Motor Town: Behind The Wheel Tuning Guide

This is a guide to help players who do not understand what certain modifications do in the Tuning Shop. If anything on this list is wrong or confusing please comment and I will fix it!

Powertrain

Coolant Radiator

• This part allows your engine to stay cooler at higher Revolutions Per Minute (RPM), the larger the radiator the cooler your engine will stay, and the less it will overheat.
• All vehicles benefit from a larger radiator unless you are worried about weight.

Intake

• The intake flow determines when your engine hits its peak RPM and Horse Power (HP).
• Short intake is used for cars that need to accelerate fast such as drag or some race cars, long intake is used if the car needs to reach high speeds.

Engine

• This is pretty self-explanatory. The larger the engine the more powerful it is, but also it will weigh more. Keep that factor into consideration when trying to find the engine for you.

Turbocharger

• A Turbo is basically just a power spike for your car, after a certain amount of RPMs the Turbo will kick in and deliver a lot more power to your engine.
• Turbos can benefit mostly every car, especially race/drag cars. The only downside to consider is weight.

Transmission

• This is kind of hard to explain if you don’t understand gear ratios and gear changing, but I’ll try to explain it as best as I can. Basically, each gear can only handle so many RPMs and controls a zone that you can go in. For example, 2nd gear might determine that you go 30 MPH at 5000 RPM, or gear 3 could make you go 30 MPH at 2000 RPM. The only important part to really understand is this: The lower the number of gears in the transmission the faster the acceleration but it will have lower top speed, and the higher the number of gears means slower acceleration and higher top speed.
• 4 speed should be used in muscle and drag cars, 5+ is good in average racing/drifting/offroading vehicles.

Final drive ratio

• This relates to the gear ratios I was just talking about above. Basically, the FDR determines how much RPM each gear can handle. The lower the FDR the slower the acceleration will be but also it will make your top speed higher. The higher the FDR your car will have faster acceleration but lower top speed.
• Most cars can benefit from an FDR of somewhere from 4.27-6.5, you only really need to go out of those zones if you are trying to create a specialized vehicle (reaching top speed or drag racing).

LSD

• The Limited Slip Differential (LSD) allows certain wheels to spin independently or limits other wheels on the shaft.
• Locked Differential is for off-roading vehicles. This makes both wheels on the shaft rotate at the same speed.
• 1-way differential will only have a positive lock to limit slip during acceleration. This is good for track/race cars.
• 2-way differential will limit slip during both acceleration and deceleration (in gear off the throttle, not the vehicle’s brakes). This is good for drifting and rally cars.
• 1-way differential is actually a 2.0-way differential with different lockup rates between acceleration and deceleration. This is good for track/race cars.

Brakes

Brake Power

• How much brake force is applied when breaking.

Suspension

Anti-roll Bar

• The anti-roll bars determine how much your vehicle tips around corners or while off-roading.
• Having low anti roll bars can be beneficial to specific cars such as drift cars and race cars, but generally, you want stiff anti-roll so your vehicle does not tip.

Suspension Spring

• Determines how stiff your suspension is not the same as Ride Height.
• Stiffer springs should be used on heavier vehicles or vehicles that need to tow a lot of weight. Lighter cars do not need stiff suspension otherwise they will not steer well.

Suspension Damper

• These basically determine how fast your suspension returns to normal after being compressed.
• Lower percentages are better for race/drift cars while higher is better for off-roading/larger vehicles that need instant spring push-back.

Suspension Ride Height

• This makes your vehicle higher or lower.
• When to use this is completely up to you, and mostly just for looks. Higher ride height can be beneficial to off-roading vehicles as they need to clear difficult terrain.

Wheel Spacer

• This is how much you want your wheels to stick out from the car.
• Just like Ride Height, this has almost no effect on performance and is just for looks.

Angel Kit

• This is how much you want your car to turn when steering.
• This modification can be beneficial to some drift/race cars and semi-trucks. Test out a few and see what you prefer because it’s basically up to making your ride more comfortable to drive.

Tire

• Tire profile determines how thick your tires are, and depending on thickness it can improve your ride in different environments.
• KM1-65 and Off-road are good for off-roading and casual driving
• Sideway is for drifting
• KM1-45 and KM2-45 are beneficial to track and racing cars

Wheel

• These are completely cosmetic, you can use whatever you think looks good. Keep in mind weight.

Aerodynamics

• Everything under this category is purely cosmetic and as far as I know, has no benefit to performance.

Etc

Headlight

• Some cars can have their headlight changed, up to player preference.

Taxi License

• Allows the player to pick up hitchhikers when Taxi License is installed.

Trailer Hitch

• Allows a player to tow small trailers when the hitch is installed. A lower or Riser can be used depending on your ride height to comfortably pull the trailer.