engines on front, it’s logical to make the front suspension slightly stiffer that the back one.

I usually use something between 120 kN/m and 180 kN/m depending on the car.

⚠️ If your car understeers, make the front suspension stiffer and/or the rear one softer.

⚠️ If your car oversteers, make the front suspension softer and/or the rear one stiffer.

Parameter	Front stiffness	Rear stiffness
Value	150 kN/m	130 kN/m

 

Damper: slow bump and rebound

“Slow” defines weight transfers from driver’s input. This includes braking, accelerating, making transitions and so on.

Bump determines how much resistance is applied on suspension’s compression.

Rebound determines how much resistance is applied on suspension’s decompression.

Higher values mean more resistance, slower reaction.

Lower values mean less resistance and faster reaction.

Extremely high values will not allow suspension to compress leading to a traction loss.

Extremely low values will provide the same effect as above, the car body will simply fall down, losing traction.

Generally, you want to find a sweet spot in which the car reacts fast enough to be controllable and smooth. Wrong setup will make it janky and unpredictable.

You can easily test the work of bump and rebound settings (slow and fast) with the help of “Suspension stiffness” slider. Simply drag it back and forth. Slow movements with mouse will correspond to slow settings and fast movements to fast settings. Your goal is the reaction where the car’s body remains at the same height and the wheel stays glued to the ground (no traction loss).

⚠️ If the body weight transfer is too fast and results in grip loss, increase the overall stiffness.

⚠️ If you lose grip because of a very slow weight transfer, decrease the overall stiffness.

Parameter	Front bump	Rear bump	Front rebound	Rear rebound
Value	8000 N s/m	8000 N s/m	10000 N s/m	10000 N s/m

 

Damper: fast bump and rebound

The working principle is the same as for the “slow” parameters. The difference is that “fast” parameters work mainly for fast weight transfers, like hitting road bumps and other imperfections.

⚠️ If you drive on bumpy tracks, decrease the overall stiffness.

⚠️ If you find your car jumping around bumps too often, increase the overall resistance.

Parameter	Front fast bump	Rear fast bump	Front fast rebound	Rear fast rebound
Value	15000 N s/m	15000 N s/m	17000 N s/m	17000 N s/m

 

Suspension pt. 2

In this section you will find the adjustments for the following components:

• Toe
• Camber
• Anti-roll bar
• Caster
• Ackerman angle
• Max. steering angle

Toe

Toe is the adjustment of the wheels according to the longitudinal axis of the vehicles. Negative toe means that the wheels are facing “outside” hence why it’s called toe-out, the positive one gives the opposite effect, thus the wheels are facing “inside”, alternatively called toe-in.

For time attacks, I would recommend to use zero toe on front and back for less resistance and more speed. Alternatively you can use a slightly negative toe on front wheels like -0.1 or -0.2 for easier turn-in. Never use positive values for rear wheels, as you will lose traction in every corner.

Parameter	Front toe	Rear toe
Value	-0.2	0.3

 

Camber

Contrary to drifting, grip racing (time attack) doesn’t require you to use huge camber values.

Zero values provide maximum grip on a straight line, while slightly negative values allow for more grip when cornering.

⚠️For the front wheels use values between -1 and -4 degrees.

⚠️For the back wheels use values between +0.3 and -3 degrees.

Parameter	Front camber	Rear camber
Value	-3	-1

 

Anti-roll bar

Do not underestimate the effect of this setting, this is the first thing you want to tune if your car understeers or oversteers.

The anti-roll bar loads the outer wheel more and takes off load from the inner wheel, while forcing the latter up. This allows the car to roll less and reduces the grip on the end of the car where the ARB is installed. Meanwhile, the other end of the car becomes more balances and starts to have more grip.

If you install a stiff ARB in front, you give more traction to the rear end. If you make your ARB in back is stiffer than in front, you will slide all over the place and the front will be grippier. As we don’t want our car to slide, we will typically use stiff front ARB and no rear ARB.

⚠️If you experience understeer, make front softer and back stiffer.

⚠️If you experience oversteer, make front stiffer and back softer.

Parameter	Front ARB	Rear ARB
Value	70 kN/m	0 kN/m

Caster

The caster angle helps to stabilize your car.

With negative caster (- values) it’s very easy to steer, but the car can be unstable on high speeds and under braking. This setting cannot be used in the game.

Neutral caster (0) allow for an easy steering and give you more feedback regarding tyres’ traction in the corner, but the wheels will be less stable at high speed.

Positive caster (+ values) give stability on high speed corners and can give some extra traction in the corners due to the negative camber effect on front wheels. Higher caster give more resistance when turning the wheel. I usually put 5-7 values on my cars.

Parameter	Caster
Value	6

 

Ackerman angle

This setting is a personal preference.

• 0% is the maximum positive Ackerman setting (standard);
• 100% is the parallel Ackerman setting (zero);

Values below 50% will make your car slower because of useless tyre friction. Values between 50% and 100% will provide the best performance. The parallel setting (100%) can work well, especially in tight corners, because the majority of car’s weight shifts to the outside wheel.

Parameter	Ackerman angle
Value	50 %

Max. steering angle

In the beginning of the guide I mentioned the fact that Racing mode allows for a smaller max. steering angle. Here you want to tune it down as much as the game allows you. The thing is that most racing cars do not use high steering angles, something between 10 and 20 degrees is more than enough. In the game though, cars are adjustable to values around 35 degrees, which is still better than 60. This is because the less degrees you have, the more precision in steering input you will get, no matter what type of controller you use.

Parameter	Max. steering angle
Value	34 degrees

 

Wheels

In this section you will find the adjustments for the following components:

• Rim diameter
• Tyre width
• Tyre pressure
• Wheel adhesion
• Track width
• Tyre profile

 

Rim diameter

Bigger diameters can give you more traction. Smaller diameters can give you more acceleration and more turning precision. Be careful not to make a donk car or a go-kart, values between 18 and 21 inches are the way to go.

Parameter	Front rim diameter	Rear rim diameter
Value	19 in	19 in

 

Tyre width

The more the tyre width is, the more traction you get from that tyre.

Usually you want to max both the front and the back tyres’ width. Sometimes slightly narrower front tyres can work as well.

Parameter	Front tyre width	Rear tyre width
Value	325 mm	355 mm

 

Tyre pressure

Tyre pressure determines how big is the contact patch (the amount of grip).

Under-inflated tyres give too much friction and can slow you down.

Over-inflated tyres decrease grip by having a very small contact patch.

You should find a value that gives you the best results. I would advise for fine tuning these settings between 170 and 240 kPa.

Parameter	Front tyre pressure	Rear tyre pressure
Value	190 kPa	180 kPa

 

Wheel adhesion

A very easy setting to understand, the more adhesion a tyre has with the pavement, the more grip and speed you get from it.

It is possible to present adhesion parameter as following:

• 90% – Vintage (old/used) tyres;
• 100% – Steet tyres;
• 110% – Semi-slicks;
• 120% – Slicks.

We’re in time attack, so use slicks (120%).

Parameter	Front wheel adhesion	Rear wheel adhesion
Value	120 %	120 %

 

Track width

Track width allow for lower center of gravity and better control.

Try to keep these settings uniform across both ends of the car. There’s no need to increase one setting over another.

Parameter	Front wheel track	Rear base
Value	0	2

 

Tyre profile

The smaller the tyre profile is, the more you get control over your car and the more grip there is overall.

Bear in mind, that a very low profile may yield unpredictable results, as there simply won’t be enough tyre wall to absorb car movements. Simply keep it at 30%.

Parameter	Front tyre profile	Rear tyre profile
Value	30 %	30 %

 

Transmission

In this section you will find the adjustments for the following components:

• Diff. locking ratio
• Final drive
• Gears

 

Diff. locking ratio

Adjustable limited-slip differential.

• 0% is an open differential, which means that both of rear wheels are rotating independently.
• 100% is a completely locked differential, both of rear wheels are rotating at the same speed.

⚠️ The more the differential is locked, the faster you will exit the corners, but the risk of losing traction is higher.

Parameter	Diff. locking ratio
Value	0.10

 

Final drive

The final drive adjusts the overall length of all gears, without altering the ratios of every gear individually.

Bigger values mean shorter gears, lower values mean longer gears.

Typically this is adjusted according to the track layout, tracks with a lot of tight turns would need shorter gears for faster power output, while long configurations with high-speed sections would require longer gears. In the end you’ll want to find a sweet spot that would suite the majority of tracks.

Parameter	Final drive
Value	3.75

 

Gears

The individual adjustment of every gear’s ratio.

Bigger values mean shorter gear, smaller values mean longer gears.

This setting allows you to adjust your transmission more precisely.

Parameter	Gear 1	Gear 2	Gear 3	Gear 4	Gear 5	Gear 6
Value	2.26	1.58	1.19	1.00	0.77	0.66

 

Brakes

In this section you will find the adjustments for the following components:

• Brake torque
• Front brake bias
• ABS
• Launch control

 

Brake torque

The force applied to brakes, the bigger it is, the faster the car will stop. In time attack you go faster when braking.

If you plan on using ABS, max it for the best performance. If you don’t want to use ABS, fine tune the brake torque to avoid wheel lockup.

Parameter	Brake torque
Value	10000 N/m

 

Front brake bias

This setting tells the car where to apply the braking force.

More front brake bias will mean that the front wheels will do more to stop the car, than the rear wheels.

Usually you want values somewhere between 55% and 65% for the best performance.

Parameter	Front brake bias
Value	62 %

 

ABS

This settings helps you prevent locking the wheels when braking.

If you just want max performance, turn it on and couple it with max. brake torque. Alternatively you can disable it and achieve the same effect with a proper brake pedal work.

Parameter	ABS
Value	Yes

 

Launch control

This setting is not used in time attack races.

Parameter	Launch control
Value	No

 

Performance comparison pt. 1 (1st – 56th)

In this section I will provide my test results for cars tuned with the help of this guide.

I measured performance of all the cars listed below with Racing tune on Parking A circuit using Thrustmaster T150 wheel. The results should be very similar when using a gamepad with assists switched off.

The acceleration and handling are rated subjectively on a scale from 1 to 5 stars. ⭐

Car name	Position	Best time	Class	Acceleration	Handling
Rolla ZR	1	00:47.940	5	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Syberia WDC	2	00:49.079	4	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Flanker F	3	00:49.500	5	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
Wellington S20	4	00:49.599	3	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Horizon GT4	5	00:50.299	3	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
EVA MR	6	00:50.439	3	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Voodoo	7	00:50.820	5	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spector RS	8	00:50.859	5	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Syberia SWI	9	00:50.860	3	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Last Prince	10	00:50.879	4	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Atlas GT	11	00:50.899	5	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Godzilla R3	12	00:51.000	2	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Kanniedood	13	00:51.000	4	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Vanguard	14	00:51.120	5	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Phoenix NX	15	00:51.619	2	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Fujin SX	16	00:51.780	4	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Karnage 7C	17	00:51.839	5	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Carrot II	18	00:52.000	5	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
Lynx	19	00:52.059	2	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Eleganto	20	00:52.159	4	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
SpeedLine GT	21	00:52.339	5	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
Piranha X	22	00:52.439	3	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Asura M1	23	00:52.580	4	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Corona	24	00:52.599	3	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Mifune	25	00:52.640	2	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Patron GT	26	00:52.660	5	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cobra	27	00:52.799	5	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Panther M5	28	00:52.819	1	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Falcon FC 90-S	29	00:52.819	3	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Hachi-Roku	30	00:52.859	1	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Falcon RZ	31	00:52.899	4	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Hachi-Go	32	00:52.919	1	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
SpaceKnight	33	00:53.020	5	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
Eva X	34	00:53.099	4	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Samurai II	35	00:53.259	4	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wanderer L30	36	00:53.300	5	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Judge	37	00:53.459	4	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sorrow	38	00:53.520	3	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Burner JDM	39	00:53.659	3	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
Solar	40	00:53.720	2	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Imperior	41	00:53.760	2	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
DTM 46	42	00:53.799	3	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
Caravan G6	43	00:53.840	2	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Hunter	44	00:54.219	4	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Penguin	45	00:54.239	3	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
Hakosuka	46	00:54.259	4	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Loki 4M	47	00:54.339	5	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Hornet GT	48	00:54.360	3	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Hummel	49	00:54.459	4	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
Bandit	50	00:54.500	4	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wütend	51	00:54.639	2	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
UDM 3	52	00:54.660	4	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
VZ212	53	00:54.719	2	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Warden	54	00:54.739	4	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Unicorn	55	00:54.740	4	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cobra GT530	56	00:54.959	5	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

Performance comparison pt. 2 (57th – 86th)

Car name	Position	Best time	Class	Acceleration	Handling
Zismo	57	00:55.059	5	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bimmy P30	58	00:55.080	1	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Midnight	59	00:55.179	3	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Black Fox	60	00:55.180	2	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
VZ 210	61	00:55.259	1	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spark ZR	62	00:55.320	5	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Interceptor	63	00:55.359	3	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Grace GT	64	00:55.659	5	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐
Kitsune	65	00:55.680	4	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐
Glorious XZ	66	00:55.720	4	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
Panther M5 90-S	67	00:55.840	1	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rattlesnake	68	00:55.860	4	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐
Thunderstrike	69	00:55.899	2	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
Shark GT	70	00:56.080	5	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Interstate	71	00:56.419	4	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Magnum RT	72	00:56.459	4	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
Raven RV8	73	00:56.500	3	⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Equator D	74	00:56.599	3	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐
Inferno	75	00:56.939	3	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐
Nomad GT	76	00:56.939	5	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
Flash	77	00:56.980	5	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pirate	78	00:57.059	2	⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Hotrod	79	00:57.080	4	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐
Dacohosu	80	00:57.319	1	⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Black Jack X22	81	00:59.879	5	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐
Betsy	82	00:59.040	3	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
Black Jack X150	83	01:00.239	5	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐
Cargo	84	01:00.520	3	⭐⭐⭐	⭐
Shadow XTR	85	01:01.160	5	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐
Warrior	86	01:02.059	5	⭐⭐⭐	⭐

 

Performance comparison pt. 3

Here you will find a small recap on fastest car in each class.

Class 1

Class 2

Class 3

Class 4

Class 5

The End

So, that’s pretty much it. If you have any additional info to add, feel free to comment.

Hope you enjoy the post for CarX Drift Racing Online Car Tuning Guide for Time Attack Mode in Game, If you think we should update the post or something is wrong please let us know via comment and we will fix it how fast as possible! Thank you and have a great day!