Suspension tuning only works when the process is clean.
The most common mistake? Changing things without a reference point. Springs get swapped because the car pushed. Clickers get moved because it felt harsh. Tire pressures get chased because grip changed. Every decision might be reasonable on its own, but without a baseline, the results blur together.
That's when tuning turns into reacting.
A baseline separates real tuning from a string of guesses. It's a documented setup that produces consistent behavior and consistent lap-to-lap feedback. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be repeatable. Once that exists, every change becomes meaningful. One variable changes at a time. The car goes back out the same way. The result gets measured with lap averages, tire temps (if available), and clear notes.
This article breaks down exactly how to build that baseline. We'll look at what data matters, how to collect it without getting overwhelmed, and how to use it to find speed on purpose.
A baseline is a documented suspension setup that behaves the same way every time it's run. That's it. It's the known starting point that makes everything else measurable.
What a baseline is: A repeatable configuration. This includes spring rates, shock settings, ride heights, tire pressures, and the basics of how the car is mechanically set. It produces consistent, predictable behavior. It's the setup that lets a driver go out and run a string of laps without the car changing personalities every few corners. It also becomes the reference point when something feels off. Instead of guessing what changed, the baseline provides a place to return to and restart the process clean.
A baseline is also track and driver specific. It's built around a particular car, a particular tire, a particular class rule set, and the way that driver loads the car under braking, turn-in, and throttle. That's why copying another team's numbers rarely works the way people hope. Their baseline is a great reference, but it won't automatically be the right foundation for a different car and a different driver. There are so many things to adjust, even when just looking at suspension alone. You can read more about them in our reference guide covering how to set an adjustable suspension involving over a dozen different inputs that all impact how your car drives.
What a baseline provides: The starting setup. A foundation that evolves as the car evolves, as tires change, and as the driver gets faster.
The reason a baseline matters is simple: without one, it's almost impossible to know if a change was an improvement or just a difference. It also makes it hard to separate the car from the driver. A cleaner lap can hide a worse setup. A small mistake can make a good change look bad. With a baseline, the question becomes easier to answer because there's a consistent reference behind every decision.
The core concept is straightforward: establish the baseline, document it, then make one change at a time. Measure the result. Keep it if it helps. Revert if it doesn't. Over time, that process builds real knowledge, setup knowledge that travels with the car from track to track, instead of resetting to zero every weekend.
Baselining requires two things most teams already have access to: a way to write things down, and enough discipline to record the same basics every time. Create a record that makes it obvious what changed, when it changed, and what happened as a result.
Start with setup data. This is the stuff that defines what the car physically is before it goes on track. Spring rates at all four corners belong on the sheet every time, even if they "never change." Shock settings matter just as much: compression and rebound clicks, plus any high/low-speed adjustments if the shock has them. Nitrogen pressure is part of that baseline too. It's easy to ignore because it's not touched often, but if it drifts, the baseline is no longer the baseline.
Ride heights should be recorded in a way that can be repeated. Front and rear at minimum, and ideally left/right if the car is sensitive to it. If corner weights and crossweight percentage are part of the program, record them. Same with sway bar settings if they're adjustable. Tire pressures need to be written down both cold and hot, because tire pressure is one of the fastest ways to accidentally "change the setup" without meaning to. Finally, track conditions matter: temperature, weather, whether the track is green or rubbered-in, because those conditions change the grip level and can change what the car wants.
Then there's performance data. The biggest mistake is using one hero lap as proof. Average lap time over a run is a better truth-teller. If sector times are available, even better, because they help show where an adjustment helped or hurt. Tire temperatures across the tread are valuable when the tools are available, because they tell a story about how evenly the tire is working. And driver feedback absolutely belongs on the sheet, but it needs to be specific. "Felt good" won't help. "Mid-corner push in slow corners" will. "Loose on throttle in high-speed exit" will.
Just as important is knowing what data to skip at the start. Shock dyno graphs are great when building custom valving, but they're optional for establishing a functional baseline. Full telemetry is useful, but you can make progress without it. Data acquisition systems can provide incredibly detailed information, but for baselining, the focus should be on collecting consistent, repeatable basics rather than getting overwhelmed by complexity. Suspension travel sensors and complex data systems can come later. Baselining works without them.
The recording method can be simple. A notebook works. A spreadsheet works. A printed setup sheet works. The only requirement is that it's consistent: track, date, conditions, setup numbers, and what happened on track. Download our free suspension setup worksheet to make recording your baseline data easier and more organized. A photo of the setup sheet in the pits is also a surprisingly effective backup when the weekend gets hectic.
If it didn't get written down, it didn't happen. Memory is unreliable, especially when comparing setups weeks or months apart. A baseline only becomes valuable when it's documented well enough to be used again.
Building a baseline is about building a repeatable process. The goal is to leave the track with a configuration that can be returned to anytime, and a set of notes that clearly explain why it works.
Step 1: Start with manufacturer recommendations. Every baseline needs a starting point that makes sense. For shock settings, spring rates, and nitrogen pressure, that starting point should come from the people who know the hardware and the application. Penske's free damper tuning guide provides baseline compression and rebound settings that give you a solid foundation to build from. If the car already has a known setup that has been stable and predictable in the past, that can be a starting point too, but it still needs to be documented like a baseline, not treated like folklore. The important part is simple: Day one starts with a known configuration, not a blank page.
Step 2: Lock in the static numbers. Before chasing lap time, the mechanical foundation needs to be right. Corner weight the car properly if that's part of the class and the program. Set ride heights to the spec or target range. Set crossweight if applicable. Check and record tire pressures cold. These are the numbers that define the car's attitude and balance before it moves. Until the baseline is built, these shouldn't be moving targets. The goal is to remove variables, not add them.
Step 3: Run an initial session for data only. This session is about consistency. Go run 5 to 10 laps at a repeatable pace, fast enough to load the car properly, but not a qualifying-style send. The goal is a run of laps that represent what the car does repeatedly. As soon as the session ends, gather the data: lap times, tire pressures hot, tire temps if available, and clear notes about what the car did. Not vague notes. Specific notes. "Entry push in slow corners." "Rear unstable under trail brake." "Harsh over curb in turn six."
Step 4: Make one change at a time. Pick the biggest issue from the first run and choose one adjustment to address it. One. Not three. The adjustment should match the issue, be small enough to understand, and be easy to reverse. Write down exactly what changed and why it changed. Then go back out and run the same type of session, same lap count, same driving goal, same approach.
Step 5: Evaluate with the right lens. The question: Did the change improve the average and reduce variability? Look at average lap times across the run. Look at how even the lap times were. Look at whether the specific issue improved. Look at tire temps and pressures. And be honest about whether a new problem was introduced. Sometimes a change helps one phase of the corner and hurts another. That's still useful data, but it doesn't automatically mean it belongs in the baseline.
If the change made the car better in a repeatable way, keep it and update the baseline. If it didn't help, revert. If it was mixed, note it, revert, and try a different direction next.
Step 6: Repeat until the baseline is truly stable. A baseline is real when the car is predictable and the laps are repeatable. That typically looks like lap times that stay tight (within a couple tenths), tire temps that balance well, and a car that behaves the same way from the start of a run to the end. It also means the driver feels confident pushing the car because the feedback stays consistent.
This process takes time. Two or three test days to build a strong baseline is normal. That's building the foundation that makes future progress faster.
Once a real baseline exists, everything changes. The car doesn't suddenly become perfect, but the next steps become obvious. The baseline gives a known reference point, which means changes stop being debates and start becoming answers.
The first way a baseline creates speed is by making track-to-track adjustments simple. A baseline built at one track won't be perfect everywhere, and it doesn't need to be. The value is that it gives a starting point that's already stable. From there, the car gets trimmed for the new track with small, intentional adjustments, then documented. Over time, patterns show up. Certain tracks want a little more support in one phase of the corner. Others want more compliance. That knowledge stacks. Instead of showing up at each track and starting from zero, the weekend starts at "baseline plus a known tweak."
Conditions work the same way. A hot day, a cold day, a green track, a rubbered-in track. Those shifts change grip and change what the car wants. Without a baseline, it can feel like the car is randomly different. With a baseline, it becomes a controlled adjustment. The baseline stays the anchor, and the change is simply a note that says, "in these conditions, this direction helped." That's how a setup becomes portable.
A baseline also makes testing new components clean. Want to try a different spring rate? Start at baseline, change springs, and test. Want to try a different valving direction? Same idea. The baseline gives something honest to compare against, which means the results don't get lost in "we changed a bunch of stuff and it felt different." Suspension is a package that works together, and a baseline ensures that when one piece changes, the rest of the system provides a stable reference point.
This is where the data accumulation effect kicks in. After a handful of weekends with documented baselines, the team stops guessing. The notes start to read like a playbook: what works at each track, what changes help in specific temperatures, what the car likes when grip comes up or goes away. And the biggest win is time. Less time chasing. Less time undoing bad decisions. More time running laps with a car that's predictable enough to push.
A baseline makes speed repeatable.
Baselining is a process. The hardware matters because it determines how clean that process can be. When adjustments are vague or inconsistent, the data gets muddy. When adjustments are defined and repeatable, the car gives clearer feedback and the notes start to mean something.
That's where Penske fits. Penske shocks are built to be tuned in a way that can be documented and repeated. When a change is made, it can be recorded precisely and returned to later with confidence, which is the entire point of a baseline.
A few Penske-specific details make that easier in the real world. Click-indexed adjusters make settings easy to record and revisit. Penske also dyno-tests shocks before they leave and provides dyno data as a reference baseline. Many Penske designs use nitrogen pressure as part of maintaining damping consistency, so keeping that pressure in spec helps keep the baseline stable over time. And when the program grows and the car's needs change, re-valving and service allow the setup to evolve without starting from scratch.
Support matters too. A baseline comes from starting with the right recommendations, documenting the setup, and making changes in a logical direction. That's the idea behind Penske's S3 program: Shock, Setup, Support.
Fast racers baseline.
They do it because a baseline creates a starting point that can be trusted. Once a setup is documented and repeatable, every change becomes measurable. Springs stop being a gamble. Clicker changes stop being noise. Test days stop turning into random walks.
The process works because it's simple and disciplined. Start with manufacturer recommendations. Document the full setup. Run consistent laps. Make one change at a time. Measure the result with averages, not hero laps. Keep what repeats. Revert what doesn't. Over time, those notes turn into a database, track to track, condition to condition, and the car starts showing up already close instead of starting from zero.
Baselining takes a few sessions to build, and that's normal. It's an upfront investment that pays you back every weekend after that with clearer decisions, better consistency, and more confidence behind the wheel.
Ready to build your baseline? Download our suspension setup worksheet and start documenting. Your future, faster self will thank you.
Want expert help establishing your baseline? Penske's S3 program (Shock + Setup + Support) starts with personalized recommendations and continues with ongoing support as you develop your setup database. The future version of the program, faster, calmer, and more consistent, starts with one clean baseline.