Suspension Tuning Deep Dive — Every Setting Explained

I've watched so many FH6 players just give up and grab someone else's tune off the marketplace. I get it, tbh. Seven sliders with numbers that go from 0.1 to 100+, it looks like a mess. But honestly, once you understand what each slider is actually doing to the car, the whole thing gets way simpler. I've tested every suspension setting across hundreds of hours on road, dirt, drift, you name it. Here's what I've found.

Spring Rate

Springs control how much the car fights back when it compresses. Stiffer springs mean less body roll and sharper response, but your grip falls apart over bumps. Softer springs give you more mechanical grip and a comfier ride on rough surfaces, but the body lean in corners gets pretty bad. It's always a tradeoff.

Starting points by race type:

• Road racing (smooth tarmac): Front 550-650 lb/in, Rear 500-600 lb/in. Stiffer setup for sharp cornering.
• Street racing (mixed surfaces): Front 450-550, Rear 400-500. Softer to handle bumps and curbs.
• Dirt/Off-road: Front 250-350, Rear 200-300. Very soft to absorb terrain.
• Drift: Front 500-650, Rear 350-450. Stiff front for quick turn-in, softer rear to let the back step out.

My rule of thumb: front springs should always be 10-20% stiffer than rear. The front carries way more weight under braking and needs the extra rate or the nose just dives like crazy. If your car understeers on entry, soften the front springs. If the rear kicks out on exit, soften the rear. Pretty simple once you think about it like that.

Ride Height

Lower center of gravity is always better for handling, man. Every time. But only until the car bottoms out. In FH6, bottoming out causes a sudden grip loss as the suspension smashes into the bump stops, and tbh, that's way worse than running a tiny bit higher. I've ruined so many clean laps this way.

• Road/Street: Minimum ride height, or 1-2 clicks above minimum if you're hitting curbs hard.
• Dirt: 2-3 clicks above minimum. You need some travel for bumps.
• Cross-country: Maximum ride height. Ground clearance matters more than CoG here.

Damping (Bump and Rebound)

This is where most people get completely lost, ngl. Bump controls how fast the suspension compresses when you hit something. Rebound controls how fast it extends back out. Think of bump as "how hard the hit feels" and rebound as "how quickly the wheel returns to the ground." Basically, bump takes the punch, rebound brings the wheel back.

Bump stiffness:

• Front: 5.0-6.0 (road), 3.0-4.0 (dirt)
• Rear: 4.0-5.0 (road), 2.5-3.5 (dirt)

Rebound stiffness:

• Front: 7.0-8.5 (road), 5.0-6.5 (dirt)
• Rear: 6.0-7.5 (road), 4.0-5.5 (dirt)

Rebound should always be higher than bump, typically 1.3x to 1.5x. Too much rebound and the suspension "packs down" over repeated bumps, like the wheel literally can't extend fast enough between hits. Too little and the car feels floaty and unsettled, like driving on a waterbed. Trust me, you'll feel the difference immediately.

Anti-Roll Bars

ARBs control side-to-side body lean. Stiffer front ARB means less front grip, which means more understeer. Stiffer rear ARB means less rear grip, which means more oversteer. This is your primary tool for balancing the car mid-corner. No joke, I spend more time tweaking ARBs than any other setting on most builds.

Starting points:

• AWD cars: Front 20-25, Rear 25-30. Slight rear bias to fight AWD understeer.
• RWD cars: Front 25-30, Rear 20-25. Front bias for stability on power.
• FWD cars: Front 15-20, Rear 30-35. Heavy rear bias to rotate the car.

If the car pushes wide mid-corner, that's understeer, stiffen the rear ARB or soften the front. Big mistake to do both at once, change one thing at a time. If the rear wants to come around, that's oversteer, do the opposite. You get the idea.

Camber

Negative camber tilts the top of the wheel inward. When the car leans in a corner, this keeps the tire flat against the road for maximum grip. Pretty neat physics trick, honestly.

• Road racing: Front -1.5 to -2.0, Rear -1.0 to -1.5
• Drift: Front -3.0 to -4.0, Rear -1.0 to -2.0. Extreme front camber for angle.
• Drag: Front -2.5, Rear 0.0. Rear camber at zero for maximum straight-line contact patch.
• Off-road: Front -0.5 to -1.0, Rear -0.5. Less camber because you're not carrying enough corner speed to lean the car.

The FH6 tire model changed from FH5, and camber is less forgiving now. Seriously, I've tested this. Running -3.0 on the rear will noticeably reduce your straight-line braking grip. Stay conservative unless you're building a dedicated drift car. Don't ask how many times I slammed into walls figuring that one out.

Toe

Toe-in means the front of the wheels point inward. Toe-out means they point outward.

• Toe-in (positive values): More stability, especially at high speed. But it creates drag and increases tire wear.
• Toe-out (negative values): Better turn-in response. The inside wheel is already pointed into the corner. But can feel twitchy.

Recommended: Front 0.0 to -0.2 (slight toe-out for turn-in), Rear 0.0 to +0.1 (slight toe-in for stability). Never go beyond ±0.5, the handling penalty in FH6 gets steep real fast beyond that. Like, brutally steep. You've been warned.

Caster

Caster is the angle of the steering axis. More caster gives you stronger self-centering, better high-speed stability, and more dynamic camber gain in corners. And honestly, there's basically no downside to maxing it in FH6. Set it to 7.0 and leave it there, unless you're building a drag car, where max caster is also correct, or a drift car, where 5.0-6.0 gives you lighter steering feel. That's it. Don't overthink this one.

Quick Reference: Setup by Discipline

← Tuning Basics | Gearing & Differential →