I really think that some of you are overcomplicating things.
Strength/Max Force
The ‘Auto’ feature of the Strength / Max Force setting is really useful. If you run a sighting lap, without hitting curbs, or anything else it will when you press ‘Auto’ it will set the range of forces generated in Sim under normal conditions. This may get tweaked by one or two upwards if you re-press the auto button after doing a clean lap at race speed, but not much more.
This range of forces is mapped to whatever range you set in Wheel Force. You cannot set the Max Force setting to lower than you have set Wheel Force to.
If you increase the Max Force number to higher than the suggested figure when you press ‘Auto’, then you reduce the sensitivity of the feel in the wheel to below what is possible, so you are limiting yourself. If Wheel Force is less than the suggested Max Force number.
If you lower the Max Force number to lower than the suggested figure when you press ‘Auto’, in a situation where the ‘Auto’ setting is higher than the Wheel Force setting you will find you get clipping. So why would you do that?
Therefore I see little benefit in NOT using the Auto feature in every situation, in iRacing.
Wheel Force
Setting Wheel Force to higher than you have set in the TD software is pointless. As I understand it, you are just setting a limit in TD. If you get a force generated by iRacing that is less than Wheel Force setting, but higher than you have set in the TD sofrware you will get clipping, but it won’t show in iRacing.
Setting Wheel Force in iRacing to less than that set in TD is not a problem, but it is possible that there may be a situation where some sort of signal spike causes more force sent to the wheel than you intend, however remote that may seem.
Cars such as the Global MX5, and the Indy Car don’t have power steering. So even if you can setting the Wheel Force and Max Force to more than Auto Max Force suggests for a particular track is not going to gain you much, except maybe an injury if you hit a barrier.
But what to set?
Ultimately it is down to personal preference. How strong are you? What wheel are you using? What car are you driving?
Are you trying to get as close to real life as you can, or are you just wanting to maximise the feedback through the wheel to be as fast as you can?
One thing to keep in mind is that we are racing in a Sim, not a real car. So in a Sim you generally only get feedback via your eyes, your ears and your hands. No seat of the pants feel, and that’s often what makes Sim racing difficult for real world race car drivers who don’t regularly use a Sim.
For someone who didn’t get to ‘play’ on a Sim until some years after learning to drive, I struggled at first using the Sim before FFB was enabled, and on a single screen. Now I use a triple screen setup, a proper rig, and high end wheel and pedals I’m looking to maximise the information I get through my hands.
Cornering is all about setting the car, loading it up through the apex, and max’ing the exit. You need to be able to feel the car achieve a set, then load the tyres by increasing the steering input further to make best use of available grip, You need to be able to feel when the front tyres are losing grip, and you need to be able to feel when the rears do the same.
What you set the Wheel Force to will be largely dependant on your personal preferance, but if you work out the maximum force you can comfortably cope with and set TD and Wheel Force to that, then for each car, and track using the Auto Max Force feature will provide you with the most feel through the wheel that you can manage, or iRacing can provide.
For instance, setting Wheel Force and TD to 18Nm when driving Class A cars on Ovals whilst heavy, is still not 1:1 in forces, but you are less likely to put too much steering in when cornering and therefore wear the Right Front more. Probably a bit high for comfort though.
Using those Wheel Force settings for the MX5 are probably a bit high, as for instance at Okayama Short in the MX5 you don’t really get more than 13Nm of Max Force.
GT cars generate higher cornering forces, but even the SC2 Ultimate max’s out at 32Nm. I suspect that very few if anyone could drive around a track at speed using that much force.
So for each car or type of car figure out what the maximum Wheel Force is that you can comfortably manage, and stick with that, and just use the Auto Max Force feature to provide as much feedback as is possible.
Using the additional features of the TD software to tweak things to your preference is just preference, but getting the biggest range of forces that you can comfortably cope with being played back through the wheel should give you the best chance of getting the most performance from your car.