This is included on every vehicle — packs, tiers and standalone single-vehicle mods. Nothing to configure; it’s simply how the cars drive out of the box.
All-wheel drive across the range
Every vehicle drives through all four wheels. DayZ’s vehicle physics are fairly basic and there is no traction control, so cars driven by only the front or only the rear wheels never feel right in game — they slide, snap sideways or spin up on the lightest throttle. Building the whole fleet to drive all four wheels gives the kind of grip DayZ handles well: confident launches, no rear-end kick-out and no wheelspin pulling away — while each car keeps its own feel.Tuned to each car’s class
The range isn’t one-size-fits-all. Every vehicle’s engine power, gearing, brakes and suspension were set individually, so a car feels like what it is:
Each road car’s engine and gearbox are set up to reflect the real vehicle, so the pecking order in game follows the one you’d expect. The heavy military fleet runs speeds balanced between real life and DayZ — trucks that pull hard and climb anything without becoming silly.
What you’ll notice
Clean launches
First gear puts down what the tyres can actually hold — cars hook up and go at full throttle instead of smoking the wheels until 3rd.
No slides at speed
Power eases off towards the redline so the back end stays planted through the top of every gear.
Turns in properly
Front and rear wheels share power through a locked centre, with each axle free to let the inside wheel turn slower — so cars rotate through corners instead of scrubbing wide.
Stable over bumps
Well-damped suspension keeps the wheels pressed to the road over bumps and crests, and parked vehicles sit still instead of rocking.
Anti-lock braking
Braking force eases back as speed rises, and full-pressure braking (SHIFT + S) lets off the moment a wheel locks, then comes back as grip returns — the car stops hard and still steers. The handbrake still locks the rear for slides.
Steering that settles
How fast the wheel turns in, comes back and self-centres is set per car and changes with speed — twitchy at a crawl, calm at motorway pace.
Tyre grip for DayZ 1.30
DayZ 1.30 brought a new tyre model. Every wheel in the range is tuned for it by vehicle type — supercars and sports cars, road cars, offroaders and vans, and the heavy military trucks each have their own grip — and sports cars keep usable grip on grass and dirt, so dropping one wheel off the road doesn’t pull the car round.Ruined tyres
When a wheel is destroyed it bursts with a bang and swaps to its ruined version: a flat, torn tyre, with a bent rim on the sports wheels. The car sits lower on that corner and drags until you fit a good wheel. Every wheel on every vehicle has a ruined version (named<Wheel>_Ruined, for example GolfMK7_Wheel_Ruined), and the ready-made types.xml entries include them so wrecked tyres get cleaned up.
The full driving overhaul shipped across the Handling Resimulation, Big Driving Overhaul (v2.6) and The Planted Update (v2.7) releases, with the DayZ 1.30 retune in v2.9 — see the Vehicles Changelog for the complete breakdown.