CSR2 Best Tune: What 1,251 World Record Tunes Have in Common

“What's the best tune?” is one of the most asked questions in CSR2. The usual answer is “it depends on the car”, which is true and not very helpful. So we looked at the data instead.

Our CSR2 world records sheet lists the tune behind every record: the final drive, the tyre setting and the nitro setting. Across 1,251 records, the patterns are clear. Tier 5 comes surprisingly close to having one favourite setup. The lower tiers have nothing of the kind.

What a tune is made of

On the sheet, each record's tune has three parts:

• Final drive: a single number that scales every gear at once.
• Tyre setting: written as two numbers, for example 0/100.
• Nitro setting: also written as two numbers, for example 188/4.0.

We've kept these exactly as the sheet shows them, so you can match them to the settings screen in the game. What each slider does is covered in our CSR2 tuning guide. This page is about which settings the fastest players actually use.

Tier 5: there is a favourite tune

Setting	Most common value	All Tier 5 records	The top 50 records
Final drive	2.00	51%	72%
Tyre setting	0/100	74%	86%
Nitro setting	188/4.0	41%	82%

From our sheet at the time of writing, covering 890 timed Tier 5 records.

That's a striking amount of agreement. Most of the fastest Tier 5 cars run the same three settings, and the closer you get to the top, the more common it is. Across all 890 Tier 5 records there are only 471 different tunes, so many records share exactly the same settings.

It makes sense once you look at what Tier 5 cars have in common. Most of them sit at the same PP, fully built, racing the same event. When the cars are that similar, the best tunes for them converge too. Our look at CSR2 PP shows just how bunched up Tier 5 is.

Tiers 1 and 2: every record is different

Lower down, the picture flips completely:

Tier	Records	Different tunes
Tier 1	16	16
Tier 2	32	32
Tier 3	81	67
Tier 4	232	204
Tier 5	890	471

In Tiers 1 and 2, no two records share a tune. Lower-tier cars differ far more in weight, power and gearing, so a setting that's perfect for one is wrong for the next. In Tier 1 even the most popular tyre setting is used by only a quarter of records, and it isn't the one Tier 5 favours.

If someone hands you “the best Tier 2 tune” without naming the car, they're guessing.

Final drive gets shorter as tiers go up

The final drive shows the clearest trend of all:

Tier	Typical final drive	Middle half of records
Tier 1	3.89	3.04 to 4.42
Tier 2	3.91	2.37 to 4.71
Tier 3	3.02	2.03 to 3.64
Tier 4	2.81	2.37 to 3.47
Tier 5	2.00	2.00 to 2.37

Records in the lower tiers use much higher final drives, and spread across a wide range. In Tier 5 they settle tightly around 2.00. So if you've moved a car up from Tier 3 and kept its old tune, the final drive is the first thing to check.

The tyre setting most tiers agree on

The 0/100 tyre setting is the most common choice in Tiers 2 to 5: 69% of Tier 2 records, 60% in Tier 3, 63% in Tier 4 and 74% in Tier 5. Tier 1 is the exception, where 55/45 is the most common setting and only 19% of records use 0/100. Tyres decide the launch, and Tier 1 cars launch very differently from everything above them.

Nitro: the setting that varies most

Of the three settings, nitro is where records disagree the most. The most common setting, 188/4.0, becomes more popular the higher the tier, but it never dominates the way final drive does in Tier 5:

Tier	Different nitro settings	Records using 188/4.0
Tier 1	15 across 16 records	none
Tier 2	28 across 32 records	none
Tier 3	40 across 81 records	21%
Tier 4	93 across 232 records	31%
Tier 5	242 across 890 records	41%

Nitro also depends more on the driver than the other settings, because when you fire it changes what the best setting is. That's why we tune it last: once the final drive and tyres are settled and your firing point is consistent.

Tuning mistakes the records expose

• Using a Tier 5 final drive on a lower-tier car. Half of Tier 5 records run 2.00, but the typical Tier 1 and Tier 2 record runs nearly double that. A low final drive on a Tier 2 car usually leaves it short of acceleration.
• Assuming 0/100 tyres suit every car. It's the favourite from Tier 2 up, yet in Tier 1 most records use something else. If a low-tier car bogs or spins at the start, the tyre setting is the first suspect.
• Copying the most common tune instead of the car's own. The common Tier 5 setup is a starting point. Nearly half of Tier 5 records use a different final drive, and they still hold records.
• Keeping an old tune after an upgrade. Every new part changes the car. A tune that was perfect at Stage 5 can be wrong at Stage 6.

How to find the best tune for your car

1. Look up your exact car on the records sheet. If there's a record for it, that's your best starting point by far.
2. Check it's the same version. Star level, Elite Customs level and upgrades all change what the best tune is. A purple-star tune on a gold-star car, or a Level 50 tune on a Level 0 car, often won't transfer. See purple vs gold star and Elite Customs for how big those differences are.
3. No record for your build? In Tier 5, start from the common setup above: final drive 2.00, tyres 0/100, nitro 188/4.0. In lower tiers, start from a record for a similar car in the same tier.
4. Test on the dyno, one change at a time. Final drive first, because it moves times the most, then tyres, then nitro.
5. Confirm in real races. A tune that's good on the dyno still needs a clean launch to show it. Our perfect launch and shifting data shows how much the driver adds.

A note on copying tunes

A record tune is the result of one particular build, driven well, in the version of the game it was set in. Game updates can change how cars behave, and records keep improving. Copy a record tune as a starting point, then check it on your own car. If it's slower than expected, the build or the version is almost always the reason.

Start from the records, then test

In Tier 5 there's a clear favourite tune: final drive 2.00, tyres 0/100 and nitro 188/4.0, used by most of the fifty fastest records. In Tiers 1 and 2 there's no such thing, and every record uses a different tune. Look your car up on the records sheet first, match the version, and test changes one at a time.