How Important Are Car Setups in Assetto Corsa Competizione?

In this guide, we'll take a deep dive look at just how important car setups in ACC are. We'll explore whether spending time creating new car setups, or searching for professional car setups can make a big difference.

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ACC Car Setup Menu

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Creating and finding car setups is an incredibly important part of sim racing, especially in Assetto Corsa Competizione. A good car setup in ACC can make the difference in a close race, and can certainly give you a competitive advantage.

In this guide, I’ll run through just how important car setups in ACC are. I’ll also look at the most important parts of a car setup, and where to start when creating or searching for new ACC car setups.

How much of a difference do car setups make in ACC?

Assetto Corsa Competizione is a highly competitive racing sim. Many of the cars in ACC are equally competitive, and when racing online, you’ll often be racing against drivers in the exact same car as you.

Finding a competitive advantage over drivers who are of a similar skill level, and racing in the same car as you can be hard. This is where car setups can make a huge difference to your performance.

A good car setup can allow you to race much more consistently and allow you to push harder to find additional lap time. On the flip side, a bad car setup can make your car much harder to drive.

Are the default ACC car setups good?

When you jump into any session in Assetto Corsa Competizione, you’ll find two default car setups for each car. There is a stable car setup and an aggressive car setup. Both of these setups have been created for each car by the developers, and both car setups are generally reasonably good.

Assetto Corsa Competizione Car Setup

Sim racers can lap extremely fast while using the default car setups. The aggressive setup is a more aggressive setup that may be harder to drive with than the stable setup but has a higher potential in terms of lap time gain.

We would always recommend sim racers utilise the default car setups for their first few sessions with any car and track. With these setups, you can get a feel for how the car behaves. From there, you’ll have a baseline to start making setup changes or trying new car setups.

How much time can be gained using a good car setup?

As I mentioned above, car setups are a vital part of improving your lap time. You certainly can gain lap time from using an optimised car setup. However, car setups aren’t a magic answer for finding seconds of time each lap.

Typically, a good car setup can help most drivers find a few tenths of a second, potentially up towards a second for the very best car setups.

This advantage is crucial when racing against drivers of a similar skill level in a competitive race. But it certainly won’t be the difference in helping you improve drastically as a driver. That will take practice and experience.


What makes a good setup in Assetto Corsa Competizione?

Creating a good car setup in ACC is a tricky process, as there are a lot of aspects you need to balance. You will be trying to find as much lap time as possible from a car setup while keeping your car well-balanced and comfortable to drive.

Typically, both lap time and a comfortable setup go hand in hand. If you feel comfortable behind the wheel, you’ll be able to lap more consistently, and feel confident to push the limits of your car, leading to lap time gain.

There are a few areas that contribute to a good car setup in ACC that you should look to focus on. These include the following;

  • Tyre pressures: One of the most important parts of any car setup are the tyre pressures. Ensuring your tyres are in their working window will instantly provide a better level of grip compared to tyres that are running too cold or too hot. The temperature of your tyres relies heavily on your tyre pressures, so ensuring they are set up correctly is key.
  • Aero and suspension: Both your aerodynamic setup and your suspension balance are key to providing a car that is stable and easy to drive fast. You ideally want to create a car that isn’t too front or rear-focused, which can be adjusted via your aero setup. Your suspension setup will affect how easily your car handles undulations and how balanced it is through corners.
  • Brake balance: Your brakes get used incredibly often throughout a lap. Ensuring you feel comfortable under braking whilst also tuning your setup to reduce your stopping distance can lead to vast improvements to your lap time and your car’s driveability.

Of course, your gear ratios, differential and other parts of your car setup are also very important. But your tyres, brakes and overall balance are keys areas to focus time on, as they will make the largest difference to your car setup around any track in ACC.


Where to find ACC car setups

One of the best ways to improve your car setup is to find car setups created by others. This is especially useful if you don’t have the time to tinker with a car setup yourself.

There are a variety of places where you can find ACC car setups, including our own website. We have a variety of car setups for every car in Assetto Corsa Competizione. Many of the car setups on our website are completely free to download and use, allowing you to quickly try out a few car setups to find the one you feel most comfortable with.

Free car setups vs premium car setups

When searching for car setups, you will quickly stumble into many premium car setups. There are many setup creators who sell their car setups instead of offering them for free.

Many will think that premium setups are faster than free ones, and this is certainly the case some of the time, but not always. The downside of using free car setups is that it can be tricky to find a good batch of car setups from the same setup creator. This means that after you find a very good car setup for a specific car and track combination, it might be hard finding more car setups from that setup creator.

With premium car setups, the setup creator will often have complete setup bundles available along with car setups for a range of different cars.


ACC car setup subscriptions

As well as premium car setup bundles which offer a range of different car setups in a single download, there are setup creators who offer ACC setup subscriptions.

A setup subscription for ACC can provide you with a whole batch of optimal car setups for a range of different car and track combinations. Typically, a setup subscription will include every car setup that a single setup shop has for sale. If you regularly change the car you are racing with in ACC, a setup subscription can be a good way to ensure you always have an optimal car setup.

ACC Coach Dave Academy CDA Setup subscription
ACC Coach Dave Academy Setup subscription

How much does a setup subscription cost?

An ACC setup subscription will vary in price depending on which setup shop you choose. One of the best ACC setup creators around is Coach Dave Academy, and they sell ACC car setups both in bundles or via their own subscription.

The CDA setup subscription for ACC currently costs £7.99 per month. For that price, you get a wide range of content including all of the current Assetto Corsa Competizione car setups that are available on CDA. You also get bonuses such as onboard laps, Motec data, lap maps and more.

Is a setup subscription good value?

Deciding on wether an ACC setup subscription is good value for you depends entirely on your sim racing habits. Are you a regular sim racer, often competing in series each week, or do you race at a much more casual basis?

Let’s take a quick look at the cost of purchasing individual car setups vs setup bundles vs a setup subscription.

Using CDA as our example, buying ACC car setups from Coach Dave costs;

  • Buying an individual car setup – £5.50
  • Buying a full car setup bundle – £17.99
  • Subscribing each month – £7.99

Breaking those costs down, you’ll see that purchasing a single car setup for one car at a single track is the most expensive way of buying car setups in the long run. Taking a look at the table below shows just how expensive buying individual car setups can be compared to bundles and a subscription.

If you are buying a single car setup for £5.50, you could always upgrade to a full bundle which includes car setups for all 22 tracks currently in ACC. This would save you over £100 compared to buying all 22 car setups individually over time.

How Many Cars Being Raced RegularlyBuy Individual Setups For All 22 TracksCost To Buy Complete Car Setup BundleACC Car Setup Subscription Cost
Car Setups For 1 Cars£121.00£17.99£7.99 p/m
Car Setups For 2 Cars£242.00£35.98£7.99 p/m
Car Setups For 3 Cars£363.00£53.97£7.99 p/m
Car Setups For 4 Cars£484.00£71.96£7.99 p/m
Car Setups For 5 Cars£605.00£89.95£7.99 p/m
Cost Over 12 Months£95.88

The table above shows that purchasing setup bundles is a much more cost-effective route than purchasing individual car setups. But it also highlights the value difference between buying setup bundles vs a setup subscription.

If you race multiple cars in ACC and always want access to the most optimal car setup at that time, a subscription allows for this. When you include the extra features such as track maps, Motec data and more that is included in the subscription, the value proposition starts to make sense.

But it only makes sense if you do race multiple cars often in ACC. Ultimately, the decision on whether to subscribe to an ACC setup subscription does come down to how often you race, and which cars you race in.

If you don’t race often, then you probably won’t find the value in a subscription. But if you are a sim racer who is always competing in different cars, then a subscription could be more beneficial than individual setup packs.


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Article written by Rich

Founder of SimRacingSetups.com

Rich is the founder, F1 car setup creator and content writer for SimRacingSetups. With over a decade of experience as a graphic designer, marketing director, competitive sim racer and avid motorsport fan, Rich founded SimRacingSetup.com to share his passion and knowledge of sim racing and Formula 1 with other sim racers. Regularly writes for sim racing website SimRaceReviews.com

Disclaimer: Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. We may earn commission from any sale after clicking a link. Read our affiliate policy.
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