Lesson 2: Ride height & springs

What springs do

Your springs have three jobs, and they all happen at once:

1. Hold the car up at its ride height, so the body clears the track.
2. Control body movement: how far the nose dives under braking, how far the tail squats on throttle, and how much the body rolls in a corner.
3. Keep each tire on the road over bumps, so the tire stays loaded and keeps gripping.

Jobs 2 and 3 pull in opposite directions. Stiffer springs mean less dive and roll and a car that reacts quickly to the wheel. But when a stiff corner hits a bump, the tire gets kicked upward and carries less load for a moment, and a tire with less load grips less. Softer springs let the tire follow the surface, but the body moves more, the car feels lazy and it can bottom out.

So the goal is not "as stiff as possible". You want the stiffest setting that still keeps the tires planted over this track's bumps. Your tires and aero decide how much stiffness you need. The track decides how much you can get away with.

Natural Frequency: spring stiffness in hertz

GT7 doesn't ask you for a spring rate in N/mm or kgf/mm. It asks for Natural Frequency, in hertz (Hz). Picture pushing down hard on one end of the car and letting go. The body bounces up and down at a steady rate. That rate, in bounces per second, is the natural frequency. A higher number means a faster bounce and a stiffer feel.

This is friendlier than a spring rate. The same spring rate feels soft under a heavy GT car and rock-hard under a light hatchback, but hertz already accounts for the weight sitting on that end. GT7 also folds in the lever ratio (how far the wheel moves compared with the spring) and the suspension type. You get the stiffness the tire actually feels, so 2.0 Hz should feel broadly similar from one car to the next and your experience carries over. Tires, aero and weight distribution still differ, so treat a number from another car as a first try, not a finished setting.

Where to start

GT7's own manual gives two anchors: road cars on Comfort or Sports tires are generally around 1.1–1.5 Hz, and race cars on Racing tires around 3–5 Hz. The logic is simple. More grip and more downforce need a higher frequency. Grippier tires create bigger braking and cornering forces, which would pitch and roll a soft car a long way. Downforce pushes the car into the track at speed, which would bottom out a soft car.

The manual doesn't say why the road-car anchor is so soft, but the likely reason is that it describes road cars as built for public roads, where comfort matters. On a smooth circuit with a performance suspension fitted, you can go firmer. The course's starting ranges below sit between and inside the official anchors. Treat them as a sensible first try, not as game values.

Front versus rear: balance with springs

Start with the same Natural Frequency front and rear. GT7's manual says matching them makes for a smoother ride, and here's why. If one end bounces faster than the other, the two ends get out of step after a bump and the car rocks nose-to-tail. Matched ends rise and settle together, so the car stays calm and the tires stay loaded.

Once the car is matched, a small split is a balance tool. It works for the same reason as the anti-roll bars in lesson 4. In a corner, weight moves to the outside tires, and the stiffer end takes a bigger share of that weight. One heavily loaded tire grips less than two tires sharing the load, so the stiffer end runs out of grip first.

Front effect

Stiffen the Natural Frequency Front and the nose reacts faster to the first turn of the wheel, then starts to push. You'll feel understeer from late entry into mid-corner. Soften the front and the nose bites better on turn-in and holds the line through the middle of the corner, at the cost of a little sharpness.

Rear effect

Stiffen the Natural Frequency Rear and the car rotates more readily mid-corner, moving toward oversteer. On a rear-drive car you'll also feel the rear struggle to put power down on exit, because the inside rear tire carries less load. Soften the rear and the car settles on exit and grips better under power, but it may feel reluctant to turn mid-corner.

Body Height Adjustment: as low as the track allows

Lower is generally better, and GT7's manual says so. A lower car has a lower center of gravity, so less weight moves around when you brake, accelerate and turn. You get less pitch and roll, quicker response, and more grip shared evenly across the tires, especially on smooth tracks.

There's a floor, though. Go too low and the car bottoms out: the suspension runs out of travel or the body touches the track. In that moment the tire load spikes and then drops, so you feel a jolt and a sudden loss of grip at the bottom of compressions, under heavy braking or over curbs. GT7 also warns that a very low car risks hitting curbs and damaging the body.

Lower the Body Height Adjustment on both ends and the car feels tighter and more direct through every phase, until it starts to bottom. Raise it and the car rides curbs and bumps more calmly, but rolls and pitches more.

Finding your ride height

1. Start with the Front and Rear at the same value, as GT7's own guide suggests.
2. Lower both ends by about 5 mm at a time. Drive two laps after each change and attack the bumpiest braking zone and the curbs you actually use.
3. When you feel bottoming (a jolt, a twitch or a sudden slide in a compression), raise both ends 3–5 mm. That's your ride height for this track.
4. Only then think about rake, below.

Rake: front lower or rear lower

GT7 lets you set the front and rear heights separately, and the manual notes that doing so shifts the weight distribution. A height difference between the ends is called rake.

Lower the Body Height Adjustment Front (or raise the rear) and you get more front grip on entry and sharper turn-in. The rear gets lighter, which gives an oversteer tendency, and on cars with downforce the aero balance moves forward, so the car can feel looser in fast corners. On a front-drive car, a slightly lower front also helps counter the nose lifting under acceleration.

Lower the Body Height Adjustment Rear (or raise the front) and the car turns in more calmly, with an understeer tendency and a more planted tail.

Match it to the track, the tires and the aero

Fast and smooth tracks

Go stiffer and lower, but keep enough travel that the car doesn't bottom at the end of the longest straight or over the fastest curb. GT7's magazine pairs stiffer springs with slightly softer anti-roll bars (and softer springs with stiffer bars), so the total roll control stays sensible. You'll feel a car that responds instantly in fast direction changes and stays flat through high-speed corners.

Bumpy tracks and curbs you need to use

Go softer on Natural Frequency at both ends and raise the Body Height Adjustment a few millimeters. The car will feel a touch lazier on turn-in, but the tires stay in contact over the bumps, so you get grip back mid-corner and a calmer car over the curbs.

Tight, technical tracks

GT7's magazine suggests running as low as the surface allows, with a slightly softer Front and slightly stiffer Rear Natural Frequency, more moderately on rear-drive cars. The softer front bites on entry; the stiffer rear helps the car rotate in slow corners. On a rear-drive car, watch exit traction.

Wet tracks

Grip drops, so the springs need less stiffness: soften the Natural Frequency at both ends. The car will move around more, but it will warn you before it slides.

Downforce

Downforce (Front and Rear) adds grip in faster corners and costs top speed. It also presses the car into the track harder as speed rises. So when you add downforce, raise the Natural Frequency to hold the car off the ground, and recheck for bottoming at the fastest point of the lap. In balance terms, more front downforce reduces understeer and more rear downforce reduces oversteer, mainly in fast corners.

PP and race rules

Suspension changes can move your Performance Points: GT7 names "stiffening your suspension" as one of the choices that affect PP. After a big change, check the PP before entering a PP-limited event. If it shows "!", press Triangle in Car Settings to recalculate, and use the Measure button to see how performance changed. In BoP events, Gr.1 to Gr.4 and Gr.B cars have their tuning parts returned to stock, so check the event's regulation screen to see what you can still adjust.

Symptom to fix

Change one thing, drive three laps, then judge. Start at the top of each list.